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Symantec Endpoint Security vs WatchGuard EPDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

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
7.5
Symantec Endpoint Security delivers positive ROI by enhancing virus protection, reducing downtime, and improving operational efficiency with minimal disruption.
Sentiment score
7.0
WatchGuard EPDR delivers strong performance, enhancing security and productivity while offering cost-effective, comprehensive threat protection and efficient endpoint management.
Symantec Endpoint Security filled gaps in our toolset, particularly with the ability to control network firewall on hosts remotely, which was greatly appreciated.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Symantec Endpoint Security's support is praised but varies post-Broadcom, with delays and regional differences affecting effectiveness.
Sentiment score
8.6
WatchGuard EPDR support is valued for excellent technical assistance, effective forums, and reliable service with minimal issues reported.
In some cases, it rates as high as ten out of ten, while in others, it can be as low as eight.
There is no support in the German language, which is a problem for many public tenders.
They create a case, tell me to refer to articles, and if not resolved, they take a remote session to solve the issue.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Symantec Endpoint Security is scalable, user-friendly, and ideal for large organizations, effortlessly integrating with existing systems.
Sentiment score
8.3
WatchGuard EPDR is scalable, efficiently manages workloads, offers centralized deployment, easy licensing, and robustly supports expanding needs.
Symantec Endpoint Security is quite scalable, and it is very important for large clients.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Symantec Endpoint Security is generally reliable, though updates and operating system variations can occasionally disrupt stability and resource usage.
Sentiment score
8.1
WatchGuard EPDR is praised for its stability, reliable performance, and efficiency in threat management, meeting user expectations consistently.
I have encountered issues where I had to uninstall and reinstall the product on end users' computers to view the logs again.
It is very stable with no hanging problems.
 

Room For Improvement

Symantec Endpoint Security faces performance issues, complex management, insufficient threat detection, and compatibility problems affecting usability and support.
WatchGuard EPDR requires competitive pricing, enhanced features, better integration, improved antivirus, and refined web filtering for Latin America.
It is cumbersome to use, particularly in handling firewall management.
Device management is not very good and I am not enabling it in my organization due to security reasons.
I would like to see improvements in the scanning part of the solution, specifically to enhance the CPU and hard disk usage during scanning and updates to prevent disruption during work hours.
Other firewalls allow adding categories and in-app controls which WatchGuard currently lacks.
 

Setup Cost

Symantec Endpoint Security is valued for its cost-effective pricing, flexible plans, and discounts for long-term or special contracts.
WatchGuard EPDR pricing is seen as justified and competitive, offering value compared to alternatives like Palo Alto XDR.
It seems to be half the cost or more affordable than other solutions.
I rate the pricing, setup cost, and licensing around nine out of ten.
Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise are quite affordable, with Symantec Endpoint Security Complete costing about four times the Endpoint Protection price, still comparable to other EDR products.
The pricing is slightly high, but the product quality justifies it.
 

Valuable Features

Symantec Endpoint Security provides comprehensive protection with device control, intrusion prevention, anti-virus, centralized management, and cross-platform integration.
WatchGuard EPDR offers zero-trust security, AI alerts, patch management, and excels in ransomware handling and application-based configurations.
One important feature is the EDR function, necessary for many public customers due to upcoming laws in Germany, which is available through Symantec Endpoint Security Complete.
The incident response capabilities allow me to resolve authentication and support issues promptly, ensuring the system operates without downtime.
A valuable feature of Symantec Endpoint Security is the ability to remotely isolate a computer from the network if it's compromised, either physically or digitally.
The cloud of WatchGuard lets me see all my devices, updating me to minute levels with detailed information, such as patch status and vulnerabilities.
 

Categories and Ranking

Symantec Endpoint Security
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
144
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
WatchGuard EPDR
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
43rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (34th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security is 4.0%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard EPDR is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Hakeem_Abdulkareem - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution has given us visibility into compliance within our whole system and helped us ensure everything is updated
Symantec's application security module needs some improvement. You need to create a lot of fingerprints for application security. For instance, let's say I have different brands of ATMs in my environment, like Wincor and NCR. I use GRG to deploy an application control to whitelist some applications. I have to get the exact image of the different models of ATMs. When I tested in the past, some machines would not connect to the server without that. Only the approved software on the ATM should run. Anything outside that should not even come up at all. We did this so that an outside person doesn't introduce malicious software to the ATM. That's the essence of locking down with application control. Using Symantec for application control has been hectic, so I use Carbon Black to do the lockdown. Checking that data security will work fine with Carbon Black. Carbon Black worked fine. Setting up approval in Carbon Black works differently than Symantec. In Symantec, we first need the fingerprints of the applications running underneath. Before setting up Carbon Black, you first install the agent, allowing it to learn the environment. It will analyze all the software's behavior and provide recommendations for what should be allowed. It's more straightforward, whereas configuring application control in Symantec is a bit cumbersome.
Phillip Evely - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides good reporting features, saves time, and protects endpoints
The setup is very easy. We have deployed the solution on-premise but can also do it on the cloud. It has a cloud functionality. I can push it from the cloud directly to the endpoint, or I can do it via a group policy. The enterprise-wide deployment takes a day. It is very simple. Once the agent is deployed in any subnet, it monitors the network traffic and informs me about endpoints that don't have the agent. I get alerted via a report. If I have a problem, I can manually deploy on those endpoints. The product is set to auto-update. It updates on its own.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Security Firm
7%
Non Profit
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Cortex XDR or Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior solution. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security s...
What do you like most about Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets.
What do you like most about WatchGuard EPDR?
The product's most valuable features are the zero-trust application service and its capability to detect threats and attacks.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WatchGuard EPDR?
The pricing is slightly high, but the product quality justifies it. The price is fair, neither too high nor too low. Considering all its features, an increase in price would be justifiable.
What needs improvement with WatchGuard EPDR?
I have not found anything requiring improvement. However, overall, the category level should be enhanced. The categories in the web filtering should be more comprehensive. When a URL is not categor...
 

Also Known As

Symantec EPP, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Audio Visual Dynamics, Red Deer Advocate, Asia Pacific Telecom Co. Ltd., Kibbutz Ein Gedi, and AMETEK, Inc.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Symantec Endpoint Security vs. WatchGuard EPDR and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
847,625 professionals have used our research since 2012.