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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs Microsoft Forefront [EOL] comparison

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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
115
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (4th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (4th), 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) (10th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (21st), Anti-Malware Tools (9th)
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

"We use Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks for its ability to detect based on behavior rather than simple virus scan to prevent malicious activities."
"The scalability of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is very good."
"Stability is a primary factor, and then there's the ease of distribution and policy management; Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is very easy to work with, and we're quite happy with them."
"Its ability to react to cyber data attacks is awesome. That is pretty much the use of it. What blows your mind is the ability to access your assets remotely and see what is actually going on with them. You can not only see them in a console. You can also react very rapidly to your assets that are compromised."
"Cortex XDR is a very capable solution for protecting large networks and a lot of endpoints. It's very useful because the automation is very high, and if you combine it with the features on Palo Alto firewalls, it provides very strong protection."
"After installing this solution, it identified, blocked, and provided the complete attack chain, which was very helpful."
"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."
"Palo Alto is constantly adding new features."
"The stability is great."
"Personal experience with the real-time scanner was excellent and we wanted to create a second layer of detection on our systems, without going through the expense and trouble of running a second AV on our systems."
"ESET Endpoint Security is valuable for the money spent because it is lightweight on the system, and we don't need to upgrade existing systems or resources, such as CPUs and memory, as even older systems can run efficiently or function as required."
"It has a clean and clear interface."
"The inspection feature allows complete monitoring"
"The pricing, if compared to other products, is cheap."
"If you use ESET Antivirus Security with ESET ERA Server as a middle computer in your network, you can manage all features and updates from one place."
"The support team deserves a rating of 10 out of 10."
"The simplicity of managing the product compared to its competitors, like BIG-IP F5 and Citrix NetScaler, is a valuable feature."
"It has automated the entire user and group management process, thus reducing manual work and help desk cost to a great extent."
"Product has been enough for our customers’ requirements."
"The snort engine, which is the muscle behind the Sourcefire IPS technology, has always been a joy for me to work with."
"It cost us approx. US$250k to set up and is roughly US$200 day to day."
"Performance wise, it's one of the most effective anti-virus solutions we have ever used."
"Our ROI is that we can provision users accounts within 30 minutes of them being put into the system."
"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."
 

Cons

"Traps doesn't work with McAfee. You need to remove McAfee to install Traps. This is very common, and its nothing that should be an issue. Some antivirus engines recognize Traps as an threat component, so maybe they need to shake hands somewhere."
"The solution needs better reports. I think they should let the customer go in and customize the reports."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks could improve by offering remote management. It would be useful to look at the client's issue to fix it."
"The negative aspect I see is the economic model used by Palo Alto."
"A little bit more automation would be nice."
"There are some false positives. What our guys would have liked is that it would have been easier to manipulate as soon as they found a false positive that they knew was a false positive. How to do so was not obvious. Some people complained about it. The interface, the ESM, is not user-friendly."
"There's an overall lack of features."
"We had a problem with getting our older endpoints up to date, but their newest updates have been really good. I've been pleased with it in terms of what our needs are. It's doing what we want it to do."
"The interface is too complicated, our clients contact us because they are not able to do some tasks such as updating."
"The user interface of ESET Endpoint Security could be more user-friendly and more features could be added."
"iOS compatibility for mobile security and parental control."
"The solution can improve the modules, and it is lacking centralized management and visibility of the endpoints."
"The solution includes only Intrusion Detection and not IPS, which is an important feature that is missing in my version."
"I would like for the solution to be simpler to understand. While it satisfies our needs at the moment, it is really only understandable to those with a strong computer background."
"ESET's updates are mostly manual. That's my biggest concern. I'd like it to be more automatic. I've had to download the new version and run it manually to install it. I've got several workstations like that right now."
"ESET Endpoint Antivirus could improve the mobile device experience by having more coverage."
"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."
"One of the biggest pain points was that username changes were not automated and caused problems."
"Without a local Windows Update Server, the client seems to update very slowly and may take a lot of time."
"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."
"Pretty awful. A large initial investment with something that could have been done by one person full time over six years with less hassle."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is high for the license and in general."
"Every customer has to pay for a license because it doesn't work with what you get from a managed services provider."
"The cost of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is $55 to $90 USD per endpoint per month."
"The pricing seems fair, and I do like the licensing model. You use wherever they are, and it is elastic."
"It is cost-effective compared to similar solutions. It fits for the small businesses through to the big businesses."
"When we first bought it, it was a bit expensive, but it was worth it. The licensing was straightforward."
"I don't have any issues with the pricing. We are satisfied with the price."
"I feel it is fairly priced."
"You need to pay for the ESET Endpoint Antivirus license monthly or yearly, whichever you choose."
"The license is annually, and the price is low compared to competitors."
"The price of the solution is very good compared to other solutions."
"As is the general rule with anything, the solution could be cheaper."
"The cost of the solution is hard to justify even if the EDR operates well."
"There is a license required to use ESET Endpoint Security."
"ESET is cheap."
"Its price is reasonable."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise54
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 Microsoft, SentinelOne, CrowdStrike and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.