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Cisco Secure Endpoint vs McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention vs Microsoft BitLocker 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Secure Endpoint1.5%
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint10.0%
CrowdStrike Falcon8.2%
Other80.3%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention1.0%
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention13.0%
Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention9.0%
Other77.0%
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Endpoint Encryption Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft BitLocker35.3%
ESET Endpoint Encryption17.3%
Symantec Endpoint Encryption9.4%
Other38.00000000000001%
Endpoint Encryption
 

Featured Reviews

Mark Broughton - PeerSpot reviewer
Tighter integration with Umbrella and Firepower gave us eye-opening information
We were using a third-party help desk. One of the ways that they were fixing problems was to delete the client and then add the client back if there was an issue where the client had stopped communicating. Any improvement in the client communicating back to the server would be good, particularly for machines that are offline for a couple of weeks. A lot of our guys were working on a rotation where the machine might be offline for that long. They were also terrible about rebooting their machines, so those network connections didn't necessarily get refreshed. So, anything that could improve that communication would be good. Also, an easier way to do deduplication of machines, or be alerted to the fact that there's more than one instance of a machine, would be useful. If you could say, "Okay, we've got these two machines. This one says it's not reporting and this one says it's been reporting. Obviously, somebody did a reinstall," it would help. That way you could get a more accurate device count, so you're not having an inflated number. Not that Cisco was going to come down on you and say, "Oh, you're using too many licenses," right away. But to have a much more accurate license usage count by being able to better dedupe the records would be good. I also sent over a couple of other ideas to our technical rep. A lot of that had to do with the reporting options. It would be really nice to be able to do a lot more in the reporting. You can't really drill down into the reports that are there. The reporting and the need for the documentation to be updated and current would be my two biggest areas of complaint. Also, there was one section when I was playing with the automation where it was asking for the endpoint type rather than the machine name. If I could have just put in the machine name, that would have been great. So there are some opportunities, when it comes to searching, to have more options. If I wanted to search, for example, by a Mac address because, for some reason, I thought there was a duplication and I didn't have the machine name, how could I pull it up with the Mac address? When you're getting to that level, you're really starting to get into the ticky tacky. I would definitely put the reporting and documentation way ahead of that.
VivekGupta7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Versatile with good patching and a straightforward setup
There is some fine-tuning needed, even once you define something. We need to do a lot of configuration. It would be easier if they made the configuration simpler, especially in the beginning. They need to give the user more choices and provide more guidance to help avoid problems later on. We'd like some more built-in predictive analytics so we can be prepared for what might happen in the future. We did have some bandwidth issues during setup. If your update fails, you may have stability issues. We find it difficult to reach higher levels of support when we face larger issues.
Ibrahin Gamal - PeerSpot reviewer
Data protection improves while users adapt to user access complexities
