Elastic Security

What is Elastic Security?

Elastic Security is SIEM built on the Elastic (ELK) Stack, combining powerful search with threat detection and endpoint security, open and cost effective, ideal for teams wanting search driven, flexible SIEM. Built on Elasticsearch (fast search and storage) and Kibana (visualisation), it delivers SIEM, detection rules, analytics and threat hunting, plus endpoint security (EDR) and cloud security, with the powerful search Elasticsearch is known for, available free as open source core (self hosted) or as managed Elastic Cloud. Popular with teams that want open, flexible, cost effective, search driven security operations, especially those already using the Elastic Stack, Elastic Security leverages the ubiquitous ELK Stack for SIEM. For open, search driven SIEM, Elastic Security is a leading choice.

Elastic Security's distinction is open, search driven, cost effective SIEM on the ubiquitous Elastic Stack, with endpoint security included. Elasticsearch's fast search makes threat hunting and investigation quick and flexible, the open source core and usage based cloud control cost, and it combines SIEM with EDR, which suits teams wanting flexible, affordable security operations. That search power, openness and SIEM plus endpoint set it apart.

Who Elastic Security is best for

Elastic Security is best for teams that want open, flexible, cost effective, search driven SIEM, especially those already using the Elastic Stack or wanting to combine SIEM with endpoint security, self hosted for control or via Elastic Cloud. It suits Elastic and cost conscious security teams. It is a weaker fit for Microsoft centric teams favouring Sentinel, those wanting the most powerful turnkey analytics, where Splunk fits, or teams wanting a fully managed, hands off enterprise SIEM with heavy vendor support.

Key features

The core strengths are SIEM with powerful Elasticsearch search, detection rules, analytics and threat hunting, plus endpoint security (EDR) and cloud security, on the Elastic Stack, self hosted or managed. Elastic Security offers prebuilt detections, machine learning, OpenTelemetry support, and open source roots. Its search power, openness, cost effectiveness and SIEM plus endpoint are its defining advantages.

Elastic Security pricing

Elastic Security has a free, open source core you can self host (paying infrastructure), while Elastic Cloud is usage based (by resources and data) with a trial and tiered subscriptions, and security features scale with the Elastic platform. So teams can self host free or pay for managed cloud and advanced features, often more cost effective than legacy SIEMs. Costs scale with data and resources. Confirm details via the Elastic pricing page.

Integrations and ecosystem

Elastic Security integrates via Elastic agents and integrations with many security and data sources, OpenTelemetry, cloud services, and threat intelligence, within the broad Elastic ecosystem (search, observability, security). Its agents, integrations and the ubiquitous Elastic Stack, which let teams ingest and search security data across their environment, support its SIEM and are familiar to ELK users.

Elastic Security and search

Search driven, open, cost effective SIEM is the signature strength: Elasticsearch's fast search makes threat hunting and investigation quick and flexible, the open source core and usage based cloud control cost, and SIEM combines with endpoint security, all on the familiar Elastic Stack. For teams wanting flexible, affordable security operations, this is the main reason to choose Elastic Security.

Ease of use and support

Elastic Security is well rated for search power, flexibility, cost and ELK familiarity, with good support, though running the stack at scale takes expertise. Its G2 reviews praise search, cost effectiveness and SIEM plus endpoint, with operating the stack the main consideration versus fully managed SIEMs.

Is Elastic Security worth it?

For teams that want open, flexible, cost effective, search driven SIEM, especially Elastic Stack users or those combining SIEM with endpoint security, Elastic Security is a capable, well rated choice. The main caution is operating the stack at scale, so Microsoft teams may prefer Sentinel, turnkey analytics power Splunk, and fully managed enterprise SIEM other tools, but for open, search driven SIEM Elastic Security leads.