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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs Sophos Endpoint comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 19, 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
5.1
Cortex XDR provides value through threat blocking, compliance benefits, cost savings, and increased performance and user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
6.3
ESET Endpoint Protection offers cost-effective, lightweight security, reducing recovery costs and enhancing protection despite unclear ROI measurement.
Sentiment score
5.5
Sophos Endpoint increases ROI in 12-16 months through productivity, protection, system integration, malware defense, and compliance.
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
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.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
I saw the return on investment with ESET Endpoint Protection Platform within months.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Cortex XDR support is praised for expertise and responsiveness but criticized for slow resolutions and inconsistent international support.
Sentiment score
7.0
ESET's customer service is mostly praised for professionalism and support, with some regional areas needing improvement.
Sentiment score
8.1
Sophos Endpoint's customer service is effective but needs faster, knowledgeable responses; technical improvements have been implemented.
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
They have great technical support.
Owner at Online IT
Normally, I cannot give a ten for support of all brands, as it is not always possible to get full support from companies.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
I rate Sophos support as excellent, giving it a ten out of ten.
Assistant Manager, Information Technology at Swades Foundation
I would give customer support a rating of 10 out of 10 because they resolve my problems as soon as possible, and I receive very good, quick support from Sophos.
Project engineer at IT Solution india private limited
They have introduced a dedicated role called Technical Account Manager (TAM) for every partner.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR offers exceptional scalability, supporting thousands of users with effortless deployment and enterprise-grade capabilities for large-scale environments.
Sentiment score
7.2
ESET Endpoint Protection is praised for scalability, though performance may vary in large setups and depends on hardware.
Sentiment score
8.1
Sophos Endpoint is praised for scalability and flexibility, supporting diverse business sizes with easy expansion via cloud features.
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
I think scalability for Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is good.
Threat Analyst II at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
In terms of scalability, I can rate it eight or nine out of ten.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
Their support is phenomenal, offering quick assistance.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
Minimal system performance impact is very important when choosing endpoint protection solutions, and I believe ESET uses minimum hardware of the PC.
Owner at Online IT
If we are using 300 machines and suddenly 10 more people are joining our organization, I will just raise a ticket on Sophos Endpoint and they will increase my 10 endpoint licenses.
Project engineer at IT Solution india private limited
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR is stable with reliable performance and valued support, though minor bugs and alert issues occasionally occur.
Sentiment score
8.2
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is stable and reliable, with high ratings, despite minor upgrade issues and occasional portal non-responsiveness.
Sentiment score
8.6
Users appreciate Sophos Endpoint's reliability, though some report performance issues during updates, influencing stability ratings between six and ten.
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 is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
In terms of stability, I can rate it at nine out of ten.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
Our experience with ESET Endpoint Protection Platform's centralized management console is mostly fine for managing security policies across endpoints.
Owner at Online IT
Sophos Endpoint is stable in my experience for the past two years.
Project engineer at IT Solution india private limited
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR struggles with integration, complex interface, resource use, and pricing, needing improvements in management, automation, and detection.
ESET Endpoint Protection needs improvements in deployment, performance, support, automation, integration, pricing, and advanced threat and ransomware protection.
Sophos Endpoint users face issues with migration, integration, resource usage, and seek cost, support, and feature improvements particularly for compatibility.
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
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
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.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
A lightweight version of ESET might be beneficial as many of our clients have older CPUs and RAM.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
When we were using CrowdStrike, it used to detect and block pirated software, but ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is not doing that.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Extensive APIs to easily integrate our own systems with the platform for user configuration via their company portal.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
Sophos Endpoint should include the Linux endpoint agent and should provide a solution for Linux endpoints as well, because the server license is costly and nobody wants to use the server license on an endpoint machine.
Project engineer at IT Solution india private limited
The enterprise integration is very poor, requiring a lot of manual work.
IT Consultant at Inception
Users have noted that daily upload limits per device, overall data lake storage capacity tied to licenses, and daily API query limits can be restrictive.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR offers flexible, cost-effective security for enterprises, despite high setup costs and additional charges for extra features.
ESET Endpoint Protection is cost-effective for SMBs, though setup costs can be high; enterprise users pay $20-$30 annually per user.
Sophos Endpoint is competitively priced, offering discounts on long-term licenses, though extra features may increase costs.
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
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
The pricing of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is a bit high compared to other competitors.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
I would rate ESET Endpoint Protection Platform a five for pricing on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is cheap and 10 is expensive.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
The cost is reasonable and cheaper than other alternatives.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
It is quite affordable; I think the pricing and licensing are reasonable.
IT Leader at Die Ambulanten - Home Care GmbH
The pricing is slightly increased, but it is good because Sophos Endpoint has a lot of features.
Project engineer at IT Solution india private limited
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR delivers AI-driven endpoint security with seamless integration, efficient management, and enhanced detection and response capabilities.
ESET Endpoint Protection ensures efficient, lightweight security with advanced tech, seamless integration, low performance impact, and reasonable pricing.
Sophos Endpoint provides strong virus detection, ransomware protection, and seamless management with advanced AI and zero-day threat defense.
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
The best feature of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is that I get all the details about which user is using it, how much time they spend on websites, and all related information.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Machine learning, especially through live detection, detects threats that are blocked based on reputation or sandbox detection.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
The most valuable feature is the cloud administration.
Owner at Online IT
Key features for comprehensive detection and prevention include advanced threat prevention, ransomware protections, exploit prevention, and AI-powered detections.
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
Web filtering helps provide protection by allowing me to block unwanted and unauthorized websites from Sophos EPP Suite, which helps prevent unauthorized intrusion, thus keeping our organization servers secure.
Assistant Manager, Information Technology at Swades Foundation
With the reseller management, I can manage multiple clients without having to log in to each client.
IT Consultant at Inception
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Sponsored
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (8th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (7th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
ESET Endpoint Protection Pl...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
15th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (19th), Anti-Malware Tools (8th)
Sophos Endpoint
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
28th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.4%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is 2.7%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Endpoint is 1.2%, up from 0.6% 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 Networks3.4%
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform2.7%
Sophos Endpoint1.2%
Other92.7%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

