Microsoft Defender XDR vs Stellar Cyber Open XDR comparison

Microsoft and Stellar Cyber are both solutions in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category. Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.4, while Stellar Cyber is ranked #36. Microsoft holds a 4.8% mindshare in XDR, compared to Stellar Cyber’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender XDR and Stellar Cyber Open XDR based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Stellar Cyber Open XDR Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Stellar Cyber Open XDR

February 2026

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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

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

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 Microsoft Defender XDR is 4.8%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Stellar Cyber Open XDR is 2.1%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Defender XDR	4.8%
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks	4.8%
Stellar Cyber Open XDR	2.1%
Other	88.3%

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH

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.

Read full review

Kunle Oluwadiya

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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Jeevan Chandran

Global Director, Commercial Operations at Promasecure LLC

Automated security monitoring increases efficiency, but market visibility needs improvement

I am currently evaluating Stellar Cyber Open XDR in terms of their support. I do not see any major areas for improvement as of now. Their support is good, and the team is small, enabling them to cater to everyone effectively. While I have not encountered significant drawbacks so far, market penetration is challenging due to the product's newness, despite its flexibility and customization features. I find their user interface to be quite good.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My advice for others looking into using Cortex is that it is very easy to use and very useful for the customer environment, whether it's a public or private one."

"It'll not slow down your system when compared to others."

"The integrations are out-of-the-box, as are the playbooks."

"After deploying Traps, we saw the performance of the network improve by 65 to 70 percent."

"Since they've done their most recent update, the ease to isolate endpoints is valuable. If we find one where there is a virus on it, we can easily isolate it. We don't even have to contact the user. We don't have to manually take them off the network. We can easily isolate them."

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks has helped lighten the load of our security analysts because it was the major tool that we were using and the one we utilized most."

"What I like about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is that it is a comprehensive solution that contains everything the organization may need when using endpoints."

"Has great threat detection capabilities."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pros

"Microsoft XDR's system of analysis and investigation is super convenient for our customers. It integrates with other Microsoft solutions like Defender for 365 to protect email traffic from malicious external web links and phishing."

"The advantage of Microsoft Defender XDR has over other XDRs in the market is that it's easy to use. You can quickly differentiate between alerts, incidents, devices, software, etc. It's easier to investigate an incident, and you have so many options. You can automate investigations and use playbooks. There's also the live response session, which is something you can't find in any other XDR."

"The most valuable features are machine learning, AI, and auto-remediation of none malicious alerts."

"The product is very easy to use."

"Microsoft Defender XDR is a complete package of different Defender solutions, including Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, Defender for Cloud, and Sentinel SIEM, among others."

"From an attack chain perspective, Defender XDR handles phishing and spam emails easily, while Defender for Endpoint manages endpoints effectively. We've drastically improved our user experience."

"For technical support, I would definitely give a rating of nine out of ten."

"The Endpoint Manager is incredible; it has a very straightforward interface and is exceedingly easy to use. Pulling out and deploying different tags or resources is a simple task across various departments with different levels of security. The notifications are also simple and satisfying; it's great to see the bubble informing us which devices are compliant and which are waiting to update."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pros

"It can integrate with almost any cybersecurity tool available in the market."

"Stellar Cyber Open XDR offers these functionalities at a more affordable price, making it easier for me to position it with price-sensitive customers."

Cons

"Cortex XDR could be improved with more GUI features."

"There is a severe gap in functionality between Windows, Linux, and Mac versions. For example all folder restriction settings are Windows only. Traps 5.0+ does not have SAML / LDAP integration."

"Data privacy is a matter of concern. You have to be careful with data privacy, it can be sensitive and Cortex can have most of your access."

"They've been having some issues with updating their endpoint agents, and it has been quite frustrating."

"If Palo Alto reduces the pricing slightly for their products, it would make them more scalable in markets such as India and globally for cybersecurity."

"Impact on system performance is horrible, adding a lot of delays for users."

