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LogRhythm SIEM vs syslog-ng comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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

LogRhythm SIEM
Ranking in Log Management
14th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
174
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (9th)
syslog-ng
Ranking in Log Management
17th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
2.1
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of LogRhythm SIEM is 2.0%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of syslog-ng is 2.5%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Mokhammad Rakhman - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly dashboard and machine learning capabilities improve threat hunting efficiency
LogRhythm SIEM has strong machine-learning capabilities with behavioral rules and analysis. The seamless integration for case management, along with a user-friendly dashboard user interface, makes tasks like threat hunting more efficient. Analytics and behavioral analysis help me save time with rule creation. Its scalability allows me to add components as needed. Overall, LogRhythm SIEM offers end-to-end visibility with a reasonable price.
RyanVargas - PeerSpot reviewer
It's a user-friendly open-source solution that can replace or augment a commercial product in some cases
I rate syslog-ng 10 out of 10. It's free and easy to use. It has built-in tools that help us index the various logs sent to it. It's a solid log product. If you're looking for a SIEM solution, syslog-ng will work as a stopgap measure at beginning of the project. It can also work as an injector for a true SIEM solution. You can send all the logs to syslog-ng and forward all the data to the SIEM solution after you've cleaned up the data and got the pertinent information. It's a good front end for a commercial SIEM solution, which becomes more expensive as you load more data into it. I would highly recommend syslog-ng for that use case. However, if you lack the expertise, you might need to go with a cloud-based SIEM instead. You need some in-house expertise or an outside consultant to manage it and set it up.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like LogRhythm's ease of use. The solution has improved compared to previous versions. It had many issues before, like integration, the console, creating reports, false positives, etc. The AI engine has made it stronger in the latest version."
"Overall effectiveness is very good. I like how it is oriented to both analysts and technical support people. It's easily adopted by end users as much as by technologists."
"It gives us insight into our entire installation, where we are multiple sites, going as far as the East Coast to the Central West Coast."
"The AI Engine can take an event and correlate it into something else giving us meaningful context regarding what is going on. We integrated it in with our ticketing system, so if an alarm fires, it raises a ticket in our system."
"The PCI compliance pieces that help us produce reports for our external auditor, and their support."
"I see LogRhythm SIEM as value for money; I would rate it eight out of ten."
"The Web Console is my favorite. It enables me, at a glance, to see the health of the environments."
"SOAR is integrated with the dashboard that we use for threat management. Because it's all integrated, it is useful for us when we deploy something on-prem."
"Syslog-ng provides easy access to all my logs. It helps me show managers and other clients precisely where an incident occurred. I also like it because you can integrate syslog-ng with multiple solutions to allow real-time monitoring."
"Syslog-ng has a separate config file in addition to the core configuration."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
"The ability to extract and store the logs is the most valuable feature of syslog-ng."
"For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior."
 

Cons

"I have Windows administrators who will remove the agent when they think that that's what's fouling up their upgrade or their install or their reconfiguration, etc. The first thing they do is to turn off the antivirus, turn down the firewall, and take off anything else. They don't realize that the LogRhythm agent is just sitting there monitoring. Most antivirus products have application protection features built-in where, if I'm an admin on a box, I can't uninstall antivirus. I need to have to the antivirus admin password to do that."
"LogRhythm NextGen SIEM is currently based only on the Windows platform. This means that some of our customers have to purchase a Windows license elsewhere. If LogRhythm can move to a Linux platform or a proprietary platform, it would be very helpful."
"The software needs to work on its pricing."
"Sometimes the Platform Manager crashes because it's built around Windows."
"When we originally got LogRhythm, their tech support was fantastic, and I loved them. Now, we don't quite get as quick of a response. I've been disappointed in the more recent tech support. When you call in, they'll say that they will get you somebody, and you'll finally get someone who will contact you back a day or so later. Whereas before, I would get help right away."
"It will definitely help if the parsing side would be much easier, meaning it would be better if we could easily make adjustments on the parser, both on standard and non-standard log sources."
"I would really love to be able to take some of the data and not have to export it to a CSV file, so I can pull it into Excel to turn it into some other kind of graph."
"Their ticketing system for managing cases can be improved. They can either do that or adopt some of the open-source ticket systems into theirs. The current system works and gets the job done, but it is very bare-bones and basic. There are some things that could be improved there. They should also bring in more threat intelligence into the product and also probably start to look into the integration of more cloud or SAS products for ingesting logs. They're doing the work, but with the explosion of COVID, a lot of businesses have started to move towards more cloud applications or SAS applications. There is a whole diverse suite of SAS products out there, which is a challenge for them and I get it. They seem to be focusing on the big ones, but it'll be nice to be able to, for example, pull in Microsoft logs from Office 365. They are working towards a better way of doing that, and they have a product in the pipeline to pull logs in from other SAS applications. The biggest thing for them is going to be moving away from a Windows Server infrastructure into a straight-up Linux, which is more stable in my eyes. For the backend, they can maybe move into more of an up-to-date Elastic search engine and use less of Microsoft products."
"The filtering has room for improvement."
"There is always the potential for additional integration and protocol extensions."
"It's hard to find people who know how to use syslog-ng. I often find problems with configurations, and solutions aren't integrated correctly with syslog-ng. For example, there might be data with extra decimals, or the collector agents are incorrectly named. It isn't a problem with the solution; it's a lack of professionals."
"There is room for improvement in terms of observability."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high, I rate the pricing between six and seven."
"It is a very cost-effective solution."
"The setup and licensing for small and medium size businesses is straightforward, though when it comes to the enterprise it pays to keep in mind the possibility for complications given all the extras and add-ons that may be required."
"NextGen SIEM's pricing is moderate."
"We have seen a measurable decrease in the mean time to detect and respond to threats. As it comes out new features and new releases, the window is becoming a lot narrower because you can pivot a lot more with the data. Therefore, the new features and enhancements are reducing that."
"I think the tool is reasonably priced. There is a need to pay per year towards the licensing costs of the tool."
"In the context of our country, the price of this solution is too high."
"It costs a great amount, but its pricing is competitive with some of the other vendors. For licensing and support, we pay about 20,000. There are no additional costs or anything like that."
"Syslog-ng is open-source."
"Syslog-ng is a free open-source solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is the difference between log management and SIEM?
Rony, Daniel's answer is right on the money. There are many solutions for each in the market, a lot depends upon your ability to manage such tools and your budget. A small operation may be best s...
What needs improvement with LogRhythm NextGen SIEM?
I cannot think of any specific features that LogRhythm SIEM can improve upon since it supports a wide variety of major vendors. However, they need to improve their parsing techniques; the tool shou...
What do you like most about LogRhythm SIEM?
I find LogRhythm's log management capabilities to be beneficial.
What do you like most about syslog-ng?
For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for syslog-ng?
The pricing is in the middle. I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with one being expensive and ten being cheap.
What needs improvement with syslog-ng?
Something could potentially be improved, though it works effectively for me. In the early stages, over 10 years ago, syslog-ng was lacking some features, so I created a patch for it. I used a patch...
 

Also Known As

LogRhythm NextGen SIEM, LogRhythm, LogRhythm Threat Lifecycle Management, LogRhythm TLM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Macy's, NASA, Fujitsu, US Air Force, EY, Abbott, HD Supply, SAB Miller, UCLA, Raytheon, Amtrak, Cargill
Tecnocom, University of Victoria, University of Exeter, Datapath
Find out what your peers are saying about LogRhythm SIEM vs. syslog-ng and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
864,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.