Binary Defense MDR vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks comparison

The compared Binary Defense and Palo Alto Networks solutions aren't in the same category. Binary Defense is ranked #7 in MDR , with an average rating of 9.4, and holds a 0.5% mindshare in the category. Palo Alto Networks is ranked #4 in EPP , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 3.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Binary Defense users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

Binary Defense MDR

Read 16 Binary Defense MDR reviews

2,503 Views
206 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

Read 90 Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks reviews

15,109 Views
9,090 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Binary Defense MDR

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Binary Defense MDR and Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, Huntress, Field Effect and others in Managed Detection and Response (MDR).

To learn more, read our detailed Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

April 2025

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Helped 849,686 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:

Categories and Ranking

Binary Defense MDR

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (7th)

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (4th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (7th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (4th)

Mindshare comparison

Binary Defense MDR and Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Binary Defense MDR is designed for Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and holds a mindshare of 0.5%, up 0.5% compared to last year.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, on the other hand, focuses on Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP), holds 3.9% mindshare, down 5.0% since last year.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

Featured Reviews

Rich Ullom

AVP, IT Security Compliance and Audit/Information Security Officer at Western Reserve Group

Worth the money, fantastic communication, and fast service with an average response time of about four minutes on an alert

This is my third SOC. I have never had anybody react as well. So, it's hard for me to provide something that they could do better because I'm really happy with them. I just signed another three-year contract with them. I don't find any downside to them, but if I have to put one, it would be consistent manpower or staffing. The only area where the solution can be improved is going to be with people. As they grow, they are struggling with the same thing that every other company is, which is getting talent and getting that talent to stay, but they've just revised their tiering system to go from a flat analyst and manager to a three-tier solution where it goes through two or three before it gets elevated. That seems to have worked out well, so if one level misses it, the next one picks it up, and it works out fine. Consistent staffing is the only challenge they have because when you're hiring level-one analysts, you go through them pretty quickly. You'll probably hire them at 50K or 55K, and after they do it for a year, they find out they can make 85K somewhere else, and they bounce. So, their turnover is a little high, but that's it.

Read full review

Mohammad Qaw

Senior Security Consultant at helpag

Perfect correlation and XDR capabilities for network traffic plus endpoint security

The solution should force customers to integrate with network traffic to see the full benefits of XDR. If you are not integrating it or feeding in your network traffic, then you are just buying a normal antivirus which doesn't make any sense. You are paying double the price to use the antivirus feature or to say you have XDR, but in reality you are not using it. The solution should include an on-premises option because some customers want only on-premises. It would be hard, but good to do if possible. Open XDR would be beneficial in the future. Right now, the solution is Closed XDR so cannot communicate with the few new vendors in the Open XDR market.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the main benefits of Binary Defense MDR is the ability to easily meet with their support team to discuss any issues we encounter."

"The most valuable features are the SIEM and the ticketing function; the latter is very smooth and easy to read and understand. We don't have any issues looking at the ticketing information when we're trying to identify what's going on."

"Binary Defense has a human service department that provides live monitoring for our systems."

"Our mean time to response has gone down. We're much faster with direct response and have more investigative capabilities than we did before."

"The customization has been the most valuable aspect and was really the reason we ended up selecting Binary Defense. They worked with us to provide exactly the level of support, features, response, and collaboration we needed."

"Among the valuable features are the agent, continuous reporting, and dashboard. It has all the features we need and we haven't had to customize it, other than turning on certain features that we wanted."

"The biggest aspect for us is that they are able to conform to our environment and utilize our tools. That way, we still maintain ownership of all the data and access to the applications, and we never lose control of the ability to run the solution ourselves if we need to."

"Binary Defense is comprehensive. We see most of the questionable activity. Once you see things a couple of times and are familiar with the processes, you know what those are. The level of activity is definitely favorable."

More Binary Defense MDR pros

"It blocks malicious files. It prevents attacks. It doesn't require many updates, it's a very light application."

"The tool's use cases are relevant to security."

"The most valuable feature is that you can select remote access of any machine for sandboxing."

"They have a new GUI which is just fantastic."

"Stability is a primary factor, and then there's the ease of distribution and policy management."

"Cortex XDR's most valuable feature is its intelligence-based dashboards."