Recovery options are useful with Microsoft BitLocker. When we get the recovery key from Microsoft, people who we show how BitLocker works did not know the facts about BitLocker. When we tell them about recovery keys, it is very difficult for them to get to the users who have issues in their PCs and do not have the knowledge. When IT asked about the scenario, it was difficult for them. They needed something where they could go to the administration portal to unlock the PC for the user, but we tell them that when a user asks for a recovery key, it consists of 32 numbers to unlock their PC. They observed cost savings after implementing Microsoft BitLocker because they requested BitLocker with System Center. They found that it did not have a high cost, as it is a built-in feature in Windows. When they asked about other solutions, it was very expensive for large numbers in other corporates or organizations. They were very satisfied with Microsoft BitLocker with System Center Configuration Manager.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product provides sandboxing options like file reputation and file analysis."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the IPS and the integration with ISE."
"The most valuable feature is signature-based malware detection."
"The VPN is most valuable. It's the best thing in the market today. We can use two-factor authentication with another platform, and we can authenticate with two-factor."
"Cisco has definitely improved our organization a lot. In terms of business, our company feels safer. We actually switched from legacy signature-based solutions to threat intelligence-based and machine learning-based solutions, which is Cisco Secure. This has improved our security significantly, from 10% of signature-based technology security to 99.9% of the current one which we are running. We were happy."
"Definitely, the best feature for Cisco Secure Endpoint is the integration with Talos. On the backend, Talos checks all the signatures, all the malware, and for any attacks going on around the world... Because Secure Endpoint has a connection to it, we get protected by it right then and there."
"Integration is a key selling factor for Cisco security products. We have a Cisco Enterprise Agreement with access to Cisco Email Security, Cisco Firepower, Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco Talos, Cisco Threat Grid, Cisco Umbrella, and also third-party solutions. This is key to our security and maximizing operations. Because we do have the Email Security appliance and it is integrated with Threat Response, we have everything tied together. Additionally, we are using the Cisco SecureX platform, as we were a beta test for that new solution. With SecureX, we are able to pull all those applications into one pane for visibility and maintenance. This greatly maximizes our security operations."
"The threat Grid with the ability to observe the sandboxing, analyze, and perform investigations of different malicious files has been great."
"The most valuable feature of McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention is data loss prevention."
"Offers some good protection features."
"The initial setup process was easy."
"Everything in this DLP is great. It"
"The whitelisting works well."
"The overall features of McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention are very good."
"The stability of the solution can be good. However, the configuration takes a long time for it to be done properly."
"The product is largely stable."
"It's my understanding that the initial setup is straightforward."
"The product is stable."
"The solution is included in Windows 11."
"It is easy to use. It is usually easy to recover someone's privacy. The manageability is much easier than McAfee. I think that Microsoft is a leader in this area. We are in the Microsoft school so our judgment of McAfee will be a little bit unfair as we recommend Microsoft all the time because of the easy manageability and support. I think that McAfee is designed for a different customer and every time we open a ticket with their support, it takes a very, very long time. The main difference is just the manageability and support. In terms of the solution itself or the functionality, I know that McAfee is very strong, but manageability and support, for us, is much more important. It's strengthens the solution for us."
"The most important aspect of this solution is that if your laptop gets stolen, the information is encrypted."
"Technical support is excellent."
"One significant aspect is that without the BitLocker key, you can't log in to the user's laptop. I appreciate the capability to encrypt the user's hard drive, ensuring access only with the recovery key. In an enterprise setup, we store all BitLocker keys on our server. So, whenever a user attempts to log in, the architecture authenticates with the key. This ensures that our data is secure. Even if the user's laptop is lost, we have confidence that the data remains inaccessible. So far, our user data is well-protected."
"Being able to encrypt an entire hard disk has been most valuable."
 

