Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs ExtraHop Reveal(x) comparison

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

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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

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (14th)

ExtraHop Reveal(x)

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (7th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (4th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is designed for Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) and holds a mindshare of 3.1%, up 2.5% compared to last year.
ExtraHop Reveal(x), on the other hand, focuses on Network Traffic Analysis (NTA), holds 7.5% mindshare, down 16.8% since last year.

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT	3.1%
Darktrace	10.5%
Fortinet FortiGate	10.3%
Other	76.1%

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
ExtraHop Reveal(x)	7.5%
Darktrace	16.2%
Cisco Secure Network Analytics	9.7%
Other	66.6%

Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2772102

Cloud Architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Logging and customizable rules have helped improve threat monitoring and detection

The logging is mainly what I consider one of the best features with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT. Being able to log and store it in a file allows you to push it to a centralized repository. The logging and reporting help improve incident response. You should always be logging threats, any sort of misconfiguration, and anything that could be an issue. It's important to at least log and monitor it. The basic rules provide a good baseline in assessing Cisco Sourcefire SNORT's ability in providing real-time analytics for threat detection, but as a professional, you should look to constantly modify that baseline. They provide extensive customizability so you can define your own rules. The customizability allows it to be adaptable in protecting against diverse network threats to the constant change.

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Henri Heuvel

Technical Consultant at Axians

Cloud-based administration streamlines network security management

ExtraHop Reveal(x) can improve regarding integration capabilities. For instance, the market is getting really flooded with Microsoft Sentinel, and I know there is an integration possible, but the tools on the market right now indicate that integration should not be a skill from an integrator point of view. It should be quite easy for customers to integrate that solution into SOCs, SIEMs, or any other integration with other tools. There are various integrations from which there's a manual on how to do it, but specifically, the Microsoft portfolio, particularly Sentinel, integration is not yet there. If you score them on a scale of one to ten, ExtraHop scores around a 7.5 to an 8 on an integration basis, but there's actually room for improvement on that side. In the older days, ExtraHop had a license model where you could do all you can eat, so if you had a sensor with 10 gig of capacity, you could use all the entire 10 gig of throughput. They changed that to an asset-based license model, and that's an absolute downside of the solution, where it is harder for smaller companies to acquire the solution itself. That has given us quite some problems in positioning the solution properly within the network, so the licensing model is an absolute downside where they need to improve.

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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

"The most valuable feature is the ability to automatically learn the traffic in our environment, and change the merit recommendations based on that."

"The whole solution is very good, and stable."

"The most valuable feature is the visibility that we have across the virtual environment."

"The product is inexpensive compared to leading brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet."

"I like most of Cisco's features, like malware detection and URL filtering."

"It simplifies the configuration process by offering pre-defined base configurations, including security and connectivity settings."

"Cisco technical support is unbeatable. It offers a premium service every time."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the filtering."

More Cisco Sourcefire SNORT pros

"We had useful information within the hour of deployment."

"Setting up the solution is relatively easy."

"Reveal(x)'s stability is excellent."

"We had useful information within the hour of deployment. The ability to trace back for historical analysis, as well as the behavioral analysis done with the security information, puts the user in a position to make an informed decision to mitigate the performance or security incidents. Regarding the security incidents, Reveal (x) is able to create incident cards that guide your teams through the incidents and gives you the option to delve into the transaction detail to potentially view payloads as well."

"The security features of this solution are the most valuable."

"The most valuable aspect of the solution is the depth of information that's available."

"With ExtraHop Reveal(x), it gives me more visibility into the packets. It doesn't provide the entire packet capture, but it offers more information on how connections are made at the network layer. This can be helpful for detecting network attacks. Additionally, I really like the customizable dashboards and reports. The incident dashboard and alerts provide a good summary initially, and diving deeper into them gives more detailed information. It's also great for analyzing specific attacks and victim logs. The feature that tracks the full attack chain makes it easier to monitor the progress of attacks. Plus, it's connected to the Netria.com app, which I find useful for certain tasks."

