We use Darktrace for standard network security, mail security, and SaaS security.
Manager, Information Technology at Coulisse BV
Autonomous response enhances security but interface requires enhancements
Pros and Cons
- "The scalability of Darktrace is very high."
- "The management user interface needs improvement."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
NTG is now autonomous response.
What needs improvement?
The management user interface needs improvement. More insights are necessary, and deeper technical experience and knowledge are required to pinpoint actions, breaches, or behavior.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Darktrace for three years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of the solution as nine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Darktrace is very high. I would rate it eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is rated at nine out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used more standard antivirus solutions and firewalling. However, these cannot be compared to an EDR or HDR like Darktrace.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was straightforward and not a problem, even for someone not very technical.
What about the implementation team?
Our service provider did some support there.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is rated at eight, implying it's considered expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated other options, but they were more like standard antivirus and firewalling, not comparable to Darktrace.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend Darktrace to others if they can afford it.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Last updated: Oct 8, 2024
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Chief Information Officer at Amadys
Strong intrusion detection in the complete network; low maintenance
Pros and Cons
- "One member of staff is enough for deployment and maintenance because Darkforce is AI-driven. It does a lot of things by itself."
- "Darkforce could be improved in the range of the interface; how to interact with the actions it's taking or not taking."
What is our primary use case?
Our use cases for Darktrace are intrusion detection in the complete network, including for all the devices connected, detection, emails, email spoofing, and supply chain attacks.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable Darktrace feature is the cloud protection for all the cloud services, OneDrive, and all the things related to that.
What needs improvement?
Darkforce could be improved in the range of the interface; how to interact with the actions it's taking or not taking.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Darktrace for about a year now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Darktrace is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Darktrace is scalable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was quite straightforward. It took us between two and six months. We got shipped an appliance and installed it in the data center. It then started collecting data. We had a few reviews of what it was collecting and what it would do. There was a test phase after which we enabled it, part by part, following a series of reviews.
Right now, 350 users are affected by Darkforce in our organization. It exists in the background, so they are not actively using it.
One member of staff is enough for deployment and maintenance because Darkforce is AI-driven. It does a lot of things by itself. You need to review what it's doing every now and then. You may, for example, need to release an email that was blocked for some reason, but it's quite low maintenance overall.
You do not need an engineer to manage it. It can be managed by a manager as doing so is not super technical. You always have access to Darktrace support, which means their engineers are available help you with the more complex stuff.
What about the implementation team?
Our deployment was done by Darktrace themselves, but they have some partners that also do it. Once you are up and running, you can deploy any additional appliances by yourself.
What was our ROI?
This is a difficult question and one that was asked of us by the higher ups, but you have to compare the cost with what would happen if there was a breach. It is difficult to articulate a return on investment in hard numbers, but I can see that Darkforce deflects typical attacks and protects users.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I cannot be completely sure what the license cost but it is on a per-user basis. I handle the technical side, so I do not have insight into how much we are paying for it exactly.
What other advice do I have?
I would surely recommend Darkforce. The price might be quite high, but it is really worth it.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Darktrace
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about Darktrace. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
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Information Security Program Manager at a non-profit with 11-50 employees
Useful traffic tracing, good support, and beneficial anomaly alerts
Pros and Cons
- "Darktrace's most valuable features are that it understands the network environment and is able to trace the traffic and alert on anomalies."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
Darktrace is used for lateral entry investigations, lateral movement investigations, behavioral anomalies from end users, and endpoint detection.
How has it helped my organization?
Darktrace has helped our organization by troubleshooting a few issues that were happening in the environment. It was able to see the traffic between the two network components.
What is most valuable?
Darktrace's most valuable features are that it understands the network environment and is able to trace the traffic and alert on anomalies.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Darktrace for approximately two and a have years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Darktrace is stable. We had it set up to where it was redundant. If one sensor went offline, we had another sensor that was constantly monitoring, and it worked well for us.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Darktrace was very good.
We had a license for five users, but we had two that were working on it on a daily basis.
How are customer service and support?
We used Darktrace's technical support to help with the setup and with implementation.
I rate the support from Darktrace a four out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not use a similar solution prior to Darktrace.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Darktrace was straightforward, but we used professional services to do it.
What about the implementation team?
We used professional services for the implementation of Darktrace.
What was our ROI?
We received a return on investment using Darktrace.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated other solutions prior to using Darktrace.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is they have to understand that the solution is looking for behavioral anomalies, and it is going to take tuning to achieve this. It's not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. You have to monitor, update, and optimize it for your environment.
I rate Darktrace an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Vice President | Head of Information Systems & Manufacturing Engineering at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
Self-maintaining, works autonomously, and prevents data excavation
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is that it works autonomously."
