Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs Darktrace comparison

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Fortinet Logo
10,049 views|7,442 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
Palo Alto Networks Logo
29,736 views|16,699 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
Darktrace Logo
829 views|391 comparisons
93% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 28, 2022

We compared Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks and Darktrace based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: For the most part, users of both solutions find them easy to deploy.
  • Features: Users of both products feel that they are stable and scalable.

    Users of Cortex XDR find its centralized dashboard and security features to be valuable. However, they feel its dashboard could be improved.

    Users feel Darktrace’s artificial intelligence features are useful. However, they say it is lacking in endpoint security.
  • Pricing: Users of both solutions feel that they are expensive.
  • Service and Support: Users of both solutions find their technical support to be efficient and helpful.

Comparison of Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks seems to be the superior solution. Our reviewers feel that because Darktrace is lacking where security is concerned, Cortex XDR is a better investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Report (Updated: June 2024).
772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Having all monitoring, response, tracking, and mitigation tools in one dashboard provides our analysts and SOC team with a comprehensive view at a glance.""The stability is very good.""NGAV and EDR features are outstanding.""Fortinet FortiEDR's firewalling, rule creation, monitoring, and inspection profiles are great.""This is stable and scalable.""he solution is an anti-malware product that integrates well with other vendor products such as firewalls, SIEM, etc. It captures threat intelligence and gives you better visibility. The product also has sandboxing features.""Additionally, when it comes to EDR, there are more tools available to assist with client work.""Exceptions are easy to create and the interface is easy to follow with a nice appearance."

More Fortinet FortiEDR Pros →

"The ability to kind of stitch everything together and see the actual complete picture is very useful. I guess you'd call it a playbook. Some people call it the forensics analysis of what was happening on particular endpoints when they detected some malicious behavior, and what transpired before that to cause that. It is also very user friendly. The way they have done everything and integrated all the solutions that they've purchased over the years to make it a very seamless, effective product is very good. One thing about Palo Alto is that they take the products or services that they purchase and make them seamless for the end user as compared to some companies that purchase other companies and then just kind of have their products off to the side or keep different interfaces. Palo Alto doesn't do that.""The most valuable feature is that you can select remote access of any machine for sandboxing.""The solution is a new generation XDR that has a lot of artificial intelligence modules.""Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks should be a stable solution.""The dashboard is customizable.""The user interface of the solution is sophisticated and straightforward.""One of the main benefits of the solution is its intelligence to correlate the events into an incident.""WildFire AI is the best option for this product."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Pros →

"The most valuable feature of Darktrace and the most valuable feature is the artificial intelligence module because that is the tool that determines automatically if there is any risk or not in the network.""One member of staff is enough for deployment and maintenance because Darkforce is AI-driven. It does a lot of things by itself.""It provides a comprehensive, detailed view of network activity and whatever is happening inside it.""The ability to detect activity on the network is very useful to us. Even if it's not necessarily an illegal activity, if it is abnormal activity, it is able to detect it and notify us.""I particularly like Antigena and the analytics around the real-time monitoring of our network. I also like its reporting because it has got a seven-day reporting period within the system. Every time you run the reports, it gives you the data about the previous seven days. I like that because it is in real-time. I enjoy reading those reports and getting a very clear and decisive idea of what's happening on my network on a real-time basis. I like the actual real-time monitoring of spoofing and things like that. I also like the user monitoring as well as the network logging capabilities.""Darktrace is extremely stable.""The solution is outstanding from a monitoring perspective.""We liked their approach to identifying intrusions or network anomalies using AI."

More Darktrace Pros →

Cons
"I haven't seen the use of AI in the solution.""I would like the solution to extend beyond endpoint protection and include other attack surfaces such as other network components.""The security should be strong for the cloud. Some applications are on-prem and some are on the cloud. Fortinet should also have strong security for the cloud. There should be more security for the cloud.""The solution is not user-friendly.""The solution should address emerging threats like SQL injection.""We've had a lot of false positives; things incorrectly flagged that require manual configuration to allow. Even worse, after we allow a legitimate program, it sometimes gets flagged again after an update. This has caused a lot of extra work for my team.""FortiEDR could add a separate scanning dashboard. In incident management, we prefer to remove the endpoint system from the environment and scan the system. We typically use Symantec for that, but if we want to use FortiEDR for that, then we need a scanning tab to clarify things.""Detections could be improved."

