Sheet 32 / Elastic Security vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Digital Signet / SIEM Vendor Dossier 2026
Verified 2026-06-20
Elastic Security vs Splunk Enterprise Security
Decision pivot, not duplicate content. One paragraph per attribute the choice actually rests on.
Elastic Security
- Owner
- Elastic N.V.
- Pricing model
- Per-resource pricing on Elastic Cloud Serverless Security. Self-managed ELK foundation remains free; security features are tiered.
- Cheapest rate
- Serverless Security ingest at $0.85/GB list. Compute and storage billed separately as VCU and GB-month.[16]
- MITRE coverage
- 79%
- AI agent
- Elastic AI Assistant
Pivot
If lock-in is the procurement priority: Elastic. If pre-built content is: Splunk.
Splunk Enterprise Security
- Owner
- Cisco (2024-03-18)
- Pricing model
- Ingest-based (per GB/day) plus Workload Pricing alternative. ES is an add-on layered on Splunk Cloud or Enterprise. Multi-year discounts of 20-30% are routine.
- Cheapest rate
- Quote-only. Channel reports list $2,000-3,500/GB/year on base platform; ES add-on $20-40/GB/day on top.[1]
- MITRE coverage
- 92%
- AI agent
- Splunk AI Assistant for SecOps
Decision rule
Elastic Serverless Security ingest at $0.85/GB undercuts Splunk Workload Pricing across most volumes, but compute and storage billed separately changes the headline number. The structural advantage is the ELK open-source escape hatch: a buyer priced out at the commercial tier can run self-managed on the same query language.
Content gap
Splunk ES content library still leads on detection breadth. Elastic AI Assistant closes the analyst-velocity gap; it does not close the content gap.
Ingest TCO strip
Live calculator
| Vendor | Annual TCO | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Splunk Enterprise Security | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Microsoft Sentinel | $785K | Analytics Logs PAYG $4.30/GB times annual ingest with retention adjustment. |
| Google Chronicle Security Operations | $8K | Standard tier $0.65 per employee per month times headcount. 12-month retention included. |
| CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| IBM QRadar SIEM | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Exabeam New-Scale Fusion | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| LogRhythm Axon | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Securonix Unified Defense SIEM | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM | $456K | Cloud Flex effective $2.50/GB at Enterprise Suite times annual ingest with retention. |
| Elastic Security | $173K | Serverless ingest $0.85/GB plus a baseline VCU/storage allocation. |
| Panther Cloud-Native SIEM | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Palo Alto Cortex XSIAM | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| SentinelOne Singularity AI SIEM | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Rapid7 InsightIDR | $101K | Per-asset $5.62 per month at the entry tier (500-asset minimum). |
| Stellar Cyber Open XDR + SIEM | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Devo Platform | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Snowflake Cybersecurity Workload | $219K | Estimated $1.20 effective per ingested GB across credits and storage at standard tier (excludes detection layer). |
| Anvilogic | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Hunters SOC Platform | Quote | Quote-only. Request an RFP-grade quote before benchmarking. |
| Graylog Security | $274K | Cloud Security tier list approximately $1.50/GB times annual ingest with retention. |
You enter GB/day. You get an annual number per vendor that publishes a unit price. Quote-only vendors are blocked, not estimated.