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IBM Security QRadar vs Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR vs ServiceNow Security Operations comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) category, the mindshare of IBM Security QRadar is 7.1%, down from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR is 9.7%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Security Operations is 3.6%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR9.7%
IBM Security QRadar7.1%
ServiceNow Security Operations3.6%
Other79.6%
Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR)
 

Featured Reviews

Mahmoud Younes - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable installation and diverse use cases provide strong value
IBM Security QRadar has some areas for improvement. We have missed some DSM components. We need to customize logs where there is no DSM or connector for certain products. We can integrate but we have missed the DSM, which is the connector to pass logs coming from different applications. For example, with a university customer, we tried onboarding Canvas service. IBM Security QRadar does not support Canvas, so we had to create custom scripts and workarounds to pull logs from Canvas.
DayaramGoyal - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers automation but requires enhancements for intuitive configuration
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR is a good product with enhanced and efficient playbooks, as demonstrated during our use case simulations. We have implemented automation features, such as automated responses to email threats and automatic configuration of target devices for blocking specific IPs. The analytics feature in Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR is impressive. The solution is quite exhaustive regarding integrations, with many pre-integrations available, especially for market-leading products. There might be challenges with make-in-India products, as they tend not to build the necessary connectors. This depends on whether you are selling to enterprises or other customers. For government customers, you might encounter many Indian products, such as firewalls, which could pose integration challenges unless you have open APIs. However, for market-leading products, there are ready-made integrations available.
George Devasia - PeerSpot reviewer
Communication and organization improve support teams and works well with enterprises
I use ServiceNow for ticketing purposes. Specifically, I raise tickets between the support team. This is used by internal teams within the company for managing support-related tasks ServiceNow is a convenient platform to raise tickets, and the respective support team will contact us to resolve…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The scalability is very good. It's not a problem."
"The most valuable features are log monitoring, easy-to-fix issues, and problem-solving."
"Integration is very easy and the reporting is good."
"In addition to using this solution for our security operations center, we are using it for our other customers."
"The playbook engine is flexible and allows for the graphical visualization of processes, enabling the implementation of dynamic playbooks for incident response or testing."
"It has very rich functionality."
"Vulnerability detection is the most valuable feature. It's the tool that finds the threats."
"IBM QRadar is easy to scale, it doesn't affect the environment. In our office, we have around 40 - 50 users, but our clients have more users on their networks. Our organization has staff in the software department that manages IBM QRadar for us."
"The most valuable features of Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR are the remote controller from the workstation that can execute commands and isolate the systems outside of the network. Only the system with an internet connection can execute the task because the main console is in the cloud."
"The most valuable feature is its capability to automate responses and collect information for any security event before you even delve into the details. It's a vast product with an active roadmap, so I'm satisfied with it for now. It's very efficient at data collection and correlation."
"What I like most about Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR is how user-friendly it is for development. It is much simpler to work with compared to similar tools I've used."
"The automation part and the playbook creation part are awesome. The way it is responding to the customers and incidents is also very good. In the SOC environment, I guess it will carry out around 50% of the work."
"It is a scalable solution. I would rate scalability a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable features of Cortex XSOAR include its vast library of plugins, which allow us to integrate various tools and solutions seamlessly."
"Cortex XSOAR's most valuable features are the playbooks, custom integration, the machine-learning model, and the layout, classifier, and mapper."
"The pricing is very good."
"What I found most valuable in ServiceNow Security Operations is that it's very useful for any incoming vulnerability. For example, if my team finds any vulnerability on servers such as the CA and CMDB integrated with ServiceNow Security Operations, my team can make some changes. My team can map the vulnerabilities found on the CA server, make the changes required, and resolve the vulnerabilities before the system is attacked. You can avoid vulnerability attacks through ServiceNow Security Operations, so this is the best feature of the solution. ServiceNow Security Operations is beneficial mainly for vulnerability response and engagement purposes."
"ServiceNow Security Operations also takes care of GRC, governance, risk and compliance, enabling it to provide risk assessment."
"The "follow" feature is really good. If the user is not responding, there's an option to "follow". Just click on the button, and it will automatically trigger an email to the end user."
"It's stable."
"ServiceNow Security Operations provides significant control over vulnerabilities, allowing users to mark false alarms as false positives and ignore them, which is important because many vulnerabilities are not real but appear as such."
"ServiceNow Security Operations collects data from various sources and presents it in a single, respectable format for assessment and action, providing a unified user experience where all work and fixes can be managed from one location."
"It has helped optimize security costs by consolidating multiple tools into one platform."
"My favorite feature is the application vulnerability scanner."
 

