Microsoft Sentinel vs NetWitness Platform comparison

Microsoft and NetWitness are both solutions in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category. Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.4, while NetWitness is ranked #32 with an average rating of 8.3. Microsoft holds a 4.8% mindshare in SIEM, compared to NetWitness’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 75% of NetWitness users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Sentinel

Read 104 Microsoft Sentinel reviews

16,575 Views
9,282 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

NetWitness Platform

Read 36 NetWitness Platform reviews

2,149 Views
1,311 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

Microsoft Sentinel

NetWitness Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

NetWitness Platform and Microsoft Sentinel are leading solutions in cybersecurity. Based on user reviews, Microsoft Sentinel often stands out due to its comprehensive features and integration capabilities, making it a preferred choice despite potentially higher costs.

Features: NetWitness Platform is praised for its robust threat detection and response capabilities. It offers in-depth packet capture and session analysis, providing granular visibility into network activity. The platform also includes behavior analytics to detect threats based on deviations from normal patterns. Microsoft Sentinel features advanced AI-driven analytics, automating threat detection and response processes. It includes seamless integration with other Microsoft products, enhancing its utility in Microsoft-centric environments. Additionally, Sentinel offers built-in orchestration and automation for streamlined security operations.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest that NetWitness Platform could benefit from enhanced scalability, more intuitive navigation, and better integration with third-party tools. Microsoft Sentinel users request improved alerting mechanisms, more customizable reporting options, and a more user-friendly interface. While suggestions for NetWitness are aimed at usability enhancements, Sentinel users focus on functional refinements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: NetWitness Platform is noted for its straightforward deployment process and reliable customer support. Microsoft Sentinel receives positive feedback for deployment, especially in cloud environments, but some users find its initial setup complex. Customer service for Sentinel garners mixed reviews, with some users experiencing delays in support.

Pricing and ROI: NetWitness Platform is generally seen as requiring a significant initial investment, but users report good ROI over time. Microsoft Sentinel is perceived as more expensive, yet users feel the comprehensive feature set and integration justify the cost, leading to a strong ROI. Pricing strategies differ, with Sentinel's flexible cloud-based pricing appealing to many users. Differences in perceived value highlight each product's pricing strategy and return on investment dynamics.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Sentinel vs. NetWitness Platform Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Sentinel vs. NetWitness Platform

February 2026

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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

Microsoft Sentinel

Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

104

Ranking in other categories

Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (6th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (5th)

NetWitness Platform

Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

32nd

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (35th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Sentinel is 4.8%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 0.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Sentinel	4.8%
NetWitness Platform	0.9%
Other	94.3%

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Featured Reviews

Kallamuddin Ansari

Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize

Centralized monitoring has improved threat response but cost control still needs refinement

Based on real operations used in our corporate IT environment, the key features include log correlation and incident view. Microsoft Sentinel's biggest strength is how it correlates multiple related alerts into a single incident. This significantly reduces alert noise and helps the SOC focus on real threats instead of isolated events. Another valuable feature is KQL-based threat hunting with Kusto Query Language. The flexibility of this language allows us to build custom hunting queries based on our environment's behavior. This is extremely useful for detecting low and slow threats or hidden threats that default rules may miss. Cloud-native scalability and stability is another important feature. Being cloud-native, Microsoft Sentinel scales well for medium to large corporate environments without infrastructure management. Stability has been solid in day-to-day production. SOAR automation using playbooks is a feature we highly recommend. Microsoft Sentinel's SOAR functionality helps automate repetitive SOC tasks like alert enrichment and notification. This saves analyst time and improves response consistency.

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MOTASHIM Al Razi

CISO at One Bank Limited

It is a stable solution, but they should make the user interface easier to understand

The solution's initial setup takes work. We have to organize multiple paths and many features. The deployment process takes less than a week. But it takes a month to complete if we want to make the solution smarter by integrating it with various devices. I rate the process as a six out of ten.

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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

"The main benefit is the ease of integration."

"Sentinel is a Microsoft product, so they provide very robust use cases and analytic groups, which are very beneficial for the security team. I also like the ability to integrate data sources into the software for on-premise and cloud-based solutions."

"The signal correlation and dashboards features of Microsoft Sentinel are fantastic because it correlates the signal logs with other products."

"Sentinel uses Azure Logic Apps for automation, which is really powerful. This allows us to easily automate responses to incidents."

