No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Red Canary comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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
5.7
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series delivers strong ROI through enhanced security, rapid deployment, and significant time savings despite high pricing.
Sentiment score
8.5
Red Canary improved security ROI by efficiently detecting threats, reducing incident response times, and offering detailed alerts and cost savings.
Customers can see data within a week, indicating a quick return on investment.
Senior Manager Technical Security at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Any missed detection will definitely be triggered by Red Canary.
Security Analyst - Tier 2
We have probably spent maybe 15% of the time that we were spending on incident investigation and system monitoring, demonstrating a return on investment.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Customers appreciate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series support for responsiveness and expertise, despite occasional delays and high premium service costs.
Sentiment score
8.7
Users praise Red Canary's excellent service, praising efficient support, thorough incident handling, and effective coordination for swift issue resolutions.
The support quality could be improved.
Senior Manager Technical Security at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Resolving issues promptly.
Head of Sales at Omgea Exim Ltd
They are responsive and provide high-quality assistance.
Cyber security consultant at L&T Technology Services
In emergencies, there is an on-call person available to resolve issues immediately.
SOC Analyst at Valorant
Their customer support is excellent.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
If I need more details about any incident, there is a contact us option to reach an agent.
Security Analyst - Tier 2
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is scalable, easy to deploy, and suits businesses with positive feedback on flexibility and growth.
Sentiment score
7.3
Red Canary excels in scalability, smoothly handling large data loads and diverse needs, though some suggest improved pricing for smaller entities.
They are easy to upgrade, and with credit licensing, they scale effectively according to demand.
Security Technical Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The solution is scalable and can easily handle an increase in the number of users.
Cyber security consultant at L&T Technology Services
It is easy to use with an excellent graphical user interface and extensive documentation, which contributes to its high scalability.
Senior Security Consultant at Netsecurity.no
We've been able to connect and throw all of the data that we have access to over to their systems to parse, process, and monitor without issue.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is highly regarded for stability, reliable performance, and consistent uptime, despite minor navigation delays.
Sentiment score
8.6
Red Canary is reliable and stable, with users reporting smooth operation and no stability issues despite short-term use.
Hardware is generally very stable.
Security Technical Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I have not experienced any major problems or downtime.
Senior IT Infrastructure Specialist at contemi
Perfection is unlikely as the dynamic nature of traffic and constant changes can result in occasional bugs despite regular updates.
Senior Security Consultant at Netsecurity.no
 

Room For Improvement

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series needs UI updates, better platform integration, scalability, user-friendliness, and improved documentation for broader efficiency.
Red Canary should improve pricing, integration, visualizations, multilingual support, features, and consider on-premise options for smaller institutions.
Integration with CSIRT across all use levels would make it easier for administrators to stay updated on the blocked entities without manual intervention.
Cyber security consultant at L&T Technology Services
Most customers go for partner-enabled support, which involves multiple layers, leading to delays.
Security Technical Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Having those features missing, we are not proposing Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to all customers.
Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Red Canary can be improved by continuing to add new features and capabilities.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
I wish Red Canary could have a graph that shows the endpoint, user, and how it spreads, providing a visual representation to easily identify what happened.
Security Analyst - Tier 2
Red Canary's pricing spectrum may not be ideal for smaller financial institutions.
SOC Analyst at Valorant
 

Setup Cost

Palo Alto VM-Series is costly but reliable, with complex licensing; AWS Marketplace offers scalable subscription options.
Enterprise users find Red Canary pricing based on endpoints, with mixed feedback on cost-effectiveness and transparency.
Palo Alto is expensive in terms of pricing, particularly when comparing features to cost.
Security Technical Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The cost involves purchasing through a vendor, which might mark up due to the supply chain.
Senior IT Infrastructure Specialist at contemi
Pricing for Palo Alto Networks is higher than other OEMs, but considering the robustness and features, it gains customer trust.
Head of Sales at Omgea Exim Ltd
The services are higher priced.
SOC Analyst at Valorant
 

