Comparison

Snort vs Zeek

No leader: the top candidate Zeek has only 0.24 confidence (low), below the 0.35 needed to declare a winner. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
Snort37
Zeek52
Score
Vioscale score
Snort37 / 100low · 25%updating
Zeek52 / 100low · 24%updating
Pricing
Free tier
Snort
Zeek
Model
Price level
Snortlow
Zeekfree
Integrations
Count
Snort10
Zeek2
Adoption
Dependent repos
Snort
Zeek0
Github stars
Snort3,409
Zeek7,907
Activity
Commits last 30d
Snort0
Zeek100
Release
Cadence days
Snort20
Zeek2
History
Language
Primary
SnortC++
ZeekC++
Market
Availability

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for network security. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Capabilities
Deployment model
Snort-
Zeek-
Behavioral anomaly detection
Snort-
Zeek-
Full packet pcap retention
Snort-
Zeek-
Encrypted traffic metadata analysis
Snort-
Zeek-
Active endpoint containment response
Snort-
Zeek-
Host microsegmentation
Snort-
Zeek-
Network access control 802 1x
Snort-
Zeek-
EDR crowdstrike sentinelone integration
Snort-
Zeek-
Iot ot device discovery
Snort-
Zeek-
Fips 140 2 certification
Snort-
Zeek-
SOC2 type ii
Snort-
Zeek-
ISO 27001
Snort-
Zeek-
Pricing model
Snort-
Zeek-

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Snort

A packet-based intrusion prevention and detection system that analyzes network traffic in real-time and logs packet data to identify and prevent network attacks.

Independently observed

Zeek

A passive network monitoring tool that analyzes traffic on sensors to generate detailed logs and file data for security investigation and integration with SIEM platforms, without interfering with network operations.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Snort

HybridFree tier
as of verify ↗

Zeek

Open source

Free and open source

as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Snort
Zeek
Self-hosted
Snort
Zeek

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

Snort

10 total
  • Sguil
  • BASE
  • Snorby
  • Security Onion
  • Barnyard2
  • iBlock
  • Squert
  • ELSA
  • Xplico
  • NetworkMiner
Independently observed

Zeek

2 total
  • AWS Traffic Mirroring
  • Kafka
Independently observed

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.