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Darktrace vs UnderDefense comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 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
4.5
Cortex XDR enhances security, reduces costs, improves efficiency, and delivers ROI by automating threat remediation and preventing ransomware spread.
Sentiment score
6.1
Darktrace improves security visibility, mitigates threats, and offers cost savings of 5% to 40%, despite deployment challenges.
Sentiment score
8.0
Users saved time with detailed alerts, improving productivity and focus on development, security, and customer engagement.
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
Other NDR solutions provide virtual appliances that can be deployed on virtualization servers to get up and running quickly.
Technical Consultant - Unix Platform Services at BITS AND BYTE IT CONSULTING PVT LTD
Log triage no longer takes up our security team's calendar, allowing those hours to go into platform architecture, our DRM protections, and proactive hardening.
SEO And Outreach Specialist at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Each alert comes with the caller, the endpoint, and the queries, so we do not dig through logs.
Internet Marketing Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
I have seen a return on investment, mainly in time and not having to build a team, as we did not need to hire a security team to get around-the-clock cloud coverage.
BD with 10,001+ employees
 

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
7.7
Darktrace's customer support is praised for responsiveness and efficiency, with some improvement needed in complex cases.
Sentiment score
9.5
UnderDefense's customer service earns high ratings for exceptional responsiveness, clear communication, and quick assistance, achieving perfect satisfaction scores.
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 technical support from Darktrace is of high quality.
Network & Security Section Head/Digital Transformation at a government with 201-500 employees
Darktrace provides excellent technical support with a monthly meeting to review platform incidents, ensuring the system functions as expected.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
The challenge lies in waiting for a response after logging a ticket.
Group Cybersecurity Administrator at Tharisa
When we needed a baseline adjusted or a finding explained, we got a clear answer quickly.
SEO And Outreach Specialist at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
I would rate the customer support on a scale of 1 to 10 as 10.
Founder at Urlicer
The customer support has been responsive and helpful.
Internet Marketing Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 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
7.6
Darktrace is highly scalable and adaptable, supporting various company sizes by accommodating thousands of endpoints across environments.
Sentiment score
8.5
UnderDefense seamlessly manages high-traffic and dynamic environments, ensuring reliable coverage amidst increasing customer and endpoint volumes.
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
Darktrace has high scalability, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Network & Security Section Head/Digital Transformation at a government with 201-500 employees
Since it's cloud-based, it expands easily.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
There is still a gap in terms of storage, and we are trying to figure out how to increase that capacity for regulated environments, which require data retention for 5 to 6 years.
Technical Consultant - Unix Platform Services at BITS AND BYTE IT CONSULTING PVT LTD
Our platform sees sharp spikes from bulk uploads and fast-spreading assets, and UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC handles them without needing us to resize or retune anything.
SEO And Outreach Specialist at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
UnderDefense's scalability is good, as the same coverage applies as our cloud environment grows without us changing anything on our side.
BD with 10,001+ employees
Our traffic is high, and UnderDefense handles it without us changing anything.
Internet Marketing Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 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
8.5
Darktrace is highly stable and reliable, with users noting minimal issues and appreciating its performance and impressive uptime.
Sentiment score
9.1
UnderDefense is praised for its stability, consistently providing reliable performance even during high traffic and stress scenarios.
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
The stability of Darktrace is excellent, rated ten out of ten.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
The appliance itself has never let me down.
Group Cybersecurity Administrator at Tharisa
For stability, I would rate Darktrace an eight out of ten.
Security Analyst at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
We use it every day and it has run steadily, including when our traffic is high.
Internet Marketing Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR needs improvements in usability, integration, automation, reporting, resource efficiency, and support for diverse systems to enhance appeal.
Darktrace needs a simpler interface, reduced false positives, refined reporting, better integration, flexible pricing, and improved support.
Focus on including internal identifiers in alerts and onboarding templates to improve user experience and reduce setup time.
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 is no dedicated salesperson in Egypt, and having one would help to improve focus on this market.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
They say they can integrate with most firewalls, but when we did an integration with Meraki MX firewalls, that integration didn't work and still doesn't work to this day.
Security Analyst at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
We need Darktrace on each branch to get the data out, and I suggest having some kind of a centralized product that gets data from multiple sources to aggregate and provide the data.
Technical Consultant - Unix Platform Services at BITS AND BYTE IT CONSULTING PVT LTD
It is worth it for accurate triage later, but a template for common upload patterns will shorten that time.
SEO And Outreach Specialist at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
The setup and daily use have both been smooth.
BD with 10,001+ employees
Showing the customer name in the alert would help.
Internet Marketing Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR offers advanced features with premium pricing, flexible licensing, easy setup, but incurs extra costs for comprehensive security.
Darktrace pricing ranges from $30,000 to $100,000+ annually, varying by features, size, and is considered expensive.
Users find UnderDefense cost-effective, easy to set up, and transparently priced, offering great value compared to in-house solutions.
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
The product is considered expensive compared to others.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The pricing is costly in USD, and they charge based on device counts.
Group Cybersecurity Administrator at Tharisa
The licensing cost is approximately eight dollars a year.
Security Information & Incident Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
licensing was clear from the start, giving me good value for the price
Founder at Urlicer
Compared with building the same coverage in-house, it is a much lower cost and did not require us to hire.
