Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention vs Symantec Data Loss Prevention comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Oct 11, 2022

We performed a comparison between Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention and Symantec Data Loss Prevention based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Some users of each product say that their initial setup can be complex and require technical expertise.

  • Features: Users of both solutions are happy with their scalability and stability.

    Forcepoint users like its powerful data discovery and OCR features and say that it is user friendly and flexible. Several users mention that its reporting tools need to improve.

    Symantec users say it has impressive granularity, integrates well, and has good reporting and exfiltration capabilities. Some users note that it could be more user friendly.

  • Pricing: Forcepoint received mixed reviews in the pricing category. Some users feel that the price is too high. In contrast, Symantec users feel that the product is fairly priced.

  • ROI: Reviewers of both products report seeing an ROI.

  • Service and Support: Forcepoint users are satisfied with the level of support they receive. Some Symantec users feel that their support needs to improve.

Comparison Results: Symantec comes out on top in this comparison. According to its reviewers, it is more fairly priced and a more comprehensive and powerful solution than Forcepoint. Forcepoint does come out on top in the Support category, however.

To learn more, read our detailed Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention Report (Updated: September 2023).
734,156 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"A very user-friendly predefining feature.""The most useful features of Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention are the transfer through Bluetooth can be blocked and the transfer to the cloud-based storage can be blocked. The features are wonderful.""I did not experience any crashes. The solution has been stable in my usage.""The most valuable feature is security.""The incident management and fingerprinting have been the most valuable features.""The Forcepoint tool is well developed. It is ranked in many evaluations at the top when it comes to enterprise DLP solutions. It has good artificial intelligence that enables our customers to focus on specific incidents, instead of having a complicated list of uncategorized incidents.""Has multiple modules and is good with integration.""This solution has a great encryption feature."

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"For detection, it has a great algorithm. It can recognize ID numbers and everything that you put in a policy for the end-users. That is really great for us as an institution where we have sensitive data. It recognizes all the sensitive data when someone tries to transfer it or put in other data.""Technical support is very professional and responsive.""The solution can easily scale.""DLP's most valuable feature is that it's more granular in terms of creating block-based policies, which gives you more options to create policies in a filtered way.""The most valuable feature of Symantec Data Loss Prevention is the ease of modification.""Users like the product because of its simplicity and the rate of detection.""The solution is simple to use with good administrative controls and a console that is easy to understand.""Symantec Data Loss Prevention is the number one product in its field. It does its job well and it has all the necessary features. It is definitely better than any other solution on the market."

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Cons
"The solution lacks sufficient customization.""An area for improvement for Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention is its price. It would be good if they could offer better pricing.""My opinion is that the dashboard could be improved and made more user-friendly. They do not enable a wide range of proper inquiries and we need to identify much of what we need on our own, like incident severity.""Everything takes a long time, as it does in every software company, especially since COVID. That is something I notice with every product I use.""With respect to the discovery component, the reports are very hard to interpret because they come out in an illogical format.""Lacks the ability to control the USB port devices so that content coming out of the port is blocked.""Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention can improve by having an uninstall option for the client or restart of a client agent can be controlled from the server. This feature is missing which is available with other solutions.""The APIs for device integration are limited, so that could be improved."

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"There should be more information about the features of the solution and what they do. This way we would be able to use all the features that are available.""Where things could be improved is that product engineering takes time to respond when we make a request. They get on a call for troubleshooting, but fixing the issue takes time.""From a management perspective, it takes a lot of time to manage the infrastructure.""Different departments should manage administration, reporting, normalization and incident management.""Sometimes setting up the solution can get a little tricky because it would depend on your internal infrastructure. For example, you have to connect the Symantec Data Loss Prevention platform and you need to integrate it, so that could make the process somewhat difficult.""Reporting could be improved.""What could be improved in Symantec Data Loss Prevention is its security. It should be more secure.""The upgrade process is convoluted. The server and database software must run in line with third-party providers like the Oracle database. If an Oracle database reaches the end of its life, then servers must be decommissioned, and you need to bring new servers online. When the maintenance packages are deployed to the management server, they don't get pushed to the detection servers. Each detection server must be manually installed rather than automatically made from a single server. If it's a large enterprise, you need to manually install it or use a GPO or some other technology, which I never use."

More Symantec Data Loss Prevention Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The pricing is reasonable. That's why we went with Forcepoint. They were pretty competitive."
  • "They have to look at a different pricing structure for small to medium-sized enterprises because the cost is too high."
  • "They are flexible regarding the pricing and they have a good model for an OEM data classification tool... Forcepoint has been one of the most competitively priced products over the last few years."
  • "Pricing for this solution could be better."
  • "Forcepoint has been very cost-effective because they gave us a good deal while procuring the DLP solution."
  • "Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention is costlier than other brands, but not all. Of the solutions, I have used Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention is more costly."
  • "This solution is quite expensive."
  • "I can't comment on the cost, as a different department handles that."
  • More Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The solution should be less expensive to allow more people the opportunity to use it. Some of their competitors are less expensive. There is a license required to use the solution and we purchased an annual license."
  • "The price of Symantec Data Loss Prevention could be reduced."
  • "There is an annual license required to use this solution."
  • "Support is a little costly, but you get what you pay for."
  • "DLP could be a bit cheaper."
  • "The solution's pricing is based on a license model."
  • "The price of Symantec DLP is fair. I don't recall the cost of the license, but it wasn't outrageous enough that it was an obstacle to approval. I'm not concerned with how much per seat or server, but I know they charge a lot."
  • "The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
  • More Symantec Data Loss Prevention Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We appreciate the user-friendliness and ease of implementation of the Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention platform. The availability of the vendor support team is an added advantage.
    Top Answer:There is an annual subscription model and the amount depends on the type of implementation.
    Top Answer:The support could improve Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention.
    Top Answer:The product must improve its interface. The solution did improve the interface, and it looks better. However, the report filtering features could be much better. The in-built ITSM module needs to be… more »
    Ranking
    Views
    7,461
    Comparisons
    4,653
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    530
    Rating
    7.8
    Views
    8,797
    Comparisons
    6,514
    Reviews
    18
    Average Words per Review
    582
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Forcepoint DLP, Forcepoint Data Security Suite, Websense Data Security Suite
    Symantec DLP
    Learn More
    Overview

    Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a data loss prevention tool that protects users from advanced threats and data breaches. Forcepoint DLP’s technologies can quickly identify and protect sensitive data and provide insight and awareness into attacks on endpoint devices both on and off the network.

