Vectra AI vs WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service comparison

Vectra AI and WatchGuard are both solutions in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category. Vectra AI is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.0, while WatchGuard is ranked #25. Vectra AI holds a 11.3% mindshare in ID, compared to WatchGuard’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Vectra AI users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 66% of WatchGuard users who would recommend it.

Vectra AI

Read 45 Vectra AI reviews

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639 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

WatchGuard Intrusion Preven...

Read 5 WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service reviews

158 Views
76 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

Vectra AI

WatchGuard Intrusion Preven...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Vectra AI and WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service both aim to enhance network security through intrusion detection and prevention. Vectra AI appears to have an advantage with its advanced threat detection capabilities due to its sophisticated artificial intelligence features, while WatchGuard is preferred for its cost-effective solutions and robust protective measures.

Features: Vectra AI offers AI-driven threat detection, real-time network visibility, and advanced analytics for proactive response. WatchGuard provides versatile deployment options, seamless integration with existing security infrastructures, and comprehensive threat prevention.

Room for Improvement: Vectra AI could improve its user-friendliness, reduce the need for technical expertise during deployment, and optimize integration with non-cloud infrastructures. WatchGuard may enhance its threat detection capabilities, increase scalability for larger enterprises, and refine its analytics engine for more precise insights.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Vectra AI focuses on seamless cloud integration with extensive support for diverse IT environments, requiring technical involvement but benefiting from comprehensive assistance. WatchGuard offers easier deployment with streamlined models for cloud and on-premises setups, supported by responsive customer service and noted for quicker execution due to its user-friendly approach.

Pricing and ROI: Vectra AI involves higher setup costs due to advanced features but offers substantial ROI with improved network control. WatchGuard provides a more affordable entry point with high ROI through cost-effective operations and scalable threat management. The affordability of WatchGuard is attractive, while Vectra AI's value may justify its cost for organizations needing high-level threat analysis.

To learn more, read our detailed Vectra AI vs. WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Vectra AI vs. WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service

June 2025

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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

Vectra AI

Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Detection and Response (NDR) (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (14th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (10th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (6th)

WatchGuard Intrusion Preven...

Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

25th

Average Rating

6.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Vectra AI is 11.3%, up from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service is 0.4%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

Featured Reviews

Mohammad Alkurdi

Owner at Fortibits

Innovative detection features enhance monitoring

The advantages of the integration are not entirely out-of-the-box. You have to do it manually. When I'm doing tier response, an out-of-the-box solution is not available. You need to have a Linux server, and from the Linux server, you must perform AI tasks, and there is a lot to be handled in the back end. This is a major consideration about them. The recall feature, if it can be placed in some areas instead of the cloud, and charged for, would be better. Recall the storage where you watch all the traffic, and you can recall it and try to analyze it in the back end. It’s cloud-based. If they offer it on-prem, it would be better. I think they have a solution, but I have never tested it, to be honest with you.

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Gianluca Vinci

Owner at SharkTech Systems Engineering

Helps us protect published resources with a valuable alarm system

Our primary use case for the solution is to protect published resources The alarm system is valuable because it alerts us if an external intruder tries to attack published resources. The user interface can be improved because it is sometimes difficult to manage functionality. For example, the…

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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

"Vectra AI is the best. It is a major product in our cybersecurity."

"Cognito Streams gives you a detailed view of what happens in the network in the form of rich metadata. It is just a super easy way to capture network traffic for important protocols, giving us an advantage. This is very helpful on a day-to-day basis."

"The administrative privilege detection feature is the most valuable feature. The admin accounts are often highly accessible to the high-risk component of the environment. If those accounts are compromised or are being used in a suspicious manner, that's high-fidelity events for us to look into."

"Scalability wise, we have many sensors, and Vectra AI seems to handle them all very well."

"Vectra AI helped our team be more productive and save time. We have less work thanks to it."

"What I like best about Vectra AI is that it alerts you about suspicious activities."

"The packet-capturing feature is very useful."

"The automatic filtering that they provide is valuable. The logic inside that makes some detections instead of us is very useful. We are confident that if we are just looking into it and there is nothing, nothing could happen."

More Vectra AI pros

"The initial setup was straightforward and, because we only need intrusion detection and prevention, we needed only about four hours to deploy it."

"The VPN and the filtering features are the most valuable. Its VPN is very strong, and its services are very nice. The main problem in India is the service. There are not enough Check Point and Fortinet Firewall services, but for this product, the service is very good."

"The most important feature of this solution is the SLAs."

"It works right out of the box. You just have to enable it and you can start working."

"The alarm system is valuable."

Cons

"For S&D account scans, it would be easier if Vectra AI could triage with users. If a client uses a lot of accounts, then it could indicate that these accounts are benign, for example. That would help a lot."

"It would be commercially beneficial if Vectra AI had something like Darktrace's Antigena Email or something similar to email protection."

"We had another product with Vectra AI and used the MDR solution as an add-on. Initially, it wasn't fully appropriately configured, so we didn't get the expected results. Even once configured correctly, we weren't fully satisfied with its response. The issue was both with their service response and the product's capabilities."

"The advantages of the integration are not entirely out-of-the-box. You have to do it manually."

"Neither Vectra nor Darktrace have a function like a status health check on my log sources and traffic sources."

