Cybersecurity · head to head
IBM QRadar vs Idira
IBM QRadar
Cybersecurity
Enterprise SIEM licensed by events per second, whose cloud business IBM sold to Palo Alto Networks in 2024.
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Idira
Cybersecurity
Built on CyberArk's legacy and powered by Palo Alto Networks
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: IBM QRadar iBM sold the QRadar SaaS business to Palo Alto Networks in 2024 and those customers are being moved to Cortex XSIAM, so anyone buying today is choosing an on-premises product whose vendor has publicly moved the cloud future to a competitor, and the support horizon becomes a contract negotiation rather than an assumption.; Idira no pricing is published anywhere on the product page; every call to action is Request a Demo or a sales contact form
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which IBM QRadar and Idira actually diverge.
| Attribute | IBM QRadar | Idira |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | subscription | quote |
| Platforms | Web, Api | Web |
| Founded | 1911 | Unknown |
Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cybersecurity).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in IBM QRadar
- Offence model
- Network flow analysis
- Device Support Modules
- Ariel query language
- Rules and building blocks
- Deployment topology
- App Exchange
- Use Case Manager
Only in Idira
Nothing recorded that IBM QRadar does not also cover.
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
IBM QRadar
- A regulated enterprise that must keep log data on premises or in a specific jurisdiction and cannot use a shared SaaS SIEMnot Idira
- A SOC that wants log correlation and network flow analysis in one platform rather than buying an NDR product separatelynot Idira
- An existing QRadar estate deciding whether to stay on premises or accept the migration path to a different vendor's platformnot Idira
- Compliance-driven log retention and reporting where the audit requirement is specific about collection, retention and reportingnot Idira
Idira
- Tracking all privileged account usage in manufacturing facilitiesnot IBM QRadar
- Securing clinical resource access across distributed healthcare practicesnot IBM QRadar
- Implementing managed privilege access management across government agenciesnot IBM QRadar
- Consolidating human, machine, and AI agent activity monitoringnot IBM QRadar
- Centralizing vault and secrets management across environmentsnot IBM QRadar
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
IBM QRadar
- IBM sold the QRadar SaaS business to Palo Alto Networks in 2024 and those customers are being moved to Cortex XSIAM, so anyone buying today is choosing an on-premises product whose vendor has publicly moved the cloud future to a competitor, and the support horizon becomes a contract negotiation rather than an assumption.
- Licensing is by events per second and flows per minute, so every additional log source raises the cost directly and teams routinely exclude verbose sources such as DNS, proxy, endpoint and cloud audit logs to stay under the licence, which strips out exactly the data an investigation later needs.
- It needs a dedicated operator: rule tuning, parser work and offence triage are continuous jobs, and an organisation that deploys QRadar without at least one named engineer accumulates thousands of unreviewed offences and a false sense of coverage.
- A log source without a matching Device Support Module arrives unparsed, and writing a custom parser with regular expressions against an unfamiliar payload format is specialist work that can take days per source, which quietly determines which systems ever get monitored.
- On-premises capacity is planned across consoles, processors, collectors and data nodes, so outgrowing the sizing means procuring and racking more appliances rather than changing a subscription tier, and growth becomes a purchasing cycle measured in months.
Idira
- No pricing is published anywhere on the product page; every call to action is Request a Demo or a sales contact form
- Endpoint privilege management and agentic AI identity governance are sold as separate solution categories rather than one bundled price, so evaluating total cost requires multiple sales conversations
Pricing, plan by plan
IBM QRadar
On request- QRadar SIEMFree
- Event and flow processing
- Offense management
- Threat intelligence
- QRadar CloudFree
- Cloud-native deployment
- Elastic scaling
- Managed infrastructure
- QRadar SuiteFree
- SIEM + SOAR + XDR
- Unified analyst experience
- Federated search
Idira
On requestNo published plan breakdown. See the Idira review.
Which should you pick?
Choose IBM QRadar if
- You need offence model.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want network flow analysis.
Choose Idira if
Nothing in the data separates Idira from IBM QRadar on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.
Questions people ask
- Is IBM QRadar or Idira better?
- Neither clearly leads. IBM QRadar starts at On request and Idira at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, IBM QRadar or Idira?
- IBM QRadar starts at On request and Idira at On request.
- Does IBM QRadar or Idira run on more platforms?
- IBM QRadar runs on Web, Api. Idira runs on Web.
- What is IBM QRadar best used for?
- IBM QRadar is most often used for a regulated enterprise that must keep log data on premises or in a specific jurisdiction and cannot use a shared saas siem, a soc that wants log correlation and network flow analysis in one platform rather than buying an ndr product separately, an existing qradar estate deciding whether to stay on premises or accept the migration path to a different vendor's platform, compliance-driven log retention and reporting where the audit requirement is specific about collection, retention and reporting. Of those, a regulated enterprise that must keep log data on premises or in a specific jurisdiction and cannot use a shared saas siem and a soc that wants log correlation and network flow analysis in one platform rather than buying an ndr product separately are not what Idira is typically brought in for.
- What can IBM QRadar do that Idira cannot?
- IBM QRadar covers Offence model, Network flow analysis, Device Support Modules, Ariel query language.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
IBM QRadar: Who owns QRadar now?
It is split. IBM sold the QRadar SaaS assets to Palo Alto Networks in a deal announced in May 2024 and closed that September, and those customers are being migrated to Cortex XSIAM. IBM retains and supports the on-premises product.
Idira: How is Idira priced and what are the costs?
Idira pricing is not disclosed on the Palo Alto Networks website. The company directs interested organizations to request a demo or contact their sales team directly to discuss pricing and licensing options for this identity security platform.
SourceIBM QRadar: Is QRadar being discontinued?
IBM has committed to continuing support for on-premises customers, including security updates, while offering migration assistance. The cloud product's future belongs to Palo Alto. If you are signing a multi-year term, get the support horizon written into the contract.
IBM QRadar: How is it licensed?
By events per second for logs and flows per minute for network data, with the software or appliance sized to that rate. Add-on modules in the suite are licensed separately.
IBM QRadar: What is an offence?
QRadar's term for a correlated case. Rules group related events and flows against a common indicator such as a host or user, so an analyst reviews one offence rather than the hundreds of events behind it.
IBM QRadar: Do I need a full-time engineer?
In practice yes for anything beyond a small deployment. Parser development, rule tuning and offence triage do not stop, and the most common failure mode is a well-installed QRadar that nobody has tuned since go-live.
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