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Security Onion vs Wazuh comparison

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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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.2
Security Onion offers cost-effective, open-source tools for enhanced threat detection and efficient incident response, benefiting organizations and learners.
Sentiment score
3.3
Wazuh offers rapid threat response and cost-effective security, benefiting small businesses with significant savings and no proprietary costs.
We achieve a return on investment through improved threat detection and faster incident response in log management and centralized visibility across the infrastructure.
Angular developer at Flourish software
With this kind of tool, students can save money by using open-source software while gaining experience in working with different logs and detection systems, leading to time savings during their studies.
BCGEU Faculty, Computer Information Systems Administration at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
We could save some cost while integrating Security Onion in our organization to help us manage some simplified threat detection alerts.
Security Operation Center Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have seen value in security cost savings with Wazuh, as using proprietary EDR versions could save us substantial money.
Security Consultant at ebenezer.okoh@agorasecurity.it
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
Security Onion's customer service is praised for responsiveness, helpful technical support, and robust community resources, even for free users.
Sentiment score
3.0
Wazuh offers valuable community forums and support, with a preference for cloud services despite occasional response time delays.
Customer support for Security Onion is very good
Angular developer at Flourish software
I rate the customer support nine out of ten.
Security Operation Center Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
I can give it nine to 9.5 or 10 points for support.
Network Engineer at Crisp System India Pvt Ltd
They responded quickly, which was crucial as I was on a time constraint.
Cyber Security Software Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The documentation is good and provides clear instructions, though it's targeted at those with technical backgrounds.
Student at Dakota State University
There is no dedicated technical support for Wazuh as it is open source.
Security Operations Center Analyst at mailbox.org
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Security Onion effectively scales for small to large environments, though API integration can be challenging; performance depends on system resources.
Sentiment score
6.4
Wazuh is seen as scalable, fitting small to medium businesses, with potential challenges in larger data and sectors.
Security Onion is a highly scalable platform, making it suitable for medium to large-scale enterprises.
Angular developer at Flourish software
I would say it's scalable based on your license, the cost of implementation, and your own architecture as well.
Security Operation Center Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
It can accommodate thousands of endpoints on one instance, and multiple instances can run for different clients.
Security Operations Center Analyst at mailbox.org
Currently, I don't see any limitations in terms of scalability as Wazuh can still connect many endpoints.
Security Consultant at ebenezer.okoh@agorasecurity.it
This is because of the backend work the agent is collecting and processing, causing the laptop to slow down and the bandwidth to decrease.
Security Consultant at Payatu
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Security Onion is reliable, performing well in VMware with occasional issues, mainly related to configuration, resources, or storage needs.
Sentiment score
6.3
Wazuh is reliable for small to mid-level businesses, despite occasional bugs and maintenance challenges affecting stability.
Since using Security Onion, we have not faced any issues or downtime, which indicates it is very stable.
Angular developer at Flourish software
Security Onion is reliable and is a good product, having no glitches or latency problems.
Network Engineer at Crisp System India Pvt Ltd
Security Onion is pretty stable, with the only significant issue being that I had to increase the storage.
The stability of Wazuh is largely dependent on maintenance.
Security Operations Center Analyst at mailbox.org
The indexer frequently times out, requiring system restarts.
Cyber Security Software Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
In one year, we faced about twelve tickets regarding the system going down due to storage issues.
Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Security Onion needs a more intuitive setup, improved UI, enhanced documentation, and reduced complexity for better usability.
Wazuh faces scalability and integration issues, needing enhanced security, AI features, and better support for large enterprises.
The biggest challenges I have experienced with Security Onion are the learning curve and resource requirements, as it is not necessarily something you can install and immediately understand without networking and Linux knowledge.
A specific guideline for helping beginners understand the detection and investigation features of Security Onion would be beneficial.
BCGEU Faculty, Computer Information Systems Administration at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Security Onion could be improved by making the user interface more intuitive for new users and simplifying the initial setup and configuration process.
Security Operation Center Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Machine learning is needed along with understanding user behavior and behavioral patterns.
Engineer Information Security at N-Able (Pvt) Ltd
If we had a correlation of logs where I could just search one unique ID and then the unique ID pulls every system in a time-wise manner, that would be a great improvement I would suggest.
Security Consultant at Payatu
I think Wazuh should improve by introducing AI functionalities, as it would be beneficial to see AI incorporated in the threat hunting and detection functionalities.
Security Consultant at ebenezer.okoh@agorasecurity.it
 