"I would like more integrations with IOCs and threats currently on the Internet. I would also like to know which threats are based on zero-day attacks, current botnets, etc. Therefore, I would like more information on external threats."

"There could be an option where Vectra manages the solution remotely, and when there is an attack, there could be a notification center to give us information about the attack."

"One area where there's room for improvement is the absence of a comprehensive TCP recording and replay feature."

More Vectra AI cons

"I would like to see faster automatation."

"Regarding technical support, they could use more engineers."

"Its graphical user interface could be improved because not everybody is technical. There is a lack of knowledge, and they can give some training for this solution."

"The user interface and configuration can be improved."

"Multi properties could be added to the solution in the future to make it better."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are running at about 90,000 pounds per year. The solution is a licensed cost. The hardware that they gave us was pretty much next to nothing. It is the license that we're paying for."

"We have a desire to increase our use. However, it all comes down to budget. It's a very expensive tool that is very difficult to prove business support for. We would like to have two separate networks. We have our corporate network and PCI network, which is segregated due to payment processing. We don't have it for deployed in the PCI network. It would be good to have it fully deployed there to provide us with additional monitoring and control, but the cost associated with their licensing model makes it prohibitively expensive to deploy."

"The pricing and licensing are quite straightforward because they're based on the IP licenses. As a result, they are easy to count."

"It is an expensive solution, but it's not the most expensive we've seen. We also know how much we're going to pay, unlike with some other providers where all of a sudden our license explodes."

"From a licensing perspective, the Vectra detect platform is pretty doable. Also, the hardware prices are nothing that we're not used to. The stream part is a little overpriced compared to the detect part. The reason is that you need to stream data to detect events anyway, so the data is in there. The only thing that's not available is the UI to be able to look at the stream data, which is also on the appliances but is just not activated. That's mainly the thing that we want to improve on."

"There are additional features that can be purchased in addition to the standard licensing fee, such as Cognito Recall and Stream."

"The pricing is high."

"Their licensing model is antiquated. I'm not a fan of their licensing model. We have to pay for licensing based on four different things. You have to pay based on the number of unique IPs, the number of logs that we send through Recall and Stream, and the size of our environment. They need to simplify their licensing down to just one thing. It should be based on the amount of data, the number of devices, or something else, but there should be just one thing for everything. That's what they need to base their licensing on. Cost-wise, they're not cheap. They were definitely the most expensive option, but you get what you pay for. They're not the cheapest option."

More Vectra AI pricing and cost advice

"The price of WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service is pretty reasonable compared to similar solutions."

"The price of the solution is not expensive, it is less than FortiGate."

"It is not expensive. Other products like Fortinet and Check Point are of the same price."

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859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is the biggest difference between Corelight and Vectra AI?

The two platforms take a fundamentally different approach to NDR. Corelight is limited to use cases that require the eventual forwarding of events and parsed data logs to a security team’s SIEM or ...

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What do you like most about Vectra AI?

The solution is currently used as a central threat detection and response system.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vectra AI?

It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.

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Comparisons

Darktrace vs Vectra AI

Compared 30% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) vs Vectra AI

Compared 11% of the time

Corelight vs Vectra AI

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs Vectra AI

Compared 6% of the time

Arista NDR vs Vectra AI

Compared 5% of the time

More Vectra AI Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Vectra AI

May 2025

Download Vectra AI product report

Buyer's Guide

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

June 2025

WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service report

Download WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service product report

Also Known As

Vectra Networks, Vectra AI NDR

WatchGuard IPS

Overview

Vectra AI is used for detecting network anomalies and potential malicious activities, providing visibility into network traffic and enhancing threat detection across environments.

Organizations deploy Vectra AI mainly on-premises with additional cloud components. It helps with compliance, incident response, security monitoring, detecting insider threats, and correlating network events. Vectra AI captures and enriches network metadata, provides detailed dashboards, reduces false positives, and supports cross-environment behavioral analysis to enhance threat detection and prioritization. While valued for its high accuracy and alert aggregation, it has room for improvement in UI/UX, packet management, and integration with SIEMs and other tools. It is noted for expensive pricing and limited proactive threat response features.

What are Vectra AI's most valuable features?

High accuracy in identifying threat locations
Aggregation of alerts into single incidents
24/7 threat detection
Visibility into the entire attack lifecycle
Risk score aggregation
Effective triaging of alerts
Integration with other tools

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Enhanced threat detection and prioritization
Comprehensive network visibility
Reduction in false positives
Better incident response capabilities
Improved compliance monitoring

In specific industries, Vectra AI is deployed to monitor complex networks and alleviate challenges in threat detection. It is particularly effective in sectors requiring stringent compliance and security measures, offering insights and capabilities crucial for protecting sensitive data and maintaining operational integrity.

Vectra AI

Online attacks and malware continue to evolve, using sophisticated methods to exploit victims. WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service (IPS) provides a preemptive approach to network security that adds an essential layer of threat detection and prevention. IPS protects your network from a wide range of malicious activities, including SQL injections, cross-site scripting, and buffer overflows.

WatchGuard

Sample Customers

Tribune Media Group, Barry University, Aruba Networks, Good Technology, Riverbed, Santa Clara University, Securities Exchange, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association

Chester School District

Buyer's Guide

Vectra AI vs. WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service

June 2025

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