Digital Guardian vs Symantec Data Loss Prevention comparison

Fortra and Broadcom are both solutions in the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) category. Fortra is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.4, while Broadcom is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2. Additionally, 77% of Fortra users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Symantec Data Loss Prevention and Digital Guardian are prominent in the data security sector. Symantec is notably strong in network monitoring, while Digital Guardian excels in data classification, appealing to diverse data environments.

Features: Symantec Data Loss Prevention offers advanced network monitoring, endpoint security, and comprehensive data insight capabilities, with detailed integration for classification and data control. Digital Guardian, on the other hand, features a robust data classification engine powered by AI and machine learning, offering reliable endpoint protection and efficient cloud integration.

Room for Improvement: Symantec faces challenges like a complex installation process, reliance on Oracle databases, and high false positives. Enhancements in administration and mobile support are recommended. Digital Guardian users suggest improvements in cloud service integration and OS compatibility, as well as lighter, more stable agents.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Symantec is mainly on-premises with a complex setup requiring substantial resources, and its support has mixed reviews. Digital Guardian, available on-premises and cloud, also presents challenges in setup but offers responsive support, though improvements are needed for non-Windows environments.

Pricing and ROI: Symantec's high pricing is noted, with its Oracle database dependency and license costs being significant for smaller firms, despite comprehensive features. Digital Guardian offers competitive pricing with good ROI, though still perceived as expensive, and provides flexibility with both subscription and perpetual licenses.

To learn more, read our detailed Digital Guardian vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Digital Guardian vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention

January 2025

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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

Cloudflare

Featured Reviews

Spencer Malmad

Owner at Tech Exchange

It's easy to set up because you point the DNS to it, and it's working in under 15 minutes

Cloudflare is highly scalable. Cloudflare is a system with a web portal that the end users like me see. It's a console where we can adjust the DNS, caching, and security features all in that console. Cloudflare owns thousands of servers across the world that cache the data. It's a powerful solution. When clients sign up for Cloudflare, they're getting this monster content delivery network, security, and a web application firewall in one. It's all rolled into one, and it's massive. Unless you have your website hosted on a massive hosting provider, there's no way that you can deliver the amount of data that Cloudflare can provide to the end users. If you have static content, there's no way that you can ever match what Cloudflare can do. Obviously, there are competitors to Cloudflare that do the same, but I'm saying other types of solutions. Let's say you go with F5. Great, that's on-prem. That's in your colo. You can't deliver as much data to the internet as you can with a CDN. You don't have to spend $20,000 on a net scaler, F5, or whatever Cisco's selling now. You don't have to buy that. You pay them $50 a month or $150 a month. It's totally worth it because even in five years, you'll never get the performance value, not just the actual ROI. You have to consider how much throughput you can get with Cloudflare.

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Sandeep Jopat

Cyber Security Researcher at a engineering company with 10,001+ employees

Highly customizable, helpful support, and multiple modules available

Digital Guardian is generally considered stable, with its robust data loss prevention capabilities being highly valued by organizations. However, as with any complex software solution, there may be occasional challenges in terms of compatibility with certain operating systems or applications. In such cases, it may be necessary to modify settings or entries within Digital Guardian to ensure optimal performance. Overall, Digital Guardian is a stable solution that can be highly customized to meet the specific needs and requirements of organizations. As with any software solution, regular maintenance and support from a team of experts is necessary to ensure optimal performance and stability.

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Raheel Naveed

Senior Consultant DIS-InfoSec at Systems Limited

Highly effective in safeguarding sensitive data in cloud storage

I would rate setting up Symantec Data Loss Prevention (DLP) 7 out of 10. It can be challenging initially, especially for newcomers to the Symantec solution. It typically takes three to four implementation attempts to become comfortable with the setup process. Following the prescribed steps is crucial, as it leads to a smoother experience and better understanding of the setup requirements.The deployment process for Symantec Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is relatively short and can vary depending on specific requirements. If implementing only the core features, it typically takes about two days. However, if additional components like the endpoint and network channels are included, it may extend to three to four days.

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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 DDoS protection is the most valuable aspect of the solution."

"Many websites require an SSL certificate because they sell stuff and want SSL. Cloudflare comes with an SSL certificate built in. It's automatic. You sign yourself up for Cloudflare, and an SSL certificate automatically protects your website. You don't necessarily need a certificate if you have a connection between your website and your host, the server, Cloudflare, and the host."

