Splunk Enterprise Security vs syslog-ng comparison

Splunk and One Identity are both solutions in the Log Management category. Splunk is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4, while One Identity is ranked #19 with an average rating of 9.3. Splunk holds a 7.4% mindshare in Log Management, compared to One Identity’s 2.6% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Splunk users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of One Identity users who would recommend it.

Splunk Enterprise Security

Read 305 Splunk Enterprise Security reviews

15,512 Views
12,651 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

syslog-ng

Read 5 syslog-ng reviews

4,498 Views
3,635 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Splunk Enterprise Security

syslog-ng

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Splunk Enterprise Security and syslog-ng are competing in data monitoring and security management. Splunk Enterprise Security seems to have an upper hand in integrated security analytics and incident response, while syslog-ng stands out for robust log management and real-time data processing.

Features: Splunk Enterprise Security offers advanced security analytics, correlation analysis, and threat intelligence gathering with seamless handling of large data volumes. syslog-ng provides efficient log collection and real-time data streaming in a lightweight log management package.

Room for Improvement: Splunk Enterprise Security could enhance its cost-effectiveness and further streamline its initial setup process. syslog-ng could benefit from expanding its analytics capabilities and integrating more proactive threat detection features to compete with Splunk's comprehensive approach.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Splunk Enterprise Security offers on-premises and cloud deployment with extensive support services. Its diverse service options outshine competitors, while syslog-ng is appreciated for its easy installation and minimal configuration, offering a significant advantage in deployment simplicity.

Pricing and ROI: Splunk Enterprise Security involves higher costs due to its feature-rich offerings, justifying long-term ROI for organizations needing advanced analytics. syslog-ng is cost-efficient, offering significant ROI for environments focused on streamlined log management without broad analytics, suiting budget-conscious businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed Splunk Enterprise Security vs. syslog-ng Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Enterprise Security vs. syslog-ng

March 2025

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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

Splunk Enterprise Security

Ranking in Log Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

305

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (1st), IT Operations Analytics (1st)

syslog-ng

Ranking in Log Management

19th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Splunk Enterprise Security is 7.4%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of syslog-ng is 2.6%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management

Featured Reviews

ROBERT-CHRISTIAN

CTO Security & Resilience at Kyndryl

Has many predefined correlation rules and is brilliant for investigation and log analysis

It is very complicated to write your own correlation rules without the help of Splunk support. What Splunk could do better is to create an API to the standard SIEM tools, such as Microsoft Sentinel. The idea would be to make it less painful. In ELK Stack, Kibana is the query language with which you can search log files. I believe Splunk has also a query language in which they search their log files, but once you have identified the log file that you want to use for further security correlation, you want to very quickly transport that into your SIEM tool, such as Microsoft Sentinel. That is something that Splunk could make a little bit less painful because it is a lot of effort to find that log file and forward it. An API with Microsoft Sentinel or a similar SIEM tool would be a good idea.

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RyanVargas

Senior Director and Senior Systems Engineer (Dual Role), IT Infrastructure and Security at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

It's a user-friendly open-source solution that can replace or augment a commercial product in some cases

I rate syslog-ng 10 out of 10. It's free and easy to use. It has built-in tools that help us index the various logs sent to it. It's a solid log product. If you're looking for a SIEM solution, syslog-ng will work as a stopgap measure at beginning of the project. It can also work as an injector for a true SIEM solution. You can send all the logs to syslog-ng and forward all the data to the SIEM solution after you've cleaned up the data and got the pertinent information. It's a good front end for a commercial SIEM solution, which becomes more expensive as you load more data into it. I would highly recommend syslog-ng for that use case. However, if you lack the expertise, you might need to go with a cloud-based SIEM instead. You need some in-house expertise or an outside consultant to manage it and set it up.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Splunk Enterprise Security enhances business resilience and assists with threat detection by centralizing security data."

"The data representation options in the dashboards are excellent."

