Microsoft Defender XDR vs Symantec XDR comparison

Microsoft and Broadcom are both solutions in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category. Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4, while Broadcom is ranked #49. Microsoft holds a 4.2% mindshare in XDR, compared to Broadcom’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender XDR and Symantec XDR based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, TrendAI and others in Extended Detection and Response (XDR).

To learn more, read our detailed Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

June 2026

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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...

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 4.6%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 4.2%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec XDR is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks	4.6%
Microsoft Defender XDR	4.2%
Symantec XDR	0.5%
Other	90.7%

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

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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reviewer2812758

Infosec at a government with 10,001+ employees

Integrated defenses have unified threat hunting, phishing simulations, and identity investigations

I appreciate Microsoft Defender XDR's MDE, Microsoft Defender tool, which has Attack Simulator. Instead of doing a phishing campaign and getting a separate tool, Microsoft Defender XDR does it all. These features of Microsoft Defender XDR have helped us conduct a phishing campaign quarterly, which has been beneficial. I also appreciate the fact that it has Defender for Office integrated, Defender for Identity, and everything integrated together. I would describe the process of using Microsoft Defender XDR to prioritize incidents in my security operations as quite decent. I appreciate the automatic alerting system where any incidents or alerts we receive come directly to our email. From there, we can open the email, go directly to Microsoft Defender XDR, and start our investigations and remediations. I perceive the integration of security and identity access management in Microsoft Defender XDR as affecting my identity protection strategies very well because it is well integrated with Purview, integrated well with Entra ID, and integrated well with Exchange. I especially appreciate MDO, the Office product. If anything happens and I want to conduct an investigation, it takes me directly to Exchange, where I can also investigate any emails or phishing incidents. Instead of going to different portals, everything can be done from Microsoft Defender XDR. If necessary for further investigation, Microsoft Defender XDR then directs me to that environment. I would assess the integration of AI in guiding security actions within Microsoft Defender XDR as quite positive. Recently, Security Copilot went big, and it is beneficial that I can use that, especially to write KQL. I can do threat hunting features and intelligence all within using Microsoft's Security Copilot. It also has a nice AI feature for threat hunting. I know that all the Defender logs go to Sentinel, and I can pull it up from Microsoft Defender XDR or from Sentinel. The fact that I can actually do all that within Microsoft Defender XDR is a nice feature. In the top module, I can do threat lookups, and I can actually type KQLs in Microsoft Defender XDR and look up incidents. Predictive shielding has had a nice impact on my proactive security measures. It is beneficial that it has, similar to Entra ID, a secure score. For me to improve the product, the secure score helps me out. If I rate it from highest to lowest, I can see what things I can improve. Secure score helps me see what areas I can improve in Microsoft Defender XDR to increase my score and bring it to 80 or more. Knowing Microsoft Defender XDR from using it since 2019, before COVID days, I know that they have improved significantly. It is much more user-friendly and has a very nice vulnerability feature that I find handy and useful. The fact that this feature integrates into Intune is also very decent.

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BILALRAZA

Cyber Security Consultant at I(TS)² Saudi Arabia

A scalable and stable solution with straightforward deployment

We can generate maps from the environment. For example, suppose there is a virus that has a zero-day attack and is publicly unknown. We can block that and keep it away from the network so it is not further replicated. It also has custom white and black lists. We can add a good reputation on both lists and use the sonar technology for Symantec and the online network for advanced reports.

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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 has absolutely improved the way our organization functions, we are more secure, it is giving us more peace of mind, and it has found malicious activity happening on our endpoints that probably would not have been detected if we didn't have it."

"Once you become familiar with it, Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is a more powerful tool and I would say that I prefer it over MDE because it is a stronger tool for me."

"The level of security I get for my endpoints and servers is extremely valuable."

"Its ability to react to cyber data attacks is awesome."

"The stability of the solution is very good. We have about 100 users on it right now, and we use it twice a week."

"Traps pays for itself within the first 16 months of a three-year subscription."

"It is easy to use."

"It has pretty much everything we need and works well within the Palo Alto ecosystem."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that Microsoft Defender XDR is easy to integrate with other Microsoft platforms or products."

"Microsoft XDR's system of analysis and investigation is super convenient for our customers. It integrates with other Microsoft solutions like Defender for 365 to protect email traffic from malicious external web links and phishing."

"What I appreciate most about Microsoft Defender XDR is the ability to drill down to the process level, the visibility of processes, and the file-level details of what processes are accessing, including the IP addresses for outbound connections."

"I like Defender XDR's reports and alerts. They give you updates about the latest hotfixes and zero-day vulnerabilities, which gives me all the information I need to maintain my servers."

"The most valuable feature is the DLP because that's where we can have an added data protection layer and extend it not just to emails but to the documents that users are working on. We can make sure that sensitive data is tagged and flagged if unauthorized parties are using it."

"The most valuable feature of all is the full integration with the rest of the software in the operating system and Office 365, as well as Microsoft SCCM. It is quite easy for us to work with the whole instance of Microsoft products. This integration improves the benefits of the whole suite of products."

"The most valuable features are machine learning, AI, and auto-remediation of none malicious alerts."

"The email protection feature is the most valuable because our risks primarily lie there, and it seems to be the most popular target."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pros

"You can advise the solution and protect your environment."

"We can block a virus that has a zero-day attack and is publicly unknown and keep it away from the network so it is not further replicated."

