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IBM Security QRadar vs Sophos 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.1
IBM Security QRadar offers high ROI through cost-effectiveness, threat mitigation, SOAR integration, and valuable data insights, satisfying users.
Sentiment score
6.7
Sophos MDR lowers staffing and insurance costs while enhancing security, offering efficient threat response without needing dedicated teams.
With SOAR, the workflow takes one minute or less to complete the analysis.
Investing this amount was very much worth it for my organization.
It allows them to have access to a SOC-like service without the associated costs.
On average, these claims are 97.5% lower compared to those relying solely on endpoint protection.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.1
IBM Security QRadar's customer service effectiveness varies with regional differences, personnel expertise, and response times impacting user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.2
Sophos MDR's customer service is praised for its efficiency but criticized for occasional slow response times and communication issues.
They assist with advanced issues, such as hardware or other problems, that are not part of standard operations.
Support needs to understand the issue first, then escalate it to the engineering team.
The support is really good; for instance, if a critical ticket is submitted, you will get paged right away as it gets logged, and their analyst will look into it, letting you know as soon as possible so you can work on it.
Sophos offers different support levels depending on the severity of the issues, which ensures timely assistance.
I would rate the technical support by Sophos at nine point five out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
IBM Security QRadar offers strong scalability and flexibility, adapting effortlessly to diverse security needs across various industries.
Sentiment score
7.9
Sophos MDR is favored for its scalability, easy integration, and adaptability, despite potential cost challenges for large expansions.
For EPS license, if you increase or exceed the EPS license, you cannot receive events.
Users have noted that the solution can easily scale to accommodate an increasing number of protected devices without the need for redeployment.
Sophos MDR seems to have no limitations on scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
QRadar is reliable and efficient, with stability issues often linked to misconfigurations or updates rather than the software itself.
Sentiment score
7.9
Sophos MDR is highly rated for stability, offering reliable performance, minimal disruptions, and effective real-time threat management.
I think QRadar is stable and currently satisfies my needs.
The product has been stable so far.
The continuous monitoring and quick incident response provided by Sophos MDR help catch potential threats early, minimizing downtime and keeping data safe.
I would rate the stability as very reliable.
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Security QRadar users seek better third-party integration, usability, enhanced AI, reporting, support, visualization, and API/cloud features.
Sophos MDR requires integration and performance enhancements, better communication, comprehensive reporting, competitive pricing, and improved threat protection.
We receive logs from different types of devices and need a way to correlate them effectively.
If AI-related support can suggest rules and integrate with existing security devices like MD, IPS, this SIM can create more relevant rules.
IBM Security QRadar does not support Canvas, so we had to create custom scripts and workarounds to pull logs from Canvas.
Introducing more detailed and customizable reporting and analytics features could help organizations better understand their security posture and the effectiveness of the MDR service.
 

Setup Cost

IBM Security QRadar is pricey, ideal for large enterprises, with flexible EPS-based pricing, often more costly than competitors.
Sophos MDR's subscription pricing varies by user count, offering 24/7 support and mixed affordability opinions based on features.
Splunk is more expensive than IBM Security QRadar.
It was costly mainly because of the value you can get right now compared to other solutions.
The solution is cost-efficient, especially for small customers who cannot justify the expense of setting up an internal SOC.
The pricing of Sophos MDR is reasonable and competitive, scoring about nine out of ten.
 

Valuable Features

IBM Security QRadar offers scalable, user-friendly security with advanced analytics, seamless integrations, and effective threat detection capabilities.
Sophos MDR offers comprehensive threat hunting, 24/7 support, and seamless integration, providing scalable protection against diverse cyber threats.
Recently, I faced an incident, a cyber incident, and it was detected in real time.
IBM is seeking information about IBM QRadar because a part of QRadar, especially in the cloud, has been sold to Palo Alto.
We have FortiSOAR and IBM Resilient for IBM Security QRadar orchestration.
The important features of Sophos MDR include detection and response capabilities.
The most valuable feature of Sophos MDR is that it offers a monitoring service directly from the OEM, which is beneficial for SMB customers who cannot afford a SOC.
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Security QRadar
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
211
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (7th), 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) (11th)
Sophos MDR
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, 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 Sophos MDR is 5.9%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Sophos MDR5.9%
IBM Security QRadar1.0%
Other93.1%
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.
Ahmed_Fahmy - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive management and support continuously enhance threat detection and response
Based on user feedback and reviews, here are some areas where Sophos MDR could be improved and suggestions for additional features that could be included in future releases: Areas for Improvement: ---------------------- * Resource Utilization: Some users have noted that Sophos MDR can be resource-intensive, which may impact system performance. Optimizing the software to be less demanding on system resources could enhance the overall user experience. * Support Responsiveness: While the dedicated MDR team is highly praised, the standard support has received mixed. Improving the responsiveness and effectiveness of the general support team could address this concern. * Integration with Other Tools: Enhancing integration capabilities with a wider range of third-party security tools and platforms could provide a more seamless experience for users who rely on multiple security. Suggested Additional Features: ------------------------------ * Advanced Reporting and Analytics: Introducing more detailed and customizable reporting and analytics features could help organizations better understand their security posture and the effectiveness of the MDR service. * Automated Incident Response Playbooks: Providing automated playbooks for common security incidents could help organizations respond more quickly and effectively to. * Enhanced Threat Intelligence: Incorporating more advanced threat intelligence capabilities, including real-time updates and predictive analytics, could help organizations stay ahead of emerging. * User Training and Awareness Programs: Offering integrated user training and awareness programs as part of the MDR service could help organizations improve their overall security culture and reduce the risk of human error
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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
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
6%
Comms Service Provider
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business89
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise102
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
 

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 Sophos MDR?
The user doesn't need a technician; it offers 24/7 support to identify and manage your infrastructure and take complete care of any technological incidents.
What needs improvement with Sophos MDR?
I don't have many suggestions for improvement in Sophos MDR as it performs quite well. It would be beneficial to have the ability to pull a report of all incident responses within a tenant, with ca...
What advice do you have for others considering Sophos MDR?
I believe Sophos MDR pricing is reasonable for my customers. I would recommend those planning to use Sophos MDR to consider what financial impact a compromise could have on their organization and c...
 

Also Known As

IBM QRadar, QRadar SIEM, QRadar UBA, QRadar on Cloud, IBM QRadar Advisor with Watson
Sophos Managed Threat Response
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Clients across multiple industries, such as energy, financial, retail, healthcare, government, communications, and education use QRadar.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Security QRadar vs. Sophos MDR and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,883 professionals have used our research since 2012.