Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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
209
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (5th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (4th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (18th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (4th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (13th)
Rapid7 MDR
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
18th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 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

"It showed us where weaknesses were in our environment, so we could actively target those patches first."
"I really like the feature we have with the logs, that if there are any credit card numbers being used, like a PII, you can just use rejects and you can mask it. This is a really good feature in QRadar."
"The scalability is awesome, because QRadar includes other solutions in the same console."
"The dashboard is easy to use and easy to understand what's going on and what the alerts mean."
"The flexibility is good in terms of pulling log files."
"A nice benefit is when we go to the process of selecting our youth cases, they go by building blocks. QRadar links it to building blocks."
"The UBA feature is the most valuable because you can see everything about users' activities."
"There are other third-party plugins that we can use."
"The solution uses its own SIM solution, InsightIDRC, and offers an unlimited incident response as part of the package."
"The features of Rapid7 MDR that I find most effective for threat detection are the threat intelligence capabilities because it already collects many vulnerabilities and exploitations, as well as the configuration of network devices."
"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."
 

Cons

"From a functionality point of view there are issues sometimes."
"QRadar UBA only keeps the data for a short while (it's refreshed every five minutes) and would be improved if this were extended to a week or month."
"Technical support really needs to be improved. Right now, they aren't where they need to be at all."
"In terms of additional features, a mobile app would be nice. Also, the reporting is definitely okay, but you have to make sure that everybody with different roles can understand it. There is room for improvement in the reporting."
"The API integration for AD is a problem when it comes to vulnerability management. If you want to incorporate multiple factor authentication it becomes a problem with the AD. It doesn't integrate well. That needs to be improved."
"The solution lacks some maturity."
"The solution does not support the integration of flat file databases."
"SOAR is what is expected the most from QRadar. They have something called SOAR Resilient, and it would be great if that gets induced in SIEM. IBM QRadar (as well as McAfee ESM) should have analytics platform integration. Currently, SIEMs don't have full-fledged integration with analytics where we are able to dump our data in SIEM, and the same data can be called from different analytics applications. We should be able to bring this data to a platform like Hadoop for big data and run the analytics there. Currently, people are seeing the past data and taking some actions in the present, but when it comes to analytics, there should be futuristic data where you can predict something out of your present and past data. Apart from that, I would like to see a full-fledged ITSM tool in QRadar. It sometimes has some technical issues that need to be checked. It requires a dedicated QRadar engineer to completely manage it. It has different module sets, such as event collector and event processor, and some technical glitches come in between. It takes the log but doesn't exactly process it in the way we want."
"The product should provide full transparency in security operations."
"Currently, I can't think of any improvements, although there's always room for improvement in any solution."
"Rapid7 MDR is currently weak in AI solutions and intelligence, which is concerning."
"There are potential improvements in reports and dashboards."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Security QRadar is a very expensive tool."
"When it comes to the initial pricing there can be a huge discount from there side and also I think they are open to competing with other products."
"I think that the price is fair, but we can always say that the price could be cheaper."
"The solution's pricing is based on the EPS model."
"Pricing is good."
"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."
"On a scale of one to ten, I rate the price a one, where one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is a cheap product."
"Its price is good in terms of efficiency and the number of people required for implementing various things. You might pay more in terms of money, but you might save on the number of people. For example, if you are using Kibana, you have to pay more for people or experts, which is not the case with IBM QRadar."
"The product is not overly priced."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions are best for your needs.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

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 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 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?
There are areas of Rapid7 MDR that have room for improvement. The market is now changing very quickly towards artificial intelligence, and all the SIEM, EDR, and XDR vendors are moving to apply art...
 

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.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.