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.
Sabbir Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Infosonik Systems Ltd
Experience significant threat prevention advancements with user-friendly deployment
The feature is called relay server, and some people refer to it as a cache server. The Sophos EPP Suite is scalable. Some customers in banks typically have 5,000 to 7,000 users. One customer started with 1,000 users and has now extended to 4,000 users. Some customers are using up to 8,000 users without any issues. Regarding AI elements in the Sophos EPP Suite, firewalls have already introduced AI features. They have integrated AI models similar to ChatGPT in firewalls. These AI features should be introduced in endpoint XDR as well. Key features for comprehensive detection and prevention include advanced threat prevention, ransomware protections, exploit prevention, and AI-powered detections. Extended visibility and data analysis include cross-product data correlations. They have a data lake, live discover, and threat graphs. They also offer AI case summary and AI common analysis, accessible from Sophos Central, which is the management portal for Sophos XDR. Sophos Central serves as one central management portal for managing firewalls, endpoint, Sophos encryption, and mobile device management solutions. This centralized management is particularly appealing to customers.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business68
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

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How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
I would rate ESET Endpoint Protection Platform a five for pricing on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is cheap and 10 is...
What needs improvement with ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
The problems that we are facing with policy adoption include slow adoption, as it takes more than five minutes to ado...
What is your primary use case for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
We are a company that provides IT support to clients, so we use ESET Endpoint Protection Platform every day. Currentl...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos EPP Suite?
It is quite affordable; I think the pricing and licensing are reasonable.
What needs improvement with Sophos EPP Suite?
I do not think there are any areas for improvement; I believe I mentioned many good things about the product. Perhaps...
What is your primary use case for Sophos EPP Suite?
My main use cases for Sophos EPP Suite are for protection.
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
Smart Security, ESET PROTECT Advanced, ESET LiveGuard Advanced, ESET PROTECT Platform
EPP Suite
 

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
EK Services
Find out what your peers are saying about ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs. Sophos Endpoint and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
882,606 professionals have used our research since 2012.