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

Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise vs VMware Carbon Black Endpoint comparison

Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 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
4.9
Cortex XDR reduces security incidents, personnel needs, and costs, offering quick ROI, enhanced performance, and competitive pricing.
Sentiment score
4.1
Symantec Endpoint Security's robust protection minimizes ransomware impact, ensuring data security and ROI for manufacturing firms against cyber threats.
Sentiment score
5.6
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint offers strong protection, reducing malware and saving 10% in costs, showing significant value within six months.
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
In Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, most of the remediation is automated and the accuracy is quite good.
Network Security Engineer at Cyberwell Solution
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Cortex XDR support is effective and fast but faces issues with language, delays, and high costs, yet generally satisfactory.
Sentiment score
5.5
Symantec Endpoint Security's technical support is mixed, with responsive service overall but variations in speed and costlier advanced support.
Sentiment score
6.3
VMware Carbon Black's support is knowledgeable yet occasionally slow, with variability in global and local assistance quality.
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
The support site for accessing new software is complicated, despite necessary multi-factor authentication.
IT Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I rate the technical support from Symantec as eight out of ten because they have comprehensive and clear documentation that can be easily found on search engines if someone knows how to search.
Information Technology Infrastructure Consultant Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Regarding the technical support of Broadcom, they are responsive and helpful.
Senior VP, Technology & Leading Technology Office at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR is scalable, supports diverse enterprises, integrates with endpoints, and enables easy expansion with cloud infrastructure.
Sentiment score
8.0
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise scales well for all business sizes, though costly and affected by network configuration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.1
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint is praised for scalability and ease of deployment, despite some challenges with report generation.
You can onboard 10,000 endpoints in just hours, which demonstrates the excellent scalability of this product.
Assistant Security Architect at Cloudnomics
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
Regarding scalability, since Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is a cloud solution, it is very scalable.
Information Technology Infrastructure Consultant Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
In my experience supporting approximately 10 different companies with up to 100 workstations each, scalability has never been a concern with Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise.
IT Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR is highly regarded for stability, reliable performance, and well-received updates, despite minor occasional disruptions.
Sentiment score
8.9
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is praised for reliability but has occasional issues, mainly with Windows updates and scans.
Sentiment score
7.5
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint is generally stable and efficient, with minor integration issues and occasional latency quickly addressed.
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
I rate the stability of Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise as excellent, giving it a nine for all the new possibilities and features that can be implemented.
Information Technology Infrastructure Consultant Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The solution is exceptionally stable.
IT Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR requires enhancements in UI, integration, reporting, and pricing, while addressing false positives and improving automation and mobile support.
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise needs user-friendliness upgrades, better Mac compatibility, and improved pricing, threat notifications, and support services.
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint needs better integration, user interface, system compatibility, pricing, support, and enhanced features for improved client satisfaction.
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
Many customers are seeking modern protection features such as MDR (managed detection and response).
IT Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The centralized management console is intuitive, but the threat intelligence aspect could be more incorporated and developed, especially with AI integration and news directly in the platform.
Information Technology Infrastructure Consultant Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR offers flexible pricing from $55 to $90 per endpoint annually, considered cost-effective for its advanced features.
Symantec's pricing is seen as reasonable by some but expensive by others, particularly when upgrading to EDR.
VMware Carbon Black's pricing is high and inflexible, with users preferring user-based over endpoint-based licensing options.
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
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR provides advanced threat detection with AI analytics, real-time blocking, and seamless integration for enhanced security.
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise offers proactive threat protection, ease of use, scalability, and cost-effective basic security with frequent updates.
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint offers advanced threat detection, cloud management, machine learning, and centralized control for efficient incident management.
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
What I appreciate the most about Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is the integration with the workstations and the around-the-clock monitoring.
Information Technology Infrastructure Consultant Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is highly compatible and rarely causes disruptions in production.
IT Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I assess VMware Carbon Black Endpoint's machine learning capabilities in detecting unknown threats as fantastic.
Senior VP, Technology & Leading Technology Office at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Sponsored
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (7th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (6th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Symantec Endpoint Security ...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
30th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
35th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Security Incident Response (6th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (36th), Ransomware Protection (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.5%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Carbon Black Endpoint is 1.8%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks3.5%
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise0.6%
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint1.8%
Other94.1%
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.
reviewer2162541 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Provides stable and resource-efficient protection but lacks clear modern security features
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is highly compatible and rarely causes disruptions in production. It operates transparently and is easy to maintain. The automated response feature helps to mitigate breaches effectively. When comparing with ThreatDown agent, I have noticed that ThreatDown detects behaviors more readily and flags suspicious user activities more clearly. While Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise remains effective, ThreatDown's user interface is more manageable and provides a clearer system overview. The management interface is crucial for maintaining Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise effectively. A significant advantage of Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is its lightweight resource usage. It consumes less memory, CPU, and IO compared to alternatives such as ThreatDown and Bitdefender.
reviewer2689206 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior VP, Technology & Leading Technology Office at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Behavior analytics has strengthened threat prediction yet still needs to improve overall standing
Regarding the real-time monitoring feature with VMware Carbon Black Endpoint, it is helpful in addressing unseen threats. I find the behavior analysis feature beneficial. I assess VMware Carbon Black Endpoint's machine learning capabilities in detecting unknown threats as fantastic. The behavior and analytics feature employs machine learning, and these are features which make the product and give that distinguishing, differentiating factor. The intelligent threat hunting capabilities have impacted my customers' cybersecurity efforts by giving them the edge to be prepared well in advance. Whenever this feature provides prediction, you know what action to take. You are aware of a possible attack and what kind of attack it may be, so you are much better prepared.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) solutions are best for your needs.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise31
 

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. ...
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...
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,...
What do you like most about Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise?
The tool is a secure and stable workstation for checking antivirus. The alerting feature helps us see alerts and is e...
What needs improvement with Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise?
I have not experienced integrated threat intelligence benefits with Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise. Many custo...
What is your primary use case for Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise?
The primary use case for Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise for my clients is basic antivirus protection.
What to choose: an endpoint antivirus, an EDR solution or both?
I can recommend Carbon Black, an award-winning next-gen anti-virus (NGAV) and endpoint detection and response (EDR) s...
What's the difference between Carbon Black CB Response and Carbon Black CB Defense?
Carbon Black offers two different levels of Endpoint Detection and Response. One is the VM Carbon Black Cloud Endpoin...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
No data available
Carbon Black CB Defense, Bit9, Confer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Information Not Available
Netflix, Progress Residential, Indeed, Hologic, Gentle Giant, Samsung Research America
Find out what your peers are saying about Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise vs. VMware Carbon Black Endpoint and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,376 professionals have used our research since 2012.