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Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs Vectra AI comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 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
6.4
Cisco Secure IPS delivers effective threat detection and aligns with security needs, but setup costs concern some users' ROI evaluations.
Sentiment score
6.7
Vectra AI improved security efficiency, reducing response times and costs, and increasing productivity with enhanced threat detection and risk mitigation.
The payback period is roughly six months.
Strategic RAN Lead | Network Transformation & Optimization | Philippines & South Africa at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Cisco Secure IPS support is generally well-regarded for responsiveness and skill, despite some regional inconsistencies and initial contact issues.
Sentiment score
8.1
Vectra AI's customer service is highly rated for competence, responsiveness, and effective, personalized communication, despite occasional complex query delays.
Fortinet, on the other hand, offers quicker response times and same-day RMAs, which gives them an edge in customer service.
Head Of Technical Operations at ITE
The response was fast, and they provided experts to solve our issues quickly.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
A few years ago, I had a very bad situation. We lost a lot of money, and I opened for the first time in my life, a case with priority one. The person responsible for the ticket didn't respond for two days.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I would rate their technical support a 10, as we have local support in South Africa and the ability to reach out to the teams quickly and effectively when they are in similar time zones, leading to great support globally.
CTO at Cyber Retaliator Solutions
The support is quite reliable depending on the service engineer assigned.
Cyber Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
When I create tickets, the response is fast, and issues are solved promptly.
Planning& Performance Analyst at National Information Center, Ministry of Interior, Saudi Arabia
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Cisco Secure IPS is praised for scalability and centralized management but criticized for hardware limitations and high scaling costs.
Sentiment score
7.2
Vectra AI excels in scalability, offering flexible deployment and integration for diverse environments, supporting small to large enterprises.
Vectra AI is scalable because it can work through different kinds of solutions and is compatible with all kinds of cloud solutions.
Strategic RAN Lead | Network Transformation & Optimization | Philippines & South Africa at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cisco Secure IPS is mostly stable but experiences software glitches, upgrade issues, and faces preferences for alternative solutions.
Sentiment score
8.0
Vectra AI is stable and reliable, with efficient maintenance, automatic updates, minor issues, and occasional throughput challenges.
The software situation with Cisco is problematic.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I recommend it to other users, but I am concerned about stability, as the stability is not adequate.
Senior Network Security Expert & Instructor at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco Secure IPS requires better SIEM integration, enhanced user-friendliness, centralized management, intuitive UI, and improved support and documentation.
Vectra AI faces challenges in integration, detection accuracy, and usability, with calls for better threat coverage and improved documentation.
Incorporating AI capabilities would enhance its functionality.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
CLI is very important in professional working, and it was an unwise decision by Cisco to remove it.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I am aware that we are not measuring some metrics or tracking access through Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS).
Senior Network Security Expert & Instructor at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
ExtraHop's ability to decrypt encrypted data is a feature that Vectra AI lacks.
Planning& Performance Analyst at National Information Center, Ministry of Interior, Saudi Arabia
You need to have a Linux server, and from the Linux server, you must perform AI tasks, and there is a lot to be handled in the back end.
Owner at Fortibits
All threats, including hacking attempts, should be comprehensively addressed.
Consultant at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cisco Secure IPS is seen as expensive, justified by robust features, but less cost-effective for smaller businesses.
Enterprise users find Vectra AI pricing competitive yet complex, with noted value despite high costs and varying affordability opinions.
It's cheaper to integrate with existing IT security solutions compared to other expensive brands with subscription costs.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
I would rate the price for Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) as high.
Senior Network Security Expert & Instructor at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Vectra is cheaper in terms of pricing and features compared to Darktrace.
Cyber Security Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I find the pricing of Vectra AI to be one of the best we have seen as feedback from customers and partners indicates it is very competitive for an EDR solution.
CTO at Cyber Retaliator Solutions
It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.
Owner at Fortibits
 

