We compared Splunk Enterprise Security and Microsoft Sentinel based on our users' reviews using several parameters.
Splunk Enterprise Security is praised for its threat intelligence, analytics, and user-friendly interface. Users mention improvements needed in user-friendliness, search query language, and performance. Pricing is considered high but justified by the value. Microsoft Sentinel is affordable and has a simpler setup process. Users appreciate the advanced threat visibility, integration with other Microsoft products, and machine learning capabilities. Improvement suggestions include a more intuitive interface, better customization options, and enhanced integration with third-party tools. Users find both products valuable with positive impacts on their organization.
Features: Splunk Enterprise Security stands out for its customizable analytics and real-time monitoring, while Microsoft Sentinel excels in advanced threat visibility and machine learning integration. Splunk focuses on scalability and customization, whereas Sentinel emphasizes centralizing alerts and actionable insights.
Pricing and ROI: Splunk Enterprise Security tends to have higher pricing and high setup costs initially, but users find the value and benefits worth the investment. Microsoft Sentinel is noted for its reasonable pricing, minimal setup costs, and flexible licensing options. Splunk Enterprise Security offers improved operational efficiency, threat detection, and incident response, while Microsoft Sentinel provides enhanced security, reduced incident response time, and seamless integration.
Room for Improvement: Splunk Enterprise Security users seek a more user-friendly interface and simplified search query language. They desire enhanced alerting and reporting features to improve performance. Microsoft Sentinel users want a more intuitive platform, better customization options, enhanced integration capabilities, and improved reporting and documentation.
Deployment and customer support: While Splunk Enterprise Security had varying implementation durations, users found Microsoft Sentinel quicker to deploy. However, some noted that Sentinel's setup was more complex compared to Splunk's faster implementation and simpler setup process. Splunk Enterprise Security stands out for its prompt response times and knowledgeable staff, enhancing the overall user experience. Microsoft Sentinel impresses with quick issue resolution and effective, helpful support, leading to positive user experiences.
The summary above is based on 201 interviews we conducted recently with Splunk Enterprise Security and Microsoft Sentinel users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"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."
"Sentinel improved how we investigate incidents. We can create watchlists and update them to align with the latest threat intelligence. The information Microsoft provides enables us to understand thoroughly and improve as we go along. It allows us to provide monthly reports to our clients on their security posture."
"The most valuable features in my experience are the UEBA, LDAP, the threat scheduler, and integration with third-party straight perform like the MISP."
"What is most useful, is that it has a good connection to the Microsoft ecosystem, and I think that's the key part."
"Sentinel is a SIEM and SOAR tool, so its automation is the best feature; we can reduce human interaction, freeing up our human resources."
"If you know how to do KQL (kusto query language) queries, which are how you query the log data inside Sentinel, the information is pretty rich. You can get down to a good level of detail regarding event information or notifications."
"Sentinel pricing is good"
"The AI and ML of Azure Sentinel are valuable. We can use machine learning models at the tenant level and within Office 365 and Microsoft stack. We don't need to depend upon any other connectors. It automatically provisions the native Microsoft products."
"You can check up on security from the dashboards."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"Splunk's advantage is its search capability. Its search is notably faster. With Splunk, I can search easily on keywords. That is great."
"The solution allows easy gathering and ingestion of the data."
"Recently, Splunk upgraded to version 9.0.02, which includes excellent data dashboards and visualization effects."
"The most valuable features for us include its robust log management capabilities, which allow us to efficiently handle and retain logs for extended periods as needed."
"The Splunk queries are valuable."
"Splunk has improved our operations by giving us access to more information and allowing us to deploy more use cases."
"They need to work with other security vendors. For example, we replaced our email gateway with Symantec, but we couldn't collect these logs with Azure Sentinel. Instead of collecting these logs with Azure Sentinel, we are collecting them on Qradar. We couldn't do it with Sentinel, which is a problem for us."
"The performance could be improved. If I create 15 to 20 lines for a single-use case in KQL, sometimes it takes more time to execute. If I create use cases within a certain timeline, the result will show in .01 seconds. A complex query takes more time to get results."
"The KQL query does not function effectively with Windows 11 machines, and in the majority of machine-based investigations, KQL queries are essential for organizing the data during investigations."
"The dashboards can be improved. Creating dashboards is very easy, but the visualizations are not as good as Microsoft Power BI. People who are using Microsoft Power BI do not like Sentinel's dashboards."
"We'd like to see more connectors."
"There is a wider thing called Jupyter Notebooks, which is around the automation side of things. It would be good if there are playbooks that you can utilize without having to have the developer experience to do it in-house. Microsoft could provide more playbooks or more Jupyter Notebooks around MITRE ATT&CK Framework."
"Everyone has their favorites. There is always room for improvement, and everybody will say, "I wish you could do this for me or that for me." It is a personal thing based on how you use the tool. I do not necessarily have those thoughts, and they are probably not really valuable because they are unique to the context of the user, but broadly, where it can continue to improve is by adding more connectors to more systems."
"The built-in SOAR is not really good out-of-the-box. The SOAR relies on logic apps and you almost need to have some kind of developer background to be able to make these logic apps. Most security people cannot develop anything..."
"Given the ever-increasing number of threats, I would like Splunk to update its threat signatures more frequently."
"The support that is included with the standard licensing fee is very bad."
"While Splunk Enterprise Security offers valuable features, its cost is high and could be more competitive."
"Its pricing is extremely high. There are other tools out in the market that are competitive. They do not necessarily have all the functionality, but they are competitive. The professional services we have used have been high as well in comparison to the market."
"The only thing which can be improved is that they are too subjective on whom their Splunk4Good initiative can be applied. They market it as you only need to be a nonprofit, but there is more to it."
"The solution could improve by making it more business analysis oriented. The way it is now is designed more for developers."
"The case management area of the ES could be improved. The ability to move cases through various stages and states. The ability to close a case would be key improvement."
"More training on PetaData using artificial intelligence techniques to identify the events which are not normal and exceptions that would help the organization identify threats and malware on the go with results."
Microsoft Sentinel is ranked 1st in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 85 reviews while Splunk Enterprise Security is ranked 2nd in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) with 227 reviews. Microsoft Sentinel is rated 8.2, while Splunk Enterprise Security is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Microsoft Sentinel writes "Gives a comprehensive and holistic view of the ecosystem and improves visibility and the ability to respond". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Splunk Enterprise Security writes "It has a drag-and-drop interface, so you don't need to know SQL or Java to construct a query ". Microsoft Sentinel is most compared with AWS Security Hub, IBM Security QRadar, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Elastic Security and Wazuh, whereas Splunk Enterprise Security is most compared with Wazuh, Dynatrace, IBM Security QRadar, Elastic Security and Azure Monitor. See our Microsoft Sentinel vs. Splunk Enterprise Security report.
See our list of best Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) vendors.
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