We performed a comparison between Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks and SentinelOne based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Both products receive high marks from reviewers. However, SentinelOne comes out on top in this comparison due to its impressive security and EDR features, attractive price, and impressive ROI.
"The product integrates security into one tool instead of having third-party security tools."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft 365 Defender are the combination of all the capabilities and centralized management."
"I like Defender XDR's automation capabilities. XDR isn't automated by default, but you can automate it to respond. If an attack is performed anywhere within the organization, you can isolate that instance from the network. This is what I can figure out for it. When integrated with Sentinel, you can set up playbooks to automate all the alerts gathered on Sentinel from different Microsoft solutions. Sentinel has a wider range of capabilities than XDR."
"The timeline feature is excellent. I also like the phishing simulation. We have phishing campaigns to educate employees and warn them about these threats."
"The most valuable feature is probably the aggregation and correlation of the different telemetry points with Defender for Identity, Defender for Endpoint, and Defender for Cloud Apps. All of these various things are part of that portal. We've wanted that single pane of glass for years."
"It's a great threat intelligence source for us, providing alerts for things it detects on the network and on the machines. We've used it often when there is a potential incident to see what was done on a computer. That works quite nicely because you can see everything that the user has done..."
"It's a very scalable tool that can be used in a very small environment or in a very large environment. Everything can be managed from a simple dashboard and can be scaled up or down depending on the customer's environment."
"The most valuable feature of all is the full integration with the rest of the software in the operating system and Office 365, as well as Microsoft SCCM. It is quite easy for us to work with the whole instance of Microsoft products. This integration improves the benefits of the whole suite of products."
"Its interface and pricing are most valuable. It is better than other vendors in terms of security."
"This software helps us understand any issues that may arise when someone is not at work."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"The initial setup is easy."
"If there are multiple alerts, the app will automatically create and rate an event instead of going through each one."
"Traps is quite a stable product. Once it was properly deployed and configured, you have nothing to be worried about."
"Threat identification and detection are the most valuable features of this solution."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is easy to use and does not consume a lot of hardware resources."
"Its capacity to prevent new threats."
"We find the solution to be scalable."
"The best thing SentinelOne has done for us is that it gives us insight into the endpoints. We never had insight into lateral movement threats before. Once a threat known as Qbot gets on the network, it actually spreads throughout sub-networks quickly. SentinelOne has detected that and saved our bacon. We were able to get in there and stop the threat, lock it down, and prevent it from actually spreading through. It would have been 50 or 60 computers. It had spread through in a few minutes. We have a lot of HIPAA data and FERPA data that we need to keep protected."
"SentinelOne's auto-rollback feature is the most valuable."
"They provide a map, a process tree, and that is pretty good for analysis."
"In terms of the engines that SentinelOne uses, it has stopped various scripts from running and it's highlighted lateral movement that we weren't expecting."
"The deep visibility feature is valuable. It is helping enrich our IR team in their investigations."
"SentinelOne also provides equal protection across Windows, Linux, and macOS. I have all of them and every flavor of them you could possibly imagine. They've done a great job because I still have a lot of legacy infrastructure to support. It can support legacy environments as well as newer environments, including all the latest OS's... There are cost savings not only on licensing but because I don't have to have different people managing different consoles."
"In the future, it would be beneficial for Microsoft to consider making the product more user-friendly or simplified for those who are interested in using it. Currently, it requires a high level of technical expertise, making it challenging for beginners or less experienced individuals."
"The support from Microsoft could improve. There are times I have to wait for a response from a qualified specialist."
"The logs could be better."
"The user interface of Microsoft 365 Defender could improve. They could make it simpler."
"A simple dashboard without having to use MS Sentinel would be a welcome improvement."
"I would like more of the features in Defender for 365 to be included in the smaller licenses. Even if I buy a small license and don't need everything, security shouldn't be a question. Security is one of the main aspects of all projects from our side, so it would be nice to have more features in the smaller licenses."
"Microsoft tends to provide too many features, which makes the solution prone to bugs."
