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LogRhythm SIEM vs syslog-ng 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

LogRhythm SIEM
Ranking in Log Management
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
173
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (12th)
syslog-ng
Ranking in Log Management
19th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of LogRhythm SIEM is 2.1%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of syslog-ng is 2.5%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Mokhammad Rakhman - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly dashboard and machine learning capabilities improve threat hunting efficiency
LogRhythm SIEM has strong machine-learning capabilities with behavioral rules and analysis. The seamless integration for case management, along with a user-friendly dashboard user interface, makes tasks like threat hunting more efficient. Analytics and behavioral analysis help me save time with rule creation. Its scalability allows me to add components as needed. Overall, LogRhythm SIEM offers end-to-end visibility with a reasonable price.
RyanVargas - PeerSpot reviewer
It's a user-friendly open-source solution that can replace or augment a commercial product in some cases
I rate syslog-ng 10 out of 10. It's free and easy to use. It has built-in tools that help us index the various logs sent to it. It's a solid log product. If you're looking for a SIEM solution, syslog-ng will work as a stopgap measure at beginning of the project. It can also work as an injector for a true SIEM solution. You can send all the logs to syslog-ng and forward all the data to the SIEM solution after you've cleaned up the data and got the pertinent information. It's a good front end for a commercial SIEM solution, which becomes more expensive as you load more data into it. I would highly recommend syslog-ng for that use case. However, if you lack the expertise, you might need to go with a cloud-based SIEM instead. You need some in-house expertise or an outside consultant to manage it and set it up.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would rate the product a ten out of ten. The solution is very user-friendly and straightforward. The tool's report customization is interesting."
"SOAR is integrated with the dashboard that we use for threat management. Because it's all integrated, it is useful for us when we deploy something on-prem."
"Currently, we are in the implementation phase. LogRhythm is better than QRadar from the point of view of collecting Windows events. It has a much higher view. You can enable monitoring by default."
"The GUI is very intuitive and the solution has good integration."
"Alarms are the most valuable feature. We also like the dashboard and how things are at your fingertips. The fact that we can now edit the report templates is going to be a great thing."
"The user interface is pretty good compared to other SIEM tools."
"The correlation engine is extremely valuable because it uses machine learning to process information from the central manager and identifies issues in the network."
"It's very easy to create the correlation rules with LogRhythm, and there are some advanced features like SIEM and UEBA, which are also very valuable."
"Syslog-ng provides easy access to all my logs. It helps me show managers and other clients precisely where an incident occurred. I also like it because you can integrate syslog-ng with multiple solutions to allow real-time monitoring."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
"For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior."
"The ability to extract and store the logs is the most valuable feature of syslog-ng."
"Syslog-ng has a separate config file in addition to the core configuration."
 

Cons

"Granted, we haven't enabled the UEBA module, but we're forwarding all our proxy logs to LogRhythm and we have a really hard time pulling those proxy logs back out of LogRhythm. However, when we take LogRhythm and forward the same logs into somebody else's user-based analytics software, we get the majority of what we were missing... If we've got all our proxy logs and I go out to Google or Facebook or the like, we should be able to go in and pull that information out ten minutes later, but it's a big challenge to do that."
"I think there is room for improvement because the system is still running on the Windows Server platform. The problem with running on Windows is that it is not that good for scaling and providing for big deployment environments."
"Sometimes the error-logging is not altogether helpful. For example, on an upgrade, a systems data processor, a Windows box, was throwing an error code like 1083. Then it just stopped and it died right out of the installer and nobody looked. We searched through Google and what it means is the Windows Firewall wasn't turned on so that it could create a rule for the product. Why wouldn't they bubble up that description so that I wouldn't have to call support and I could just know, "Okay, the firewall wasn't turned on. Turn it back on. Re-run the installer and keep going.""
"The customer support system is time-consuming."
"Scalability-wise, it's not that great."
"I would like to see APIs well-documented and public facing, so we can get to them all."
"I have Windows administrators who will remove the agent when they think that that's what's fouling up their upgrade or their install or their reconfiguration, etc. The first thing they do is to turn off the antivirus, turn down the firewall, and take off anything else. They don't realize that the LogRhythm agent is just sitting there monitoring. Most antivirus products have application protection features built-in where, if I'm an admin on a box, I can't uninstall antivirus. I need to have to the antivirus admin password to do that."
"I would like to see our vulnerabilities counter. We will be using Tenable to fill that void right now."
"The filtering has room for improvement."
"It's hard to find people who know how to use syslog-ng. I often find problems with configurations, and solutions aren't integrated correctly with syslog-ng. For example, there might be data with extra decimals, or the collector agents are incorrectly named. It isn't a problem with the solution; it's a lack of professionals."
"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."
"There is always the potential for additional integration and protocol extensions."
"There is room for improvement in terms of observability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you don't have your staff, absolutely look into the co-pilot and factor that into your cost evaluation."
"I have seen a measurable decrease in the mean time to detect and respond to threats. We went from not detecting them to detecting them. We can actually pick up what is anomalous in our network now."
"We have seen a measurable decrease in the mean time to detect and respond to threats. As it comes out new features and new releases, the window is becoming a lot narrower because you can pivot a lot more with the data. Therefore, the new features and enhancements are reducing that."
"We did a five-year agreement. We pay close to a quarter of a million dollars for our solution."
"The pricing is very reasonable and accessible compared to other products in the market but I am not very sure about the exact licensing cost per year for our company."
"Look closely at the cost of licensing of other products. This should include setups and the need for support services. I did a RFQ to 2 other vendors before choosing this product."
"The solution has provided us with consistency and increased staff productivity through orchestrated automated work flows by at least 20 percent."
"It is a very cost-effective solution."
"Syslog-ng is open-source."
"Syslog-ng is a free open-source solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
9%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is the difference between log management and SIEM?
Rony, Daniel's answer is right on the money. There are many solutions for each in the market, a lot depends upon your ability to manage such tools and your budget. A small operation may be best s...
What needs improvement with LogRhythm NextGen SIEM?
The SOAR capabilities need improvements as they currently require programming knowledge. A more user-friendly user interface with drag-and-drop features, similar to key competitors like Splunk, wou...
What do you like most about LogRhythm SIEM?
I find LogRhythm's log management capabilities to be beneficial.
What do you like most about syslog-ng?
For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for syslog-ng?
The pricing is in the middle. I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with one being expensive and ten being cheap.
What needs improvement with syslog-ng?
There is room for improvement in terms of observability. Additionally, a possible new feature could be Kafka integration.
 

Also Known As

LogRhythm NextGen SIEM, LogRhythm, LogRhythm Threat Lifecycle Management, LogRhythm TLM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Macy's, NASA, Fujitsu, US Air Force, EY, Abbott, HD Supply, SAB Miller, UCLA, Raytheon, Amtrak, Cargill
Tecnocom, University of Victoria, University of Exeter, Datapath
Find out what your peers are saying about LogRhythm SIEM vs. syslog-ng and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.