The pricing is good, and I have no problem with it. Although there is no flexibility to compete with other products, it generally costs between one hundred and three hundred thousand per year depending on the configuration and size of the installation.
It is a premium protection solution, and so is the price. The cost is justified by the value and protection it provides in the market of database activity monitoring.
RETAIL BANKING AND AML/KYC MANAGER at National Bank of Pakistan
Real User
Top 5
Jun 26, 2024
The price is high because Oracle and other peer products offer lower prices, gaining market share. IBM is the market leader, but they need to reconsider their pricing structure. There is a lot of potential in the public learning market. If IBM offers a more competitive price, it will be better positioned against its competitors. We are a large organization using IBM. Smaller organizations don't even think about taking IBM because it is an expensive solution. I rate the product's pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
Learn what your peers think about IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2026.
It's an expensive solution, and it's one of the reasons why some customers of our organization hesitate before adopting IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. The licensing model of the solutions has changed over the last three to four years, and the core model has shifted to RVU. The vendor should reconsider making the price more competitive for IBM Security Guardium Data Protection.
The solution has a reasonable and competitive price. FortiDB is cheaper, but it doesn't provide full functionality. You can get cheaper products if you want a product to cover the audit point and don't care about the functionality. If you need a functional solution to help you, you should consider Guardium.
The solution's pricing was higher before it was acquired. The policy should be for smaller customers to have SMB pricing and for bigger customers to have bigger pricing. On a scale from one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is very high price, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten.
VP - Head Enterprise Technology Infrastructure at MCB Islamic Bank Ltd.
Real User
Feb 19, 2023
It is a very costly product. I mark it a four or five out of ten because it's ridiculous sometimes. For instance, if you would like to add a few instances, the IBM team will tell you that you need to acquire a certain amount of DB licenses to integrate such instances into your existing portfolio. So it is quite a hefty amount.
Internet Security Specialist at National Bank of Pakistan
Real User
Aug 11, 2022
My company purchased IBM Guardium Data Protection in a package, so I'm unable to give its exact licensing cost, but for the package of three IBM solutions, it wasn't very expensive. I'd rate the pricing for all three solutions three out of five. When my team deployed IBM Guardium Data Protection, all features were included.
Chief Information Security Officer at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 5
May 6, 2022
Licensing costs are higher than other solutions on the market. It's part of our concern and one of the reasons we are discontinuing the use of this solution.
The cost depends on the number of databases. You can purchase advanced licenses, but the standard license is calculated based on the number of databases you have to onboard.
Guardium is most suitable for large scale enterprises because the pricing model is better if you are implementing a large number of databases. It may be suited to medium enterprises, but to a lesser extent. It depends on customer requirements, but it's best suited to large companies because of affordability.
Junior Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Sep 15, 2021
We are working with the trial version. Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis. I don't have all of the information regarding the pricing, but my understanding is that it is on the high side.
For IBM Guardium, licensing is very simple and straightforward. There are no issues I can speak of. Regarding the pricing, Guardium's price is always better compared to competitors like Oracle. It's not expensive compared to what the leading competitors are providing and on top of that, the integration options with IBM are also better for the price you pay.
Chief Information Security Officer at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 5
Jul 28, 2020
I'm not sure of the exact cost of the solution, however, I believe the features have separate costs. We have a data protection license and on top of that, we need to buy however many databases we need to monitor everything effectively.
Trusted Security Advisor at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Jun 4, 2019
In the past, the pricing of IBM Guardium was very complex. It was dependent on the number of CPUs and other things to support the servers. Nowadays, things have changed. Pricing is dependent on the number of databases and the number of servers. The licensing fees are paid yearly. One of the deployments that I know of had three databases, and the yearly fees are approximately $50,000 USD. There are some additional add-ons that are available, but I do not see many people taking them. There is encryption, and there is a Guardium Inspection license, but I am not sure of the costs.
IBM Security Guardium Data Protection offers automatic discovery and classification of sensitive data, real-time monitoring, and advanced analytics to identify unusual activities around data.IBM Security Guardium Data Protection is designed to safeguard sensitive data across enterprises with real-time activity monitoring and comprehensive security features. Its capabilities include data discovery, classification, and compliance automation with pre-built templates for regulations like PCI,...
