Best SOARs of 2026

Tines is the modern dev-friendly SOAR for SOC engineers whose evaluation defaults to the platform with the broadest community adoption and free Community tier. Founded 2018 in Dublin, Tines built around the thesis that SOAR should ship as a story-based no-code workflow builder rather than as enterprise playbook authoring software, with first-class HTTP webhooks and YAML-style story exports as the primary primitives.

Three tiers serve three buyers. Community covers free 3 stories and 1 user with unlimited actions and integrations. Professional covers unlimited stories with 5 users plus Tines AI, reporting, and audit logs at the entry annual rate. Enterprise opens on-prem deployment plus Tenant and Workbench with SSO, RBAC, and dedicated CSM.

The load-bearing wedge is community adoption plus the story-based model. Where Cortex XSOAR and Splunk SOAR ship enterprise-grade playbook authoring with steep learning curves, Tines ships drag-and-drop story authoring that SOC engineers can pick up in an afternoon; for teams without dedicated SOAR engineers, the operational lift difference matters. The catch is the smaller integration count than Cortex XSOAR's 800+ apps plus the smaller enterprise reference base than Splunk and IBM.

Torq is the hyperautomation-focused SOAR for SOCs whose security automation extends into IT and DevOps workflows. Founded 2020 in Israel, Torq built around the thesis that SOAR should ship as hyperautomation rather than narrow security playbook authoring, with AI agents and AI Analyst as the primary investigation primitives rather than human-authored playbooks.

Three tiers cover the lifecycle. Community covers free up to 100 workflow runs per month with no-code workflow builder and Slack plus Jira plus Splunk integrations. Pro covers hyperautomation with AI agents and on-prem agents plus 50+ integrations. Enterprise opens AI Analyst with GRC governance, SSO, RBAC, and dedicated CSM.

The load-bearing wedge is AI Analyst plus hyperautomation scope. Where Tines and Cortex XSOAR ship security-focused SOAR, Torq ships AI-first hyperautomation that handles security incidents alongside IT incidents, DevOps automation, and GRC compliance workflows; for SOCs whose automation roadmap extends beyond pure security, the broader scope matters. The catch is the smaller integration count than Tines plus the younger product (founded 2020) without the same Fortune 500 reference base as legacy SOAR vendors.

Splunk SOAR (formerly Phantom, acquired by Splunk 2018) is the Splunk-bundled SOAR for SOCs already running Splunk Enterprise Security and want playbook automation in the same vendor relationship. Cisco acquired Splunk for $28 billion in March 2024, and Splunk SOAR now bundles into the broader Cisco SecureX strategy alongside Splunk Enterprise Security.

Three tiers serve three buyers. Community Edition covers free up to 100 actions per day with 300+ integrations and Phantom playbooks. Standard covers full SOAR with Splunk Mission Control integration, case management, and playbook editor. Enterprise opens the Splunk Cisco bundle with AI Assist, SSO, RBAC, and dedicated CSM.

The load-bearing wedge is Splunk ecosystem integration plus Phantom playbook heritage. Where Cortex XSOAR ships its own platform and Tines ships story-based authoring, Splunk SOAR ships native Splunk Search Processing Language integration so SOC analysts can run SPL queries inside playbooks; for Splunk-already SOCs the operational lift of switching exceeds Tines or Cortex XSOAR pricing advantages. The catch is the Phantom-era playbook authoring UI which lags modern Tines and Torq UX, plus the Cisco strategic uncertainty post-acquisition.

Palo Alto Cortex XSOAR is the enterprise SOAR for Fortune 500 organizations whose security stack defaults to Palo Alto Networks and want SOAR bundled into the broader Cortex XSIAM strategy. Acquired as Demisto in 2019 and rebranded Cortex XSOAR, Palo Alto built the canonical enterprise SOAR with the broadest integration marketplace at 800+ content packs.

Three tiers serve three buyers. Community Edition covers free up to 100 incidents per day with full 800+ integrations and content packs. Standard covers full SOAR with threat intel, case management, Cortex content, and playbooks. Premium opens the XSIAM bundle with AI, dark web monitoring, SSO, dedicated CSM, and onboarding.