    With company data constantly on the move, data security teams must have visibility and control across all channels - endpoint, web, network, email, and cloud. Forcepoint DLP provides protection and visibility across all data in the cloud as well as on-premises. One of the key features of Forcepoint DLP is its ability to identify data at rest, in motion, and in use and efficiently secure sensitive information.

    Forcepoint DLP key features:

    • Identify, remediate and secure sensitive data with network, cloud, and endpoint discovery.
    • Central management of policies across all channels, including cloud, endpoint, network, web, and email.
    • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to identify data embedded in images.
    • Personally Identifiable Information (PII) for validation checks, real name detection, and proximity analysis.
    • Custom encryption identification for exposing concealed data.
    • Machine learning, which allows users to train the system to identify unfamiliar data. Users can provide the engine with positive and negative examples so similar data can be flagged.
    • Analytics for identifying changes in user behavior. These analytics are leveraged to better understand user risk and are then implemented as automated policy enforcement based on the risk level of the user.
    • Cloud protection for monitoring and preventing the loss of sensitive data online, and assessing the risk posed by visited websites.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Forcepoint DLP stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its risk analysis features and its OCR and data discovery capabilities.

    Allan P., an associate consultant at Atos, writes, “With OCR and Risk Analysis, we are able to determine if anything sensitive has been shared. OCR helps us to safeguard those things and with risk ranking, we can determine which user is trying to violate policies multiple times even though they have been blocked. It does require additional servers, as the processing and result of the incident is high, however, it's worth using to see all the use cases being met with these two features as well. They are the best features provided by Forcepoint.”

    Mahesh D., A senior manager at 2Five1, notes, “The workflow remediation is quite good. That is a key feature because of which it has the upper hand over other DLP solutions. Endpoint protection, web protection, network protection, and storage use are valuable features. Among these, endpoint protection is most valuable. It has good policies and good mechanisms to detect incidents. The workflow remediation is quite good. That is a key feature because of which it has the upper hand over other DLP solutions. Endpoint protection, web protection, network protection, and storage use are valuable features. Among these, endpoint protection is most valuable. It has good policies and good mechanisms to detect incidents.”

    Keeping sensitive corporate information safe and compliant has never been easy. But today, you’re faced with a totally new set of data protection challenges. Sensitive information is leaving the safety of your corporate network as more employees share files over consumer cloud storage services and access those files on their own mobile devices. The number of targeted cyber attacks continues to grow, as cybercriminals develop effective new methods for defeating traditional security measures and stealing corporate information. And as all of these factors converge, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage corporate information and protect it against loss and theft. 

    Symantec Data Loss Prevention (DLP) provides a comprehensive approach to information protection that embraces today’s cloud- and mobile-centered realities. With DLP, you can:

    • Discover where data is stored across all of your cloud, mobile, network, endpoint, and storage systems

    • Monitor how data is being used, whether your employees are on or off the network

    • Protect data from being leaked or stolen—no matter where it’s stored or how it’s used

    Offer
    Learn more about Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention
    Learn more about Symantec Data Loss Prevention
    Sample Customers
    Alphawest, Betsson, Cellcom Israel Ltd., Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, Confartigianato Vicenza, EverBank, Finansbank, iGATE, Landa Digital Printing, Northern California Bank, Reliance Capital, Remosa, Toyota, Scavolini, Zim Integrated Shipping Services
    Hadassah University Hospital, Her Majestys Government (HMG), United Kingdom, Hitachi Consulting Software Services India Pvt Ltd., Hua Nan Bank, Hyundai Department Store Group,JW Marriott Hotel Seoul, Lake Health, McCann Erickson Israel, Molina Healthcare Inc., PGi, Quilvest Switzerland Limited, State of Nevada Public Employees Benefits Program, Symantec Corporation (Enterprise Security), The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust (DLP), The Saudi Industrial Property Authority, TSO cloud, Visa, Yunnan Power Grid Company
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Security Firm9%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm23%
    Insurance Company14%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Comms Service Provider6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business51%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise39%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise67%
    Buyer's Guide
    Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
    734,156 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention is ranked 2nd in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) with 27 reviews while Symantec Data Loss Prevention is ranked 1st in Data Loss Prevention (DLP) with 21 reviews. Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention is rated 7.8, while Symantec Data Loss Prevention is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention writes "Good interface, powerful OCR and data discovery capabilities, customizable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Symantec Data Loss Prevention writes "Consitent, accurate, and simple". Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention is most compared with Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention, Digital Guardian, CoSoSys Endpoint Protector, Zscaler Cloud DLP and GTB Technologies Inspector, whereas Symantec Data Loss Prevention is most compared with Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention, Digital Guardian, Trend Micro Integrated Data Loss Prevention, CoSoSys Endpoint Protector and Safetica ONE. See our Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention report.

    See our list of best Data Loss Prevention (DLP) vendors.

    We monitor all Data Loss Prevention (DLP) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.