More Fortinet FortiEDR Cons →

"Currently, we are monitoring all USB drives and ports but we would like to improve our device control capabilities.""There are a large number of false positives.""In reporting they should have a customizable dashboard due to the fact that C-level people don't like reporting to the IT department. They prefer to have a real-time dashboard. That kind of dashboard needs to have various customizations.""The setup is quite easy. We had appropriate support from the manager. One thing that was missing was the integration part.""I would like to see some additional features related to email protection included.""There are some default policies which sometimes affect our applications and cause them to run around. In the hotel industry, we use a different type of data versus Oracle and SQL. By default, there are some policies which stop us from running properly. Because of this, the support level is also not that strong. We have to wait to get a results.""In an upcoming release, the solution could improve by proving hard disk encryption. If it could support this it would be a complete solution.""Traps doesn't work with McAfee. You need to remove McAfee to install Traps. This is very common, and its nothing that should be an issue. Some antivirus engines recognize Traps as an threat component, so maybe they need to shake hands somewhere."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Cons →

"Darktrace requires numerous configurations. It would be beneficial if the configuration could be made simpler.""The cost is a bit on the higher side.""Its threat analyzer could be better. It should also have agents. They should improve this product by installing agents for the machine to get more visibility. Currently, they are monitoring only the network. They should also monitor the agents from inside. It should also have a better pricing plan because it is an expensive product.""I believe their network monitoring device licensing module could use some improvement.""I would like to see some additional enhancements.""It would be good if they can include some endpoint protection for remote workers. Nowadays, most people are working remotely. Therefore, they should include some type of sensors that can be installed on the endpoint in order to directly report the main usage and protect remotely. Phone protection will also be a great feature to add to Darktrace.""I would like to see a feature where the tool ingests information from an anti-malware product that is present at the endpoint.""In an upcoming release, there could be more customizable playbooks or a library of playbooks to choose from."

More Darktrace Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "I know it is tough to get big budget additions up front, but I highly recommend deploying environment wide and adding the forensic service."
  • "There are no issues with the pricing."
  • "The price is comprable to other endpoint security solutions."
  • "The pricing is typical for enterprises and fairly priced."
  • "I'm not familiar with pricing, but it looks a bit costly compared to other vendors I think."
  • "The pricing is good."
  • "I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
  • "The hardware costs about €100,000 and about €20,000 annually for access."
  • More Fortinet FortiEDR Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I feel it is fairly priced."
  • "The pricing seems fair, and I do like the licensing model. You use wherever they are, and it is elastic."
  • "We didn't have to pay any additional fee for the cloud instance. It just came with the renewal, which was nice."
  • "It is "expensive" and flexible."
  • "Traps pays for itself within the first 16 months of a three-year subscription. This is attributed to OPEX savings, as security teams spent less time trying to identify and isolate malware for analysis as a result of a reduction in malware incidents, false positives, and breach avoidance."
  • "I did PoCs on products called Cylance and CrowdStrike. Although, I consider these products and they were also good, when it come to cost and budgetary factors, Traps has been proven to be better than the other two products. It is quite cost-effective and delivers all the entire solution which we require."
  • "It is cost-effective compared to similar solutions. It fits for the small businesses through to the big businesses."
  • "The return on investment is from the user side because we have seen the performance of it increase the delivery time of the product if we are using too many web-based and on-premise applications. In indirect ways, we saw the return of investment in terms of performance and user satisfaction increase."
  • More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "It is inexpensive considering what it can do and the competition."
  • "The pricing is a little high compared to the competition."
  • "Our customers feel that the price of Darktrace is quite high compared to other solutions."
  • "The pricing is very flexible for Darktrace. Sometimes, a customer does not have the appropriate budget, but Darktrace can handle that. They offer monthly payments, so the customer can acquire the solution very easily."
  • "When it comes to large installations, it can be expensive, but for small accounts it's fine."
  • "It is a very expensive product."
  • "It is expensive. I don't have the price for other competitors."
  • "This solution is expensive."
  • More Darktrace Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I suggest Fortinet’s FortiEDR over FortiClient for several reasons. For starters, FortiEDR guarantees solid protection… more »
    Top Answer:We have FortiEDR installed on all our systems. This protects them from any threats.
    Top Answer:We license it per employee, so as long as the employee count remains the same, the licensing won't change. We have it… more »
    Top Answer:Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks.… more »
    Top Answer:Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions that… more »
    Top Answer:Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface… more »
    Top Answer:Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing… more »
    Top Answer:Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is… more »
    Top Answer:A very useful feature in Darktrace for real-time threat analysis is the packet inspection that analyzes the packet… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    enSilo, FortiEDR
    Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
    Learn More
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiEDR is a real-time endpoint protection, detection, and automated response solution. Its primary purpose is to detect advanced threats to stop breaches and ransomware damage. It is designed to do so in real time, even on an already compromised device, allowing you to respond and remediate incidents automatically so your data can remain protected.