Valuable Features

The VM-Series provides scalable, flexible security with advanced threat management, visibility, and integration features, enhancing network protection.
Red Canary offers rapid response, real-time threat detection, integration, and automation for enhanced security and compliance efficiency.
We use these tools to prevent all known and unknown threats using Palo Alto Networks' Wildfire and other data filtering tools to gather information, analyze traffic, manage malicious traffic, and offer visibility, control, and attack prevention.
Senior Manager Technical Security at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Palo Alto's robust threat intelligence supports new updates, and I can open cases directly with their Threat Intelligence team.
Security Technical Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The DNS security significantly enhances security through visibility and detection, allowing control over crucial traffic like DNS, which is often exploited by ransomware.
Senior Security Consultant at Netsecurity.no
Red Canary has impacted my organization positively because we treat any ticket triggered by them as high priority due to the fact that 99 percent of the time it is a true positive.
Security Analyst - Tier 2
Red Canary detects threats and attack patterns, allowing us to assess any significant damage caused to the banking environment, particularly if protected data has been damaged or corrupted.
SOC Analyst at Valorant
In my experience, the best features Red Canary offers are their team, their monitoring team, their expertise at incident investigation, and a focus on suspicious or actual indicators of compromise to ensure that we're not spending time just reviewing logs, but that we're actually looking at things that may indicate we have broader issues.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
 

Categories and Ranking

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (16th)
Red Canary
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
24th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (37th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (12th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is 2.4%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Canary is 1.9%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series2.4%
Red Canary1.9%
Other95.7%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

MuhammadNadeem - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Has supported urgent deployments and enabled inline threat protection but pricing and features could be more flexible
I am not using Palo Alto Networks VM-Series mostly, but based on my experience, there are some deficiencies in Palo Alto Networks VM-Series. Having those features missing, we are not proposing Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to all customers. However, for urgency and for some solutions that customers need for some of their other sites and subdivisions, we are providing the same.
JH
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
Gained trusted 24/7 threat coverage and now focus security efforts on architecture and design
In my experience, the best features Red Canary offers are their team, their monitoring team, their expertise at incident investigation, and a focus on suspicious or actual indicators of compromise to ensure that we're not spending time just reviewing logs, but that we're actually looking at things that may indicate we have broader issues. The Red Canary team's expertise stands out compared to others I've worked with because their team is organized into smaller pods that support a given number of clients, so they're not just a bevy of operators going around the clock. The teams themselves have coordination and cohesion, and they get to know us. Their integrations into the different platforms and systems that we use all line up with our needs, whereas a number of other platforms offered a different variety of integrations that did not line up with our requirements. Red Canary has positively impacted my organization because I don't have to spend and hire resources to look at logs, which has enabled us to do much more in terms of improving security across the organization. With the freed-up resources, we've been able to implement CSPM, SAST, software testing tooling, and engage much more closely with our developers and engineers to focus on secure architecture and design.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) solutions are best for your needs.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the overall cost is reasonable. Azure Firewall offers a solid threat awareness, can...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks VM-Series?
The pricing is more on the expensive side, but it is justified due to its functionality, reliability, and throughput, even with all features enabled. In comparison to FortiGate ( /products/fortinet...
What needs improvement with Red Canary MDR?
Red Canary can be improved by continuing to add new features and capabilities to what they are looking at, including the types of data they're looking at and the types of systems that they're integ...
What is your primary use case for Red Canary MDR?
My main use case for Red Canary is to ensure I can sleep at night by getting 24/7 coverage by a capable team to investigate any alerts for the systems that we have in place to ensure we don't have ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Red Canary Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Warren Rogers Associates
DuPont, Quanta Services, Microchip Technology, Hopkins Public Schools, Henny Penny, Schumacher Homes
Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs. Red Canary and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.