How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Rankite is independent; if a vendor ever pays for a featured spot, that listing is clearly labeled Partner.
website: https://tines.com/ best_for: Security and IT teams that want no-code automation across the whole business, not just the SOC starting_price: See website free_plan: See website pros: Easy for non-developers to build with; AI agent features built in; strong audit and change controls cons: Pricing is quote-based; less native threat intel depth than pure-play SOAR suites
Tines began as a no-code security automation platform and has grown into something broader. The company now describes its product as a secure environment for AI agents, apps, and automation, but the core pitch is unchanged: people who are not developers can build reliable workflows through a visual, story-based builder. Change records, actions, and approvals are built into the model, which matters for teams that need to show auditors exactly what ran and why.
Where Tines stands out is scope. It automates work beyond the SOC, like phishing triage, employee onboarding, and vulnerability management, so the same platform serves security and the rest of the company. That breadth is its main trade-off too. Pure SOAR platforms such as XSOAR ship with deeper built-in threat intel management, while Tines expects you to connect those pieces yourself. Pricing is not published, so plan on a sales conversation and weigh it against the analyst hours the platform would replace.
website: https://torq.io/ best_for: SOCs that want AI agents to handle alert investigation and response at machine speed starting_price: See website free_plan: See website pros: Agentic AI purpose-built for the SOC; natural-language-driven remediation; strong reception from large security teams cons: Pricing is not public; best suited to teams large enough to justify an enterprise contract
If your analysts are drowning in alerts, Torq is built around one idea: let AI agents do the repetitive investigation work. Its platform uses AI agents to find real threats in the alert pile, correlate and enrich events, and chase down answers on complex cases. A natural-language interface called Socrates can carry out remediation on its own while showing its work. The company reports strong traction with large enterprise security teams and positions itself as the answer to alert fatigue, false positives, and analyst burnout.
The flip side of that ambition is that Torq is an enterprise product through and through. Pricing is not published, and the platform is designed for SOC teams with meaningful alert volume, so a two-person IT team at a fifty-person company will find it oversized. If you run a real SOC and want to push investigation work onto AI agents while keeping humans on the final decisions, Torq deserves a demo. Ask for reference customers in your industry before you commit.
website: https://swimlane.com best_for: MSSPs and large enterprises running high-volume playbooks on the Turbine platform starting_price: See website free_plan: See website pros: Built for massive automation scale; low-code and no-code playbook building; strong multi-tenancy for MSSPs cons: Enterprise pricing; more platform than a smaller team needs
Swimlane Turbine is the choice for teams that need automation to run at serious scale. The platform combines low-code playbooks, an integration marketplace, case management, and dashboards, with a newer layer of agentic AI that can generate playbooks and route each alert to the right level of automation, whether deterministic, AI-assisted, or fully agentic. Swimlane says its architecture can execute millions of daily automation actions for a single customer, which is why it shows up in large enterprise SOCs and managed security providers.
The MSSP angle is a real differentiator. Turbine was designed with multi-tenancy, tenant isolation, and portfolio-level dashboards, so service providers can run automation across many clients from one place. For a small in-house team, that power comes with enterprise sales cycles and unpublished pricing. Swimlane fits best when you have volume, your own or your clients, and you want one platform to carry it.
website: https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cortex-xsoar best_for: Enterprises with large, diverse security stacks that need deep orchestration and threat intel integration starting_price: See website free_plan: See website pros: One of the largest SOAR integration marketplaces; native threat intel management; virtual war rooms for collaboration cons: Enterprise pricing; setup and playbook building take real effort and expertise
The enterprise default. Cortex XSOAR grew out of Demisto, which Palo Alto Networks acquired in 2019, and it has since become one of the most widely deployed SOAR platforms in the world. It ships with more than 900 prebuilt integration and automation packs, thousands of executable security actions, a visual playbook editor, and a built-in marketplace for content packs. Threat intelligence management is native to the platform rather than bolted on, and war rooms give analysts a shared space to investigate incidents together.
That depth comes with weight. XSOAR deployments are projects, not plug-ins. Getting full value usually means dedicated staff to build and maintain playbooks, and licensing is priced for enterprise budgets. If you already run Palo Alto gear, the integration story gets even stronger, since XSOAR ties into the rest of the Cortex portfolio. For mid-market teams, the honest question is whether you have the people to feed it. For large SOCs, it remains the benchmark the others are measured against.
website: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/products/splunk-security-orchestration-and-automation.html best_for: Teams already running Splunk Enterprise Security or the Splunk SIEM starting_price: See website free_plan: See website pros: More than 300 integrations and 2,800 automated actions; visual playbook editor; tight fit with Splunk Enterprise Security cons: Best value inside the Splunk ecosystem; licensing adds up outside it
Splunk SOAR makes the most sense if you already live inside Splunk. The platform, which grew out of the Phantom acquisition, combines automated playbooks, case management, and built-in threat intelligence. Splunk now describes SOAR as a native capability of Splunk Enterprise Security, giving customers a unified SecOps platform with SIEM, SOAR, and agentic AI in one place. It connects to more than 300 third-party tools with over 2,800 automated actions, and the visual playbook editor lets analysts assemble workflows from prebuilt code blocks without writing everything from scratch.