    Fortinet FortiEDR Features

    Fortinet FortiEDR has many valuable key features, including:

    • Easily customizable
    • Real-time proactive risk mitigation & IoT security
    • Pre-infection protection
    • Post-infection protection
    • Track applications and ratings
    • Reduce the attack surface with risk-based proactive policies
    • Achieve analysis of entire log history
    • Optional managed detection and response (MDR) service

    Fortinet FortiEDR Benefits

    Some of the key benefits of using Fortinet FortiEDR include:

    • Protection: Fortinet FortiEDR provides proactive, real-time, automated endpoint protection with the orchestrated incident response across platforms. It stops the breach with real-time postinfection blocking to protect data from exfiltration and ransomware encryption.

    • Single unified console: Fortinet FortiEDR has a single unified console with an intuitive interface, which makes management easier. The solution automates mundane endpoint security tasks so your employees don’t need to do it.

    • Cost savings: With Fortinet FortiEDR you can eliminate post-breach operational expenses and breach damage costs.

    • Flexibility: Fortinet FortiEDR can be deployed on premises or on a secure cloud instance. With Fortinet FortiEDR, endpoints are protected both on- and off-line.

    • Scalability: Because Fortinet can be deployed quickly and has a small footprint, it is easy to scale up to protect hundreds of thousand endpoints.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Fortinet FortiEDR users.

    An Owner at a security firm says, "The features that I have found most valuable are the ability to customize it and to reduce its size. It lets you run in a very small window in terms of memory and resources on legacy cash registers. The customer has literally about 800 cash registers. That was the use case for Fortinet FortiEDR - to get that down into a tiny space. The only way to do that was to use this product because it had that ability to unbundle services that were a surplus.”

    Chandan M., Chief Technical Officer at Provision Technologies LLP, mentions, “The ease of deployment and configuration is valuable. It's very easy compared to other vendors like Sophos. Sophos' configuration is complex. Fortinet is a lot easier to understand. You don't need a lot of admin knowledge to do the configuration.” He also adds, “The security is also very good and the firewall response is good.”

    Harpreet S., Information Technology Support Specialist at Chemtrade Logistics, explains, "It notifies us if there's any suspicious file on any PC. If any execution or similar kind of thing is happening, it just alerts us. It doesn't only alert. It also blocks the execution until we allow it. We check whether the execution is legitimate or not, and then approve it or keep it blocked. This gives us a little bit of control over this mechanism. Fortinet FortiEDR is also very straightforward and easy to maintain."

    DeAndre V., Senior Network Administrator at a financial services firm, states, “The dashboard is easy to follow and use. The deployment and uninstalling were easy. I like the detailed information about the path of a file that might be suspicious. Being able to check that out was easy to follow. Exceptions are easy to create and the interface is easy to follow with a nice appearance.

    Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is the first threat detection and response software to combine both visibility across all types of data as well as autonomous machine learning analytics. Threat detection very often requires analysts to divide their attention among many different data streams. This platform unifies a vast variety of data flows, which allows analysts to assess threats from a single location. Users can now maintain a level of visibility that other threat detection programs simply cannot offer. This level of transparency lends itself to both quick identification of problems that arise and the equally quick development of a potential solution.