"The licensing is a nightmare and has room for improvement."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks could improve by adding a sandbox feature to better compete with their competitors which have it."
"There's an overall lack of features."
"The solution needs better reports. I think they should let the customer go in and customize the reports."
"Although I would say this product is highly-rated, it could probably do more because nothing does everything that you want."
"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."
"Every 30 or 40 days, there's a new version and we need to go and make sure our customer's laptops are upgraded."
"Managing the product should be easier."
"The price could be a little lower."
"The area where it could be improved is reporting. They have some online reporting, but it would be nice to be able to pick and choose. When I'm looking at the console, I would love to be able to pull certain things into a report, the things that are specific to me."
"I would appreciate seeing the browser extension react more effectively to events, going beyond mere detection."
"The only problem I have is they don't manually review the threat files. That's the only thing I'm concerned about."
"If it had a little bit more granularity in the roles and responsibilities matrix, that would help. There are users that have different components, but I'd be much happier if I could cherry-pick what functions I want to give to which users. That would be a huge benefit."
"SentinelOne is making a lot of moves to acquire various companies, but the roadmap isn't clear, and it is still uncertain how the new acquisitions will integrate. For example, SentinelOne recently acquired a mobile security solution, but there is no real integration between the platforms."
"The training for SentinelOne Singularity should be free. The solution has a lot of features but we do not know how to use them all. The moment someone purchases the solution they should contact them and provide them with a feature session on how to use the features."
"Maybe they can develop some firewall aspects for it to better protect us."
"Using the filters takes a little bit of time to get to used to."
More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Pricing and Cost Advice →
More SentinelOne Singularity Complete Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is ranked 4th in EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) with 80 reviews while SentinelOne Singularity Complete is ranked 2nd in EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) with 174 reviews. Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is rated 8.4, while SentinelOne Singularity Complete is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks writes "It provides a whole new level of visibility and integrates with most other vendors". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SentinelOne Singularity Complete writes "Provides peace of mind and is good at ingesting data and correlating". Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is most compared with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike Falcon, Darktrace, Symantec Endpoint Security and Fortinet FortiEDR, whereas SentinelOne Singularity Complete is most compared with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike Falcon, Darktrace, ThreatLocker Protect and Wazuh. See our Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs. SentinelOne Singularity Complete report.
See our list of best EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) vendors and best Extended Detection and Response (XDR) vendors.
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I haven't used Cortex. My worry with it and every other solution is how well does it perform when disconnected from the cloud/ the internet?
S1 - I have been using it for a couple of years now without an issue. I had been using Cylance prior. I've been very happy with the S1 solution. Works with or without the Internet.
Depends on the size, scope and needs of your environment.
XDR is an ok monitoring/alerting tool, especially if you have a Palo Alto firewall already and everything can integrate well together. However, S1 is a superior tool IMHO and can catch and fix things automatically if you so choose (magic quadrant agrees).
Cost-wise XDR is probably cheaper but I don't know specifics on-prem vs cloud. S1 is a cloud tool but is extremely fast and responsive compared to some other tools we POC'd and can support legacy devices w2k8 and below or Linux or VDI without having to special of workarounds. So again, it depends on your needs, environment and cost.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne
SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. The ability to reverse damage caused by ransomware with minimal interruptions to the environment is note-worthy. Sentinel One works inconspicuously in the background, continually providing protection. It has an automated active EDR that will not only find issues but can fix them. I don’t know that any other solution does that.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto has a nice console and is easy to use. One of my favorite things about it is that it will automatically connect and log various kinds of suspicious behavior - you don’t need to do it manually. Cortex XDR is very secure but it is missing some basic features. It doesn’t offer an on-prem solution and it doesn’t integrate so well with some third-party solutions.
SentinelOne can be challenging to set up and there seem to be some applications that do not function properly when SentinelOne is installed. I would like to be able to make the reporting more specific to my needs. It would be a more attractive option if the cost was lower.
Conclusions
The find-and-fix option that SentinalOne provides was a huge win for us. We feel it provides a deeper and more thorough level of security.