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IBM Security QRadar vs Rapid7 MDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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)
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
219
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (7th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (3rd), 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)
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of IBM Security QRadar is 1.0%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 MDR is 2.4%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Security QRadar1.0%
Rapid7 MDR2.4%
Other96.6%
Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

Featured Reviews

HarshBhardiya - PeerSpot reviewer
SOC Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
Have managed daily asset and alert monitoring effectively but have encountered limitations with manual processes and interface usability
It's still very manual and doesn't work on its own. It's still in an early stage and not on par where we can consider it a really successful detection system. The accuracy is not there. The UI could be better when compared to Sentinels where we can use flags and tagging. It could be much more user-friendly. IBM Security QRadar has all features and is fully competitive with other SIEM tools, but when it comes to user-friendliness, a new user takes time to get used to it. More intuitive, user-friendly interfaces and more helpful documentation would be beneficial. The query searching and data fetching could be faster. In large to very large organizations with around 5,000 or 6,000 assets or beyond, even with proper configurations and RAM and hardware backing up, the query is fairly slow.
HW
Marketing Expert at J's communication
Threat detection benefits stand out while AI capabilities need improvement
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. They integrate everything into one solution. The other solutions such as CrowdStrike or SentinelOne don't collect all the vulnerabilities or threat intelligence except within their product itself, making Rapid7 MDR very strong in this aspect. I have seen an ROI from this solution in terms of time savings. Because it includes everything, including SIEM, EDR, and vulnerability control, other solutions require integration of every module and vendor. It is easier to implement once they start, as the modules of the EDR can be challenging to implement and may require consulting.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is very stable, easy to get going, and easy to manage. It is also easy to review all incidents."
"Vulnerability detection is the most valuable feature. It's the tool that finds the threats."
"One of the most valuable features is its ability to integrate with other solutions. IBM has a lot of solutions and we have managed to make it work with IBM BigFix and MaaS360, and even Microsoft."
"QRadar UBA's most valuable feature is the risk rating of users depending on their behavior."
"What I like the most about it is that you can very easily install and configure it. As compared to other SIEM solutions, for which you need to know and do a lot more to prepare your SIEM environment, QRadar is much simpler to install and configure. There are various options in the Admin console. In the Admin tab, you can design dashboards and view various graphs. It has a lot of attractive features, and you don't need to configure everything on your own."
"The QNI feature is the one I am very interested in, and I have also been interested in Watson. From the log analysis and the security perspective, we are able to dive deep into any of the logs and anomalies."
"The most valuable features would have to be the products' ability to customize vulnerability management settings."
"Since using IBM Security QRadar, it has helped reduce security risks as we have a risk manager module, which is really helpful for us, and the response to an incident is very quick, so we have reduced the mean time to detect attacks."
"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

"The solution lacks some maturity."
"There could be better integration with the solution."
"You can scale IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics, but it has room for improvement."
"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."
"Communication between the silos sometimes becomes an issue, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The product is good, but one feature they should have is an Elasticsearch. Currently, in QRadar, there are no Elasticsearch criteria."
"The product does not have a team for investigating malware."
"Customer support for IBM Security QRadar needs improvement."
"Rapid7 MDR is currently weak in AI solutions and intelligence, which is concerning."
"The product should provide full transparency in security operations."
"There are potential improvements in reports and dashboards."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"QRadar's price is reasonable compared to LogRhythm."
"The license is not subscription-based."
"The licensing is also overly complex, as there is a need to buy the work load performance monitoring separately."
"They can give us some scalability and flexibility on pricing. If its pricing can be reduced, it would help a lot of customers in bringing in a new SIEM environment and grow business in the market. If I start a license today and take around 10,000 EPS, and after a month, there is an increase in the number of clients on my platform, I can increase the number of licenses. I can add 5,000 EPS on a yearly basis."
"The product is expensive. We have purchased the perpetual license, but we pay for the support."
"The price could be better. I bought a subscription for three years."
"The price of this solution is a little high."
"The pricing is higher but cheaper than others and there are no additional costs."
"The product is not overly priced."
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions are best for your needs.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

VS
Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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
No data available
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business91
Midsize Enterprise39
Large Enterprise105
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?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is great compared to the other vendor.
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...
What is your primary use case for Rapid7 MDR?
The typical use case for Rapid7 MDR is that it is highly valued. It is not so bad, but competition with EDR is tough. Rapid7 MDR does not position itself as EDR or XDR, so it is rather a SIEM type ...
 

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: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.