The catch is ecosystem gravity. Splunk SOAR is at its best when your alerts, dashboards, and investigations already run on Splunk. Outside that stack it competes as a standalone SOAR against players with larger marketplaces. Pricing is quote-based and tied to your Splunk footprint, so get a clear quote before you model the budget. If your organization has standardized on Splunk, adding SOAR is usually the lowest-friction way to automate response.
website: https://www.rapid7.com/products/insightconnect/ best_for: Rapid7 customers and teams that want drag-and-drop workflow automation without heavy coding starting_price: See website free_plan: See website pros: Easy visual workflow builder; deep hooks into the Rapid7 Command Platform; wide third-party plugin library cons: Rapid7 now frames SOAR as a platform capability, so the standalone story is weaker than it once was
Rapid7 has repositioned its SOAR offering as a capability of the Command Platform rather than a separate product, but InsightConnect is still where the automation workflows live. The product gives security teams a visual way to connect tools and automate repeatable work: alert enrichment, phishing investigation, ticket creation, remediation steps, and evidence gathering for audits. Because it sits on the Command Platform, it shares context with Rapid7 detection, exposure management, and vulnerability products.
That integration is the main reason to pick it. If you already run InsightVM, InsightIDR, or other Rapid7 products, InsightConnect turns their findings into coordinated action with less glue code than a generic SOAR would need. The trade-off is that the standalone story has faded, and Rapid7's own site now talks about SOAR capabilities across the platform instead. Pricing is quote-based. Teams outside the Rapid7 ecosystem should compare it directly with Tines or Shuffle before deciding.
website: https://thehive-project.org/ best_for: Incident response teams that want open-source case management with real automation behind it starting_price: See website free_plan: Yes. Open-source self-hosted version is free; managed cloud plans are paid pros: Free and open source; strong case management and collaboration; Cortex engine with more than 200 analyzers for enrichment cons: Self-hosting requires real technical skill; enterprise support and cloud hosting cost extra
The free, open-source option on this list. TheHive is a collaborative security case management platform built by StrangeBee, paired with Cortex, an engine that automatically analyzes observables and triggers active response. It ingests alerts from your SIEM, supports triage and filtering, lets multiple teams collaborate on cases with roles and permissions, and integrates tightly with MISP for threat intelligence sharing. More than 200 built-in analyzers help analysts decide quickly whether an observable is actually malicious.
The price is right, but the labor is yours. Running TheHive well means standing up and maintaining the infrastructure, writing your own analyzers and responders when the defaults fall short, and tuning the whole thing to your environment. StrangeBee sells managed cloud hosting, implementation help, training, and support for teams that want the platform without the operations burden. For CERTs, CSIRTs, and SOCs with engineering talent and no SOAR budget, TheHive is the classic answer.
website: https://shuffler.io/ best_for: Budget-conscious teams that want open-source SOAR with a free cloud tier starting_price: See website free_plan: Yes. Open-source self-hosted version is free; the cloud version is free to sign up pros: Free to start; more than 2,500 app integrations; custom Python scripts for anything the apps do not cover cons: Community-scale support on the free tier; fewer enterprise governance features than the big SOAR suites
Shuffle rounds out the list as the open-source SOAR built for teams with tight budgets and strong scripting skills. Its pitch is versatility: a workflow automation engine with triggers, actions, and integrations, plus a no-code app creator and the ability to run custom Python scripts when a use case needs something custom. The site lists more than 2,500 apps and pre-built use case templates for common jobs like SIEM alert enrichment, email analysis, and phishing response.
The economics are the point. The platform is open source, and the cloud version is free to sign up for, with paid Enterprise plans adding priority support and professional services. That makes Shuffle the easiest way to try real security automation without a procurement cycle. Be realistic about the trade-offs: free tiers come with community-scale support, and the governance, audit, and multi-tenant controls will not match what XSOAR or Swimlane sell to enterprises. For a first SOAR, or for a technical team that likes to build, it is hard to beat.
