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AlienVault OSSIM vs Cynet comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

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

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
122
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (4th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (3rd), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
AlienVault OSSIM
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (24th)
Cynet
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (19th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (19th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (8th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (18th), Threat Deception Platforms (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (10th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (11th), Ransomware Protection (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration
Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.
BP
Independent Contractor at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
Enables cost-effective security management for small businesses
Scaling for USM is always challenging for any product unless it is purpose-built or overbuilt at the front end. They will use Palo Alto and its competitors, and LevelBlue will manage that implementation. The main area where the AlienVault product was lacking around the 2018 timeframe was in its ability to scale. By pushing it to a cloud-based system, they've largely alleviated scale issues. It's native in Amazon but will also run in Azure. They have worked with cloud service providers to offer enough throughput at a cost reasonable for a corporation. Scaling was their biggest problem, and they've largely conquered those issues.
Vishal Salve - PeerSpot reviewer
manager at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Automation has transformed threat detection and incident response and improves team efficiency
Cynet can be improved by enhancing third-party integrations, improving reporting and dashboard customization, and providing more advanced AI-driven analytics. Customization for automated response workflows would also help organizations tailor the platform to their specific security needs. There is room for improvement in reporting customization, third-party integration, and advanced analytics. I had to spend additional time tuning the alerts during the initial deployment to reduce false positives and align the detection with our environment, but these were minor challenges, and the platform has performed well for our specific needs. Regarding Cynet's AI capabilities, its governance and security capabilities are effective, but greater transparency into AI decision-making and additional customization options would further enhance confidence and control. There is still room for improvement in predictive analytics and better transparency into how certain detections are generated.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cortex XDR features advanced threat detection capabilities."
"Cortex is the best solution for avoiding security breaches, malware attacks, and other kinds of security issues."
"Palo Alto is constantly adding new features."
"What I like about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is that it is a comprehensive solution that contains everything the organization may need when using endpoints."
"Has great threat detection capabilities."
"The correlation with the firewall and the creation of policies by areas have facilitated security management in my company by allowing me to create more fine-tuned policies that take into account multiple aspects of the operation, multiple effects, multiple sources, and multiple destinations."
"The tool is designed to scale for large enterprises and handle large volumes of data."
"If you are looking to deploy a security solution as a whole, this is a good option."
"The product is easy to use."
"The most valuable features of AlienVault OSSIM are vulnerability assessment, network intrusion detection system, response to critical events, and awareness of the whole network."
"Its user-friendliness is the most valuable. It is very easy to use and explore. The dashboard is very well packaged and integrated. You don't have to spend a lot of time in configuring it and checking out the RPM etc. It is also free and very powerful."
"The most valuable feature is the logging capability."
"The solution is very stable, and compared to QRadar and Splunk, it's very stable."
"AlienVault OSSIM's GUI is very user-friendly."
"The solution has a very good open source community, and whenever we have problems, we are always able to resolve it online."
"Asset discovery is good."
"This solution requires less management and is very easy to use."
"It is quite stable. I would rate the stability of the solution a nine out of ten."
"The level of automation is very good because the majority of the time, it blocks the attacks without requiring anything from our side. The technicians don't have to do anything. They are just alerted about what happened. So, the user intelligence works quite well."
"Advanced detection and protection against ransomware paired with SOC monitoring are the most valuable features. They have 24/7 SOC monitoring and file activity. It is a very robust tool."
"For overall satisfaction, I rate Cynet between nine to ten out of ten, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to other users."
"They really have a solid product that will save companies a lot of money in licensing costs if they give them a try."
"Cynet has an excellent solution from a technical standpoint, but they also have a great support system that extends to the attack itself."
"Cynet has AI integration which showcases complete forensic data about threats, making it very easy to understand what happened with the system and what type of incident was detected."
 

