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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs Microsoft Forefront [EOL] comparison

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Executive Summary

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...
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
110
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (4th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (7th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (6th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
ESET Endpoint Protection Pl...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (13th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (18th), Anti-Malware Tools (8th)
Microsoft Forefront [EOL]
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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.
MS
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.
it_user772620 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The positive impacts I see from Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks include a complete 360-degree view of our security posture altogether, being a uniform platform where we are ingesting logs from multiple resources."
"I've found the solution to be highly scalable for enterprises."
"The level of security I get for my endpoints and servers is extremely valuable."
"The policy configuration is great, the granularity of policies that are available is very helpful, it is straightforward to set up, and it has pretty much everything we need and works well within the Palo Alto ecosystem."
"The scalability of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is very good."
"It is an easy-to-use tool."
"We use Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks for its ability to detect based on behavior rather than simple virus scan to prevent malicious activities."
"Cortex XDR alerts us on the dashboard when there's a threat, which allows us to restrict that user and helps secure our infrastructure."
"It can scale as well."
"The protection and security have been great."
"The stability is great."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the protection itself, which works well for us."
"It's scalable."
"The protection and device control features are the most valuable. I found its user interface and integration pretty good. It is very user friendly as compared to other products."
"I have found the ESET Management Console very good. It gives me many features, such as managing users and installing a new version."
"ESET Endpoint Security helps to improve our organisation's security and provides a smart level of security with a low system footprint, low bandwidth usage, and smooth performance while doing security operations."
"The snort engine, which is the muscle behind the Sourcefire IPS technology, has always been a joy for me to work with."
"It cost us approx. US$250k to set up and is roughly US$200 day to day."
"Our ROI is that we can provision users accounts within 30 minutes of them being put into the system."
"Product has been enough for our customers’ requirements."
"The simplicity of managing the product compared to its competitors, like BIG-IP F5 and Citrix NetScaler, is a valuable feature."
"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."
"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."
 

Cons

"The technical support is not very good. I find the process difficult."
"The solution should offer more dashboards and they should be better customized."
"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."
"It's not an ideal choice for smaller businesses, as you need a minimum of 200 endpoints to even use the solution at all."
"Although I would say this product is highly-rated, it could probably do more because nothing does everything that you want."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can improve mobile integration to allow access to the console."
"We would also like to have advanced tech protection and email scanning."
"When it comes to core analysis and security analysis, Cortex needs to provide more information."
"I would like for the solution to be simpler to understand. While it satisfies our needs at the moment, it is really only understandable to those with a strong computer background."
"The interface is good. However, it could always be better. It could be more user-friendly."
"I saw a bunch of false positives which need to be fixed."
"I would like for ESET to create a central management solution. This would make it practical to use the internet for medium-sized networks."
"Online security could still be improved in ESET Endpoint Antivirus because security is threatened by phishing."
"Assuring all users that all types of malware/ransomware are covered (this is hard to do, I know)."
"The solution could have a more user-friendly interface."
"They could be more aggressive with malware."
"Without a local Windows Update Server, the client seems to update very slowly and may take a lot of time."
"I’d personally like to see some additional customization capabilities in the reporting section."
"Pretty awful. A large initial investment with something that could have been done by one person full time over six years with less hassle."
"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."
"More out of box connectors and conducting awareness of the product along with more marketing."
"The product has unfortunately reach its End-Of-Life (EOL) at Microsoft and is now replaced by several products."
"Web user interface from 1990s. Users laugh at it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Traps pays for itself within the first 16 months of a three-year subscription. This is attributed to OPEX savings, as security teams spent less time trying to identify and isolate malware for analysis as a result of a reduction in malware incidents, false positives, and breach avoidance."
"Very costly product."
"The pricing is a little high. It is per user per year."
"I did PoCs on products called Cylance and CrowdStrike. Although, I consider these products and they were also good, when it come to cost and budgetary factors, Traps has been proven to be better than the other two products. It is quite cost-effective and delivers all the entire solution which we require."
"The pricing seems fair, and I do like the licensing model. You use wherever they are, and it is elastic."
"It's about $55 per license on a yearly basis."
"Every customer has to pay for a license because it doesn't work with what you get from a managed services provider."
"It has reasonable pricing for the use cases it provides to the company."
"For 200 or so users, it might cost around $10,000 or so. That is for a first-time purchase. A renewal may come in at $7,000 to $8,000, or around 20% to 30% less. This is a rough estimate of what to expect."
"The price of ESET Endpoint Antivirus is fair compared to the performance of other solutions."
"The pricing can be a bit more flexible."
"It is just under $20 a user per year, and there are no additional costs. I would rate it a five out of five in terms of pricing."
"There is a license needed to use this solution and there is an annual subscription. The price is inexpensive."
"Pricing per month, for security services as apps in CEE pricing: up to €2 monthly is OK."
"I rate the product's price as seven or eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"Pricing of ESET Endpoint Security is within the market pricing."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise48
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business69
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise2
 

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,...
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...
What needs improvement with ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform could be improved by offering integrations and user-friendly dashboards that could ...
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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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

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, Microsoft, SentinelOne and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: April 2026.
891,869 professionals have used our research since 2012.