    Cortex XDR’s machine learning works on many different levels to detect and prevent threats. It is constantly scanning for threats and vulnerabilities. The solution can scan up to 5.4 billion IP addresses in three-quarters of an hour. This allows it to spot weak points in the system and notify administrators long before hackers can take advantage of vulnerabilities. Once the Artificial Intelligence (AI) discovers an issue or an area where an issue could potentially take place the system creates a log of the information and subsequently sends an alert to system administrators. The AI takes the information that it has gathered and uses it to assign threat levels to the issues that it detects. Following this, a human analyst will be assigned to manually assess the issue and deal with it accordingly. You can set it to automatically respond to the threat by isolating the issue while analysts investigate it.

    Benefits of Cortex XDR

    Some of Cortex XDR’s benefits include:

    • The use of advanced AI analytics, behavior analytics, and custom-made detection to detect advanced threats before they occur.
    • The ability to group similar threat alerts, reducing incoming alerts by as much as 98%. This allows analysts to avoid being overwhelmed by the volume of incoming alerts.
    • The ability to investigate threats as much as 8 times faster than would be possible with other software. The machine learning, when coupled with the unified data stream that Cortex XDR collects, significantly increases the ability to more quickly discover the root cause of a threat.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks software stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to isolate threats while enabling them to be studied and the way that the software combines all of the data that it gathers into a single, more complete picture than other solutions offer.

    PeerSpot users note the effectiveness of these features. A network designer at a computer software company wrote, “The solution has a very helpful isolation feature. If any system gets compromised, with one click I can access the system and isolate it from other networks, and then go into further forensic investigation of the current threat without compromising anything else.”

    Jeff W., Vice President/CTO at Sinnott Wolach Technology Group, noted, “The ability to kind of stitch everything together and see the actual complete picture is very useful. I guess you'd call it a playbook. Some people call it the forensics analysis of what was happening on particular endpoints when they detected some malicious behavior, and what transpired before that to cause that. It is also very user friendly.”



    Darktrace is a leading cybersecurity solution that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide advanced threat detection, response, and risk management capabilities. Many reviewers find Darktrace's AI and machine-learning capabilities to be valuable. They appreciate its ability to detect anomalies and threats that might go unnoticed by traditional security tools. Overall, the general sentiment towards Darktrace from reviewers is positive. Users seem to appreciate its scalability, stability, AI capabilities, visibility, and ease of use.

    Darktrace offers a proactive and intelligent approach to cybersecurity. It utilizes AI algorithms to learn and understand the 'pattern of life' for every user and device within a network. This understanding enables it to detect anomalies that could signify a cyber threat, from subtle insider threats to more obvious ransomware attacks.

    Its adaptability, autonomous response features, and comprehensive network visibility make it a top-tier solution for different sizes of organizations and across many industries. It was named one of TIME magazine’s ‘Most Influential Companies’ in 2021 and protects over 8,800 organizations globally from advanced cyber threats.

    Darktrace Cyber AI Loop

    The Darktrace Cyber AI Loop introduces an advanced artificial intelligence-based system for cybersecurity, designed to build a self-improving defense mechanism. This system functions like a closed loop, where each stage feeds information and insights into the next, amplifying the overall effectiveness of the platform.

    The key components of the loop are:

    • DETECT - An AI engine that monitors your network and endpoints for anomalous activity, constantly learning the normal behavior of your users and devices. It identifies suspicious patterns and potential threats in real-time, even from never-before-seen attacks.
    • PREVENT - This proactive arm analyzes vulnerabilities and identifies weaknesses in your IT infrastructure. It prioritizes patching and configuration changes to harden defenses before attackers can exploit those vulnerabilities.
    • RESPOND - When DETECT identifies a threat, RESPOND takes immediate action to contain and neutralize it. This can involve isolating compromised devices, disrupting attacker activity, and automatically escalating critical incidents to human analysts.
    • HEAL - This newest addition to the loop focuses on post-incident recovery. It automatically restores compromised systems, cleans infected files, and helps to prevent the attack from spreading further.

