Fortra's Digital Guardian vs Varonis Platform comparison

Fortra and Varonis are both solutions in the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) category. Fortra is ranked #20 with an average rating of 9.0, while Varonis is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.1. Fortra holds a 1.4% mindshare in DLP, compared to Varonis’s 4.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Fortra users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Varonis users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

Fortra's Digital Guardian and Varonis Platform compete in data protection and threat detection. Varonis Platform is considered more feature-rich, offering a comprehensive security experience, while Fortra's Digital Guardian is more cost-effective with lower setup costs.

Features: Fortra's Digital Guardian offers endpoint data loss prevention, rapid response capabilities, and simple deployment. Varonis Platform stands out with data classification, threat monitoring, and a robust security framework.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortra's Digital Guardian provides a straightforward deployment process and supportive customer service. Varonis Platform has a detailed setup strategy and a strong support framework, suitable for complex environments.

Pricing and ROI: Fortra's Digital Guardian is known for lower initial setup costs and quicker ROI. Varonis Platform, although requiring higher initial investment, offers long-term security benefits justifying the extended ROI period.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortra's Digital Guardian vs. Varonis Platform Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Digital Guardian vs. Varonis Platform

June 2026

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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

Cloudflare One

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) category, the mindshare of Cloudflare One is 2.0%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortra's Digital Guardian is 1.4%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Varonis Platform is 4.5%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Varonis Platform	4.5%
Fortra's Digital Guardian	1.4%
Cloudflare One	2.0%
Other	92.1%

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

Featured Reviews

Cobe Van Coller

Network Architect at IP Dimension

Cloud security has improved remote access and has reduced costs for smaller client sites

I have used Cloudflare One's Identity-Aware Proxy, and it is quite straightforward from what I have seen so far. The app registration on the Azure side integrates fully into Cloudflare, and I am very satisfied with that part because it is easy to set up. The integration of Cloudflare One's Secure Web Gateway and Zero Trust Network Access works without any issues. That part is pretty automatic, and if you complete the rest of the setup, it comes together by itself with no issues from my side. What makes it nice is that we can actually start replacing on-site firewalls at this stage for the smaller clients because it does not matter if they go to a coffee shop or work from home; they are still secured by the same connection. The hops get shorter and you get better latency. We have done testing to see if it is better. One thing that we did notice with our proof of concept with our current client is that they have people connecting from the UK. When they used their previous VPN solution, uploading CAD drawings and other files to the server took a long time. They mentioned that it is much quicker on Cloudflare One's solution. I definitely believe that is part of the improved performance, and I am satisfied with that as well. What is nice about Cloudflare One is that it makes the setup easier and also easier to train technicians to maintain it. Compared to legacy systems, we do not need to get fancy firewalls in place that are costly. That is definitely also a cost-saver with Cloudflare One.

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BrandoDiego

System Engineer/Consultant at Notable Frontier Sdn Bhd

Endpoint monitoring has provided real-time visibility and supports cross-platform data protection

Several areas need improvement. System reporting and default system reporting are not totally usable and require customization to be practical. I find Fortra's Digital Guardian to be somewhat expensive, not highly or totally expensive, but somewhat expensive nonetheless. I see some limitations regarding scalability in Fortra's Digital Guardian; every application has its own limitations, and while there are limits, we attempt to work around them, sometimes needing to collaborate with Fortra's Digital Guardian engineers to find solutions. Latency issues with Fortra's Digital Guardian depend on the configuration in terms of network, so while it can be acceptable, it really depends on how well it is set up.

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TarunKumar11

Member Of Leadership Advisory Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees

Data governance has strengthened and automation now reduces risk and manual compliance work

Varonis Platform offers key features including data discovery, data classification, data analysis, governance, user and entity behavior analysis, also known as UEBA, which helps in ransomware detection, insider threat detection, and compliance reporting. It does a lot of automation from a remediation standpoint, as well as investigation and forensics. The number one feature that makes the biggest difference for my clients is visibility into unstructured data; that is the most difficult for organizations to achieve. They do not have a good understanding of where sensitive data resides, who has access to this data, whether this access is appropriate, and how data is being used. Varonis Platform provides visibility, governance, threat detection, and automated remediation around data. Varonis Platform is a great data discovery platform that provides visibility into sensitive data estimates and how it is being used. Clients have been able to reduce excessive permissions, strengthen their compliance posture, detect insider threats, and ransomware activity, which would otherwise be difficult and manual. Varonis Platform is deployed in my clients' organizations in a combination of all types. Many clients use Varonis Platform in a largely SaaS-based model since it is a data security platform consumed in this way, and many organizations still operate hybrid environments. As far as Varonis Platform is in a position to get the data source and identify systems, it can discover and classify more secure data. Deployment in most of our clients is cloud-based, connecting to Microsoft 365, AWS, or other SaaS applications such as Salesforce. In other environments, it is a hybrid deployment with SaaS and on-premises, including file servers, NAS devices, and AD servers.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool also offers good scalability, and the dashboard, along with real-time analytics, is very good."

"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform removes the risk of exposing the applications to the public."

