Arista NDR vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Vectra AI comparison

Cisco Secure Network Analytics

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97% willing to recommend

Arista NDR

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Arista NDR, Cisco Secure Network Analytics, and Vectra AI based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Darktrace, Vectra AI, TrendAI and others in Network Detection and Response (NDR).

To learn more, read our detailed Network Detection and Response (NDR) Report (Updated: April 2026).

Network Detection and Response (NDR)

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Helped 892,611 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Network Detection and Response (NDR) category, the mindshare of Arista NDR is 3.3%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Network Analytics is 6.0%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vectra AI is 11.2%, down from 16.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Detection and Response (NDR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Vectra AI	11.2%
Cisco Secure Network Analytics	6.0%
Arista NDR	3.3%
Other	79.5%

Network Detection and Response (NDR)

Featured Reviews

it_user1719513

Chief Technology Officer at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees

it's much easier to create your own queries and hunt for threats

We take in IOCs from my SOC and from AlienVault, and then we focus on traffic that hits IOCs and alerts us to it. The one thing that the Awake platform lacks is the ability to automate the ingestion of IOCs rather than having to import CSV files or JSON files manually. Awake didn't support the manual importation of CSV and JSON in version 3.0, but they added it in version 4.0. It's helpful, but it still has to be a specific CSV format. Automated IOCs are on the roadmap. Hopefully, they will be able to automate the ingestion of IOCs by Q1 next year. I'm currently leveraging Mind Meld, an open-source tool by Palo Alto, to ingest IOCs from external parties. I aggregate those lists and spit them out as a massive list of domains, hashes, file names, IPS. Then we aggregate those into their own specific categories, like a URL category. Awake ingests that just like the Palo Alto firewall does, and then it alerts me if traffic attempts to go into it. Some of that is already on the Palo Alto firewall, which blocks it, but that doesn't mean that there is no attempted communication. I want to know if there's a communication attempt because there might be an indicator on that specific device trying to reach an IOC. Yes, my Palo Alto blocked it, but there's still something odd sitting there, and what if it can reach a different IOC that I don't have information about? I want to focus on it. I could do that by leveraging Awake if it could ingest the IOCs automatically. That's something I leverage Awake for today. I still have to manually import it, which is cumbersome because I have to manipulate the files that I get from the different IOC providers into a specific format that it understands. Once they add the ability to automate that, it'll be more useful.

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Muhammad Harun-Owr-Roshid

CEO at BRIGHT-i SYSTEMS LIMITED

Have streamlined network visibility and troubleshooting while seeing benefits from AI integration

In terms of improvements for Cisco Secure Network Analytics, from the implementation point of view, now that AI is in use, some other features need to be upgraded considering AI solutions. Proper management of the database is also important; it should be centralized for easier data collection from a single database. When precise manual analysis is needed, it's sometimes difficult, so having a centralized database will allow network admins to find actual scenarios more effectively, especially since some information may not be visible on the GUI. Cisco should upgrade their hardware part to run the database, because sometimes it cannot handle the load while all features are running in the network. The database management should indeed be centralized because while AI runs behind the systems, central management is essential. For example, in a network with 100 Cisco switches, a few routers, firewalls, and access points, all data generated should be preserved in a central database. This approach simplifies management and analysis for troubleshooting, as GUI interfaces may not always provide visible information. Centralizing the database will allow for better understanding of which information is preserved for each specific device.

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RahulReddy

Consultant at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees

Threat detection has improved and malicious emails are now identified quickly

Vectra AI offers artificial intelligence capabilities with visibility that can be integrated into our day-to-day operations and other tools, including malware detection tools and cyber threat tools. Vectra AI has positively impacted my organization. Last year while using it, we received many malicious email threats and virus incidents, including a trojan virus that had reportedly been deployed by someone. Our company used Vectra AI to detect the malicious threats and viruses before they could cause more damage, and we successfully stopped the threats. Using Vectra AI, I notice that server downtime has decreased significantly. We now experience only two to three hours of downtime, whereas without Vectra AI and other tools, our downtime would exceed 48 to 72 hours.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The interface itself is clean and easy to use, yet customizable. I like that I can create my own dashboards fairly easily so that I can see what is important to me. Also, the query language is pretty easy to use. I haven't needed to use it a ton, but as I need to go in and do different queries based on their requests, it has been fairly simple to use."