"We can do things in minutes instead of days."

"The graph visualization is the most valuable feature."

"It is easy to use in any environment."

"You can integrate Splunk with third-party security automation solutions and set rules for automatic response."

"It follows MITRE ATT&CK and Cyber Kill Chain frameworks. There are certain notable events for which we can configure our security posture."

"Splunk has a wide range of features that customers use to find and analyze all kinds of logs."

More Splunk Enterprise Security pros

"Syslog-ng provides easy access to all my logs. It helps me show managers and other clients precisely where an incident occurred. I also like it because you can integrate syslog-ng with multiple solutions to allow real-time monitoring."

"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."

"Syslog-ng has a separate config file in addition to the core configuration."

"The ability to extract and store the logs is the most valuable feature of syslog-ng."

"For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior."

Cons

"Previously, they developed custom connectors or add-ons for a lot of applications. But that number can be upgraded still. There are a lot of applications in the world that are not supported."

"Custom visualizations are real hard. While the default visualizations are good, creating enhanced visualizations are complex."

"We are waiting for Dashboard Studio to mature a little bit more. There are some things that we are using with Classic Dashboards which have not yet made it to Dashboard Studio. We are waiting for that."

"Certain sections of the developer documentation could use some updating and clarification."

"Over time I will have more requirements and I can foresee the solution could improve the search algorithm to run and output the data faster."

"For us, the area that Splunk Enterprise Security can improve is performance optimization."

"They could offer pre-built search queries for everyday use cases like brute force attacks, DDoS attacks, and other security threats."

"Splunk Enterprise Security should provide a better and richer integration."

More Splunk Enterprise Security cons

"Syslog-ng has built-in features that we can use to create alerts for a SIEM solution. It isn't a true SIEM solution, but it's sufficient for the time being."

"There is room for improvement in terms of observability."

"There is always the potential for additional integration and protocol extensions."

"The filtering has room for improvement."

"It's hard to find people who know how to use syslog-ng. I often find problems with configurations, and solutions aren't integrated correctly with syslog-ng. For example, there might be data with extra decimals, or the collector agents are incorrectly named. It isn't a problem with the solution; it's a lack of professionals."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is an annual license required to use this solution."

"Pricing and licensing is quite expensive. But for the value the product provides, it seems at par in the market."

"Price-wise, if you compare QRadar to Splunk for SIEM functionality then they are in the same range but when you integrate SOAR with these solutions, Splunk takes the lead and is more competitive."

"My experience with the solution's setup cost, pricing, and licensing was really good."

"As a team, we prefer the old pricing model with a perpetual license. We are still evaluating the whole subscription-based model."

"Licensing is a yearly, one-time cost."

"Splunk Enterprise Security is expensive."

"Splunk can be an expensive solution. It all depends on how we configure the alerts and the events from the endpoints. You can save some money if you do that correctly. If not, it becomes an expensive solution."

More Splunk Enterprise Security pricing and cost advice

"Syslog-ng is a free open-source solution."

"Syslog-ng is open-source."

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Comparison Review

Vinod Shankar

Manager, Enterprise Risk Consulting at Deloitte & Touche

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What SOC product do you recommend?

For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also, rememb...

See all answers

What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?

It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...

See all answers

How does Splunk compare with Azure Monitor?

Splunk handles a high amount of data very well. We use Splunk to capture information and as an aggregator for monitoring information from different sources. Splunk is very good at alerting us if we...

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What do you like most about syslog-ng?

For us, the most valuable feature is the use of compound search for searching logs at a specific time, by a specific user, or specific behavior.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for syslog-ng?

The pricing is in the middle. I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with one being expensive and ten being cheap.

See all answers

What needs improvement with syslog-ng?

There is room for improvement in terms of observability. Additionally, a possible new feature could be Kafka integration.

