No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM X-Force Exchange vs Recorded Future vs USM Anywhere comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM X-Force Exchange1.4%
Recorded Future6.7%
CrowdStrike Falcon4.5%
Other87.4%
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Recorded Future6.7%
CrowdStrike Falcon4.5%
Anomali3.7%
Other85.1%
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
USM Anywhere1.3%
Splunk Enterprise Security7.3%
IBM Security QRadar5.3%
Other86.1%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

JohnTamakloe - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at ostec
A threat intelligence platform aiming to enhance its intelligence
It falls under the category of AI-embedded threat intelligence, which makes detection more efficient by reducing the rate of false positives and improving the overall detection rate. When the threat intelligence alone doesn’t provide enough information, we use other methods to verify the threat. For example, IBM has its threat intelligence team and tools. If the threat intelligence doesn’t yield much information, the tool has a framework that can identify suspicious activity. We then use our judgment and experience to implement compensating controls, whether for a potentially malicious patch, IP address, or any other threat. Customers benefit from it, even if they’re not directly integrating it. Through our service, they receive the benefits of the integration. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Derek  Lewis - PeerSpot reviewer
Account Manager at Chevron
Continuous threat intelligence has improved brand monitoring and protects against leaked credentials
Some of the areas that need improvement in Recorded Future include email reports that can show unrelated content. Sometimes alerts pop up for articles that have been published years ago but were just recently discovered by Recorded Future. For the browser extension, since the main purpose is to present information regarding IPs, I think it would be best to provide us with an idea of where the IP originates or some additional information about the organization it belongs to. API capabilities in Recorded Future are improving, but there are still some features that are missing and some errors that are hard to handle and understand. The price of Recorded Future is a bit high, especially for smaller teams working on a tight budget, but it is very effective and relatively competitive for large organizations.
Kris Nawani - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
Offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence and various other investigation tools The solution offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software, as it is maintained by the vendor. It helps in saving…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is you have the expertise of human experience directly involved. There is a team of experts."
"It's quite integratable so you can actually integrate and get IP malware and URL information. It also gives you some form of intelligence into what you're trying to investigate or what you're trying to understand."
"This product has helped to increase staff productivity."
"One of the fastest ways to cut costs is reducing staff, and this product can reduce staff by 70 percent."
"IBM X-Force has shortened our lifecycle for cyber security investigations, allowing me to quickly leverage a tool that gives quick visibility, quick understanding, quick investigation, quick drill down, and the ability to close offenses and issues as fast as I can."
"Recorded Future has positively impacted our organization as we are able to cover a lot of sources with only this intelligence provider, not having to have specific tools for clear web or social media monitoring."
"The solution is diverse and provides me with a lot of different mechanisms for evaluation."
"I have seen a return on investment as I explained earlier, it reduces the investigation time from days to minutes, and that is the biggest ROI; on a team of ten people that use it, one request can take you from three days to minutes."
"The features and capabilities of Recorded Future that I have found the most valuable are its AI-driven capabilities that make a significant impact."
"Recorded Future has positively impacted my organization by allowing our analysts to work less on doing IOC enrichments."
"After implementing Recorded Future, I can point out two positive impacts: first, the tool helps our SOC team save 30 to 40 percent of effort due to the reduction of manual threat detection and false positives, and second, the quality of our threat hunting has improved considerably, leading to a better understanding of the threat landscape."
"The tool is helpful in vulnerability assessment of zero-day vulnerabilities and phishing domains. The solution provides information on any domains of the organization that has undergone phishing or any other cyberattacks."
"The tool can integrate with a lot of security control and proactive protection devices."
"There are multiple tools for information security. The solution includes all the latest advances on the network and host intrusion detection systems."
"The ease of implementation is the most valuable feature."
"In terms of monitoring, my best feature would be the monitoring of components across the network; it monitors the respective nodes and any new node that comes onto the network and provides reports, and the reporting dashboards are really helpful for management in terms of making decisions around patch management."
"All of these features combined create a compelling "one-stop" package for a business that needs security monitoring and analytics."
"I highly recommend AlienVault USM for anybody that is seeking a SIEM solution that is easy to implement and easy to manage."
"This solution can identify many threats inside the organization (compromised endpoints, configuration issues), as well as "outside" threats (botnets, network scanners, web-attacks, etc)."
"It has tremendous benefits, and it brings everything into one single pane that includes your vulnerability management, asset management, IDS, logs, and correlation."
"Beyond provided us with an IDS as was our initial need, but AlienVault gave us more useful resources, as SIEM, and as a vulnerability scanner (the last, one of my favourite resources)."
 