"Arista NDR's scalability is very good, making it easy to add more hardware components. You can order additional hardware and integrate it by stacking it with the existing setup. This feature cannot be seen in other NDR tools."

"I don't know another product that delivers as much value so quickly."

"Awake MNDR has made our security posture more comfortable, and we get some peace of mind knowing they're there if something should happen."

"It gives us something that is almost like an auditing tool for all of our network controls, to see how they are performing. This is related to compliance so that we can see how we are doing with what we have already implemented. There are things that we implemented, but we really didn't know if they were working or not. We have that visibility now."

"Other solutions will say, "Hey, this device is doing something weird." But they don't aggregate that data point with other data points. With Awake you have what's called a "fact pattern." For example, if there's a smart toaster on the third floor that is beaconing out to an IP address in North Korea, sure that's bizarre. But if that toaster was made in North Korea it's not bizarre. Taking those two data points together, and automating something using machine-learning is something that no other solution is doing right now."

"Awake's MNDR has affected our overall security posture very positively."

"Awake has really easy of use; it was just far easier to use as far as seeing rich, actionable data than LogRythm, with less of a learning curve to understand what they were trying to represent."

More Arista NDR pros

"Cisco Stealthwatch has predefined alerts for different types of security issues that might happen in the network. Whether it's PCs or servers that are used for botnets or Bitcoin mining we receive the alerts automatically. This functionality is what we receive from the solution out of the box."

"From what I understand, you can encrypt and unencrypt traffic moving in transit. This is one of the features that we liked about it."

"The solution reduces the amount of time it takes to detect and remediate threats."

"Being able to look at the Layer 7 application and get information about intrusion attempts is the most valuable feature for us."

"The network visibility feature opens up a whole new pane of glass that didn't exist before, so when you talk about being able to look into your network and understand what's there for security events, impostering, and everything that Stealthwatch can bring to the table, there's nothing else that a typical customer's going to have installed today that will give them any of that information."

"It does change the way we troubleshoot and it is relatively easy to use once you learn it. I would recommend it to someone considering it."

"There is nothing like it."

"It is a good application, providing for real-time monitoring of the organization of data. It can basically identify points of peak traffic where possible issues are being caused."

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics pros

"Scalability wise, we have many sensors, and Vectra AI seems to handle them all very well."

"One of the key advantages for us is we define a 24/7 service around it. We use far more of Vectra alerts than we do with our SIEM product because we understand that when we get an alert from Vectra we actually need to do something about it."

"Vectra AI can bring the ability to detect intrusion on the network more so than legacy IDS tools."

"The solution is currently used as a central threat detection and response system."

"We can sleep better."

"The dashboard gives me a scoring system that allows me to prioritize things that I should look at. I may not necessarily care so much about one event, whereas if I have a single botnet detection or a brute force attack, I really want to get on top of those."

"Vectra AI helped our team be more productive and save time. We have less work thanks to it."

"The key feature for me for Detect for Office 365 is that it can also concentrate all the information and detection at one point, the same as the network solution does. This is the key feature for me because, while accessing data from Office 365 is possible using Microsoft interfaces, they are not really user-friendly and are quite confusing to use. But Detect for Office 365 is aggregating all the info, and it's only the interesting stuff."

More Vectra AI pros

Cons

"Awake Security needs to move to a 24/7 support model in the MNDR space."

"I would like to see a bit more in terms of encrypted traffic."

"They've been focused on really developing their data science, their ability to detect, but over time, they need to be able to tie into other systems because other systems might detect something that they don't."

"I enjoy the query language, but it could be a bit more user-friendly, especially for new users who come across it... They should push it more into a natural language style as opposed to a query language."

"I would like to see the capability to import what's known as STIX/TAXII in an IOC format. It currently doesn't offer this."

"I would like to see a bit more in terms of encrypted traffic. With the advent of programs that live off the land, a smart attacker is going to leverage encryption to execute their operation. So I would like to see improvements there, where possible. Currently, we're not going to be decrypting encrypted traffic. What other approaches could be used?"