Cons

"It is an expensive solution."
"It could be improved in connection with artificial intelligence and IoT."
"In terms of the user experience, if the UX design could be much simpler [that would improve things]... if they could make it more intuitive for someone who is not an engineer so that they still can read what's going on in their webpage and understand, that would be something."
"The Linux agent is a simple offline classic agent, and it doesn't support Secure Boot, which is important to have on a Linux machine. The Linux agent has conflicts with other solutions, including the Exploit Prevention system found in Windows servers. We didn't find a fix during troubleshooting, and Cisco couldn't offer one either. Eventually, we had to shut down the Exploit Prevention system. We didn't like that as we always want a solution that can fit smoothly into the setup without causing problems, especially where security is concerned. The tool also caused CPU spikes on our production machine, and we were seriously considering moving to another product."
"The product does not provide options like tunnel creation or virtual appliances."
"In the next version of this solution, I would like to see the addition of local authentication."
"It cannot currently block URLs over websites."
"...the greatest value of all, would be to make the security into a single pane of glass. Whilst these products are largely integrated from a Talos perspective, they're not integrated from a portal perspective. For example, we have to look at an Umbrella portal and a separate AMP portal. We also have to look at a separate portal for the firewalls. If I could wave a magic wand and have one thing, I would put all the Cisco products into one, simple management portal."
"In my experience, it's not really user-friendly for me, in terms of how I navigate with the ePolicy Orchestrator. They need to upgrade their management console."
"The initial setup is very complex."
"McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention could improve by making the customer aware of the benefits of the solution which would increase the adoption. Additionally, if there were features to suit multi-cloud environments it would be helpful. If the solution can intelligently identify which is important data for the organization and should not be released from the organization without authorization would be a benefit."
"There are a lot of vulnerabilities and viruses and malware can proliferate."
"The product uses a lot of resources and because of this it is not always a good solution for every situation."
"When this solution is used it requires a lot of administration because the users can have difficulties using it and require assistance. The administrators are continuously modifying the policies for the users. Technical support will be used frequently."
"The licensing cost for McAfee Total Protection could be cheaper, but apart from that, I don't need anything else. The software has what I need."
"Lacks GDPR regulations to enhance security."
"The encryption takes a long time to complete, and our system runs very slowly while it is encrypting."
"If integration with Active Directory are not mandatory for him, I think that there are many other solutions in the market that equal or are much stronger than Microsoft."
"More customization options would have been nice, such as password selection, actions when the screen is locked, etc."
"I would like to see improvement in the solution's central management of passwords. Currently, we install it separately."
"We recently found some stability issues with Microsoft BitLocker."
"If the encryption was faster then it would make the experience more pleasant."
"Microsoft BitLocker is far away from the threats in data security. It is not the number one solution for security, but I think it is a good layer in this process."
"The primary aspect for improvement lies in expanding our developer base, which would accelerate the development process and bring these enhancements to fruition"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The visibility that we have into the endpoint and the forensics that we're able to collect give us value for the price. This is not an overly expensive solution, considering all the things that are provided. You get great performance and value for the cost."
"The Enterprise Agreement is like an all-you-can-eat buffet of Cisco products. In that vein, it was very affordable."
"Cisco's pricing is reasonable. We also do not need to opt for niche players, which would have charged us significantly more than Cisco for ecosystem solutions. We are highly satisfied with the pricing structure of Cisco's solutions they are reasonable."
"The solution's price is about the same as that of Palo Alto solutions."
"Its price is fair for us."
"It can always be cheaper."
"It is a subscription-based product."
"The price is very fair to the customer."
"McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention is an expensive solution."
"The price of McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention is expensive. It is not the most expensive solution but it is typically 15 to 20 percent higher than other solutions. There is no additional cost to using McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention."
"McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention is expensive."
"There is an annual license to use this solution."
"If the client purchases the entire suite of McAfee Endpoint, the license is included."
"I'm paying the license for McAfee Total Protection yearly. It could be cheaper, but it's fine."
"I would rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"The pricing seems expensive both for the license and the support."
"The tool is cheap compared to the products offered by competitors. If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the tool's price as one."
"I think it's reasonably priced because I've never heard any complaints from my company about its costs."
"We didn't pay for additional licenses since the solution is built into Windows."
"We already use Microsoft products, and Microsoft BitLocker is an add-on product that is free of cost for us."
"The solution is cost efficient."
"We can activate the product at no cost."
"Microsoft BitLocker's pricing is included in the Microsoft license, and you don't have to pay an additional fee for it."
"It's not about pricing, because we are working with Enterprise companies that already have Windows Enterprise, so BitLocker comes already included as a Windows feature. It's free for Enterprise users. The price is only for deployment. The customer will pay for McAfee, however."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Retailer
9%
Non Profit
6%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business35
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Secure Endpoint?
The product's initial setup phase was very simple.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Endpoint?
Cisco is aggressive in pricing, making it competitive and sometimes even cheaper than other good products like CrowdS...
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Endpoint?
Cisco Secure Endpoint lacks features like DLP which other vendors offer. XDR is new, so integration capabilities with...
What do you like most about McAfee Total Protection for Data Loss Prevention?
The tool focuses on endpoints rather than networks. Endpoints cover everything. It wouldn't be possible to steal conf...
What should one take into account when replacing PGP with Microsoft BitLocker?
Beware to make backup of useful data, then use reverse decryption policy from Symantec panel/McAfee ePO to decrypt th...
Would you choose Microsoft BitLocker or McAfee Complete Data Protection?
Microsoft BitLocker is very intuitive and easy to maintain. It is basically the global standard solution for drive en...
How does Microsoft BitLocker compare with Symantec Endpoint Encryption?
Microsoft BitLocker is very intuitive and easy to maintain. It is basically the global standard solution for drive en...
 

Also Known As

Cisco AMP for Endpoints
McAfee Total Protection for Data, McAfee Total Protection for DLP, Total Protection for Data, Intel Security Total Protection for Data
BitLocker, MS BitLocker
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Heritage Bank, Mobile County Schools, NHL University, Thunder Bay Regional, Yokogawa Electric, Sam Houston State University, First Financial Bank
Kleberg Bank
ACV, Proaxis Therapy, Choice Hotels International, adnymics GmbH, Intermedia, NMBS/SNCB
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: August 2025.
866,956 professionals have used our research since 2012.