"The most valuable feature of Cloudflare DNS is its global reach and it is always evolving."

"Cloudflare has many features."

"Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications."

"Centralized, full-featured DNS."

"Cloudflare is a security SaaS provider that provides security and protects us from any application layer attack."

"Cloudflare allows us to self-host services such as Rocket.Chat and Node-RED, in high-availability mode, thanks to round robin DNS which allows us to share one hostname between our two locations."

More Cloudflare pros

"The technical support is really terrific."

"I like the solution's adaptive inspection and container inspection."

"In Digital Guardian, they have the cloud correlation servers that give you visibility work like EBR and the correlation server works very well for security analysis."

"The feature we call desktop recording is the most valuable aspect of the solution. Not only can we collect data from the user's usage, but we also capture his screenshots when he is trying to steal the data."

"We have been able to monitor access to files from each of our workstations."

"The most valuable feature of Digital Guardian is its reputation. They have scored high on the Gartner Magic Quadrant."

"It has been scalable."

"There is a built-in endpoint detection response that helps save money."

More Digital Guardian pros

"I'm able to track everyone who is trying to send information outside the environment and to know if they are not supposed to be sending it. I'm also able to see the people who are accessing or maybe try to access the information they are not supposed to be accessing based on their level of classification. It gives me overall control of who has got access to what and at what point. And who can do what with specific information."

"Users like the product because of its simplicity and the rate of detection."

"It has good options for policy findings. You can do granular policy enhancements with multiple options. And the SMB blocking is a very good feature."

"The product helps with blocking sensitive data transmission and permission management."

"The product is very stable."

"What I like about Symantec Data Loss Prevention is the technical support it provides. It's good."

"The accuracy in terms of the rate of detection is good."

"We are able to contain our confidential data in our environment."

More Symantec Data Loss Prevention pros

Cons

"Although I think it's quite good, it doesn't provide me with all the features I would expect to have if I were using Imperva."

"There should be a specific price list for enterprise-level customers."

"I believe they currently have this feature, but there will most likely be integration with APIs so we can control some features through API."

"The timing aspect can lead to it being considered overpriced. This is a particular concern we have with Cloudflare, as they may struggle with accurately detecting the client."

"Cloudflare should add more documentation and pricing to the cloud version."

"Cloudflare's free plan is limited to 5,000 records for their free plan. They should increase that. For example, if I create a domain called abc.com and a subdomain called a.abc.com, my record count will be two. I can make a maximum of 5,000 subdomains. However, if we use our own DNS hosted on another provider, there is no limit. Their free plan also lacks name server customization."

"The product needs to improve its automation."

"It should have easier documentation for the configuration. It's very technical and people who aren't technical should also be able to do the configuration."

More Cloudflare cons

"If the client uses Windows 10 or 11 and Microsoft updates the operating system's version, Digital Guardian must update their product to match compatibility."

"Some features on Mac and Linux are not complete currently. For example, some device control features haven't been transferred over to the other systems. If they could have their Windows features also available on Mac and Linux, that would be perfect. Some of our customers have a Mac environment for their RD environment. Having the solution fully capable of handling everything in a Mac environment is crucial."

"There are a lot of issues with the current version of the Endpoint agent. It's not stable, it's resource-consuming, and there are some performance issues. If they could improve the stability of the agent it would be great."

"It would be helpful if there was an on-premise version of the solution for companies that cannot use the cloud, such as government sectors."

"Technical support could be better."

"I would like to see the workflow, to get all the rules and policies set up, be less complicated."

"The solution has complexities around policy creation and deployment."

"The initial setup is a bit more complex than other solutions."

More Digital Guardian cons

"I would like for the administrator management interface to improve. It's kind of old and slow. Updating it would make this solution better."

"The Symantec DLP solution is very complex, and installation requires many components."

"I would like to see an improved interface, with better documentation and integration with other products."

"Their support program needs a lot of improvement. If you are stuck somewhere, getting their support can be difficult."

"Data Masking could be improved."

"Since being acquired by Broadcom, the support has really degraded for small and medium enterprises."

"The product must improve its interface."

"Symantec Data Loss Prevention could improve by having better system resource management, cloud option, and more features."

More Symantec Data Loss Prevention cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"A free version of the solution is available."

"I think the pricing is competitive. I think as far as licensing is concerned it's pretty straightforward because it's based on domain. It's just that sometimes domains could be tricky with some customers."

