Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Colasoft Capsa
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Colasoft Capsa is a network performance monitoring and protocol analyzing tool. Capsa provides core monitoring features, as well as automated diagnostics and packet decoding. Colasoft offers a limited free version of the software.N/A
Splunk Enterprise Security
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Splunk Enterprise Security is an analytics-driven SIEM that helps to combat threats with actionable intelligence and advanced analytics at scale.N/A
Wireshark
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Wireshark is a free and open source network troubleshooting tool.
$0
Pricing
Colasoft CapsaSplunk Enterprise SecurityWireshark
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Wireshark
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Colasoft CapsaSplunk Enterprise SecurityWireshark
Free Trial
NoNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Colasoft CapsaSplunk Enterprise SecurityWireshark
Considered Multiple Products
Colasoft Capsa
Chose Colasoft Capsa
Colasoft performs more like the traditional wireshark as opposed to other solutions that tend to focus on graphs instead of giving you the raw data. I personally prefer the raw data, and then the ability to build graphs upon this (which Capsa can do). This allows for quicker …
Splunk Enterprise Security

No answer on this topic

Wireshark
Chose Wireshark
I've looked at several over the years but Wireshark's no cost and advanced capabilities make it an easy choice for me. Wireshark's biggest advantage is its cost, which I've mentioned several times. It's significant in budget terms. I can't justify paying $1,000 for software …
Features
Colasoft CapsaSplunk Enterprise SecurityWireshark
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of Product A and Product B
Colasoft Capsa
-
Ratings
Splunk Enterprise Security
8.1
108 Ratings
3% above category average
Wireshark
-
Ratings
Centralized event and log data collection00 Ratings7.6106 Ratings00 Ratings
Correlation00 Ratings8.9105 Ratings00 Ratings
Event and log normalization/management00 Ratings8.9106 Ratings00 Ratings
Deployment flexibility00 Ratings7.0107 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools00 Ratings8.0102 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom dashboards and workspaces00 Ratings8.9108 Ratings00 Ratings
Host and network-based intrusion detection00 Ratings8.0102 Ratings00 Ratings
Data integration/API management00 Ratings7.9103 Ratings00 Ratings
Behavioral analytics and baselining00 Ratings7.4100 Ratings00 Ratings
Rules-based and algorithmic detection thresholds00 Ratings8.5101 Ratings00 Ratings
Response orchestration and automation00 Ratings7.593 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting and compliance management00 Ratings8.9101 Ratings00 Ratings
Incident indexing/searching00 Ratings8.0107 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Colasoft CapsaSplunk Enterprise SecurityWireshark
Small Businesses
Auvik
Auvik
Score 8.8 out of 10
LevelBlue USM Anywhere
LevelBlue USM Anywhere
Score 8.1 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
Score 8.6 out of 10
Sumo Logic
Sumo Logic
Score 9.0 out of 10
Paessler PRTG
Paessler PRTG
Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprises
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA)
Score 8.6 out of 10
Sumo Logic
Sumo Logic
Score 9.0 out of 10
Paessler PRTG
Paessler PRTG
Score 8.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Colasoft CapsaSplunk Enterprise SecurityWireshark
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(109 ratings)
9.6
(32 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.1
(13 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(7 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(98 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Colasoft CapsaSplunk Enterprise SecurityWireshark
Likelihood to Recommend
Colasoft
Capsa is highly recommended to be used in small dense areas of a network where it makes sense to be able to run analytics off of a mirror port to gain insight into traffic trends. It is a costly product to install in branch locations, and requires a decent spec hardware to run appropriately
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Cisco
Based on my experience, Splunk is a strong git for some environments and a poor match for others. The distinction is primarily based on infrastructure complexity and budget. It's perfect for large enterprises with a mix of on-prem/cloud infrastructure. It's not a perfect match for small teams with restricted resources.
