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Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.1
Cato SASE Cloud Platform reduces costs and enhances efficiency with improved reliability, optimized traffic, and decreased maintenance expenses.
Sentiment score
5.7
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention offers financial benefits and high user satisfaction despite its cost, boosting revenues, especially in Italy.
It offers insights into security threats, despite the inability to quantify its impact in numbers.
Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Cato SASE Cloud's customer support is responsive, efficient, 24/7, with high user satisfaction and occasional concerns about sales communication.
Sentiment score
5.9
Palo Alto Networks' support is praised for expertise but faces inconsistent response times and communication challenges with third-party facilitation.
Their knowledge portal and Cato Academy portal are excellent resources.
Product Lifecycle manager at Air Spring
Our customer service experience is excellent
Vice President at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I think the technical support by Cato SASE Cloud Platform is quite good.
Product & Services Integrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Overall, I find the technical support from Palo Alto Networks quite good, although getting a hold of the TAC can be challenging and sometimes requires long phone calls.
Global Network Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I have proof of this rating - when I escalate a case, I receive a reply from TAC support after two days.
Presales Engineer at SAUDI PARAMOUNT COMPUTER SYSTEMS
I rate technical support from Palo Alto as eight out of ten.
Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cato SASE Cloud Platform excels in scalability, supporting enterprises globally with efficient management and eliminating frequent hardware upgrades.
Sentiment score
7.7
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is scalable, adaptable, and efficient, though cost may constrain its broad deployment.
As an MSSP, we find it scalable for end users across EPP platforms, network, and cloud sides.
Product Lifecycle manager at Air Spring
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is scalable and works well wherever enforcement points exist.
Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Users praise Cato SASE Cloud Platform for its stable, reliable performance, high availability, and smooth operation across global deployments.
Sentiment score
7.7
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is praised for its superior stability and performance, though requires careful version selection.
I would rate the stability of the solution as ten on a scale of one to ten.
Vice President at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I find Cato SASE Cloud Platform overall stable.
Product & Services Integrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Proper sizing of the firewall models ensures that the system does not experience crippling performance issues.
Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Enhancing identity integration, security features, interface, third-party compatibility, and sector-specific tools would boost Cato SASE Cloud's appeal.
Palo Alto Networks needs improvements in email filtering, setup ease, user experience, support services, and enhanced security features.
The platform lacks strong security features on the edge.
Product Lifecycle manager at Air Spring
To improve Cato SASE Cloud Platform, I think they sometimes need more built-in features for security in larger networks when doing local authentication.
Product & Services Integrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Palo Alto needs to focus on how to bring that technology to end users and how easy it is to use, especially in a hybrid environment where users work from various locations.
Global Network Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The behavioral detection capabilities could be expanded to address all threats at the perimeter, reducing the reliance on endpoint detection and response systems.
Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cato SASE Cloud offers competitive, flexible bandwidth-based pricing, with user-rated cost-effectiveness and discounts through partnerships for yearly licensing.
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is costly but valued for strong threat detection, with pricing challenging for smaller businesses.
I do not find it particularly expensive, but for some companies, they may not have the budget to be at that level of security for their networks.
Product & Services Integrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
The pricing is flexible due to our special partnership with Cato Networks.
Vice President at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention requires an add-on license and is considered expensive compared to competitors like Cisco AMP and FortiGate firewalls.
Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Cato SASE Cloud Platform enhances network performance with advanced security, traffic optimization, centralized management, and cost-effective global SD-WAN capabilities.
Palo Alto Networks excels in threat prevention with features like sandboxing, machine learning, and user-friendly design, enhancing efficiency.
It is scalable for end users across network and cloud sides and saves operational costs.
Product Lifecycle manager at Air Spring
The single-pass architecture has improved user experience with Cato SASE Cloud Platform as it provides security teams in companies a platform where they can easily obtain information if there are breaches or security issues.
Product & Services Integrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
As traditional signature-based mechanisms become less effective due to the evolving nature of attacks, this solution's focus on behavioral analysis is crucial.
Sr. Cloud Security Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We are satisfied with the analytic capabilities of Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention, especially the reporting features available in the Palo Alto portal in terms of their application visibility interface, which is very good for us to get visibility on all critical applications and the associated users, as well as the risks associated with every category of traffic.
Global Network Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cato SASE Cloud Platform
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
11th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
WAN Optimization (2nd), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (6th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (4th), WAN Edge (6th), ZTNA as a Service (7th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (3rd), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (2nd)
Palo Alto Networks Advanced...
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cato SASE Cloud Platform is 3.3%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is 4.8%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention4.8%
Cato SASE Cloud Platform3.3%
Other91.9%
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2697738 - PeerSpot reviewer
Product & Services Integrator at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Cloud security has unified global network design and has simplified threat visibility
I think all of the functionalities, such as the secure web gateway feature, are quite good. I also believe Cato SASE Cloud Platform is one of the only solutions that has not only a software firewall solution but also a physical software solution where you can change the company's firewalls and put in sockets from Cato SASE Cloud Platform, which I see as an advantage for them. The single-pass architecture has improved user experience with Cato SASE Cloud Platform as it provides security teams in companies a platform where they can easily obtain information if there are breaches or security issues. I assess the benefit of integrating WAN optimization as good. There is ease in making rules between WAN optimization, especially when it comes to global connections because of all their points of presence that are spread over the world. I think the real-time threat protection of Cato SASE Cloud Platform is also good. Their points of presence are quite efficient, and I do not see any delays in that area.
Partha Dash - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Network Tech Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Advanced protection enables us to confidently secure against evolving threats
Palo Alto Networks can improve Advanced Threat Prevention by catering to the growing adoption of AI and agentic tooling. The Threat Protection modules should have the necessary intelligence to protect against those types of threats, as AI will be there to do a human job; this is an evolving area. From an Advanced Threat Protection perspective, the technology associated with Palo Alto Networks, such as their sandboxing environment, is quite good. However, Palo Alto needs to focus on how to bring that technology to end users and how easy it is to use, especially in a hybrid environment where users work from various locations. While Palo Alto excels in certain setups, they need to improve the user experience in distributed working conditions.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Performing Arts
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Cato Networks?
I can see that I am a consultant at a reseller and I am the architect of Cato SASE Cloud Platform designs. In the baseline, I usually recommend Cato SASE Cloud Platform for international companies ...
What advice do you have for others considering Cato Networks?
It is difficult to find types of companies I would not recommend Cato SASE Cloud Platform to, and I believe you can use Cato SASE Cloud Platform in most environments, although there could be some c...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cato Networks?
I do not find it particularly expensive, but for some companies, they may not have the budget to be at that level of security for their networks.
Which is the best DDoS protection solution for a big ISP for monitoring and mitigating?
Arbor would be the best bid, apart from Arbor, Palo Alto and Fortinet have good solutions. As this is an ISP, I would prefer Arbor.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention?
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention requires an add-on license and is considered expensive compared to competitors like Cisco AMP and FortiGate ( /products/fortinet-fortigate-reviews ) fi...
What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention?
Palo Alto Networks can improve Advanced Threat Prevention by catering to the growing adoption of AI and agentic tooling. The Threat Protection modules should have the necessary intelligence to prot...
 

Also Known As

Cato Networks
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Paysafe, AdRoll, Pet Lovers Centre, Arlington Orthopedics, Humphreys & Partners Architects
University of Arkansas, JBG SMITH, SkiStar AB, TRI-AD, Temple University, Telkom Indonesia
Find out what your peers are saying about Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs. Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
892,943 professionals have used our research since 2012.