"The one thing that the Awake platform lacks is the ability to automate the ingestion of IOCs rather than having to import CSV files or JSON files manually."

"When I looked at the competitors, such as Darktrace, they all have prettier interfaces. If Awake could make it a little more user-friendly, that would go a long way."

More Arista NDR cons

"It would be better to let people know, up front, that is doesn't give you nice, clear information, as seen in the demos, without Cisco ISE installed."

"I would like to see more and cleaner reporting. For example, if I pull up Steven and I want to look and maybe compare him to what you've done in the past week, and compare that to the past six months, the point would be to see what the difference in activity looks like over this time. I don't see that capability in reporting to date. You see that trend but you don't really see a straightforward comparison. That right there is key to what we want to see about the normal activity."

"The overall visibility into the actual device itself would be helpful. I don't just want support-specific data, but also to be able to see information such as CPU and other internal components or usage of the devices."

"Cisco Stealthwatch is scalable with money. It's expensive."

"Stealthwatch needs improvement when it comes to speed."

"This is a good solution, but Java is still in the SMC, the Firepower integration is not really there, and I would really appreciate people being told about the necessity of ISE beforehand."

"I would like to see better filters."

"I'm not really sure it gives us a true picture."

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics cons

"The solution's marketing is not good."

"Pricing could be improved, as many customers have complained about the pricing model and pricing complexity."

"Vectra is still limited to packet management. It's only monitoring packet exchanges."

"There is room for improvement in the documentation. We would like to have more details on how it detects what we see."

"I would like more integrations with IOCs and threats currently on the Internet. I would also like to know which threats are based on zero-day attacks, current botnets, etc. Therefore, I would like more information on external threats."

"I would like to see a bit more strategic metrics instead of technical data. Information that I could show to my executive management team or board would be valuable."

"I would like more integrations with IOCs and threats currently on the Internet. I would also like to know which threats are based on zero-day attacks, current botnets, etc."

"Integration with other security components needs improvement."

More Vectra AI cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution has saved thousands of dollars within the first day. Our ROI has to be in the tens of thousands of dollars since October last year."

"Because I represent a hedge fund, I have some leverage. I told them that they had to meet my conditions if they wanted me as a client. It was the same way with Awake. They wanted an initial four-year agreement. Initially, we signed on for a one-year contract, but they wanted the four-year deal when it came time for the renewal. I told them that I was not doing that. I said that they either had to do it on my terms, or I'd go somewhere else."

"Awake Security was the least expensive among their competitors. Everyone was within $15,000 of each other. The other solutions were not providing the MNDR service, which is standard with Awake Security's pricing/licensing model."

"The pricing seems pretty reasonable for what we get out of it. We also found it to be more competitive than some other vendors that we've looked at."

"Awake's pricing was very competitive. It's not a cheap option though. It's an investment to utilize it, but it's one that we decided was worth the cost, with the managed services. At our scale, it was a much better option to utilize their software and their managed services to handle this, rather than hiring another person to be an analyst. It was quite cost-effective for us."

"We switched to Awake Security because they were able to offer a model that was significantly less expensive and the value that we get out of it is higher."

"The solution is very good and the pricing is also better than others..."

"Licensing is done by flows per second, not including outside (in traffic)."

"The tool is not cheaply priced."

"Pricing is much higher compared to other solutions."

"One of the things which bugs me about Lancope is the licensing. We understand how licensing works. Our problem is when we bought and purchased most of these Lancope devices, we did so with our sister company. Somewhere within the purchase and distribution, licensing got mixed up. That is all on Cisco, and it is their responsibility. They allotted some of our sister company's equipment to us, and some of our equipment to them. To date, they have never been able to fix it."

"The solution is expensive. It costs several hundred thousand dollars per year (depending on how many flows you are collecting)."

"The licensing costs are outrageous."

"We pay for support costs on a yearly basis."

"Licensing is done by flows per second, not including outside>in traffic."

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics pricing and cost advice

"The pricing and licensing are quite straightforward because they're based on the IP licenses. As a result, they are easy to count."

"The pricing is very good. It's less expensive than many of the tools out there."