Cons

"We would like to have more AI capabilities to detect threats and improve its productivity from a cybersecurity standpoint."
"You have to look for the new information from X-Force. X-Force will provide it but you have to look for it. We need clearer visibility."
"I would like to see better integration with other systems, solutions, and vendors."
"While I don't think the tool is weak, its position isn't as dominant as it once was. Other companies like CrowdStrike and Mandiant are now challenging them in many areas. One downside is that Recorded Future can be complex for customers to use and understand. This isn't easy for clients to navigate."
"When you add one website to Recorded Future, it should automatically call all other websites and social media platforms."
"The product gives many false positives. If someone talks about the brand or organization name in the public domain over chats or blocks, it gets highlighted. It may not necessarily be a threat but still gets highlighted which increases the false positive count."
"The documentation and support resources provided by Recorded Future are bad."
"Recorded Future is a very expensive solution, and its pricing could be improved."
"Lacks sufficient visibility of malware and international APT attacks."
"It sometimes detects false positives and reduces the overall accuracy of the system."
"At present, my clients need to be trained by me or another organization on how to use Recorded Future and how to get the best out of it as an analyst, engineer, and administrator. It would be better if clients could directly learn these things without having to go through me or other organizations."
"The UI and overall processes need a little bit more love. This shows in the error banners that come up when you select certain things. There isn't a day that goes by that the UI doesn't error out and I can't view events for an alarm."
"This solution could be easier to use. It is hard for some people to understand, and they need to get training and certification just to understand what it's showing them."
"Plugins: most plugins are not up to date with the newer versions of products."
"I had some initial issues with some of the upgrades in version, but with the help of their support team, we were able to resolve all of them."
"Those tools could be improved because AlienVault is a SIEM, and it added all these other features."
"Backup, restore, and upgrade - some menu options are a bit convoluted."
"The reporting and dashboards have room for improvement."
"The only recommended changes I can think of is to have the ability to filter logs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cost is clearly a consideration, but the important thing is what we do with the data and how we protect it."
"One of the fastest ways to cut costs is reducing staff, and this product can reduce staff by 70 percent."
"There appear to be up to five different levels, with the most expensive version costing around $95,000 to $105,000 a year for subscription services."
"I would rate the solution’s pricing a seven out of ten."
"The biggest disadvantage of Recorded Future is the cost here in Eastern Europe. The solution is correctly priced for big companies who have the money to invest in such solutions. Also, the solution is useless on its own, which means that you have to invest in other solutions with which Recorded Future can be integrated. At present, Recorded Future can cost 60,000 euros per year. I am able to offer my clients a 5% to 10% discount, but in this region, the cost is still prohibitive even with the discount. If Recorded Future were more flexible in terms of price, there would be better sales opportunities in Europe and Eastern Europe, in particular, because we have more small- and medium-sized companies here."
"The price of the solution is worth it. The overall performance of the solution outweighs the cost."
"It is a product that is priced in a medium range, making it neither a cheap nor a costly product."
"​The vulnerability management solution is worse than buying a Nessus Professional license.​"
"They charge a license based on the storage. ATT AlienVault USM is a less expensive solution than IBM QRadar."
"It is affordable, and it also has many features that the premium products such as ArcSight and QRadar have. It is a very good platform for a SIEM solution. Everything is included in the price."
"They are a little more expensive than Microsoft."
"The ROI is quite good."
"Its price is much lower than McAfee ESM."
"Negotiate the best package for your environment."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) solutions are best for your needs.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Construction Company
24%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business65
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for IBM X-Force?
It's a threat intelligence platform, and we aim to enhance its intelligence by integrating additional security soluti...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM X-Force?
It falls under the category of AI-embedded threat intelligence, which makes detection more efficient by reducing the ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Recorded Future?
The price of Recorded Future is a bit high, especially for smaller teams working on a tight budget, but it is very ef...
What needs improvement with Recorded Future?
I cannot think of a way that Recorded Future can be improved. I don't have anything to add about the needed improveme...
What is your primary use case for Recorded Future?
My main use case for Recorded Future is as a threat and vulnerability feed. In relation to my use case with Recorded ...
What needs improvement with AT&T AlienVault USM?
There are scalability issues due to a 60 TB limit, which restricts its use for large customers like banks. It is also...
What is your primary use case for AT&T AlienVault USM?
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence...
 

Also Known As

X-Force Exchange, X-Force
No data available
AT&T AlienVault USM, AlienVault, AlienVault USM, Alienvault Cybersecurity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Fujitsu, Regions, SITA, St. Jude Medical, Accenture, T-Mobile, TIAA, Intel Security, Armor, Alert Logic, NTT, Splunk
Abel & Cole, Bank of Ireland, Bluegrass Cellular, CareerBuilder, Claire's, Hays Medical Center, Hope International, McCurrach, McKinsey & Company, Party Delights, Pepco Holdings, Richland School District, Ricoh, SaveMart, Shake Shack, Steelcase, TaxAct, Taylor Morrison, Vonage and Zoom
Find out what your peers are saying about Recorded Future, CrowdStrike, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP). Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.