ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs Microsoft Forefront [EOL] comparison

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ESET and Microsoft are both solutions in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category. Additionally, 91% of ESET users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ESET Endpoint Protection Platform and Microsoft Forefront [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, SentinelOne, CrowdStrike and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP).

To learn more, read our detailed Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

September 2026

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Helped 913,806 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH

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.

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Marko-Stojanovic

Owner at Online IT

Cloud-based protection has simplified daily client support and keeps threats under control

The problems that we are facing with policy adoption include slow adoption, as it takes more than five minutes to adopt policy on client computers. ESET Network Attack Protection sometimes helps in reducing network-level intrusions, but sometimes it prevents local devices on the network, which are well-known and good devices, from being recognized, treating them as a threat. So it requires more administration than usual. ESET could implement a good solution for remote support in ESET Endpoint Protection Platform for improvement in the future. Since you have the cloud console, ESET could have something similar to AnyDesk or TeamViewer, but from ESET.

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it_user772620

Systems Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

There is simplicity in the management of the product compared to its competitors

Web proxy services along with the integrated firewall VPN Intrusion prevention Malware inspection URL filtering The simplicity of managing the product compared to its competitors, like BIG-IP F5 and Citrix NetScaler The ease of deploying mobile functionality through the web proxy has…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It blocks malicious files, prevents attacks, and doesn't require many updates because it is a very light application."

"My advice for anybody who is considering Cortex XDR is that it is a complete solution, and has very good features."

"The good thing about the product is that it's always scanning."

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks has accelerated the response time for my security team, so we have been able to resolve issues faster than usual."

"The solution allows us to gain remote access without the user's knowledge and take the necessary actions on the device."

"I don't have to do much monitoring with it; I don't have to have anybody manually looking at this, it gives us reports, and it lets us know if something needs to be addressed, and we can easily address it."

"Since using Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, our MTTR has reduced, which means the mean time to resolve any ticket has been reduced."

"Being a cloud solution it is very flexible in serving internal and external connections and a broad range of devices."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pros

"We use ESET Endpoint Security to control the endpoints, and we can run full control of endpoints and receive good information from ESET about the endpoints."

"The most valuable feature of ESET Endpoint Security performance."

"The performance of the solution is very good it does not impact my hardware and is user-friendly."

"ESET Smart Security protects your computer against real world threats and malware attacks and provides added security layer with spam filtering, firewall and parental control."

"The tools and the features available with this solution are very competitive. It is always updated to prevent upcoming attacks."

"The potential threat protection feature is the most valuable. In the event that one of my computers is not on the network and gets a virus, ESET Endpoint Security quickly detects the malware, and in most cases, it removes the virus. It also has the ability to remotely shut down the computer. I like the remote control part the most."

"I like the integration; it lets you see the product installed on a particular computer."

"ESET Endpoint Security is stable. When comparing the solution to competitors it is more stable."

More ESET Endpoint Protection Platform pros

"The simplicity of managing the product compared to its competitors, like BIG-IP F5 and Citrix NetScaler, is a valuable feature."

"To date we have not had a virus infecting a desktop with Forefront installed - this is the main reason why we will not use another anti-virus solution."

"It has automated the entire user and group management process, thus reducing manual work and help desk cost to a great extent."

"Performance wise, it's one of the most effective anti-virus solutions we have ever used."

"The snort engine, which is the muscle behind the Sourcefire IPS technology, has always been a joy for me to work with."

"Product has been enough for our customers’ requirements."

"Our ROI is that we can provision users accounts within 30 minutes of them being put into the system."

"It cost us approx. US$250k to set up and is roughly US$200 day to day."

Cons

"The downsides of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks are that in many incidents, when I enter the causality chain, there are numerous logs."

"The solution eats memory of the computer, unlike anything I've ever seen."

"Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth."

"It's not an ideal choice for smaller businesses, as you need a minimum of 200 endpoints to even use the solution at all."

"The downside to the solution is that there are a large number of false positives."

"It tends to do 99.9% of things. The only thing I'd like is single sign-on authentication into their cloud platform so that my users can be properly authenticated against it."

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks could improve by offering remote management. It would be useful to look at the client's issue to fix it."

"The server sometimes stops continuously to check things so it would be helpful to receive access updates or technical reasons."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks cons

"They need to improve licensing for VMs. When ESET is uninstalled from a VM, the seat stays on the license management server. We have to manually delete the seat from that server because it doesn't know how to handle it. I contacted exclusive ESET support here in Croatia and they told me there is no solution for this yet."

"The interface is too complicated, our clients contact us because they are not able to do some tasks such as updating."

"I think the product support is very bad."

"ESET requires a yearly license fee. That license fee is significant for SOHO users."

"They could improve the solution by adding better ransomware features."

"The problem was that it didn't support Windows 7."

"It is for this reason that I would not recommend ESET on a larger scale."

"They should have better support for different languages and auto-upgrading."

More ESET Endpoint Protection Platform cons

"I’d personally like to see some additional customization capabilities in the reporting section."

"More out of box connectors and conducting awareness of the product along with more marketing."

"Without a local Windows Update Server, the client seems to update very slowly and may take a lot of time."

"One of the biggest pain points was that username changes were not automated and caused problems."

"When using Forefront in a domain network, it is quite difficult to create the group policies needed for definition/engine updates using WSUS."

"Web user interface from 1990s. Users laugh at it."

"The product has unfortunately reach its End-Of-Life (EOL) at Microsoft and is now replaced by several products."

"Pretty awful. A large initial investment with something that could have been done by one person full time over six years with less hassle."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing seems fair, and I do like the licensing model. You use wherever they are, and it is elastic."

"Licensing for Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR can be costly, especially when it comes to a hundred users. A license is required for each user, and the subscription must be renewed on a yearly basis."

