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Darktrace vs Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

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
7.3
Darktrace enhances security and threat prevention, offering cost-effective solutions with improved visibility and indirect savings despite quantification challenges.
Sentiment score
7.5
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention offers fast, comprehensive security, boosting user satisfaction and revenue despite high costs.
Using this solution provides financial benefits by securing from server attacks, which offers indirect savings.
It offers insights into security threats, despite the inability to quantify its impact in numbers.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Darktrace is praised for excellent, responsive tech support, offering prompt issue resolution and proactive assistance with global presence.
Sentiment score
6.4
Palo Alto Networks' support is generally effective despite communication issues and regional differences, with most users rating it positively.
Any queries I have logged are responded to efficiently.
Darktrace provides excellent technical support with a monthly meeting to review platform incidents, ensuring the system functions as expected.
The challenge lies in waiting for a response after logging a ticket.
I rate technical support from Palo Alto as eight out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Darktrace is highly scalable, supporting various company sizes and seamless integration, efficiently managing large traffic and endpoints.
Sentiment score
7.9
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is highly scalable, adaptable across environments, but cost considerations may affect scalability.
Since it's cloud-based, it expands easily.
Darktrace has high scalability, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is scalable and works well wherever enforcement points exist.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Darktrace is highly rated for its stability, reliability, and smooth performance, meeting security needs without network issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is preferred for its stability, outperforming competitors, and requires proper firewall sizing.
The stability of Darktrace is excellent, rated ten out of ten.
The appliance itself has never let me down.
Proper sizing of the firewall models ensures that the system does not experience crippling performance issues.
 

Room For Improvement

Darktrace needs better integration, automation, and interface improvements, plus enhanced pricing, endpoint protection, and user-friendliness for broader appeal.
Palo Alto Networks needs improvements in email security, user support, and analytics, while addressing complexity, false positives, and integration.
There is no dedicated salesperson in Egypt, and having one would help to improve focus on this market.
Darktrace could improve by integrating with email security gateways like Mimecast or Ironscales.
The intelligence section and the incident view should be seamlessly connected in one view to avoid jumping between pages.
The behavioral detection capabilities could be expanded to address all threats at the perimeter, reducing the reliance on endpoint detection and response systems.
 

Setup Cost

Darktrace is often seen as costly, yet some justify it for its advanced features and customizable licensing.
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is costly yet valued for its features, particularly in threat detection and scalability.
The licensing cost is approximately eight dollars a year.
The product is considered expensive compared to others.
The pricing is costly in USD, and they charge based on device counts.
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention requires an add-on license and is considered expensive compared to competitors like Cisco AMP and FortiGate firewalls.
 

Valuable Features

Darktrace excels in AI-driven threat detection, autonomous response, and user-friendly interface, making it a top cybersecurity solution.
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention provides intuitive threat prevention with machine learning, excellent reporting, and seamless integration with other tools.
If more than 2.5 gigabytes of data have been pulled in a few minutes, it engages by blocking for one-hour intervals, alerts, and extends the block until it goes into full isolation if the violation continues.
I do not need to manually process incidents as Darktrace provides an incident summary, potential detection paths, and other details, all exportable with just a click.
Darktrace is valuable since it offers full packet capture and detailed metadata.
As traditional signature-based mechanisms become less effective due to the evolving nature of attacks, this solution's focus on behavioral analysis is crucial.
 

Categories and Ranking

Darktrace
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
79
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (9th), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (1st), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (6th), AI-Powered Chatbots (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (15th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (11th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (3rd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Palo Alto Networks Advanced...
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Darktrace is 19.4%, up from 17.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is 7.4%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

Peter-Murphy - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables proactive threat detection and immediate response through AI monitoring
The most valuable feature of Darktrace is its ability to detect and counter threats before they occur. The autonomous response capability is always enabled, blocking threats immediately without hesitation. Additionally, the Darktrace email platform is a significant asset since it addresses incoming threats before they reach the network, enhancing our security measures. Protecting the business is essential, and ensuring security through 24/7 AI monitoring is invaluable.
Carlos Bracamonte - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust, reliable, simple to install and good technical support
We are attempting to improve the use of URL filtering beyond threat protection. I'm not sure what the remaining threat protection features are off the top of my head. But beyond that, we use URL filtering. We have three approved cases for using external dynamic lists that are stored in a bucket repository. Then, for each URL site that needs to be whitelisted, we add it to the external dynamic list in order to gain access to this email. I would like Wildfire to be implemented. We use the equivalent in Cisco is the integration policies. We have the Wildfire but we are not currently implementing it. We don't have the license to use it, but we are not currently implementing it until we present the use cases that the company gives some value to and they approve the use of it.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?
Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing user interface that makes setup easy and seamless. CrowdStrike Falcon offers a cl...
Which is better - SentinelOne or Darktrace?
Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is meant for smaller to medium-sized businesses. It is also a good option for organ...
What do you like most about Darktrace?
A very useful feature in Darktrace for real-time threat analysis is the packet inspection that analyzes the packet traffic in real time.
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Arbor would be the best bid, apart from Arbor, Palo Alto and Fortinet have good solutions. As this is an ISP, I would prefer Arbor.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention?
The pricing is competitive, and with current campaigns and discounts, it provides an excellent device for a reasonable price.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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.
University of Arkansas, JBG SMITH, SkiStar AB, TRI-AD, Temple University, Telkom Indonesia
Find out what your peers are saying about Darktrace vs. Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.