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Cybersecurity · head to head

IBM QRadar vs Shift Technology

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
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Shift Technology logo

Shift Technology

Insurance

AI-native fraud detection for insurance

From
On request
Rated
-
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.; Shift Technology pricing not published on vendor website, requires demo request and quotation
  • They diverge on capability: IBM QRadar covers Offence model, Shift Technology covers Fraud detection.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which IBM QRadar and Shift Technology actually diverge.

Attributes where IBM QRadar and Shift Technology differ
AttributeIBM QRadarShift Technology
CategoryCybersecurityInsurance
Founded19112014

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (subscription), free tier (No), platforms (Web, Api), 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 Shift Technology

  • Fraud detection
  • Claims automation
  • Document intelligence
  • Network analysis
  • Real-time scoring
  • Investigation workbench
  • Predictive analytics
  • Machine learning models

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

Shift Technology

  • Fraud detectionnot IBM QRadar
  • Claims automationnot IBM QRadar
  • SIU operationsnot IBM QRadar
  • Subrogationnot IBM QRadar
  • Underwriting risknot 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.

Shift Technology

  • Pricing not published on vendor website, requires demo request and quotation
  • No self-service onboarding; dedicated sales consultation mandatory
  • Solution requires on-premises deployment or custom SaaS configuration

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

Shift Technology

On request
  • Fraud Detection$undefined/year
    • Claims fraud detection
    • Network analysis
    • Real-time scoring
  • Claims Automation$undefined/year
    • Document analysis
    • Automated extraction
    • Workflow automation
  • Enterprise Suite$undefined/year
    • All modules
    • Custom models
    • Global deployment

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 Shift Technology if

  • You need fraud detection.
  • You work on Web, Api.
  • You also want claims automation.
Shift Technology review

Questions people ask

Is IBM QRadar or Shift Technology better?
Neither clearly leads. IBM QRadar starts at On request and Shift Technology at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, IBM QRadar or Shift Technology?
IBM QRadar starts at On request and Shift Technology at On request.
Does IBM QRadar or Shift Technology run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, Api, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
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 Shift Technology is typically brought in for.
What can IBM QRadar do that Shift Technology cannot?
IBM QRadar covers Offence model, Network flow analysis, Device Support Modules, Ariel query language. Shift Technology covers Fraud detection, Claims automation, Document intelligence, Network analysis.

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.

Shift Technology: How much does Shift Technology cost?

Shift Technology does not publish pricing on its website. The vendor requires a demo request and direct sales contact for custom quotations tailored to deployment scope and use cases. Pricing is quote-based and depends on specific implementation needs.

Source
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.

Shift Technology: What is Shift Technology's licensing model?

Shift Technology operates on a custom licensing model rather than standardized tiers. Pricing and licensing are determined through consultation with the vendor based on the number of users, data volume, and specific insurance processes being automated.

Source
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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