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Darktrace vs IRONSCALES comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 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

Cloudflare One
Sponsored
Ranking in Email Security
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (12th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (22nd), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (12th), Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Protection (8th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (13th), Access Management (12th), Bot Management (3rd), ZTNA as a Service (8th), ZTNA (4th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (9th), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (2nd)
Darktrace
Ranking in Email Security
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (2nd), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (1st), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (7th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (10th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (9th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (4th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (5th), AI Observability (7th)
IRONSCALES
Ranking in Email Security
13th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (19th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 1.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Darktrace is 1.8%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IRONSCALES is 2.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Darktrace1.8%
IRONSCALES2.0%
Cloudflare One1.7%
Other94.5%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

CV
Network Architect at IP Dimension
Cloud security has improved remote access and has reduced costs for smaller client sites
I have used Cloudflare One's Identity-Aware Proxy, and it is quite straightforward from what I have seen so far. The app registration on the Azure side integrates fully into Cloudflare, and I am very satisfied with that part because it is easy to set up. The integration of Cloudflare One's Secure Web Gateway and Zero Trust Network Access works without any issues. That part is pretty automatic, and if you complete the rest of the setup, it comes together by itself with no issues from my side. What makes it nice is that we can actually start replacing on-site firewalls at this stage for the smaller clients because it does not matter if they go to a coffee shop or work from home; they are still secured by the same connection. The hops get shorter and you get better latency. We have done testing to see if it is better. One thing that we did notice with our proof of concept with our current client is that they have people connecting from the UK. When they used their previous VPN solution, uploading CAD drawings and other files to the server took a long time. They mentioned that it is much quicker on Cloudflare One's solution. I definitely believe that is part of the improved performance, and I am satisfied with that as well. What is nice about Cloudflare One is that it makes the setup easier and also easier to train technicians to maintain it. Compared to legacy systems, we do not need to get fancy firewalls in place that are costly. That is definitely also a cost-saver with Cloudflare One.
Pasan Jayarathna - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at Cyberwell Solution
Monitoring has improved data loss detection and now spots abnormal internal file transfers quickly
In my understanding, the best feature Darktrace offers is the identification of copying files, which acts as a DLP, and it is a main concern for companies because users sometimes copy data outside without knowing, especially those without a technical background. When I mention the DLP-like feature and file copying detection, the alerts have been very timely, as we get an alert within a couple of minutes, which is excellent. Even if some developers are working after hours and copying files, our SOC team detects this, and most of the time they call us so we can identify the users. The alerts are quite accurate and proactive.
reviewer2770017 - PeerSpot reviewer
Email Security Analyst at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Has improved threat analysis by providing clear email correspondence history and reporting tools
The best features IRONSCALES offers are the investigation tabs, headers, and correspondence history, which stand out the most for me. The investigation tabs are valuable for my work because reporting goes a long way in terms of playbooks and having a full investigation. The investigation tab knows exactly how to put the information in a way that makes it very easy for reports to get done fast. Security awareness training is a big part of IRONSCALES. The platform offers a broad spectrum in terms of what campaigns can be run for security awareness for users as well as reporting back on how users interact with their mails and understanding where the vulnerabilities lie. IRONSCALES has positively impacted my organization by making email security simple in terms of controlling mails, understanding where the threats are, and protecting the organization itself.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Enables me to work from two locations."
"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform removes the risk of exposing the applications to the public."
"The solution has different options that can be used to differentiate DDoS attacks."
"Cloudflare is simple to use."
"Cloudflare One has assisted in securing my remote workforce through a SASE solution with Cloudflare One and the Workers part, although I am not currently using the Workers component."
"It's a perfect solution from my perspective; it's easy to understand and easy to configure."
"I'm very satisfied with the environment and the dashboard."
"It's the endpoint exposition. We don't need to expose our VPN server to the internet and need a zero-test solution. I can apply some conditional access to the endpoint that's connecting to our network to check their security policies or the security condition of their workstation. Once the workstation is trying to connect to my internal network, then I would like to check the discrete condition of these endpoints that are trying to access my internal network. We created some conditional access. We have CrowdStrike, to check if the CrowdStrike is installed, to check if it's updated, and to check for Windows updates. We created some conditional policies to check it."
"Artificial intelligence and machine learning functionalities are valuable."
"I would 100% recommend Darktrace."
"Darktrace played an important role in the security detection strategy by reducing the time lost in detecting, analyzing, and incident resolving."
"Because of unsupervised machine learning, its detection capability is quite good."
"Regarding the autonomous response feature, I appreciate how it functions within the platform."
"It is very stable and easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the endpoint protection."
"I particularly like Antigena and the analytics around the real-time monitoring of our network."
"It has helped immensely because it has gotten rid of malicious links and malicious attachments that have been targeted at our different staff members."
"It is just good to know that it is watching when we don't have to watch; I can go to sleep, and it is still working."
"There is buzz around phishing awareness training. When I make a campaign, all of a sudden people in our organization are talking, thinking, and wondering about it. Therefore, it keeps people on their toes. That is perfect because it does exactly what we want it to do."
"By having an integrated approach of combining email security and employee awareness training, they've hit the nail on the head."
"IRONSCALES offers a sense of security and confidence from being well protected."
"The fact that it is set-and-forget is valuable. Once you turn it on, you very rarely have to micromanage it, whereas, with a lot of spam filters, you have to go in very often."
"The stability is good."
"For what was being offered with IRONSCALES, I feel like we got an incredible deal."
 

