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AWS Direct Connect vs Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

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

AWS Direct Connect
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
13th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Prisma Access by Palo Alto ...
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (3rd), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (1st), ZTNA as a Service (2nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of AWS Direct Connect is 2.1%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is 6.7%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

Flavio Gomes Figueira Camacho Junior - PeerSpot reviewer
Establish secure and private connections between on-premise infrastructure and cloud environments
AWS Direct Connect allows me to connect our on-premise infrastructure directly with AWS infrastructure. This is particularly beneficial because it helps me use our infrastructure for databases and testing while leveraging AWS's computing power for production purposes. I also do not need to expose management of our machines to the public internet, enhancing security by using a private connection.
Amar-Patil - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables seamless policy management and supports secure remote work
Our primary use case for Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is to control the internet and serve as an internet proxy. Additionally, we use it for secure remote work One of the most valuable features of Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks is the ability to manage on-premise firewalls. We can…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The platform's most valuable feature for us is its robust network performance."
"Direct Connect provides an improved connection quality and a diversified link, which contributes to high availability and failover capabilities."
"AWS Direct Connect provides a secure and encrypted connection over the internet."
"The most valuable feature of Direct Connect is its low latency to the users."
"Overall, I rate the solution ten out of ten."
"It is a stable solution."
"AWS Direct Connect is highly secure and much faster compared to normal network infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature of Direct Connect is its low latency to the users."
"It's quite reliable and performs well for users."
"Prisma Access is very stable, and I am very much satisfied with its stability, rating it nine to ten out of ten."
"The features I find most valuable is WildFire, user integration, and the basic technology features."
"It is easy to use, easy to integrate, and is stable. It's scalable as well."
"The solution's most valuable features were the model's reduced complexity on the client side and its capability to provide security."
"Prisma Access protects all app traffic, so that users can gain access to all apps and that's very important because we need to be able to access everything. It also allows us to access non-web apps; anything internal that we need access to, we can access."
"Prisma integrates well with Cortex XDR and Cortex Data Lake. My company has been also using Prisma Access in-house for nearly a year, and it integrates seamlessly."
"Prisma helped us build a moat around our production systems. It's now impossible to log into our production from a non-MDM laptop. Prisma Access provides decent security overall."
 

Cons

"I would like to see better traffic visibility and higher throughput security, especially for organizations that require more than what the current limit allows."
"Its terminologies are challenging to interpret."
"It is complicated to do additional BGP configuration for the product."
"AWS Direct Connect is straightforward and performs well for me."
"It would be good if we could connect AWS Direct Connect from different networks."
"It can be difficult to configure compared to cloud-based GUIs."
"AWS Direct Connect should support cross-cloud connections, such as migrations between Azure and AWS, for disaster recovery purposes on different cloud platforms."
"The platform's stability needs improvement."
"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required. The solution's price should be lowered."
"The solution needs to be more compatible with other solutions. This is specifically a problem for us when it comes to healthcare applications. They have proprietary connection types and things of that nature that make compatibility a challenge sometimes."
"There should be a dedicated portal or SASE-based solution. They're trying to add a plugin but it needs a dedicated portal because it is now an enterprise solution for multiple organizations. People should be able to directly log in to a dedicated page for Prisma Access, rather than going into a Panorama plugin, and always having to update the plugin."
"Palo Alto needs to improve the GlobalProtect agent to work as a secure web gateway agent, not only as a VPN agent because some companies would want only a secure gateway. They wouldn't want a full VPN. So, Palo Alto has to make the VPN agent work as a secure web gateway agent for those customers who want only the secure web gateway solution."
"It would be nice to manage Prisma Access through the cloud instead of through Panorama. You can use the cloud version to monitor Prisma Access, but it doesn't have all the features yet, and it's not 100% done."
"The price can be reduced to make it more competitive."
"The cloud setup is straightforward, and the onboarding process is much better, but the on-premises initial setup is slightly complex."
"Though the monitoring is fine, the solution should improve its application graphs and interface monitoring."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is an expensive solution."
"It has reasonable pricing in terms of the features offered."
"Based on what I have heard from others, it is a pricey solution as compared to its peers, but I am not sure. However, considering the features that it offers, it is a break-even point. You get whatever they are promising."
"It is pretty expensive. We have to balance the cost of some features. They need to work on some of the services and products, price-wise."
"It is not cheap. It is expensive. The good thing is that you are able to pay for what you need, but overall, it is not cheap. The pricing is not based on packages. You pay based on the features. If you want DLP, you only pay for DLP. They are very flexible. It is not cheap, but the licensing is flexible. There are no additional costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"The licensing cost is about 18,000 euros."
"It's pricey, it's not cheap. But you get what you pay for."
"Prisma Access is a little bit expensive."
"Actually the solution is very expensive. I don't know the particulars since the purchasing team dealt with it."
"The licensing model for this product is complicated and changes all the time, making it very hard for the user to comprehend the configuration."
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AWS Direct Connect?
AWS Direct Connect provides a secure and encrypted connection over the internet.
What needs improvement with AWS Direct Connect?
It is working fine for us as it is. AI is the icon in the future, so they need to provide more information for us. For us, it is a new concept, and we will try to use it for our vertical industry i...
What is your primary use case for AWS Direct Connect?
We are using SAP boxes for the ERP system. We are using VPNs, elastic internet IPs. We have Route 53. We have mail because it is necessary to have mail if we want to publish a domain on the interne...
What is the better solution - Prisma Access or Zscaler Private Access?
We looked into Prisma Access before choosing Zscaler Private Access (ZPA). Palo Alto’s Prisma Access is a secure access service edge (SASE) designed to deliver network security in a cloud-deliver...
What do you like most about Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks?
The most valuable features of the solution are in the areas of the secure remote access it provides while also being user-friendly.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks?
From my experience, Palo Alto is more expensive compared to solutions like Netskope and Triscale.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access, Prisma Access, GlobalProtect, Palo Alto GlobalProtect Mobile Security Manager, Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks, Prisma Access
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Expedia, Intuit, Royal Dutch Shell, Brooks Brothers
Concord Hospital, State of Colorado, Essilor International, RheinLand Versicherungsgruppe, University of Westminster, Universidade Nove de Julho, SPAR Austria, CAME Group, ZipRealty, Greenhill & Co., IKT Agder, Aviva Stadium, Animal Logic, Management & Training Corporation, Brigham Young University Hawaii, School District of Chilliwack
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Direct Connect vs. Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.