Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs NetWitness XDR comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Microsoft Logo
5,744 views|4,276 comparisons
98% willing to recommend
Palo Alto Networks Logo
31,048 views|17,576 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
NetWitness Logo
960 views|675 comparisons
87% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jul 7, 2023

We performed a comparison between NetWitness XDR and NetWitness XDR based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Features: NetWitness XDR is commended for its prompt threat response, seamless integration capabilities, and user behavior analytics. Users say NetWitness XDR could improve its threat intelligence and investigation. Some suggested updates to its reporting engine. Cortex XDR presents an intuitive interface, advanced identification of risks, expandability, and compatibility with various other solutions. Meanwhile, Cortex XDR could use enhancements in hard disk encryption, security integration, and customer education.

  • Service and Support: NetWitness XDR provides effective 24/7 technical support. While some were satisfied with the response times, others experienced delays of up to 48 hours. Some customers were impressed with Palo Alto’s support, while others reported mixed experiences.

  • Ease of Deployment: Some users found the initial setup of NetWitness uncomplicated, but others faced challenges. Some users thought Cortex XDR’s deployment was fast and straightforward, while others consider it to be a complex and time-consuming task that requires thorough planning.

  • Pricing: The total cost of NetWitness XDR depends on the environment and the number of endpoints. Larger users can receive discounts, but users say the solution might be too pricey for smaller companies. NetWitness XDR provides various licenses, including some that feature premium support. Some reviewers said Cortex XDR is expensive, but others said it was reasonable for the robust feature set Cortex offers.

  • ROI: NetWitness XDR has demonstrated positive outcomes by improving threat detection capabilities and facilitating digital forensics. Cortex XDR creates value by ensuring system and data security rather than a financial return on investment.

Comparison Results: Our users prefer Cortex XDR over NetWitness XDR. Users praise Cortex XDR for its user-friendly interface, ease of use, and comprehensive threat detection capabilities. They also appreciate its stability, scalability, and seamless integration with other solutions. NetWitness XDR users have encountered issues with slow performance, and configuration problems. They say NetWitness needs improvements in threat intelligence and reporting. While Cortex XDR has been praised for its reasonable pricing, NetWitness XDR is considered expensive. Cortex XDR offers a superior experience with robust features and better value for the investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs. NetWitness XDR Report (Updated: March 2024).
767,847 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It's a very scalable tool that can be used in a very small environment or in a very large environment. Everything can be managed from a simple dashboard and can be scaled up or down depending on the customer's environment.""The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that Microsoft Defender XDR is easy to integrate with other Microsoft platforms or products.""The most valuable feature of all is the full integration with the rest of the software in the operating system and Office 365, as well as Microsoft SCCM. It is quite easy for us to work with the whole instance of Microsoft products. This integration improves the benefits of the whole suite of products.""I like 365 Defender's advanced threat hunting. The dashboard is user-friendly with templates for site policies, etc. The most important use case is evaluating the risk links and applications.""It provides a single pane of glass within the 365 admin interface, streamlining our experience by consolidating information in one place and eliminating the need to navigate through multiple interfaces.""The common and advanced security policies for threat hunting and blocking attacks are valuable.""The best feature is threat hunting. There are a lot of other features I like, such as the alert mechanism. The chain alert mechanism has a huge impact. It combines all the alerts into one incident and automatically correlates them with AI.""The most valuable features of Microsoft 365 Defender are the combination of all the capabilities and centralized management."

