Apache Spot (Incubating) vs BZAR: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Short answer

Security teams operating on tight budgets who need network-layer threat hunting will find Apache Spot's big data approach to flow and packet analysis genuinely useful; it excels at detecting lateral movement and data exfiltration patterns that traditional NDR tools miss. The 353 GitHub stars reflect active community contribution, though incubating status means expect unpolished edges and limited vendor support compared to commercial NDR platforms. Skip this if you need out-of-box alerting or managed threat hunting; Apache Spot demands engineering resources to operationalize and tune effectively. Security teams already running Zeek will find BZAR's value in its ATT&CK-aligned detection logic without the licensing cost of commercial NDR platforms. The 622 GitHub stars and free deployment model mean you're getting detection tuning from practitioners who've actually hunted in Zeek logs. BZAR prioritizes detection over response; you'll need a separate workflow to act on the notices it raises, so it's a poor fit for teams expecting their NDR tool to handle investigation and containment.