


IBM Security QRadar and Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR compete in the security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) category. Based on the comparison, Cortex XSOAR seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive automation capabilities and ease of integration, which enhance incident response efficiency.
Features: IBM Security QRadar stands out for its ease of extracting information from raw logs and events, comprehensive built-in rules and reports, and its scalability. It also provides compliance monitoring and valuable insights through advanced analytics and threat intelligence. Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR offers strong automation capabilities with extensive playbooks, different integration options, and an intuitive drag-and-drop functionality for creating workflows and playbooks. Its machine learning capabilities further enhance incident response.
Room for Improvement: QRadar could enhance its incident management with better access controls and advanced analytical graphing capabilities. Users also note complexity in its upgrade process and a need for expanded third-party integrations. It could further improve cognitive capabilities. Cortex XSOAR users want better integration with non-security solutions, improved performance consistency, and a less complicated setup phase. The pricing is also considered high for broader adaptability.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Security QRadar supports on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, with generally strong but regionally varied customer service. Cortex XSOAR is flexible with public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. Palo Alto Networks provides satisfactory customer service, though licensing complexity can affect support escalation response.
Pricing and ROI: IBM Security QRadar's pricing can be high for small and medium-sized enterprises, but the ROI is favorable due to its comprehensive features. Users report significant time and cost savings. Cortex XSOAR has competitive pricing but is still seen as expensive for smaller organizations. Its functionalities can lead to economic advantages in managing security events, justifying investment in large enterprises.
Since we started working with Torq, I am handling much fewer alerts. It is becoming really easy for me to handle an alert.
By the time we officially bought Torq, we already had two workflows that were very helpful to us.
It pretty much took until we got to our first renewal where we said that this is the value we see, this is the things we want more, but that is the first place where we said we are happy enough that we want to renew.
With SOAR, the workflow takes one minute or less to complete the analysis.
AWS gives the chance to implement a solution out of the box with use cases that are already in IBM Security QRadar.
Investing this amount was very much worth it for my organization.
We are positioning Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR, which can be used in the SOC and do a lot of automation for the customer.
The speed and quality of their answers have been pretty good, as I usually get a response within 24 hours, and they follow up well.
We can always get an answer, and the support team are experts in their own system.
Nine out of ten times, they give me a solution even if it is not the solution I wanted, and I still can get to the result.
They assist with advanced issues, such as hardware or other problems, that are not part of standard operations.
Support needs to understand the issue first, then escalate it to the engineering team.
The support is really good; for instance, if a critical ticket is submitted, you will get paged right away as it gets logged, and their analyst will look into it, letting you know as soon as possible so you can work on it.
Eight out of ten times, they provide valuable help.
Their support has been better than Anomali's and they are more responsive.
The technical support provided by Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR is good.
Our case management is super scalable.
In terms of scalability, you can do as long as you can build it, and they can support it.
Regarding the ability of the solution to grow in your work environment, if it is scalable, if it fits your business requirements, and if there is room to scale up, the answer is yes, for sure.
For EPS license, if you increase or exceed the EPS license, you cannot receive events.
The scalability of Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR supports our growth and security needs because we can integrate various tools and continuously add more capability.
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR has very good application capabilities and is highly scalable.
The issues with scalability arise from the speed of some integrations, as not all are perfectly tuned by Palo.
Most of the time, the system is stable as long as the components that they integrate with are stable.
Regarding stability, I have noticed some lagging, crashing, and downtime, which is one of my largest gripes.
I would rate Torq's product stability at eight, acknowledging that there are bugs, glitches, and downtimes.
On cloud, you don't see any disconnections or instability.
I think QRadar is stable and currently satisfies my needs.
The product has been stable so far.
The system works smoothly even when I navigate deep into the playbook section.
I would rate the stability and reliability of Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR as a nine.
It was able to capture data but was unable to differentiate between the agent hostname we are using and the hostname that resides on the back end of the Internet.