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
 Tines | Security and IT teams that want no-code automation across the whole business, not just the SOC | See website | See website |
 Torq | SOCs that want AI agents to handle alert investigation and response at machine speed | See website | See website |
 Swimlane | MSSPs and large enterprises running high-volume playbooks on the Turbine platform | See website | See website |
 Cortex XSOAR | Enterprises with large, diverse security stacks that need deep orchestration and threat intel integration | See website | See website |
 Splunk SOAR | Teams already running Splunk Enterprise Security or the Splunk SIEM | See website | See website |
 Rapid7 InsightConnect | Rapid7 customers and teams that want drag-and-drop workflow automation without heavy coding | See website | See website |
 TheHive | Incident response teams that want open-source case management with real automation behind it | See website | Yes. Open-source self-hosted version is free; managed cloud plans are paid |
 Shuffle | Budget-conscious teams that want open-source SOAR with a free cloud tier | See website | Yes. Open-source self-hosted version is free; the cloud version is free to sign up |
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Start with your integrations, because that is where automation lives or dies. Make a list of the tools that generate your alerts and the tools that take action on them: your SIEM, EDR, email security, firewall, ticketing system, and identity provider. If a platform lacks a connector for any of them, you will be writing custom code or doing that step by hand forever. Every vendor on this list publishes an integration library, so check yours before you fall in love with a demo.
Next, look at how playbooks get built and who gets to build them. Some platforms ship hundreds of prebuilt playbooks and a visual editor your analysts can use on day one. Others assume you have engineers who will code every workflow. Be honest about which team you have. A platform your analysts can actually operate beats a more powerful one that sits half-configured.
Think about how the vendor charges, since pricing models differ more than the marketing suggests. Some charge per user, some per action or workflow run, and most of the enterprise options here do not publish prices at all. Ask for a quote based on your alert volume, not your headcount, and push for a trial or proof of concept. Also check deployment: SaaS platforms get you running fast, while self-hosted options like TheHive give you control at the cost of your own maintenance time.
Finally, weigh audit and governance needs. If you work in a regulated industry, you need a platform that logs every automated action, shows who approved what, and produces reports an auditor can read. And look at the AI story with a skeptical eye. Agentic AI features are the big trend in 2026, but they should come with guardrails, human approval steps, and a clear record of what the AI did. Automation you cannot explain is a liability, not a feature.
We picked these eight tools by starting with the SOAR and security automation vendors that show up most often in real buying conversations, then checking each one against public evidence. We read the vendor's own product pages, documentation, and pricing pages for feature and plan details. We compared those claims against public reviews on G2, Capterra, and Reddit, and against integration counts and deployment options each vendor publishes. We kept only products that exist today and fit the category, and we dropped anything that had been shut down, merged out of existence, or rebranded without a clear successor. Pricing and free-tier details come only from vendor pages; where a vendor does not publish them, we say so instead of guessing.
Yes, and they probably should, just not the way enterprises do. A small team does not need a six-figure SOAR deployment. It needs two or three workflows that remove the worst daily grind: phishing triage, alert enrichment, and ticket creation. Automating those three alone can give a two-person team its afternoons back, because those are the tasks that scale with volume while your headcount stays flat.
The open-source tools on this list exist for exactly this situation. Shuffle and TheHive cost nothing to try, and both handle the common workflows a small team needs first. Start with one use case, like auto-enriching every phishing report with URL and attachment analysis, and only add more once the first workflow runs reliably. The classic mistake is buying an enterprise platform for a team that does not have anyone to run it. Automation multiplies the team you have; it does not replace the team you never hired.
One more practical note: measure before and after. Track how long phishing triage or alert enrichment takes today, then compare after thirty days of automation. If the numbers do not move, the problem is your playbook, not the tool, and no amount of AI agents will fix a workflow nobody designed properly.
SOAR stands for security orchestration, automation, and response. It is a platform that connects your security tools, runs response playbooks automatically, and gives analysts one place to manage incidents. Think of it as the layer that turns "we saw an alert" into "we investigated it, contained it, and documented it" without someone doing every step by hand.
A SIEM collects and analyzes security data to detect threats. A SOAR acts on those detections by running automated response workflows. Many teams use both: the SIEM finds the problem, the SOAR fixes it. Some vendors now bundle the two, like Splunk with Enterprise Security, but they solve different parts of the job.
Yes. TheHive and Shuffle are both open source with free tiers. TheHive gives you free self-hosted case management with the Cortex analysis engine, and Shuffle offers a free cloud signup plus an open-source version. Both are real tools used by working security teams, though you trade vendor support for the zero price tag.
It varies widely. Open-source options are free to self-host, while enterprise platforms like Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, and Swimlane are quote-based and typically priced for enterprise budgets. Expect to talk to sales for exact numbers on the commercial tools, and budget for implementation help on top of the license, since playbook setup is where the real cost often hides.
A focused team can get basic phishing triage running in a few weeks on most platforms. Full deployments with dozens of playbooks, custom integrations, and tuned alert routing usually take three to six months. The timeline depends more on your team's availability and the quality of your existing processes than on the tool itself.
No. Small IT teams use these tools to automate phishing response and alert triage without a formal SOC. The enterprise suites assume SOC-scale volume, but platforms like Tines, Shuffle, and TheHive work fine for a small team automating a handful of repetitive workflows.
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab has spent more than a decade helping SaaS and e-commerce brands grow through search. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.