"Although I would say this product is highly-rated, it could probably do more because nothing does everything that you want."

"Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR does not detect malicious activity like in other anti-virus solutions like Trend Micro and Windows with Cisco."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks cons

"Microsoft could improve on threat hunting and build more on threat detection and handling. The cybersecurity and cloud security posture features are a bit lesser than standard security products."

"There could be a way to proactively monitor unusual activity ."

"There are a few technical issues with Defender XDR that can be improved. Sometimes, the endpoint devices are not reporting properly to the Defender 365 portal. When you're getting all the information from the Microsoft portal, the devices are sometimes not in sync. We have hundreds of endpoint devices, some needing to be onboarded again."

"The management features could be improved, particularly in terms of better integration with Intune, Microsoft's cloud-based management solution."

"The automation response being slow is the main concern; when an incident occurs or if I run a remediation, it takes significant time to complete the remediation."

"Microsoft Defender XDR is not a full-fledged EDR or XDR."

"The interface could be improved. For example, if you want to do a phishing simulation for your employees, it can take a while to figure out what to do. The interface is a bit messy and could be updated. It isn't too bad, but doing some things can be a long process."

"The technical support from Microsoft Defender XDR has been disappointingly slow, to the point that I am considering not renewing my unified support contract."

More Microsoft Defender XDR cons

"I would rate the stability at about five to six. The platform requires some fine-tuning, especially when integrating data sources and creating connectors."

"Support is an issue because they have a limited number of resources."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to CrowdStrike, Cortex XDR is an expensive solution."

"It is "expensive" and flexible."

"It's about $55 per license on a yearly basis."

"It's the most expensive solution, but features-wise, it's quite strong. It's very good for protection, so the results are very good in the case of protection. I would rate it a two out of ten in terms of pricing."

"I don't like that they have different types of licenses."

"It's way too expensive, but security is expensive. You pay for your licensing, and then you pay for someone to monitor the stuff."

"In terms of the cost Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is very expensive because we are a Mexican company and when you translate dollars to pesos the cost is very high. The solution is very expensive for Mexican companies. I understand that they have international prices, but I do not think it offsets the price enough for many companies in countries, such as Mexico. The amount it is reduced is not a massive percentage."

"The solution is expensive. It's pricing is on a yearly-basis."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft Defender XDR's licensing is complicated."

"We have a lot of problems in Latin America regarding the price of Microsoft 365 Defender, because the relationship between dollars and the money of the different countries, it's is a lot. Many customers that have small businesses say that they would like the solution but it is too expensive. However, large companies do not find the cost an issue."

"Microsoft Defender XDR is included in our license."

"The product is fairly priced for what we get from it."

"The bundling of software makes it easier to manage our setup, but Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs."

"It is fairly priced because we get complete integrated services with the E5 license."

"I find the pricing to be quite competitive, especially considering its inclusion in our E5 subscription, which provides a comprehensive set of functionalities."

"The functionality is fantastic, but for medium and small-sized companies it's overpriced. It would be better if it were a little bit cheaper."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pricing and cost advice

"It’s a single license platform."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	42
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	47

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	38

No data available

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. ...

See all answers

Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions th...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Stellar Cyber Open XDR?

Pricing is a major benefit of Stellar Cyber Open XDR. I rate it between three and four on the cost scale. It offers f...

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What needs improvement with Stellar Cyber Open XDR?

I am currently evaluating Stellar Cyber Open XDR in terms of their support. I do not see any major areas for improvem...

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What is your primary use case for Stellar Cyber Open XDR?

I use Stellar Cyber Open XDR ( /products/stellar-cyber-open-xdr-reviews ) as a 24/7 security monitoring tool, especia...

