Graylog vs Security Onion comparison

Graylog and Security Onion Solutions, LLC are both solutions in the Log Management category. Graylog is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.0, while Security Onion Solutions, LLC is ranked #21 with an average rating of 7.7. Graylog holds a 6.5% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Security Onion Solutions, LLC’s 5.0% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Graylog users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of Security Onion Solutions, LLC users who would recommend it.

Graylog

Read 21 Graylog reviews

9,223 Views
9,223 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Security Onion

Read 3 Security Onion reviews

8,258 Views
7,432 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

Graylog

Security Onion

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Graylog and Security Onion compete in the logging and security monitoring domain. While Graylog seems to have the upper hand in pricing and support, Security Onion is favored for its comprehensive features.

Features: Graylog provides customizable dashboards, quick log query capabilities, and seamless integration with multiple data sources. Security Onion offers extensive network monitoring tools, intrusion detection systems, and is praised for in-depth security insights.

Room for Improvement: Graylog users suggest enhancements in error reporting, visualization tools, and better out-of-the-box configuration. Security Onion has areas for improvement in setup complexity, documentation clarity, and desires for a more straightforward deployment experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Graylog is recognized for easier deployment and responsive customer service. Users appreciate straightforward setup and prompt support. Security Onion requires more advanced technical expertise for deployment, with mixed feedback on user support.

Pricing and ROI: Graylog's setup cost is reasonable, offering a solid return on investment and aligning with user expectations as cost-effective. Security Onion has a potentially higher initial setup cost, justified by its robust feature set and delivering significant ROI through enhanced security capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Graylog vs. Security Onion Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Graylog vs. Security Onion

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Graylog

Ranking in Log Management

15th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Security Onion

Ranking in Log Management

21st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Graylog is 6.5%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Security Onion is 5.0%, up from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Ivan Kokalovic

DevOps Engineer at Proton Technologies

Facilitates backend service monitoring with efficient log retrieval and API flexibility

Graylog is valuable because it bridges technical knowledge to non-technical teams, presenting complex backend processes in a simple timeline. It boosts the knowledge of sales and customer support teams by allowing them to see the backend operations without needing to read the code. Its API is flexible for visualization, and its powerful search engine efficiently handles large volumes of log data. Moreover, its stability, fast search capabilities, and compatibility with languages like ANSI SQL enhance its utility in IT infrastructure.

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Jörg Kippe

Scientist at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees

A mature and affordable solution that is easy to install and easy to update

The product takes time to learn, it's not that easy. In the beginning we had a lot of questions. If you want to use such a tool in an real (industrial) environment, you have to ask how to get the network data. Can we do a full packet capture? Can we provide agents to our end systems? There are no simple solutions to these questions. It's a general problem when running such systems in an industrial environment.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Open source and user friendly."

"The product is scalable. The solution is stable."

"UDP is a fast and lightweight protocol, perfect for sending large volumes of logs with minimal overhead."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its new interface."

"We run a containerized microservices environment. Being able to set up streams and search for errors and anomalies across hundreds of containers is why a log aggregation platform like Graylog is valuable to us."

"What I like about Graylog is that it's real-time and you have access to the raw data. So, you ingest it, and you have access to every message and every data item you ingest. You can then build analytics on top of that. You can look at the raw data, and you can do some volumetric estimations, such as how big traffic you have, how many messages of data of a type you have, etc."

"Message forwarding through the in-built module."

"The ability to write custom alerts is key to information security and compliance."

More Graylog pros

"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."

"Security Onion is the most mature solution in the market."

"The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports."

Cons

"I would like to see a default dashboard widget that shows the topology of the clusters defined for the graylog install."

"More complex visualizations and the ability to execute custom Elasticsearch queries would be great."

"It would be great if Graylog could provide a better Python package in order to make it easier to use for the Python community."

"Elasticsearch recommendations for tuning could be better. Graylog doesn't have direct support for running the system inside of Kubernetes, so it can be challenging to fill in the gaps and set up containers in a way that is both performant and stable."

"The biggest problem is the collector application, as we wanted to avoid using Graylog Collector Sidecar due to its architecture."

"I would like to see a date and time in the Graylog Grok patterns so that I can save time when searching for a log. I like how the streams and the search query work, but adding a date and time will allow me to pull out a log in a milli-second."

