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Darktrace vs Plixer Scrutinizer comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Darktrace
Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (12th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (1st), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (4th), AI-Powered Chatbots (3rd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (16th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (12th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (3rd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
Plixer Scrutinizer
Ranking in Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (55th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) category, the mindshare of Darktrace is 32.8%, up from 32.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Plixer Scrutinizer is 3.1%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Network Traffic Analysis (NTA)
 

Featured Reviews

Luis KiambatA - PeerSpot reviewer
Great autonomous support, offers an easy setup, and has responsive support
The autonomous response is great. It blocks basically everything that is outside the normal, and what's happening 24/7. When we don't have anybody looking, it's great. The visibility that it gives you into any incident is great. You can see everything. I would say these two are the biggest aspects we really appreciate. It is easy to set everything up. The solution is stable. Users can scale the product. Technical support is helpful and responsive.
Ronald Jansen - PeerSpot reviewer
Reporting is extensive, flexible, and can be custom-made in just a short time
In terms of additional features I'd like to see in the next release of Plixer Scrutinizer, I can't think of any because you can do some integration with other monitoring tools that are not strong in NetFlow or don't have NetFlow at all. There are also some integration possibilities in the product, plus there are alerts, too. Plixer Scrutinizer is a pretty complete product. There was a price lift because previously the product was privately owned, and now there is some external capital in the organization, so pricing could be lower, though, for Plixer Scrutinizer, there is almost no competition at this price point.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the Antigena feature in Darktrace, as it offers immediate response and is helpful."
"Darktrace is very stable, and I would rate its stability a ten out of ten."
"It provides a comprehensive, detailed view of network activity and whatever is happening inside it."
"The product can scale."
"Darktrace is very flexible."
"The most valuable feature has been the behavioral analytics that allows us to monitor all the traffic."
"AI analytics are built directly into the product."
"One member of staff is enough for deployment and maintenance because Darkforce is AI-driven. It does a lot of things by itself."
"It shows us the saturation of the network of devices. It gives us a clear view of the flows in the network to understand, for instance, planning upgrades in the network to get an idea of what's going on the network on traffic flows. It gives us insight, for instance, on what's going on on our VPN Client. There are a lot of things where it provides very helpful information. It also gives us our security reports with quite detailed information on what's going on in the network, and whether there are data exfiltrations and so on."
"One feature I found most valuable in Plixer Scrutinizer is the very extensive reporting. Reporting is very flexible, though sometimes you need a little bit of support from Plixer Scrutinizer to create custom-made reporting in a very short time. Reporting is a very strong feature of the product."
"One of the most valuable features of Plixer Scrutinizer is the reporting, particularly how easy it is to drill down into the reports. Another valuable feature of the solution is its overall visibility. It's great. I also liked Plixer Scrutinizer in terms of deployment time and that it's very simple to set up. Once you get the appliance set up and connected, the customer starts to see results immediately, versus other solutions where that could take a while."
"The most valuable features of Plixer Scrutinizer are its ease of use, accessibility, and UI."
"Visualization of the network traffic is the most valuable feature. It allows you to drill into information quite quickly."
"The solution helps to enrich the data context of our network traffic. It allows me to see what applications are most in use on a slightly historical basis, going back a day or week at tops. It allows me to tune QoS or traffic shaping around what's being used. It saves me from having to unnecessarily upgrade, if I don't need to."
"It's agnostic as far as what your network gear is. As long as it supports an sFlow, JFlow, NetFlow, some kind of flow monitoring, Plixer will support it very well."
"We have had many requests to understand in the network which devices are connected to others. Most people don't have this information or are able to establish a map of data flow everywhere around the network. Scrutinizer can really help with this. We are using it to understand who is talking to what, how, and which protocols can help us to improve security and analyze flow."
 

