No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

OpenText Enterprise Security Manager vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 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

OpenText Enterprise Securit...
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
25th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SolarWinds Security Event M...
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
33rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of OpenText Enterprise Security Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is 1.0%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenText Enterprise Security Manager1.6%
SolarWinds Security Event Manager1.0%
Other97.4%
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

SM
Cloud Security Archirect at IBM
Unified log analysis has strengthened incident detection and supports continuous attack simulation
I do not have any areas for improvement in ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) as I have not delved deeply into it; overall, it is a good package. I would like to see the detection and response features included in the next release of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM), as security orchestration and automation are increasingly important.
Yashokanth Partkunan - PeerSpot reviewer
Managed Services Engineer at Loop1 Systems
Has supported client needs efficiently but requires deeper analysis features and faster support
The log analyzing capability of SolarWinds Security Event Manager should go into more depth than the current environment. More modification and enhancements are required on the dashboard side in order to make it closer to optimal performance. From observation and feedback from users, they need more functionality related to monitoring, and in-depth analyzing needs to be improved.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We use ArcSight ESM for log analysis and security alerts. It warns us of threats and then helps us conduct a forensic investigation of a cyber attack or internal incident after it happens."
"The most valuable features of ArcSight ESM are ease of use and readily usable components."
"The product's log management and event management capabilities are excellent."
"Correlation and data normalization via CEF: The speed of ArcSight's correlation engine, together with data enrichment, makes it a great tool for exploring vast amounts of data."
"ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) is very cheap compared to other tools."
"ArcSight ESM help customer in Automation for their complex security use case in order to detect the bad guys."
"Having a SIEM solution in general improves the way an organization functions, especially in the SOC part."
"Usability is the most valuable feature; the accessibility is quite good, and if a new person wants to be trained in this product, it's easy for them to be trained, as opposed to other products like Splunk or Sentinel."
"The reporting and alerting capabilities are really nice."
"The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is the analysis and the knowledge about the incidence that we trace."
"The pricing was low, around 30K so ROI is less than one year."
"SolarWinds is easy to configure, and it provides timely alerts."
"The solution helps you monitor database instances, application instances, other customer application things, Linux servers, IBM servers, and Oracle servers."
"Some of the rules are most valuable because you can be notified about various things, such as spyware or things that are going on in the internal network."
"We were suffering from a lack of visibility into our logs, so we implemented SolarWinds LEM."
"User-friendly configuration is key, and the configurations are simple, not complex."
 

Cons

"The security is difficult. I would like to have a feature that gives us an entire report listing what devices are integrated."
"The weakness in this system comes about because, with so many different logs, it is possible that the security analyst will lose information."
"They need to develop NetFlow appliances that can be installed in the customer network on span ports, collect NetFlow, and send it to ArcSight without relying on the devices' NetFlow capability and their position in the network."
"I must say that tech support is getting worse and worse every year."
"The solution itself is very scalable, but it is also a lot more expensive than other players."
"The initial setup is very complex. We had to architect a deployment which allowed us to incorporate an ever growing number of customers into our hosted instance of ArcSight."
"Unless someone in your organization is an ArcSight SME, you are going to have a difficult time getting answers."
"The security area has room for improvement."
"I would like to be able to dig deeper into the visibility of events or incidents to determine whether they are malicious, such as by doing behavior analysis."
"Training for this solution needs to be improved, as new employees are sometimes unfamiliar with the product."
"The log analyzing capability of SolarWinds Security Event Manager should go into more depth than the current environment."
"I think the customization area in the tool can be considered as an area of concern where improvements are required."
"It takes a long time to perform a root cause analysis."
"I think the product can use some improvement on the reporting side. The reporting could be easier and more robust."
"One of the drawbacks of being so flexible is that it is also a fairly complicated software application to install, configure, and maintain."
"The reporting could be more robust. It can be a lot more granular and that will make it a lot more useful in comparison to how it is incorporated at the moment."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We're paying a fee for an MSSP, and the cost of the total cost of ArcSight ESM was approximately three to four million dollars a year. The price was less than similar solutions. We did not have additional fees."
"ArcSight is pretty expensive compared with its competitors. I believe that is fine as it provides value."
"ArcSight ESM is an affordable solution, it cost approximately $200,000 for three years. This price was at a substantial discount."
"The cost of the solution is not very high, although hiring a qualified analyst to work with the product is expensive."
"Pricing is good, I'd rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being low price. It's better than Splunk and IBM QRadar because their pricing is based on EPS."
"The pricing is great compared to others."
"The solution is super expensive. At our organization size and license model, I think the price is average to what anyone else would charge us."
"There is a license required for this solution."
"Licensing is on devices, so if you have many, then this may be high."
"Licenses can only be purchased in blocks of fifty at a time."
"The pricing model would benefit from having package deals with other SolarWinds products."
"We do a yearly license renewal. For a year, the solution costs roughly $500,000 USD. There are no costs beyond this yearly fee."
"It is in the appropriate mid-range. It is not as expensive as some of the other solutions. It is also not cheap."
"The price of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is reasonable."
"The tool is available at a good price for customers compared to other solutions in the market. I rate the product's price as an eight out of ten."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solutions are best for your needs.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

VS
Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at a tech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jun 28, 2015
Qradar vs. ArcSight
Continuing with the SIEM posts we have done at Infosecnirvana, this post is a Head to head comparison of the two Industry leading SIEM products in the market – HP ArcSight and IBM QRadar Both the products have consistently been in the Gartner Leaders Quadrant. Both HP and IBM took over niche SIEM…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise59
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the best SIEM tool for a mid-sized financial services firm: Arcsight or Securonix?
In my market, a lot of financial companies had or have an ArcSight installation. Just because in former times it was pretty good. Now a lot of them are looking for a more effective solution due to ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
I would rate the pricing of ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) around seven, as it varies based on features and demand, making it more affordable for larger organizations, while smaller one...
What needs improvement with ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)?
I do not have any areas for improvement in ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) as I have not delved deeply into it; overall, it is a good package. I would like to see the detection and respo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?
The tool is available at a good price for customers compared to other solutions in the market. I rate the product's price as an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?
The log analyzing capability of SolarWinds Security Event Manager should go into more depth than the current environment. More modification and enhancements are required on the dashboard side in or...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?
I work with all SolarWinds products mostly, including Network Configuration Manager and NPM. I am a reseller. I usually recommend SolarWinds products for Loop1. It's for the bigger ones; we are the...
 

Also Known As

Micro Focus ArcSight, HPE ArcSight, ArcSight
SolarWinds LEM, Solarwinds SIEM, TriGeo, Log and Event Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Lake Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Bank AlJazira, Banca Intesa, and Obrela.
NetSuite, EasyStreet, Legacy Texas Bank, and Energy Federal Credit Union, to name a few.
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Enterprise Security Manager vs. SolarWinds Security Event Manager and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.