Cons

"It is not a suitable solution if you are looking for a single product with multiple features such as DLP, encryption, rollback, etc."

"While using Cortex, I noticed some aspects that could be improved, such as increasing the synchronization speed between XDR and Xnor."

"When it comes to malware files, it should be a little quick because, at times, it would give a wrong result in the sense of what it might be on malware, even if it still might be a normal one."

"It is an enterprise-level solution. Its price could be less expensive."

"Currently, if you use Palo Alto endpoint protection as the only solution it's very complicated to remove pre-existing threats."

"It is a complex solution to implement."

"It automatically detects security issues. It should be able to protect our network devices while operating autonomously."

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is not only pricey; it is extremely expensive."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks cons

"There could be a way to proactively monitor unusual activity ."

"Microsoft could improve on threat hunting and build more on threat detection and handling. The cybersecurity and cloud security posture features are a bit lesser than standard security products."

"The customer support aspect can be better because it's the biggest complaint I hear about Microsoft. They can improve the ease of support and licensing processes."

"For Microsoft Defender XDR, there is currently no ability to reset passwords for on-premises accounts, which is a key challenge."

"The support team is not competent or responsive."

"Defender XDR could provide recommendations for threat-hunting queries. Some people do not know how to write an advanced threat query, so we need to spend time training them."

"The logs could be better."

"Sometimes, digging into the information and knowing where to go can be difficult. It would be better if much of that information were immediately visible, especially when looking at endpoints or users."

More Microsoft Defender XDR cons

"The solution should have better reporting."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to CrowdStrike, Cortex XDR is an expensive solution."

"The price was fine."

"The price is on the higher side, but it's okay."

"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 tool's price is moderate."

"Every customer has to pay for a license because it doesn't work with what you get from a managed services provider."

"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."

"I feel it is fairly priced."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft Defender XDR is already included in our Office 365 licensing. It is better because we're saving money by using it."

"Understanding the subscription model has been a bit challenging, as every feature or requirement comes with an additional cost."

"The license cost for a year is approximately forty-four thousand, and this annual saving is a significant factor in our decision to switch."

"I would like to have more security features in the lower licenses because not every customer is able to buy E5 licenses. The bundling isn't always easy for our customers to understand. Compared to other tools, it's a good price."

"While Microsoft Defender XDR carries a higher cost, its ease of use compared to Defender may justify the investment."

"Microsoft Defender XDR's licensing is complicated."

"Microsoft purposely makes its license combinations complex and includes combinations like Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, and Office 365 E1, so you get confused. Microsoft tries to sell you a bundle of a lot of things together."

"It is fairly priced because we get complete integrated services with the E5 license."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	51

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	28
Large Enterprise	41

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. ...

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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...

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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 Microsoft 365 Defender?

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Defender XDR is that we are on an E5 license,...

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What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?

From my perspective, Microsoft Defender XDR can be improved with better visibility in certain areas where I can trigg...

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What is your primary use case for Microsoft 365 Defender?

My main use cases for Microsoft Defender XDR are telemetry, advanced hunting, and the ability to perform host isolati...

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Comparisons

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 10% 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

WatchGuard Firebox vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 2% of the time

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CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 9% of the time

Wazuh vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 6% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 4% of the time

ESET EDR/XDR vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Defender XDR Competitors

Wazuh vs Symantec XDR

Compared 37% of the time

Trellix Endpoint Security Platform vs Symantec XDR

Compared 21% of the time

Anomali vs Symantec XDR

Compared 10% of the time

More Symantec XDR Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

June 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR

May 2026

Download Microsoft Defender XDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

June 2026

Download Symantec XDR product report

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender

No data available

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

Microsoft Defender XDR is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect against threats in the Microsoft 365 environment.

It offers robust security measures, comprehensive threat detection capabilities, and an efficient incident response system. With seamless integration with other Microsoft products and a user-friendly interface, it simplifies security management tasks.

Users have found it effective in detecting and preventing various types of attacks, such as phishing attempts, malware infections, and data breaches.

Watch the Microsoft demo video here: Microsoft Defender XDR demo video.

Microsoft

Symantec XDR offers comprehensive threat detection and response, leveraging advanced analytics and threat intelligence to secure enterprise environments effectively, catering to complex security challenges.

By integrating network, endpoint, and email data, Symantec XDR provides a unified approach to threat detection and investigation. It enhances response capabilities with automated actions, reducing response times. The adaptive architecture ensures scalability, making it suitable for large enterprises. With a focus on identifying sophisticated threats, it enables security teams to maintain a proactive defense posture.

What are the key features of Symantec XDR?

Unified Data Collection: Aggregates data from multiple sources for comprehensive threat visibility.
Advanced Analytics: Utilizes AI and machine learning to detect and prioritize threats.
Automated Response: Initiates pre-defined actions to contain and mitigate threats swiftly.
Scalable Architecture: Adapts to growing data volumes without performance degradation.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Improved Threat Detection: Increases the accuracy and speed of detecting threats.
Reduced Response Time: Enables swift action to minimize potential impact.
Enhanced Security Posture: Ensures a continuously adaptive security environment.
Cost Efficiency: Lowers the overall cost of threat management and remediation.

In industries such as finance and healthcare, where data integrity and privacy are critical, Symantec XDR is effectively implemented to streamline security operations, enabling organizations to quickly detect and respond to security incidents, ensuring compliance with strict regulatory requirements.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

June 2026

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