Setup Cost

Security Onion provides cost-effective solutions with free core features, requiring hardware for deployment, and offers enterprise support.
Wazuh's open-source solution is cost-effective for enterprises, with cloud costs and scalability as key considerations.
Security Onion does not require any cost, as it is open-source and free.
Angular developer at Flourish software
I do not have a license for Security Onion since I have the free version, meaning it does not cost me anything.
The enterprise version should be reasonably priced, not so expensive.
Network Engineer at Crisp System India Pvt Ltd
Wazuh is completely free of charge.
Security Consultant at ebenezer.okoh@agorasecurity.it
I would definitely recommend Wazuh, especially considering Fortinet's licensing model which is confusing and overpriced in my opinion.
Engineer Information Security at N-Able (Pvt) Ltd
Wazuh is free to use, but there are licensing fees for third parties.
Cyber Security Software Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Security Onion integrates monitoring tools for threat detection, log management, and network analysis, offering accessible and cost-effective security.
Wazuh offers open-source security solutions with cloud integration, exceptional logging, scalability, and compatibility with platforms like Azure and AWS.
One of the best features that Security Onion offers is that it is open source, free to install in a lab environment, and allows for monitoring network traffic and investigating potential attacks while integrating other tools such as Suricata, Zeek, and Elastic-based components that are useful for diving into the logs, along with its threat detection capabilities to see network activity, including port scans, unusual connections, and potential intrusion attempts.
BCGEU Faculty, Computer Information Systems Administration at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Tools such as Suricata and Zeek help identify suspicious network activity and provide detailed information for investigating and analyzing the potential threat which is coming to any organization.
Security Operation Center Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most valuable features of Security Onion are its threat detection capabilities, centralized log management system, and network security monitoring.
Angular developer at Flourish software
Wazuh is a SIEM tool that is highly customizable and versatile.
Security Operations Center Analyst at mailbox.org
The system allows us to monitor endpoints effectively and collect security data that can be utilized across other platforms such as SOAR.
Security Consultant at ebenezer.okoh@agorasecurity.it
With this open source tool, organizations can establish their own customized setup.
Cyber Security Software Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Security Onion
Ranking in Log Management
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Wazuh
Ranking in Log Management
2nd
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Security Onion is 1.5%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wazuh is 3.7%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Log Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Wazuh3.7%
Security Onion1.5%
Other94.8%
Log Management
 

Featured Reviews

CO
Security Operation Center Analyst at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Improved threat detection and incident response has revealed training and usability gaps
What I would like to add is that if the interface or if there is less to work on technical knowledge. For example, people with no technical knowledge cannot use this, so they need to have at least a deep or substantial level of technical knowledge to be able to use these tools. If there is a way there can be an optimization to accommodate those with no technical knowledge in the process using tools compared to tools such as Sentinel and Splunk, which also doesn't require much technical knowledge to be able to use. That would also help. I think Security Onion could be improved by making the user interface more intuitive for new users and simplifying the initial setup and configuration process. Security Onion needs to be simplified so that those with less technical knowledge can be able to come in and use it. Guidance on prioritizing alerts will also be helpful, especially in an environment where security analysts deal with a high volume of security events. I also would like to mention that it needs to be more straightforward integration with other security tools. There needs to be a handshake between Security Onion and other same tools to help in endpoint detection and protection against threats. Another improvement that could also enhance is the reporting and visualization of the key metrics such as detection time, the incident, the overall interface of the analysis, and the false rate, which will also give Security Onion a better view for security analysts to be able to use and understand it. I would like to see the interface to be more simplified. I also would like to see the visualization to be more improved. I also would like to see the support features to be something that junior analysts or those coming in to start up their careers can be able to use without needing deep technical knowledge.
Sudarson Prabhu - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at Payatu
File integrity monitoring has strengthened our data protection and supports compliance needs
I expected one thing from the dashboard in Wazuh. In ManageEngine, when you use ManageEngine, you can assign a unique ID to all employees. Then with the unique ID, if you search any unique ID in the dashboard itself, you can get the unique ID everywhere, including where the laptop has been logged in, when the logout happened, and what actions have been done for that unique ID. I expected the same in Wazuh, but whenever we want to check any monitoring activities for a specific person, we need to search for the endpoint and then get the endpoint details from our Active Directory or wherever we have the endpoint name stored in our resources, and then search for the endpoint to see the history for that specific endpoint only. This made a simple thing a bit complex. If we had a correlation of logs where I could just search one unique ID and then the unique ID pulls every system in a time-wise manner, that would be a great improvement I would suggest.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
13%
University
11%
Government
10%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
13%
University
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Security Onion?
I have not had a problem with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because my experience with Security Onion's pricing has been positive. Security Onion is open-source, so I was able to use its core ...
What needs improvement with Security Onion?
One way Security Onion could improve is by making the initial setup and configuration easier, especially for new users. When I first started working with it, I experienced challenges configuring ne...
What advice do you have for others considering Security Onion?
I would give Security Onion a rating of 10 out of 10. I have used other platforms, and I can tell that Security Onion provides powerful security monitoring and investigation tools in one platform, ...
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?
I expected one thing from the dashboard in Wazuh. In ManageEngine, when you use ManageEngine, you can assign a unique ID to all employees. Then with the unique ID, if you search any unique ID in th...
What is your primary use case for Wazuh?
Our organization is focusing on the integrity part for implementing Wazuh. We were checking solutions for File Integrity Monitoring systems that are available online. Wazuh caught my attention as a...
 

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: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.