More Microsoft Defender XDR Pros →

"It has pretty much everything we need and works well within the Palo Alto ecosystem.""It is easy to use.""One thing that I like about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, it is detecting all the suspicious or malicious binaries, and it has integration with Palo Alto Firewall.""The initial setup is easy.""Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks should be a stable solution.""Its interface and pricing are most valuable. It is better than other vendors in terms of security.""Cortex XDR's most valuable feature is its intelligence-based dashboards.""We have a complete overview of all our PCs and it's very easy to handle and to use the interface. It has a lot of benefits for us."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Pros →

"The stability of the RSA NetWitness Endpoint is very good.""Ability to isolate the machine when there are malicious files.""It's a scalable solution. We have around five to eight customers using RSA NetWitness Endpoint, and we hope to increase the number of users.""This solution allows us to locate the malware in real-time.""The interface of this solution is very flexible and easy to use.""The log correlation is good.""Technical support is knowledgeable.""NetWitness Endpoint's most valuable features are its interoperability across many different operating systems and the ease of pivoting from network to endpoint via a single console."

More NetWitness XDR Pros →

Cons
"Correctly updated records are the most significant area for improvement. There have been times when we were notified of a required fix; we would carry out the fix and confirm it but still get the same notification a week later. This seems to be a delay in records being updated and leads to false reporting, which is something that needs to be fixed.""From an integration standpoint, it is always improving overall. With Security Copilot coming out, as partners, we are waiting for the GDAP support so that we can actually see Security Copilot on behalf of customers if they subscribe to it.""The capability to not only thwart attacks but also to adapt to evolving threats is crucial.""The solution does not offer a unified response and standard data.""The mobile app support for Android and iOS is difficult and needs improvement.""In the beginning, it's difficult to navigate the system because it is quite large. Just trying to find your way and understand how the system works can be hard. After spending quite a lot of time searching it's a lot easier, but I wish it were a bit more user-friendly when you're trying to find things.""Because of the training model, Defender XDR's automatic response sometimes blocks legitimate users and activities. Also, the UI sometimes responds slowly.""It would be highly beneficial if CoPilot could identify anomalies within the network and notify the IT team."

More Microsoft Defender XDR Cons →

"It is not easy to sell Cortex XDR, not because it isn't a good tool. Its marketing needs to be improved.""In reporting they should have a customizable dashboard due to the fact that C-level people don't like reporting to the IT department. They prefer to have a real-time dashboard. That kind of dashboard needs to have various customizations.""I would like to see some additional features related to email protection included.""We have found that there are times Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks does not detect some of the viruses, we have to use another protection solution called Kaspersky.""When it comes to core analysis, and security analysis, Cortex needs to provide more information.""Every 30 or 40 days, there's a new version and we need to go and make sure our customer's laptops are upgraded.""The dashboard is the area that needs to improve so that we can have the ability to drill down without having to go elsewhere to verify results.""The solution can never really be an on-premises solution based simply on the way it is set up. It needs metadata to run and improve. Having an on-premises solution would cut it off from making improvements."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Cons →

"We would like to see the hunting and investigation features of this solution improved, in order to provide better visibility of issues.""The integration of the solution needs to be improved. The dashboard needs lots of updates as well. In the next release, we would like to see advanced fraud detection features.""The threat intelligence could improve in RSA NetWitness Endpoint.""The initial setup requires a high level of skill.""RSA NetWitness Network could improve on integration with non-native application integration.""NetWitness Endpoint's blocking feature does not work properly - if there's a malicious process, it's not possible to kill it via a custom rule unless and until it's flagged as malicious.""The deployment process is complex. I don't know why, but this solution will suddenly stop working. Logs stop coming. Often, one thing or another stops working. Most of the time, one of my team members is working with troubleshooting and working with technical support. Log passing is also one of the biggest challenge.""Its price could be improved. It is an expensive product. Its training is also too expensive. It would be great if they can have a better pricing scheme for the training."

