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Microsoft Sentinel vs SmartEvent Event Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 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

Microsoft Sentinel
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (6th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (5th)
SmartEvent Event Management
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
53rd
Average Rating
5.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Sentinel is 6.6%, down from 8.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartEvent Event Management is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Ivan Angelov - PeerSpot reviewer
Threat detection and response capabilities enhance investigation processes
My security team has been using Microsoft Sentinel for around two years. We also have Bastion and SolarWinds as part of our monitoring tools. We use a three-way tool, alongside Microsoft Sentinel, in our environment The most valuable features for us include threat collection, threat detection,…
Adhi Wahyu - PeerSpot reviewer
Transparent and offers real-time analysis but needs more documentation
The solution provides us with transparency to give us information about what happens in the network. With this information, the administrator can see a lot of things. They can see hacking attempts from the internet that target our servers, and, with that information, they can check the security settings in the server to see if it is strong enough or not, and make sure the servers is safe. They also can see attacks directed to the endpoint. We know which endpoint got infected so we can take action to clean it. The software also has good reporting capabilities. We can create custom reports according to our needs.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The UI of Sentinel is very good and easy to use, even for beginners."
"The connectivity and analytics are great."
"We didn't have anything similar. So, it really provides value from the incidents and automation point of view. The overview of the security fabric is most valuable."
"The in-built SOAR of Sentinel is valuable. Kusto Query Language is also valuable for the ease of writing queries and ease of getting insights from the logs. Schedule-based queries within Sentinel are also valuable. I found these three features most useful for my projects."
"There are a lot of things you can explore as a user. You can even go and actively hunt for threats. You can go on the offensive rather than on the defensive."
"The best functionality that you can get from Azure Sentinel is the SOAR capability. So, you can estimate any type of activity, such as when an alert was triggered or an incident was found."
"The dashboard that allows me to view all the incidents is the most valuable feature."
"Microsoft Sentinel is cloud native, which is a significant advantage. The data connectors that provide the ability to connect third-party log sources are highly valuable."
"The capability of real-time analysis of security events is useful."
"SmartEvent Event Management is a solid platform overall, and I would definitely recommend it."
 

Cons

"It could have a better API to be able to automate many things more extensively and get more extensive data and more expensive deployment possibilities. It can gain some points on the automation part and the integration part. The API is very limited, and I would like to see it extended a bit more."
"The three challenges we have are outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. In New Zealand, there are customers that run dual stack, running Microsoft but also competitor products, EDR software, cloud security software, and other tooling."
"If you're looking to use canned queries, the interface could be a little more straightforward. It's not immediately intuitive regarding how you use it. You have to take a canned query and paste it into an operational box and then you hit a button... They could improve the ease of deploying these queries."
"Multi-tenancy, in my opinion, needs to be improved. I believe it can do better as a managed service provider."
"The integration challenges arise from both sides; Google tends to be noisy, and we find only ten analytic rules out of the box, necessitating the use of Defender for Cloud for alerts, which indicates a need for better documentation during deployment."
"We'd like to see more connectors."
"The only thing is sometimes you can have a false positive."
"Its implementation could be simpler. It is not really simple or straightforward. It is in the middle. Sometimes, connectors are a little bit complex."
"They should provide easy to access guides or manuals, maybe videos, about how to manage or use the software effectively and efficiently, to maximize its features."
"The only downside I've encountered with SmartEvent Event Management is occasional lag during video calls, especially with a lot of participants."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am just paying for the log space with Azure Sentinel. It costs us about $2,000 a month. Most of the logs are free. We are only paying money for Azure Firewall logs because email logs or Azure AD logs are free to use for us."
"There are no additional costs other than the initial costs of Sentinel."
"Sentinel's pricing is on the higher side, but you can get a discount if you can predict your usage. You have to pay ingestion and storage fees. There are also fees for Logic Apps and particular features. It seems heavily focused on microtransactions, but they may be slightly optional. By contrast, Splunk requires no additional fee for their equivalent of Logic. You have a little more flexibility, but Sentinel's costs add up."
"Pricing for Microsoft Sentinel could always be lower, but it's workable. The ingestion costs for the data analytics is usually the highest cost, but the licensing per Microsoft Sentinel is fairly straightforward and transparent."
"Microsoft Sentinel's pricing is relatively expensive and extremely confusing."
"We only pay for the amount of data we bring in, which is fair."
"Sentinel is fairly priced and pretty cost-effective."
"The are two native advantages for customers that use M365 Security and Sentinel. The first advantage is that the log or security-event ingestion into Sentinel is free. Cost-wise, they're saving a lot and that is a major advantage."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Is there a common threat intelligence tool that aggregates multiple threat intelligence sources?
Yes, Azure Sentinel is a SIEM on the Cloud. Multiple data sources can be uploaded and analyzed with Azure Sentinel and its Threat Hunting functionality with AI available as templates or customized ...
What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?
It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...
Which is better - Azure Sentinel or AWS Security Hub?
We like that Azure Sentinel does not require as much maintenance as legacy SIEMs that are on-premises. Azure Sentinel is auto-scaling - you will not have to worry about performance impact, you will...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SmartEvent Event Management?
The product has annual licensing; make sure you really use it well to help you secure the network so you don't waste the license cost.
What needs improvement with SmartEvent Event Management?
The only downside I've encountered with SmartEvent Event Management ( /categories/event-monitoring ) is occasional lag during video calls, especially with a lot of participants. Although it is not ...
What is your primary use case for SmartEvent Event Management?
Our primary use case involves utilizing SmartEvent Event Management ( /products/smartevent-event-management-reviews ) for video conferencing, file sharing, and integration with other productivity t...
 

Also Known As

Azure Sentinel
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Sentinel is trusted by companies of all sizes including ABM, ASOS, Uniper, First West Credit Union, Avanade, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Sentinel vs. SmartEvent Event Management and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.