"Their XDR agent and their behavioral indicators of compromise (BIOC) are pretty nice. Their managed threat hunting is also pretty nice. They also have WildFire, which is a service for actively looking for malware. It's quite useful."

"Provides behavior-based detection which offers many benefits over signature-based detection."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pros

Cons

"I would like to see more frequent check-ins with our security status."

"The most significant area for improvement is in support for non-English speakers; we're a global organization, so many of our users are not English speakers, which can make interacting with them a challenge. There's no Chinese language support, so we must rely on what we can do with the internet. We don't expect Binary Defense to build a language staff, but details can get lost in translation when we assume the whole world speaks English."

"If I were shopping for an MDR solution today, I would not only look for a company that has the ability to alert, detect, and remediate, but also the ability to integrate vulnerability management. That's a big thing that they're lacking today."

"I would like to get more reports from Binary Defense about what they're blocking."

"It's hard to think of anything that they need to improve on, but just to point out something, I would like to see them provide advanced XDR."

"We found that an earlier version of the agent had high memory usage and that was a bit concerning, but we raised the concern with their support team and they immediately replied that they had noticed the same thing and had a candidate fix already available... it totally fixed the issue."

"The only area for improvement that I can think of relates to statistical analysis for SLAs. They are in the middle of moving to a new product called D3 which is going to do some backend work for them. I know they are working to improve some of the help desk statistics, such as the time the tickets open and the time they are closed."

"I don't find any downside to them, but if I have to put one, it would be consistent manpower or staffing. The only area where the solution can be improved is going to be with people. As they grow, they are struggling with the same thing that every other company is, which is getting talent and getting that talent to stay, but they've just revised their tiering system to go from a flat analyst and manager to a three-tier solution where it goes through two or three before it gets elevated. That seems to have worked out well, so if one level misses it, the next one picks it up, and it works out fine."

More Binary Defense MDR cons

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks could improve by adding a sandbox feature to better compete with their competitors which have it."

"We would also like to have advanced tech protection and email scanning."

"I would like to see them include NDR (Network Detection Response)."

"Cortex XDR could improve its sales support team, including better commission structures and referral programs."

"In the next release, I would like to see more UI improvements. Their UI is a bit basic. When we are speaking about Palo Alto Networks they are the big company, so they can improve the UI a little bit. The UI, the reports, the log system can all be improved."

"It's not an ideal choice for smaller businesses, as you need a minimum of 200 endpoints to even use the solution at all."

"The solution should offer more dashboards and they should be better customized."

"It would be good to have a better way to search for a file within the UI."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Binary Defense MDR is priced competitively and may be slightly lower than CrowdStrike."

"It's valued at the right price. Even with the number of endpoints we have, we don't feel that it's a lot more than any competitor. In fact, it might be less expensive when you look at the fact that you're getting a full flex SOC out of it along with the tools."

"The solution's price is spot on; if anything, it's slightly below the norm for most services. Compared to building the same team internally, it would cost more to create the same amount of capability than what we get from an external team. Price-wise, Binary Defense is in a great spot."

"The pricing isn't that bad, it's very competitive. I don't feel that it's over-priced and I don't feel that it's under-priced."

"It has been good. We have saved money, and we have a better product."

"From the initial cost that Binary Defense came in with, we pared it down quite a bit over the course of 30 or 60 days. My leadership would say that their cost was high, but realistically, they were in line with the market."

"After we acquired this platform, we met with a number of different vendors. Binary Defense came in with a proposal that was surprisingly affordable. In fact, we were able to recoup the cost of their services within a short period of time. This is because Binary Defense is able to provide the same level of security as a team of two or three in-house analysts but at a fraction of the cost. As a result, Binary Defense is saving us an estimated $250,000 to $300,000 per year."

"The pricing is on target. Working with their sales team on pricing negotiations was a pleasant process. They were very respectful of the constraints we had and I feel that we're paying a fair price."

More Binary Defense MDR pricing and cost advice

"If one wishes to work with another team or large number of users at a future point, he must purchase a license for them."

"I don't have any issues with the pricing. We are satisfied with the price."

"Cortex XDR’s pricing is very reasonable."

"Our license will require renewal in August, after which the maintenance will continue as usual."