More NetWitness XDR Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The solutions price is fair for what they offer."
  • "The price could be better. Normally, the costs depend on the country you're located in for the license. When we were in the initial stage, we went with the E5 license they call premium standard. It cost us around $5.20 per month for four users."
  • "The price of the solution is high compared to others and we have lost some customers because of it."
  • "Microsoft is not competitive with the pricing of the solution. The competitors are able to offer lower discounts. The price of the solution is higher."
  • "We have a lot of problems in Latin America regarding the price of Microsoft 365 Defender, because the relationship between dollars and the money of the different countries, it's is a lot. Many customers that have small businesses say that they would like the solution but it is too expensive. However, large companies do not find the cost an issue."
  • "The most valuable licensing option is expensive, so pricing could be improved. Licensing options for this solution also need to be consolidated, because they frequently change."
  • "Microsoft should provide lower-level licensing options. They should do it in such a way that even an individual could purchase a license, and it should be entirely flexible."
  • "They have moved from a licensing model to pay-per-use... The question is: What happens if, for any reason, there's not enough budget to accept this model? That could be a great problem."
  • More Microsoft Defender XDR Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I feel it is fairly priced."
  • "The pricing seems fair, and I do like the licensing model. You use wherever they are, and it is elastic."
  • "We didn't have to pay any additional fee for the cloud instance. It just came with the renewal, which was nice."
  • "It is "expensive" and flexible."
  • "Traps pays for itself within the first 16 months of a three-year subscription. This is attributed to OPEX savings, as security teams spent less time trying to identify and isolate malware for analysis as a result of a reduction in malware incidents, false positives, and breach avoidance."
  • "I did PoCs on products called Cylance and CrowdStrike. Although, I consider these products and they were also good, when it come to cost and budgetary factors, Traps has been proven to be better than the other two products. It is quite cost-effective and delivers all the entire solution which we require."
  • "It is cost-effective compared to similar solutions. It fits for the small businesses through to the big businesses."
  • "The return on investment is from the user side because we have seen the performance of it increase the delivery time of the product if we are using too many web-based and on-premise applications. In indirect ways, we saw the return of investment in terms of performance and user satisfaction increase."
  • More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "With RSA, there is flexibility in choosing the service, products, and the range that meets your requirement, as well as they are flexible in terms of pricing."
  • "They can easily adjust if you have the requirements which are required. If you have a budget cut or a budget constraint, they can bend."
  • "It is highly scalable. It can be bought based on your requirements."
  • "I do not have any opinion on the pricing or licensing of the product."
  • "The cost depends on the number of endpoints that you want to monitor, but it is not expensive."
  • "It is an expensive product."
  • "The price of the solution depends on the environment. If the environment is large then it will cost more. However, the larger the environment with more endpoints, you will receive an increased discount. If the environment is very small, then you might think it is expensive. It is always better to buy in bulk to receive a discount. The minimum number of assets is usually 500, with discounts on 1000 and 2000."
  • "The pricing is not very economical. It is a quite costly product for India. One thing is that when you purchase it, you have to purchase a module separately."
  • More NetWitness XDR Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) solutions are best for your needs.
    767,847 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I like Defender XDR's automation capabilities. XDR isn't automated by default, but you can automate it to respond. If an… more »
    Top Answer:While Microsoft Defender XDR carries a higher cost, its ease of use compared to Defender may justify the investment.
    Top Answer:Defender XDR has good threat visibility, but it could be better in some areas, like when we are hunting for a specific… more »
    Top Answer:Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks.… more »
    Top Answer:Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions that… more »
    Top Answer:Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface… more »
    Top Answer:Technical support is knowledgeable.
    Top Answer:The solution is expensive. I'd rate it at a one or two out of five. They need to adjust it to keep up with the… more »
    Top Answer:I have no real complaints about the solution. Threat detection could be better. They need to enhance their threat… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
    Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
    RSA ECAT, NetWitness Network
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Defender XDR is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect against threats in the Microsoft 365 environment. 

    It offers robust security measures, comprehensive threat detection capabilities, and an efficient incident response system. With seamless integration with other Microsoft products and a user-friendly interface, it simplifies security management tasks. 

    Users have found it effective in detecting and preventing various types of attacks, such as phishing attempts, malware infections, and data breaches.

