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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
103
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)
57th
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 December 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Sentinel is 5.4%, down from 7.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartEvent Event Management is 0.2%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Sentinel5.4%
SmartEvent Event Management0.2%
Other94.4%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

RW
Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Creates value with advanced investigation capabilities while seeking improved integration with varied platforms
My primary improvement request would be for auxiliary logs, as they represent our biggest need. While we have automated deployments now, Microsoft Sentinel is fairly easy to deploy, although we face challenges with integrations related to AWS and GCP, particularly with Google. 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. The story between UEBA and Defender for Identity and Intra needs to be further explored and defined. There's some confusion on what is happening from a user and entity behavior.
Adhi Wahyu - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at RSUP Dr. Sardjito
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 automation feature is valuable."
"Sentinel has an intuitive, user-friendly way to visualize the data properly. It gives me a solid overview of all the logs. We get a more detailed view that I can't get from the other SIEM tools. It has some IP and URL-specific allow listing"
"Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources has improved our capability significantly."
"The most valuable features are its threat handling and detection. It's a powerful tool because it's based on machine learning and on the behavior of malware."
"The Log analytics are useful."
"A lot of the automation inside Sentinel comes with inside actually rolling out brand new Sentinel environments. We utilize that a lot and it might go beyond just Sentinel, for example, utilizing templates in Azure and templates elsewhere to actually deploy out."
"Sentinel has features that have helped improve our security poster. It helped us in going ahead and identifying the gaps via analysis and focusing on the key elements."
"Some of the best features of Microsoft Sentinel are that it is cloud-based, which from a CapEx perspective saves clients money in procuring on-premises infrastructure."
"SmartEvent Event Management is a solid platform overall, and I would definitely recommend it."
"The capability of real-time analysis of security events is useful."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in terms of integrations. We have some tools, such as our off-site Meraki firewalls, that have not fully integrated with Sentinel. We lack integration for Syslogs into Sentinel."
"It has been a challenge with Azure Sentinel to onboard the Syslog server from FortiGate. Azure Sentinel can work better on that shift between the Syslog server and a firewall."
"The following would be a challenge for any product in the market, but we have some in-house apps in our environment... our apps were built with different parameters and the APIs for them are not present in Sentinel. We are working with Microsoft to build those custom APIs that we require. That is currently in progress."
"There are certain delays. For example, if an alert has been rated on Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, it might take up to an hour for that alert to reach Sentinel. This should ideally take no more than one or two seconds."
"Microsoft Sentinel's search efficiency can be improved, especially for queries spanning large datasets or long timeframes like 90 days compared to competitors like Splunk."
"If I see an alert and I want to drill down and get more details about the alert, it's not just one click. In other SIEM tools, you just have to click the IP address of the entity and they give you the complete picture. In Sentinel, you have to write queries or use saved queries to get details."
"If I can use Sentinel offline at home and use it on a local network, it would be great. I'm not sure if I can use Sentinel offline versus the tools I have."
"In terms of improvements, pricing, licensing, and overall cost could be better."
"The only downside I've encountered with SmartEvent Event Management is occasional lag during video calls, especially with a lot of participants."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It comes with a Microsoft subscription which the customer has, so they don't have to invest somewhere else."
"I don't know yet because they gave us a 30-day test window for free."
"Sentinel is costly compared to other solutions, but it's fair. SIEM solutions like CrowdStrike charge based on daily log volume. They generally process a set number of logs for free before they start charging. Microsoft's pricing is clearer. It's free under five gigabytes. Some of these logs we ingest have a cost, so they don't hide it. I believe the tenant pays the price, and Microsoft helps create awareness of the cost."
"In comparison to other security solutions, Microsoft Sentinel offers a reasonable price for the features included."
"Sentinel is pretty competitive. The pricing is at the level of other SIEM solutions."
"The pricing is reasonable, and we think Sentinel is worth what we pay for it."
"From a cost perspective, Microsoft Sentinel is quite costly."
"Microsoft Sentinel is pretty expensive, and they recently announced that they will increase the price of all Microsoft services running in Azure by 11 percent. Luckily, I'm not responsible for the financial side. For one of my clients, the estimated cost is 880,000 euros for one year. There are additional costs for the service agreement."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise44
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: December 2025.
879,310 professionals have used our research since 2012.