From an engineering perspective, I think more error messages and error handling information for our engineering team would be very helpful.
If a step is failing, the system could try to autocorrect it with AI or open a ticket from the workflow itself.
We receive logs from different types of devices and need a way to correlate them effectively.
If AI-related support can suggest rules and integrate with existing security devices like MD, IPS, this SIM can create more relevant rules.
IBM Security QRadar does not support Canvas, so we had to create custom scripts and workarounds to pull logs from Canvas.
The deployment requires integration and the development of integration modules.
One of the significant issues we encounter is system slowdown when we receive an influx of alerts, which inhibits how quickly we can access the information needed for investigation.
To improve the solution, it needs to have complete features that are low-code, no-code, and should be plug-and-play.
When they bring more and more value into the platform, it makes more sense to pay that price, but still, it is expensive.
Before deciding to implement Torq, I considered that compared to our old case management platform, Torq was a much better price and had a lot better value for what you get out of the platform, which was a key consideration for the company.
It is an expensive solution, not an inexpensive solution, but we get through the flexibility.
Splunk is more expensive than IBM Security QRadar.
It was costly mainly because of the value you can get right now compared to other solutions.
It depends on how much you want to spend.
For customers, it is zero versus $20 million, which is why they have to make a decision.
Torq's unified platform approach to AI SOC automation and case management has significantly benefited us by integrating the case management platform with the automation, which saves time compared to managing multiple point solutions across our security stack.
The fact that I can build whatever I want within my own imagination and skills without relying on code is the best thing about Torq.
You can copy and paste a cURL command. If you have documentation or APIs, you usually have an example on the side. You basically have all the information on how the API call should be. You can just copy that and paste it into a step, and it will just build the step for you.
Recently, I faced an incident, a cyber incident, and it was detected in real time.
IBM Security QRadar gives the opportunity to improve the time to market of the releases with a great evaluation of cybersecurity breaches.
Compared to ArcSight, Splunk, or any other SIEM tools where you need their processing language such as structured query language, SPL, and in Sentinel there is KQL query languages, IBM Security QRadar doesn't require reliance on query languages.
Execution of automatic tasks for collecting, enriching, and correlating security events from hundreds of different technologies.
If I already have an established process, I do not have to change my process to fit into the tool. I can modify the tool to fit into my process, which makes things considerably easier.
We have implemented automation features, such as automated responses to email threats and automatic configuration of target devices for blocking specific IPs.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR | 8.8% |
| IBM Security QRadar | 6.0% |
| Torq | 4.2% |
| Other | 81.0% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Midsize Enterprise | 3 |
| Large Enterprise | 4 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 91 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 39 |
| Large Enterprise | 105 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 20 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 9 |
| Large Enterprise | 26 |
Torq is the enterprise AI SOC solution that effectively combines adaptive insights and automation to handle critical threats efficiently. It manages threat lifecycles, swiftly moving from triage to response, ensuring effective risk management.
Torq is designed to streamline security operations by aggregating telemetry across your security stack. It investigates significant risks and manages threats from triage to containment and remediation. This AI-driven tool enhances the capabilities of your SecOps team, allowing them to achieve more impactful results without introducing complicated processes.
What are the key features of Torq?In industries like finance and healthcare, Torq shows effectiveness by adapting to specific risk scenarios often encountered in these fields. Its integration with existing infrastructures makes it a valuable asset for maintaining stringent security standards, essential for protecting critical data and operations in diverse high-stakes environments.
IBM Security QRadar (recently acquired by Palo Alto Networks) is a security and analytics platform designed to defend against threats and scale security operations. This is done through integrated visibility, investigation, detection, and response. QRadar empowers security groups with actionable insights into high-priority threats by providing visibility into enterprise security data. Through centralized visibility, security teams and analysts can determine their security stance, which areas pose a potential threat, and which areas are critical. This will help streamline workflows by eliminating the need to pivot between tools.
