We performed a comparison between Cisco Stealthwatch and Darktrace based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: The two solutions are very comparable. However, their features slightly differ, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
"The beginning of any security investigation starts with net flow data."
"Stealthwatch has greatly improved our network visibility, in terms of bandwidth, malware, and PCI violations."
"Visibility. The ability to look East and West. To see what is passing through your circuits, where it is coming from, and how big it is."
"It works efficiently for encrypted traffic analysis."
"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."
"The most valuable feature we got out of Stealthwatch is to be able to, while troubleshooting, go deep into one of our interfaces and verify what the bandwidth is and if there's any activity there that's causing problems."
"The solution has increased our threat detection rate. Cisco Stealthwatch has not reduced our incident response times. It has not reduced the amount of time it takes us to detect immediate threats. It has reduced false positives."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is data hoarding because it catches threats on a frequent basis that we had no idea of."
"Artificial intelligence and machine learning functionalities are valuable."
"It is very easy to work with Darktrace once you know how it works and the type of permissions that you need to get related to the security over a network. The interface is awesome. I'm sure that you have seen Ironman, and you know Jarvis, the computer of Tony Stark. The interface of Darktrace is very similar, and you can see in 3D, like a hologram, the whole network, traffic, and all the traces inside the network. The interface is awesome, and it provides a lot of information. At least for us, it is very easy to handle this interface, get the reports, and do the interpretation of those reports. Darktrace also provides mobile monitoring. With an app on your mobile phone, you can view the information live, which is very useful for area directors and field engineers. Darktrace can be also correlated with any type of big data solution, such as Splunk."
"It is a stable solution without downtime."
"I particularly like Antigena and the analytics around the real-time monitoring of our network. I also like its reporting because it has got a seven-day reporting period within the system. Every time you run the reports, it gives you the data about the previous seven days. I like that because it is in real-time. I enjoy reading those reports and getting a very clear and decisive idea of what's happening on my network on a real-time basis. I like the actual real-time monitoring of spoofing and things like that. I also like the user monitoring as well as the network logging capabilities."
"The most valuable features of Darktrace are the tracing of unusual external emails and monitoring the local network."
"The Antigena feature is most valuable. Once it learns your environment, Antigena can step in and block a denial of service attack, a ransomware attack, or just about anything that doesn't belong in the environment. It can detect any type of attack that hits the environment because it understands what normal looks like for the network. It is very useful for an autonomous response."
"Darktrace's most valuable features are that it understands the network environment and is able to trace the traffic and alert on anomalies."
"I have used multiple solutions, but its graphical user interface is quite interesting and quite descriptive. There are a lot of video animations, and we can easily see how the data is transferred between various points. That's something really interesting. It is also quite easy to understand for a new user."
"The GUI could use some improvement. Being able to find features more easily would be a great improvement if it was simplified."
"The ability to be natively integrated into Port Aggregator would be beneficial because it would reduce just one more component that's needed in order to have that type of view."
"One update I would like to see is an agent-based client. Currently StealthWatch is network based."
"The initial setup was straightforward but required a lot of data entry, to begin with building out the server types and network types."
"The reporting of day-to-day metrics still has room for improvement."
"At my company, we might not be using it enough with other applications that we have that can integrate with it."
"The initial setup is complex, as there is a lot to configure."
"There could be better integration on the programming side, which uses Python. StealthWatch could provide a template for Python to manage the switches. For example, it would be nice if StealthWatch bounced a port automatically it detected something anomalous."
"This product needs more in terms of prevention. The detection capabilities work well but once a threat has been detected, Darktrace should work to prevent it from doing anything malicious."
"In an upcoming release, there could be more customizable playbooks or a library of playbooks to choose from."
"The initial setup is more complex and time-consuming than some solutions."
"It should be easier to access the Darktrace portal and its documentation. Only the customer can access their portal and support. It could be cheaper."
"It would be useful if there was a way to check to see if there are certain devices that are not in sync with the solution. I'm not sure if this is an option or not."
"A reporting portal could be a great addition to help customize reports."
"The interface is too mathematical and it should be simplified."
"They just need to work on their price. In terms of features, we are trying to understand all the features that we have. We're still exploring everything that we have so that we can fully utilize it. At this point in time, it is not about the features. It is more about utilization. We're just trying to utilize everything to full capacity."
More Cisco Secure Network Analytics Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cisco Secure Network Analytics is ranked 4th in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) with 57 reviews while Darktrace is ranked 1st in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) with 65 reviews. Cisco Secure Network Analytics is rated 8.2, while Darktrace is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Network Analytics writes "Increased the visibility of what is happening in our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Darktrace writes "Great autonomous support, offers an easy setup, and has responsive support". Cisco Secure Network Analytics is most compared with Cisco Secure Cloud Analytics, ThousandEyes, Vectra AI, Arista NDR and Cisco Cognitive Threat Analytics, whereas Darktrace is most compared with CrowdStrike Falcon, Vectra AI, SentinelOne Singularity Complete, Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks and ExtraHop Reveal(x). See our Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. Darktrace report.
See our list of best Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) vendors and best Network Detection and Response (NDR) vendors.
We monitor all Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
CylancePROTECT is AI-powered endpoint protection that will scan your endpoint devices with AI and Machine Learning security. It does not work with traditional signature-based protection and will cover your endpoints against the latest malware and event Potential Unwanted Programs. We are also a Darktrace partner and if interested we can demo both Cyber Security solutions to your company. If you are interested in more information about CylancePROTECT and Darktrace and would like to run a free POC, please contact me at cj@groveis.com.
Raffael Marty, Vice President, Forcepoint Research and Intelligence, said: "There is no artificial intelligence in the field of information security, and it is unlikely to be developed in 2019." Most of unsupervised machine learning-based network anomaly detection solution does not provide why the anomaly has been aroused and whether the anomaly is malicious or not. Most of such solution's pricing model is based on number of endpoints but I prefer to have flat fee subscription-based.
The most important thing to get traction is your business approach and some kind of openness for 3rd parties. NOBODY needs "fancy Dashboards"!
Most of the known vendors like Darktrace is extremely "sales offensive" and they don't have a clear sales strategy (direct or channel). A free POV (30days) is a common approach to attract new customers, but the outcome is not really important. It says nothing about the PAINS on the customer site.
Know your competitors!!!! There are many AI CyberSec Startups and Technologies - 99% are using "Machine Learning" what needs more time to the realtime reaction in critical phases. Preferred is Deep Learning like DeepInstinct offers.
Pricing Model per IP´s is pretty usual - but you need flexibility.
Thank you I’m not really interested in being sold to. I’m asking about what works, what doesn’t and pricing models. I don’t want any demos.
Thank you for your comments...what if the malware does not present as anomalous?
We are an Endpoint focused firm represented a Pyramid of EP based protection services (email & web filter, coupled with EP protection, cyber insurance and dark web monitoring). Our key AI product offering is Cylance, world class in it's ability to protect you where over 95% of all hacks occur, the End Point. Cylance is typically sold as a manged service due to some of the complexities of tailoring the product to fit your business needs. Typically the service is price per EP, per month.
Thank you, I am familiar with Darktrace and really like the product. I'd like to know your thoughts on additional features and pricing preferences.
In my opinion, the best response always comes from the source. I have many contacts at Darktrace that can precisely answer these and other questions. Please let me know if you would like me to arrange for a scheduled call.