Zeek Analysis Tools (ZAT) vs Zircolite: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
Zeek Analysis Tools (ZAT) is a free digital forensics and incident response tool. Zircolite is a free digital forensics and incident response tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best digital forensics and incident response fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Incident response teams already collecting Zeek network logs will extract real value from ZAT's Python-native ML pipeline; you get forensic analysis speed without building custom pandas and scikit-learn workflows from scratch. The 451 GitHub stars and active maintenance signal a tool that teams actually use post-breach, not one gathering dust. Skip this if you need a point-and-click UI or support for non-Zeek data sources; ZAT demands Python fluency and assumes your team is comfortable operationalizing machine learning models in incident workflows.
Security teams running Windows or Linux environments at scale will get the most from Zircolite because it translates SIGMA rules into detection logic without licensing costs or vendor lock-in, letting you reuse rules across EVTX, Auditd, and Sysmon datasets. The 742 GitHub stars and active rule community mean you're inheriting thousands of detection patterns instead of starting from scratch. This is not the tool for teams that need GUI-driven investigation workflows or real-time alerting; Zircolite is a command-line detection engine built for batch log analysis and hypothesis validation in offline forensics scenarios.