The load-bearing wedge is integration marketplace depth plus Palo Alto ecosystem integration. Where Tines ships 200+ integrations and Splunk SOAR ships 300+, Cortex XSOAR ships 800+ content packs covering virtually every enterprise security tool; for SOC teams with 50+ security tools to orchestrate, the integration coverage matters. The catch is the Palo Alto-centric strategy; XSIAM is the future, and standalone XSOAR investments may converge into the broader XSIAM platform over the next two years.

IBM QRadar SOAR (formerly Resilient, IBM-acquired 2016) is the enterprise SOAR for organizations whose deployment requires IBM contractual relationships and X-Force threat intelligence. Acquired by IBM in 2016 and rebranded Security QRadar SOAR, Resilient built the canonical incident response platform with case management as the primary primitive rather than playbook automation; QRadar SOAR stays with IBM after Palo Alto Networks acquired the QRadar SaaS portion in August 2024.

Three tiers serve three buyers. Standard covers case management and playbook authoring with 180+ integrations and threat intel. Enterprise covers full QRadar SOAR with X-Force threat intel feed, on-prem option, SSO, RBAC, and dedicated CSM. Mission Critical opens multi-region with premium SLA and embedded analyst.

The load-bearing wedge is IBM contractual relationship plus X-Force threat intelligence depth. Where Tines and Cortex XSOAR ship cloud-native SaaS, QRadar SOAR ships on-prem appliance plus cloud, with the on-prem option meeting compliance frameworks where cloud-hosted SOAR is not feasible; for IBM-already enterprises, the consolidation matters. The catch is the smaller community than modern SOAR plus the post-2024-acquisition uncertainty around how QRadar SOAR integrates with the now-Palo-Alto-owned QRadar SIEM SaaS.

Swimlane is the low-code enterprise SOAR for SOC teams whose deployment requires cross-team automation across security, IT, and compliance under a single platform. Founded 2014 in Colorado, Swimlane built around the thesis that SOAR should ship as a low-code platform with Active Sensing as the threat-detection primitive rather than dashboard-driven alert fatigue.

Three tiers serve three buyers. Turbine Cloud covers low-code SOAR with Active Sensing, case management, and 300+ integrations. Turbine Hyperautomation covers cross-team automation with AI plus on-prem option and governance. Enterprise opens the full Swimlane platform with SSO, RBAC, and dedicated CSM.

The load-bearing wedge is low-code platform plus Active Sensing. Where Tines and Torq ship workflow builders and Cortex XSOAR ships playbook authoring, Swimlane ships a low-code application platform where SOC teams build custom security applications on top of the SOAR primitives; for organizations needing custom security workflows beyond standard playbooks, the platform extensibility matters. The catch is the higher entry quote than Tines or Torq plus the smaller community than the modern dev-friendly competitors.

D3 Security is the MITRE-driven SOAR for SOC teams whose threat-detection model defaults to MITRE ATT&CK technique mapping as the primary classification. Founded 2002 in Vancouver, D3 built around the thesis that SOAR should ship with MITRE ATT&CK playbooks as out-of-the-box content rather than requiring SOC teams to author technique-specific playbooks themselves.

Three tiers serve three buyers. Smart SOAR covers MITRE-driven playbooks with AI triage and tier-1 plus tier-2 automation. Smart SOAR Pro covers multi-tenant with MSSP plans plus advanced reporting and governance. Enterprise opens the full SOAR with dedicated infrastructure, SSO, dedicated CSM, and onboarding.

The load-bearing wedge is MITRE ATT&CK content depth plus AI triage. Where Cortex XSOAR ships content packs as a marketplace and Splunk SOAR ships Phantom playbooks, D3 ships out-of-the-box MITRE-mapped playbooks where every detection event automatically maps to ATT&CK techniques; for SOCs whose detection engineering centers on MITRE ATT&CK, the alignment matters. The catch is the smaller integration ecosystem than Cortex XSOAR plus the smaller global brand recognition than the IBM, Splunk, and Palo Alto incumbents.