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Forescout Platform vs Forescout XDR 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
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
122
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (4th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
Forescout Platform
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
30th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (6th), IoT Security (5th), Endpoint Compliance (3rd)
Forescout XDR
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
54th
Average Rating
6.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.5
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
SOC as a Service (22nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 4.7%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Forescout Platform is 1.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Forescout XDR is 0.5%, up from 0.3% 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 Platform1.4%
Forescout XDR0.5%
Other93.4%
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 Manager at HCL Tech
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 solution allows us to gain remote access without the user's knowledge and take the necessary actions on the device."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks has accelerated the response time for my security team, so we have been able to resolve issues faster than usual."
"It has pretty much everything we need and works well within the Palo Alto ecosystem."
"Palo Alto is the core of the security infrastructure in the environment."
"Traps pays for itself within the first 16 months of a three-year subscription."
"Cortex XDR alerts us on the dashboard when there's a threat, which allows us to restrict that user and helps secure our infrastructure."
"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is easy to use and does not consume a lot of hardware resources."
"I like that the product has behavior-based detection which offers many benefits over signature-based detection."
"The scalability is good."
"The most valuable feature is the blocking of USB devices."
"We use the Forescout Platform for device visibility and control in our network. It's very helpful for tracking malicious or unusual activity. We use it to track which ports are open, which machines are running specific services, and to identify vulnerabilities. For example, there was a vulnerability related to SMB, and we could use the product to determine which machines inside our organization were allowing SMB traffic."
"Forescout Platform has made it possible to block people working near our construction sites who should not have access to our network."
"We use it to prevent malicious activities on our network that potentially infiltrate it."
"As a result of using Forescout, we had a better overview of all the devices, known and unknown, that were connected to our network; it was a real advantage."
"The valuable feature of the product stems from the fact that it is easy to implement."
"The initial setup is straightforward; we had to implement the solution in a short timeframe and we managed to do it in one month as a managed service, and Forescout Platform is easy to deploy as the fastest NAC solution that you can deploy in a large environment."
"The product has valuable features for cloud IoT device enhancement, intelligent threat detection, etc."
 

Cons

"The dashboard could use some significant improvement, just making it more useful with more information. It has a limited amount of information right now. It is customizable, but I'd love to see a better out-of-box dashboard."
"The encryption is not up to the mark."
"It would be good if they could make an exception for applications. Sometimes, it can be a bit of a challenge to make exceptions for certain applications that have been used as rogue."
"Impact on system performance is horrible, adding a lot of delays for users."
"The main issue I could point out is the offline agents and the way that it is missing."
"There are some default policies which sometimes affect our applications and cause them to run around. In the hotel industry, we use a different type of data versus Oracle and SQL. By default, there are some policies which stop us from running properly. Because of this, the support level is also not that strong. We have to wait to get a results."
"I would like to see some additional features related to email protection included."
"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."
"If you want to deploy a new solution to block, you can't do it by yourself."
"Forescout Platform's technical support is slow to respond and could be more knowledgeable."
"Forescout Platform could improve the vulnerability management as well as the control on the endpoint, which needs to be connected to my network."
"Maybe the licensing and cost can be improved."
"The initial setup was complex."
"The installation is not secure because it takes high admin privileges."
"Forescout Platform could improve the costs of integrations."
"The solution could always improve by adding more features to make it more robust."
"The product is more expensive than other vendors in terms of features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is okay, although direct support can be expensive."
"I am using the Community edition."
"Our customers have expressed that the price is high."
"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."
"It's the most expensive solution, but features-wise, it's quite strong. It's very good for protection, so the results are very good in the case of protection. I would rate it a two out of ten in terms of pricing."
"Traps pays for itself within the first 16 months of a three-year subscription. This is attributed to OPEX savings, as security teams spent less time trying to identify and isolate malware for analysis as a result of a reduction in malware incidents, false positives, and breach avoidance."
"It is "expensive" and flexible."
"It is cost-effective compared to similar solutions. It fits for the small businesses through to the big businesses."
"We might have paid in the ballpark of $20,000 yearly for our licenses. I do not recall there being other fees over and above the standard licensing fee."
"Time savings in finding rogue devices as well as identifying potentially unwanted devices on the network has saved the organization time and money."
"Forescout is more expensive than Cisco because Cisco gives high discounts."
"We have a very clear licensing model for business. I don't have to have a Ph.D. to be able to understand the licensing model as you might need for other solutions. If I know exactly what we want, it can tell you which license you need. The solution is easy for purchasing, ordering, and ease of deployment as well."
"I would rate Forescout Platform's pricing as four out of five."
"Forescout Platform is too expensive, so the price should be reduced."
"The price of the solution is reasonable. We have paid for the license for five years. We have integration with Symantec AV for orchestration, and we have an additional license."
"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."
"The product is more expensive than other vendors in terms of features."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business50
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise57
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise45
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One
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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
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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
RWJ Barnabas HealthEnbridge EnergyToyota MotorsSt. Luke's University Health NetworkGlobal Credit Union
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about SentinelOne, TrendAI, Palo Alto Networks and others in Extended Detection and Response (XDR). Updated: October 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.