    Darktrace's AI algorithms can identify threats that traditional security tools might miss. It continuously learns and updates its understanding of what is normal for each environment, ensuring that it can quickly detect and respond to unusual activities that could indicate a breach. Darktrace's Antigena module can autonomously respond to threats in real time. This is particularly crucial in containing fast-moving threats like ransomware, where every second counts. 

      Darktrace's solution provides unparalleled visibility into all parts of the network, including cloud services, IoT devices, and industrial control systems. This comprehensive coverage ensures that no part of the network is left unprotected. However, while the Darktrace Cyber AI Loop offers a robust solution, it is not a complete cure-all and requires careful implementation and integration with existing security frameworks.Darktrace offers a comprehensive and unified approach to cybersecurity. It provides continuous protection against known and unknown threats, regardless of where they emerge. Darktrace's solutions provide visibility into your cloud infrastructure, continuous monitoring of application usage and communication patterns (e.g., identification of suspicious actions like unauthorized data access), comprehensive email security that goes beyond traditional spam and phishing filters, real-time protection for endpoints, and continuous monitoring of network traffic and device activity.

      Darktrace also provides specialized coverage to secure your zero-trust architecture. Identifies compromised identities, unauthorized access attempts, and risky data exfiltration within a least-privilege environment. Finally, it has a dedicated solution for safeguarding industrial control systems and critical infrastructure. Monitors communication patterns, device behavior, and physical access within OT environments, protecting against operational disruptions and cyberattacks.

      Sample Customers
      Financial, Healthcare, Legal, Technology, Enterprise, Manufacturing ... 
      CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
      Irwin Mitchell, Open Energi, Wellcome Trust, FirstGroup plc, Virgin Trains, Drax, QUI! Group, DNK, CreaCard, Macrosynergy, Sisley, William Hill plc, Toyota Canada, Royal British Legion, Vitol, Allianz, KKR, AIRBUS, dpd, Billabong, Mclaren Group.
      Top Industries
      REVIEWERS
      Financial Services Firm21%
      Comms Service Provider11%
      Manufacturing Company11%
      Educational Organization5%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Computer Software Company16%
      Government8%
      Manufacturing Company8%
      Financial Services Firm8%
      REVIEWERS
      Computer Software Company17%
      Financial Services Firm13%
      Security Firm9%
      Government7%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Computer Software Company15%
      Government8%
      Financial Services Firm8%
      Manufacturing Company6%
      REVIEWERS
      Financial Services Firm18%
      Computer Software Company12%
      Healthcare Company6%
      Manufacturing Company6%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Computer Software Company16%
      Financial Services Firm8%
      Government7%
      Manufacturing Company7%
      Company Size
      REVIEWERS
      Small Business53%
      Midsize Enterprise15%
      Large Enterprise32%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Small Business31%
      Midsize Enterprise19%
      Large Enterprise50%
      REVIEWERS
      Small Business41%
      Midsize Enterprise22%
      Large Enterprise37%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Small Business26%
      Midsize Enterprise19%
      Large Enterprise56%
      REVIEWERS
      Small Business49%
      Midsize Enterprise20%
      Large Enterprise31%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Small Business30%
      Midsize Enterprise19%
      Large Enterprise51%
      Buyer's Guide
      Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
      June 2024
      Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, SentinelOne, CrowdStrike and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: June 2024.
      772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

      Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is ranked 4th in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 80 reviews while Darktrace is ranked 11th in Email Security with 66 reviews. Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is rated 8.4, while Darktrace is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks writes "Perfect correlation and XDR capabilities for network traffic plus endpoint security". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Darktrace writes "Great autonomous support, offers an easy setup, and has responsive support". Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is most compared with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike Falcon, Symantec Endpoint Security, Trellix Endpoint Security and Wazuh, whereas Darktrace is most compared with CrowdStrike Falcon, Vectra AI, SentinelOne Singularity Complete, ExtraHop Reveal(x) and Cisco Secure Network Analytics.

      We monitor all Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.