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Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs ESET PROTECT Enterprise comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

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
5.8
Cortex XDR offers cost-effective security with reduced infections, compliance support, enhanced efficiency, rich data, and competitive pricing.
Sentiment score
7.0
ESET PROTECT Enterprise offers strong returns with effective security, easy installation, and up to 30% cost savings over CrowdStrike.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks helps to reduce my total cost of ownership significantly.
Detection and Response Consultant at Inovasys
I have seen a return on investment with Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, as this product is offered at a minimal cost, and we can find a good ROI from it.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
The return on investment is excellent due to its functionality and ease of installation.
Director, Information Technology at Premier Realty Group
There was money saving from using ESET PROTECT Enterprise, which is why I switched from CrowdStrike to ESET.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Cortex XDR support quality varies; users experience both commendable assistance and challenges, depending on region and support plans.
Sentiment score
7.9
Customers praise ESET PROTECT Enterprise's support team for being knowledgeable, responsive, and helpful, often rating them 9 or 10.
The technical support from Palo Alto deserves a mark of ten because they reach out within an hour whenever assistance is needed.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
There is no back and forth, and they know what we are asking for and come up with the best resolution for a solution.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
If any of these services are missed, it becomes a problem in terms of support tickets, follow-up, or special configuration that needs to be done in the system.
Chief of IT Architecture at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The tech support from ESET is amazing, and I would rate it as ten out of ten.
Owner at Octo-Xpressions
They are very responsive and help in solving issues quickly.
Security Network Engineer at АТ "Банк інвестицій та заощаджень"
Even if support is addressing my problem, if the two issues I mentioned are not resolved, then the support process is not complete.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR is scalable and cloud-based, efficiently supporting thousands of endpoints across various enterprise environments without scalability issues.
Sentiment score
7.5
ESET PROTECT Enterprise is highly scalable, efficiently expanding to thousands of devices, with performance varying across workstations and servers.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can be expanded anytime by purchasing another license without any issues related to scalability.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
It can efficiently scale up to thousands of devices in an organization without issues.
Owner at Octo-Xpressions
I have used many products before, and this solution is definitely scalable.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
It is better suited for workstations rather than server environments.
Director, Information Technology at Premier Realty Group
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cortex XDR is stable and reliable, with minimal performance issues and consistent performance despite initial configuration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.4
ESET PROTECT Enterprise operates reliably with minimal maintenance, despite occasional update interruptions and manageable false positives.
Cortex remains fast and responsive, even with increasing data and alerts.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The thresholds we've seen on our firewall boxes at some instances reached 80% to 85%, but even at that level of utilization, we don't observe any latency or any issues reported with respect to accessing the application.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
When it performs an update, ESET PROTECT Enterprise should request permission for restarting because otherwise, users lose their work.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
The solution is stable, and I have not encountered any glitches.
Owner at Octo-Xpressions
The solution is very, very stable.
Director, Information Technology at Premier Realty Group
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR needs better compatibility, UX, report customization, and pricing while reducing performance issues and enhancing automation and detection.
ESET PROTECT Enterprise needs better deployment, performance, automation, UI clarity, and efficient management, especially for mobile and Mac.
Improving reporting and dashboard customization, along with the addition of real-time and exportable reports, would help SOC teams greatly.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
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.
Pre-Sales Architect at network techlab
If the per GB data could be provided at a certain level free of cost or at the same cost which the customer is taking for the entire bundle, that would be better.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
Sometimes, agents lose connection with the management console, and the administration team needs to reinstall the agents on the computers.
Security Network Engineer at АТ "Банк інвестицій та заощаджень"
They need to reduce the number of notifications on the endpoints.
Director, Information Technology at Premier Realty Group
It takes a lot of processing power when the machine is initially booted.
Owner at Octo-Xpressions
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR offers flexible licensing, ranging $55-$90 annually, deemed cost-effective despite higher setup costs, suitable for any enterprise.
ESET PROTECT Enterprise's pricing is seen as cost-effective, offering good value despite being higher than some competitors.
The pricing on SentinelOne is far more reasonable and cheaper than Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would say it is definitely not a cheap product, considering how mature it is and how scalable all Palo Alto products are together.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
I pay 40 dollars per agent annually, which is cheaper than 60 dollars per agent for Check Point.
Security Network Engineer at АТ "Банк інвестицій та заощаджень"
We recently paid fourteen dollars and thirty-six cents per unit for 20 users, which is reasonable.
Director, Information Technology at Premier Realty Group
Comparing it to other solutions in the market, it was slightly higher.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR offers advanced threat detection, AI capabilities, easy integration, remote management, and rapid response, enhancing security measures.
ESET PROTECT Enterprise offers robust security with efficient management, minimal resources, and strong threat detection for online transactions.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
Pre-Sales Architect at network techlab
It includes machine learning to easily analyze data and detect complex threats across endpoints, networks, or clouds.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
It allows simple whitelisting and has a learning mode for new installations, which reduces false positives by adapting to typical user habits.
Director, Information Technology at Premier Realty Group
Its web component prevents infections from malicious websites, which enhances its anti-malware capabilities.
Owner at Octo-Xpressions
One of the strong features of ESET PROTECT Enterprise is its ability to work well on old computers.
Security Network Engineer at АТ "Банк інвестицій та заощаджень"
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
101
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (5th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (8th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
ESET PROTECT Enterprise
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
20th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 5.0%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ESET PROTECT Enterprise is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks5.0%
ESET PROTECT Enterprise1.1%
Other93.9%
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
 

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration
Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.
Manikumar David - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Provides comprehensive monitoring and policy implementation with room for memory optimization
ESET PROTECT Enterprise makes the system a little slow sometimes and updates occur at startup. Sometimes unwanted pop-ups appear to users, and they are unable to disable them. The user-friendliness is lacking in some areas. When users are using any computer, ESET PROTECT Enterprise should work in the background without consuming much memory, and any updates should proceed in the background without disturbing the user.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise43
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

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. The ability to reverse damage caused by ransomware with minimal interruptions to...
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 that are very scalable, secure, and user-friendly. Cortex XDR by Palo Alto offers ...
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, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...
What needs improvement with ESET Protect?
One area for improvement in ESET PROTECT Enterprise is its capabilities on Mac devices, which are less functional compared to Windows. In terms of device management, ESET PROTECT Enterprise could i...
What is your primary use case for ESET Protect?
My customers use ESET PROTECT Enterprise to secure all their operating systems; we have a lot of customers who rely on this antivirus. It also acts as a platform where I can manage all the devices ...
What advice do you have for others considering ESET Protect?
I suggest that other users considering ESET PROTECT Enterprise utilize this platform to manage all their laptops and apply security policies effectively to protect their Windows environments. On a ...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
ESET Protect, ESET File Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs. ESET PROTECT Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.