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Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs Symantec Endpoint Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.2
Check Point Harmony Endpoint boosts ROI by enhancing security, reducing costs, and improving efficiency and protection, with recognized cost savings.
Sentiment score
7.7
Cortex XDR secures data, reduces malware, lowers costs, and replaces systems, enhancing user satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Sentiment score
7.5
Symantec Endpoint Security delivers positive ROI by enhancing virus protection, reducing downtime, and improving operational efficiency with minimal disruption.
Initially, we spent two to three days on the investigation process, but now we are able to investigate alerts in only half a day, which has really boosted our performance and shown a return on investment.
The product is affordable and provides excellent coverage and protection across multiple platforms.
I have seen a return on investment with Check Point Harmony Endpoint, as it has saved money and time due to the minimum disruption of production hours, which allows users to focus on their main tasks and desired targets, avoiding downtime and contributing to business growth.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
Symantec Endpoint Security filled gaps in our toolset, particularly with the ability to control network firewall on hosts remotely, which was greatly appreciated.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
Check Point Harmony Endpoint's customer service is highly rated, responsive, and professional, though improvements in response speed are suggested.
Sentiment score
6.6
Cortex XDR support is praised for responsiveness but criticized for delayed responses and knowledge gaps in certain regions.
Sentiment score
7.2
Symantec Endpoint Security's support is praised but varies post-Broadcom, with delays and regional differences affecting effectiveness.
We use premium support, and it is beneficial as 24/7 support is available.
Only email support is available, leading to delays in getting assistance.
The customer support for Check Point Harmony Endpoint is quite good; they are ready to help us.
Every vendor has similar support; it depends on how the case is handled and raised.
Their support is efficient and responsive whenever I raise a ticket through my portal.
In some cases, it rates as high as ten out of ten, while in others, it can be as low as eight.
There is no support in the German language, which is a problem for many public tenders.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.8
Check Point Harmony Endpoint offers scalable, cloud-based security with easy expansion, centralized management, and minor deployment challenges.
Sentiment score
7.6
Cortex XDR offers scalable, efficient data handling across Linux, Mac, and Windows, praised for simplifying large enterprise management.
Sentiment score
7.8
Symantec Endpoint Security is scalable, user-friendly, and ideal for large organizations, effortlessly integrating with existing systems.
We initially purchased only 100 licenses and as we grew, we acquired many more licenses without encountering any issues.
Allowing us to add more users or endpoints for protection as our organization grows without any issues.
The scalability of Check Point Harmony Endpoint is effective, as it manages behaviors, process trees, and analysis in a centralized way.
Symantec Endpoint Security is quite scalable, and it is very important for large clients.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable and reliable, though occasionally exhibits bugs and uninstall issues, particularly in low-resource settings.
Sentiment score
8.1
Cortex XDR is praised for its stability and reliability, with minor issues noted but generally offering seamless protection.
Sentiment score
7.8
Symantec Endpoint Security is generally reliable, though updates and operating system variations can occasionally disrupt stability and resource usage.
The stability of the tool is high, as I have not experienced any downtime.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable for our organization size of 1,000 to 10,000 members.
Occasionally, there are some backend issues where the tenant is down, but apart from that, Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable and working effectively.
Cortex XDR is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
I have encountered issues where I had to uninstall and reinstall the product on end users' computers to view the logs again.
 

Room For Improvement

Check Point Harmony Endpoint needs better integration, improved user experience, enhanced support, and competitive pricing for broader compatibility.
Cortex XDR struggles with integration, high memory, false positives, limited features, complex setup, and lacks enhanced support and customization.
Symantec Endpoint Security faces performance issues, complex management, insufficient threat detection, and compatibility problems affecting usability and support.
Better technical support would enhance the product's competitiveness.
High resource consumption, requiring high-performance PCs on our endpoint site.
The Endpoint Agent can be more lightweight so that older machines and laptops can easily handle its consumption.
The inclusion of this feature would allow the application of DLP policies alongside antivirus policies via a single agent and console, making it more competitive as other OEMs often offer DLP solutions as part of their antivirus products.
Cortex XDR could improve its sales support team, including better commission structures and referral programs.
Device management is not very good and I am not enabling it in my organization due to security reasons.
I would like to see improvements in the scanning part of the solution, specifically to enhance the CPU and hard disk usage during scanning and updates to prevent disruption during work hours.
It is cumbersome to use, particularly in handling firewall management.
 