"Cloudflare Access is a stable solution."

"What makes it nice is that we can actually start replacing on-site firewalls at this stage for the smaller clients because it does not matter if they go to a coffee shop or work from home; they are still secured by the same connection."

"Using Cloudflare One makes my work quite easy because for DDoS protection, all I need to do is understand the OSI model and click; it makes it easier than trying to write a command line or use a Linux command."

"For Cloudflare Access, I am using the free plan...The most valuable feature is their protection."

"It will take the blow rather than our applications should an attack occur."

"It's a perfect solution from my perspective; it's easy to understand and easy to configure."

More Cloudflare One pros

"As a general impression, I can say that Fortra's Digital Guardian is a worthwhile investment when it comes to DLP tools."

"As long as you know the flow and how the setup phase works, the process can be totally straightforward."

"We have accurate detection on data protection and more visibility on different data channels compared to other DLP solutions. So, basically, more on the principle, there is ROI."

"Endpoint DLP can detect activity without implementing any rules, unlike other DLP solutions where you need to configure rules and policies; Fortra's Digital Guardian can detect any user activity after installation and commissioning without the need for policy implementation, and it just works by system default."

"Varonis offers robust data access governance, allowing us to understand which sensitive data exists and who has access to it."

"That alerting and reporting service is great."

"There's also a 90-day policy where if a user is not using the warehouse, it will automatically delete that username."

"The analytics would have to be our most valuable feature."

"I also appreciate the reporting feature, which allows for the extraction of various reports based on specific needs. These reports can be used for audit purposes, such as tracking changes in file locations or deletions."

"On the Varonis side, technical support is phenomenal. Their ability to explain is very good, and they seem to be very knowledgeable. When I get an alert that doesn't quite make sense, they dive in there and kind of take me through it. That's very useful and very good. There are some false alerts, but it is better to have a false alert than no alert at all."

"It can easily identify unusual behavior or access patterns that may pose a potential threat, while operating as a unified reporting system."

"Overall, if you want to check your data from an initial point of view, Varonis Platform is the best use case you can consider."

More Varonis Platform pros

Cons

"Our customers no longer use Cloudflare because its service is subpar."

"The initial onboarding was causing us some confusion."

"The pricing is an area that can be improved. Pricing, as far as I recall, was the source of our problems."

"Cloudflare One is not very powerful, but for what we require, it is basic and sufficient."

"From a logging perspective, it is still a bit difficult to see exactly what users are being blocked with the current views."

"The onboarding process can be improved a little bit."

"The software has automated alerts, but the automated alerts are not available in the mobile app."

"When there are any dynamic changes in complex applications, the tool takes a lot of time, making its analytics-related area a major matter of concern where improvements are needed."

More Cloudflare One cons

"Several areas need improvement. System reporting and default system reporting are not totally usable and require customization to be practical."

"The tool needs to be more optimized in terms of CPU usage."

"The trouble with the tool is its ability to integrate with a third-party application."

"In my opinion, there's a need for an extensive skill set or knowledge of creating policies. There's room for improvement to make it more user-friendly in creating custom rules and policies."

"We have Microsoft Office 365. I just saw an article today which says that they're actually getting integrated with Microsoft Office 365, which would be a useful feature. For user-based reports, log on activity, and stuff like that, it doesn't seem to really be present like Log360. That could just be my inexperience with it. I've been dealing with it for only about two and a half months."

"The potential areas of improvement I see for Varonis Platform are that it doesn't have a SIEM or SOAR console where you can see your incidents or a native style incident case management where you can see all your incidents and do the tracking of all those things."

"One area for improvement is the calculation engine. When applying rules in Varonis, especially for large datasets (terabytes of data), the calculations can be slow and require time to process. Speeding up this process would be beneficial."

"The licensing pricing model and module licensing can be complex for customers to understand."

"For unstructured data monitoring, it's one of the top ones, if not the top one, due to its usability."

"There is one thing that if I add something manually, I get so many alerts. That's the biggest bad thing."

"Varonis Platform could be improved because when I used it, we had a significant issue related to the large volume of data on that file share."

"The troubleshooting capabilities could be improved. It has so many interconnected components."

More Varonis Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing lacks transparency."

"The price tag is no longer $200,000, but rather $300,000 to $400,000. It's twice."

"My company has to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the solution. There are no hidden charges apart from the licensing costs of the solution."

"The pricing of the solution is cheap. The licensing cost is also very low. I rate the cost and pricing a three out of ten."

"The prices are slightly expensive."

"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform's pricing is good."

"The solution is not that expensive."

"As long as your needs are fulfilled, even if the price is high, you will buy the tool."

"The pricing is good. It neither expensive nor cheap. It is average."

"Licensing is on an annual basis. Maintenance and renewal fees are separate. Varonis Datalert is quite expensive."

"Varonis Platform wasn't certainly the cheapest solution."

"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."

"You could do a subscription, where you pay yearly, or you could purchase it outright. The licensing cost is based on the number of users on the system that you are monitoring."

"The platform is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."

"It's expensive, kind of, really expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

19%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Healthcare Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	12

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?

