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Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs ExtremeCloud IQ comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 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

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
14th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ExtremeCloud IQ
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
16th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Network Management Applications (12th), Network Access Control (NAC) (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is 3.0%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ExtremeCloud IQ is 1.3%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT3.0%
ExtremeCloud IQ1.3%
Other95.7%
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2772102 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Logging and customizable rules have helped improve threat monitoring and detection
The logging is mainly what I consider one of the best features with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT. Being able to log and store it in a file allows you to push it to a centralized repository. The logging and reporting help improve incident response. You should always be logging threats, any sort of misconfiguration, and anything that could be an issue. It's important to at least log and monitor it. The basic rules provide a good baseline in assessing Cisco Sourcefire SNORT's ability in providing real-time analytics for threat detection, but as a professional, you should look to constantly modify that baseline. They provide extensive customizability so you can define your own rules. The customizability allows it to be adaptable in protecting against diverse network threats to the constant change.
Wael Awni - PeerSpot reviewer
Management Board Member And Network Engineer at NewLogics
Unified licensing and AI-driven control have simplified multi-site management and boosted automation
There is a little bit of delay for the analytics in ExtremeCloud IQ, but it is acceptable. The response time in ExtremeCloud IQ is a little slow. The system response time is slow, and the updates on the system, such as the updates for the analytics or for the location-based services, are slow. For example, if I want to update the location-based solution, it takes about one minute to update my location. This is too much time. It's not an accurate location over one minute. They should enhance the response of the system part of location-based services, such as Extreme LPS or Extreme Location Essentials. This needs a huge improvement for the latency and for the updates.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The logging is mainly what I consider one of the best features with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT; being able to log and store it in a file allows you to push it to a centralized repository."
"Solid intrusion detection and prevention that scales easily in very large environments."
"The solution can be integrated with some network electors like Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco ISE, and Active Directory to provide the client with authentication certificates."
"There are a lot of features that I really appreciate with Firepower, which is why I advise most of my customers to go with Firepower."
"The most valuable feature is reliability, and this solution is better than Check Point."
"The most valuable feature is the visibility that we have across the virtual environment."
"The most valuable features of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT are the dashboard for monitoring events."
"Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is easy to configure and the reporting is great. It's also very user-friendly."
"The HiveManager integration with the VPN Gateway is awesome."
"When we deployed the new IP that is managed wirelessly in the cloud, it fixed the problems, and now we don't have any more reports and everything works fine."
"It gives us the ability to make guest connections to our wireless network easier."
"The feature that I like to most is unified management in a multitenant environment, where we can manage all our customers with thousands of devices (routers, switches, VPNs, and APs)."
"I'd encourage anyone to use Aerohive products, they've been trouble free, they're timely with upgrades (including new functionality)."
"ExtremeCloud IQ is a complete package with the pilot and the co-pilot feature that gives me full visibility of the network."
"The tech who handles Extreme IQ tells me it's easy to use and learn. He felt like it was pretty intuitive. It comes with solid training materials. He also has talked about the security features that give you as much or as little control as you want."
"This solution's most valuable feature is its short deployment time."
 

