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Fortinet FortiAnalyzer vs Security Onion comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 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

Fortinet FortiAnalyzer
Ranking in Log Management
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Security Onion
Ranking in Log Management
29th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is 1.5%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Security Onion is 2.3%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiAnalyzer1.5%
Security Onion2.3%
Other96.2%
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

AP
Engineer at Kahramaa
Management becomes centralized with effective logging
The features that are most effective for me in Fortinet FortiAnalyzer are easy to manage. Fortinet FortiManager is also a great product to manage multi-site management options and other tools. The capability of logging in Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is great because there is no need to go to each individual box to check the traffic details. We can collect everything in Analyzer and check from a single console.
Jörg Kippe - PeerSpot reviewer
Scientist at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
A mature and affordable solution that is easy to install and easy to update
The product takes time to learn, it's not that easy. In the beginning we had a lot of questions. If you want to use such a tool in an real (industrial) environment, you have to ask how to get the network data. Can we do a full packet capture? Can we provide agents to our end systems? There are no simple solutions to these questions. It's a general problem when running such systems in an industrial environment.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The features that our customers have found most valuable are their different type of reports including the drill down report, as well as the flexibility to connect to any number of appliances which can be connected to it centrally."
"FortiAnalyzer provides a very suitable solution for FortiGate firewall since they come from the same vendor, so the integration is very strong."
"Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is easy; for customers with basic knowledge and for those who do not have a technical background, Fortinet is quite good and it should be the first choice."
"The traffic log information we receive from Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is valuable."
"We use this functionality every day, and obtain reports on things like how many people are using the VPN, which websites are being accessed, and whether hackers are trying to penetrate into our network."
"The product can scale."
"The IBS (Intent Based Segmentation) and application web filtering are the most valuable aspects of the solution."
"Logging is the best feature, and I like how everything is integrated with the FortiGate devices, FortiAuthenticator, and other fabric devices, giving you all the login information details and great user connectivity, while being easy to set up, stable, scalable, and very user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports."
"Security Onion is the most mature solution in the market."
"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."
 

Cons

"Fortinet has a new bug every month, which needs to be improved."
"Fortinet FortiAnalyzer needs to improve its pricing flexibility."
"We'd like to see more embedded features."
"It is a pretty big software package. It has a lot of features which maybe aren't that useful."
"The solution could improve by allowing the ability to search logs in integrated solutions."
"The solution should include the ability to customize reports so that customers receive greater value and high level reporting."
"Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is not in the cloud environment like some of the other products. There could be a possibility of extending its functionality to the cloud environment. If possible, they could have a deal with or integrate with other firewall manufacturers, like Palo Alto and Cisco, and mix the information. It is a difficult functionality. I don't know if any product in the market provides such functionality."
"They could always improve the interface and the user experience."
"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."
"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."
"The product is not easy to learn."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is very expensive."
"We have several products including Fortinet Wireless, FortiGate Firewalls, and FortiAnalyzer, which are bundled together and cost approximately $50,000 USD annually."
"Fortinet FortiAnalyzer is quite an expensive tool."
"I rate the product's price a six on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"The price is quite expensive. Fortinet products are very expensive. That is something which they should also look at, because if you compare Fortinet product to, say, Sophos for example, Fortinet is really high and that's the only thing which is a drawback for most users."
"The hardware has a one-time cost and maintenance is paid by annual subscription."
"Compared to other products, the price is a little bit high."
"The program is expensive."
"Security Onion is an open-source solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"Security Onion is a free solution."
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business57
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise31
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiAnalyzer?
I think technical support should be better. Sometimes support from Fortinet does not help with creating policies or configuration issues and directly routes to the service integrator. A little more...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiAnalyzer?
I am using Fortinet FortiAnalyzer along with the analyzer for traffic monitoring and event checking. It is effective for analyzing traffic purposes.I use Fortinet FortiAnalyzer for event monitoring...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

General Directorate of Information Technology
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiAnalyzer vs. Security Onion and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.