Read full review
Open Source
I don't know of any other tool that works as well as Wireshark for packet capture an inspection. It's extremely easy to get up and running, and even with little to no knowledge of how to use the tool, you can be looking at all the traffic coming off a network interface.
Read full review
Pros
Colasoft
  • Robust Application. Able to handle traffic that most businesses will throw at it.
  • Easy to use. Easy to setup captures and filter down to specific traffic types.
  • Relatively cheap for what it's able to accomplish.
Read full review
Cisco
  • Writes Powerful Queries: The queries that can be written using the Splunk Query Language are very powerful and highly customizable to meet every need. Ex: Writing queries to search the intersection of two different sources like Network and Endpoint Logs.
  • Offers Dashboard Abilities: Helps build complex panels for Dashboards in addition to providing several out-of-the-box panels. Ex: creating panels to calculate the performance of analysts in a given timezone.
  • Helpful Search Aids: It helps to set up complex custom alerts very easily. The interesting fields section is very helpful while threat hunting. Ex: It shows all the users and the frequency of each in a failed login event. The user list on the interesting fields is useful to look for suspicious logins.
Read full review
Open Source
  • Light-weight software - Does not require high end specifications; also runs smoothly on Legacy systems
  • Filter function - Lets you filter you packets from thousands to tens so as to find your target much easily
  • Simultaneous capturing on all the network adapters - You can capture packets from all the Network Interface Cards (NIC's) at once.
Read full review
Cons
Colasoft
  • Needs options to scale to 10Gb/s networks. The cutoff for performance looks to be around 3Gb/sl
  • Needs API access to trigger capturesl
  • Needs Agents for remote capturesl
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Cisco
  • Improved User Interface Customization: While the interface is generally intuitive, providing more options for users to customize their dashboards and views would enhance the overall user experience. Tailoring the interface to specific roles or use cases could be a valuable addition.
  • Simplified Alert Management: Streamlining the process of managing alerts, such as grouping or categorizing them based on severity or type, would make it easier for security teams to prioritize and respond to incidents effectively.
  • Expanded Threat Intelligence Feeds: Increasing the variety and sources of threat intelligence feeds available within ES would provide a broader context for identifying and mitigating emerging threats, ensuring a more comprehensive defense against evolving attack vectors.
Read full review
Open Source
  • A more user-friendly interface would be nice, but then again it is not really designed for those who are not quite comfortable with this type of software.
  • Changes to functionality on updates - this can sometimes happen unexpectedly and can be an annoyance.
  • More powerful data processing would be welcomed
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
We are very happy with Splunk and would advise anyone to take a serious look at it. It might look pricey but the rewards Splunk offers seem endless.
Read full review
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Usability
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
Maintaining hundreds or even 1000+ SOC use cases is really difficult, considering that the Data sources may not always send the data. A module that detects data freshness issues and detect data format changes would be a great help. the main challenge today using Splunk Enterprise Security is making sure that the detection rules are still working properly given all the changes that occur in data source applications. Also, maintaining the data collects on tens of thousands of servers and more than 100k workstations is a real company IT challenge: the splunkbase forwarder may not support old OS anymore, while these are the most important to monitor. Moving to the Open Telemetry collector has become essential so that only 1 agent is required for both SIEM and application observability.
Read full review
Open Source
It's very simple and easy to use, although individuals not used to managing and administering networks would take some time to get familiar with it. Once they have mastered use of the application, it's easy to stay knowledgeable about it, iteration after iteration. It is well supported online through an open-source community network of professionals who are helpful in imparting knowledge and in providing assistance.
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Reliability and Availability
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
I don't think I've ever seen Splunk ES go fully offline or have any downtime greater than a few minutes on rare occasions.
Read full review
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Performance
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
It takes a long time for items to load if you are just generally searching through logs. It is best to use the data models which load faster but can be strange in terms of what is coming from which logs where. Yes, you can look it up, but this also requires familiarity with where things are and how to look them up.