"We didn't have to pay any additional fee for the cloud instance. It just came with the renewal, which was nice."

"This is an expensive solution."

"The price was fine."

"It is "expensive" and flexible."

"It's the most expensive solution, but features-wise, it's quite strong. It's very good for protection, so the results are very good in the case of protection. I would rate it a two out of ten in terms of pricing."

"Our license will require renewal in August, after which the maintenance will continue as usual."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"The price could be a little lower."

"The price of ESET Endpoint Security is in the middle range of price compared to other solutions. For example, BitDefender can be more expensive."

"ESET is perfect, if you can afford it."

"The solution costs around $20 or $30 per user per year."

"It is subjective. I don't think it is expensive. If you can have 10 user licenses for less than $100, I don't think it is expensive."

"The price could be lower, but it's comparable, as other solutions have a similar price for the same effect."

"It is not expensive; the pricing model is fine."

"As is the general rule with anything, the solution could be cheaper."

More ESET Endpoint Protection Platform pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Outsourcing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Construction Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

14%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	55

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	69
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	2

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,...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform are good with no issues. The price is ver...

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What needs improvement with ESET LiveGuard Advanced?

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform could be improved by offering integrations and user-friendly dashboards that could ...

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What is your primary use case for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?

My main use case for ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is preventing malware and preventing outside attackers. When a...

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Comparisons

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 14% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 5% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

Cortex XSIAM vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

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Symantec Endpoint Security vs ESET Endpoint Protection Platform

Compared 4% of the time

Fortinet FortiClient vs ESET Endpoint Protection Platform

Compared 4% of the time

WatchGuard EPDR vs ESET Endpoint Protection Platform

Compared 3% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs ESET Endpoint Protection Platform

Compared 3% of the time

HP Wolf Security vs ESET Endpoint Protection Platform

Compared 3% of the time

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Symantec Endpoint Security vs Microsoft Forefront [EOL]

Compared 29% of the time

More Microsoft Forefront [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

September 2026

Download Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks product report

Buyer's Guide

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform

September 2026

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform report

Download ESET Endpoint Protection Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Universal Access Gateways

September 2026

Download Microsoft Forefront [EOL] product report

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps

Smart Security, ESET PROTECT Advanced, ESET LiveGuard Advanced, ESET PROTECT Platform

MS Forefront [EOL]

Overview

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks provides advanced threat detection with AI-driven endpoint protection and seamless integration, ensuring multi-layered security and automatic threat response.

Cortex XDR is designed to safeguard endpoints against malware and suspicious activities. It offers advanced threat detection and response capabilities using behavioral analysis, AI, and machine learning. It seamlessly integrates with security infrastructures, providing endpoint security, firewall integration, and enhanced visibility in both cloud-based and on-premises environments.

What are the key features of Cortex XDR?

Advanced Threat Detection: Uses AI and machine learning for proactive threat identification.
Multi-layered Security: Combines various security measures for comprehensive protection.
Endpoint Protection: Safeguards against malware and exploits.
Behavioral Analysis: Monitors suspicious activity for early detection.
Automatic Threat Response: Automates responses to neutralize threats.

What benefits should users expect?

Ease of Use: Simplifies security management with intuitive design.
Resource Efficiency: Minimizes impact on system resources.
Integration Capabilities: Works well with existing security setups.
Reduced Analyst Workload: Automates processes to decrease manual intervention.

Organizations in diverse sectors deploy Cortex XDR to protect against malware, leveraging its advanced threat detection capabilities. Its integration with existing security infrastructures appeals to those seeking comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments, providing enhanced visibility and threat intelligence.

Palo Alto Networks

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform offers comprehensive security with minimal CPU and RAM impact, effective malware protection, and seamless updates, making it ideal for organizations needing reliable digital security.

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is highly regarded for its effective ThreatSense technology, advanced firewall, and central control capabilities. Users benefit from its lightweight design and efficient notification system, enjoying customizable management through its management console. Despite its strengths, there are opportunities to enhance malware repair, update processes, and AI integration. The platform's compatibility across operating systems and integration with systems like ESET PROTECT allows organizations to effectively secure endpoints and servers against threats like malware, viruses, and ransomware.

What are the key features of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform?

Minimal CPU and RAM Impact: Designed for efficient use of resources.
ThreatSense Technology: Provides reliable threat detection and response.
Advanced Firewall: Offers enhanced network security.
Central Control: Allows for organized management from a single point.
Cloud Integration: Seamlessly integrates with cloud services for expanded functionality.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Reliable Malware Protection: Ensures effective defense against diverse threats.
Seamless Updates: Facilitates stress-free upgrading to maintain security.
Lightweight and Efficient: Provides strong security without compromising system performance.
Customizable Management: Allows for tailored security management to suit specific needs.
Affordable Pricing: Offers value-driven pricing without compromising on protection quality.

Organizations deploy ESET Endpoint Protection Platform to safeguard laptops, desktops, and servers from cyber threats. Its use extends to antivirus protection, firewall configuration, and network monitoring. Companies often integrate it with ESET PROTECT and Apache HTTP Proxy for optimized management and updates, making it a versatile choice in industries requiring robust endpoint security.

ESET

Our agile methodology and our integration expertise brings you the best catalyst to craft solutions of exceptional quality and distinctive success.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank

ERSTE Group Bank, Miller Solutions, Wesleyan University, The Hospital Center of Luxembourg, Deer Valley USD, SPAR, Industrial Federal Credit Union, Honda, City Hall of Palmela, Hays CISD, Lester B Pearson School Board

EUROVIA CS, a. s., King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Public Education Devel, Bank Alfalah Ltd., CLEAResult, St. Lucie County Public Schools, Wiltshire Council

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

September 2026

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