See all answers

Comparisons

Wazuh vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Security QRadar vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 9% of the time

Dynatrace vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 8% of the time

Datadog vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 5% of the time

Sentinel vs Splunk Enterprise Security

Compared 4% of the time

More Splunk Enterprise Security Competitors

Graylog vs syslog-ng

Compared 29% of the time

SolarWinds Kiwi Syslog Server vs syslog-ng

Compared 26% of the time

Grafana Loki vs syslog-ng

Compared 14% of the time

Elastic Stack vs syslog-ng

Compared 5% of the time

Cribl vs syslog-ng

Compared 4% of the time

More syslog-ng Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Enterprise Security

March 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Log Management

March 2025

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Overview

Splunk Enterprise Security is widely used for security operations, including threat detection, incident response, and log monitoring. It centralizes log management, offers security analytics, and ensures compliance, enhancing the overall security posture of organizations.

Companies leverage Splunk Enterprise Security to monitor endpoints, networks, and users, detecting anomalies, brute force attacks, and unauthorized access. They use it for fraud detection, machine learning, and real-time alerts within their SOCs. The platform enhances visibility and correlates data from multiple sources to identify security threats efficiently. Key features include comprehensive dashboards, excellent reporting capabilities, robust log aggregation, and flexible data ingestion. Users appreciate its SIEM capabilities, threat intelligence, risk-based alerting, and correlation searches. Highly scalable and stable, it suits multi-cloud environments, reducing alert volumes and speeding up investigations.

What are the key features?

Comprehensive Dashboards: Provide a holistic view of security operations.
Flexible Data Ingestion: Supports various data sources for better analysis.
Robust Log Aggregation: Centralizes log management for easier monitoring.
Machine Learning Toolkit: Enhances threat detection and prediction capabilities.
SIEM Capabilities: Integrates security information and event management.
Threat Intelligence: Utilizes external information to improve security measures.
Risk-Based Alerting: Prioritizes alerts based on the risk they pose.
Correlation Searches: Identifies and correlates security events effectively.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Enhanced Visibility: Improves monitoring across endpoints, networks, and users.
Faster Incident Response: Speeds up identification and resolution of security issues.
Reduced Alert Volumes: Lowers false positives and enhances signal-to-noise ratio.
Scalability: Adapts to growing and changing security needs.
Improved Security Operations: Integrates multiple security facets into one platform.

Splunk Enterprise Security is implemented across industries like finance, healthcare, and retail. Financial institutions use it for fraud detection and compliance, while healthcare organizations leverage its capabilities to safeguard patient data. Retailers deploy it to protect customer information and ensure secure transactions.

Splunk

Optimizing SIEM
syslog-ng is the log management solution that improves the performance of your SIEM solution by reducing the amount and improving the quality of data feeding your SIEM.

Rapid search and troubleshooting
With syslog-ng Store Box, you can find the answer. Search billions of logs in seconds using full text queries with Boolean operators to pinpoint critical logs.

Meeting compliance requirements
syslog-ng Store Box provides secure, tamper-proof storage and custom reporting to demonstrate compliance.

Big data ingestion
syslog-ng can deliver data from a wide variety of sources to Hadoop, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, and Kafka as well as many others.

Universal log collection and routing
syslog-ng flexibly routes log data from X sources to Y destinations. Instead of deploying multiple agents on hosts, organizations can unify their log data collection and management.

Secure data archive
syslog-ng Store Box provides automated archiving, tamper-proof encrypted storage, granular access controls to protect log data. The largest appliance can store up to 10TB of raw logs.

One Identity

Sample Customers

Splunk has more than 7,000 customers spread across over 90 countries. These customers include Telenor, UniCredit, ideeli, McKenney's, Tesco, and SurveyMonkey.

Tecnocom, University of Victoria, University of Exeter, Datapath

Buyer's Guide

Splunk Enterprise Security vs. syslog-ng

March 2025

Free Report: Splunk Enterprise Security vs. syslog-ng

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