"The AI and ML of Azure Sentinel are valuable. We can use machine learning models at the tenant level and within Office 365 and Microsoft stack. We don't need to depend upon any other connectors. It automatically provisions the native Microsoft products."

"The solution has features that helped improve the security posture of our clients. It provides the ability to correlate a large variety of log sources very cost-effectively, especially for Microsoft sources."

"The analytic rule is the most valuable feature."

"Microsoft Sentinel flags when admin credentials log in from an unusual location, automatically alerting the security team so they can investigate."

More Microsoft Sentinel pros

"The most valuable feature is the ability to write rules and triggers for network communication, and then being able to investigate based on that."

"The most valuable feature of RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets are the alerts and correlations tools."

"Their technical support responds quickly and are knowledgable."

"The most valuable features are the threat prediction and network forensics."

"The most valuable features are the packet decoder, log decoder, and concentrator."

"It's quite economical compared to other solutions in the market."

"The most valuable feature is the hunting ability to work in a CERT."

"Setting up NetWitness is straightforward. There are multiple connectors, including standard and specialized connectors. One purpose of the connectors is the enhanced capability integrate the custom applications. NetWitness comes with E6 appliances and application images that we use for the initial configurations and for the OS stack information. From there, you can consider the correlation rules, integrate the different log sources, and easily create correlation rules and backlog reports."

More NetWitness Platform pros

Cons

"In New Zealand, there are customers that run dual stack, running Microsoft but also competitor products, EDR software, cloud security software, and other tooling. While it's improved over the last four or five years, there's still more work that can be done to integrate better outside of the Microsoft ecosystem."

"One key area that can be improved is by building a strong integration with our XDR platform."

"It has been a challenge with Azure Sentinel to onboard the Syslog server from FortiGate. Azure Sentinel can work better on that shift between the Syslog server and a firewall."

"The SOC optimization feature of Microsoft Sentinel does not appear applicable at the moment in terms of data management and cost efficiency."

"The on-prem log sources still require a lot of development."

"I think the number one area of improvement for Sentinel would be the cost."

"The learning curve could be improved. I am still learning it. We were able to implement the basic features to get them up and running, but there are still so many things that I don't know about all its features. They have a lot of features that we have not been able to use or apply. If they could work on reducing the solution's learning curve, that would be good. While there is a training course held by Microsoft to learn more about this solution, there is a cost associated with it."

"The pricing tiers of Microsoft Sentinel should be improved. There are complexities in calculating the right pricing tier for different customers, which makes it difficult for me as a consultant during upfront pricing."

More Microsoft Sentinel cons

"It should have a monitoring feature. It would help us analyze the current state of attacks faster from a single platform."

"They should implement algorithms to digest that data and produce additional, more advanced reporting, alerting and support of internal security teams."

"The multi-tenant capabilities are lagging compared to IBM QRadar."

"The documentation is not as structured as I would like, personally, and I think that it can be improved and made much more user-friendly."

"It is not so easy to customize this product."

"The initial setup is complex. There are other solutions that are easier to implement."

"The system architecture is complex and sometimes it’s hard to troubleshoot potential problems."

"The initial setup was complex because it takes a lot of time to complete the implementation."

More NetWitness Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is reasonable, and we think Sentinel is worth what we pay for it."

"Sentinel's price is comparable to pretty much everything out there. None of it is cheap, but we didn't think we could save money by going a different route. Sentinel was part of our Azure expenditures, so it was easier to add the expense instead of having a completely separate vendor."

"Sentinel's pricing is on the higher side, but you can get a discount if you can predict your usage. You have to pay ingestion and storage fees. There are also fees for Logic Apps and particular features. It seems heavily focused on microtransactions, but they may be slightly optional. By contrast, Splunk requires no additional fee for their equivalent of Logic. You have a little more flexibility, but Sentinel's costs add up."

"In comparison to other security solutions, Microsoft Sentinel offers a reasonable price for the features included."

"Azure Sentinel is very costly, or at least it appears to be very costly. The costs vary based on your ingestion and your retention charges."

"From a cost perspective, Microsoft Sentinel is quite costly."

"I don't know yet because they gave us a 30-day test window for free."

"The price is reasonable because Sentinel includes features like user behavior analytics and SOAR that are typically sold separately. Overall, a standalone on-prem solution would require some high-end servers, and there's a different cost. It is a cloud-based solution, so there are backend cloud computing costs, but they are negligible."