"I would like to see some kind of visualization included in Graylog."

"When it comes to configuring the processing pipeline, writing the rules can be very tedious, especially since the documentation isn't extensive on how the functions provided for these rules work."

More Graylog cons

"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."

"The product is not easy to learn."

"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is an open source version and an enterprise version. I wouldn't recommend the enterprise version, but as an open source solution, it is solid and works really well."

"Having paid official support is wise for projects."

"It's open source and free. They have a paid version, but we never looked into that because we never needed the features of the paid version."

"If you want something that works and do not have the money for Splunk or QRadar, take Graylog."

"We are using the free version of the product. However, the paid version is expensive."

"Consider Enterprise support if you have atypical needs or setup requirements."

"I am using a community edition. I have not looked at the enterprise offering from Graylog."

"We're using the Community edition."

More Graylog pricing and cost advice

"It is an open-source solution."

"Security Onion is an open-source solution."

"Security Onion is a free solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Government

University

Computer Software Company

11%

University

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Government

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Graylog?

The product is scalable. The solution is stable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Graylog?

I am not familiar with the pricing details of Graylog, as I was not responsible for that aspect. It was determined that we didn't need an enterprise plan, which is more suited for clients with less...

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What needs improvement with Graylog?

An improvement I would suggest is in Graylog's user interface, such as allowing for font size adjustments. A potential enhancement could be the integration with Ollama to run large language models ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Security Onion?

The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Security Onion?

Security Onion is an open-source solution. On a scale from one to ten, where ten is expensive and one is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Security Onion?

The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult.

See all answers

Comparisons

Grafana Loki vs Graylog

Compared 35% of the time

Wazuh vs Graylog

Compared 24% of the time

syslog-ng vs Graylog

Compared 11% of the time

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer vs Graylog

Compared 3% of the time

Seq vs Graylog

Compared 3% of the time

More Graylog Competitors

Wazuh vs Security Onion

Compared 57% of the time

Elastic Stack vs Security Onion

Compared 12% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Security Onion

Compared 10% of the time

TheHive vs Security Onion

Compared 3% of the time

Kali Linux vs Security Onion

Compared 3% of the time

More Security Onion Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Graylog

July 2025

Download Graylog product report

Buyer's Guide

Log Management

July 2025

Download Security Onion product report

Also Known As

Graylog2

No data available

Overview

Graylog is purpose-built to deliver the best log collection, storage, enrichment, and analysis. Graylog is:

Considerably faster analysis speeds.
More robust and easier-to-use analysis platform.
Simpler administration and infrastructure management.
Lower cost than alternatives.
Full-scale customer service.
No expensive training or tool experts required.

Graylog

Security Onion is an open-source Linux distribution for intrusion detection, network security monitoring, and log management. It offers comprehensive solutions for enterprises seeking to enhance their cybersecurity infrastructure.

Security Onion provides a full suite of tools to detect and respond to cybersecurity threats efficiently. As a robust and versatile distribution, it includes capabilities for real-time analysis, network visibility, and threat detection, making it indispensable for security operations centers. Users value this tool for its integration of open-source software with advanced analytics, affording professionals a detailed overview of network traffic and potential intrusions.

What are Security Onion’s most important features?

Intrusion Detection: Utilizes Suricata or Zeek for effective threat monitoring.
Network Security Monitoring: Offers powerful visualization tools for network analysis.
Log Management: Centralizes log collection and analysis.
Comprehensive Dashboards: Provides integrated dashboards for threat visibility.

What benefits or ROI should you look for in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Reduced cybersecurity costs due to its open-source nature.
Improved Threat Detection: Enhanced ability to identify and respond to threats quickly.
Integration Capability: Seamless integration with existing security infrastructures.
Scalability: Support for scaling network security operations as needed.

Security Onion finds extensive application in industries such as finance, healthcare, and government sectors, where robust network monitoring is critical. Its ability to integrate with existing security tools makes it a preferred choice for organizations looking to strengthen their cybersecurity posture.

Security Onion Solutions, LLC

Sample Customers

Blue Cross Blue Shield, eBay, Cisco, LinkedIn, SAP, King.com, Twilio, Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Graylog vs. Security Onion

July 2025

Free Report: Graylog vs. Security Onion

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