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Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Symantec Advanced Threat Protection comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

Palo Alto Networks WildFire
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Symantec Advanced Threat Pr...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
24th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Palo Alto Networks WildFire is 6.7%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Advanced Threat Protection is 2.2%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Palo Alto Networks WildFire6.7%
Symantec Advanced Threat Protection2.2%
Other91.1%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2695164 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Security Specialist at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Advanced threat detection has protected critical document workflows and checks suspicious files
I would say the setup and putting together the hierarchy within the devices was not straightforward. There were many reboots and reconfigurations while the optimal setup was established. However, we were happy with the device. The setup process could be easier to establish the cluster. It should be easier to establish the Palo Alto Networks WildFire cluster between the devices. We had some difficulty with it, but it was not catastrophic. The operation and usability itself is what I was happy with.
Dennis O'Reilly - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber SecOps Principal at Dotcom Security
Provides end-to-end antivirus protection and has good stability
Symantec Endpoint Protection provides end-to-end protection. Along with antivirus protection, it has a lot of key areas, including intrusive prevention, firewall features, and application and device control. It can integrate with other Broadcom solutions, such as Symantec Messaging Gateway and Symantec DLP. If you want to send an email, it gets scanned through endpoint protection and DLP. We get all Symantec functionality in a single pane.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is how it keeps up-to-date with viruses."
"The most valuable feature for us is the VPN."
"Whole team can use the firewall and understand it."
"The solution has plenty of features."
"Their technical support is outstanding and top-notch."
"It has a user-friendly interface."
"It is expensive, a feature more accessible to enterprise class customers, but provides an enhanced possibility that Zero- or near-Zero-day threats may be identified and mitigated."
"Overall, WildFire is a good product and I recommend it."
"Their integrations are pretty good as are their Sandbox solutions, their proxies, and their LTAs with API or ICAP protocols."
"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."
"The great advantage in using this product is it creates multiple services."
"Overall, the product supports everything already feature-wise, because it has email protection, monitoring detection, network intrusion detection, and advanced threat protection."
"All of the solution's features are quite valuable for us, and we especially like the threat protection it provides."
"Currently we have 800-plus nodes connected with this solution, without any issues. The solution is scalable."
"The incident management on the solution is very good. You get a lot of detailed information about an incident. You also get a lot of documentation in connection with the CVI or integration."
"They manage to solve detection quite nicely, with rather elaborate detection compared to other providers, and Symantec also provides a useful set of information linked to each of the attacked computers."
 

Cons

"In terms of what I'd like to see in the next release of Palo Alto Networks WildFire, each release is based on malware that has been identified."
"The initial setup was complex."
"Smaller organizations may find it a bit costly. It is not a cheap solution, simply because of everything that it can do, so there might be a cost barrier for smaller organizations."
"I do not see any return on investment."
"The solution can improve its traffic management."
"The system uptime data is unavailable"
"The only problem with this solution is the cost. It's expensive."
"Other vendors have some sort of bandwidth management built into the firewall itself and Palo Alto is missing that."
"Symantec appliances need improvement. The whole appliance environment is a robust system and it needs a massive amount of storage space. If you have to increase or speed up the background storage it's a pretty complicated process. The scalability and sizing is critical, and if you do it wrong you run into issues pretty quickly."
"Entire threat protection is not available for the advanced features."
"It should be able to collect information if the agent is disabled."
"There are limits with respect to blocking files by hash value or blocking IP addresses, and these limits should be removed."
"It's a strange situation where the infrastructure of the consumer or customer is behind some kind of firewall and they have always used some kind of customized proxy. In this situation, the ATP has a very tough time to pass the information to the cloud and back. To fix, it requires a more elaborate and complex configuration for that particular case."
"The support has dropped down to a five out of ten."
"I think SonicWall and McAfee are better solutions."
"An improvement could be made on the reporting because then it would be easier to collect information and submit it for compliance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is OK, it is not too expensive."
"The solution is overpriced."
"It's comparable to what the competition is. It is probably a little lesser than what the competition is because, as a state government, we go for whatever the lowest cost is."
"The price could be better."
"The pricing is highly expensive."
"The pricing and licensing option should be categorized for various countries such as for Bangladesh."
"The price is expensive but is reasonable considering overall functionality."
"It's not particularly cheap, but it is absolutely worth it."
"The pricing of this solution is inexpensive and affordable."
"Symantec Advanced Threat Protection's pricing is comparable."
"The price is quite expensive."
"Pricing is good. It is nice to have a great product at a fair price."
"Symantec Endpoint Protection has an average price."
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Comparison Review

it_user206346 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at Webernetz.net - Network Security Consulting
Mar 11, 2015
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Outsourcing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise13
 

Questions from the Community

How does Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks Wildfire?
The Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall is a very powerful and very complex piece of anti-viral software. When one considers that fact, it is all the more impressive that the setup is a fairly straightf...
Which is better - Wildfire or FortiGate?
FortiGate has a lot going for it and I consider it to be the best, most user-friendly firewall out there. What I like the most about it is that it has an attractive web dashboard with very easy nav...
How does Cisco ASA Firewall compare with Palo Alto's WildFire?
When looking to change our ASA Firewall, we looked into Palo Alto’s WildFire. It works especially in preventing advanced malware and zero-day exploits with real-time intelligence. The sandbox featu...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
ECI
Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs. Symantec Advanced Threat Protection and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
918,957 professionals have used our research since 2012.