"At the time of purchase, we found the pricing acceptable. We had an urgency to get something in place because we had a minor breach that occurred at the tail end of 2016 to the beginning of 2017. This indicated we had a lack of ability to detect things on the network. Hence, why we moved quickly to get into the tool in place. We found things like Bitcoin mining and botnets which we closed quickly. In that regard, it was worth the money."

"Vectra's licensing model could scale to our research network, which has multiple, 100-gigabit links."

"It's relatively on the pricier side, but when compared to other solutions. It's not the most budget-friendly option, but it can be considered somewhat more cost-effective in comparison to other alternatives."

"From a licensing perspective, the Vectra detect platform is pretty doable. Also, the hardware prices are nothing that we're not used to. The stream part is a little overpriced compared to the detect part. The reason is that you need to stream data to detect events anyway, so the data is in there. The only thing that's not available is the UI to be able to look at the stream data, which is also on the appliances but is just not activated. That's mainly the thing that we want to improve on."

"It is an expensive solution, but it's not the most expensive we've seen. We also know how much we're going to pay, unlike with some other providers where all of a sudden our license explodes."

"Vectra AI is not a cheap solution."

More Vectra AI pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	52

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	29

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Stealthwatch?

Regarding cost, for the Bangladesh context, Cisco Secure Network Analytics is a little bit high-priced because we are...

What needs improvement with Cisco Stealthwatch?

In terms of improvements for Cisco Secure Network Analytics, from the implementation point of view, now that AI is in...

What is your primary use case for Cisco Stealthwatch?

Our customers mainly use Cisco Secure Network Analytics to get whole network visibility and easy troubleshooting to f...

What do you like most about Vectra AI?

The solution is currently used as a central threat detection and response system.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vectra AI?

It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.

What needs improvement with Vectra AI?

Vectra AI could be improved by focusing on all threat types, not only malicious threats or virus threats. All threats...

GoSecure Titan Platform vs Arista NDR

Comparisons

Darktrace vs Arista NDR

Compared 10% of the time

Compared 6% of the time

Bitdefender Network Traffic Security Analytics vs Arista NDR

Compared 5% of the time

TEHTRIS NTA vs Arista NDR

Compared 5% of the time

Aruba IntroSpect vs Arista NDR

Compared 5% of the time

More Arista NDR Competitors

Darktrace vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 8% of the time

ThousandEyes vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 4% of the time

Nmap vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 3% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 2% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) vs Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Compared 2% of the time

More Cisco Secure Network Analytics Competitors

Darktrace vs Vectra AI

Compared 18% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) vs Vectra AI

Compared 5% of the time

Rapid7 InsightIDR vs Vectra AI

Compared 3% of the time

Corelight Open NDR vs Vectra AI

Compared 3% of the time

VMware NSX vs Vectra AI

Compared 2% of the time

More Vectra AI Competitors

Product Reports

Arista NDR

Download Arista NDR product report

Cisco Secure Network Analytics

Download Cisco Secure Network Analytics product report

Download Vectra AI product report

Also Known As

Awake Security Platform

Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco Stealthwatch Enterprise, Lancope StealthWatch

Vectra Networks, Vectra AI NDR

Overview

Arista NDR specializes in advanced traffic monitoring, effective false positive reduction, and strong data science capabilities, positioning itself as a leading solution in network detection and response.

Arista NDR enhances threat detection with innovations like the Security Knowledge Graph, which boosts situational awareness by up to 50%. Users value the intuitive interface and query language, allowing insights into encrypted traffic without impacting performance. Arista also offers robust threat-hunting services, aiding in proactive security measures. However, improvements are needed in API integration, entity resolution reliability, automation for IOC handling, and AWS configuration education. Greater security tool integration and enhanced query language usability are requested, along with overcoming challenges in encrypted traffic analysis, particularly in the Middle East.

What are Arista NDR's most important features?

Advanced Traffic Monitoring: Provides comprehensive visibility into network activities.
False Positive Reduction: Minimizes alerts, focusing on genuine threats.
Security Knowledge Graph: Enhances threat detection and situational awareness.
Intuitive Interface: Simplifies navigation and usage through an easy-to-use design.
Threat-Hunting Services: Supports proactive security operations.

