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AlienVault OSSIM vs OpenText Enterprise Security Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 28, 2025

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)
12th
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)
26th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of AlienVault OSSIM is 1.6%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is 1.5%, 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 (%)
AlienVault OSSIM1.6%
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager1.5%
Other96.9%
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.
DayaramGoyal - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President, Technology at Cache Digitech Pvt Ltd.
Integration shines but threat detection and technical support need attention
Regarding threat detection capabilities, I think OpenText Enterprise Security Manager covers the MITRE ATT&CK framework at an average level, and on a scale of one to ten, I would rate it only five. They have to improve in those areas in terms of threat detection capabilities. For ArcSight, they need to give the complete package, with UBA being part of that. They have added it, but I question what capabilities are there, especially on the SOAR side where they have to improve because the SIEM was very strong. For the SOAR side, because SIEM was very strong when they were earlier launched, but for SOAR, they were integrating with third-party solutions initially, and then they built the capability. They have acquired some company, but it is not up to that potential. They slowly and gradually lost that ground to Splunk, QRadar, and other companies, so when anybody talks about the full capabilities, they are not thinking about Micro Focus as of now. I would desire additional features in OpenText Enterprise Security Manager, especially on the SOAR side, and maybe on the UBA side, as threats intel and all, which are part of bundled solutions. Those are the areas they have to improve so that customers can trust and enhance those things, and maybe the customers will feel they should go for this product. As of now, if we are evaluating our own scenario, we are not even thinking about it. Earlier, that was not the scenario when they were selling this SIEM solution in the market; everybody was thinking OpenText was the default option, but now, if you're looking for a complete solution stack, nobody is even considering it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The threat policies of the solution are always very advanced and the best in the market. They are very persistent in terms of keeping up with security protocols."
"The threat alerts it gives me from time to time on harmful code within the network, or if they are generating any network traffic, are very useful."
"There are a lot of people you will find using OSSIM since they are also offering OTX as a service"
"The open vault component and the checking of vulnerabilities are the most valuable features. The page management helps with this. If you know how your device is vulnerable at least you can do something about it."
"Inbuilt IDS, inbuilt integration with threat intelligence platform and with vulnerability assessment modules."
"The product is majorly used for threat detection of the agents on servers and endpoints."
"You can customize the dashboards as well as the reporting."
"With AlienVault you get everything in one box."
"The filters and the ability to do what you want are the most valuable features. There is nothing that you cannot do in this solution. It has all the features, which makes it very dynamic."
"The most valuable feature is the correlation of different logs that are collected."
"Some of the benefits of using this solution are rapid correlation and near-time response on alerts."
"The stability of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager is good."
"It greatly changed our work habits in the organization allowing us to not only trace back security threats, but also to generate usage trends, discover anomalies and so many other usages."
"It is easy to use when we created some dashboards for analytics."
"If you're looking for a single product that will let you aggregate, correlate and analyze many different sources in a single place, then there are few competitors that can come close to ArcSight's features."
"Stable solution with good customer service support."
 

Cons

"The main area where the AlienVault product was lacking around the 2018 timeframe was in its ability to scale."
"AlienVault OSSIM failed to provide our company a full insight, while also giving out a lot of false positives."
"There needs to be more support or some kind of training program so users can self-learn the system more effectively."
"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."
"It's under heavy traffic. If you have heavy traffic, the system is slow."
"The incidence reporting could be better."
"AlienVault OSSIM could improve by having better integration with some of the newer tools."
"The user interface could be improved."
"The UI interface is somewhat complex and needs to be simplified."
"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."
"ArcSight ESM's UI is a little cumbersome and complex, especially for first-time and occasional users using the console manager."
"Initial deployment of ArcSight is pretty challenging. It takes at least 3-4 months to install, integrate, define content and fine tune before starting the security operation."
"Best SIEM product but it's high on pricing and licensing."
"The stability of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is not very robust."
"The analytics feature is not reliable and needs improvement for more detailed analysis.​"
"The security area has room for improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"We are using the community version, which can be used for free."
"AlienVault OSSIM is an open-source solution."
"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."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"We are using a free version of the solution. If you purchase a license there are more features available but the price is a little high. The solution should be cheaper to allow more customers to be able to afford it."
"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."
"Thanks to Micro Focus's licensing model, as an MSSP, we are able to see a complete return on our investment almost immediately."
"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."
"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."
"The product licenses are inexpensive."
"ArcSight is pretty expensive compared with its competitors. I believe that is fine as it provides value."
"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."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"​It is best to be an institutional buyer and directly contact the sales team, as they can provide over-the-top discounts for bulk orders.​"
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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
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
University
8%
Marketing Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Performing Arts
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 Enterprise57
 

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...
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 do you like most about ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
We utilize ArcSight ESM for real-time threat detection in our organization. We have custom rules that we've developed on top of the WAN services, along with scheduled licensing activities.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is very cheap compared to other tools. It is worth the investment if you are considering the cost.
 

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: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.