"The product's pricing is cheap."

"Cloudflare's pricing is not much higher and is good for middle-level organizations."

"For Cloudflare, I recommend it heavily for small businesses with revenue under a couple of million dollars. Onboarding is easy, and they even have a free plan. This makes it simple for businesses in the $100,000-$500,000 range to try it out and see its value, allowing them to scale up their infrastructure as needed."

"We are using the free tier of the solution."

"The solution has many features but there are ones that you need to pay for. Sometimes you have to find out which is available for free and which you have to pay for."

"So far I use free tier and happy with it. You can subscribe to business package if needed."

More Cloudflare pricing and cost advice

"The cost was around $300,000."

"The price of Digital Guardian is on the higher end compared to other vendors."

"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten because Digital Guardian is expensive."

"The price of Digital Guardian is expensive."

"Digital Guardian has both, subscription and perpetual licenses, but I think when everything (all technologies) will go to the cloud they will only offer subscriptions."

"If I compare Digital Guardian with Symantec, the license cost is lower, but McAfee can be cheaper than Digital Guardian. It depends on how many licenses you plan to buy and how big the project is. The cost is not so high as Symantec, but not as cheap as McAfee. They can easily sell the solution for price."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"From what I know the pricing is good, it's not too expensive. If you negotiate you can get a good price."

"The price of Symantec DLP is fair. I don't recall the cost of the license, but it wasn't outrageous enough that it was an obstacle to approval. I'm not concerned with how much per seat or server, but I know they charge a lot."

"In terms of pricing, Symantec DLP offers reasonable rates compared to other products like Forcepoint or Jargill, making it a good investment for ROI, typically seen within two years."

"The price is a bit high."

"For pricing, I rate Symantec DLP an eight out of ten."

"The price is competitive."

"Pricing is above average."

More Symantec Data Loss Prevention pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

25%

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

21%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?

Cloudflare. We are moving from Akamai prolexic to Cloudflare. Cloudflare anycast network outperforms Akamai static GR...

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Which would you choose - Cloudflare DNS or Quad9?

Cloudflare DNS is a very fast, very reliable public DNS resolver. It is an enterprise-grade authoritative DNS service...

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What do you like most about Cloudflare?

Cloudflare offers CDN and DDoS protection. We have the front end, API, and database in how you structure applications.

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What do you like most about Digital Guardian?

I like the solution's adaptive inspection and container inspection.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Digital Guardian?

Technical support is included in the subscription package. But if, during the subscription, our clients want to inclu...

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What needs improvement with Digital Guardian?

If the client uses Windows 10 or 11 and Microsoft updates the operating system's version, Digital Guardian must updat...

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What do you like most about Symantec Data Loss Prevention?

It can prevent copying and encoding of HTTP data to various sites like Google, and Webex.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Data Loss Prevention?

I do not have an idea about pricing, as it is handled by another team responsible for procurements.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Symantec Data Loss Prevention?

It's been around six months since we switched. I don't recall all necessary updates. However, I do recall the install...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 30% of the time

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Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention vs Digital Guardian

Compared 8% of the time

Safetica ONE vs Digital Guardian

Compared 5% of the time

Code42 Incydr vs Digital Guardian

Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 39% of the time

Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention vs Symantec Data Loss Prevention

Compared 19% of the time

Trellix DLP vs Symantec Data Loss Prevention

Compared 10% of the time

Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform vs Symantec Data Loss Prevention

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare

January 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Digital Guardian

January 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Symantec Data Loss Prevention

January 2025

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Also Known As

Cloudflare DNS

No data available

Symantec DLP

Overview

Cloudflare is a highly-regarded Content Delivery Network (CDN) and a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) protection solution. The robust global connectivity cloud platform that is Cloudflare ensures users are able to connect to the Internet quickly, securely, and reliably. Cloudflare is one of the world's largest networks in the marketplace today. Using Cloudflare, businesses, educational entities, NGOs, vloggers, bloggers, and anyone else with an internet presence can experience more secure, faster websites and applications.

Currently, there are millions of Internet locations on Cloudflare, and the Cloudflare network
continues to grow every day by the thousands. The solution is able to fulfill the requests for
millions of websites seamlessly and serves on average 45 million HTTP requests per second.

