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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs Microsoft Forefront [EOL] comparison

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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
110
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (4th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (6th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (5th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
ESET Endpoint Protection Pl...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (12th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (20th), Anti-Malware Tools (10th)
Microsoft Forefront [EOL]
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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.
MS
Owner at Online IT
Cloud-based protection has simplified daily client support and keeps threats under control
The problems that we are facing with policy adoption include slow adoption, as it takes more than five minutes to adopt policy on client computers. ESET Network Attack Protection sometimes helps in reducing network-level intrusions, but sometimes it prevents local devices on the network, which are well-known and good devices, from being recognized, treating them as a threat. So it requires more administration than usual. ESET could implement a good solution for remote support in ESET Endpoint Protection Platform for improvement in the future. Since you have the cloud console, ESET could have something similar to AnyDesk or TeamViewer, but from ESET.
it_user772620 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
There is simplicity in the management of the product compared to its competitors
Web proxy services along with the integrated firewall VPN Intrusion prevention Malware inspection URL filtering The simplicity of managing the product compared to its competitors, like BIG-IP F5 and Citrix NetScaler The ease of deploying mobile functionality through the web proxy has…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I recommend this solution to others because it is easy to manage, reliable, and overall good to use."
"I can highlight that we have not faced any security incidents with Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, and even though our environment is quite dynamic, we have not faced any security incident with Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks until now."
"The user interface of the solution is sophisticated and straightforward."
"What I like about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is that it is a comprehensive solution that contains everything the organization may need when using endpoints."
"The most valuable for us is the correlation feature."
"We switched because there were a lot of added features with Palo Alto that Check Point didn't have, and it was an upgrade for us."
"The level of security I get for my endpoints and servers is extremely valuable."
"The policy configuration is great, the granularity of policies that are available is very helpful, it is straightforward to set up, and it has pretty much everything we need and works well within the Palo Alto ecosystem."
"Technical support has been very good. They're quick to respond to any problems."
"The tool offers great detection. You need time only to setup the environment. After that, it is just plug-and-play to get the solution up and running. We can also control the PC remotely from the cloud and get all the information in one place."
"ESET is recognized as one of the best in the security field, providing a high level of security while the ERA Web Console increases productivity because we can do all we need to do with clients from one central place with plenty of options for those clients."
"We have not picked up a bug yet, because we use ESET, which is a tried and proven system."
"It effectively catches unwanted stuff. It has saved our bacon over many years."
"It is absolutely invisible once running."
"If it detects ransomware or something, it can isolate that computer."
"The tool protects everything."
"The snort engine, which is the muscle behind the Sourcefire IPS technology, has always been a joy for me to work with."
"Performance wise, it's one of the most effective anti-virus solutions we have ever used."
"To date we have not had a virus infecting a desktop with Forefront installed - this is the main reason why we will not use another anti-virus solution."
"Product has been enough for our customers’ requirements."
"The simplicity of managing the product compared to its competitors, like BIG-IP F5 and Citrix NetScaler, is a valuable feature."
"It cost us approx. US$250k to set up and is roughly US$200 day to day."
"Our ROI is that we can provision users accounts within 30 minutes of them being put into the system."
"It has automated the entire user and group management process, thus reducing manual work and help desk cost to a great extent."
 

Cons

"It's more focused on network communication. If a customer wants to increase the level of protection and start working with documents, it's impossible to integrate these features into the system. It's more of a communication-oriented system than a content security-oriented system."
"The product's pricing could be better."
"There is a severe gap in functionality between Windows, Linux, and Mac versions."
"The solution lacks real-time, on-demand antivirus."
"We would also like to have advanced tech protection and email scanning."
"The dashboard is the area that needs to improve so that we can have the ability to drill down without having to go elsewhere to verify results."
"The dashboard could use some significant improvement, just making it more useful with more information."
"In the next release, I would like to see more UI improvements. Their UI is a bit basic. When we are speaking about Palo Alto Networks they are the big company, so they can improve the UI a little bit. The UI, the reports, the log system can all be improved."
"When we rule a scanner process on the heart risk, it is very slow and overloads the machine."
"In the future, a cloud version of the solution would be great."
"There tend to be a lot of bugs, although they do work to fix them."
"The tool needs to explore security possibilities to secure iOS and Mac devices."
"I would like them to use AI features to do preventative virus protection."
"The use of SQL Server can be improved. At times, there is a bit of challenge while linking it with the Javascript. ESET Endpoint Security requires modern technology or modern equipment on site. You will find it difficult to use ESET Endpoint Security with dual-core machines. If they can add the cloud management feature to their product, it will be much easier. If you look at this COVID situation that we are in right now, people are working from home, so you need to control the computers wherever you are. For example, if you are using any email setup and you are hosting it on your own, all the email traffic will be going through the same network. You need to protect all of your computers from the attack. It is best if you can do it remotely rather than having an IT person to come onsite to manage all computers and metrics etc, which isn't a smart way to do it."
"The user interface of ESET Endpoint Security could be more user-friendly and more features could be added."
"ESET requires a yearly license fee. That license fee is significant for SOHO users."
"Without a local Windows Update Server, the client seems to update very slowly and may take a lot of time."
"Pretty awful. A large initial investment with something that could have been done by one person full time over six years with less hassle."
"Web user interface from 1990s. Users laugh at it."
"I’d personally like to see some additional customization capabilities in the reporting section."
"When using Forefront in a domain network, it is quite difficult to create the group policies needed for definition/engine updates using WSUS."
"The product has unfortunately reach its End-Of-Life (EOL) at Microsoft and is now replaced by several products."
"More out of box connectors and conducting awareness of the product along with more marketing."
"One of the biggest pain points was that username changes were not automated and caused problems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is "expensive" and flexible."
"It is cost-effective compared to similar solutions. It fits for the small businesses through to the big businesses."
"In terms of the cost Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is very expensive because we are a Mexican company and when you translate dollars to pesos the cost is very high. The solution is very expensive for Mexican companies. I understand that they have international prices, but I do not think it offsets the price enough for many companies in countries, such as Mexico. The amount it is reduced is not a massive percentage."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is an expensive solution."
"The cost of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is $55 to $90 USD per endpoint per month."
"I don't have any issues with the pricing. We are satisfied with the price."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is quite an expensive solution."
"The pricing seems fair, and I do like the licensing model. You use wherever they are, and it is elastic."
"The price could be lower, but it's comparable, as other solutions have a similar price for the same effect."
"The price of the solution is reasonable compared to the other products out there. It is definitely in line with the competition."
"There is a license required to use ESET Endpoint Security."
"This is not an expensive solution."
"The solution's license is moderately priced."
"This solution is a good value for the money."
"ESET is perfect, if you can afford it."
"The price of ESET Endpoint Antivirus is fair compared to the performance of other solutions."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise48
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business69
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

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Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
Smart Security, ESET PROTECT Advanced, ESET LiveGuard Advanced, ESET PROTECT Platform
MS Forefront [EOL]
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
ERSTE Group Bank, Miller Solutions, Wesleyan University, The Hospital Center of Luxembourg, Deer Valley USD, SPAR, Industrial Federal Credit Union, Honda, City Hall of Palmela, Hays CISD, Lester B Pearson School Board
EUROVIA CS, a. s., King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Public Education Devel, Bank Alfalah Ltd., CLEAResult, St. Lucie County Public Schools, Wiltshire Council
Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, Microsoft, SentinelOne and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.