The October 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant reshuffled the SIEM market significantly. Google Chronicle climbed to the highest position on “Completeness of Vision.” CrowdStrike entered as a Visionary in its first year. ArcSight finally dropped out entirely, ending an era. Meanwhile, Splunk operates under Cisco ownership with new workload-based pricing, and every platform now ships with an AI investigation assistant. The SIEM market is converging with XDR and security analytics, making pure log aggregation a commodity.
How We Evaluated
We assessed platforms on detection engineering quality and customizability. Data ingestion capacity, source breadth, and cost predictability mattered. Investigation workflow, analyst experience, and case management were key factors. AI capabilities including LLM-powered investigation, automated triage, and response suggestions played a major role. We also weighed integration with SOAR, EDR/XDR, threat intelligence, and ticketing systems, plus overall pricing model predictability and scalability.
1. Microsoft Sentinel
Score: 96/100
Microsoft Sentinel leads the 2025 Gartner MQ as a Leader and scored highest in the 2025 Forrester Wave for detection engineering, AI integration, and roadmap innovation. The unified Defender portal now combines Sentinel SIEM, Defender XDR, and Copilot for Security into a single investigation surface.
The cloud-native architecture scales effectively without limits on Azure. Copilot for Security provides natural language investigation, KQL generation, and incident summarization. A new Sentinel Data Lake tier offers long-term log storage at up to 85% lower cost. The platform unifies with Defender XDR for correlated detection across endpoint, identity, email, and cloud. With over 350 out-of-box data connectors, it has the broadest integration library. Pricing stays predictable with commitment tiers, making it competitive for Azure-heavy environments.
Best for: Microsoft-centric enterprises wanting unified SIEM plus XDR with AI-powered investigation and Azure-native scalability
2. Splunk Enterprise Security (Cisco)
Score: 94/100
Now fully integrated under Cisco following the $28B acquisition closed in 2024, Splunk retains its position as a Gartner MQ Leader. New workload-based pricing under Cisco aims to address the long-standing complaint about ingest-based cost unpredictability. Integration with Cisco’s network infrastructure and Talos threat intelligence deepens the security data pipeline.
SPL2 remains the most mature and flexible search language in the market. The largest ecosystem of apps, integrations, and community content supports nearly any use case. Splunk AI Assistant enables natural language search and investigation. New workload-based pricing reduces anxiety around log volume spikes. Cisco Talos threat intelligence now integrates into detection content. Mission Control provides unified SIEM/SOAR workflow.
Best for: Enterprises with complex, heterogeneous environments needing maximum data source flexibility and custom analytics
3. Google Chronicle (SecOps)
Score: 92/100
Google Chronicle achieved the highest “Completeness of Vision” score in the 2025 Gartner MQ, remarkable for a platform in only its second year on the quadrant. Google’s infrastructure advantage enables petabyte-scale data ingestion at fixed pricing, while Gemini AI powers natural language investigation.
Fixed-price data ingestion regardless of volume eliminates difficult data cost decisions. Gemini AI handles natural language search, detection authoring, and incident response. Petabyte-scale architecture runs on Google’s core infrastructure. YARA-L detection language enables expressive, community-shareable rules. Strong integration with Google Cloud, Mandiant threat intelligence, and VirusTotal rounds out the platform. It was the fastest-growing SIEM by customer acquisition in 2025.
Best for: Organizations drowning in data costs who want predictable pricing and Google-scale infrastructure for security analytics
4. CrowdStrike Falcon LogScale
Score: 89/100
CrowdStrike entered the 2025 Gartner MQ as a Visionary in its first year, the only vendor to debut at that position. Falcon LogScale, formerly Humio, provides streaming log management and SIEM capabilities integrated with the Falcon XDR platform. The architecture processes data in-stream without indexing, enabling faster search at lower storage costs.
The index-free streaming architecture processes logs in real-time. Native integration with CrowdStrike Falcon endpoint, cloud, and identity data creates a unified view. Charlotte AI provides natural language threat hunting and investigation. OverWatch managed hunting extends across SIEM telemetry. Pricing stays competitive for CrowdStrike customers consolidating tools.
Best for: CrowdStrike Falcon customers wanting to consolidate SIEM and XDR onto a single platform with streaming analytics
5. Elastic Security
Score: 87/100
Elastic Security leverages the Elasticsearch platform’s search capabilities for security analytics, with open detection rules and a transparent approach to threat detection. The platform offers flexibility for organizations wanting to build custom security analytics workflows.