Valuable Features

Cisco Secure IPS provides advanced threat detection, scalability, integration capabilities, and centralized management, enhanced by Talos and Cisco Firepower.
Vectra AI offers threat intelligence, anomaly detection, and integration capabilities with user-friendly UI, enhancing threat prioritization and investigation.
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) helps me with the visibility component, providing visibility across more than 3,000 applications using Firepower IPS.
Senior Network Security Expert & Instructor at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) is quite powerful for threat detection and includes botnet detection.
IT Infrastructure Manager at TMLI
They can discover new versions of malware, which is very beneficial.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Our company used Vectra AI to detect the malicious threats and viruses before they could cause more damage, and we successfully stopped the threats.
Consultant at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
Alert noise was dramatically reduced by nearly 80%, allowing SOC analysts to focus more on true threats, which made them more productive and resulted in higher operational efficiency.
Strategic RAN Lead | Network Transformation & Optimization | Philippines & South Africa at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
There are extensive out-of-box detection capabilities.
Owner at Fortibits
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS)
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Vectra AI
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Network Detection and Response (NDR) (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (16th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (11th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) is 3.3%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vectra AI is 6.7%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Vectra AI6.7%
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS)3.3%
Other90.0%
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer373227 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Marketing strengths shine but regaining user trust needs significant effort
There are numerous things that could be improved about Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) to get it back on track. Sollution for small branches: when we have to connect a lot very small branches (or sometimes only an ATM) we need something small, with LTE and with reasonable price. Cisco response is SDWAN but it is not always the case. Recently Cisco released some small firewalls but I have not tried them yet. Central management with FMC is a very good idea, but sometimes local management or monitoring is helpfull. With Cisco You have to decide: central or local. You cannot have both. Regarding usability, when you commit configuration on Cisco, it sometimes takes very long. Commits also take some time for the competition, but Cisco is definitely lagging behind the rest in this respect. Last but not least, for me as a professional is lack of CLI. With CLI, I can configure every firewall on the market except Cisco. CLI is very important in professional working, and IMHO it was an unwise decision by Cisco to remove it. Graphical interfaces are very nice, but when you've got thousands of objects in a big installation and have to configure many things, CLI is a much faster way to do it.
RR
Consultant at a retailer with 5,001-10,000 employees
Threat detection has improved and malicious emails are now identified quickly
Vectra AI offers artificial intelligence capabilities with visibility that can be integrated into our day-to-day operations and other tools, including malware detection tools and cyber threat tools. Vectra AI has positively impacted my organization. Last year while using it, we received many malicious email threats and virus incidents, including a trojan virus that had reportedly been deployed by someone. Our company used Vectra AI to detect the malicious threats and viruses before they could cause more damage, and we successfully stopped the threats. Using Vectra AI, I notice that server downtime has decreased significantly. We now experience only two to three hours of downtime, whereas without Vectra AI and other tools, our downtime would exceed 48 to 72 hours.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) solutions are best for your needs.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise27
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco NGIPS?
I would rate the price for Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) as high.
What needs improvement with Cisco NGIPS?
I am aware that we are not measuring some metrics or tracking access through Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS). In my opinion, Cisco could improve the Web GUI for Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS).
What is your primary use case for Cisco NGIPS?
Our main use case for Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) is in-line traffic control, and we are using IPS in an in-line mode.
What do you like most about Vectra AI?
The solution is currently used as a central threat detection and response system.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vectra AI?
It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.
What needs improvement with Vectra AI?
Vectra AI could be improved by focusing on all threat types, not only malicious threats or virus threats. All threats, including hacking attempts, should be comprehensively addressed. The user inte...
 

Also Known As

Sourcefire NGIPS, Firepower NGIPS
Vectra Networks, Vectra AI NDR
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Electric Power, Huntington Bank, Keycorp, Nationwide, Transunion, Marriott, Inova Health, Ford, Thomson Reuters, Dow Chemical, Equifax, Chevron, Walmart, Coca Cola
Tribune Media Group, Barry University, Aruba Networks, Good Technology, Riverbed, Santa Clara University, Securities Exchange, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs. Vectra AI and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.