What benefits should users seek in reviews?

Improved Security Posture: Rapid enhancement of security measures.
Efficient Threat Detection: Quick identification and mitigation of suspicious activities.
Network Visibility: Detailed insights into lateral traffic and threat detection.
Performance Impact: Maintains effectiveness without slowing down operations.
Versatile Deployment: Offers both on-premise and cloud dashboard features.

Arista NDR is frequently implemented across industries for monitoring internal networks, with a focus on lateral traffic movement and threat detection, including ransomware and data exfiltration indicators. Its capabilities are utilized for both compliance and security enhancements, with many turning to its managed services for resource efficiency.

Arista

Cisco Secure Network Analytics enhances network security through integrated threat detection and detailed traffic visibility, optimizing performance with AI analytics and strong platform integrations.

Cisco Secure Network Analytics offers deep visibility into network traffic, with tools like network maps and server response times. Its AI-driven analytics help detect threats, focusing on east-west traffic. Integration with platforms such as pxGrid and ISE complements its capabilities. Reporting and telemetry help in identifying bandwidth issues, yet improvements are desired in AI for better data organization. Installation complexity and false positives present challenges, and managing network loads effectively is a recognized need.

What are the key features of Cisco Secure Network Analytics?

Deep Visibility: Provides comprehensive insights into network traffic and server behavior.
Network Maps: Enhances understanding of traffic flow and infrastructure layout.
AI Analytics: Uses AI for superior threat detection and anomaly recognition.
Integration: Compatible with platforms like pxGrid and ISE for enhanced security management.
Telemetry: Delivers detailed bandwidth usage and traffic analysis reports.

How does Cisco Secure Network Analytics provide value?

Enhanced Security: Elevates threat detection and response capabilities.
Traffic Insights: Identifies encrypted and anomalous network behaviors.
Compliance Support: Assists in meeting industry standards for data protection.
Endpoint Protection: Guards network endpoints against potential threats.

Industries such as banking, defense, and police rely on Cisco Secure Network Analytics for securing networks against threats. Its capability to provide insights into encrypted traffic and facilitate device auditing makes it a sought-after choice for those requiring extensive network visibility. Users appreciate its application for threat prevention and response in demanding sectors.

Cisco

Vectra AI offers advanced hybrid network and identity security, detecting threats traditional tools miss. It uses AI to identify lateral attacks and credential misuse, providing a proactive defense for enterprises.

Vectra AI enhances security by using AI-driven detection across network, cloud, and identity layers, surpassing EDR and SIEMs by offering real-time threat detection. It ensures continuous observability and automates SOC workflows to minimize manual efforts, creating an efficient security environment. Its AI-powered approach significantly reduces noise, focusing on true threats, and provides insights into complex threat landscapes, with seamless integration into environments like EDR and Office 365.

What are Vectra AI's key features?

AI-driven detection: Identifies lateral movement and credential misuse across networks.
Continuous observability: Monitors data centers, cloud, SaaS, and OT environments.
SOC automation: Reduces manual processes, lowering analyst fatigue.
Attack Signal Intelligence: Filters noise to deliver relevant alerts quickly.
Network visibility: Provides insight into encrypted traffic and unmanaged assets.

What benefits should users expect?

Improved threat detection: Faster identification of potential threats.
Efficiency in response: Automated processes free resources for high-impact tasks.
Reduced alert fatigue: Intelligent alerts reduce false positives.
Operational integration: Works seamlessly with existing platforms and tools.

Vectra AI is utilized across industries for comprehensive network and anomaly detection. Organizations deploy it for threat hunting and incident response, monitoring both on-premises and cloud activities. By placing sensors across sites, they optimize security practices and streamline their detection processes.

Sample Customers

- Dolby Laboratories- Seattle Genetics- ARM Energy- Ooma- Prophix- Yapstone

Edge Web Hosting, Telenor Norway, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, Webster Financial Corporation, Westinghouse Electric, VMware, TIAA-CREF

Tribune Media Group, Barry University, Aruba Networks, Good Technology, Riverbed, Santa Clara University, Securities Exchange, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association

Network Detection and Response (NDR)