Read full review
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
It's good when it's responsive, but I've had times where I had to wait quite a while for a response. But these are typically the exceptions rather than the rule. When you do get a response it is always well-informed and appropriate. I would say they've been trending better over time with this.
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Open Source
I don't believe Wireshark has "true" support as the software is open source. However, there is an active & friendly community around Wireshark that are more than happy to help answer questions. From a comprehensive Wiki and FAQ section on the site to the Ask a Question forum and bug tracker section, there's plenty of support options to make sure your questions and issues are addressed.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
I experienced only on-line training, but the trainers were very professional and competent. Maybe it could be more useful if they also have an experience in projects because sometimes they didn't have a real project experience to communicate to the students. Anyway, it was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself, aven if I have more than 10 years of Splunk activity experience.
Read full review
Open Source
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
It was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself. The only problem was that, when I worked with the Splunk Professional Services, I found some difference between the training contents and the information from PS. In addition is required a long experience on Splunk Enterprise for the data ingestion part, in other words I'm able to work with ES because I'm worling on Splunk since 11 years, otherwise I'd some problem.
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Open Source
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
It's a fantatic product and it was very useful the presence of Splunk Professional Services for the Design Phase and the final Health Check.
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Open Source
Simple and easy setup.
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Alternatives Considered
Colasoft
Colasoft performs more like the traditional wireshark as opposed to other solutions that tend to focus on graphs instead of giving you the raw data. I personally prefer the raw data, and then the ability to build graphs upon this (which Capsa can do). This allows for quicker analysis and makes it easier to relate to.
Read full review
Cisco
Splunk enterprise is the only solution that we’ve been able to identify that provides risk based alerting, which allows our SOC to reduce analyst fatigue which would be a huge problem without it. Before RBA, there were thousands of alerts a day and it was impossible to review all of them
Read full review
Open Source
Wireshark is a free tool that came highly recommended by one of our former network security consultants. Using the tool he was able to resolve all of our higher tier network tickets, so we observed first hand why we needed to add Wireshark into our toolset. We received in-depth instruction and training scenarios that demonstrated the effectiveness and power of the product, so we didn't spend any time reviewing competing products.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
for my exterience, unit pricing and billing frequency are correct. As I already said, I hint to have more discount flexibility, expecially with new customers, because there are competitors less expensive and very aggressive that are dangerous. In addition the possibility to don't pay the license for the development period could be a very interesting feature for the final customers.
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Open Source
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
- 8 out of 10 and took 2 for the data pipeline and administration part. Even if you'd like to improve yourself or your team, you have to pay a lot of money and it could be more than GIAC education + cert. - Normalization for Data models and CPU-based searches can be a problem sometimes.
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Open Source
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Colasoft
No answers on this topic
Cisco
I had a fantastic experience with Splunk Professional Services: they worked with us in our last SON project (a SOC migration for a very large customer) and helped to build a multi tenent environment even if ES isn't a multi tenant platform. Th Splunk PS was a very professional and competent people, he is italian and was able to speak with our italian customers.
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Open Source
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Colasoft
  • While the product doesn't detect malware, it has helped track down malware infected machines by using data from other applications to run filters to look for known traffic destinations for that malware. For me this is a huge ROI since malware can be the great unknown.
  • Relatively cheap compared to the feature set.
Read full review
Cisco
  • We have a 100% success rate on all our ES implementations due to the amazing documentation and Splunk enablement on the subject.
  • Our Splunk ES business has grown 100% YoY for the last 3 years.
  • In terms of long term management and maintenance, ES has been highly stable and predictable, reducing our overhead on costly services team for ad hoc maintenance work.
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Open Source
  • Identifying bugs in the network has never been smooth and near-perfect.
  • Wireshark has made sure our equipment and software is working properly via analyzing network data.
  • Analysis of IP packets and Sip call flaws has saved us a lot of time and confident result.
Read full review
ScreenShots