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Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 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
7.3
Cortex XDR enhances security, reduces costs, boosts threat identification, compliance, and user confidence, offering cost-effective data protection.
Sentiment score
4.1
Symantec Endpoint Security's robust protection minimizes ransomware impact, ensuring data security and ROI for manufacturing firms against cyber threats.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Cortex XDR support is responsive and knowledgeable, despite occasional delays and regional language barriers affecting resolution times.
Sentiment score
5.5
Symantec Endpoint Security's technical support is mixed, with responsive service overall but variations in speed and costlier advanced support.
They did well with handling high-risk threats.
Their support is efficient and responsive whenever I raise a ticket through my portal.
Every vendor has similar support; it depends on how the case is handled and raised.
The support site for accessing new software is complicated, despite necessary multi-factor authentication.
I rate the technical support from Symantec as eight out of ten because they have comprehensive and clear documentation that can be easily found on search engines if someone knows how to search.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR is praised for smooth scalability, managing diverse endpoints, and effective expansion in various organizational sizes.
Sentiment score
8.0
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise scales well for all business sizes, though costly and affected by network configuration challenges.
Regarding scalability, since Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is a cloud solution, it is very scalable.
In my experience supporting approximately 10 different companies with up to 100 workstations each, scalability has never been a concern with Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR is stable, with resolved bugs and ongoing improvements, earning high stability ratings from users.
Sentiment score
8.9
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is praised for reliability but has occasional issues, mainly with Windows updates and scans.
Cortex XDR is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
All the situations and issues were controlled in a good way by Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks.
For the last 11 months, we haven't faced any outage issues, so it is a stable product.
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise maintains consistent connectivity.
I rate the stability of Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise as excellent, giving it a nine for all the new possibilities and features that can be implemented.
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR struggles with compatibility, high memory usage, difficult management, limited features, and needs better integration, UI, and pricing.
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise needs user-friendliness upgrades, better Mac compatibility, and improved pricing, threat notifications, and support services.
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.
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.
Cortex XDR could improve its sales support team, including better commission structures and referral programs.
Customers are uncertain about the modern protection features compared to competitors such as ThreatDown, CrowdStrike, and SentinelOne.
The centralized management console is intuitive, but the threat intelligence aspect could be more incorporated and developed, especially with AI integration and news directly in the platform.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Cortex XDR expensive, but competitive, with flexible licensing; costs vary by usage, features, and setup.
Symantec's pricing is seen as reasonable by some but expensive by others, particularly when upgrading to EDR.
Compared to competitors such as CrowdStrike and Sophos, the pricing of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is similar to CrowdStrike but more expensive than Sophos.
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR offers robust endpoint security with advanced threat detection, ease of use, seamless integration, and real-time monitoring capabilities.
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise offers proactive threat protection, ease of use, scalability, and cost-effective basic security with frequent updates.
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
The way the cases used to collect the data is not intrusive, permitting the infrastructure to collect the data and send it to the Data Lake without problems.
The automated response feature helps to mitigate breaches effectively.
What I appreciate the most about Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is the integration with the workstations and the around-the-clock monitoring.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
92
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (9th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (7th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (4th)
Symantec Endpoint Security ...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
22nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.7%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is 0.5%, up from 0.4% 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 Networks3.7%
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise0.5%
Other95.8%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

HectorRios - PeerSpot reviewer
Has detected high-risk threats effectively and provides strong behavioral protection
They did well with handling high-risk threats. I would rate Palo Alto support an eight or nine. I would give them an eight because in the majority of cases, we talk with local partners, and only in case of an emergency or a difficult issue, we jump to Palo Alto support. When we had that experience with Palo Alto support, it was nice service, but it was really difficult to get it. To jump from the partner to Palo Alto directly was challenging. I understand that it's part of the service, as the local partner just jumps up to Palo Alto support in case they need it. In some cases, when we faced an important issue, it was preferred to jump directly to Palo Alto to save time.
Intekhab Ahmad. - PeerSpot reviewer
A product that offers good threat detection capabilities to its users
The product has improved my company through its area of threat detection. The other applications use the same engine as Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise. Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise does not have a set of 100 percent useful things in the tool. Sometimes, a user may know that a file system does not contain any viruses, but it is labeled as a virus by Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise, making it an issue for users. The aforementioned problem prompts me to contact the product support team via email so that my company can get some help dealing with such problems. I would say that my experience with deploying the product across multiple devices in my company is not tough and can be easy, especially if you have domain environments. The feature of the product that is the most effective for threat prevention stems from the fact that the tool provides updates. The main problem with the solution is that a user has to do the updates manually, so at times, the product is not useful, especially when the machine has to be shut down for updates when new viruses are introduced on the market. I rate the solution's ease of use and administration a seven and a half out of ten. I suggest that those who plan to buy the solution periodically update the product, especially in the area of the virus engine. I rate the tool an eight out of ten.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business41
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise36
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise9
 

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 do you like most about Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise?
The tool is a secure and stable workstation for checking antivirus. The alerting feature helps us see alerts and is easy to control. The main benefit we derive from using Symantec Endpoint Security...
What needs improvement with Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise?
I have not experienced integrated threat intelligence benefits with Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise. Many customers are seeking modern protection features such as MDR (managed detection and r...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise?
The primary use case for Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise for my clients is basic antivirus protection.
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
No data available
 

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. Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.