IBM Security QRadar is built to address a wide range of security issues and can be easily scaled with minimal customization effort required. As data is ingested, QRadar administers automated, real-time security intelligence to swiftly and precisely discover and prioritize threats. The platform will issue alerts with actionable, rich context into developing threats. Security teams and analysts can then rapidly respond to minimize the attackers' strike. The solution will provide a complete view of activity in both cloud-based and on-premise environments as a large amount of data is ingested throughout the enterprise. Additionally, QRadar’s anomaly detection intelligence enables security teams to identify any user behavior changes that could be indicators of potential threats.
IBM QRadar Log Manager
To better help organizations protect themselves against potential security threats, attacks, and breaches, IBM QRadar Log Manager gathers, analyzes, preserves, and reports on security log events using QRadar Sense Analytics. All operating systems and applications, servers, devices, and applications are converted into searchable and actionable intelligent data. QRadar Log Manager then helps organizations meet compliance reporting and monitoring requirements, which can be further upgraded to QRadar SIEM for a more superior level of threat protection.
Some of QRadar Log Manager’s key features include:
Reviews from Real Users
IBM Security QRadar is a solution of choice among users because it provides a complete solution for security teams by integrating network analysis, log management, user behavior analytics, threat intelligence, and AI-powered investigations into a single solution. Users particularly like having a single window into their network and its ability to be used for larger enterprises.
Simon T., a cyber security services operations manager at an aerospace/defense firm, notes, "The most valuable thing about QRadar is that you have a single window into your network, SIEM, network flows, and risk management of your assets. If you use Splunk, for instance, then you still need a full packet capture solution, whereas the full packet capture solution is integrated within QRadar. Its application ecosystem makes it very powerful in terms of doing analysis."
A management executive at a security firm says, "What we like about QRadar and the models that IBM has, is it can go from a small-to-medium enterprise to a larger organization, and it gives you the same value."
Palo Alto Networks delivers a complete solution that helps Tier-1 through Tier-3 analysts and SOC managers to optimize the entire incident life cycle while auto documenting and journaling all the evidence. More than 100+ integrations enable security orchestration workflows for incident management and other critical security operation tasks.
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR is a piece of Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response software that redefines what it means for a program to orchestrate security in an automated manner. It is a next-generation solution that offers all of the features of dozens of siloed security operations center tools in one place. Cortex XSOAR combines case management, automation, real-time collaboration, and threat intelligence management to create a platform that can handle all aspects of system security. Teams that make use of Cortex XSOAR can expect to cut the number of issues that they will have to deal with by 75%. At the same time, the speed at which they resolve those issues that slip through will rise by 90%.
Cortex XSOAR ensures that all of the IT and security tools that you employ function as a unified system. It does this by employing hundreds of integrations that allow you to run a wide variety of programs at once without ever worrying about them interfering with each other. These integrations are limited only by your imagination. They can be used immediately as they are, if that is what you need. However, they can also be customized according to the requirements of your system. This approach provides you with the maximum levels of both flexibility and utility.
The model that this platform uses is based on a machine learning algorithm. The level of automation allows you to provide more than an unchanging and inflexible blanket of coverage. Cortex XSOAR takes all of the data that it gathers and uses it to expand its protective capabilities. This creates recommendations that you can use to create a threat playbook that can be deployed uniformly throughout your organization.
Benefits of Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR
Some of Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR’s benefits include:
Reviews from Real Users
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR’s centralized monitoring interface and automation are two features that help it stand out. This might help explain why one quarter of the Fortune 500 companies choose Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR over the competition.
Peerspot users note the effectiveness of these features. One user wrote, “We were looking for a single pane of glass type of solution that would allow us to physically be in one appliance - be able to work in concert with other servers that we have within our environment. We wanted orchestration and automation. The single pane of glass was the most important part.” Another noted, "The automation part and the playbook creation part are awesome. The way it is responding to the customers and incidents is also very good. In the SOC environment, I guess it will carry out around 50% of the work."
We monitor all Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.