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Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Sentinel comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2025

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
5.2
Cortex XDR enhances security and cost efficiency by reducing malware incidents, consolidating solutions, and ensuring data protection.
Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Sentinel enhances ROI with automation, boosts productivity, lowers costs, and improves security through efficient integration and faster responses.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks helps to reduce my total cost of ownership significantly.
Detection and Response Consultant at Inovasys
I have seen a return on investment with Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, as this product is offered at a minimal cost, and we can find a good ROI from it.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
If a customer is already using Microsoft’s ecosystem, the ROI can be positive due to seamless integration.
senior cyber security at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Our MTTR, mean time to response, improved by forty to fifty percent. Earlier, medium-severity incidents took two to three hours to resolve. Now, after Microsoft Sentinel, it is forty to fifty-five minutes.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
We attribute our growth to Sentinel.
Chief Commercial Officer at defend
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Customer opinions on Cortex XDR support vary, praising expertise yet noting slow resolutions and regional language challenges.
Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Sentinel support is praised for quick, knowledgeable responses, with higher satisfaction in premium plans despite some documentation challenges.
The technical support from Palo Alto deserves a mark of ten because they reach out within an hour whenever assistance is needed.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
There is no back and forth, and they know what we are asking for and come up with the best resolution for a solution.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
If any of these services are missed, it becomes a problem in terms of support tickets, follow-up, or special configuration that needs to be done in the system.
Chief of IT Architecture at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Their solutions' integration simplifies resolving issues compared to those caused by third-party products.
IT Consultant at MAN Truck & Bus SE
Microsoft invests significantly in support, which is crucial for companies.
Director de Microsoft y Transformación Digital at Compucad
Working with a Sentinel engineer helped us tune settings effectively.
Systems Emgineer at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR scales efficiently across diverse environments, enabling rapid deployment and seamless expansion for various company sizes.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Sentinel offers scalable, cloud-based operations with seamless Azure integration, emphasizing elasticity and cost considerations for effective data management.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can be expanded anytime by purchasing another license without any issues related to scalability.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
I think scalability for Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is good.
Threat Analyst II at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Office 365 and Exchange are running on it, covering about 35,000 users efficiently.
IT Consultant at MAN Truck & Bus SE
There is no need to add hardware or redesign infrastructure because it is cloud-native.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
As our organization uses Microsoft Azure and Defender, everything grows together, and we can integrate various features seamlessly.
Systems Emgineer at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR is reliable, stable, easy to deploy, with some minor issues in updates and heavy data loads.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Sentinel is reliable with 99.9% uptime, minor glitches, and minimal maintenance thanks to its managed service aspect.
Cortex remains fast and responsive, even with increasing data and alerts.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The thresholds we've seen on our firewall boxes at some instances reached 80% to 85%, but even at that level of utilization, we don't observe any latency or any issues reported with respect to accessing the application.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
So far, we have not experienced any issues, and it has been stable from the beginning.
IT Consultant at MAN Truck & Bus SE
In the past two years, our team hasn't encountered any issues with the stability of Microsoft Sentinel from an operations perspective.
Project Executive at synergyc
I need to be aware of deprecated connectors as they may disconnect, but the data continues to be sent with a need for quick adaptation.
senior cyber security at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR needs better reporting, UI, integration, reduced resource use, enhanced support, and more automation for improved usability.
Users seek better integration, documentation, user-friendliness, AI, automation, and transparency in Microsoft Sentinel for improved threat management.
Improving reporting and dashboard customization, along with the addition of real-time and exportable reports, would help SOC teams greatly.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The inclusion of this feature would allow the application of DLP policies alongside antivirus policies via a single agent and console, making it more competitive as other OEMs often offer DLP solutions as part of their antivirus products.
Pre-Sales Architect at network techlab
If the per GB data could be provided at a certain level free of cost or at the same cost which the customer is taking for the entire bundle, that would be better.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
Log ingestion and retention costs can grow quickly, and understanding which data source is driving cost is not always straightforward.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
We have some tools, such as our off-site Meraki firewalls, that have not fully integrated with Sentinel.
