Security Onion Review, Pricing & Features

Security Onion is a free, open-source Linux distro for threat hunting and security monitoring. See features, bundled tools, and paid training and support…

Category
Security
Pricing
Free and open source software, with paid training, support, and professional services sold separately, from Free (open-source distribution); paid training and support plans available on request
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 19, 2026
Founded
2008
Headquarters
Evans, Georgia, USA
Web AppOpen SourceAI

Overview

Security Onion is a free and open-source Linux distribution for threat hunting, enterprise security monitoring, and log management, started by Doug Burks in 2008. As adoption grew, Burks founded Security Onion Solutions, LLC in 2014 to provide official training, support, and professional services around the free platform, headquartered in Evans, Georgia, USA.

The software itself remains completely free and open source, while Security Onion Solutions, LLC generates revenue through paid training, support, and professional services layered on top of the free distribution.

Key Features

Security Onion bundles best-of-breed open-source security tools rather than reinventing them, including the Suricata intrusion detection and prevention engine, the Zeek network security monitoring framework, and the Elastic Stack for log storage, search, and visualization, combined into a single, ready-to-deploy distribution for security teams.

On top of these bundled tools, Security Onion provides its own analyst interfaces for alert triage, case management, and hunting across network and log data, aimed at giving security operations teams a unified platform rather than requiring them to integrate each open-source component separately.

Pricing

The Security Onion software itself is entirely free and open source, with no licensing cost regardless of deployment scale. Security Onion Solutions, LLC, the official commercial entity behind the project, generates revenue through separate paid offerings.

These paid offerings include on-demand training in free and premium tiers, instructor-led training delivered in person or virtually, and professional support and deployment services. None of this pricing is published publicly; it is quote-based and varies by deployment scale and requirements, with government pricing available through partner IntelliGenesis.

Key Features

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Completely free and open-source with no licensing cost at any deployment scale
  • Bundles proven, widely trusted security tools like Suricata, Zeek, and the Elastic Stack into one distribution
  • Backed by an official company, Security Onion Solutions LLC, offering legitimate paid training and support
  • Large reported install base with over 1,000,000 downloads across nearly every country
  • Government pricing available through partner IntelliGenesis for public sector buyers

Cons

  • No public pricing for official training, support, or professional services, requiring direct contact with sales
  • Self-managing a Security Onion deployment without paid support requires significant in-house security expertise
  • As a bundle of multiple complex open-source tools, initial setup and tuning can be resource-intensive
  • Community-based free support may be slower than paid support tiers for urgent issues
  • Requires dedicated hardware or infrastructure sizing planning, especially for larger network monitoring deployments

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Security Onion free?

Yes. Security Onion is a completely free and open-source Linux distribution. Optional paid training, support, and professional services are available separately from Security Onion Solutions, LLC.

Who created Security Onion?

Security Onion was started as an open-source project by Doug Burks in 2008. He later founded Security Onion Solutions, LLC in 2014 to provide official commercial training and support.

Where is Security Onion Solutions headquartered?

Security Onion Solutions, LLC is headquartered at 717 Bishops Circle, Evans, Georgia, USA.

What tools are bundled with Security Onion?

Security Onion bundles the Suricata intrusion detection and prevention engine, the Zeek network security monitoring framework, and the Elastic Stack for log storage, search, and visualization, along with its own analyst interfaces.

Does Security Onion offer official training?

Yes. Security Onion Solutions, LLC is the only official training provider, offering both on-demand training in free and premium tiers and instructor-led training delivered in person or virtually.

How much does Security Onion support cost?

Pricing for Security Onion Solutions' support and training is not published publicly; it is quote-based and depends on deployment scale, support level, and specific requirements.

How widely is Security Onion used?

The project reports over 1,000,000 downloads with installations in nearly every country in the world.

Is Security Onion suitable for enterprise security monitoring?

Yes. Security Onion is designed for threat hunting, enterprise security monitoring, and log management, and is used by security operations centers of varying sizes worldwide.

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