Microsoft Sentinel Alternatives: Five SIEM and AI SOC Options to Compare
On this page
Microsoft Sentinel at a glance
Microsoft Sentinel is Microsoft’s cloud-native SIEM and SOAR. It is moving fully into the Microsoft Defender portal, and Microsoft has said Sentinel will no longer be supported in the Azure portal after March 31, 2027. Recent additions include the Sentinel data lake for lower-cost long-term retention, and Security Copilot can work on Sentinel data.
Why teams look for Microsoft Sentinel alternatives
Cost is the most common reason. Data in the analytics tier is billed by volume, so teams make hard choices about which logs they can afford to keep.
Detection rules written in KQL need ongoing tuning, and analysts still investigate many alerts by hand. Organizations with large non-Microsoft estates also find integration less seamless than in a Microsoft-only environment.
Five Microsoft Sentinel alternatives compared
These options either replace Sentinel or reduce the work that sits on top of it.
Scroll to view all columns
| Alternative | Approach | Best fit |
|---|---|---|
| Exaforce | Agentic SOC platform and MDR | Cloud-native, AWS-first companies running on GitHub, Okta, and Google Workspace that want detection-through-response outcomes (and optional 24/7 MDR) without building out KQL, playbooks, and a SOC team around a Microsoft-centric SIEM. |
| Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSIAM | AI-driven SOC platform | Large Palo Alto Networks environments |
| CrowdStrike Falcon Next-Gen SIEM | SIEM on an endpoint platform with Charlotte AI | Existing CrowdStrike endpoint customers |
| Google Security Operations | Cloud-native SIEM and SOAR | Teams with very high log volumes and long retention needs |
| Torq | AI SOC platform built on hyperautomation | Teams keeping Sentinel but adding agentic response |
Exaforce: an agentic alternative to SIEM-centered operations
Exaforce can replace a SIEM outright or run alongside Sentinel during a transition. Its Data Platform resolves events against a model of identities and resources at ingest, and its AI agents, called Exabots, carry out triage, investigation, and response. Analysts review the conclusions with the evidence attached.
Choosing the right Sentinel alternative
Microsoft-centric teams with manageable ingest costs may stay with Sentinel and add AI on top of it.
If cost or analyst workload is the main pain, compare alternatives in a pilot using your own data, and measure both the bill and the number of alerts that still need a person.