"Cortex XDR's pricing is ok."

"Our customers have expressed that the price is high."

"The price is on the higher side, but it's okay."

"It's way too expensive, but security is expensive. You pay for your licensing, and then you pay for someone to monitor the stuff."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Binary Defense MDR?

The most valuable feature is reviewing tickets and the notes added by technicians.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Binary Defense MDR?

It has been good. We have saved money, and we have a better product. We are a company that has become an enterprise from a small medium business in two years. Our company passed a certain dollar ma...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Binary Defense MDR?

We are going to have a meeting with them the following Monday. It will be our first quarterly business review. Half of it is going to be looking at new products and new functions that they are brin...

See all answers

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One

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...

See all answers

Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions that are very scalable, secure, and user-friendly. Cortex XDR by Palo Alto offers ...

See all answers

How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...

See all answers

Comparisons

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Binary Defense MDR

Compared 32% of the time

Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response vs Binary Defense MDR

Compared 18% of the time

Darktrace vs Binary Defense MDR

Compared 14% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Complete vs Binary Defense MDR

Compared 11% of the time

VMware Carbon Black Endpoint vs Binary Defense MDR

Compared 10% of the time

More Binary Defense MDR Competitors

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 12% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 7% of the time

Darktrace vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 5% of the time

Wazuh vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 5% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Complete vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Binary Defense MDR

April 2025

Download Binary Defense MDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

April 2025

Download Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks product report

Also Known As

Binary Defense Vision, Binary Defense Managed Detection and Response, Binary Defense Managed Detection & Response

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps

Overview

Binary Defense provides a Managed Detection and Response service using an Open XDR strategy that detects and isolates threats early in the attack lifecycle. Expert security analysts in the Binary Defense Security Operations Center leverage an attacker’s mindset, monitoring your environments for security events 24x7x365 and acting as an extension of your security teams. When a security event occurs, Binary Defense analysts triage, disposition, and prioritize the event. Analysts conduct full kill chain analysis and supply tactical and strategic mitigation recommendations to your security team with the goal of increasing your organization’s security posture against the latest adversary threats.

Visit us online at https://www.binarydefense.com

Binary Defense

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks delivers comprehensive endpoint security, integrating well with other systems to offer robust threat detection and real-time protection through AI-driven analytics.

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks offers advanced endpoint protection and threat detection through AI and behavior-based analytics. Its user-friendly design simplifies integration with firewalls, delivering multi-layered protection with low resource consumption. Valued for policy management, USB control, and incident correlation, Cortex XDR enhances threat management and real-time threat hunting capabilities. However, users note challenges with third-party integration, reporting, and dashboard automation. Agent performance across operating systems and memory consumption are areas for improvement, alongside reducing false positives and simplifying endpoint management and setup.

What features does Cortex XDR offer?

Behavior-Based Detection: Analyzes user behavior to identify suspicious activities.
AI Analytics: Utilizes AI for accurate threat detection and response.
Real-Time Protection: Provides immediate defense against threats.
Policy Management: Allows customization of security policies across endpoints.
USB Control: Regulates USB device access for added security.
Incident Correlation: Connects and analyzes various security events for better response.
Firewall Integration: Seamlessly works with firewalls for enhanced security.
Machine Learning Capabilities: Continuously improves threat detection precision.

What benefits should be considered in reviews?

Low Resource Consumption: Efficient security functions without taxing system resources.
Multi-Layered Protection: Comprehensive security across multiple attack vectors.
User-Friendly Interface: Intuitive design for easier management.
Enhanced Threat Management: Identifies and mitigates threats effectively.
Real-Time Threat Hunting: Proactively searches for and mitigates potential threats.

Cortex XDR is crucial in industries requiring robust endpoint protection, such as finance, healthcare, and technology. It supports malware detection, behavioral analysis, and ransomware mitigation across endpoints, including remote work environments, providing comprehensive threat visibility and security policy management. The solution's integration with firewalls and specialized industry requirements enhances security posture in diverse operational settings.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

Securitas USA, Black Hills Energy, Lincoln Electric,The J.M. Smuckers Company, New York Community Bank, State of Connecticut, NCR

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank

Buyer's Guide

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

April 2025

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