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Cynet vs Microsoft Defender for Identity comparison

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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
4.5
Cortex XDR enhances security, reduces costs, improves efficiency, and delivers ROI by automating threat remediation and preventing ransomware spread.
Sentiment score
5.7
Cynet offers significant ROI through effective cyberattack prevention, automation benefits, affordability, and ease of management, ensuring client satisfaction.
Sentiment score
4.8
Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances threat detection, reduces efforts, minimizes risks, and optimizes costs despite varied ROI assessments.
With Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks' incident correlation, behavioral detection, and process tree visibility, similar initial triage can often be completed in roughly 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the incident.
Cybersecurity Engineer at Gigabit Technologies Pvt Ltd
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
The return on investment with Cynet is pretty good, as it doesn't require a dedicated resource to manage, being highly automated.
CoFounder at Vinca Cybertech Pvt. Ltd.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Palo Alto Networks' support is praised for expertise and speed but needs improvement in responsiveness and problem resolution.
Sentiment score
7.2
Cynet's customer service excels in responsiveness and technical support, with high praise for its 24/7 CyOps SOC services.
Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Defender for Identity offers knowledgeable support, yet response times can vary, especially with complex issues or initial contacts.
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
Their SOC side support, when a threat is detected, is excellent.
vCIO At Grove Networks Inc. at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
My experience with the technical support of Cynet is excellent; they are just one click away.
CoFounder at Vinca Cybertech Pvt. Ltd.
Based on our needs, they schedule remote sessions and resolve the issues.
Technical Consultant at Vincacyber
Generally, the support is more effective than other providers like Oracle.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
The quality of support is very good, but troubleshooting can take time due to complex setups and the need to provide many logs.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The people I normally use for support are very knowledgeable, especially when they help remote in and get to where I need to go and show me much faster and help me understand what I should be doing.
Technology Coordinator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Cortex XDR scales efficiently across endpoints, offering seamless cloud-based expansion and integration for diverse enterprise environments.
Sentiment score
7.4
Cynet effectively scales from hundreds to over 300,000 endpoints, adaptable for any organization size and deployment type.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly scalable and adaptable, excelling in large enterprises with efficient cloud-based processing.
You can onboard 10,000 endpoints in just hours, which demonstrates the excellent scalability of this product.
Assistant Security Architect at Cloudnomics
Activating the newly purchased licenses is instantaneous, allowing installations without adjustments since it's cloud-based.
Junior Security Analyst at ITSEC Asia
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
The solution is highly scalable.
Senior Chief Manager at Arcil
We can deploy Cynet for 50,000 users, and we have deployed it at that scale, with the capability to scale higher to 100,000 users without any challenges.
CoFounder at Vinca Cybertech Pvt. Ltd.
Cynet is very scalable.
vCIO At Grove Networks Inc. at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
In a Microsoft-centric organization, especially with Azure infrastructure and Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity is scalable.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR is stable, with high ratings, improved over time, minimal issues, and consistent performance, recommended regular updates.
Sentiment score
8.1
Cynet is highly rated for its stability, reliable performance, and user satisfaction, with quick updates addressing rare issues.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly stable, reliable, with minimal downtime; occasional issues require support for agent redeployment.
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 by Palo Alto Networks can be trusted completely.
Soc Analyst at Softcell Technologies Limited
Within six years of usage, we have not had any issues such as outages or downtime.
CoFounder at Vinca Cybertech Pvt. Ltd.
Microsoft Defender for Identity is quite robust and built on Azure hyperscale infrastructure, with a 99% availability.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We do not see any issues with the stability of Microsoft Defender for Identity.
Deputy Manager at Servion Global Solutions
Having recently started using it, reliability is affirmed, but manual investigation is often performed to verify if alerts identified by auto-remediation are accurate.
Instrumentation Engineer at Toyo Engineering Corp
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR needs improvements in usability, integration, automation, reporting, resource efficiency, and support for diverse systems to enhance appeal.
Cynet needs better mobile support, third-party integrations, automation, SOAR capabilities, and improved customization, visibility, and support response.
Microsoft Defender for Identity needs improvements in alert accuracy, UI/UX, asset integration, automation, anomaly detection, and third-party integration.
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
When a Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks incident is confirmed, it would be useful to automatically create a ServiceNow or Jira ticket with the incident summary, including affected endpoints, user indicators, process tree, severity, and recommended response actions.
Cybersecurity Engineer at Gigabit Technologies Pvt Ltd
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
There should be more options than deploying solely through group policy, as the assumption that GPO is working isn’t always the case.
vCIO At Grove Networks Inc. at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Having a DLP feature would also add value.
Senior Technical Consultant at Vincacyber
Integration with local Active Directory, not only Azure AD, is a must.
Cyber Security Specialist at a computer software company with 1-10 employees
If Microsoft could develop a feature that indicates when impossible travel is caused by VPN connections, it would prevent unnecessary password resets and session disruptions, especially for VIP users in organizations.
CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed
One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
Reducing false positives is something we've been working on with Microsoft.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR offers advanced features with premium pricing, flexible licensing, easy setup, but incurs extra costs for comprehensive security.
Cynet offers competitive pricing and flexible plans, making it a cost-effective choice for comprehensive cybersecurity solutions.
Microsoft Defender for Identity pricing aligns with E5 licenses, offering value in hybrid setups but can be costly at scale.
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
Compared to CrowdStrike, which is very costly, and SentinelOne, which is also very costly, Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is a medium cost-efficient solution.
Soc Analyst at Softcell Technologies Limited
I think the pricing of Cynet is fair and one of the better options in the market.
vCIO At Grove Networks Inc. at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The price of Cynet is reasonable considering its features and support.
IT infrastructure Specialist at Nok airline public company limited
Cynet does not ask for additional costs for add-on features.
Technical Consultant at Vincacyber
If they can reduce the costs, organizations will be happy, and it will compensate for using the Azure environment, which is more expensive on the infrastructure as a service side.
CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed
Ensuring a fair price according to market standards.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
From an organization perspective, using E5 licenses is value for money, especially if Azure and Office 365 are already in use.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR provides AI-driven threat detection, seamless integration, and efficient management for comprehensive, scalable, and cost-effective cybersecurity.
Cynet delivers automated protection with 24/7 SOC, offering detection, response, scalability, and easy integration for efficient security management.
Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances threat detection and security integration, offering streamlined investigation with automated alerts and behavioral analytics.
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
When Cynet detected suspicious PowerShell activity, the timeline provided a clear understanding of the sequence of events and the root cause without manually reviewing multiple logs.
manager at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
The valuable aspects of Cynet are its EDR and XDR components, which are available at a reasonable price point.
vCIO At Grove Networks Inc. at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The most effective features of Cynet are its ransomware protection and lateral movement deception.
Senior Technical Consultant at Vincacyber
We receive an advance report of risky users, allowing us to take preemptive action before an attack causes damage to organization details.
Instrumentation Engineer at Toyo Engineering Corp
The most valuable feature is its hybrid artificial intelligence, which gathers forensic data to track and counteract security threats, much like the CSI series in effect.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
The advanced threat protection is one of the strengths of Microsoft Defender for Identity, as it utilizes user and entity analytics and can detect indicative attacks.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
122
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (4th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (3rd), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
Cynet
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (19th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (19th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (8th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (18th), Threat Deception Platforms (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (10th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (11th), Ransomware Protection (4th)
Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (8th), Microsoft Security Suite (6th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (1st)
 

