Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Trellix Endpoint Security Platform comparison

Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 21, 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
5.1
Cortex XDR offers cost-effective malware prevention, compliance, reduced operational costs, improved performance, and comprehensive threat identification.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Defender XDR provides high ROI by consolidating security tools, streamlining operations, and enhancing security, despite licensing costs.
Sentiment score
8.0
Trellix Endpoint Security offers strong ROI with enhanced security, cost savings, ease of management, and effective ransomware protection.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks helps to reduce my total cost of ownership significantly.
Detection and Response Consultant at Inovasys
I have seen a return on investment with Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, as this product is offered at a minimal cost, and we can find a good ROI from it.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
We can quarantine and isolate a device within minutes.
Information Security Analyst at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Defender XDR has saved me at least 50% of my time.
House security operator at Cypress Creek Renewables
It helped stop multiple intrusion points where we would have had millions in lost revenue if the attackers got in.
Network Technician at T. Baker Smith, LLC
We have observed tremendous return on investment after implementing Trellix Endpoint Security as it is a more cost-effective solution compared to other products.
Joint Director at PAA
Clients appreciate the solution’s customization capabilities and ongoing product improvements.
Information Security Engineer at Nhq Distribution Ltd
There are two parts: one is the encryption which is standard and no AI is needed, but the data protection part could benefit from AI to detect new types of data and protect it.
VP - Cyber Security at Olam International
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Cortex XDR's customer service receives mixed reviews, with experiences varying based on support plans and regional partner involvement.
Sentiment score
6.1
Microsoft Defender XDR's support is timely and responsive, yet smaller organizations experience slower, less effective assistance than larger ones.
Sentiment score
7.4
Trellix Endpoint Security Platform's customer service is praised for efficiency but varies in consistency and response time regionally.
The technical support from Palo Alto deserves a mark of ten because they reach out within an hour whenever assistance is needed.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
There is no back and forth, and they know what we are asking for and come up with the best resolution for a solution.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
If any of these services are missed, it becomes a problem in terms of support tickets, follow-up, or special configuration that needs to be done in the system.
Chief of IT Architecture at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
You get stuck in low-level support for way longer than you should, instead of them escalating the issue up the chain.
Enterprise Application Engineer at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's critical to escalate SEV B issues immediately to a domestic engineer.
Infrastructure engineer at Cetera Financial Group
Once issues are escalated to the second or third layer, the support is much better.
Cyber Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 1-10 employees
The response time is a notable issue.
Technical Associate at Valuepoint Systems
I would rate their customer service nine out of ten.
Joint Director at PAA
When we implemented Trellix Endpoint Security in their network, multiple malwares were detected.
Senior Vice President IT at AS IT Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR offers scalable, adaptable cloud-based security, supporting diverse workloads and smooth deployment across numerous endpoints and environments.
Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Defender XDR scales well for various organizations, efficiently supporting growth and flexibility despite some network deployment challenges.
Sentiment score
8.2
Trellix Endpoint Security excels in scalability, adaptability, and integration, supporting large enterprises with flexible deployment and resource management.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can be expanded anytime by purchasing another license without any issues related to scalability.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
I think scalability for Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is good.
Threat Analyst II at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
My concern is about the scale of events and alerts being generated, and the product is doing a very good job of only surfacing the important items for us.
Vice President, Information Technology at a construction company with 201-500 employees
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
Infrastructure engineer at Cetera Financial Group
Microsoft Defender XDR scales pretty well.
Information Security Analyst at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the scalability of the solution as a six out of ten, indicating some challenges due to downtime requirements.
Technical Associate at Valuepoint Systems
Trellix Endpoint Security is scalable.
Joint Director at PAA
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is stable, reliable under heavy loads, with few bugs and continuous performance improvements.
Sentiment score
8.1
Microsoft Defender XDR is praised for high stability, reliable performance, minimal issues, frequent updates, and prompt issue resolution.
Sentiment score
8.1
Trellix Endpoint Security Platform is reliable and well-rated, though occasional performance issues occur during updates or specific configurations.
Cortex remains fast and responsive, even with increasing data and alerts.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The thresholds we've seen on our firewall boxes at some instances reached 80% to 85%, but even at that level of utilization, we don't observe any latency or any issues reported with respect to accessing the application.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
The service has remained consistently online, with any issues isolated to specific components, suggesting a well-designed and modular architecture.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The services within our ecosystem have been reliable, meeting their SLAs.
Infrastructure engineer at Cetera Financial Group
It provides high-fidelity signals.
Information Security Analyst at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
I would rate its stability as nine out of ten.
Joint Director at PAA
I would rate the stability of Trellix Endpoint Security as near perfect, close to ten out of ten.
Information Security Engineer at Nhq Distribution Ltd
I think it's stable enough; earlier it had glitches, but now it's stable enough.
VP - Cyber Security at Olam International
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR needs UI simplification, improved integration, better reporting, and training, while users face high costs and configuration challenges.
Microsoft Defender XDR requires enhancements in speed, integration, automation, AI, ease-of-use, and industry-specific threat intelligence.
Trellix Endpoint Security needs improvements in speed, integration, user experience, resource usage, and compatibility for better security and support.