Cloudflare has safe, secure data centers in close to 300 cities worldwide to ensure every
client request is filled as quickly as possible. It is Cloudflare’s edge network that makes this
possible by keeping content and other services as close to each client as possible, so the
information requests are always only seconds away.

Many organizations that work in democracy, civil society, human rights, or the arts are able to
access Cloudflare's highest levels of protection for free via Project Galileo. Additionally, official
election websites can be secured from hacking and fraud through Cloudflare’s Project
Athenian, also at no additional cost.

Cloudflare can also help organizations of all sizes develop a robust zero-trust strategy to
ensure the highest levels of productivity and profitability. Employees, stakeholders, and end users have a greater level of satisfaction and overall improved user experience, which can, in
turn, result in higher revenues and overall ROI. Zero-trust and BYOD (bring your own device)
access ensure end users and employees always have the best resources and technology
available to them at all times.

Cloudflare benefits

Cloudflare has many benefits. Some of its most valuable benefits include:

- Faster load times

- Robust DNS security

- Intuitive cloud Web Application Firewall (WAF)

- Free universal SSL

- Image enhancement

- Automatic browser caching

- Next-generation cloud load balancer

- Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

- Rate limiting

- Minification

- Zero-trust capabilities

- Cost-effective

- Reduced carbon footprint

Reviews from real users

“Many websites require an SSL certificate because they sell stuff and want SSL. Cloudflare
comes with an SSL certificate built in. It's automatic. You sign yourself up for Cloudflare, and
an SSL certificate automatically protects your website. If you have a connection between your
website and your host, the server, Cloudflare, and the host, you don't necessarily need a
certificate.” Spencer M., Owner at Tech Exchange

“What I like best about Cloudflare is that my company can use it to trace and manage
applications and monitor traffic. The solution tells you if there's a spike in traffic. Cloudflare
also sends you a link to check your equipment and deployment and track it through peering,
so it's a valuable tool.” Daniel P., Network Engineer at Ufinet

“The most valuable feature of Cloudflare is the GUI. You are able to control the solution very
well through the interface. There is a lot of functionality that is embedded in the service.” PeerSpot user, Competence Center Manager at a tech services company

Cloudflare

Digital Guardian is proud to be part of Fortra’s comprehensive cybersecurity portfolio, and one of the Data Protection family of products. Fortra simplifies today’s complex cybersecurity landscape by bringing complementary products together to solve problems in innovative ways. These integrated, scalable solutions address the fast-changing challenges you face in safeguarding your organization. With the help of the powerful protection from Digital Guardian and others, Fortra is your relentless ally, here for you every step of the way throughout your cybersecurity journey.

Fortra

Keeping sensitive corporate information safe and compliant has never been easy. But today, you’re faced with a totally new set of data protection challenges. Sensitive information is leaving the safety of your corporate network as more employees share files over consumer cloud storage services and access those files on their own mobile devices. The number of targeted cyber attacks continues to grow, as cybercriminals develop effective new methods for defeating traditional security measures and stealing corporate information. And as all of these factors converge, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage corporate information and protect it against loss and theft.

Symantec Data Loss Prevention (DLP) provides a comprehensive approach to information protection that embraces today’s cloud- and mobile-centered realities. With DLP, you can:

• Discover where data is stored across all of your cloud, mobile, network, endpoint, and storage systems

• Monitor how data is being used, whether your employees are on or off the network

• Protect data from being leaked or stolen—no matter where it’s stored or how it’s used

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Trusted by over 9,000,000 Internet Applications and APIs, including Nasdaq, Zendesk, Crunchbase, Steve Madden, OkCupid, Cisco, Quizlet, Discord and more.

The Fifth Avenue Theatre, Jabil Circuit

Hadassah University Hospital, Her Majestys Government (HMG), United Kingdom, Hitachi Consulting Software Services India Pvt Ltd., Hua Nan Bank, Hyundai Department Store Group,JW Marriott Hotel Seoul, Lake Health, McCann Erickson Israel, Molina Healthcare Inc., PGi, Quilvest Switzerland Limited, State of Nevada Public Employees Benefits Program, Symantec Corporation (Enterprise Security), The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust (DLP), The Saudi Industrial Property Authority, TSO cloud, Visa, Yunnan Power Grid Company

Buyer's Guide

Digital Guardian vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention

January 2025

Free Report: Digital Guardian vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention

Find out what your peers are saying about Digital Guardian vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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We monitor all Data Loss Prevention (DLP) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.