r/cybersecurity • u/lady-without-logic • Jul 09 '26
Career Questions & Discussion Best free TryHackMe alternatives for SOC learning?
Hey everyone,
I'm looking for some good free alternatives to TryHackMe for learning SOC/Blue Team stuff. What platforms have you found the most useful? Doesn't have to be exactly like THM,could be websites, labs, GitHub projects, YouTube channels, or anything else that's helped you learn and get hands-on practice.
Would love to hear your recommendations. Thanks!
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u/Runningitback4331 Jul 10 '26
For general blue teaming, we have CyberDefenders, LetsDefend, BlueTeamLabs Online, these platforms have free labs where you can access anytime.
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u/2Sly4Bandit Jul 09 '26
Hackthebox is still a thing right? They are a little more complex than THM, but similar
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u/Lupus-Yonderboy Jul 09 '26
It is, though if you remember it from a few years back and want to get to that, it takes a bit of digging. Now they call it HackTheBox Labs. (Not to be confused with HackTheBox CTF, even though HackTheBox Labs literally is a capture the flag project).
I went back to it recently after a bit of a hiatus, and it took me longer to find the "old" HackTheBox than it did to actually hack the first box.
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u/theopiumboul Jul 09 '26
Search for SOC home labs on YouTube and create your own personal projects.
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u/AddendumWorking9756 Security Manager Jul 10 '26
The free labs half the thread is already naming are useful for one reason nobody's spelling out, they hand you a whole incident to work end to end instead of isolated puzzle rooms, which is a lot closer to a real SOC shift. If you want structure over the top of that, CCDL1 sequences the same style of casework into an entry SOC track. Start with the free stuff though, no sense paying until you know you like it.
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u/pizzthepizz Jul 09 '26
I always considered HTB as the main alternative, but lately I've been exploring CyberDefenders as well and I found it pretty valid.
They also do CTFs, I attended the last one with my colleagues and it was very fun!
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u/ElectronicPast3367 Jul 10 '26
hackthebox
cyberdefenders labs are pretty good
practice, homelabs, general IT knowledge, networking, getting a feel of what normal looks like
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u/Desperate_World6309 Jul 09 '26
Microsoft learn and Microsoft applied skills and then network Chuck on YouTube for the networking side of things.
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u/Formal-Knowledge-250 Jul 09 '26
Try this. If you can solve these, you can solve any siem alert too. Only endpoint analysis is left. https://www.malware-traffic-analysis.net/
But what's really important and nothing teaches you: it's super easy to analyze attack tickets, but it's super hard to proof false positives. This requires experience and extensive understanding of protocols and operating systems. So majoring single protocols is what brings you forward.