Cons

"The price of this solution could be improved."
"This is a good solution, but some others may have some advantages."
"With the next release, I would like to see some PBR, so that you can do the configuration with the features."
"While the alerts they offer are good, it could improve it in the sense that they should be more detailed to make the alerts more useful to us in general. Sometimes the solution will offer up false positives. Due to the fact that the alerts aren't detailed, we have to go dig around to see why is it being blocked. The solution would be infinitely better if there was just a bit more detail in the alert information and logging we receive."
"The initial setup is a little difficult compared to other products in the market. It depends on the environment. If we are doing any migration, it might take months in a brown-field environment."
"The customization of the rules can be simplified."
"The cloud can be improved."
"To be frank, the product is not really stable, although they're working on that. Whenever I go to the technical community with an issue, they will usually say that it is not there yet, but the technical team are working on it. The issues are not insolvable. I think they should just keep working on the product to make sure that the product can become very stable. The technical support is great. I appreciate that. We have a lot of communities supporting Firepower now, so you can find help for whatever issue you have."
"The only thing that I can think of would be for them to provide a standard out-of-the-box WiFi policy template that could work as temp default setup without having to build a functional network policy in the Hive Manager."
"It's not stable."
"I would love to see a more granular web filter."
"I know a school district, a big school district of mine, ripped out Extreme due to inefficiencies. It was the guest network that can be a struggle. They tried to differentiate between their primary network, and then offer a secondary."
"The reporting, while a great improvement, is limited, at least in my experience, to the preconfigured charts and templates for those charts."
"Integrating the network access control solution can be complex, as it essentially combines two separate products."
"The firewall inside the AP is a little limited in what it can do."
"Certain features only exist or work in certain versions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't know the exact amount, but most of the time when I go to a company with a proposition, they will say, "This thing that you are selling is good, but it's expensive. Why don't you propose something like FortiGate, Check Point, or Palo Alto?" Cisco device are expensive compared to other devices."
"We have a three-year license for this solution."
"Licensing for this solution is paid on a yearly basis."
"The cost is per port and can be expensive but it does include training and support for three years."
"If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five."
"It is costly as compared to Meraki, Aruba, Juniper, and Cisco. Cloud IQ is an enterprise solution, whereas Meraki is specifically a single solution."
"There are probably cheaper solutions but we invest for stability and performance for the longer haul."
"Although the pricing is a bit high, I consider Aerohive to be well worth the money."
"Extreme is twice as cheap compared to Cisco due to the currency exchange. Normally, I think Cisco would be a little bit more expensive, but there wouldn't be that much of a difference."
"The pricing is so cost-effective that it leaves no room for competition with other vendors."
"The product pricing is reasonable."
"Previously, ExtremeCloudIQ provided free licensing for all the basic requirements of their customers. An advanced cloud user had to purchase advanced licenses for automation and advanced country features at the enterprise level. They have restricted the licensing, allowing only up to ten units for testing, which is challenging. This limitation becomes problematic, especially in countries like Sri Lanka or other Asian countries, where customers face economic challenges and have limited budgets. The previous free option was beneficial, but it has become tougher to manage with these new changes. They should revise their pricing structure, offering the basic features free of charge for up to 50 AP. Larger entities with more than 50 APs have the budget to support them. Still, it becomes more difficult for small and medium-sized businesses with less than 50 APs to allocate a significant budget for control and management features."
"ExtremeCloud IQ's pricing is medium, but its support contract costs more."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
University
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five. There are some other tools in the market that are more expensive than Cisco. There are no additional c...
What needs improvement with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
I have not had much experience with the community-driven rule set while utilizing Cisco Sourcefire SNORT. I don't have experience with recognizing zero-day vulnerabilities, but based on my knowledg...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
Endpoint protection is the main use case. The main aspect involves specifying different rules, and when network traffic hits these rules, it will try to block the traffic or at least log the traffi...
What are pros and cons of Aruba 515 Series AP vs. Cisco Meraki or Extreme Networks?
Depends. I have personally used both Cisco and Aruba so I am familiar with them. Extreme I am not, so unless they have some feature that I need or want, I wouldn't consider them. Do you have expe...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExtremeCloud IQ?
The licensing was a challenge due to budget constraints, and I used ExtremeCloud IQ without a license for a period. The documentation and training courses were also costly, impacting how easily I c...
What advice do you have for others considering ExtremeCloud IQ?
I use ExtremeCloud IQ's real-time analytics. In the cloud solution, I get reports, and it works together with machine learning and artificial intelligence for those reports. This tool permits the c...
 

Also Known As

Sourcefire SNORT
Aerohive Networks, Aerohive HiveManager, HiveManager, ExtremeCloud , ExtremeSecurity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CareCore, City of Biel, Dimension Data, LightEdge, Lone Star College System, National Rugby League, Port Aventura, Smart City Networks, Telecom Italia, The Department of Education in Western Australia
Henry Ford Health System, Baltimore Ravens, Brandili, Federal University of Alagoas, CEDAE, Caxias do Sul, UNISC Concurrency, CenturyLink Field, Louisiana College, Cricket Tasmania Stadium, Moscow Internet Exchange
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. ExtremeCloud IQ and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.