Cons

"The tool should provide on-premise versions. Currently, all versions are cloud-based."
"Cloudflare DDoS has poor technical support."
"From a logging perspective, it is still a bit difficult to see exactly what users are being blocked with the current views."
"The software has automated alerts, but the automated alerts are not available in the mobile app."
"The pricing is an area that can be improved. Pricing, as far as I recall, was the source of our problems."
"The initial onboarding was causing us some confusion."
"The onboarding process can be improved a little bit."
"Operating and tuning the product is difficult."
"The main portal needs improvement as it is difficult to use."
"It takes time to go through the interface and pick up things. If it were a more straightforward interface, then it would free up time."
"Updates keep coming, which is great, but I prefer a unified UI experience. The intelligence section and the incident view should be seamlessly connected in one view to avoid jumping between pages."
"I feel that Darktrace could be improved, particularly in the support aspect which is currently very poor. We need to chase Darktrace instead of them being proactive with us."
"This product needs more in terms of prevention. The detection capabilities work well but once a threat has been detected, Darktrace should work to prevent it from doing anything malicious."
"One area for improvement is the alerting system, which generates too many alerts and becomes labor-intensive for organizations not equipped with enough personnel in their SOC."
"A reporting portal could be a great addition to help customize reports."
"I am not so satisfied with the pricing model for Darktrace. The price is a little bit high compared to other solutions."
"There is a feature called Account Takeover, which isn't what I want it to be able to do."
"There is a feature called Account Takeover, which isn't what I want it to be able to do. I know that they're working on that, but when they first started the Account Takeover feature in incident management, it didn't have much information. It didn't have any usability to it. I already had tools in place that were better."
"I would really prefer to drill down more on correspondence history. It provides detailed background information to actually understand what's going on."
"The only thing that I could say is that some of the reporting features could be better."
"As far as training awareness, I would give it 6.5 to 7 out of 10."
"IRONSCALES should bundle more features together instead of separating them and charging additional licensing fees."
"The user interface could be more attractive to users. The UI is not brightened or appealing."
"The simulation and training piece could be improved by having more granularity in terms of scheduling how campaigns are run and allowing people to directly take the training rather than having to go through an official campaign. That's not available yet."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."
"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."
"The price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."
"The prices are slightly expensive."
"The solution is not that expensive."
"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"The pricing of the solution is cheap. The licensing cost is also very low. I rate the cost and pricing a three out of ten."
"My company has to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no hidden charges apart from the licensing costs of the solution."
"The price of the solution is not cheap. It is not a one-time purchase, there is a subscription that needs to be paid every one to five years depending on your choice. It is expensive but you can reduce the price by only using the services that you want."
"The product is expensive."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"In the ballpark, we're talking about $30K, $50K, and up. It can even be as much as $50K or $100K."
"All of the other modules, such as the licensing modules, are on par. It's one for one."
"Our customers feel that the price of Darktrace is quite high compared to other solutions."
"They are too expensive compared with other vendors."
"This solution is expensive."
"The tool is not very cheap, but it is affordable."
"I don't know about its pricing because I don't run the budget or pay the bills, but if it was extortionate, we probably would be looking to scrap it, and because we are not, I assume its price is okay."
"As compared to everything else we looked at, it was good. It was the best value for the dollars."
"The product is available as a middle-priced tool. I think it is not the cheapest solution."
"IRONSCALES is an expensive solution."
"Considering the value it provides, it is definitely worth the cost. We don't have to do manual analysis and remediation of phishing emails, which saves us a lot of hours. Its licensing is based on the number of users being supported and the number of email addresses being protected. I'm not aware of any additional costs."
"We pay $3000 plus a little more a year for the number of employees we have, and we're not even that big. The solution is at the higher end in terms of cost. It's not the most expensive product, but I would say it's worth the price if you have a high volume of email traffic. In our case, the solution has inspected over 162,000 emails between three and four months. It saved us a lot of time and money. It's a worthwhile investment because a bad actor only has to succeed once; we must defend against everything in our business. IRONSCALES offers a sense of security and confidence from being well protected."
"There is an installation cost. Since we have this as a managed service, we pay for licensing and the managed service itself. Other than that, there are no additional costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?
In my opinion, Cloudflare One can be improved mainly through compatibility, as the integration should be much simpler...
What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?
Cloudflare One's primary use case for my organization is to protect servers and to provide remote access with the VPN...
How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?
Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing u...
Which is better - SentinelOne or Darktrace?
Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Darktrace?
Concerning pricing for the product, I would say it is somewhat expensive.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IRONSCALES?
While I don't specifically oversee the pricing details, I understand that IRONSCALES is in the range of similar solut...
What needs improvement with IRONSCALES?
I would really prefer to drill down more on correspondence history. It provides detailed background information to ac...
What is your primary use case for IRONSCALES?
My main use case for IRONSCALES is the UI and the convenience of having detailed information available to me. A speci...
 

Also Known As

Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cloudflare Bot Management, Cloudflare Gateway, Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform, Cloudflare DDoS, Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

23andMe
Irwin Mitchell, Open Energi, Wellcome Trust, FirstGroup plc, Virgin Trains, Drax, QUI! Group, DNK, CreaCard, Macrosynergy, Sisley, William Hill plc, Toyota Canada, Royal British Legion, Vitol, Allianz, KKR, AIRBUS, dpd, Billabong, Mclaren Group.
Allegheny Millwork, Ayrshire College, Nium, Orris, Paramount School District, Pres Les, PRT Staffing, Recovery Unplugged, Telit, WebHelp
Find out what your peers are saying about Darktrace vs. IRONSCALES and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
907,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.