Security Onion vs Wazuh comparison

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Security Onion

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 7, 2024

Security Onion and Wazuh are open-source security information and event management (SIEM) solutions. Security Onion focuses on intrusion detection and network security monitoring with tools like Suricata and Zeek, while Wazuh emphasizes endpoint security and compliance management using lightweight agents. Security Onion might require more configuration for large deployments, while Wazuh offers easier scaling options.

Features: Wazuh is valued for its efficient log analysis, granular security rule customization, and real-time threat detection, while Security Onion emphasizes all-in-one design and comprehensive network monitoring, and extensive integration of open-source security tools. Both are integrating with Elastic Stack to provide log management.
Room for Improvement: Wazuh's user interface needs to be more user-friendly, while Security Onion's is outdated. Wazuh struggles with tool integration, contrasts with Security Onion's complex setup. Wazuh needs better reporting, whereas Security Onion faces performance issues. Both require improved documentation.
Pricing and ROI: Security Onion and Wazuh are free to use as open-source software. The ROI comes from improved security posture, faster incident response, and potential cost savings compared to commercial SIEM solutions.
Deployment and customer support: Wazuh generally requires shorter, less complex deployment and setup times compared to Security Onion. Security Onion relies on community forums and documentation due to its open-source nature. Wazuh provides paid commercial support options alongside its active community forum. Its customer service is highly regarded for its prompt, efficient, and knowledgeable support.

Security Onion is ideal for organizations comfortable with open-source tools and community support. Wazuh is a good choice for security-focused organizations requiring flexibility and scalability. The summary above is based on 23 interviews we conducted recently with Wazuh and Security Onion users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.

To learn more, read our detailed Security Onion vs. Wazuh Report (Updated: April 2025).

Security Onion vs. Wazuh

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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

Security Onion

Ranking in Log Management

18th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AWS Marketplace (5th)

Wazuh

Ranking in Log Management

1st

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Security Onion is 5.7%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wazuh is 15.0%, up from 14.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Jörg Kippe

Scientist at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees

A mature and affordable solution that is easy to install and easy to update

The product takes time to learn, it's not that easy. In the beginning we had a lot of questions. If you want to use such a tool in an real (industrial) environment, you have to ask how to get the network data. Can we do a full packet capture? Can we provide agents to our end systems? There are no simple solutions to these questions. It's a general problem when running such systems in an industrial environment.

Read full review

Sandip_Patel

Student at Dakota State University

Evaluating robust file monitoring with insights for community support improvements

Wazuh's most valuable features include file monitoring and compliance reporting, which do not require excessive costs. These aspects are vital as they provide alerts for changes and facilitate the monitoring of compliance. The platform is also relatively easy to set up and operate. Reports are straightforward to extract and prove useful for compliance requirements.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Security Onion is the most mature solution in the market."

"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."

"The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports."

"I like the cloud-native infrastructure and that it's free. We didn't have to pay anything, and it has the capabilities of many premium solutions in the market. We could integrate all of our services and infrastructure in the cloud with Wazuh. From an integration point of view, Wazuh is pretty good. I had a good experience with this platform."

"Wazuh has very flexible and robust features."

"Wazuh offers numerous features, such as the ability to define custom rules for detecting malicious activities and remembering behaviors."

"I find the PCI DSS feature the most valuable, along with the feature that monitors the compliance of Windows and the CIS benchmarks on other devices like Unix or Linux systems."

"The deployment is easy and they provide very good documentation."

"I like that the solution is on top of the Kubernetes stack."

"I like Wazuh because it is a lot like ELK, which I was already comfortable with, so I didn't have to learn from scratch."

"Wazuh's most beneficial features for our security needs are flexibility, built-in rules, integration capabilities, and documentation."

More Wazuh pros

Cons

"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."

"The product is not easy to learn."

"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."

"There is room for improvement by integrating more AI into Wazuh. It requires constant nurturing, as I have to provide it with code and specific requirements."

"So far, the recent updates have addressed most challenges we previously faced."

"The tool does not provide CTI to monitor darknet."

"The implementation is very complex."

"The support channel is not optimal, and extensive research is required on our part to implement Wazuh effectively."

"A more structured approach, perhaps with modular UI components, to facilitate easier integration and navigation within the Wazuh platform for custom integrations would be beneficial."

"Scalability is a constraint in the on-prem version of Wazuh in terms of the volume of logs we can manage."

"We would like to see more improvements on the cloud."

More Wazuh cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Security Onion is an open-source solution."

"Security Onion is a free solution."

"It is an open-source solution."

"The solution's cost is above the average."

"Wazuh is open-source, but you must consider the total cost of ownership. It may be free to acquire, but you spend a lot of time and effort supporting the product and getting it to a point where it's useful."

"The product is cheaper compared to other tools."

"When I contacted customer care, they mentioned bundling options, that I found to be overall affordable."

"Wazuh has a community edition, and I was using that. It's free and open source."

"Wazuh is open-source, so I think it's an option for a small organization that cannot go for enterprise-grade solutions like Splunk."

"It is a cost-effective solution."

"The product price is neither too high nor too low."

More Wazuh pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

University

11%

Government

11%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

University

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Security Onion?

The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Security Onion?

Security Onion is an open-source solution. On a scale from one to ten, where ten is expensive and one is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.

What needs improvement with Security Onion?

The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult.

What do you like most about Wazuh?

Integrates with various open-source and paid products, allowing for flexibility in customization based on use cases.

What needs improvement with Wazuh?

There is room for improvement by integrating more AI into Wazuh. It requires constant nurturing, as I have to provide it with code and specific requirements. This maintenance can be quite labor-int...

What is your primary use case for Wazuh?

We use Wazuh as a SIEM solution because it is open source, highly customizable, and continually expanding. Our clients can request various solutions for their issues, which Wazuh is able to address.

Elastic Stack vs Security Onion

Comparisons

Compared 11% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Security Onion

Compared 8% of the time

Graylog vs Security Onion

Compared 6% of the time

Kali Linux vs Security Onion

Compared 4% of the time

TheHive vs Security Onion

Compared 3% of the time

More Security Onion Competitors

Elastic Stack vs Wazuh

Compared 12% of the time

AlienVault OSSIM vs Wazuh

Compared 8% of the time

Graylog vs Wazuh

Compared 7% of the time

Elastic Security vs Wazuh

Compared 5% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Wazuh

Compared 5% of the time

More Wazuh Competitors

Product Reports

Log Management

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Overview

Security Onion is an open-source Linux distribution for intrusion detection, network security monitoring, and log management. It offers comprehensive solutions for enterprises seeking to enhance their cybersecurity infrastructure.

Security Onion provides a full suite of tools to detect and respond to cybersecurity threats efficiently. As a robust and versatile distribution, it includes capabilities for real-time analysis, network visibility, and threat detection, making it indispensable for security operations centers. Users value this tool for its integration of open-source software with advanced analytics, affording professionals a detailed overview of network traffic and potential intrusions.

What are Security Onion’s most important features?

Intrusion Detection: Utilizes Suricata or Zeek for effective threat monitoring.
Network Security Monitoring: Offers powerful visualization tools for network analysis.
Log Management: Centralizes log collection and analysis.
Comprehensive Dashboards: Provides integrated dashboards for threat visibility.

What benefits or ROI should you look for in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Reduced cybersecurity costs due to its open-source nature.
Improved Threat Detection: Enhanced ability to identify and respond to threats quickly.
Integration Capability: Seamless integration with existing security infrastructures.
Scalability: Support for scaling network security operations as needed.

Security Onion finds extensive application in industries such as finance, healthcare, and government sectors, where robust network monitoring is critical. Its ability to integrate with existing security tools makes it a preferred choice for organizations looking to strengthen their cybersecurity posture.

Security Onion Solutions, LLC

Wazuh is an enterprise-ready platform used for security monitoring. It is a free and open-source platform that is used for threat detection, incident response and compliance, and integrity monitoring. Wazuh is capable of protecting workloads across virtualized, on-premises, containerized, and cloud-based environments.

It consists of an endpoint security agent and a management server. Additionally, Wazuh is fully integrated with the Elastic Stack, allowing users the ability to navigate through security alerts via a data visualization tool.

Wazuh’s agent can run on many different platforms, and is lightweight. It can successfully perform the tasks needed to detect threats in order to trigger responses automatically.
Wazuh manages the agents, can analyze agent data, and can scale horizontally.
Elastic Stack is where alerts are indexed and stored.

Wazuh Capabilities

Some of Wazuh’s most notable capabilities include:

Intrusion detection: Wazuh’s agents can detect hidden files, cloaked processes, or unregistered network listeners, as well as inconsistencies in system call responses. Wazuh’s server component uses a signature-based approach to intrusion detection, using its regular expression engine to analyze collected log data and look for indicators of compromise.
Log data analysis: Wazuh can read operating system and application logs, and securely forward them to a central manager for rule-based analysis and storage.
Integrity monitoring: File integrity monitoring can help identify changes in content, ownership, permissions, and attribute of files. Wazuh’s file integrity monitoring can be used in conjunction with threat intelligence.
Vulnerability detection: Wazuh agents can identify well-known vulnerable software so you can see where your weak spots are and take action before an attack can exploit them.
Configuration assessment: System and application configurations are monitored to make sure they are compliant with security policies. Periodic scans are used to detect applications that are known to be vulnerable, insecurely configured, or unpatched.
Incident response: Wazuh responds actively when active threats need to be addressed. It can perform countermeasures like blocking access to a system when a threat source is identified.
Regulatory compliance: Wazuh includes the security controls required to be compliant with industry regulations and standards.
Cloud security: Wazuh’s light-weight and multi-platform agents are commonly used to monitor cloud environments at the instance level. In addition, Wazuh helps monitor cloud infrastructure at an API level.
Security for containers: With Wazuh, you have increased security visibility into hosts and containers, allowing for easier detection of threats, anomalies, and vulnerabilities.

Wazuh Benefits

Some of the most valued benefits of Wazuh include:

No vendor lock-in
No license costs
Uses lightweight, multi-platform agents
Free community support

Wazuh Offers

Annual support and maintenance
Assistance with deployment and configuration
Training and instructional hands-on courses

Reviews From Real Users

"It's very easy to integrate Wazuh with other environments, cloud applications, and on-prem applications. So, the advantage is that it's easy to implement and integrate with other solutions." - Robert C., IT Security Consultant at Microlan Kenya Limited

“The MITRE ATT&CK correlation is most valuable.” - Chief Information Security Officer at a financial services firm

Security Onion vs. Wazuh