- "The solution can improve the reporting."
What is our primary use case?
The solution automatically monitors everything on the network to prevent anti-phishing by monitoring, responding, and restoring the system. It prevents data excavation.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is that it works autonomously. So you only need to look at the exceptions.
What needs improvement?
The solution can improve the reporting. Currently, it only runs weekly and the reporting is complex. It is more of a network monitoring system, basically AI.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable and solid.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable and designed to be enterprise-wide.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously we used Intercept X which is more at the virus level endpoint, but Darktrace is an overall network and phishing solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup did not appear complex.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation was completed by a vendor technician. The setup was simple and took a couple of hours.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is about $6,000 per quarter.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution ten out of ten.
Our organization has about 50 nodes and there is no maintenance involved because it is self-maintaining. I recommend the solution, it is better than SIM.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Cybersecurity Architecture Manager at Banco de Chile
A stable and scalable solution for investigating cases
Pros and Cons
- "It is a stable solution."
- "It can have more integration with orchestration or event management solutions. They can provide more knowledge or research information for analysts for investigating cases and detecting anomalies in networks."
What is our primary use case?
We mostly use it for investigating cases. It is deployed on-premises. We have some new projects for this year to extend Darktrace to the cloud.
What is most valuable?
It is a stable solution.
What needs improvement?
It can have more integration with orchestration or event management solutions. They can provide more knowledge or research information for analysts for investigating cases and detecting anomalies in networks.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. We don't have any problems with that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It has got good scalability, but you need to buy many appliances to scale it. We have ten users of this solution from the incident response team.
How are customer service and technical support?
We don't directly raise tickets with Darktrace. We use a local partner for support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We didn't use any other solution previously. We are trying to introduce ExtraHop. The main difference is the capacity and the ability to see encrypted traffic.
How was the initial setup?
It is not a complex setup, but it requires a lot of time. It took two or three months the first time, but it was a very smart installation.
What about the implementation team?
We have a partner.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is expensive. I don't have the price for other competitors.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. You need to have a good plan for its initial installation. It requires a lot of work in the network.
I would rate Darktrace an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Data Security Manager at Leeds United FC
Has the ability to see events and have access to exactly what traffic or website a device had tried connecting to
Pros and Cons
- "Ability to see events and exactly what traffic or website the device had tried to connect to that raised the alert or issue."
- "The product doesn't have an endpoint agent that can react to triggers set on the device,"
What is our primary use case?
I'm a customer data security manager and we are looking at replacing our current solution, McAfee, with something like Darktrace or CrowdStrike which will provide the same visibility with the endpoint protection aspect.
What is most valuable?
The Ability to drill right down into an event that has been identified as something of interest so that you can be assured if it is a valid event and therefore not suffer from loads of false positives. Once that initial assurance and confidence was there, you could easily rely on the dashboard and minimise the risk of constantly drilling into each and every event but pick the ones with most risk.
What needs improvement?
The product is automated to a certain degree, but I think this could be improved. I'm looking for a way of being able to react to threats that are detected based on risk. Aside from that, there is nothing really that they could improve on, it's a product more suited to organizations with an SOC, security operations center, or a company with an IT team of network security members because it relies on constantly monitoring it to see information based on the risks of events.
In our case, we have a small IT team, which means that a large amount of time would have been spent drilling into it. If something did happen on the network, we'd ideally be responding to it reactively instead of proactively. Some of the other products we tested did that so that if something was detected, it would block that device by means of an endpoint, which halts the process and gives you time to check it out. Darktrace would tell you, for example, if there was a ransomware attack, but it wouldn't stop the attack. Other products would identify it as a ransomware attack and stop the network card on the endpoint, giving time to react to the alert, and proceed to cleanse or investigate the machine that's had a problem. That was our issue with Darktrace.
The only reason that it looks like we are going down a different route is because of the endpoint protection issue. The product doesn't have an endpoint agent that can react to outcomes or triggers that are set on the device, otherwise, it would be great.
For how long have I used the solution?
We tested the solution for one month.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is fine, we had no issues with it whatsoever.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We didn't need to scale the solution, but you could scale it without any issue. The only thing that I think you had to keep an eye on was network traffic through your switches because effectively, you're capturing all the traffic on your network on a port that goes to this device.
How are customer service and technical support?
