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AlienVault OSSIM vs OpenText Enterprise Security Manager comparison

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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

AlienVault OSSIM
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
25th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
OpenText Enterprise Securit...
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
27th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of AlienVault OSSIM is 1.2%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is 1.6%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AlienVault OSSIM1.2%
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager1.6%
Other97.2%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of AlienVault OSSIM are case management, ease of configuration, and investigation."
"It has helped us remediate threats in the past by providing significant events that assisted in identifying suspicious activities, such as logins from multiple countries."
"The initial setup was straightforward. I didn't have any problems."
"You pay monthly for the solution. I think it's one of the best products. If you compare with other companies, like LogRhythm, etc., the top 8 or 10 CMs, I think Alien Vault has the best price-performance ratio."
"It is a perfectly nice and free tool for compliance testing, assessment, and some basic vulnerability."
"Technical support is excellent; they are very helpful and responsive."
"The most valuable features of AlienVault OSSIM are vulnerability assessment, network intrusion detection system, response to critical events, and awareness of the whole network."
"The tool's security detection is good. It helps us with login tracking and generating reports. We aim to identify potential issues, such as brute-force attacks on user accounts or server-level anomalies. For instance, if I receive a report indicating a server is at an abnormal level, I investigate and address the issue."
"ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is very cheap compared to other tools."
"The most valuable feature is the real-time alerts."
"Scalability and Adaptability; by Scalability, I mean the number of supported devices by ArcSight, and you can make changes to the current deployment if required or add a new region in the scope by adding components of ArcSight, and by Adaptability I mean once the analysts see what can be achieved by utilizing the various resources of ArcSight, it motivates them to come up with new ideas and how to implement them."
"The solution enables you to monitor logs and to analyze data, but you can also use additional add-ins such as reputation services that can integrate ArcSight ESM with tipping point IPS."
"ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) works perfectly. It's a stable and scalable product."
"For large scale installations with multiple users and (sub) companies, ArcSight is the best option."
"The web logger allows me to view and inquire about various events in real time and is the most useful feature for me because it lets me look at traffic in real time, add filters that remove traffic that is not interesting, narrow down my research to only important traffic, and create reports to evaluate my findings and send information to my customers."
"The tool sends an automated mail to all the operators, which makes it easy to share the information and reporting.​"
 

Cons

"AlienVault OSSIM’s configuration and integration could be a little easier."
"It's under heavy traffic. If you have heavy traffic, the system is slow."
"The user interface could be improved."
"They can add more compliance templates."
"I suggest more in-built rules based on modern threats and environments to make it a more competitive solution."
"ArcSight works better than AlienVault right now."
"The main area where the AlienVault product was lacking around the 2018 timeframe was in its ability to scale."
"AlienVault OSSIM could improve by having better integration with some of the newer tools."
"I have never deployed an ArcSight installation without encountering several issues, I have over 40 deployments to my credit."
"ArcSight's technical support hasn't been as good as it was in the past. I don't find it to be very good."
"The initial setup is very complex. We had to architect a deployment which allowed us to incorporate an ever growing number of customers into our hosted instance of ArcSight."
"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."
"Customer service during the transition from HPE to Micro Focus was abysmal where it became disruptive to our service delivery."
"The only concern is that AI needs to be integrated"
"They should try to include business logic vulnerabilities in the SIEM tool."
"But without continuous tuning of the developed content and improper usage of the product, you can encounter performance issues with ESM/Express, and sometimes hangs, which requires a services restart."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AlienVault OSSIM is expensive compared to its competitors."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"AlienVault OSSIM is an open-source solution."
"We are using the community version, which can be used for free."
"OSSIM is free."
"The solution is open source, so it's free to use."
"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 price of AlienVault OSSIM is too high sometimes for us to present to our customers. The price should be lower. We are on a three-year license to use the solution. We had to pay extra for the support."
"HPE ArcSight pricing might be more expensive than other SIEM solutions, but in my opinion it has powerful features and great flexibility in developing complex use cases."
"Price-wise, ArcSight ESM was a bit high compared to competitors, which factored into our decision to switch to Splunk. It couldn't cover all our business needs for what we wanted to implement."
"Thanks to Micro Focus's licensing model, as an MSSP, we are able to see a complete return on our investment almost immediately."
"The product licenses are inexpensive."
"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."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"The solution is super expensive. At our organization size and license model, I think the price is average to what anyone else would charge us."
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions are best for your needs.
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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
Comms Service Provider
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
7%
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise59
 

Questions from the Community

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 usage. Because it's a software as a service solution for their core product for 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 will use Palo Alto and its competitors, and LevelBlue will manage that implement...
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, AlienVault was initially aimed at small to medium businesses. It grew, and that was...
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...
 

Also Known As

OSSIM
Micro Focus ArcSight, HPE ArcSight, ArcSight
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Council Rock School District
Lake Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bank AlJazira, Banca Intesa, and Obrela.
Find out what your peers are saying about AlienVault OSSIM vs. OpenText Enterprise Security Manager and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.