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Cisco XDR vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 22, 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
5.1
Cortex XDR offers cost-effective malware prevention, compliance, reduced operational costs, improved performance, and comprehensive threat identification.
Sentiment score
5.4
Cisco XDR enhances ROI by reducing downtime, swiftly resolving incidents, and simplifying license expansion for small companies.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Defender XDR provides high ROI by consolidating security tools, streamlining operations, and enhancing security, despite licensing costs.
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
I have seen a return on investment with Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, as this product is offered at a minimal cost, and we can find a good ROI from it.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
Two customers faced a network breach and a bad configuration incident, but unlike in the past where recovery took days, they managed to shut down access points quickly.
Cloud Architect at Pure Storage
The biggest return on investment when using Cisco XDR is the downtime aspect, specifically not having to roll out to sites and not having customers experience downtime.
Core Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Over time as the platform has evolved and more automations have been put in place, the number of human resources required has drastically reduced.
Head of Business Operations at SISA
We can quarantine and isolate a device within minutes.
Information Security Analyst at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Defender XDR has saved me at least 50% of my time.
House security operator at Cypress Creek Renewables
It helped stop multiple intrusion points where we would have had millions in lost revenue if the attackers got in.
Network Technician at T. Baker Smith, LLC
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Cortex XDR's customer service receives mixed reviews, with experiences varying based on support plans and regional partner involvement.
Sentiment score
7.0
Cisco XDR's customer service is generally efficient with good teamwork, but some users report issues with responsiveness and communication.
Sentiment score
6.1
Microsoft Defender XDR's support is timely and responsive, yet smaller organizations experience slower, less effective assistance than larger ones.
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
They responded quickly, they were always willing to meet, and they were always willing to work as per my schedule.
SOC Analyst at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
the tech support is excellent
Network Engineer at BTC Broadband
I would rate Cisco customer service a ten out of ten.
Core Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
You get stuck in low-level support for way longer than you should, instead of them escalating the issue up the chain.
Enterprise Application Engineer at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's critical to escalate SEV B issues immediately to a domestic engineer.
Infrastructure engineer at Cetera Financial Group
Once issues are escalated to the second or third layer, the support is much better.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 1-10 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR offers scalable, adaptable cloud-based security, supporting diverse workloads and smooth deployment across numerous endpoints and environments.
Sentiment score
6.2
Cisco XDR is highly scalable, rated nine out of ten, supporting extensive operations and accommodating significant growth seamlessly.
Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Defender XDR scales well for various organizations, efficiently supporting growth and flexibility despite some network deployment challenges.
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
Cisco XDR is designed to handle significant scaling of endpoints, allowing management of a large scale of environments with thousands of sessions.
Technical Presales at Vcom Technologies
In terms of scalability, I rate it as the best.
Cybersecurity Consultant | Managed Infrastructure Services Head | Business Apps and DevOps Head at Blueberry Tech Solutions India Pvt Ltd
In terms of scalability, Cisco XDR is quite scalable in terms of a licensing model and the number of assets we have integrated with it.
Head of Business Operations at SISA
My concern is about the scale of events and alerts being generated, and the product is doing a very good job of only surfacing the important items for us.
Vice President, Information Technology at a construction company with 201-500 employees
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
Infrastructure engineer at Cetera Financial Group
Microsoft Defender XDR scales pretty well.
Information Security Analyst at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is stable, reliable under heavy loads, with few bugs and continuous performance improvements.
Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco XDR is reliable and stable, with early issues resolved, praised for functionality, scalability, and dependable performance.
Sentiment score
8.1
Microsoft Defender XDR is praised for high stability, reliable performance, minimal issues, frequent updates, and prompt issue resolution.
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
Customers have mentioned that the stability and scalability are good compared to competitors.
Director -Digital Transformation at Convergence
Once they got it fixed and figured out the issue with the observables and with the character limit, it's been flawless.
SOC Analyst at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
The stability and reliability of Cisco XDR, similar to most Cisco products, are bulletproof.
Network Engineer at BTC Broadband
The service has remained consistently online, with any issues isolated to specific components, suggesting a well-designed and modular architecture.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The services within our ecosystem have been reliable, meeting their SLAs.
Infrastructure engineer at Cetera Financial Group
It provides high-fidelity signals.
Information Security Analyst at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR needs UI simplification, improved integration, better reporting, and training, while users face high costs and configuration challenges.
Cisco XDR users seek simplified licensing, better pricing, enhanced threat detection, and improvements in performance, features, and multilingual support.
Microsoft Defender XDR requires enhancements in speed, integration, automation, AI, ease-of-use, and industry-specific threat intelligence.
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
Competitors offer more visibility without any additional licensing, which is a significant drawback for Cisco.
Director -Digital Transformation at Convergence
If it can capture threats from worldwide new threats and publish them into a particular database linked with an AI-driven system that can immediately alert people, that would be very good for zero-day threats.
Manager IT at NVCL Group
Offering some free XDR licenses for testing features, similar to VPN licenses, could have a significant impact on costs.
Network Security Specialist at General Authority of Customs
The licensing process needs improvement and clarification.
Owner at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Improvements are needed in automated response capabilities.
Security manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Some inconsistencies exist between blades, which could be improved for a more seamless user and UI experience.
Infrastructure engineer at Cetera Financial Group
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR is seen as an expensive yet flexible solution with scalable pricing varying from $20 to $90 per user.