Cons

"In a future release, the solution could provide malware analysis."
"Whenever we are upgrading or installing any type of patch, at that time we have some delays."
"QRadar needs to be more specialized, along the lines of what other SIEM solutions are."
"I need a solution which will send alerts in the event of any behavior."
"The usability of interfaces could be improved."
"The features that could be improved include the licensing model and the dashboards and all those presentations. Overall, the user experience part can be improved."
"The implementation of the solution's technology needs to be simplified."
"The playbook guide which specifies the rules for security use cases needs to be provided to support in case the organization needs help."
"The solution's correlation rules and playbooks should be improved."
"When Palo Alto bought the solution, the pricing increased by 1.5 times. There's been a 50% increase, which is a lot."
"The solution should be made a bit cheaper."
"It's only one cloud right now. It might be helpful for some companies to have an on-premies option."
"The user interface (UI) is quite heavy and takes time to load, which is a major drawback."
"They should provide integration with machine learning platforms."
"It is been decommissioned by Palo Alto."
"There should be an on-premise version available for customers to have different choices."
"It is challenging for the customers to understand the processes for SecOps. It needs to be simplified."
"The product is called SecOps, but it is not security operations in terms of SIEM solutions."
"Report generation within ServiceNow can take some time."
"We'd like customization to be easier in terms of the UI and using the dashboards."
"It's very slow. When you click a button or update a field, it takes forever to actually react."
"Visibility and transitions between teams present significant challenges in the SecOps space, indicating that substantial training and hand-holding are required to improve usability, which is one observation I have had."
"There are limitations for the third-parties that are providing the inputs. They should increase the robustness of the solution."
"In future releases, I would like to add a follow-up and reminder feature. For the tickets in our queue, we could set reminders. This would help us prioritize older tickets before moving on to new ones."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is priced fairly, there is a license for the solution, and we pay annually."
"The pricing is always fine."
"I feel that the price is reasonable but compared to other products that are on the market, such as an offering by Microsoft, it is more expensive."
"QRadar is quite expensive. It wouldn't be worth it for a small business..."
"Customers have to purchase a license based on the number of users, devices, and applications they want to protect. It allows you to take a license on a subscription basis for three years or five years."
"IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is an application framework and you can install many applications without any additional costs."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"It is expensive. It is not a product that I can provide for SMBs. It is a program that I can only provide for really large enterprises."
"Cortex XSOAR's price could be lower."
"Palo Alto offers significant discounts to customers who purchase the products repeatedly."
"The pricing is fair. The pricing reflects the value and feature set it offers."
"The solution is expensive."
"The solution's cost is reasonable."
"The solution is based on an annual licensing model that is expensive."
"The solution's cost is high."
"It is approx $10,000 or $20,000 per year for two user licenses."
"Compared to competitor tools, ServiceNow Security Operations is more affordable"
"It is an expensive product."
"This product is a good value for the money."
"If you're going to implement it on your own, there would be internal costs. If you're going to implement it through a contractor or consultant, you have to pay for that."
"The solution is more expensive than BMC Remedy, the other ITSM tool available in the market."
"The product is more expensive than other solutions."
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Comparison Review

VS
Jun 28, 2015
Qradar vs. ArcSight
Continuing with the SIEM posts we have done at Infosecnirvana, this post is a Head to head comparison of the two Industry leading SIEM products in the market – HP ArcSight and IBM QRadar Both the products have consistently been in the Gartner Leaders Quadrant. Both HP and IBM took over niche SIEM…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
20%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business88
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise102
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What are the biggest differences between Securonix UEBA, Exabeam, and IBM QRadar?
It mostly depends on your use-cases and environment. Exabeam and Securonix have a stronger UEBA feature set, friendli...
What SOC product do you recommend?
For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Security QRadar?
When comparing with Splunk, IBM Security QRadar's cost is reasonable. Splunk is more expensive than IBM Security QRadar.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR?
Comparing pricing to Micro Focus, they were offering bundles, making it free with their SIEM. For customers, it is ze...
What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR?
To improve the solution, it needs to have complete features that are low-code, no-code, and should be plug-and-play. ...
What do you like most about ServiceNow Security Operations?
The most valuable aspect of working with ServiceNow is its meaningful and feature-rich product.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Security Operations?
ServiceNow Security Operations is not specifically a vulnerability management or incident tool, but rather a data agg...
 

Also Known As

IBM QRadar, QRadar SIEM, QRadar UBA, QRadar on Cloud, IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson
Demisto Enterprise, Cortex XSOAR, Demisto
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Clients across multiple industries, such as energy, financial, retail, healthcare, government, communications, and education use QRadar.
Cellcom Israel, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, esri, Cylance, Flatiron Health, Veeva, ADT Cybersecurity
DXC Technology, Freedom Security Alliance, Prime Therapeutics, Seton Hall University, York Risk Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Splunk and others in Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR). Updated: August 2025.
868,304 professionals have used our research since 2012.