SEO And Outreach Specialist at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Pricing was fair for what we get, setup was easy and took very little of our time, and the licensing was clear from the start, enabling us to see good value for the price.
BD 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.
Darktrace offers AI-driven threat detection, autonomous responses, and scalability, enhancing network security with minimal human intervention.
UnderDefense offers anomaly detection, noise filtering, proactive reporting, 24/7 support, AI accuracy, governance, and efficient alert triage.
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 is capable of responding to lateral movement and ransomware deployment within environments where there is data exfiltration.
Group Cybersecurity Administrator at Tharisa
I do not need to manually process incidents as Darktrace provides an incident summary, potential detection paths, and other details, all exportable with just a click.
Security Information & Incident Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
If I am in a data center where I don't have layer two, it becomes an issue because the autonomous response is reliant on sending spoofed TCP resets to my core switch to block traffic, which is a major issue.
Security Analyst at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
The linking, the filtering, and the readable reasoning each help on their own, but together, they allow a small security team to handle the volume our platform produces without losing sight of the cases that matter.
SEO And Outreach Specialist at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
It has full-time support 24/7 with proactive reports, and monitoring runs around the clock.
Founder at Urlicer
The sorting signals and clear reports help my team day-to-day because every morning we look at a short list of cases that matter instead of a long list of raw alerts, and each case comes with the full picture, so we can decide in a few minutes whether it needs action.
BD with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Sponsored
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
3rd
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), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
Darktrace
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (11th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (11th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (11th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (4th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (4th), AI Observability (12th)
UnderDefense
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
15th
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (22nd), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (10th), SOC as a Service (4th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (10th), Compliance Management (10th), AI-SOC (8th), AI-Powered Security Automation (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 4.7%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Darktrace is 4.5%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of UnderDefense is 0.2%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks4.7%
Darktrace4.5%
UnderDefense0.2%
Other90.6%
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.
Pasan Jayarathna - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at Cyberwell Solution
Monitoring has improved data loss detection and now spots abnormal internal file transfers quickly
In my understanding, the best feature Darktrace offers is the identification of copying files, which acts as a DLP, and it is a main concern for companies because users sometimes copy data outside without knowing, especially those without a technical background. When I mention the DLP-like feature and file copying detection, the alerts have been very timely, as we get an alert within a couple of minutes, which is excellent. Even if some developers are working after hours and copying files, our SOC team detects this, and most of the time they call us so we can identify the users. The alerts are quite accurate and proactive.
Ivan Voitovych - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder at Urlicer
AI-driven SOC triage has transformed threat monitoring and keeps our security work focused
The best features UnderDefense offers include mostly triage in-context signals read together across my stack, where one finding replaces many separate checks. A good thing too is its false positive suppression, as I do not get false notifications. Normal activity such as traffic spikes during customer events is recognized and documented, and only the unusual cases reach me. It has full-time support 24/7 with proactive reports, and monitoring runs around the clock. Reports and alerts come to me without even noticing or asking, so it is very useful. My team sees what happened without having to chase it. I find the proactive reporting and 24/7 support to have definitely made a real difference. Proactive reports mean I hear about what happened without having to ask, so I know the state of things at the start of the day, and 24/7 support matters most for traffic spikes and other events outside busy working hours, as I get an answer when I need one without keeping someone on call just in case, saving me a lot of time. Together, they let my team stay on infrastructure work and step in only when a decision is needed. Regarding UnderDefense's AI capabilities, I think the governance and security is the best there is, as the decisions that matter stay with my team and each finding is documented, allowing me to review afterwards how a conclusion was reached. That control and traceability is what I need from AI in a security role. The accuracy and reliability of UnderDefense's AI output is accurate and steady, as findings have matched what I saw when I checked them, and the pattern assessments are consistent, especially during large traffic events or spikes, which is when I depend on them most. When a case needs judgment, the reasoning is there so I can confirm it myself.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
39%
Construction Company
13%
Security Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

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 Business44
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise29
No data available
 

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,...
How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?
Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing u...
Which is better - SentinelOne or Darktrace?
Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Darktrace?
Concerning pricing for the product, I would say it is somewhat expensive.
What is your primary use case for UnderDefense?
Our main use case for UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC is to watch how accounts actually use our platform. Our product is ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for UnderDefense?
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been fair for what we get. Compared with building the same...
What needs improvement with UnderDefense?
UnderDefense could improve in onboarding, which takes some dedicated time because the baseline for our high volume up...
 

Also Known As

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Irwin Mitchell, Open Energi, Wellcome Trust, FirstGroup plc, Virgin Trains, Drax, QUI! Group, DNK, CreaCard, Macrosynergy, Sisley, William Hill plc, Toyota Canada, Royal British Legion, Vitol, Allianz, KKR, AIRBUS, dpd, Billabong, Mclaren Group.
Kyte, Betsson Grourp, Mammut, Accedian.
Find out what your peers are saying about SentinelOne, TrendAI, Palo Alto Networks and others in Extended Detection and Response (XDR). Updated: October 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.