Setup Cost

Check Point Harmony Endpoint provides flexible, subscription-based licensing with robust security, low setup costs, and optional negotiated pricing.
Enterprise buyers view Cortex XDR as expensive yet flexible, offering scalable licensing with varying costs based on features and users.
Symantec Endpoint Security is valued for its cost-effective pricing, flexible plans, and discounts for long-term or special contracts.
It is not expensive and provides comprehensive coverage.
Pricing is a bit expensive but justified by the product’s features, capabilities, and scalability.
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been all good with Check Point Harmony Endpoint.
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
Compared to competitors such as CrowdStrike and Sophos, the pricing of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is similar to CrowdStrike but more expensive than Sophos.
It seems to be half the cost or more affordable than other solutions.
The pricing is very low compared to other companies like SentinelOne and others.
I rate the pricing, setup cost, and licensing around nine out of ten.
 

Valuable Features

Check Point Harmony Endpoint offers AI-driven threat prevention, easy integration, and scalability for robust, efficient security management.
Cortex XDR excels in cybersecurity with advanced detection, ease of use, and integration, offering scalable, efficient threat management.
Symantec Endpoint Security provides comprehensive protection with device control, intrusion prevention, anti-virus, centralized management, and cross-platform integration.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint protects our company by warning us against clicking any malicious links and prevents our hosts from becoming vulnerable to cyber attacks.
The anti-ransomware and threat emulation features have significantly helped our organization as they prevent attackers from encrypting files during ransomware attacks, allowing the system to re-decrypt files and restore them to their original forms, effectively stopping ransomware attacks.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint offers top tier security, AI-powered threat prevention, and strong scalability, which stand out as the best features.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
Symantec Endpoint Security offers many valuable features, such as file explosion, application learning, DLP, injection detection, and EDR solutions for traffic control.
The incident response capabilities allow me to resolve authentication and support issues promptly, ensuring the system operates without downtime.
One important feature is the EDR function, necessary for many public customers due to upcoming laws in Germany, which is available through Symantec Endpoint Security Complete.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Check Point Harmony Endpoint is 2.3%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.9%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security is 4.0%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Alejandro Flores. - PeerSpot reviewer
Good visibility with cloud centralized management and several layers of security
There are some "weak points" that have to be mentioned, including: 1) If the IT department is used to "cloning" endpoints (making images) you are going to have a hard time trying to install the product and you are going to end up reading a lot of Check Point documents. 2) If you are used to the granularity of roles features in Check Point Quantums products you are going to be a little bit disappointed. You can't set customized roles with customized read/write permissions. 3) You need a mature security team to manage this solution in order to get the most value from it.
Mohammad Qaw - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Hakeem_Abdulkareem - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution has given us visibility into compliance within our whole system and helped us ensure everything is updated
Symantec's application security module needs some improvement. You need to create a lot of fingerprints for application security. For instance, let's say I have different brands of ATMs in my environment, like Wincor and NCR. I use GRG to deploy an application control to whitelist some applications. I have to get the exact image of the different models of ATMs. When I tested in the past, some machines would not connect to the server without that. Only the approved software on the ATM should run. Anything outside that should not even come up at all. We did this so that an outside person doesn't introduce malicious software to the ATM. That's the essence of locking down with application control. Using Symantec for application control has been hectic, so I use Carbon Black to do the lockdown. Checking that data security will work fine with Carbon Black. Carbon Black worked fine. Setting up approval in Carbon Black works differently than Symantec. In Symantec, we first need the fingerprints of the applications running underneath. Before setting up Carbon Black, you first install the agent, allowing it to learn the environment. It will analyze all the software's behavior and provide recommendations for what should be allowed. It's more straightforward, whereas configuring application control in Symantec is a bit cumbersome.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
The platform's most valuable features are the ability to build API, which meets our business requirements, and the VP...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
We purchased Check Point directly from Check Point. We are partners. We didn't purchase it from the AWS marketplace.
What needs improvement with Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
Check Point Harmony Endpoint poses a steep learning curve and has high resource consumption, requiring high-performan...
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. ...
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 th...
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,...
Which is better - Cortex XDR or Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valu...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior sol...
What do you like most about Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets.
 

Also Known As

Check Point Endpoint Security, Endpoint Security, Check Point SandBlast Agent
Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
Symantec EPP, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Boston Properties, Independence Care System, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), Courtagen Life Sciences, Carmel Partners
CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Audio Visual Dynamics, Red Deer Advocate, Asia Pacific Telecom Co. Ltd., Kibbutz Ein Gedi, and AMETEK, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: May 2025.
852,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.