Systems Emgineer at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
Currently, we are happy to have a way in the middle with not so much cost, but it would be nice to have the ability to enhance the automation of workflows based on learned incidents.
IT Consultant at MAN Truck & Bus SE
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR is costly but offers flexible licensing and robust security, with discounts available for long-term commitments.
Microsoft Sentinel's pricing is flexible yet costly, requiring optimization and integration to maximize cost-effectiveness for data management.
The pricing on SentinelOne is far more reasonable and cheaper than Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would say it is definitely not a cheap product, considering how mature it is and how scalable all Palo Alto products are together.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
It has been beneficial that Microsoft Sentinel is included as part of the Microsoft package, making it more cost-effective.
Senior System Administrator at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Microsoft Sentinel is not a low-cost SIEM.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
Microsoft Sentinel offers more capabilities than Bastion, with a more intuitive experience.
Project Executive at synergyc
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR offers AI-driven threat detection, seamless integration, and intuitive features for robust, adaptive endpoint and network protection.
Microsoft Sentinel excels in integration, AI, scalability, automation, and user experience, with powerful threat detection and response features.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
Pre-Sales Architect at network techlab
It includes machine learning to easily analyze data and detect complex threats across endpoints, networks, or clouds.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources and its detection capabilities are essential.
Cost Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Sentinel has improved cost efficiency, which is one of the key areas we're able to win business against the ability to have threat intelligence.
Chief Commercial Officer at defend
Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources enhances our threat detection capabilities beyond what is a simple data lake solution by filtering out the noise and consolidating the signal down to a meaningful level that is easier to investigate and see.
Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Ranking in AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (5th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (8th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (7th), Ransomware Protection (2nd)
Microsoft Sentinel
Ranking in AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (4th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 10.0%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Sentinel is 10.8%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks10.0%
Microsoft Sentinel10.8%
Other79.2%
AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration
Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.
Kallamuddin Ansari - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
Centralized monitoring has improved threat response but cost control still needs refinement
Based on real operations used in our corporate IT environment, the key features include log correlation and incident view. Microsoft Sentinel's biggest strength is how it correlates multiple related alerts into a single incident. This significantly reduces alert noise and helps the SOC focus on real threats instead of isolated events. Another valuable feature is KQL-based threat hunting with Kusto Query Language. The flexibility of this language allows us to build custom hunting queries based on our environment's behavior. This is extremely useful for detecting low and slow threats or hidden threats that default rules may miss. Cloud-native scalability and stability is another important feature. Being cloud-native, Microsoft Sentinel scales well for medium to large corporate environments without infrastructure management. Stability has been solid in day-to-day production. SOAR automation using playbooks is a feature we highly recommend. Microsoft Sentinel's SOAR functionality helps automate repetitive SOC tasks like alert enrichment and notification. This saves analyst time and improves response consistency.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise44
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise45
 

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. The ability to reverse damage caused by ransomware with minimal interruptions to...
Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions that are very scalable, secure, and user-friendly. Cortex XDR by Palo Alto offers ...
How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...
Is there a common threat intelligence tool that aggregates multiple threat intelligence sources?
Yes, Azure Sentinel is a SIEM on the Cloud. Multiple data sources can be uploaded and analyzed with Azure Sentinel and its Threat Hunting functionality with AI available as templates or customized ...
What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?
It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...
Which is better - Azure Sentinel or AWS Security Hub?
We like that Azure Sentinel does not require as much maintenance as legacy SIEMs that are on-premises. Azure Sentinel is auto-scaling - you will not have to worry about performance impact, you will...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
Azure Sentinel
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Microsoft Sentinel is trusted by companies of all sizes including ABM, ASOS, Uniper, First West Credit Union, Avanade, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs. Microsoft Sentinel and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.