Cisco's subscription pricing is costly but customizable, with discounts on bundles, yet currency and licensing complexity affect costs.
Microsoft Defender XDR pricing is seen as complex but fair, with high costs alleviated in bundled Microsoft 365 packages.
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
This integration and discounting are something we cannot get from competitors, leading to reduced security costs.
Network Security Specialist at General Authority of Customs
Users can customize their use of Cisco XDR significantly from the onset, which has resulted in a lower total cost of ownership.
Cloud Architect at Pure Storage
Overall, the price is a bit expensive compared to local competitors.
Director -Digital Transformation at Convergence
There are certainly savings when using Microsoft Defender XDR, which can range from 30%, 40%, and even up to 50%.
Director, Sales at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
I would rate the pricing as eight out of ten, indicating it is a reasonable cost for the product.
Security manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR enhances threat detection and response with AI, seamless integration, and efficient threat intelligence for improved risk management.
Cisco XDR enhances security with integrated threat intelligence, automation, and advanced features, improving response times and operational efficiency.
Microsoft Defender XDR integrates tools for comprehensive security, offering threat detection, automation, identity protection, and enhanced efficiency.
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
Between the clarity, the granularity, and the dashboard, it just works.
Network Engineer at BTC Broadband
The feature I appreciate the most about Cisco XDR is the flexibility for a user to be able to create their own reporting and dashboards.
Cloud Architect at Pure Storage
Cisco XDR helps prevent data loss during ransomware attacks by integrating with multiple levels of security, tying to identity management systems, and allowing placement of blocks at the endpoint level.
Cybersecurity Consultant | Managed Infrastructure Services Head | Business Apps and DevOps Head at Blueberry Tech Solutions India Pvt Ltd
With Microsoft threat intelligence information, it detects various types of threats, including insider attacks, malicious content, and data exfiltration.
Security manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
This allows us to secure our systems in advance and proactively improve security, rather than waiting for incidents to occur.
Works at Hometrack
Once we have it on the security dashboard, we can see a real-time storyline.
Information Security Analyst at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
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Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (5th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (8th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Cisco XDR
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
14th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (7th), Microsoft Security Suite (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 4.8%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco XDR is 1.8%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 4.8%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender XDR4.8%
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks4.8%
Cisco XDR1.8%
Other88.6%
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
 

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.
PS
Head of Business Operations at SISA
Unified threat detection has strengthened visibility and reduced response time across all environments
Cisco XDR offers a wide range of integrations and connectors where we can integrate a whole range of devices available in our on-premises environment as well as cloud sources which we have primarily on AWS and Azure. Those environment log sources are integrated with Cisco XDR and it helps provide a single pane of glass view in terms of our security posture, giving us visibility within a single platform rather than focusing on individual security devices such as firewalls or EDRs which would typically be working in silos. These integrations are straightforward. Cloud workloads are easier to integrate compared to on-premises devices, primarily because the cloud workloads have readymade connectors and integration standard operating procedures for us to integrate with Cisco XDR. We have typically not faced challenges with integrations with Cisco XDR. There may be certain OEMs which are not well known and cannot be directly integrated without the help of vendor support or OEM support, which we were able to connect with and ensure they are integrated with Cisco XDR. From the reporting perspective, the dashboards offer quite a lot of predefined and useful options which help with live threat monitoring and provide a high-level view of the current threats, incident reporting metrics, mean time to detect, and mean time to respond. These sorts of dashboards are available on the platform and help provide a good view even for someone at the leadership level. Cisco XDR has definitely improved our security posture and our visualization, ensuring that we are protected and providing greater visibility for our SOC team. Cisco XDR has definitely reduced our mean time to respond. Previously it used to be more than 24 hours, but we have been able to reduce it to less than 16 hours due to all the various integrations and automation capabilities. Cisco XDR has been useful for us to gain visibility into gaps in our security posture and how those can be improved by conducting analysis on the platform itself. We have utilized the platform to improve our security posture and reduce blind spots.
KO
House security operator at Cypress Creek Renewables
Advanced threat hunting saves significant time in tracking and responding to incidents
Microsoft Defender XDR could be improved with a lower price. My main suggestion would essentially be what Copilot is providing, which is a single pane of glass, so I don't have to go to different windows. That's just a workflow consideration for me. It would be great to have all the information centralized into one particular data app. If I need to open up extra ones, I can, however, I would appreciate a future where everything I need is right there on one single pane of glass. Beyond that, there's really nothing else I see that I would want Microsoft to improve.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise38
 

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One
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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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco XDR?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been intriguing. I used to work for a Cisco partner, and I...
What needs improvement with Cisco XDR?
While Cisco XDR is robust, it could benefit from improvements on the AI side. More features could be added to priorit...
What is your primary use case for Cisco XDR?
Cisco XDR is used for endpoint security, data protection across endpoints, network protection, advanced persistent th...
What do you like most about Microsoft 365 Defender?
Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and p...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Defender?
My experience with pricing, setup, costs, and licensing of Microsoft Defender XDR is tied to our E5 subscription, whi...
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
I am not aware of a mobile app that would be available for my team. With a single analyst, if she is ever away, it wo...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
No data available
Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Information Not Available
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco XDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
882,961 professionals have used our research since 2012.