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Cisco XDR vs NetWitness NDR 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
5.0
Cisco XDR enhances ROI by reducing downtime, swiftly resolving incidents, and simplifying license expansion for small companies.
Sentiment score
8.0
Implementing NetWitness NDR enhances security, improves network visibility, reduces costs, and boosts efficiency and productivity for businesses.
Two customers faced a network breach and a bad configuration incident, but unlike in the past where recovery took days, they managed to shut down access points quickly.
Cloud Architect at Pure Storage
The biggest return on investment when using Cisco XDR is the downtime aspect, specifically not having to roll out to sites and not having customers experience downtime.
Core Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
The biggest return on investment when using Cisco XDR is that, being a small company where everybody has multiple roles, the quicker I can mitigate something, the faster I can return to my scheduled tasks for that day.
Network Engineer at BTC Broadband
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Cisco XDR's customer service is generally efficient with good teamwork, but some users report issues with responsiveness and communication.
Sentiment score
7.3
NetWitness NDR's customer service is generally efficient and highly regarded, though some users report occasional slow response times.
They responded quickly, they were always willing to meet, and they were always willing to work as per my schedule.
SOC Analyst at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
the tech support is excellent
Network Engineer at BTC Broadband
I would rate Cisco customer service a ten out of ten.
Core Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.7
Cisco XDR is highly scalable, rated nine out of ten, supporting extensive operations and accommodating significant growth seamlessly.
Sentiment score
7.0
NetWitness NDR is scalable for large enterprises, though some users report issues with scalability and agent migration.
Cisco XDR is designed to handle significant scaling of endpoints, allowing management of a large scale of environments with thousands of sessions.
Technical Presales at Vcom Technologies
In terms of scalability, I rate it as the best.
Cybersecurity Consultant | Managed Infrastructure Services Head | Business Apps and DevOps Head at Blueberry Tech Solutions India Pvt Ltd
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco XDR is reliable and stable, with early issues resolved, praised for functionality, scalability, and dependable performance.
Sentiment score
7.7
NetWitness NDR is generally reliable, providing real-time data and stability, though minor technical issues are occasionally reported.
Customers have mentioned that the stability and scalability are good compared to competitors.
Director -Digital Transformation at Convergence
Once they got it fixed and figured out the issue with the observables and with the character limit, it's been flawless.
SOC Analyst at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
The stability and reliability of Cisco XDR, similar to most Cisco products, are bulletproof.
Network Engineer at BTC Broadband
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco XDR users seek simplified licensing, better pricing, enhanced threat detection, and improvements in performance, features, and multilingual support.
NetWitness NDR requires improvements in UI, scalability, detectability, integration, session times, pricing, training, and features, making it complex and slow.
Competitors offer more visibility without any additional licensing, which is a significant drawback for Cisco.
Director -Digital Transformation at Convergence
If it can capture threats from worldwide new threats and publish them into a particular database linked with an AI-driven system that can immediately alert people, that would be very good for zero-day threats.
Manager IT at NVCL Group
Offering some free XDR licenses for testing features, similar to VPN licenses, could have a significant impact on costs.
Network Security Specialist at General Authority of Customs
 

Setup Cost

Cisco's subscription pricing is costly but customizable, with discounts on bundles, yet currency and licensing complexity affect costs.
This integration and discounting are something we cannot get from competitors, leading to reduced security costs.
Network Security Specialist at General Authority of Customs
Users can customize their use of Cisco XDR significantly from the onset, which has resulted in a lower total cost of ownership.
Cloud Architect at Pure Storage
Overall, the price is a bit expensive compared to local competitors.
Director -Digital Transformation at Convergence
 

Valuable Features

Cisco XDR enhances security with integrated threat intelligence, automation, and advanced features, improving response times and operational efficiency.
NetWitness NDR offers high detection rates, real-time malware response, third-party integration, and a user-friendly, interoperable interface with advanced analytics.
Between the clarity, the granularity, and the dashboard, it just works.
Network Engineer at BTC Broadband
The feature I appreciate the most about Cisco XDR is the flexibility for a user to be able to create their own reporting and dashboards.
Cloud Architect at Pure Storage
Cisco XDR helps prevent data loss during ransomware attacks by integrating with multiple levels of security, tying to identity management systems, and allowing placement of blocks at the endpoint level.
Cybersecurity Consultant | Managed Infrastructure Services Head | Business Apps and DevOps Head at Blueberry Tech Solutions India Pvt Ltd
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco XDR
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
NetWitness NDR
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
37th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (53rd), Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (37th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (56th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (25th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cisco XDR is 1.8%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetWitness NDR is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco XDR1.8%
NetWitness NDR1.4%
Other96.8%
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Joseph Houghes - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at Pure Storage
flexible reporting and analytics boost data-driven security responses
The feature I appreciate the most about Cisco XDR is the flexibility for a user to be able to create their own reporting and dashboards. I would say I got to stop beta testing myself. I am testing what can be customized the most with it. Being able to ingest all the analytics and make it something that's either meaningful to them or to their own leadership is a big plus. It's not just what the product is at launch; you have the ability to customize and make it useful to your business to actually get real, purposeful information out of just a swamp of data. The features of Cisco XDR have actually benefited the organization significantly by allowing us to do the outputs of specific data and even filtered subsets of the data. We can do the same reporting but only deliver in either reports or dashboards the information about the systems that a specific team is responsible for, or the larger teams that multiple departments or IT silos roll up into. We're basically able to just modify the filters and have the same reports in the same dashboards where it's all the same; 99% of the work is the same.
reviewer1799727 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, IT Security Operations at a non-profit with 11-50 employees
Reliable and good support but can be expensive
I have no real complaints about the solution. Threat detection could be better. They need to enhance their threat intelligence feeds. We would like to have more IOCs or more trade intelligence to not only rely on the intelligence of the engineer in charge but to have some threat intelligence and some seeds of IOCs and to have the host have some artificial intelligence to reduce the number of false positives. I don't see this solution being very scalable. The solution is pricey.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Performing Arts
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco XDR?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been intriguing. I used to work for a Cisco partner, and I still have friends there with whom I discuss comparisons regarding some hardwar...
What needs improvement with Cisco XDR?
Improvements in Cisco XDR revolve around performance. The less performance it utilizes to run at high configuration levels, the better it becomes, so all vendors need to continue working on keeping...
What is your primary use case for Cisco XDR?
As a security consultant, I use multiple SIEM and XDR solutions, so cumulatively, I can say I have used Cisco XDR for around one year.
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Also Known As

No data available
RSA ECAT, NetWitness Network
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
ADP, Ameritas, Partners Healthcare
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco XDR vs. NetWitness NDR and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,821 professionals have used our research since 2012.