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USM Anywhere vs Zscaler Client Connector comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 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

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Sponsored
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
112
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (4th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (4th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
USM Anywhere
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
41st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (32nd), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (29th), Compliance Management (14th)
Zscaler Client Connector
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
23rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) 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 USM Anywhere is 1.0%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Client Connector is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks3.5%
Zscaler Client Connector0.7%
USM Anywhere1.0%
Other94.8%
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

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.
Kris Nawani - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
Offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence and various other investigation tools The solution offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software, as it is maintained by the vendor. It helps in saving…
DA
IT Support Admin at Kuehne & Nagel Inc.
Client activity has been monitored efficiently through in-depth log analysis and traffic filtering
I use the Zscaler speed test, and it is very nice. We use some logs from Zscaler Client Connector to collect data and see what is happening, such as if there is an interruption or something. There is a specific tunnel version that we have to use because, depending on the internet provider, some of them have lower speed, so we have some issues. This is because of the provider, not from Zscaler. We use Office 365 services and Office applications, and because some connections are slow and they do not have full coverage from the internet provider, we have some issues. If the speed is slow for Zscaler Client Connector connection, then we have issues because if the speed is not good, then Zscaler Client Connector goes down. This may be because they put some policy. Of course, if you use Office 365 services such as Outlook, the minimum bandwidth is 5 megabits and more, so this causes issues if the users do not have a good remote connection. This depends on the companies and the users, so they need to fix it. This is not from us or our company. It is very useful, and the logs are very helpful. When we go to logs, we understand what is happening.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Threat identification and detection are the most valuable features of this solution."
"On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks a nine."
"The solution allows us to make investigations. Other XDR solutions also provide similar capabilities but for investigation, Cortex XDR is better."
"Has great threat detection capabilities."
"The user interface of the solution is sophisticated and straightforward."
"Cortex is a very good total solution on the endpoints."
"The behavior-based detection feature is valuable."
"My advice for others looking into using Cortex is that it is very easy to use and very useful for the customer environment, whether it's a public or private one."
"The ease of implementation is the most valuable feature."
"The price of this solution is reasonable, which is one of the reasons why we selected it over other solutions."
"It allows you to define what alerts you want to see, or not to see, as well as if you want them grouped, or ungrouped."
"Once we placed AlienVault in the product we have now, the time it takes to find and respond to real anomalies has dropped from hours to minutes, it has so much potential to be an amazing product despite its many issues."
"IDS is a nice capability to have."
"Customer service is excellent! Always very responsive."
"We used, tested, and tried several solutions prior to this solution; this solution answered too many questions under one reasonable cost, as opposed to piecemealing everything together for more money."
"Easy to use, scalable, stable, and very intuitive platform that provides protection against security threats."
"Zscaler Client Connector is quite scalable, and I would rate its scalability as nine or ten out of ten."
"I'd rate the solution nine out of ten."
"Zscaler Client Connector has eliminated VPN bottlenecks and outages, improved user productivity with instant secure access, and reduced help desk tickets related to VPN issues, overcoming 60% of VPN-related problems while allowing faster onboarding of remote users and better enforcement of zero-trust security policies."
"The solution operates in the background seamlessly without the user noticing."
"It is very important to see what is happening between the user and the applications that we have, and to filter the traffic from outbound traffic and inside traffic."
"The real-time analytics feature in Zscaler Client Connector is another valuable feature called Digital Experience, or ZDX, which can easily identify the root cause of issues accessing public or internal resources and provide good analysis so relevant teams can quickly resolve them, making it a very good tool that helps customers."
"The best features of Zscaler Client Connector are that it gives the client a much more transparent experience, as they don't have to worry about connecting to a VPN."
"It is very useful, and the logs are very helpful; when we go to logs, we understand what is happening."
 

