Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the
shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in SIEM software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category,
wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
The 12 tools, reviewed
#1 Wazuh
Open source XDR and SIEM with a hosted option · United States · wazuh.com
Open source Agent-based Hosted option
Wazuh takes first place because it lets a company with no SIEM budget start with real detection instead of a spreadsheet and a promise. One agent per machine reads logs, watches file integrity, checks configurations against hardening guides and matches installed software against CVE data, and the server applies rules mapped to MITRE ATT&CK.
- Pricing: Open source + per-environment cloud tiers. The software is free to download and run. Free plan: open source.
- Best for: Small teams that can self-host
- Strengths: Log data analysis; File integrity monitoring; Configuration assessment.
Where it falls short
Self-hosting means you own upgrades, indexer storage, backups and rule tuning, and there is no vendor analyst watching the console. Support, consulting and training are sold separately as services.
Wrong for
Not for a company that wants someone else to watch alerts around the clock, or a SOC that needs mature case management and playbooks.
Visit Wazuh →
#2 Graylog Security
SIEM for lean teams with built-in data lake · United States · graylog.org
Free open edition Risk-based alerts Cloud, on-premises or hybrid
Graylog Security earns second place by pricing like a product for small teams. The license counts processed data in the active tier, from 10 GB per day, and ignores device count, user count and total stored data. Its data lake keeps years of logs without counting against that license, which addresses the retention trap that inflates other quotes.
- Pricing: Annual license by daily volume. Graylog Security starts at $18,000 per year from 10 GB per day or 100 consumption units. Free plan: free plan.
- Best for: Small SOCs that want a published price
- Strengths: Built-in data lake; Impossible travel detection; Log volume anomaly detection.
Where it falls short
The paid floor of $18,000 per year is steep for a firm with a few dozen servers, and the free Open edition has a narrower feature set and is released under the Server Side Public License.
Wrong for
Not for a team that needs a full SOAR playbook engine or a deep partner ecosystem, and not for one that cannot spend $18,000 on a first year.
Visit Graylog Security →
#3 Elastic Security
SIEM on the Elastic search platform, per-GB pricing · Netherlands · elastic.co
Per-GB pricing Endpoint agent included Serverless or self-managed
Elastic Security is third because it is the only entry on this list that publishes meter rates for both tiers and says there are no per-endpoint fees. A buyer can estimate a month from log volume, retention and egress without a sales call.
- Pricing: Usage-based per GB. Elastic Cloud Serverless lists Security Analytics Essentials from $0.09 per ingested GB and $0.017 per retained GB per month, and Complete from $0.11 and $0.019, with 50 GB of egress free, then $0.05 per GB. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Technical teams that want published rates
- Strengths: Prebuilt detection rules; Ad hoc analytics and machine learning; Triage, investigation and hunting.
Where it falls short
Elastic sells three deployment models and two analytics tiers with separate ingest, retention and egress meters, so an estimate needs its cost calculator and a log volume you already know. Egress is charged after 50 GB.
Wrong for
Not for an IT generalist who wants a console that arrives tuned, or a company that wants someone else to run detection.
Visit Elastic Security →
#4 Microsoft Sentinel
Cloud SIEM with SOAR, UEBA and a data lake · United States · azure.microsoft.com
Cloud-native Microsoft ecosystem Commitment tiers
Microsoft Sentinel is the natural choice for a company already living in Microsoft 365, Entra and Defender, because those signals arrive with little connector work and the console sits inside the Defender experience.
- Pricing: Per GB ingested, with commitment tiers. Pay-as-you-go or commitment tiers from 100 GB to 50,000 GB per day, with savings up to 52 percent over pay-as-you-go, plus a separate data lake tier for retention. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Microsoft 365 and Azure shops
- Strengths: 400+ data connectors; Analytics tier and data lake tier; Built-in SOAR playbooks.
Where it falls short
Cost forecasting takes work: the pricing page lists analytics ingestion, separate compute and storage meters for the data lake, and commitment tiers that apply per workspace and cannot be grouped across workspaces.
Wrong for
Not for a company on Google Workspace or a mostly on-premises Linux estate, where the Microsoft advantage disappears.
Visit Microsoft Sentinel →
#5 Guardsix (formerly Logpoint)
Sovereign SIEM, NDR and SOAR for European defenders · Denmark · logpoint.com
Data sovereignty On-premises option Copenhagen HQ
Guardsix, the company formerly known as Logpoint, is built for European organizations that want their security data, deployment and jurisdiction under their own control. Its pages target healthcare, energy, municipalities and defence, stress audit-ready evidence for NIS2 and GDPR, and advertise on-premises deployment without forced cloud adoption.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only. The pages we read promote pricing predictability and a SIEM sizing calculator but publish no price. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Regulated European buyers needing on-premises
- Strengths: SIEM; Network detection and response; SOAR.