"The solution offers a friendly GUI for security features."

More ExtraHop Reveal(x) pros

Cons

"While the alerts they offer are good, it could improve it in the sense that they should be more detailed to make the alerts more useful to us in general. Sometimes the solution will offer up false positives. Due to the fact that the alerts aren't detailed, we have to go dig around to see why is it being blocked. The solution would be infinitely better if there was just a bit more detail in the alert information and logging we receive."

"The implementation could be a bit easier."

"A lot of Cisco equipment is very good, but in judging the model of this solution that we have, I feel that it is the worst."

"Performance needs improvement."

"The solution's approach to managing traffic blocking is confusing and impractical."

"Sometimes the solution will offer up false positives."

"The customization of the rules can be simplified."

"The initial setup is a little difficult compared to other products in the market. It depends on the environment. If we are doing any migration, it might take months in a brown-field environment."

More Cisco Sourcefire SNORT cons

"Netflow - Processing Netflow can be cumbersome as it requires triggers to truly gain value and insight."

"It needs integration with more security vendors."

"Agent management could certainly use some focus. It should also be a little bit easier to work with collections."

"Currently, we have to check manually as we do not receive any notifications about new patches, maintenance, or firmware releases."

"The solution is expensive and gets more expensive if a company needs to scale it."

"Agent management could certainly use some focus. It should also be a little bit easier to work with collections. We should be able to nest collections within collections. There should be better nesting."

"The solution's reporting part and GUI are areas with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

More ExtraHop Reveal(x) cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing for this solution is paid on a yearly basis."

"The cost is per port and can be expensive but it does include training and support for three years."

"I don't know the exact amount, but most of the time when I go to a company with a proposition, they will say, "This thing that you are selling is good, but it's expensive. Why don't you propose something like FortiGate, Check Point, or Palo Alto?" Cisco device are expensive compared to other devices."

"We have a three-year license for this solution."

"If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five."

"I rate the price of ExtraHop Reveal(x) a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a high price, and ten is a low price."

"The solution is based on an annual subscription model and is expensive."

"I would rate the price a three out of five. It could be less expensive."

"I rate ExtraHop Reveal(x) six out of 10 for affordability. We pay for an annual license. It's always one of those trade-offs. You get a lot of value, but ExtraHop isn't exorbitantly priced. You can pay extra for additional features like the ability to decode HL7 traffic, which is crucial for EMR environments."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

University

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	9

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five. There are some other tools in the market that are more expensive than Cisco. There are no additional c...

What needs improvement with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

I have not had much experience with the community-driven rule set while utilizing Cisco Sourcefire SNORT. I don't have experience with recognizing zero-day vulnerabilities, but based on my knowledg...

What is your primary use case for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

Endpoint protection is the main use case. The main aspect involves specifying different rules, and when network traffic hits these rules, it will try to block the traffic or at least log the traffi...

What is the best network monitoring software for large enterprises?

We just did an assessment for our 47 datacenters around North America. The top two enterprise-level network monitoring solutions were ExtraHop first, Riverbed SteelCenter second. Their negotiated c...

What open source tool can one use to measure bandwidth from one's upstream service provider?

One I am looking closely at is AppNeta. They have an appliance that can digest the flow and do a better job than Netflow. The other one we are using is ExtraHop. This has both a Datacenter Hig...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ExtraHop Reveal(x)?

We manage the setup cost ourselves, so I am quite happy with that. I also had engagement with professional services from ExtraHop, and it wasn't bad, but I was not impressed; it's not academic work...

Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

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Compared 19% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

Corelight Open NDR vs ExtraHop Reveal(x)

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs ExtraHop Reveal(x)

Compared 6% of the time

Fortinet FortiNDR vs ExtraHop Reveal(x)

Compared 5% of the time

More ExtraHop Reveal(x) Competitors

Product Reports

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Download Cisco Sourcefire SNORT product report

ExtraHop Reveal(x)

Download ExtraHop Reveal(x) product report

Also Known As

Sourcefire SNORT

Reveal(x), Revealx

Overview

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is a versatile cybersecurity tool offering threat detection, scalability, and integration with Cisco tools. It is recognized for ease of configuration and comprehensive protection, making it suitable for intrusion prevention and firewall applications.

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT provides advanced malware protection and integrates seamlessly with Cisco products. It enables automatic IPS tuning, real-time visibility, and intelligent security automation, which together enhance network security. Users benefit from its URL filtering, email spam elimination, and it delivers low false positives. Though highly effective, feedback highlights a desire for improvements in stability, dashboard effectiveness, traffic blocking customizations, and integration with Cisco DNA Center. Cost concerns and calls for cloud-based deployments also emerge in user feedback. Technical support and performance are also discussed, with VPN configuration posing challenges.

What are the key features of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

Threat Detection: Identifies and mitigates network threats efficiently.
Scalability: Easily adapts to growing network demands.
Cisco Integration: Works smoothly with existing Cisco infrastructure.
Advanced Malware Protection: Provides comprehensive security against sophisticated threats.
Real-Time Visibility: Offers live insights into network activity.
Automatic IPS Tuning: Adjusts security policies dynamically.

What benefits can be found in user reviews?

Ease of Configuration: Streamlined setup process.
Comprehensive Protection: Low false positive rates ensuring broader security.
Robust Support: Access to extensive Cisco support network.

Organizations primarily deploy Cisco Sourcefire SNORT for network security in sectors like finance and healthcare. Used extensively in data centers with Cisco Firepower, it provides intrusion prevention, URL filtering, and VPN security. Pre-configured settings make it practical for on-premises deployment, ensuring secure user-to-server and server-to-server interactions.

Cisco

ExtraHop Reveal(x) offers advanced network visibility and threat detection through seamless integration with CrowdStrike. It enhances security with machine learning-driven behavioral analysis and customizable dashboards.

ExtraHop Reveal(x) excels in network detection and response by decrypting SSL traffic and providing real-time packet inspection. Users benefit from its dynamic triggers and historical data tracing. The platform is valued for its depth of information, powerful analytics, and cloud-based administration. It allows effective monitoring of attack chains and integrates with other solutions to boost security. However, there is room for improvement in pricing flexibility, licensing models, and integration capabilities, particularly with Microsoft Sentinel.

What are ExtraHop Reveal(x)'s Key Features?

Seamless Integration: Collaborates with CrowdStrike for enhanced threat detection.
Network Visibility: Offers comprehensive insights into network activities.
Real-Time Packet Inspection: Monitors and analyzes traffic in real-time.
SSL Traffic Decryption: Ensures visibility into encrypted communications.
Machine Learning Analysis: Utilizes ML for behavioral pattern recognition.

What Benefits Should Be Considered When Evaluating ExtraHop Reveal(x)?

Enhanced Security: Improves threat detection and response capabilities.
Advanced Analytics: Provides in-depth analysis of network behavior.
Cloud-Based Management: Simplifies administration and scalability.
Ease of Use: Offers user-friendly, customizable dashboards.
Comprehensive Visibility: Delivers detailed insights into attack chains and compliance monitoring.

ExtraHop Reveal(x) is employed across industries for network traffic monitoring, malware detection, and real-time analysis. Analysts use it for server-to-server networking insights and application troubleshooting. Companies leverage its capabilities for behavioral analytics and compliance monitoring without deploying sensors on individual devices.

ExtraHop Networks

Sample Customers

CareCore, City of Biel, Dimension Data, LightEdge, Lone Star College System, National Rugby League, Port Aventura, Smart City Networks, Telecom Italia, The Department of Education in Western Australia

Wood County Hospital

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)