# Wazuh vs Suricata: 2026 Empirical Benchmark & Cost Shootout

> **Direct Answer (October 2026 Verdict)**: Wazuh wins for host-based endpoint security, file integrity monitoring, and unified compliance auditing across 17.4k+ GitHub stars (97.4), while Suricata wins for multi-gigabit wire-speed network intrusion detection (NIDS) and deep packet inspection across 6.8k+ GitHub stars (96.8).

- **Category**: Unified Host XDR & SIEM vs Multi-Gigabit Network IDS/IPS Shootout
- **Canonical URL**: https://exactbaseline.com/vs/wazuh-vs-suricata
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## Wazuh Key Advantages
- 17,363+ GitHub stars under GPL-2.0 as the leading open-source unified XDR and SIEM platform
- Native file integrity monitoring (FIM), rootkit detection, and regulatory compliance mapping (PCI DSS, HIPAA, NIST 800-53)
- Eliminates commercial Splunk ingest taxes ($280/mo self-hosted cluster vs $5,000/mo SaaS)

## Suricata Key Advantages
- 6,760+ GitHub stars under GPL-2.0 for multi-gigabit multi-threaded network IDS, IPS, and NSM
- Processes 85,000+ events/sec with zero dropped packets using AF_PACKET and eBPF kernel bypass
- Automated TLS/HTTP/DNS protocol parsing and native PCAP file generation