Cons

"The solution lags to the real-time scenarios here and there."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is a strong tool, but it is true that digesting information sometimes makes the tool go a little bit slower."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks could improve by offering remote management. It would be useful to look at the client's issue to fix it."
"Impact on system performance is horrible, adding a lot of delays for users."
"Cortex XDR is trickier to configure than other Palo Alto products. This is one area where we are not so satisfied."
"The installation should be easier and the Palo Alto pre-sales and sales teams should have more information on the product because they don't know what they are selling."
"A little bit more automation would be nice."
"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."
"Most of the troubleshooting requires going through the Linux command line and bypassing the GUI."
"I don't think the product's pricing is a good value because they try to raise the price 50 percent every year."
"The only room for improvement I can mention is the initial installation procedures. I found that the online installation instructions for the product were missing important details, they lacked necessary steps."
"There are many reports included but would be nice to have better access to the data."
"I'd like to see a dashboard that's a little more descriptive."
"Although they use machine learning, the algorithms that they use are graph-based."
"The solution doesn't scale well if you are talking about enterprises using it."
"The only that I can think of is that is not ideal is sending Windows Server logs to their device, to the system."
"There is room for improvement regarding the price of Zscaler Client Connector, as it is one of the most expensive solutions available."
"Zscaler Client Connector is not low in cost; it is definitely on the higher side."
"The stability of Zscaler Client Connector needs improvement, as it often disconnects and reconnects."
"If the speed is slow for Zscaler Client Connector connection, then we have issues because if the speed is not good, then Zscaler Client Connector goes down."
"There is a hard learning curve for Zscaler Client Connector; their support isn't the greatest all the time."
"I rate this product nine out of ten because I have seen some minor instability issues after updates and some room for UI improvement for deeper analytics, with instances of major issues after updating the GCC that required rollbacks."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't recall what the cost was, but it wasn't really that expensive."
"It has a yearly renewal."
"I don't have any issues with the pricing. We are satisfied with the price."
"Its pricing is kind of in line with its competitors and everybody else out there."
"The solution is expensive. It's pricing is on a yearly-basis."
"The price is on the higher side, but it's okay."
"In terms of the cost Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is very expensive because we are a Mexican company and when you translate dollars to pesos the cost is very high. The solution is very expensive for Mexican companies. I understand that they have international prices, but I do not think it offsets the price enough for many companies in countries, such as Mexico. The amount it is reduced is not a massive percentage."
"We didn't have to pay any additional fee for the cloud instance. It just came with the renewal, which was nice."
"We ran a few PoCs. The price and feature set were the best with AlienVault."
"It is a product that is priced in a medium range, making it neither a cheap nor a costly product."
"It is affordable, and it also has many features that the premium products such as ArcSight and QRadar have. It is a very good platform for a SIEM solution. Everything is included in the price."
"QRadar, ArcSight and Splunk are some of the most expensive SIEM products out there in the market and not everyone has the budget to buy them. In such cases, AV USM is a very cost effective alternative."
"AT&T AlienVault USM is an expensive solution and we pay for the license and the support separately. We paid for the license and support for three years."
"The pricing is a good value. The key thing is that for the new product, the licensing of it, is subscription-based and it's based on data. Clients need to be really careful when thinking about that, because odds are they're going to need to put a lot more data into it than what they initially estimate, which is going to drive their subscription costs up."
"AlienVault is certainly not nearly as expensive as Splunk or QRadar. It's decently priced, but I don't have the exact figure."
"​The price point is good.​"
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
23%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
21%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise52
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business65
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Large Enterprise5
 

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 needs improvement with AT&T AlienVault USM?
There are scalability issues due to a 60 TB limit, which restricts its use for large customers like banks. It is also...
What is your primary use case for AT&T AlienVault USM?
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Client Connector?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the pricing is fair, though it is a bit costly. It oper...
What needs improvement with Zscaler Client Connector?
For Zscaler Client Connector, I would appreciate more granular control over the client update rollout and slightly fa...
What is your primary use case for Zscaler Client Connector?
My main use case of Zscaler Client Connector is to provide secure, seamless access to the internet and internal appli...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
AT&T AlienVault USM, AlienVault, AlienVault USM, Alienvault Cybersecurity
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Abel & Cole, Bank of Ireland, Bluegrass Cellular, CareerBuilder, Claire's, Hays Medical Center, Hope International, McCurrach, McKinsey & Company, Party Delights, Pepco Holdings, Richland School District, Ricoh, SaveMart, Shake Shack, Steelcase, TaxAct, Taylor Morrison, Vonage and Zoom
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about USM Anywhere vs. Zscaler Client Connector and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.