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Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
14th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Palo Alto Networks Advanced...
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is 3.6%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is 7.6%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

Jack Poon - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ease of setup and good documentation
When it comes to the product's deployment phase, we have a lot of vendor support. We have a lot of skills here in Hong Kong. Our company doesn't find any problem deploying Cisco solutions. The solution is deployed on an on-premises version. Speaking about the time required to deploy the solution, I would say that we have quite a lot of previous experience with deploying Cisco products. We have our company's standard design document, which we need to follow. We have a standard testing procedure for all those features. We just take out some appropriate parts and then compile them into one document for an individual project. It is actually quite easy for us to do the documentation, so it just takes one or two hours, and we can do the implementation because all the materials and testing procedures are already in our company standard documents, so it is not that difficult for us.
Nasir Akbar - PeerSpot reviewer
Numerous support challenges arise but unique security features impress
In this scenario with Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention, I did not get any opportunity to work on it. The only thing I did was forward the logs to the SIEM ( /categories/security-information-and-event-management-siem ) solution.For government entities, they are not allowing configuration changes. For non-government users, there is a support portal to get the configuration file and upload it to the portal. We can identify misconfigurations and where the loop is very big, so we can get the report and establish it. In Saudi Arabia specifically, the support service needs improvement. When customers have incidents with Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention and want to open a case with the Palo Alto team, the available number in Saudi Arabia leads to a long procedure. They're not able to answer within one or two hours. This needs to be implemented. They may need to open offices in Dubai or other places for Arabic-speaking people to access TAC support.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution can be integrated with some network electors like Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco ISE, and Active Directory to provide the client with authentication certificates."
"The most valuable features of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT are the dashboard for monitoring events."
"The product is inexpensive compared to leading brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet."
"The solution is rather easy to use."
"It is quite an intelligent product."
"I like most of Cisco's features, like malware detection and URL filtering."
"The most valuable feature is the visibility that we have across the virtual environment."
"The solution is stable."
"For those who want a next-gen firewall that's easy to configure and easy to operate, I think you should go for Palo Alto."
"It's very easy to use and configure. What is nice about Palo Alto is that even if you don't understand how to use it, you can just click on upload and upload everything that needs to be blocked."
"The stability of Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention is good."
"I find the malware protection very handy."
"The initial setup was straightforward. It's quite easy. Deployment took one to two weeks."
"The sandboxing tools offer great prevention for cloud feeds."
"The most valuable feature is its use of machine learning to detect potentially unknown threats."
"With the IP address flag, I was able to see that I was being hacked. The moment there was an interaction between somebody on my network and that IP, the solution was able to flag it, and we were able to protect ourselves."
 

Cons

"The customization of the rules can be simplified."
"I would like to have analytics included in the suite."
"The main dashboard of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT could improve."
"With the next release, I would like to see some PBR, so that you can do the configuration with the features."
"The solution's approach to managing traffic blocking is confusing and impractical."
"I want to see a better dashboard for the product. The dashboard can be a bit modified or enhanced."
"To be frank, the product is not really stable, although they're working on that. Whenever I go to the technical community with an issue, they will usually say that it is not there yet, but the technical team are working on it. The issues are not insolvable. I think they should just keep working on the product to make sure that the product can become very stable. The technical support is great. I appreciate that. We have a lot of communities supporting Firepower now, so you can find help for whatever issue you have."
"Performance needs improvement."
"Generally, to deploy it will take some downtime, about a day."
"Sometimes when you want to group a set of ports, and communicate with Palo Alto, you cannot group TCP and UDP ports together. This needs to be adjusted."
"The initial setup is complex."
"Mission learning techniques should continue to expand and detect unknown threats on the fly."
"In Africa, the technical support is probably not as good as in Europe and the USA because it's a specific premium support, partner-enabled premium support and all of that. But it's really good, I don't really have any complaints, it's fairly good. I'll give them 80%."
"The price of licenses should be lowered to make it less costly to scale our solution."
"It's not so easy to set up a test environment, because it's not so easy to get the test license. The vendor only gives you 90 days for a test license; it's a tough license to get."
"I think they can use some improvement on FID."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing for this solution is paid on a yearly basis."
"I don't know the exact amount, but most of the time when I go to a company with a proposition, they will say, "This thing that you are selling is good, but it's expensive. Why don't you propose something like FortiGate, Check Point, or Palo Alto?" Cisco device are expensive compared to other devices."
"We have a three-year license for this solution."
"The cost is per port and can be expensive but it does include training and support for three years."
"If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five."
"Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is quite competitive, offering extensive threat detection and prevention capabilities, though it is priced higher than some alternatives."
"The cost involves the price of the hardware, which is expensive. However, most of the Palo Alto solutions are expensive."
"The pricing could be lower."
"The product’s pricing is expensive for small companies."
"There is an initial, expensive investment but the return is good."
"It's not too expensive."
"Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention could improve by having consistent pricing at system levels."
"The pricing has improved with the newer generation of their Firewalls, but the price could always be lower."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
12%
University
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
The product is inexpensive compared to leading brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five. There are some other tools in the market that are more expensive than Cisco. There are no additional c...
What needs improvement with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
Cisco offers the Cisco DNA Center, which is a source that provides crucial information for us to monitor performance, and see whether there is any trouble. We are using Cisco DNA center, but again,...
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Arbor would be the best bid, apart from Arbor, Palo Alto and Fortinet have good solutions. As this is an ISP, I would prefer Arbor.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention?
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention requires an add-on license and is considered expensive compared to competitors like Cisco AMP and FortiGate ( /products/fortinet-fortigate-reviews ) fi...
 

Also Known As

Sourcefire SNORT
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CareCore, City of Biel, Dimension Data, LightEdge, Lone Star College System, National Rugby League, Port Aventura, Smart City Networks, Telecom Italia, The Department of Education in Western Australia
University of Arkansas, JBG SMITH, SkiStar AB, TRI-AD, Temple University, Telkom Indonesia
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,390 professionals have used our research since 2012.