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Comparisons

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 9% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Complete vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 5% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 5% of the time

Cortex XSIAM vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

Darktrace vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 2% of the time

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Competitors

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 12% of the time

Wazuh vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 4% of the time

IBM Security QRadar vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Defender XDR Competitors

Wazuh vs Stellar Cyber Open XDR

Compared 10% of the time

Sentinel vs Stellar Cyber Open XDR

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs Stellar Cyber Open XDR

Compared 4% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Complete vs Stellar Cyber Open XDR

Compared 4% of the time

TrendAI Vision One vs Stellar Cyber Open XDR

Compared 2% of the time

More Stellar Cyber Open XDR Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

February 2026

Download Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR

February 2026

Download Microsoft Defender XDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

February 2026

Download Stellar Cyber Open XDR product report

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender

No data available

Overview

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks provides advanced threat detection with AI-driven endpoint protection and seamless integration, ensuring multi-layered security and automatic threat response.

Cortex XDR is designed to safeguard endpoints against malware and suspicious activities. It offers advanced threat detection and response capabilities using behavioral analysis, AI, and machine learning. It seamlessly integrates with security infrastructures, providing endpoint security, firewall integration, and enhanced visibility in both cloud-based and on-premises environments.

What are the key features of Cortex XDR?

Advanced Threat Detection: Uses AI and machine learning for proactive threat identification.
Multi-layered Security: Combines various security measures for comprehensive protection.
Endpoint Protection: Safeguards against malware and exploits.
Behavioral Analysis: Monitors suspicious activity for early detection.
Automatic Threat Response: Automates responses to neutralize threats.

What benefits should users expect?

Ease of Use: Simplifies security management with intuitive design.
Resource Efficiency: Minimizes impact on system resources.
Integration Capabilities: Works well with existing security setups.
Reduced Analyst Workload: Automates processes to decrease manual intervention.

Organizations in diverse sectors deploy Cortex XDR to protect against malware, leveraging its advanced threat detection capabilities. Its integration with existing security infrastructures appeals to those seeking comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments, providing enhanced visibility and threat intelligence.

Palo Alto Networks

Microsoft Defender XDR is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect against threats in the Microsoft 365 environment.

It offers robust security measures, comprehensive threat detection capabilities, and an efficient incident response system. With seamless integration with other Microsoft products and a user-friendly interface, it simplifies security management tasks.

Users have found it effective in detecting and preventing various types of attacks, such as phishing attempts, malware infections, and data breaches.

Watch the Microsoft demo video here: Microsoft Defender XDR demo video.

Microsoft

Stellar Cyber Open XDR delivers an advanced, unified security solution designed for real-time threat detection and intelligent response, reducing complexity by integrating multiple tools into a single interface.

Stellar Cyber Open XDR aggregates security data from many sources to provide comprehensive threat detection and response capabilities. It offers a streamlined, user-friendly experience, allowing teams to efficiently manage incidents. By automating routine security tasks, it enhances operational efficiency and increases visibility across the entire network infrastructure.

What are the key features of Stellar Cyber Open XDR?

Open Integration: Connects with existing security tools for seamless data aggregation and correlation.
AI-Powered Analytics: Uses artificial intelligence to predict, detect, and respond to threats with high accuracy.
Automated Incident Response: Accelerates the fighting-back process through intelligent automation.
Comprehensive Dashboards: Offers clear visibility into security metrics through customizable dashboards.

What benefits or ROI should users expect?

Improved Threat Detection: Recognizes threats faster, allowing quick response to reduce potential damage.
Increased Efficiency: Reduces manual work by automating repetitive tasks, saving time for IT teams.
Cost Reduction: Consolidates security tools, decreasing overall expenditure on multiple solutions.
Enhanced Collaboration: Allows diverse security teams to work together more effectively with shared insights.

Stellar Cyber Open XDR is implemented across various industries, including finance, healthcare, and retail, offering tailored security strategies suited to industry-specific challenges. Organizations can take advantage of this integrated approach to align security operations with industry regulations efficiently.

Stellar Cyber

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.

Sumitomo Chemical USA, PlastiPak Packaging, University of Denver, Large California State Agency, Large Midwestern American City

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Stellar Cyber Open XDR

February 2026

Free Report: Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Stellar Cyber Open XDR

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