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NetWitness Platform vs Sentinel comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

NetWitness Platform
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
34th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (36th)
Sentinel
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of NetWitness Platform is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sentinel is 2.7%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sentinel2.7%
NetWitness Platform1.1%
Other96.2%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2256927 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Information Security, Cyber Defense and IT Risk Management at HCT. at a transportation company with 201-500 employees
A solid SIEM solution that should improve technical support and online resources to be easier to use
A big problem with the product is that we don't have much professional experience in Israel installing, implementing, and integrating this product. There is not enough of a knowledge base. There is no support for this product in this country, so problems have to be resolved through global technical teams. We like to work locally because of the language, and when the product is only supported outside the country, it's a little difficult to implement and use this product. Moreover, AI is something that must be added immediately. Artificial intelligence is a part of the competitors' products, and it's not been implemented for us.
PT
Senior Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Improved incident monitoring has reduced false positives and supports audit-ready reporting
The best features Sentinel offers, in my experience, include the filtering features and the ability to run KQL queries so that I can understand what table has what and when the last log has been monitored and reported. Sentinel has positively impacted my organization by improving monitoring significantly. As a pay-as-you-go service, we are ingesting logs as needed. When the pay-as-you-go service is enabled, we can either ingest whenever there is a spike in the logs, and when there are fewer logs, we can reduce the ingestion. This approach is helpful for both the organization and me. In terms of metrics showing how Sentinel has helped, as part of log filtering, we have reduced around thirty to thirty-five percent of false-positive incident creation. We have also cleared some audits by enabling log retention in Sentinel, allowing us to pull out data for audits when necessary using both hot retention and cold retention. This has helped the organization as a whole.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the security that it provides."
"Since the solution has been under way we have seen a large decrease of threats and proactive reactions to incidents."
"Offers a good wireless feature."
"Alerting Module: It provides real-time event processing language on all the logs/packets stream for advanced alerting, i.e., using SQL LIKE statements."
"In my opinion, the solution's most valuable feature is its capacity to monitor network traffic, logs from devices within the network, and network captures. This capability extends beyond logs to include full network capturing."
"The most valuable feature is that we can create our own connectors for any application, and NetWitness provides the training and tools to do it."
"RSA NetWitness is a SIEM and real-time network traffic solution that collects logs and packets, applies a set of alerting, reporting, and analysis rules on them, and thus provides the enterprise with full visibility of the networks and activities of the systems."
"NetWitness can be highly beneficial for incident detection and response."
"Transactional user information improves security, prevents fraud, and promotes best practices."
"It provides real time security event analytics."
"If Sentinel is integrated with Identity Manager and User Application Portal, the solution runs simply perfect!"
"The correlation engine allows our clients to generate rules more efficiently."
"The solution lets us get all the logs properly and regularly monitor customer infrastructure."
"Novell SIEM was my second technology of this kind."
"Sentinel gave us logs to tell us what's going right and wrong in your environment so we could secure the network."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is that it provides a central locking system for many event sources."
 

Cons

"One thing to be improved in NetWitness is the capability to correlate event logs in a general sense."
"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."
"I am not happy with the RSA support. Sometimes they can be really annoying because it takes so long to get the support that you need."
"Nowadays, their support is a little subpar compared to other solutions. I rate RSA support six out of 10."
"The tool's integration capability isn't so great."
"The user interface is a little bit difficult for new users and it needs to be improved."
"We encountered stability issues in the earlier versions, and much fewer in the newer versions."
"Lots of competing products have vulnerability protection built into their products, and this solution would be improved by including that support."
"The solution does not allow outsourced authorizations."
"This product's connection to certain types of cloud systems could be improved."
"I would prefer to extend dashboards part and their functions in Web GUI version, so the charts could be for configurable."
"This product's connection to certain types of cloud systems could be improved. We can do Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, but there are a lot of other things happening in the cloud that we do not connect well enough to. This product could be improved with better connection to cloud-based solutions."
"Documentation for security aspects could be improved. It is difficult to find clear information about encryption or risks that are addressed."
"There is a need for more flexibility in customization, especially when working with different vendors and platforms."
"It is an ancient product."
"The dashboard and customer view should be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Many clients are not able to purchase the packet capability because there is a huge amount of data, and the cost depends on the number of EPS (Events per second), as well as the number of gigabytes of data per day."
"RSA NetWitness Logs and Packets do not have a subscription model, it's a one-time purchase. There is only a perpetual license."
"It is cheap."
"Our license is for one year."
"Compared to the competition, the is price is not that high."
"The product is expensive."
"The new pricing and licensing mechanisms are fair. I would advise always to get the full solution (i.e., not only Logs)."
"There is a licensing fee and the customer can choose whether he wishes this to be subscription-based or perpetual."
"Sentinel is a subscription-based solution."
"We inquired about getting support from the vendor, Micro Focus, but the cost was very high."
"We receive a pricing discount because of our ongoing partnership with Micro Focus."
"The solution’s pricing is aligned with its competitors."
"Sentinel's slightly on the expensive side."
"Sentinel is moderately priced."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions are best for your needs.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

VS
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise20
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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.
What is your primary use case for NetWitness Platform?
I use NetWitness Platform ( /products/netwitness-platform-reviews ) in the financial industry as a good product with excellent capabilities and integration with various devices.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetIQ Sentinel?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that while it is a little on the higher side, since it is part of a package for all Microsoft products, I feel it is a better choice comp...
What needs improvement with NetIQ Sentinel?
Sentinel needs minimal improvement, though improvements are ongoing. Everything seems to be functioning perfectly, and I don't have any specific inputs for improvements I would like to see in Senti...
What is your primary use case for NetIQ Sentinel?
My main use case for Sentinel is that I'm a subject matter expert for Sentinel, specifically for security incident event and event management. I head the SME for SIEM in LTIMindtree for this curren...
 

Also Known As

RSA Security Analytics
NetIQ Sentinel, Novell SIEM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Los Angeles World Airports, Reply
Faysal Bank, GaVI, Handelsbanken, ISC Mªnster, Lambeth Council, Swisscard, The Municipality of Siena, Tukes, University of Dayton, University of the Sunshine Coast
Find out what your peers are saying about NetWitness Platform vs. Sentinel and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.