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OpenText Enterprise Security Manager vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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

OpenText Enterprise Securit...
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
23rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Security Event M...
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
33rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is 1.0%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager1.6%
SolarWinds Security Event Manager1.0%
Other97.4%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

SM
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
Unified log analysis has strengthened incident detection and supports continuous attack simulation
I do not have any areas for improvement in ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) as I have not delved deeply into it; overall, it is a good package. I would like to see the detection and response features included in the next release of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM), as security orchestration and automation are increasingly important.
Yashokanth Partkunan - PeerSpot reviewer
Managed Services Engineer at Loop1 Systems
Has supported client needs efficiently but requires deeper analysis features and faster support
The log analyzing capability of SolarWinds Security Event Manager should go into more depth than the current environment. More modification and enhancements are required on the dashboard side in order to make it closer to optimal performance. From observation and feedback from users, they need more functionality related to monitoring, and in-depth analyzing needs to be improved.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It greatly changed our work habits in the organization allowing us to not only trace back security threats, but also to generate usage trends, discover anomalies and so many other usages."
"From a customer perspective, the most important thing is network visibility, as companies have more visibility on what is happening in the network, so they will be able to make decisions, whether automatic or human decisions, based on the analysis given by ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM), which helps improve the security within the organization."
"It is easy to use when we created some dashboards for analytics."
"ArcSight is very scalable."
"ArcSight is customizable. You can integrate just about anything. I also like the ease of use."
"Customization. ArcSight gives you a platform to on-board out-of-the-box devices with a more accurate way of collecting desired logs/events."
"I value the event correlation of this product."
"Usability is the most valuable feature. The accessibility is quite good."
"SolarWinds has provided greater visibility into incidents and activities on the network."
"It's extremely easy to deploy."
"The File Integrity Monitoring is great, giving you visibility into who has changed a file, when that file was changed, and more, with easy out-of-the-box reporting and customization for reports and alerts that help maintain compliance and security."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is intuitivity of navigation; it's easy to build rules and actions which are based on the logs and event types we collect with the software."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is the analysis and the knowledge about the incidence that we trace."
"The solution helps you monitor database instances, application instances, other customer application things, Linux servers, IBM servers, and Oracle servers."
"It supports high availability, which is very helpful."
"It has in-depth monitoring capabilities and an easy way for setting up dashboards."
 

Cons

"Initial deployment of ArcSight is pretty challenging. It takes at least 3-4 months to install, integrate, define content and fine tune before starting the security operation."
"Customer service during the transition from HPE to Micro Focus was abysmal where it became disruptive to our service delivery."
"User behavior analytics is too pricey but an essential tool."
"Technical support should be improved. Many times, I've raised a case but none of them solved it and it took the guys from the Protect724 forum so solve my issue."
"HPE ArcSight has a quite steep learning curve."
"ArcSight ESM is lacking cloud scalable technology."
"They can definitely provide faster search response and offer larger on-the-box storage support."
"It can be overloaded when rules and data monitoring are not optimized and the system receives too many events."
"Training for this solution needs to be improved, as new employees are sometimes unfamiliar with the product."
"I imagine we will have to develop our own reports soon, this seems to be more cumbersome."
"The main area that would mean a big improvement for me would be for the product to include multiple dashboards."
"SolarWinds should improve its correlation capabilities. The correlation does not automatically detect and reduce the events fast enough. You have to manually do a correlation report, which means the tool is not scalable in many ways."
"It can be difficult for users who are inexperienced with the solution."
"It is a very technical program. They can simplify it so that it isn't so hard to deal with."
"The product should improve the ease with which you can create event alerts. They are not as hard now but you need to have an easier way."
"It takes a long time to perform a root cause analysis."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"​It is best to be an institutional buyer and directly contact the sales team, as they can provide over-the-top discounts for bulk orders.​"
"The pricing model is expensive compared to open-source alternatives."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"The pricing is great compared to others."
"ArcSight ESM is an affordable solution, it cost approximately $200,000 for three years. This price was at a substantial discount."
"Thanks to Micro Focus's licensing model, as an MSSP, we are able to see a complete return on our investment almost immediately."
"The licensing cost is affordable if you get an enterprise license. The licensing is based on EPS, so you can probably provide a package of license for multiple ESMs with their correlational end fees. It is cost-effective."
"ArcSight can be a little bit expensive because of the area that we work in and the cost. Licensing is mostly on a yearly basis, not monthly."
"It is in the appropriate mid-range. It is not as expensive as some of the other solutions. It is also not cheap."
"The pricing model would benefit from having package deals with other SolarWinds products."
"Licensing is on devices, so if you have many, then this may be high."
"The tool is available at a good price for customers compared to other solutions in the market. I rate the product's price as an eight out of ten."
"Licenses can only be purchased in blocks of fifty at a time."
"We do a yearly license renewal. For a year, the solution costs roughly $500,000 USD. There are no costs beyond this yearly fee."
"The price of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is reasonable."
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Comparison Review

VS
Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jun 28, 2015
Qradar vs. ArcSight
Continuing with the SIEM posts we have done at Infosecnirvana, this post is a Head to head comparison of the two Industry leading SIEM products in the market – HP ArcSight and IBM QRadar Both the products have consistently been in the Gartner Leaders Quadrant. Both HP and IBM took over niche SIEM…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
12%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise59
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best SIEM tool for a mid-sized financial services firm: Arcsight or Securonix?
In my market, a lot of financial companies had or have an ArcSight installation. Just because in former times it was pretty good. Now a lot of them are looking for a more effective solution due to ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
I would rate the pricing of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) around seven, as it varies based on features and demand, making it more affordable for larger organizations, while smaller one...
What needs improvement with ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
I do not have any areas for improvement in ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) as I have not delved deeply into it; overall, it is a good package. I would like to see the detection and respo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?
The tool is available at a good price for customers compared to other solutions in the market. I rate the product's price as an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?
The log analyzing capability of SolarWinds Security Event Manager should go into more depth than the current environment. More modification and enhancements are required on the dashboard side in or...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?
I work with all SolarWinds products mostly, including Network Configuration Manager and NPM. I am a reseller. I usually recommend SolarWinds products for Loop1. It's for the bigger ones; we are the...
 

Also Known As

Micro Focus ArcSight, HPE ArcSight, ArcSight
SolarWinds LEM, Solarwinds SIEM, TriGeo, Log and Event Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Lake Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bank AlJazira, Banca Intesa, and Obrela.
NetSuite, EasyStreet, Legacy Texas Bank, and Energy Federal Credit Union, to name a few.
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Enterprise Security Manager vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.