Improving reporting and dashboard customization, along with the addition of real-time and exportable reports, would help SOC teams greatly.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The inclusion of this feature would allow the application of DLP policies alongside antivirus policies via a single agent and console, making it more competitive as other OEMs often offer DLP solutions as part of their antivirus products.
Pre-Sales Architect at network techlab
If the per GB data could be provided at a certain level free of cost or at the same cost which the customer is taking for the entire bundle, that would be better.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
The licensing process needs improvement and clarification.
Owner at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Improvements are needed in automated response capabilities.
Security manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Some inconsistencies exist between blades, which could be improved for a more seamless user and UI experience.
Infrastructure engineer at Cetera Financial Group
What needs improvement in Trellix Endpoint Security is the reduction of resource consumption by the scanning feature.
Technical Associate at Valuepoint Systems
Improvements are needed in forensic analytics to detect specific vulnerabilities.
Information Security Engineer at Nhq Distribution Ltd
The product does not seem to be cloud-native.
Architect at a government with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR is seen as an expensive yet flexible solution with scalable pricing varying from $20 to $90 per user.
Microsoft Defender XDR pricing is seen as complex but fair, with high costs alleviated in bundled Microsoft 365 packages.
Trellix Endpoint Security offers mid-range, flexible pricing with rich features, though renewal costs may rise and extras incur fees.
The pricing on SentinelOne is far more reasonable and cheaper than Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would say it is definitely not a cheap product, considering how mature it is and how scalable all Palo Alto products are together.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
There are certainly savings when using Microsoft Defender XDR, which can range from 30%, 40%, and even up to 50%.
Director, Sales at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
I would rate the pricing as eight out of ten, indicating it is a reasonable cost for the product.
Security manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The license costs are very reasonable, around 1,000 to 1,200 rupees per year.
Technical Associate at Valuepoint Systems
Trellix Endpoint Security is cost-effective and provides excellent value for money.
Joint Director at PAA
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is good; compared to other tools, Trellix Endpoint Security Platform provides lower costs.
Senior Associate at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR enhances threat detection and response with AI, seamless integration, and efficient threat intelligence for improved risk management.
Microsoft Defender XDR integrates tools for comprehensive security, offering threat detection, automation, identity protection, and enhanced efficiency.
Trellix Endpoint Security excels with centralized management, integration, real-time monitoring, and adaptability for comprehensive threat protection.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
Pre-Sales Architect at network techlab
It includes machine learning to easily analyze data and detect complex threats across endpoints, networks, or clouds.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
With Microsoft threat intelligence information, it detects various types of threats, including insider attacks, malicious content, and data exfiltration.
Security manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
This allows us to secure our systems in advance and proactively improve security, rather than waiting for incidents to occur.
Works at Hometrack
Once we have it on the security dashboard, we can see a real-time storyline.
Information Security Analyst at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
Trellix Endpoint Security is a proven, robust, and cost-effective solution that protects the organization from different types of ransomware and attacks.
Joint Director at PAA
Including options like Application Control (formerly Solidcore), integrated monitoring, change control, DLP, and advanced threat protection, the solution offers comprehensive security.
Information Security Engineer at Nhq Distribution Ltd
The detection capability of Trellix Endpoint Security is higher than traditional antivirus solutions.
Senior Vice President IT at AS IT Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Sponsored
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
8th
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (5th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
7th
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (5th)
Trellix Endpoint Security P...
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
11th
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
159
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.4%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 2.6%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trellix Endpoint Security Platform is 3.5%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender XDR2.6%
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks3.4%
Trellix Endpoint Security Platform3.5%
Other90.5%
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
KO
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.
Abhimanyu Das - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Associate at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Threat detection is effective, and the solution provides good control over device access, but it still needs better troubleshooting options for agent-related issues.
From an improvement perspective, I am looking for a way to troubleshoot situations where the endpoint agent becomes corrupted and requires reinstallation, as there is currently no option to resolve these issues without rebooting the system. I give it a rating of seven because, in today’s scenario, the portal is complicated to navigate. The Trellix Endpoint Security Platform dashboard is somewhat difficult to understand, and it takes considerable time to familiarize oneself with the tools and policies compared to other solutions. For on-premises deployment, I would also like to highlight that the architecture is quite complex, which is an area Trellix Endpoint Security Platform should consider improving.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions are best for your needs.
883,011 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise38
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business67
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise61
 

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. ...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
How does McAfee Endpoint Security compare with MVISION?
The flexible manageability of McAfee Endpoint Security is one of our favorite aspects of this solution. You can deplo...
How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with FireEye Endpoint Security?
The Crowdstrike Falcon program has a simple to use user interface, making it both an easy to use as well as an effec...
What do you like most about McAfee Endpoint Security?
It provides a robust defense against cybersecurity threats while offering user-friendly features like notifications a...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
McAfee Endpoint Security, McAfee Endpoint Protection, Intel Security Total Protection for Endpoint, McAfee Complete Endpoint Protection, Trellix Endpoint Security (ENS)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
inHouseIT, Seagate Technology
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Trellix Endpoint Security Platform and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
883,011 professionals have used our research since 2012.