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Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs Sophos Endpoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 19, 2026

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
5.4
Cortex XDR provides cost-effective security by reducing malware incidents, simplifying administration, and enhancing data protection and compliance.
Sentiment score
5.7
Sophos Endpoint delivers ROI in 12-16 months, enhancing productivity and security, with positive financial returns and legal compliance.
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
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Cortex XDR support is generally efficient but varies by contract type, with premium plans offering superior service.
Sentiment score
7.9
Sophos Endpoint support is mixed, noted for responsiveness and expertise, but needs improvement in communication and issue resolution.
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
I rate Sophos support as excellent, giving it a ten out of ten.
Assistant Manager, Information Technology at Swades Foundation
They have introduced a dedicated role called Technical Account Manager (TAM) for every partner.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
The Sophos people here in South Africa are very helpful.
IT Consultant at Inception
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR efficiently scales across environments, supporting enterprises with thousands of users and devices, earning high scalability ratings.
Sentiment score
8.2
Sophos Endpoint provides excellent scalability for diverse organizations, excelling in cloud environments but limited in non-Sophos integration.
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
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Cortex XDR is praised for its exceptional stability, reliable performance, and efficient handling of bugs and high data loads.
Sentiment score
8.7
Sophos Endpoint is praised for stability with minor issues, like resource use, achieving reliable performance in diverse environments.
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
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR needs better integration, UI improvements, reduced false positives, enhanced performance, and competitive pricing for optimum user experience.
Sophos Endpoint requires improvements in migration, usability, integration, resource efficiency, support, and feature enhancements to address user concerns.
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
The enterprise integration is very poor, requiring a lot of manual work.
IT Consultant at Inception
Users have noted that daily upload limits per device, overall data lake storage capacity tied to licenses, and daily API query limits can be restrictive.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
I think there should be templates in place so I do not have to make everything from scratch; having templates for NATing, de-NATing, and LAN to WAN rules would save us time.
Assistant Manager, Information Technology at Swades Foundation
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR offers flexible licensing and dynamic pricing, seen as costly but valuable for advanced SOC environments with negotiation options.
Sophos Endpoint offers competitive pricing with cost-effective three-year licenses, regional discounts, and mixed affordability ratings from users.
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
The cost is reasonable and cheaper than other alternatives.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
It is quite affordable; I think the pricing and licensing are reasonable.
IT Leader at Die Ambulanten - Home Care GmbH
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR offers AI-driven endpoint security, behavior-based threat detection, and seamless integration, enhancing threat management and scalability.
Sophos Endpoint excels in threat detection, AI integration, resource efficiency, and offers user-friendly management with seamless Sophos product integration.
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
Key features for comprehensive detection and prevention include advanced threat prevention, ransomware protections, exploit prevention, and AI-powered detections.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
Web filtering helps provide protection by allowing me to block unwanted and unauthorized websites from Sophos EPP Suite, which helps prevent unauthorized intrusion, thus keeping our organization servers secure.
Assistant Manager, Information Technology at Swades Foundation
With the reseller management, I can manage multiple clients without having to log in to each client.
IT Consultant at Inception
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (8th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (7th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Sophos Endpoint
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
30th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.3%, down from 4.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Endpoint is 1.1%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks3.3%
Sophos EPP Suite1.1%
Other95.6%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

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.
Sabbir Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
Experience significant threat prevention advancements with user-friendly deployment
The feature is called relay server, and some people refer to it as a cache server. The Sophos EPP Suite is scalable. Some customers in banks typically have 5,000 to 7,000 users. One customer started with 1,000 users and has now extended to 4,000 users. Some customers are using up to 8,000 users without any issues. Regarding AI elements in the Sophos EPP Suite, firewalls have already introduced AI features. They have integrated AI models similar to ChatGPT in firewalls. These AI features should be introduced in endpoint XDR as well. Key features for comprehensive detection and prevention include advanced threat prevention, ransomware protections, exploit prevention, and AI-powered detections. Extended visibility and data analysis include cross-product data correlations. They have a data lake, live discover, and threat graphs. They also offer AI case summary and AI common analysis, accessible from Sophos Central, which is the management portal for Sophos XDR. Sophos Central serves as one central management portal for managing firewalls, endpoint, Sophos encryption, and mobile device management solutions. This centralized management is particularly appealing to customers.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Educational Organization
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise43
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

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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 do you like most about Sophos EPP Suite?
Sophos EPP Suite is a powerful antivirus.
What needs improvement with Sophos EPP Suite?
To make Sophos EPP Suite better, some features could be added, but currently, whatever I require is available, and the interface is good. I think there should be templates in place so I do not have...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
EPP Suite
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
EK Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs. Sophos Endpoint and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,511 professionals have used our research since 2012.