    Watch the Microsoft demo video here: Microsoft Defender XDR demo video.

    Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is the first threat detection and response software to combine both visibility across all types of data as well as autonomous machine learning analytics. Threat detection very often requires analysts to divide their attention among many different data streams. This platform unifies a vast variety of data flows, which allows analysts to assess threats from a single location. Users can now maintain a level of visibility that other threat detection programs simply cannot offer. This level of transparency lends itself to both quick identification of problems that arise and the equally quick development of a potential solution.

    Cortex XDR’s machine learning works on many different levels to detect and prevent threats. It is constantly scanning for threats and vulnerabilities. The solution can scan up to 5.4 billion IP addresses in three-quarters of an hour. This allows it to spot weak points in the system and notify administrators long before hackers can take advantage of vulnerabilities. Once the Artificial Intelligence (AI) discovers an issue or an area where an issue could potentially take place the system creates a log of the information and subsequently sends an alert to system administrators. The AI takes the information that it has gathered and uses it to assign threat levels to the issues that it detects. Following this, a human analyst will be assigned to manually assess the issue and deal with it accordingly. You can set it to automatically respond to the threat by isolating the issue while analysts investigate it.

    Benefits of Cortex XDR

    Some of Cortex XDR’s benefits include:

    • The use of advanced AI analytics, behavior analytics, and custom-made detection to detect advanced threats before they occur.
    • The ability to group similar threat alerts, reducing incoming alerts by as much as 98%. This allows analysts to avoid being overwhelmed by the volume of incoming alerts.
    • The ability to investigate threats as much as 8 times faster than would be possible with other software. The machine learning, when coupled with the unified data stream that Cortex XDR collects, significantly increases the ability to more quickly discover the root cause of a threat.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks software stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to isolate threats while enabling them to be studied and the way that the software combines all of the data that it gathers into a single, more complete picture than other solutions offer.

    PeerSpot users note the effectiveness of these features. A network designer at a computer software company wrote, “The solution has a very helpful isolation feature. If any system gets compromised, with one click I can access the system and isolate it from other networks, and then go into further forensic investigation of the current threat without compromising anything else.”

    Jeff W., Vice President/CTO at Sinnott Wolach Technology Group, noted, “The ability to kind of stitch everything together and see the actual complete picture is very useful. I guess you'd call it a playbook. Some people call it the forensics analysis of what was happening on particular endpoints when they detected some malicious behavior, and what transpired before that to cause that. It is also very user friendly.”



    Using a centralized combination of network and endpoint analysis, behavioral analysis, data science techniques and threat intelligence, NetWitness XDR helps analysts detect and resolve known and unknown attacks while automating and orchestrating the incident response lifecycle. With these capabilities on one platform, security teams can collapse disparate tools and data into a powerful, blazingly fast user interface.

    Sample Customers
    Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
    CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
    ADP, Ameritas, Partners Healthcare
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company19%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Government11%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Security Firm9%
    Government7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business44%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise57%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise37%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise56%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business59%
    Midsize Enterprise24%
    Large Enterprise18%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise67%
    Buyer's Guide
    Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs. NetWitness XDR
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs. NetWitness XDR and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    767,847 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is ranked 4th in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 80 reviews while NetWitness XDR is ranked 40th in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 15 reviews. Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is rated 8.4, while NetWitness XDR is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks writes "It provides a whole new level of visibility and integrates with most other vendors". On the other hand, the top reviewer of NetWitness XDR writes "Beneficial single unified dashboard, good native application integration, and high availability". Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is most compared with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike Falcon, Darktrace, Symantec Endpoint Security and Trend Micro Apex One, whereas NetWitness XDR is most compared with Darktrace, ExtraHop Reveal(x), CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity Complete and Arista NDR. See our Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs. NetWitness XDR report.

    See our list of best Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) vendors, best Extended Detection and Response (XDR) vendors, and best Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) vendors.

    We monitor all Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) 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.