Elastic Security vs Security Onion comparison

Elastic and Security Onion Solutions, LLC are both solutions in the Log Management category. Elastic is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5, while Security Onion Solutions, LLC is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.0. Elastic holds a 2.9% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Security Onion Solutions, LLC’s 3.4% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of Elastic users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of Security Onion Solutions, LLC users who would recommend it.

Elastic Security

Read 66 Elastic Security reviews

11,426 Views
5,484 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Security Onion

Read 3 Security Onion reviews

8,067 Views
6,776 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

Elastic Security

Security Onion

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Elastic Security and Security Onion are competitive solutions in the network security monitoring category. Elastic Security holds the upper hand with flexible pricing and robust support, while Security Onion offers superior features that justify its cost according to user reviews.

Features: Elastic Security is recognized for its integration capabilities, comprehensive threat detection, and flexible pricing. Security Onion is valued for its open-source flexibility, community-driven enhancements, and extensive customization potential.

Room for Improvement: Elastic Security could enhance its configuration process and alerting mechanisms while improving visualization tools could benefit Security Onion. Users also suggest reducing setup complexity for Security Onion and enhancing Elastic Security usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Elastic Security offers a smoother deployment experience with quicker setup, while Security Onion requires more technical expertise. Security Onion has strong community support, but Elastic Security users report higher satisfaction with customer service effectiveness.

Pricing and ROI: Elastic Security's pricing is competitive, appealing to broader budgets, while Security Onion provides better long-term value through its comprehensive feature set despite initial costs. Elastic Security's pricing model is more accessible, but Security Onion delivers high ROI with its extensive capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Elastic Security vs. Security Onion Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Security vs. Security Onion

December 2025

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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

Elastic Security

Ranking in Log Management

9th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (5th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (14th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (8th)

Security Onion

Ranking in Log Management

22nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Elastic Security is 2.9%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Security Onion is 3.4%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Elastic Security	2.9%
Security Onion	3.4%
Other	93.7%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Laurentiu Popescu

Chief Product Officer at ClusterPower

Has improved threat detection with deep log analysis and streamlined investigation workflows

The most useful features I find in Elastic Security are the forensic ones that allow us to carry deeper analysis into the logs for in-depth investigations, and the dashboards, with the reporting dashboard being quite user-friendly. Elastic Security is quite good at identifying threats, as it is part of the deep investigation tool that I mentioned before. Unless we need to look further into a certain log, we can carry out a deeper analysis and forensics on those particular logs. I can assess the impact of Elastic Security's real-time data analysis on our threat response efficiency as working pretty good. We are looking for real-time analysis because we have a continuous inflow of logs from different sources: from our cloud, from Active Directory, from our network. So it works pretty well.

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Anish Bajracharya

Postgraduate at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees

Provides good threat hunting by finding infected ports, but its initial setup is difficult

The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports. I have used the Squert tool within Security Onion the most for threat hunting The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult. I have been using Security Onion for one year.…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Elastic is straightforward, easy to integrate, and highly customizable."

"I can look at events from more than one source across multiple different locations and find patterns or anomalies. The machine learning capabilities are helpful, and I can create rules for notifications to be more proactive rather than responding after something has gone wrong."

"The solution is compatible with the cloud-native environment and they can adapt to it faster."

"It is the best open-source product for people working in SO, managing and analyzing logs."

"It's open-source and free to use."

"Elastic provides the capability to index quickly due to the reverse indexes it offers. This data is crucial as it contains critical information. The reverse index allows fast data indexing because of Elastic's efficient search engine."

"Its flexibility is most valuable. We can have a number of scenarios, and we can get logs from anything. If we know how to use Logstash, we can tweak it in many ways. This makes the logging search on Elastic very easy."

"The performance is good and it is faster than IBM QRadar."

More Elastic Security pros

"Security Onion is the most mature solution in the market."

"The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports."

"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."

Cons

"I do not have any specific recommendations for improvements in Elastic Security, but I feel that the AI module should get more mature."

"The solution should generate an automatic product that integrates with ELK Stack to use artificial intelligence."

"The interface could be more user friendly because it is sometimes hard to deal with."

"The process of designing dashboards is a little cumbersome in Kibana. Unless you are an expert, you will not be able to use it. The process should be pretty straightforward. The authentication feature is what we are looking for. We would love to have a central authentication system in the open-source edition without the need for a license or an enterprise license. If they can give at least a simple authentication system within a company. In a large organization, authentication is very essential for security because logs can contain a lot of confidential data. Therefore, an authentication feature for who accesses it should be there."

"It could use maybe a little more on the Linux side."

"Its documentation should be a bit better. I have to spend at least a couple of hours to find the solution for a simple thing. When we buy Elastic, training is not included for free with Elastic. We have to pay extra for the training. They should include training in the price."

"We are paying dearly for the guy who is working on the ELK Stack. That knowledge is quite rare and hard to come by. For difficulty and availability of resources, I would rate it a five out of 10."