Cons

"The technical support is not very good. I find the process difficult."
"I would like to see improvement in the tool's user interface, particularly in the area of managing alerts and providing more reporting capabilities."
"Data privacy is a matter of concern. You have to be careful with data privacy, it can be sensitive and Cortex can have most of your access."
"The product's pricing could be better."
"If he is using a smaller company, he can depend on some other tools because Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is a bit expensive."
"The solution needs better reports. I think they should let the customer go in and customize the reports."
"The solution should add unwanted malicious hash values to a block list so that whenever the action is triggered, it will automatically prevent the malicious content."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is a strong tool, but it is true that digesting information sometimes makes the tool go a little bit slower."
"The correlation engine needs to be improved."
"ArcSight works better than AlienVault right now."
"AlienVault OSSIM could improve by having better integration with some of the newer tools."
"AlienVault OSSIM on-premise version is more difficult to implement than the cloud version. Additionally, they should add integration between several different environments at once and improve their online knowledge base."
"They can add more compliance templates."
"AlienVault OSSIM is costly."
"I would like the solution to be able to integrate with my firewall, my IDS and my Honeypot solutions so that it can provide real-time reporting as things occur and then have alert sent to me on my phone when suspicious activity is happening."
"There needs to be more support or some kind of training program so users can self-learn the system more effectively."
"Their deployment needs some work, especially with integration with remote monitoring management systems like Datto AutoTask or ConnectWise Automate."
"Having a DLP feature would add value"
"The reporting is a little weak and could be improved. The other downside is that Cynet does not use the local time zone. It's based off of Greenwich Mean Time."
"The solution just needs to keep maturing and they need to keep up with the threat landscape to ensure they're protecting clients well as time passes."
"Sometimes, it is necessary for me to make important changes to a hard drive of a computer, and because Cynet does not allow me to do that, I have to go to the console and remove the computer from the security group just for Cynet. After that, I have to wait for 10 or 15 minutes for that to take effect. I would like to be able to disable Cynet locally. I shouldn’t have to go to the console to find the PC and then take it out of the group and then add it again to the group. I should locally be able to disable Cynet on a computer with a password or something like that, but it is currently not possible."
"There have to be more integrations with other firewalls and domain controllers of the network."
"I'd like to see more data loss prevention within the product."
"Their support for issues related to the portal or feature problems isn't great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our customers have expressed that the price is high."
"The cost of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is $55 to $90 USD per endpoint per month."
"I don't like that they have different types of licenses."
"This is an expensive solution."
"It's about $55 per license on a yearly basis."
"The pricing is a little bit on the expensive side."
"The pricing seems fair, and I do like the licensing model. You use wherever they are, and it is elastic."
"It's the most expensive solution, but features-wise, it's quite strong. It's very good for protection, so the results are very good in the case of protection. I would rate it a two out of ten in terms of pricing."
"When comparing AlienVault OSSIM to Microsoft Sentinel, AlienVault OSSIM incurs additional costs due to its licensing price structure. If you are using AlienVault for security purposes at a certain level it can have a higher price point than the current pricing of Microsoft Sentinel."
"The solution is open source, so it's free to use."
"I used the paid version of the tool and found it to be expensive. It has been a while since I changed to Securonix. I will have to check whether AlienVault charges per device, user, or log."
"AlienVault OSSIM is expensive compared to its competitors."
"OSSIM is free."
"The licensing fees for the non-community edition are paid on an annual basis, and there are no costs in addition to this."
"OSSIM is open source, and USM is the paid license. So, if you want, you can switch to USM. There you will have to buy a license, and they have a support team that helps you out on issues you face."
"AlienVault pricing is the best. Whatever cost you are paying, you are getting a return on every penny... It's not like your IBM, your QRadar, or Splunk, where the cost is too high."
"Cynet is very affordable."
"Cynet is cheap."
"There is an extra cost if you want the support of Cynet."
"It costs 18,000 per year, but we have the whole package with not only Cynet but also the Perception Point for emails. There are also some small security courses for our users."
"It gives you a high level of protection at a very good price."
"This solution is expensive. I would rate the price as a three out of five when compared to similar products."
"The price is very competitive."
"My company's customers have to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs of the solution. Cynet is not expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business50
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise57
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. ...
Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions th...
How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface,...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AlienVault OSSIM?
It depends. I would need to review their cost models, but generally, they are on a scaled basis based on throughput u...
What needs improvement with AlienVault OSSIM?
Scaling for USM is always challenging for any product unless it is purpose-built or overbuilt at the front end. They ...
What is your primary use case for AlienVault OSSIM?
This solution is very similar to most of the other MSSPs that you would find out there. When I look at use cases, Ali...
When evaluating User Activity Monitoring, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
The support team that stands behind the detection and response. Is there adequate expertise and are they behind you ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cynet?
Cynet is not very costly. We can refer it to other customers because Cynet does not ask for additional costs for add-...
What needs improvement with Cynet?
Cynet can be improved by enhancing third-party integrations, improving reporting and dashboard customization, and pro...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
OSSIM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Council Rock School District
Meuhedet, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center
Find out what your peers are saying about AlienVault OSSIM vs. Cynet and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.