More Microsoft Sentinel pricing and cost advice

"In comparison to other SIEM solutions such as Splunk, NetWitness is less costly."

"It is cheap."

"Our license is for one year."

"We have yearly licensing costs. The license fee can be based on the volume of EPS. Some organizations may have, as a gentlemanly gesture, 10,000 EPS and get a 3,000 EPS license but actually use 5,000 EPS."

"There is a licensing fee and the customer can choose whether he wishes this to be subscription-based or perpetual."

"The NetWitness Platform may be affordable only for enterprise-level customers, as it may not be within the budget of small and medium-sized businesses."

"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."

"It provides tools to assist in selecting the appropriate license and usage scenarios."

More NetWitness Platform pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

Vinod Shankar

Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 26, 2015

HP ArcSight vs. IBM QRadar vs. McAfee Nitro vs. Splunk vs. RSA Security vs. LogRhythm

We at Infosecnirvana.com have done several posts on SIEM. After the Dummies Guide on SIEM, we are following it up with a SIEM Product Comparison – 101 deck. So, here it is for your viewing pleasure. Let me know what you think by posting your comments below. The key products compared here are…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	38
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	45

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

Is there a common threat intelligence tool that aggregates multiple threat intelligence sources?

Yes, Azure Sentinel is a SIEM on the Cloud. Multiple data sources can be uploaded and analyzed with Azure Sentinel and its Threat Hunting functionality with AI available as templates or customized ...

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What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?

It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...

See all answers

Which is better - Azure Sentinel or AWS Security Hub?

We like that Azure Sentinel does not require as much maintenance as legacy SIEMs that are on-premises. Azure Sentinel is auto-scaling - you will not have to worry about performance impact, you will...

See all answers

What do you like most about NetWitness Platform?

The product's initial setup phase was not at all difficult.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetWitness Platform?

The pricing is comparable to others, and I consider the cost to be intermediate. Specific cost details are unknown to me.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetWitness Platform?

There is currently no need for improvement in the SIEM ( /categories/security-information-and-event-management-siem ), though there could be potential enhancements by integrating with AI.

See all answers

Comparisons

AWS Security Hub vs Microsoft Sentinel

Compared 17% of the time

Cortex XSIAM vs Microsoft Sentinel

Compared 5% of the time

IBM Security QRadar vs Microsoft Sentinel

Compared 5% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity AI SIEM vs Microsoft Sentinel

Compared 4% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Sentinel

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Sentinel Competitors

IBM Security QRadar vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Elastic Security vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 6% of the time

USM Anywhere vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 5% of the time

Elastic Stack vs NetWitness Platform

Compared 4% of the time

More NetWitness Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Sentinel

January 2026

Download Microsoft Sentinel product report

Buyer's Guide

NetWitness Platform

January 2026

Download NetWitness Platform product report

Also Known As

Azure Sentinel

RSA Security Analytics

Overview

Microsoft Sentinel is a scalable, cloud-native, security information event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automated response (SOAR) solution that lets you see and stop threats before they cause harm. Microsoft Sentinel delivers intelligent security analytics and threat intelligence across the enterprise, providing a single solution for alert detection, threat visibility, proactive hunting, and threat response. Eliminate security infrastructure setup and maintenance, and elastically scale to meet your security needs—while reducing IT costs. With Microsoft Sentinel, you can:

- Collect data at cloud scale—across all users, devices, applications, and infrastructure, both on-premises and in multiple clouds

- Detect previously uncovered threats and minimize false positives using analytics and unparalleled threat intelligence from Microsoft

- Investigate threats with AI and hunt suspicious activities at scale, tapping into decades of cybersecurity work at Microsoft

- Respond to incidents rapidly with built-in orchestration and automation of common tasks

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

NetWitness Platform is an evolved SIEM and threat detection and response solution that functions as a single, unified platform for ALL your security data. It features an advanced analyst workbench for triaging alerts and incidents, and it orchestrates security operations programs end to end. In short: NetWitness Platform is all you need to run an intelligent SOC.

NetWitness

Sample Customers

Microsoft Sentinel is trusted by companies of all sizes including ABM, ASOS, Uniper, First West Credit Union, Avanade, and more.

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Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Sentinel vs. NetWitness Platform

February 2026

Free Report: Microsoft Sentinel vs. NetWitness Platform

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