Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention comparison

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention

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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

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

16th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Palo Alto Networks Advanced...

Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is 2.7%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is 5.6%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention	5.6%
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT	2.7%
Other	91.7%

Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)

Featured Reviews

Jack Poon

Treasury Specialist at Dah Sing Bank

Offers ease of setup and good documentation

When it comes to the product's deployment phase, we have a lot of vendor support. We have a lot of skills here in Hong Kong. Our company doesn't find any problem deploying Cisco solutions. The solution is deployed on an on-premises version. Speaking about the time required to deploy the solution, I would say that we have quite a lot of previous experience with deploying Cisco products. We have our company's standard design document, which we need to follow. We have a standard testing procedure for all those features. We just take out some appropriate parts and then compile them into one document for an individual project. It is actually quite easy for us to do the documentation, so it just takes one or two hours, and we can do the implementation because all the materials and testing procedures are already in our company standard documents, so it is not that difficult for us.

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Partha Dash

Global Network Tech Lead at Thoughtworks

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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the ability to automatically learn the traffic in our environment, and change the merit recommendations based on that."

"It simplifies the configuration process by offering pre-defined base configurations, including security and connectivity settings."

"It is quite an intelligent product."

"The whole solution is very good, and stable."

"The product is inexpensive compared to leading brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet."

"The most valuable feature is the visibility that we have across the virtual environment."

"In general, the features are all great. However, if I need to take hardware for ASA, because they need to upgrade to Firepower, we want to create rules. For that, most of the time we go to the command line. Right now Firepower is working really hard on the grid. You can apply all those rules to the grid. Even if you want to monitor the logs, for example, the activity will tell you which particular user has been blocked because of that rule. Firepower's monitoring interface is very good, because you can see each and every piece. ASA also had it, but there you needed to type the command and be under the server to see all that stuff. In Firepower you have the possibility to go directly to the firewall. The way the monitoring is displayed is also very nice. The feature I appreciate most in Firepower is actually the grid. The grid has worked very well."

"The solution can be integrated with some network electors like Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco ISE, and Active Directory to provide the client with authentication certificates."

More Cisco Sourcefire SNORT pros

"One of the most valuable features is the anti-malware protection."

"The initial setup was straightforward. It's quite easy. Deployment took one to two weeks."

"We are currently using the URL filtering feature, which is the most popular."

"I like the solution's interface."

"You can scale the product."

"Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention is the market leader as far as security gateways and endpoint protection. Additionally, the threat database that is used is one of the best."

"I find the malware protection very handy."

"With the IP address flag, I was able to see that I was being hacked. The moment there was an interaction between somebody on my network and that IP, the solution was able to flag it, and we were able to protect ourselves."

More Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention pros

Cons

"I don't think this solution is a time-based control system, because one cannot filter traffic based on time."

"I did not experience any pain points that required improvement. Maybe a couple of false-positives, but that's about it."

"I would like to have analytics included in the suite."

"The initial setup is a little difficult compared to other products in the market. It depends on the environment. If we are doing any migration, it might take months in a brown-field environment."

"The solution's approach to managing traffic blocking is confusing and impractical."

"We are unhappy with technical support for this solution, and it is not as professional as what we typically expect from Cisco."

"The cloud can be improved."

"If the price is brought down then everybody will be happy."

More Cisco Sourcefire SNORT cons

"I think they can use some improvement on FID."

"The cost involves the price of the hardware, which is expensive. However, most of the Palo Alto solutions are expensive."

"It's not so easy to set up a test environment, because it's not so easy to get the test license. The vendor only gives you 90 days for a test license; it's a tough license to get."

"The solution could benefit from improved AI analytics to predict potential attacks before they occur, similar to NDR systems."

"We are attempting to improve the use of URL filtering beyond threat protection."

"The application’s pricing and dashboard need improvement. It could be user-friendly."

"The installation was complicated."

"The documentation needs to be improved. I need better information about how to configure it and what the best practices are."

More Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five."

"We have a three-year license for this solution."

"The cost is per port and can be expensive but it does include training and support for three years."

"Licensing for this solution is paid on a yearly basis."

"I don't know the exact amount, but most of the time when I go to a company with a proposition, they will say, "This thing that you are selling is good, but it's expensive. Why don't you propose something like FortiGate, Check Point, or Palo Alto?" Cisco device are expensive compared to other devices."

"From one to ten, with one being the most expensive, I would rate the pricing of Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention a one out of ten. It is my understanding that Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention is the most expensive one."

"The pricing and the licensing are pretty competitive at this stage. As a reseller, I would like to see the price come down a little bit so I can compete better against other firewalls because we do that all the time."

"It's not too expensive."

"The price of the solution is higher than others on the market. A price reduction would be beneficial if it does not impact their database quality."

"There is an initial, expensive investment but the return is good."

"The pricing could be lower."

"Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention could improve by having consistent pricing at system levels."

"The cost involves the price of the hardware, which is expensive. However, most of the Palo Alto solutions are expensive."

More Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

University

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

The product is inexpensive compared to leading brands such as Palo Alto or Fortinet.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five. There are some other tools in the market that are more expensive than Cisco. There are no additional c...

What needs improvement with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?

Cisco offers the Cisco DNA Center, which is a source that provides crucial information for us to monitor performance, and see whether there is any trouble. We are using Cisco DNA center, but again,...

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 do you like most about Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention?

It is a stable product.

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...

Fortinet FortiGate vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

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Compared 13% of the time

Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention

Compared 12% of the time

Darktrace vs Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention

Compared 11% of the time

Check Point IPS vs Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) vs Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention

Compared 7% of the time

More Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention Competitors

Product Reports

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT

Download Cisco Sourcefire SNORT product report

Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention

Download Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention product report

Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention report

Also Known As

Sourcefire SNORT

No data available

Overview

Snort is an open-source, rule-based, intrusion detection and prevention system. It combines the benefits of signature-, protocol-, and anomaly-based inspection methods to deliver flexible protection from malware attacks. Snort gained notoriety for being able to accurately detect threats at high speeds.

Cisco

Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is a cloud-based security service that combines cutting-edge technologies, including machine learning, artificial intelligence, and expert human monitoring, to effectively thwart advanced threats like malware, zero-day attacks, and command-and-control threats. It offers inline protection, scrutinizing all network traffic irrespective of port, protocol, or encryption. An integral component of Palo Alto Networks' security platform, it enjoys widespread adoption across diverse organizations. With its robust security capabilities, it's an ideal choice for entities of all sizes, particularly those in high-risk sectors such as finance, healthcare, and government agencies, seeking to safeguard their networks from a broad spectrum of advanced threats.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

CareCore, City of Biel, Dimension Data, LightEdge, Lone Star College System, National Rugby League, Port Aventura, Smart City Networks, Telecom Italia, The Department of Education in Western Australia

University of Arkansas, JBG SMITH, SkiStar AB, TRI-AD, Temple University, Telkom Indonesia

Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs. Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention