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SolarWinds Security Event Manager vs Splunk Enterprise Security comparison

SolarWinds and Splunk are both solutions in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category. SolarWinds is ranked #35 with an average rating of 7.8, while Splunk is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3. SolarWinds holds a 0.7% mindshare in SIEM, compared to Splunk’s 9.3% mindshare. Additionally, 82% of SolarWinds users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Splunk users who would recommend it.
SolarWinds Security Event M...
Read 26 SolarWinds Security Event Manager reviews
  • 1,110 Views
  • 1,043 Comparison Views
82% willing to recommend
Splunk Enterprise Security
Read 350 Splunk Enterprise Security reviews
  • 24,756 Views
  • 12,873 Comparison Views
93% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Splunk Enterprise Security and SolarWinds Security Event Manager are two leading products in the security event and log management category. Splunk appears to have the upper hand in complex data queries and third-party integration capabilities.

Features: Splunk Enterprise Security is noted for comprehensive log management, adaptable schema-on-read technology, advanced query capabilities via SPL, and excellent integration across multiple environments. SolarWinds Security Event Manager offers ease of setup, timely alerts, and effective cross-platform integration, making it particularly useful for straightforward monitoring and management.

Room for Improvement: Splunk Enterprise Security could enhance its visualization and machine learning tools, streamline cloud integration support, and address its steep learning curve and pricing. SolarWinds Security Event Manager could benefit from better correlation capabilities, scalability improvements, and a more modern user interface, as well as additional out-of-the-box dashboards and business-level KPIs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk Enterprise Security offers flexible deployment options across various cloud setups but can be costly and challenging to learn, though it has a supportive online community. SolarWinds Security Event Manager is known for quick on-premises deployment, efficient customer support, and cost savings, albeit with fewer community resources and issues with complex architectures.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Enterprise Security is recognized for depth but comes with a high price tag based on data ingestion, which might be prohibitive for smaller businesses. SolarWinds Security Event Manager is more budget-friendly, with flexible licensing that offers a good return on investment, prioritizing usability and integration efficiency over advanced features.

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To learn more, read our detailed SolarWinds Security Event Manager vs. Splunk Enterprise Security Report (Updated: July 2025).
Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds Security Event Manager vs. Splunk Enterprise Security
July 2025
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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

SolarWinds Security Event M...
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
35th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Splunk Enterprise Security
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
350
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (2nd), IT Operations Analytics (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is 0.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Splunk Enterprise Security is 9.3%, down from 11.6% 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 (%)
Splunk Enterprise Security9.3%
SolarWinds Security Event Manager0.7%
Other90.0%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

Alex Kinyanjui - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable and scalable solution that provide 24/7 monitoring
We have to protect customer data, including any PII, accessed via the internet terminal. Additionally, we need to monitor events from network devices and servers that may raise suspicion, allowing us to analyze them and determine what is occurring. SolarWinds affected your overall security costs. Considering the nature of our traffic, it has been very effective. We have proactively identified and addressed issues before they escalate into incidents. I've noticed a reduced investment in handling event-related cases with SolarWinds Security Event Manager. This reduction includes reducing human resources and the time required for teams to provide 24/7 monitoring. Consequently, there has been a significant decrease in costs. Additionally, the platform enables us to address issues before they escalate into incidents, thus preventing revenue leakage. As a result, the organization experiences reduced costs and avoids revenue leakage. Since the SolarWinds Security Event Manager implementation, the total budget allocated to security has been reduced by close to five percent. Initially, there was a heavy investment in that aspect, but we have observed this reduction in the allocated budget for the security team. Since implementing SolarWinds Security Event Manager, the team members' pressure has been reduced. They can now concentrate on more critical tasks and development, promoting growth within their department rather than solely focusing on incident monitoring. I recommend the solution. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
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ROBERT-CHRISTIAN - PeerSpot reviewer
Has many predefined correlation rules and is brilliant for investigation and log analysis
It is very complicated to write your own correlation rules without the help of Splunk support. What Splunk could do better is to create an API to the standard SIEM tools, such as Microsoft Sentinel. The idea would be to make it less painful. In ELK Stack, Kibana is the query language with which you can search log files. I believe Splunk has also a query language in which they search their log files, but once you have identified the log file that you want to use for further security correlation, you want to very quickly transport that into your SIEM tool, such as Microsoft Sentinel. That is something that Splunk could make a little bit less painful because it is a lot of effort to find that log file and forward it. An API with Microsoft Sentinel or a similar SIEM tool would be a good idea.
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

"We did previously use a different solution, but SolarWinds is much better. It's easy to interact with SolarWinds. It's easy to operate, easy to configure and is generally easier compared to what we were working with before."
"The out of the box reports and dashboard. It was easy to trim down these windows to something we could quickly use."
"It supports high availability, which is very helpful."
"SolarWinds is effective for server, network, and log monitoring. It's also good for IP address management. We also have a patch manager, but we're still working on getting that operational."
"It's easy to build rules and actions based on the logs and event types we collect with the software."
"We had to integrate with other teams, and the infrastructure deployment didn't take long. The integration involves learning with different teams, networking, and configuring various network devices and servers. Infrastructure deployment only took one or two days."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is the analysis and the knowledge about the incidence that we trace."
"SolarWinds Security Event Manager has been generally working well."
More SolarWinds Security Event Manager pros
"We solve issues that we previously could not since we now have the data."
"The ability to view all of these different logs, then drilling down into specific times or into specific data sources, has proved to be the greatest aspect in decreasing our troubleshooting overhead time."
"The product has a good security posture."
"I really appreciate the all-integrated SIEM feature of Splunk Enterprise Security, which serves as a one-stop shop to get all security tasks done."
"The ability to ingest any data and display it in a way that anyone can understand."
"Splunk simplifies real-time problem identification and resolution by seamlessly integrating existing customer and vendor systems."
"Splunk has helped improve our company's resilience level."
"Capability to expand the functionality through custom code for data inputs, commands, visualization, alerts, and machine learning."
More Splunk Enterprise Security pros
 

Cons

"I would like to have a more customizable dashboard."
"One of the drawbacks of being so flexible is that it is also a fairly complicated software application to install, configure, and maintain."
"I think the customization area in the tool can be considered as an area of concern where improvements are required."
"There are no multiple dashboards which would allow you to see information side-by-side."
"We'd like more customization capabilities."
"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 won't tell you when your backups are failing, but it will give you hints when your database is running on full recovery."
"I would like to be able to dig deeper into the visibility of events or incidents to determine whether they are malicious, such as by doing behavior analysis."
More SolarWinds Security Event Manager cons
"Splunk is more expensive than other solutions."
"The on-premise integration with SOAR could be more simple; the cloud version integrates with SOAR very easily, but the on-premise SOAR and on-premise Splunk Enterprise Security are really not that easy, so I would appreciate if that could be improved."
"Splunk Enterprise Security should provide a better and richer integration."
"Splunk needs local technical support."
"The AWS add-on is particularly problematic, with most inputs requiring manual writing due to lack of out-of-box functionality."
"The implementation and the scanning of the logs can be difficult."
"We can only increase the environment. For instance, with an ES server, we cannot make a cluster of ES. If you have two servers and want to make a cluster of these two servers for ES, that is not possible."
"Splunk Enterprise Security offers a vast amount of information to learn and comprehend, resulting in a challenging initial learning curve."
More Splunk Enterprise Security cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is reasonable."
"The pricing model would benefit from having package deals with other SolarWinds products."
"It is in the appropriate mid-range. It is not as expensive as some of the other solutions. It is also not cheap."
"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 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."
"Licensing is on devices, so if you have many, then this may be high."
"Licenses can only be purchased in blocks of fifty at a time."
"Luckily, we come under a large federal agency, and before the pandemic, they signed a large enterprise license agreement. It worked out great and to our advantage because we are a small organization. We got a 300 gig license, and we just did not have the buying power to be able to get products cheaply. Because we all partnered together under the agency umbrella, we were able to get Splunk Enterprise Security, UBA, and ITSI for cheap. This was good considering the fact that some of these premium apps require a minimum number of users, and we do not have the number of people needed to even justify buying it."
"Unlike other security tools, Splunk provides a fixed amount of gigabytes per day, and we are required to pay for any additional usage beyond that limit, in addition to our monthly cost."
"I would highly recommend anyone evaluating this option to download the free trial which allows for the ingestion of 500MB of data per day in order to get a feel for what Splunk does at its core. It will get pricey once your ingestion rates start to sky rocket, but I would consider it expensive given the amount of information that it allows you to analyze and react on straight out-of-the-box."
"I believe there is room for improvement in reducing costs, particularly in the financial aspect, as Splunk tends to be pricier compared to other options."
"The licensing costs are high for Splunk Enterprise Security."
"Splunk Enterprise Security is not at all cost-friendly to be deployed in very small enterprises like start-ups."
"Splunk differs from other SIEM solutions by using a gigabyte-based pricing model, rather than the agent-based licenses common with its competitors."
"My experience with the solution's setup cost, pricing, and licensing was really good."
More Splunk Enterprise Security pricing and cost advice
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Comparison Review

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Feb 26, 2015
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We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Insurance Company
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business110
Midsize Enterprise48
Large Enterprise255
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?
The solution helps you monitor database instances, application instances, other customer application things, Linux servers, IBM servers, and Oracle servers.
See all answers
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.
See all answers
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?
I think the customization area in the tool can be considered as an area of concern where improvements are required In the future, I want to see the tool have better customization abilities with som...
See all answers
What SOC product do you recommend?
For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also, rememb...
See all answers
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 ...
See all answers
How does Splunk compare with Azure Monitor?
Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitoring information from different sources. Splunk is very good at alerting us if we...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Wazuh vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager Logo
Wazuh vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager
Compared 37% of the time
IBM Security QRadar vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager Logo
IBM Security QRadar vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager
Compared 14% of the time
ManageEngine Log360 vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager Logo
ManageEngine Log360 vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager
Compared 11% of the time
LogRhythm SIEM vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager Logo
LogRhythm SIEM vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager
Compared 10% of the time
Rapid7 InsightIDR vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager Logo
Rapid7 InsightIDR vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager
Compared 9% of the time
More SolarWinds Security Event Manager Competitors
IBM Security QRadar vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
IBM Security QRadar vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 8% of the time
Dynatrace vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
Dynatrace vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 7% of the time
Wazuh vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
Wazuh vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 6% of the time
Datadog vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
Datadog vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 5% of the time
Security Onion vs Splunk Enterprise Security Logo
Security Onion vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Compared 4% of the time
More Splunk Enterprise Security Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds Security Event Manager
August 2025
SolarWinds Security Event Manager reportDownload SolarWinds Security Event Manager product report
Buyer's Guide
Splunk Enterprise Security
August 2025
Splunk Enterprise Security reportDownload Splunk Enterprise Security product report
 

Also Known As

SolarWinds LEM, Solarwinds SIEM, TriGeo, Log and Event Manager
No data available
 

Overview

When TriGeo was acquired by SolarWinds, TriGeo SIM became known as SolarWinds Log & Event Manager. This product is a leading Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) product and log management solution, which provides log collection, analysis, and real-time correlation.

SolarWinds

Splunk Enterprise Security delivers powerful log management, rapid searches, and intuitive dashboards, enhancing real-time analytics and security measures. Its advanced machine learning and wide system compatibility streamline threat detection and incident response across diverse IT environments.

Splunk Enterprise Security stands out in security operations with robust features like comprehensive threat intelligence and seamless data integration. Its real-time analytics and customizable queries enable proactive threat analysis and efficient incident response. Integration with multiple third-party feeds allows detailed threat correlation and streamlined data visualization. Users find the intuitive UI and broad compatibility support efficient threat detection while reducing false positives. Despite its strengths, areas such as visualization capabilities and integration processes with cloud environments need enhancement. Users face a high learning curve, and improvements in automation, AI, documentation, and training are desired to maximize its potential.

What Are the Key Features of Splunk Enterprise Security?
  • Log Management: Efficiently manages and organizes a vast amount of logs for better data handling.
  • Rapid Data Search: Quickly retrieves relevant data for fast decision-making.
  • Flexible Dashboards: Customizable dashboards provide clear data visualization.
  • Comprehensive Threat Intelligence: Offers detailed insights to preemptively defend against threats.
  • Real-Time Analytics: Analyzes data in real-time to enhance response times.
  • Integration with Third-Party Feeds: Streamlines information flow from multiple sources.
What Benefits Should Users Investigate in Reviews?
  • Efficient Incident Response: Enhances the ability to respond promptly to threats.
  • False Positive Reduction: Minimizes incorrect threat alarms, making monitoring more efficient.
  • Threat Detection Speed: Accelerates the identification and evaluation of security threats.
  • Cost-Effectiveness: Potential savings through better licensing options and operational efficiency.
  • User Adaptability: Enhancements in documentation and training resources aid in overcoming the learning curve.

In specific industries like finance and healthcare, Splunk Enterprise Security is instrumental for log aggregation, SIEM functionalities, and compliance monitoring. Companies leverage its capabilities for proactive threat analysis and response, ensuring comprehensive security monitoring and integration with various tools for heightened operational intelligence.

Splunk
 

Sample Customers

NetSuite, EasyStreet, Legacy Texas Bank, and Energy Federal Credit Union, to name a few.
Splunk has more than 7,000 customers spread across over 90 countries. These customers include Telenor, UniCredit, ideeli, McKenney's, Tesco, and SurveyMonkey.
Buyer's Guide
SolarWinds Security Event Manager vs. Splunk Enterprise Security
July 2025
Free Report: SolarWinds Security Event Manager vs. Splunk Enterprise Security
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We monitor all Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.