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Security Onion vs Wazuh comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 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

Security Onion
Ranking in Log Management
23rd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Wazuh
Ranking in Log Management
1st
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Security Onion is 3.1%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wazuh is 7.5%, down from 15.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Wazuh7.5%
Security Onion3.1%
Other89.4%
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Jörg Kippe - PeerSpot reviewer
Scientist at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
A mature and affordable solution that is easy to install and easy to update
The product takes time to learn, it's not that easy. In the beginning we had a lot of questions. If you want to use such a tool in an real (industrial) environment, you have to ask how to get the network data. Can we do a full packet capture? Can we provide agents to our end systems? There are no simple solutions to these questions. It's a general problem when running such systems in an industrial environment.
RS
Engineer Information Security at N-Able (Pvt) Ltd
Has faced limitations in AI capabilities and pricing flexibility
Pricing-wise, Wazuh stands out, along with deployment flexibility and its documentation which is extremely good in comparison to Forti. The community support is also incredible. They have helped quite a bit because previously, we had a separate tool and management dashboard to do our compliance. With Wazuh, we receive that information without having to do anything extra. We just set up the SIEM and all of that information was automatically populated. The dashboards are very easy to understand and very quick with no lag or delay. I have experienced delays on Forti's dashboards, but not with Wazuh. Wazuh is quite good. In comparison to Forti, they are quite similar. They are very good at detection.

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 of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports."
"Security Onion is the most mature solution in the market."
"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."
"Wazuh is simple to use for PCI compliance."
"The solution is easy to maintain."
"Integrates with various open-source and paid products, allowing for flexibility in customization based on use cases."
"It is excellent in terms of visualization and indexing services, making it a powerful tool for malware detection."
"Regarding Wazuh, I find the SCA (Security Configuration Assessment) features most valuable. It's crucial for asset management and inventory, allowing us to monitorendpoints and servers' changes easily. This is particularly important for my customers, who aren't heavily focused on incident response but rely on asset management and inventories. Wazuh's compliance management features are very supportive, especially in regions like the Americas and Europe. However, it's less effective in the ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) region since Wazuh doesn't cater to the specific compliance standards there, such as those required in Australia. I appreciate that Wazuh fully complies with PCI DSS and GDPR standards, allowing us to generate necessary reports."
"I would recommend Wazuh to others."
"Good for monitoring, active response, and for vulnerabilities."
"The product's initial setup phase was easy."
 

Cons

"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."
"The product is not easy to learn."
"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."
"Log data analysis could be improved. My IT team has been looking for an alternative because they want better log data for malware detection. We are also doing more container implementation also, so we need better container security, log data analysis, auditing and compliance, malware detection, etc."
"There could be a hardware monitoring tool for the solution."
"The computing resources are consuming and do not make sense."
"Adding the flexibility to integrate various plug-ins or modules into its core system would enhance functionality."
"The only challenge we faced with Wazuh was the lack of direct support."
"So far, the recent updates have addressed most challenges we previously faced."
"The deployment is a bit complex."
"It would be better if they had a vulnerability assessment plug-in like the one AlienVault has. In the next release, I would like to have an app with an alerting mechanism."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Security Onion is a free solution."
"Security Onion is an open-source solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"Wazuh is open-source, but you must consider the total cost of ownership. It may be free to acquire, but you spend a lot of time and effort supporting the product and getting it to a point where it's useful."
"Wazuh is a cheaply priced product."
"Wazuh is totally free and open source. There are no licensing costs, only support costs if you need them."
"It is a cost-effective solution."
"We use the free version of Wazuh."
"They have a good pricing strategy for market expansion."
"Wazuh is an open-source tool, which means it is freely available for use."
"The solution's pricing is very competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
12%
Government
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
University
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Security Onion?
The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Security Onion?
Security Onion is an open-source solution. On a scale from one to ten, where ten is expensive and one is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.
What needs improvement with Security Onion?
The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult.
What do you like most about Wazuh?
Wazuh is its flexibility and open-source nature, which allows us to tailor threat detection and response across diverse client environments. Its integration capabilities with SOAR, cloud platforms,...
What needs improvement with Wazuh?
Regarding compliance, I find it not stable. I do not recommend it for that purpose. It can comply with Wazuh NCA, which we have here in Saudi Arabia. Wazuh NCA has many frameworks starting with ECC...
What is your primary use case for Wazuh?
I have been working with Wazuh for two years, and I can explain how I use Wazuh. I did not use Wazuh as a SIEM solution. I use Wazuh as a tool for services we provide. This service is called compro...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Wazuh All-In-One Deployment
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Security Onion vs. Wazuh and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.