Where it falls short
There is no published price and no free tier, so a first quote costs a sales conversation. The pages we read do not state an integration count, unlike Microsoft, Google or IBM.
Wrong for
Not for a startup that wants to try a product on a credit card or a cloud-native company with no data residency constraint.
Visit Guardsix (formerly Logpoint) →
#6 Rapid7 Incident Command
Cloud SIEM and XDR with asset-based pricing · United States · rapid7.com
Asset-based Managed option US-based
Rapid7 Incident Command, the SIEM that the vendor now presents at its InsightIDR product address, is the best mid-market bundle here for a firm that wants a SIEM and someone to help read it. Pricing is by asset, which a small company can count, instead of by gigabyte, which it cannot predict.
- Pricing: Per asset, quote. Three packages, Essential, Advanced and Ultimate, on asset-based pricing the vendor calls predictable. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Mid-sized firms wanting SIEM plus managed service
- Strengths: Detection, triage and investigation; Cyber asset attack surface management; External attack surface management.
Where it falls short
Retention past 90 or 180 days is an add-on, and the package grid lists Ransomware Prevention and the Intelligence Hub as separate add-ons. Prices are not public.
Wrong for
Not for a company that wants to run everything itself on open code, or a very large estate where asset-based pricing becomes expensive.
Visit Rapid7 Incident Command →
#7 Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM
Cloud-native SIEM with a SOC analyst agent · United States · sumologic.com
Cloud-native Unified logs and SIEM AI analyst agent
Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM puts security analytics and log search in one interface, which suits a team that runs both DevOps and security from the same data.
- Pricing: Credit-based, quote. Paid in Sumo credits on Essentials and Enterprise Suite plans, quoted per subscription, with SIEM listed as a separate product activated when quoted. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Cloud-first teams that also need log analytics
- Strengths: MITRE ATT&CK coverage explorer; Entity normalization; Risk assessment.
Where it falls short
The pricing page lists SIEM as a separately activated product configured at quote time, so the first price is a negotiation. Credit-based billing means the monthly figure moves with consumption.
Wrong for
Not for a company with data residency rules that forbid a vendor cloud, or a buyer who wants a published price.
Visit Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM →
#8 Splunk Enterprise Security
Enterprise SIEM with SOAR and UEBA, owned by Cisco · United States · splunk.com
Enterprise SOC Risk-based alerting Cisco-owned
Splunk Enterprise Security is the reference platform for a team that has a SOC and wants to engineer its own detections. Risk-based alerting groups low-level events by asset or user, and the vendor says it can reduce alert volume by up to 90 percent.
- Pricing: Quote only, by edition. Two editions, Essentials and Premier, both sold by quote. The pricing page we fetched published no figures. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Dedicated SOCs with Splunk data already
- Strengths: Risk-based alerting; SOAR; User and entity behavior analytics.
Where it falls short
No price is shown on the pages we fetched, only a request for a quote per edition. The product assumes engineers who write searches and tune detections.
Wrong for
Not for a company with no analyst, or one that wants a quick start on a fixed budget.
Visit Splunk Enterprise Security →
#9 Exabeam
Behavior-analytics SIEM from the Exabeam and LogRhythm merger · United States · exabeam.com
Behavior analytics Cloud or self-hosted US-based
Exabeam is the SIEM to look at when your main worry is a compromised or malicious account, not a perimeter breach. Its product line leads with user and agent behavior analytics and use-case packages for insider threats, external threats and compliance.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only. The pages we fetched list no prices, and offer a demo. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Teams focused on insider threat detection
- Strengths: New-Scale SIEM; New-Scale Analytics; Agent behavior analytics.
Where it falls short
No price is published and the buying path is a demo. After the merger the portfolio has two lineages, New-Scale and LogRhythm, so the first sales call has to settle which product you are actually buying.
Wrong for
Not for a small company without an analyst or for someone who wants a self-service trial.
Visit Exabeam →
#10 CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM
SIEM on the Falcon platform with index-free search · United States · crowdstrike.com
Endpoint vendor Index-free search Agentic SOC
Falcon Next-Gen SIEM is the SIEM for a company that has already chosen CrowdStrike on endpoints. The vendor's FAQ says data from licensed Falcon modules, such as endpoint, identity and cloud telemetry, reaches the SIEM without extra ingestion charges. Search is index-free, which the vendor says is up to 150 times faster than legacy SIEMs.
