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IBM Security QRadar vs Rapid7 MDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

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

IBM Security QRadar
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
208
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (6th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (4th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (17th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (4th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (11th)
Rapid7 MDR
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
18th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of IBM Security QRadar is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 MDR is 2.6%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Md. Shahriar Hussain - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time incident detection and user-friendly dashboard benefit daily operations
There are many types of AI, and this AI is very limited in SQL and features. There may be potential for improvement. So far, it seems very limited. It shows some good features in the correlation part, but I think there is room for improvement. For instance, when creating rules, it can suggest more rules, reducing the effort needed. If AI-related support can suggest rules and integrate with existing security devices like MD, IPS, this SIM can create more relevant rules. Sometimes logs I receive don't mean anything, and I need technical stakeholders to share or forward logs, but these are sometimes inadequate. Keywords can help identify insufficient logs. I often lack time to verify logs. Sharing false positive results could be reduced to help my team.
Oluwaseun Sonaike - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good integrations , very scalable and flexible and we can send as many logs as we want
We've filled in crucial gaps we had with our previous solution. This was a key factor in choosing Rapid7 during the selection process. The ROI is already starting to show, too. We saw specific cost reductions. We used to pay extra for external user insight and availability management in our old setup. Now, that's all included in Rapid7, which saves us money and simplifies management.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would rate IBM Security QRadar nine out of ten."
"An engineer can live-monitor all the flow happening in real-time. This would help us a lot while investigating a case, and it would even help us with preventive actions."
"The interface is good."
"There are more than 120 extensions in QRadar, which are easy to install and configure. These can improve your analysis of events."
"I have found visibility very helpful for analytics."
"The support is very good. We get support whenever we need it. Sometimes they respond immediately and sometimes it will be within 24 hours. We can ask them to please do it right away and they can get a request done within an hour or two."
"I have found its network traffic log, network bit log, and QBI most valuable."
"It's user-friendly when compared to other products."
"We've filled in crucial gaps we had with our previous solution. This was a key factor in choosing Rapid7 during the selection process. The ROI is already starting to show, too."
"The product allows us to customize our alerts."
"The solution uses its own SIM solution, InsightIDRC, and offers an unlimited incident response as part of the package."
 

Cons

"I don't give it a 10 because it is something we have to request. I would love it if UBA was included out of the box like Microsoft."
"It is not app based."
"The biggest problem was built on top of the QRadar in the executive operations center network. The integration was not using the network security specialist properly, and all the incidents were inferior with QRadar. Its compatibility is not really good."
"I would like to see more integration in place after the security lock."
"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."
"QRadar's performance has room for improvement because it cannot handle the volume. I need massive amounts of logs from various devices in our existing network architecture. IBM needs to improve QRadar's capacity to handle more logs."
"They should provide more manual examples online so that I can learn it myself."
"The solution lacks some maturity."
"There are potential improvements in reports and dashboards."
"Currently, I can't think of any improvements, although there's always room for improvement in any solution."
"The product should provide full transparency in security operations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is costlier as compared to the other alternatives available in the market."
"The product is expensive. We have purchased the perpetual license, but we pay for the support."
"Licensing is very expensive, IBM QRadar is a very expensive solution. If you want to minimize costs then IBM QRadar is not for you."
"It is overly expensive and overly complex in terms of licensing. They have many different appliances, which makes it extremely difficult to choose the technology. It is very difficult to choose the technology or QRadar components that you should be deploying. They have improved some of it in the last few years. They have made it slightly easy with the fact that you can now buy virtual versions of all the appliances, which is good, but it is still very fragmented. For instance, on some of the smaller appliances, there is no upgrade path. So, if you exceed the capacity of the appliance, you have to buy a bigger appliance, which is not helpful because it is quite a major cost. If you want to add more disks to the system, they'll say that you can't."
"The solution's pricing is based on the EPS model."
"I think that the price is fair, but we can always say that the price could be cheaper."
"There is a license to use this solution, which is paid annually. However, there are subscription options available."
"IBM's Qradar is not for small companie. Unfortunately, it would be 'overkill' to place it plainly. The pricing would be too much."
"The product is not overly priced."
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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
Educational Organization
24%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Educational Organization
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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, friendlier GUI and are not licensed based on capacity (amount of logs and information in...
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 asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also, rememb...
What do you like most about Rapid7 MDR?
We've filled in crucial gaps we had with our previous solution. This was a key factor in choosing Rapid7 during the selection process. The ROI is already starting to show, too.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 MDR?
Cost savings are realized as it's more cost-effective to purchase the entire service rather than individual technology stacks. The MDR service provides better value for the organization's investment.
What needs improvement with Rapid7 MDR?
Currently, I can't think of any improvements, although there's always room for improvement in any solution.
 

Also Known As

IBM QRadar, QRadar SIEM, QRadar UBA, QRadar on Cloud, IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson
Rapid7 Managed Detection and Response
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Clients across multiple industries, such as energy, financial, retail, healthcare, government, communications, and education use QRadar.
Landmark Health, NISC, Resimac, Starr Companies
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security QRadar vs. Rapid7 MDR and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,963 professionals have used our research since 2012.