Pricing is competitive. Akamai is more expensive, in my view.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?

In my opinion, Cloudflare One can be improved mainly through compatibility, as the integration should be much simpler...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform?

Cloudflare One's primary use case for my organization is to protect servers and to provide remote access with the VPN...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra's Digital Guardian?

Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, I am not aware of the actual cost since only the leadership discusses t...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Fortra's Digital Guardian?

The tool needs to be more optimized in terms of CPU usage. Most users experience a little bit of slowness, especially...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Fortra's Digital Guardian?

Fortra's Digital Guardian serves as our main DLP tool. We utilize its policy to either block or allow users depending...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Varonis Platform?

Varonis Platform could be improved because when I used it, we had a significant issue related to the large volume of ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Varonis Platform?

My main use case for Varonis Platform is to monitor access to sensitive data across file shares, Microsoft 365, and S...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Varonis Platform?

Varonis Platform receives a rating of seven out of ten. I chose seven out of ten because the user experience was easy...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cloudflare One

June 2026

Download Cloudflare One product report

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Digital Guardian

June 2026

Download Fortra's Digital Guardian product report

Buyer's Guide

Varonis Platform

May 2026

Download Varonis Platform product report

Also Known As

Cloudflare Area 1 Email Security, Cloudflare Bot Management, Cloudflare Gateway, Cloudflare Zero Trust Platform, Cloudflare DDoS, Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform

No data available

SlashNext Complete

Overview

Cloudflare One is a comprehensive platform for security, performance, and connectivity. It provides features like rate limiting, DDoS protection, and application access, tailored to enhance user experience while securing internet access and accelerating communications.

Designed to integrate security measures with ease of use and scalability, Cloudflare One offers a secure web gateway and zero trust network access. These features ensure seamless setup and operation, making connectivity reliable and protected. Users appreciate its integrated console, intuitive interface, and the ability to manage risk effectively. It offers straightforward deployment, improves latency, and boasts cost-effectiveness. While its onboarding process and documentation need enhancement, its value in content delivery and application shielding is notable. Despite challenges in integrating Cloudflare Access with existing VPNs and the need for better automation and support, it remains vital for DNS and infrastructure protection.

What features make Cloudflare One stand out?

Rate Limiting: Controls the traffic rate to prevent abuse.
DDoS Protection: Shields applications from distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Secure Web Gateway: Provides secure internet access with seamless operation.
Zero Trust Network Access: Ensures secure, application-based connectivity without relying on traditional VPNs.
Access for Connectivity: Facilitates access to internal applications securely.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Security: Robust measures for DNS and browsing protection.
Performance: Enhanced site accessibility and communication speed.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers competitive pricing for its features.
Ease of Deployment: Straightforward and efficient setup process.

In industries like finance, retail, and technology, Cloudflare One is crucial for enabling secure remote access and protecting web applications against dynamic threats. It supports compliance access policies and enhances content delivery, playing a key role in safeguarding digital infrastructure.

Cloudflare

Fortra's Digital Guardian is celebrated for its robust data protection, especially in data loss prevention across various endpoints. It enhances organizational efficiency, streamlines workflows, and provides deep insights via advanced analytics and real-time alerts, significantly improving data security and compliance management. Ideal for monitoring, customizing policies, and guarding against internal and external threats.

Fortra

Varonis Platform enhances data security and governance with advanced analytics, identifying unusual access patterns and sensitive areas. Its centralized interface manages permissions across systems, offering essential capabilities for alerting and reporting.

Varonis Platform provides continuous data protection and monitoring by identifying and alerting on unauthorized data access. It offers comprehensive insights into file access and user activities, supporting data classification and simplifying compliance with tracking and monitoring capabilities. Integration with storage systems enables users to manage permissions and access effectively. Room for improvement includes cloud integration and simplifying its interface and calculation engine for ease of use. Challenges include on-premises dependency, licensing costs, and a need for enhanced DLP capabilities.

What are the primary features of Varonis Platform?

24/7 Technical Support: Ensures continuous assistance and issue resolution.
Advanced Analytics: Identifies unusual data access patterns for increased security.
Centralized Permission Management: Manages access permissions across systems.
Data Classification: Categorizes data to enhance protection measures.
Integration with Storage Systems: Simplifies compliance through tracking and monitoring.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Increased Security: Protects against unauthorized data access.
Compliance Simplification: Offers comprehensive tracking and monitoring to meet compliance standards.
Efficient Permission Management: Simplifies access controls across platforms.
Enhanced Alerting: Provides timely notifications of potential security breaches.

In finance, Varonis aids in safeguarding sensitive financial data, while in healthcare, it secures patient records. Legal industries utilize it for protecting client information, and retail sectors manage sensitive customer data. These industries benefit from Varonis' ability to prevent unauthorized access and streamline compliance.

Varonis

Sample Customers

23andMe

Information Not Available

Nottingham Building Society

Buyer's Guide

Fortra's Digital Guardian vs. Varonis Platform

June 2026

Free Report: Fortra's Digital Guardian vs. Varonis Platform

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