- Pricing: Quote; Falcon data included. Sold by quote. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Existing CrowdStrike endpoint customers
- Strengths: Index-free architecture; Third-party data ingestion; Agentic SOAR.
Where it falls short
Pricing is not published, the SIEM sits inside a very large platform with many modules, and the no-charge statement covers licensed Falcon modules, not logs from your firewalls, mail gateway or other vendors.
Wrong for
Not for a company on another endpoint product that only wants central logging.
Visit CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM →
#11 Google Security Operations
Cloud SIEM and SOAR with one year of retention · United States · cloud.google.com
Google Cloud One year retention Gemini
Google Security Operations bundles SIEM and SOAR with a year of security telemetry retention at no extra charge, which removes the usual argument about how long to keep logs. The Standard package lists 12 months of hot retention, 700-plus parsers, 300-plus SOAR integrations and limits of 1,000 single-event and 75 multi-event rules.
- Pricing: Per ingestion, quote by package. Packages (Standard, Enterprise, Enterprise Plus) based on ingestion, with one year of telemetry retention included. Each package is priced by contacting sales. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Large estates on Google Cloud
- Strengths: 700+ parsers; 300+ SOAR integrations; Detection engine with YARA-L rules.
Where it falls short
Pricing is by quote for every package, and the rule caps in the lower packages are a limit a growing team can hit. Writing detections means learning YARA-L, which does not port to other products.
Wrong for
Not for a team that wants to start on a published monthly price or keep detection rules portable.
Visit Google Security Operations →
#12 IBM QRadar SIEM
On-premises SIEM licensed by events or servers · United States · ibm.com
On-premises Sigma support IBM
IBM QRadar SIEM is a long-established product for on-premises security operations, and its licensing is easy to reason about for a large estate. The usage model counts events per second and flows per minute, while the enterprise model counts managed virtual servers and allows unlimited log events.
- Pricing: Per EPS/FPM or per managed server. Two licensing models: events per second and flows per minute on appliances, or an enterprise model counted in managed virtual servers. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Large on-premises security operations
- Strengths: User behavior analytics; Sigma rule import; Network threat analytics.
Where it falls short
No price is published and the pricing page leads to a demo. Software is delivered as hardware and virtual appliances, so a company must place and maintain them, and the pages we fetched describe no self-service cloud offering.
Wrong for
Not for a small team without appliances or a security operations staff, or anyone who wants a cloud service they can start on a card.
Visit IBM QRadar SIEM →
Questions and answers
What is the best SIEM software in 2026?
Wazuh ranks first of 12, best for small teams that can self-host. Graylog Security is second (small SOCs that want a published price) and Elastic Security third (technical teams that want published rates). Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands, wherever the category has them.
What is the difference between a SIEM and a log management tool?
Log management stores and searches logs. A SIEM adds correlation rules, threat intelligence, alert triage and case handling on top, so it can say that a login from two countries followed by a mailbox rule change looks like a takeover.
How much does a SIEM cost?
The published numbers range widely. Wazuh software is free, and Wazuh Cloud starts at $571 per month for up to 100 agents. Graylog Enterprise starts at $15,000 per year and Graylog Security at $18,000 per year.
Is there a free SIEM that a small business can run?
Yes. Wazuh is free and open source, with a free cloud trial of 14 days, and Graylog Open is permanently free with no ingest cap, though with a narrower feature set than the paid editions.
Do small companies need a SIEM at all?
Not always. If your estate is a handful of cloud services, the audit logs and alerting built into those services may cover the risk.
What is the difference between SIEM, XDR and SOAR?
SIEM correlates logs from everywhere. XDR focuses on telemetry from endpoints, identities and cloud workloads, usually from one vendor's sensors. SOAR runs automated playbooks after an alert fires.
What should we log first?
Start with identity: your directory or single sign-on provider, because stolen credentials drive most intrusions. Next come firewall and VPN logs, email gateway events, endpoint detection alerts and cloud audit trails such as admin actions.
How long should a SIEM retain logs?
Match the longest requirement you have. Many frameworks and insurers ask for at least a year of retained logs, with a few months immediately searchable.
Can a SIEM replace endpoint protection?
No. A SIEM reads what other tools report, while endpoint protection blocks and contains malware on the device.
How do we move from one SIEM to another?
Run both for at least one retention period.
Is a cloud SIEM or an on-premises SIEM better?
Cloud suits teams without spare server staff and sources that are already in the cloud. On-premises suits regulated environments where logs may not leave the building, and Guardsix and IBM QRadar both describe on-premises deployment.
