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Security Onion vs Wazuh comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 30, 2025

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
22nd
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 February 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Security Onion is 3.4%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wazuh is 8.3%, down from 15.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Wazuh8.3%
Security Onion3.4%
Other88.3%
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

Anish Bajracharya - PeerSpot reviewer
Postgraduate at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Provides good threat hunting by finding infected ports, but its initial setup is difficult
The most valuable feature of Security Onion for security monitoring is its ability to find infected ports. I have used the Squert tool within Security Onion the most for threat hunting The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult. I have been using Security Onion for one year.…
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

"We use Security Onion for internal vulnerability assessment."
"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."
"Wazuh offers numerous features, such as the ability to define custom rules for detecting malicious activities and remembering behaviors."
"Wazuh automatically scans the host for CIS benchmarks for the latest updates and vulnerabilities and gives a host score. It provides a percentage of perceived risk due to of non patches or any missing patches on that work."
"Its cost-effectiveness is the most valuable aspect."
"The deployment is easy and they provide very good documentation."
"Wazuh's most valuable features include file monitoring and compliance reporting, which do not require excessive costs."
"It offers built-in modules for file integrity and vulnerability management."
"If they support a solution, it is easy to do an integration."
"It is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"The product is not easy to learn."
"The initial setup of the solution is a little bit difficult."
"Security Onion's user interface could be improved."
"An issue I noticed is with tag values in certain rules not functioning properly."
"One area where Wazuh could use some improvement is in its reporting mechanism, especially for high-level management like CSOs and CEOs."
"The support channel is not optimal, and extensive research is required on our part to implement Wazuh effectively."
"Wazuh has a drawback with regard to Unix systems. The solution does not allow us to do real-time monitoring for Unix systems. If usage increases, it would be a heavy fall on the other SIEM solutions or event monitoring solutions."
"The tool doesn't detect anomalies or new environments."
"The only challenge we faced with Wazuh was the lack of direct support."
"However, in the long term, if you want to build a SOC center on Wazuh, I do not recommend it because it's not stable."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Security Onion is an open-source solution."
"It is an open-source solution."
"Security Onion is a free solution."
"Wazuh is open-source, therefore it is free. You can purchase support for $1,000 a year."
"Wazuh is free and open source."
"The product price is neither too high nor too low."
"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."
"When I contacted customer care, they mentioned bundling options, that I found to be overall affordable."
"It is an open-source product."
"It is a free-of-cost solution."
"Wazuh is an open-source tool."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
12%
Government
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
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: December 2025.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.