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.
Vishal Salve - PeerSpot reviewer
manager at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Automation has transformed threat detection and incident response and improves team efficiency
Cynet can be improved by enhancing third-party integrations, improving reporting and dashboard customization, and providing more advanced AI-driven analytics. Customization for automated response workflows would also help organizations tailor the platform to their specific security needs. There is room for improvement in reporting customization, third-party integration, and advanced analytics. I had to spend additional time tuning the alerts during the initial deployment to reduce false positives and align the detection with our environment, but these were minor challenges, and the platform has performed well for our specific needs. Regarding Cynet's AI capabilities, its governance and security capabilities are effective, but greater transparency into AI decision-making and additional customization options would further enhance confidence and control. There is still room for improvement in predictive analytics and better transparency into how certain detections are generated.
CM
Technology Coordinator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
Helps detect threats faster and prioritize critical security tasks with increased visibility
The feature I value most about Microsoft Defender for Identity is the ability to see where people are attempting to log in from. Microsoft Defender for Identity helps me automate routine tasks and find alerts that I set up to receive, so it helps me get where I'm trying to go easier and faster. I can see where everything is at. Microsoft Defender for Identity helps me prioritize important tasks. If I get an alert for a user who downloaded an application that is not sanctioned, I normally go straight to that user's computer device to find the device name and the user. Now I can get to them much faster. Microsoft Defender for Identity saves me time overall. I can quantify the time saved by Microsoft Defender for Identity as maybe 25 minutes, or if expressed as a percentage, maybe 20 to 25%. Some of the learning curve and actually learning what these products do takes time to figure out. Microsoft Defender for Identity definitely helps decrease the time of detection and response.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business50
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise57
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise15
 

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. ...
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 th...
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,...
When evaluating User Activity Monitoring, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
The support team that stands behind the detection and response. Is there adequate expertise and are they behind you ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cynet?
Cynet is not very costly. We can refer it to other customers because Cynet does not ask for additional costs for add-...
What needs improvement with Cynet?
Cynet can be improved by enhancing third-party integrations, improving reporting and dashboard customization, and pro...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Identity?
I really would have to sit down to think about how Microsoft Defender for Identity can be improved. I didn't take sto...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?
My main use cases for Microsoft Defender for Identity include Conditional Access, checking risky users, remediating r...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Defender for Identity?
I don't really use Microsoft Defender for Identity a lot because my new role doesn't allow me to take time to do so. ...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
No data available
Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Meuhedet, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center
Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft and others in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). Updated: October 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.