Softwr

Cybersecurity · head to head

IBM QRadar vs MyRec.com

IBM QRadar logo

IBM QRadar

Cybersecurity

Enterprise SIEM licensed by events per second, whose cloud business IBM sold to Palo Alto Networks in 2024.

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
MyRec.com logo

MyRec.com

Government

Recreation management for small parks departments, priced on your annual revenue with no contract

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

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.; MyRec.com the annual fee scales with department revenue, so a successful department pays more for the same software as its programme income grows.
  • They diverge on capability: IBM QRadar covers Offence model, MyRec.com covers Revenue-based annual fee.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which IBM QRadar and MyRec.com actually diverge.

Attributes where IBM QRadar and MyRec.com differ
AttributeIBM QRadarMyRec.com
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer year by department annual revenue
PlatformsWeb, ApiWeb
CategoryCybersecurityGovernment
Founded1911Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 MyRec.com

  • Revenue-based annual fee
  • Programme registration
  • Facility reservations
  • Point of sale
  • League scheduling
  • Everything included

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 MyRec.com
  • A SOC that wants log correlation and network flow analysis in one platform rather than buying an NDR product separatelynot MyRec.com
  • An existing QRadar estate deciding whether to stay on premises or accept the migration path to a different vendor's platformnot MyRec.com
  • Compliance-driven log retention and reporting where the audit requirement is specific about collection, retention and reportingnot MyRec.com

MyRec.com

  • A town recreation department of one or two staff moving off paper registration forms and a shared spreadsheetnot IBM QRadar
  • A department that wants to choose its own payment processor rather than accept the software vendor ratenot IBM QRadar
  • Replacing a system that charges per module, where every new programme type triggered an upsellnot IBM QRadar
  • A department needing field permits and league scheduling without buying a facilities management suitenot 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.

MyRec.com

  • The annual fee scales with department revenue, so a successful department pays more for the same software as its programme income grows.
  • It is built for small and mid-sized departments and lacks the permitting, aquatics and multi-facility depth a large city requires.
  • Credit card processing is explicitly excluded from the fee, so the total cost depends on a merchant agreement the department must source and negotiate itself.
  • Integration surface is thin, with no meaningful connection to municipal ERP or finance systems, meaning revenue reconciliation is a manual export.
  • The vendor is small, so there is limited third-party consulting capacity and a narrow bench for support during peak registration periods.

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

MyRec.com

On request
  • MyRec.com$undefined/year
    • Single annual fee calculated from department annual revenue
    • Third parties report entry around 2,850 to 3,445 USD per year
    • Site build, onboarding and training included

Which should you pick?

Choose IBM QRadar if

  • You need offence model.
  • You work on Web, Api.
  • You also want network flow analysis.
IBM QRadar review

Choose MyRec.com if

  • You need revenue-based annual fee.
  • You also want programme registration.
MyRec.com review

Questions people ask

Is IBM QRadar or MyRec.com better?
Neither clearly leads. IBM QRadar starts at On request and MyRec.com at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, IBM QRadar or MyRec.com?
IBM QRadar starts at On request and MyRec.com at On request.
Does IBM QRadar or MyRec.com run on more platforms?
IBM QRadar runs on Web, Api. MyRec.com 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 MyRec.com is typically brought in for.
What can IBM QRadar do that MyRec.com cannot?
IBM QRadar covers Offence model, Network flow analysis, Device Support Modules, Ariel query language. MyRec.com covers Revenue-based annual fee, Programme registration, Facility reservations, Point of sale.

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.

MyRec.com: How is MyRec priced?

A single annual fee calculated from your department annual revenue, using a calculator on the MyRec site. Third parties report entry around 2,850 to 3,445 USD a year.

IBM 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.

MyRec.com: Is there a setup fee?

No. Site build, onboarding and training are included in the annual fee.

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.

MyRec.com: Are card fees included?

No. Credit card processing is separate and you arrange your own merchant account.

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.

MyRec.com: Is there a contract?

No long-term contract is required, which is unusual in municipal software.

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.

Share

Related pages

More on IBM QRadar

More on MyRec.com

Keep looking

Other head to heads