Cons

"The solution's user interface and stability could be improved."
"I did not use the AI features because they should make it more user-friendly which would be a benefit. Additionally, the solution could integrate with more SIEM or SOAR tools."
"The management dashboards and the meter dashboards should be more user-friendly and simple to use for easy management."
"Darktrace should have more automation and integrations with other security monitoring tools."
"We'd like threat hunting, and we'd like to see a global solution that can automate vulnerability scans. I know it is something they are working on."
"The interface and dashboards could be improved for ease-of-use."
"The user interface and the configuration are a bit complex and should be improved or simplified."
"There aren't so many third-party vendor platforms natively integrated with the platform."
"In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required."
"Data retention needs improvement. Data retention is a thing where we are looking for a better way to collect flow data for a longer time to do forensic research on security incidents. By default, data retention is quite low. We need detailed data in safe storage for a longer time, e.g., for a couple of months. An improvement would be a way to export data into a secure long-term storage."
"There is room for improvement around the data that they have on the website about solutions... they should have more templated solutions on their website. Going out and identifying how to do RTP performance with a Cisco router, or how to do application response times in an Arrista data center deployment was where most of the work was... They should spend some more time documenting solutions and putting together white papers."
"For updating the Scrutinizer platform, when we have the actual data, it never happens in one day. Every time we have the data, we are obliged to install a new server in order to integrate the old data, and every time it has a problem. Most of the time, we were obliged to scrap all the data because we couldn't transfer it to the new server. So, it would be very good if they could improve this part."
"I wish the reporting side was easier to work with, but it does a decent job. I also wish the reporting side was a little more intuitive or they offered more reporting examples."
"Though Plixer Scrutinizer has network detection and response, it's an area that needs just a little more rounding out. Another room for improvement in the solution is its lack of SaaS offering which some customers were looking for. My company deals in small to medium businesses, mid-market, and some customers wanted the SaaS feature which Plixer Scrutinizer doesn't offer. What I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is for it to have a SaaS offering because my company also deals with educational spaces and smaller businesses that just don't have the staff that can implement this. If there's either a managed service or SaaS-based offering to just make it a little easier for those types of customers, it would be a great addition to Plixer Scrutinizer."
"We couldn't get it set up properly."
"The solution creates a visual map of a particular location and how the network flows. You need to spend time to generate all those maps. If they could figure out a way to reduce the time needed to generate the maps, that would be great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Prior to negotiating, Darktrace offered their appliance and service for $80,000 per year."
"Darktrace is quite an expensive solution."
"The pricing is expensive. It costs over $100,000 a year."
"It was $3,600 a month or $2,000 plus or so. I am not sure. Its licensing is pretty simple."
"The solution is about $6,000 per quarter."
"It is pretty expensive, but it is worth it. Its licensing is yearly."
"There is an annual license to use Darktrace."
"I am using a demo of Darktrace for deployment and testing which is free."
"There is a recurring maintenance fee after the initial purchase or if we want the license upgrade."
"It's about €10,000 a year for initial license and yearly maintenance costs. In addition, the hardware costs are about €10,000 once every five years."
"The license is per device. We have 50 devices."
"We have increased the license over time. We have added more licenses as the network has grown."
"Our entire solution, amortized over five years, is in the vicinity of $40,000 to $50,000 a year."
"Compared to some of the other tools we have, it's incredibly reasonably priced."
"I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive."
"We pay our one-off cost for the licenses, per device, in blocks of 50. And then we pay an annual maintenance fee of about $15,000 Australian, which is, at this point in time, about $9,000 US, for those 250 devices. The upfront costs for the 250-license use, were about $50,000 Australian, which is about $32,000 US."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
 

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.
What do you like most about Plixer Scrutinizer?
Plixer Scrutinizer is an affordable product. Plixer Scrutinizer is a tool that allows for customization, especially in scenarios where customers need new product features.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Plixer Scrutinizer?
I rate Plixer Scrutinizer's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price or affordable, and ten is high price or expensive.
What needs improvement with Plixer Scrutinizer?
I don't have deep enough knowledge to comment on what requires improvements in Plixer Scrutinizer. In Plixer Scrutinizer, scalability is an area with minor concerns where improvements are required.
 

Learn More

 

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.
Oxford Networks, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, UltiSat, Wipro, West Aurora School District 129, SUNY Geneseo College, Bloomington Public Schools, First National Bank of Pennsylvania, Kitsap Credit Union, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County Houston Texas, Carilion Clinic, Banner Health, IDEXX Laboratories, Phibro Animal Health Corporation, Goodwill Industries, Parmalat, Armstrong Coal Company, Flybe, James Walker
Find out what your peers are saying about Darktrace vs. Plixer Scrutinizer and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,052 professionals have used our research since 2012.