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IBM Security QRadar vs Rapid7 MDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 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)
17th
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 August 2025, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of IBM Security QRadar is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 MDR is 2.8%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

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.
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

"The flexibility is good in terms of pulling log files."
"This is a good tool to have because it gives you the ability to track what is currently happening in your environment."
"The correlation and the parsing are important features, since it is very important for a SIEM to have a good scalability and performance."
"I like the graphical interface. It's so good and easy."
"I have found its network traffic log, network bit log, and QBI most valuable."
"What's most valuable in IBM QRadar User Behavior Analytics is its higher availability than other tools."
"It is a pretty solid product for the type that it is representing. It is a CM solution as compared to Splunk or ArcSight from HP. It is also user friendly. It comes with some internal AI as well, in which it automatically maps multiple lots from unrelated devices and makes a smart decision to link them back and create an offense based on that. It is a smart tool."
"We find predictive analysis capabilities valuable."
"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."
"The product allows us to customize our alerts."
"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 solution uses its own SIM solution, InsightIDRC, and offers an unlimited incident response as part of the package."
 

Cons

"IBM is going through some problems with its resources currently making its support response time slow."
"The usability of interfaces could be improved."
"The Indian tech support is not helpful."
"IBM QRadar has a margin for development, for out-of-the-box use cases. It can be enhanced with better support and automate the use cases for that."
"We need more features in order to create rules to detect or to meet some requirements for other areas, for example, catching the event from other authentication tools."
"I'm not sure about the stability just yet. We've observed a few issues and we raised a supporting ticket for it."
"The technical support is poor. Mostly because when I open a PMR for IBM, I am stuck with Level 1 staff. As an engineer, nothing that I am bringing them does not require Level 2 or Level 3 support."
"It needs more resilience and functionality."
"There are potential improvements in reports and dashboards."
"The product should provide full transparency in security operations."
"Rapid7 MDR is currently weak in AI solutions and intelligence, which is concerning."
"Currently, I can't think of any improvements, although there's always room for improvement in any solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license is not subscription-based."
"Pricing (based on EPS) will be more accurate."
"An X-Force feed is free with QRadar."
"The price of this solution is reasonable."
"There are additional costs, such as the cost associated with the different hardware required for implementation and deployment. Along with the add-on apps, these are all additional costs, and they require licensing as well."
"The tool's price is high."
"The price could be better. I bought a subscription for three years."
"We use QRadar as a managed service and we pay licensing fees to the partner."
"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
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
 

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: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.