"This solution is very hard to implement."

More Elastic Security cons

"The product is not easy to learn."

"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."

"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The base product is open-source but if you need advanced security features then you need to pay for the subscription. Elastic Security's price is reasonable in some cases and in other cases it's not."

"It is easy to deploy, easy to use, and you get everything you need to become operational with it, and have nothing further to pay unless you want the OLED plugin."

"There is no charge for using the open-source version."

"This is an open-source product, so there are no costs."

"Compared to other tools, Elastic Security is a cheaper solution."

"Elastic Security is free to use."

"Affordable but with additional costs"

"We use the open-source version, so there is no charge for this solution."

More Elastic Security pricing and cost advice

"Security Onion is a free solution."

"Security Onion is an open-source solution."

"It is an open-source solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

University

12%

Government

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	40
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	15

No data available

Questions from the Community

Datadog vs ELK: which one is good in terms of performance, cost and efficiency?

With Datadog, we have near-live visibility across our entire platform. We have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately using the dashboards we have created with Datadog; they are very good c...

See all answers

What do you like most about Elastic Security?

Elastic provides the capability to index quickly due to the reverse indexes it offers. This data is crucial as it contains critical information. The reverse index allows fast data indexing because ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Security?

I am satisfied with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing cost. It is a pure 10.

See all answers

What do you like most about Security Onion?

The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Security Onion?

Security Onion is an open-source solution. On a scale from one to ten, where ten is expensive and one is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Security Onion?

The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult.

See all answers

Comparisons

Wazuh vs Elastic Security

Compared 10% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Elastic Security

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Security QRadar vs Elastic Security

Compared 6% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Elastic Security

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Elastic Security

Compared 4% of the time

More Elastic Security Competitors

Wazuh vs Security Onion

Compared 43% of the time

Elastic Stack vs Security Onion

Compared 12% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Security Onion

Compared 10% of the time

Graylog Enterprise vs Security Onion

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Purview Audit vs Security Onion

Compared 1% of the time

More Security Onion Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Security

January 2026

Download Elastic Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Log Management

January 2026

Download Security Onion product report

Also Known As

Elastic SIEM, ELK Logstash

No data available

Overview

Elastic Security is a robust, open-source security solution designed to offer integrated threat prevention, detection, and response capabilities across an organization's entire digital estate. Part of the Elastic Stack (which includes Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana), Elastic Security leverages the power of search, analytics, and data aggregation to provide real-time insight into threats and vulnerabilities. It is a comprehensive platform that supports a wide range of security needs, from endpoint protection to cloud and network security, making it a versatile choice for organizations looking to enhance their cybersecurity posture.

Elastic Security combines the features of a security information and event management (SIEM) system with endpoint protection, allowing organizations to detect, investigate, and respond to threats in real time. This unified approach helps reduce complexity and improve the efficiency of security operations.

Additional offerings and benefits:

The platform utilizes advanced analytics, machine learning algorithms, and anomaly detection to identify threats and suspicious activities.
It offers extensive integration options with other tools and platforms, facilitating a more cohesive and comprehensive security ecosystem.
With Kibana, users gain access to powerful visualization tools and dashboards that provide real-time insight into security data.

Finally, Elastic Security benefits from a global community of users who contribute to its threat intelligence, helping to enhance its detection capabilities. This collaborative approach ensures that the solution remains on the cutting edge of cybersecurity, with up-to-date information on the latest threats and vulnerabilities.

Elastic

Security Onion is an open-source Linux distribution for intrusion detection, network security monitoring, and log management. It offers comprehensive solutions for enterprises seeking to enhance their cybersecurity infrastructure.

Security Onion provides a full suite of tools to detect and respond to cybersecurity threats efficiently. As a robust and versatile distribution, it includes capabilities for real-time analysis, network visibility, and threat detection, making it indispensable for security operations centers. Users value this tool for its integration of open-source software with advanced analytics, affording professionals a detailed overview of network traffic and potential intrusions.

What are Security Onion’s most important features?

Intrusion Detection: Utilizes Suricata or Zeek for effective threat monitoring.
Network Security Monitoring: Offers powerful visualization tools for network analysis.
Log Management: Centralizes log collection and analysis.
Comprehensive Dashboards: Provides integrated dashboards for threat visibility.

What benefits or ROI should you look for in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Reduced cybersecurity costs due to its open-source nature.
Improved Threat Detection: Enhanced ability to identify and respond to threats quickly.
Integration Capability: Seamless integration with existing security infrastructures.
Scalability: Support for scaling network security operations as needed.

Security Onion finds extensive application in industries such as finance, healthcare, and government sectors, where robust network monitoring is critical. Its ability to integrate with existing security tools makes it a preferred choice for organizations looking to strengthen their cybersecurity posture.

Security Onion Solutions, LLC

Sample Customers

Texas A&M, U.S. Air Force, NuScale Power, Martin's Point Health Care

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Elastic Security vs. Security Onion

December 2025

Free Report: Elastic Security vs. Security Onion

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