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Darktrace vs Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 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
7.3
Users of Darktrace experience high returns and savings, enhanced system visibility, threat detection, and improved cybersecurity cost-effectiveness.
Sentiment score
7.5
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention offers fast, comprehensive security, boosting user satisfaction and revenue despite high costs.
Using this solution provides financial benefits by securing from server attacks, which offers indirect savings.
It offers insights into security threats, despite the inability to quantify its impact in numbers.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Darktrace's customer support is highly rated for responsiveness and proficiency, with minor improvements suggested for complex deployments and specific regions.
Sentiment score
6.4
Palo Alto Networks' support is generally effective despite communication issues and regional differences, with most users rating it positively.
The challenge lies in waiting for a response after logging a ticket.
Darktrace provides excellent technical support with a monthly meeting to review platform incidents, ensuring the system functions as expected.
Any queries I have logged are responded to efficiently.
I rate technical support from Palo Alto as eight out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Darktrace is highly scalable, adaptable to enterprise environments, and supports both cloud-based and on-premise expansion with careful management.
Sentiment score
7.9
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is highly scalable, adaptable across environments, but cost considerations may affect scalability.
Since it's cloud-based, it expands easily.
Darktrace has high scalability, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.
For scalability, I would rate it an eight out of ten because they integrate with many technologies.
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is scalable and works well wherever enforcement points exist.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Darktrace is highly stable, reliable, with 99.9% uptime, efficient performance, and excellent monitoring, rated favorably by users.
Sentiment score
7.9
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is preferred for its stability, outperforming competitors, and requires proper firewall sizing.
The stability of Darktrace is excellent, rated ten out of ten.
The appliance itself has never let me down.
For stability, I would rate Darktrace an eight out of ten.
Proper sizing of the firewall models ensures that the system does not experience crippling performance issues.
 

Room For Improvement

Darktrace needs better integration, interface, pricing, reporting, user-friendliness, automation, documentation, and collaboration to reduce false positives and improve protection.
Palo Alto Networks needs improvements in email security, user support, and analytics, while addressing complexity, false positives, and integration.
There is no dedicated salesperson in Egypt, and having one would help to improve focus on this market.
They say they can integrate with most firewalls, but when we did an integration with Meraki MX firewalls, that integration didn't work and still doesn't work to this day.
The intelligence section and the incident view should be seamlessly connected in one view to avoid jumping between pages.
The behavioral detection capabilities could be expanded to address all threats at the perimeter, reducing the reliance on endpoint detection and response systems.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers have mixed pricing perceptions of Darktrace, with costs up to $350,000 annually and flexible payment options.
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is costly yet valued for its features, particularly in threat detection and scalability.
The product is considered expensive compared to others.
The licensing cost is approximately eight dollars a year.
The pricing is costly in USD, and they charge based on device counts.
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention requires an add-on license and is considered expensive compared to competitors like Cisco AMP and FortiGate firewalls.
 

Valuable Features

Darktrace provides AI-driven threat detection and autonomous response, offering real-time monitoring, high visibility, and minimal human intervention.
Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention provides intuitive threat prevention with machine learning, excellent reporting, and seamless integration with other tools.
If I am in a data center where I don't have layer two, it becomes an issue because the autonomous response is reliant on sending spoofed TCP resets to my core switch to block traffic, which is a major issue.
It is capable of responding to lateral movement and ransomware deployment within environments where there is data exfiltration.
I do not need to manually process incidents as Darktrace provides an incident summary, potential detection paths, and other details, all exportable with just a click.
As traditional signature-based mechanisms become less effective due to the evolving nature of attacks, this solution's focus on behavioral analysis is crucial.
 

Categories and Ranking

Darktrace
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (9th), Network Traffic Analysis (NTA) (1st), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (1st), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (6th), AI-Powered Chatbots (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (15th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (11th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (3rd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Palo Alto Networks Advanced...
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Darktrace is 19.4%, up from 17.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention is 7.4%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

Malebo Lethoba Group - PeerSpot reviewer
Have found the AI analyst and detection functions highly valuable for network operations while managing complexity in initial setup
The functions I find most valuable in Darktrace ( /products/darktrace-reviews ) are the AI analyst as well as the detection.The autonomous response capabilities of Darktrace are not crucial for me because it doesn't work in a network where there are no core switches. In a modern network, the autonomous response doesn't work, especially when sitting in a shared data center.If I'm running a traditional network where I am not in a shared data center with a layer two dedicated for my resources, then it can work for me. However, if I am in a data center where I don't have layer two, it becomes an issue because the autonomous response is reliant on sending spoofed TCP resets to my core switch to block traffic, which is a major issue.
Carlos Bracamonte - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust, reliable, simple to install and good technical support
We are attempting to improve the use of URL filtering beyond threat protection. I'm not sure what the remaining threat protection features are off the top of my head. But beyond that, we use URL filtering. We have three approved cases for using external dynamic lists that are stored in a bucket repository. Then, for each URL site that needs to be whitelisted, we add it to the external dynamic list in order to gain access to this email. I would like Wildfire to be implemented. We use the equivalent in Cisco is the integration policies. We have the Wildfire but we are not currently implementing it. We don't have the license to use it, but we are not currently implementing it until we present the use cases that the company gives some value to and they approve the use of it.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?
Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing user interface that makes setup easy and seamless. CrowdStrike Falcon offers a cl...
Which is better - SentinelOne or Darktrace?
Which solution is better depends on which is more suitable specifically for your company. Darktrace, for example, is meant for smaller to medium-sized businesses. It is also a good option for organ...
What do you like most about Darktrace?
A very useful feature in Darktrace for real-time threat analysis is the packet inspection that analyzes the packet traffic in real time.
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...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Irwin Mitchell, Open Energi, Wellcome Trust, FirstGroup plc, Virgin Trains, Drax, QUI! Group, DNK, CreaCard, Macrosynergy, Sisley, William Hill plc, Toyota Canada, Royal British Legion, Vitol, Allianz, KKR, AIRBUS, dpd, Billabong, Mclaren Group.
University of Arkansas, JBG SMITH, SkiStar AB, TRI-AD, Temple University, Telkom Indonesia
Find out what your peers are saying about Darktrace vs. Palo Alto Networks Advanced Threat Prevention and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.