No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Forescout Platform vs Forescout XDR comparison

Sponsored
 

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
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
5th
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), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
Forescout Platform
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
19th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (6th), IoT Security (4th), Endpoint Compliance (3rd)
Forescout XDR
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
49th
Average Rating
6.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
SOC as a Service (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 4.7%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Forescout Platform is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Forescout XDR is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks4.7%
Forescout Platform1.1%
Forescout XDR0.4%
Other93.8%
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
 

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.
AshishKumar Rai - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Comprehensive visibility has strengthened endpoint control and automated threat response across networks
When it comes to improving Forescout Platform, I have faced some issues recently, particularly with the switch integration part. When integrating a switch, it asks for the vendor type, and often it does not match. For example, one series of HP switches may not be found in that vendor list. This leads to frustration because you have to check again with different HP models, and once you integrate a switch, you cannot edit the vendor list without removing it. Other issues are being worked on, particularly related to switch integration. I believe they will be fixed in the next upgrade or patch fix. There are no major issues, but the configuration changes needed for the switch model are necessary, and I think it would help if during integration, an admin user could check the password or credential used, as they currently cannot see the password after it is entered and saved.
Utpal Sinha - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Network Engineer at Momentive
Provides efficient network access control, but its support services need improvement
We use the product for network access control The product has valuable features for cloud IoT device enhancement, intelligent threat detection, etc. We can easily quarantine any computer if it gets hacked. The product's support services have limitations. We have to connect with their senior…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The positive impacts I see from Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks include a complete 360-degree view of our security posture altogether, being a uniform platform where we are ingesting logs from multiple resources."
"Cortex covers everything I need. It's a perfect solution. Cortex provides a different level of visibility because it's an extended EDR, allowing you to grab logs from the network and firewalls. Palo Alto invented the concept of the extended EDR or XDR."
"The most valuable features are the fact that it was running in the background and it would intercept any weird stuff, and the fact that it would send things directly to the cloud for sandboxing. It's quite practical."
"The product's most valuable features are massive user and feature intelligence exploit detection."
"The solution is a new generation XDR that has a lot of artificial intelligence modules."
"They have a new GUI which is just fantastic."
"Monitoring is most valuable."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"When users don't have the required updates, security patches, and antivirus, the tool blocks them from our network."
"ForeScout is a powerful network access control tool that has some features found in insider threat solutions, though it is not exactly made for that."
"The pricing, technical support, stability, scalability, initial set up, interface, dashboards, management, and monitoring are fantastic."
"The main feature, the NAC engine, is very flexible since ForeScout CounterACT doesn’t need the use of 802.1x and can work with almost all switch vendors."
"If you are looking for a NAC solution and you want to integrate the existing network infrastructure without upgrades or without replacing existing devices, then you should go with Forescout."
"It gives us a clear initial and secondary view of what's happening on our network to determine its health."
"The visibility is the main benefit. We now know how many devices are connected, what the use for each device is and what kind of devices we have in our environment."
"The solution's implementation and operation are very easy."
"The product has valuable features for cloud IoT device enhancement, intelligent threat detection, etc."
 

Cons

"The solution should offer more dashboards and they should be better customized."
"Every 30 or 40 days, there's a new version and we need to go and make sure our customer's laptops are upgraded."
"It's not an ideal choice for smaller businesses, as you need a minimum of 200 endpoints to even use the solution at all."
"If you compare it to SentinelOne, which has more functionalities and detection capabilities on an open platform, the pricing on SentinelOne is far more reasonable and cheaper than Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks."
"It'll help if customization was easier."
"It would be good if they could make an exception for applications."
"The connection to the internet has not performed as expected."
"There are some third-party solutions that are difficult to integrate with, which is something that can be improved."
"Battled with the use of SNMP v1 instead of v2c Direct web interface rather than installation of a client."
"They need to handle their Tier 1 cases differently. The biggest negative regarding Forescout is their support. Not having the ability to get instantly transferred to a support engineer for Tier 1 cases is pretty ridiculous."
"It was not so easy to deploy in our environment, the learning curve for this solution is quite hard."
"I'd like to see improvements in the reporting aspect of Forescout Platform. While the dashboards are good, the reports are lacking and need enhancement, especially in terms of standardization and customization options. Apart from that, all the features and functionalities are working well without any issues."
"The reporting feature needs improvement."
"From the wireless standpoint, I would say that the reliability was somewhat poor, but CounterACT worked with us over a couple month period and did push out a patch."
"The solution could always improve by adding more features to make it more robust."
"Multitenancy should be included in the next version so it could be used as a managed service provider."
"The product is more expensive than other vendors in terms of features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing for Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR can be costly, especially when it comes to a hundred users. A license is required for each user, and the subscription must be renewed on a yearly basis."
"The pricing is a little high. It is per user per year."
"It has reasonable pricing for the use cases it provides to the company."
"The tool's price is moderate."
"I don't have any issues with the pricing. We are satisfied with the price."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is an expensive solution."
"The pricing seems fair, and I do like the licensing model. You use wherever they are, and it is elastic."
"It's about $55 per license on a yearly basis."
"For one license, we pay around 3,000 Indian rupees."
"Licenses are perpetual but can come with renewable support."
"The ROI is priceless."
"They base the license on the number of devices, which is quite misleading."
"It's about $160,000, but I'm not sure how long that is for or what it includes. Because we were a test base, we were provided with servers, but now, Forescout wants us to buy servers because those servers are now end-of-life or end-of-service. For our lifecycle management program, in order to get a refresh on those servers, we would have to buy servers or use our own network resources to house Forescout. Forescout takes up about 13 or 14 virtual CPUs."
"Forescout Platform is too expensive, so the price should be reduced."
"You can have a flexible license depending on your environment."
"I would rate Forescout Platform's pricing as four out of five."
"The product is more expensive than other vendors in terms of features."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions are best for your needs.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise49
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise44
No data available
 

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. ...
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 th...
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,...
What advice do you have for others considering Forescout Platform?
Forescout is a very powerful NAC product that does not rely on port level configuration. It can detect and block unau...
What advice do you have for others considering Forescout Platform?
I would rate the Forescout Device and Visibility Control Platform at a six out of ten.
What advice do you have for others considering Forescout Platform?
I recommend doing a compression demo. If people use it, they will buy it. So they have to see the product in place. T...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
Forescout Platform, CounterACT for Endpoint Compliance, ForeScout CounterACT
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
NHS Sussex, SAP, SEGA, Vistaprint, Miami Children's Hospital, Pioneer Investments, New York Law School, OmnicomGroup, Meritrust
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, TrendAI and others in Extended Detection and Response (XDR). Updated: May 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.