Open detection rules with community contributions and MITRE ATT&CK mapping are available to all users. Elasticsearch’s powerful search engine supports ad-hoc investigation and hunting. Flexible deployment options include cloud via Elastic Cloud, self-managed, or hybrid. ES|QL query language provides a SQL-like experience for analysts. Machine learning jobs handle anomaly detection and user behavior analytics. Cost stays reasonable for organizations comfortable managing Elasticsearch infrastructure.
Best for: Security teams with strong engineering capabilities who value open detection rules and search flexibility
6. Exabeam
Score: 85/100
Exabeam maintained its Leader position in the 2025 Gartner MQ for the sixth consecutive time, though its differentiation is narrowing as competitors adopt similar UEBA and behavioral analytics capabilities. The New-Scale SIEM platform combines cloud-native SIEM with user and entity behavior analytics.
Industry-leading User and Entity Behavior Analytics comes with automated timelines. Smart Timelines automatically reconstruct user and entity sessions. New-Scale SIEM provides cloud-native deployment with behavioral detection. Over 750 pre-built detection models target insider threats and account compromise. Automated investigation workflows reduce analyst workload.
Best for: Organizations where insider threat detection and user behavior analytics are primary use cases
7. Fortinet FortiSIEM
Score: 83/100
Fortinet retains its Challenger position in the 2025 Gartner MQ for the eighth consecutive time. FortiSIEM differentiates through deep integration with the Fortinet Security Fabric and competitive pricing for mid-market organizations already invested in FortiGate infrastructure.
Native integration covers FortiGate, FortiEDR, FortiSOAR, and the Security Fabric. Business-service-oriented dashboards map security events to business impact. Pricing stays competitive with a predictable licensing model. Built-in UEBA capabilities come standard. CMDB-integrated asset discovery and monitoring plus both agent-based and agentless data collection round out the feature set.
Best for: Fortinet Security Fabric customers wanting integrated SIEM without adding another vendor
8. Gurucul
Score: 82/100
Gurucul entered the Leaders quadrant in the 2025 Gartner MQ, recognized for its advanced analytics and machine learning-driven approach. The REVEAL platform provides risk-based security analytics focused on identity-centric threat detection.
A risk-scoring engine correlates user, entity, and network behavior. Over 3,000 pre-built machine learning models are included. Strong privileged access analytics and insider threat detection capabilities stand out. Cloud-native and on-premises deployment options are available. The identity-centric approach aligns well with zero trust architectures.
Best for: Organizations prioritizing identity-centric threat detection and risk-based security analytics
9. Securonix
Score: 80/100
Securonix maintains its position in the Gartner MQ but faces differentiation challenges as its UEBA-centric approach is increasingly replicated by larger platforms. The company’s strength in behavioral analytics remains relevant for insider threat and identity-focused detection.
Advanced UEBA with peer-group analysis and risk scoring helps identify anomalies. Threat content-as-a-service provides regularly updated detection packages. Cloud-native architecture supports bring-your-own-data-lake options. Strong healthcare and financial services vertical expertise informs the detection library. Autonomous Threat Sweeper retroactively searches for new IOCs.
Best for: Healthcare and financial services organizations with mature insider threat programs
10. Datadog Security
Score: 78/100
Datadog entered the Gartner SIEM conversation for the first time in 2025, bringing its observability-first approach to security. Cloud SIEM integrates with Datadog’s APM, infrastructure monitoring, and log management, appealing to DevOps-oriented teams.
A unified platform combines observability, APM, and security in one agent. Cloud SIEM includes over 800 out-of-box detection rules with MITRE mapping. The familiar interface works well for teams already using Datadog for observability. Workflow automation handles response orchestration. Security-focused pricing stays separate from observability licensing. Cloud Workload Security and Application Security Management come included.
Best for: DevOps-oriented organizations already using Datadog for observability who want security integrated into the same platform
Where the Market Is Heading
Several trends are defining the SIEM market in 2026.
SIEM and XDR are converging. The line between the two is dissolving, with Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and Palo Alto now offering unified platforms that serve both functions.
AI assistants are reshaping analyst workflow. Every Leader now ships an AI copilot. The competitive question is no longer “do you have AI?” but “how good is your AI at reducing investigation time?”
Pricing models are evolving. Google’s fixed-price model and Splunk’s workload-based pricing challenge the traditional per-GB-ingested model that penalized organizations for collecting more data.
The ArcSight era has ended. The former market leader’s exit from the Gartner MQ marks the definitive end of on-premises SIEM dominance.
Consolidation pressure continues. Organizations increasingly choose SIEM based on what XDR, SOAR, and threat intelligence the vendor bundles. Standalone SIEM is becoming rare.