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AlienVault OSSIM vs OpenText Enterprise Security Manager comparison

 

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)
24th
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)
23rd
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 June 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of AlienVault OSSIM is 1.2%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager1.6%
AlienVault OSSIM1.2%
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

"I have worked with LogRhythm in the past, since 2015, and I find that AlienVault is a better product."
"This solution is very stable; it runs on a Linux box, you only interface with it through the GUI, it works behind the scenes, and it has never crashed in the time that I have used it."
"What I like about this product, is that it is a fully-fledged solution."
"With AlienVault you get everything in one box."
"Technical support is excellent; they are very helpful and responsive."
"OSSIM is the only solution that includes the large number of modules that we need: a vulnerability scanner, a network IDS system, a host IDS system."
"The product is majorly used for threat detection of the agents on servers and endpoints."
"The solution is free to use."
"Having a SIEM solution in general improves the way an organization functions, especially in the SOC part."
"Its versatility when it comes to vendor support, the powerful ESM and logger tools, the Alert and Case Tracking mechanism, the Express all-in-one component for small businesses, the efficient NTP for blocking identified threats, and the ArcSight Flex Connector Development module for unsupported vendor products make this solution extremely capable."
"ArcSight is very scalable."
"Usability is the most valuable feature; the accessibility is quite good, and if a new person wants to be trained in this product, it's easy for them to be trained, as opposed to other products like Splunk or Sentinel."
"ArcSight is better than them all when it comes to filtering, normalization, aggregation, dashboards, reporting and correlation, multi-tenancy and custom devices support."
"The best feature of ArcSight is its flexibility, as almost no other vendor provides such a good framework to collect, parse, and analyze data, and I've found ArcSight's correlation engine to be the most advanced on the market."
"The reports that we are from getting from ArcSight are very valuable, the reporting in ArcSight is good, our regulators ask us for the reports on a regular basis, and we have been able to provide the required data."
"SmartConnector: Normalization parses raw logs and converts them into CEF (common event format). This is the core of the product."
 

Cons

"I suggest more in-built rules based on modern threats and environments to make it a more competitive solution."
"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."
"GUI could be improved."
"They can add more compliance templates."
"The solution needs more integration with cyber intelligence systems. Our customers want to use a single tool for managing cybersecurity."
"When comparing AlienVault OSSIM to other solutions it looks a bit outdated. Additionally, they need to improve their integration."
"Lacking in depth of reporting."
"The initial setup was a bit complex. You've got to do a lot of reading. It's not an intuitive implementation."
"Customer service during the transition from HPE to Micro Focus was abysmal where it became disruptive to our service delivery."
"I have never deployed an ArcSight installation without encountering several issues, I have over 40 deployments to my credit."
"Sometimes, it takes ages to get an issue resolved. I have ArcSight experience, so I normally try to fix things on my own or find a workaround, but it's tough to get support when I need it."
"I would like to have native cluster for connectors as a software version and not as an appliance. It also needs a better disaster recovery procedure."
"The security is difficult. I would like to have a feature that gives us an entire report listing what devices are integrated."
"When we need to consume old events, we have to wait for a long time. ArcSight should improve the database capability to reply to queries faster. It would also be interesting if they implemented network visibility. For example, they could add a feature like NetWitness with a model just for looking through the packets."
"The initial setup could be more straightforward."
"It's very expensive in its licensing model."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AlienVault OSSIM is expensive compared to its competitors."
"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."
"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."
"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 free."
"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."
"We are using the community version, which can be used for free."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"The pricing model is expensive compared to open-source alternatives."
"The licensing cost is affordable if you get an enterprise license. The licensing is based on EPS, so you can probably provide a package of license for multiple ESMs with their correlational end fees. It is cost-effective."
"Customers without a ton of resources to dedicate to deployment may be better served by a managed ArcSight service."
"The pricing is great compared to others."
"Thanks to Micro Focus's licensing model, as an MSSP, we are able to see a complete return on our investment almost immediately."
"We're paying a fee for an MSSP, and the cost of the total cost of ArcSight ESM was approximately three to four million dollars a year. The price was less than similar solutions. We did not have additional fees."
"ArcSight can be a little bit expensive because of the area that we work in and the cost. Licensing is mostly on a yearly basis, not monthly."
"There is a license required for this solution."
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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%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
11%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
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: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.