The support was fantastic, really good. We were in touch with the guy who I believe was the accounts manager.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was easy. We just had to configure a switch port into what's called promiscuous mode and then plug in the device and give it an IP address and leave it. We deployed with our own technical team. It took a day to setup, maybe even less than that. Once installed they activated the license on it. We left it at baseline to look at the network for a week. It just looked at existing traffic and worked out what was typical traffic and what was interesting traffic.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
For out of the box it is licensed per device or node that it connects to. I think for services there were some additional licensing fees.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated other options and Darktrace had really good dashboards and graphics, but other devices like CrowdStrike, for example, had the endpoint protection we're looking for as well as the features that Darktrace has. The difference is in functionality.
What other advice do I have?
I would suggest to anyone considering this option to identify if this is going to be a monitoring tool to supplement an existing system or if this is going to be another product in your existing security suite of tools.
I would rate this product an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Assistant Manager - Network & Security at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Issue-free with a helpful Antigena feature and responsive support
Pros and Cons
- "The product can scale."
- "The cost is a bit on the higher side."
What is our primary use case?
We were testing the solution to see its network detection response capabilities.
What is most valuable?
We had an okay experience with the product and didn't really have any issues.
The Antigena feature is very useful.
It is stable.
The product can scale.
Support so far has been helpful and responsive.
What needs improvement?
I don't have any specific issues with the solution. We are still in the early phase of analyzing the product.
The cost is a bit on the higher side. We'd like it to be less expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
We were using the solution. In the past month, we stopped using it. We used it for three months.
We're just trying the solution. We had meetings. We were testing it. Nothing is finalized.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. However, it varies on a case-by-case basis.
We have four people working with the solution in our company right now. They are in the IT department.
How are customer service and support?
We did speak to technical support and found them to be very helpful and responsive.
How was the initial setup?
I did not handle the setup process. We had a vendor come in and set it up and handle the whole process.
What about the implementation team?
The vendor set the solution up with us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost is a little high.
We've budgeted about 50,000 Kuwaiti dinars for the solution. That is a yearly operating cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We're busy with some different projects and we wanted to evaluate different products as well on the same technology. We looked into, for example, Check Point EDR and options like Crowdstrike.
What other advice do I have?
We're a potential end-user. We tested the solution. We just tried different scenarios to see what would suit us. We were testing it and will still go ahead with testing. The testing is not yet complete. We've put it on hold for now; however, we will still continue testing in the coming days.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
I'd advise potential new users that they should definitely give it a try; however, the price is on the higher side. Darktrace has to consider lowering its price.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Director Of Information Technology at a security firm with 1-10 employees
Responsive support, good alerting, but the initial setup is complex and time-consuming
Pros and Cons
- "The models, triggers, and alerts are customizable."
- "The initial setup is more complex and time-consuming than some solutions."
What is our primary use case?
We use Darktrace to analyze our network traffic.
What is most valuable?
Darktrace is a good product, although it depends on how much time you put into it.
The models, triggers, and alerts are customizable.
What needs improvement?
The initial setup is more complex and time-consuming than some solutions.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Darktrace for more than a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Darktrace is quite stable, but potentially expensive.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The vendor has different options for scaling. I use the appliance; they also offer a cloud service but I prefer the appliance. I put it between the router and the core switch and it picks up all of the traffic.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is better than Check Point. They respond more quickly.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I am currently using Darktrace and Vectra in addition to Check Point. I've been using all three and I find that Check Point is the one where I get the most information from. I will stop using Vectra this year but I will retain Darktrace, as long as they keep it at a certain price.
Darktrace requires a lot more configuration; unlike Check Point, there are a lot more changes that need to be made. In general, it's more sophisticated. As far as getting the settings and the configuration and the models that you want, it would help if you spent some time on that. We're a small team. It's beneficial to me and I can see that with more time and energy put into optimizing it and personalizing the unit, it can be much more powerful than the way I am using it now. That said, it's my secondary device. We're working on a lot of different projects, so I haven't assigned any of my guys to it yet. Ultimately, when it's fully integrated, it may end up being as useful as the Check Point.
The reason I keep all three is that they all give me a different kind of view. They all give me different information. If they gave the same information, it'd be useless to keep them.
With respect to similar security products, I have demoed CrowdStrike and worked with Symantec.
How was the initial setup?
You have to customize it to the way you want, in order for it to work best for your environment. Definitely take time to train while you can during deployment.
Some things do work well, out of the box. However, this would be better suited for somebody that can take the time to configure it correctly during deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Prior to negotiating, Darktrace offered their appliance and service for $80,000 per year.
I suggest negotiating either at the end of their fiscal year or at the end of every quarter. At the end of the quarter, they have an incentive to lower the prices to sell as many units as possible in order to meet their end-of-quarter quota.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for anybody who is implementing Darktrace is that you definitely need to take your time. Sit down and understand how to use the model breach customization. They use models and if something hits that model, it triggers an alert.
I would rate this solution a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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