I don't remember the exact prices, but Guardium is an expensive tool because it is targeted towards corporate enterprises.
The pricing is good, and I have no problem with it. Although there is no flexibility to compete with other products, it generally costs between one hundred and three hundred thousand per year depending on the configuration and size of the installation.
I can't provide details on the pricing because I don't deal with the billing. We have a big package with QRadar, Guardium, and other tools.
The pricing of Guardium is similar to Imperva and includes licensing costs. Overall, it is considered reasonably priced for its capabilities.
It is a premium protection solution, and so is the price. The cost is justified by the value and protection it provides in the market of database activity monitoring.
The price is high because Oracle and other peer products offer lower prices, gaining market share. IBM is the market leader, but they need to reconsider their pricing structure. There is a lot of potential in the public learning market. If IBM offers a more competitive price, it will be better positioned against its competitors. We are a large organization using IBM. Smaller organizations don't even think about taking IBM because it is an expensive solution. I rate the product's pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
It's an expensive solution, and it's one of the reasons why some customers of our organization hesitate before adopting IBM Security Guardium Data Protection. The licensing model of the solutions has changed over the last three to four years, and the core model has shifted to RVU. The vendor should reconsider making the price more competitive for IBM Security Guardium Data Protection.
IBM solutions have fair price strategy, and operates on a yearly basis. If it's a SaaS solution, then you can opt for yearly basis.
The product's pricing is reasonable and affordable. It is in the moderate range.
The solution has a reasonable and competitive price. FortiDB is cheaper, but it doesn't provide full functionality. You can get cheaper products if you want a product to cover the audit point and don't care about the functionality. If you need a functional solution to help you, you should consider Guardium.
The solution's pricing was higher before it was acquired. The policy should be for smaller customers to have SMB pricing and for bigger customers to have bigger pricing. On a scale from one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is very high price, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten.
It is a very costly product. I mark it a four or five out of ten because it's ridiculous sometimes. For instance, if you would like to add a few instances, the IBM team will tell you that you need to acquire a certain amount of DB licenses to integrate such instances into your existing portfolio. So it is quite a hefty amount.
The price is good for the quality of the solution.
There are various licensing models.
My company purchased IBM Guardium Data Protection in a package, so I'm unable to give its exact licensing cost, but for the package of three IBM solutions, it wasn't very expensive. I'd rate the pricing for all three solutions three out of five. When my team deployed IBM Guardium Data Protection, all features were included.
We pay for a yearly license, and the price is reasonable.
Guardium's pricing is quite high, but it gives good value for money for all sizes of enterprises, especially for partners.
Licensing costs are higher than other solutions on the market. It's part of our concern and one of the reasons we are discontinuing the use of this solution.
The cost depends on the number of databases. You can purchase advanced licenses, but the standard license is calculated based on the number of databases you have to onboard.
The cost of this product is reasonable but could be lowered to a more competitive level.
We pay yearly.
Guardium is most suitable for large scale enterprises because the pricing model is better if you are implementing a large number of databases. It may be suited to medium enterprises, but to a lesser extent. It depends on customer requirements, but it's best suited to large companies because of affordability.
The price of the solution could be better.
It's an enterprise license.
We are working with the trial version. Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis. I don't have all of the information regarding the pricing, but my understanding is that it is on the high side.
For IBM Guardium, licensing is very simple and straightforward. There are no issues I can speak of. Regarding the pricing, Guardium's price is always better compared to competitors like Oracle. It's not expensive compared to what the leading competitors are providing and on top of that, the integration options with IBM are also better for the price you pay.
Its cost is good. With the new metric of licensing, such as PDO not being available now, customers are expecting a good price for the solution.
I'm not sure of the exact cost of the solution, however, I believe the features have separate costs. We have a data protection license and on top of that, we need to buy however many databases we need to monitor everything effectively.
In the past, the pricing of IBM Guardium was very complex. It was dependent on the number of CPUs and other things to support the servers. Nowadays, things have changed. Pricing is dependent on the number of databases and the number of servers. The licensing fees are paid yearly. One of the deployments that I know of had three databases, and the yearly fees are approximately $50,000 USD. There are some additional add-ons that are available, but I do not see many people taking them. There is encryption, and there is a Guardium Inspection license, but I am not sure of the costs.