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Intercept X Endpoint vs Symantec Endpoint Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.9
Cortex XDR reduces security incidents, personnel needs, and costs, offering quick ROI, enhanced performance, and competitive pricing.
Sentiment score
5.4
Intercept X Endpoint is valued for effective ransomware protection, strategic benefits, and positive ROI despite not being the cheapest.
Sentiment score
5.4
Symantec Endpoint Security increases financial satisfaction by reducing downtime and enhancing threat response, offering competitive pricing and automation.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks helps to reduce my total cost of ownership significantly.
Detection and Response Consultant at Inovasys
In Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, most of the remediation is automated and the accuracy is quite good.
Network Security Engineer at Cyberwell Solution
Symantec Endpoint Security filled gaps in our toolset, particularly with the ability to control network firewall on hosts remotely, which was greatly appreciated.
OT Technologist at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Cortex XDR support is effective and fast but faces issues with language, delays, and high costs, yet generally satisfactory.
Sentiment score
6.4
Intercept X Endpoint support is knowledgeable and helpful, but users frequently report slow response times and desire faster service.
Sentiment score
6.0
Symantec Endpoint Security customer service is highly rated, but post-acquisition support quality fluctuates with some language and delay issues.
The technical support from Palo Alto deserves a mark of ten because they reach out within an hour whenever assistance is needed.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
There is no back and forth, and they know what we are asking for and come up with the best resolution for a solution.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
If any of these services are missed, it becomes a problem in terms of support tickets, follow-up, or special configuration that needs to be done in the system.
Chief of IT Architecture at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Technical support from Sophos is rated as nine out of ten, which represents high quality.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
There are issues with onboarding technical engineers to resolve problems, which causes delays.
Manager at Omgea Exim Ltd
When you are in real deep trouble, you just want to get out of it; you don't need so many jargons.
IT Head at Dee Development
In some cases, it rates as high as ten out of ten, while in others, it can be as low as eight.
Head of Information System at EEC
There is no support in the German language, which is a problem for many public tenders.
Cyber Security Pre-Sales at SoftwareONE
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Cortex XDR is scalable, supports diverse enterprises, integrates with endpoints, and enables easy expansion with cloud infrastructure.
Sentiment score
7.5
Intercept X Endpoint is highly scalable, suitable for all business sizes with seamless user and endpoint expansion capabilities.
Sentiment score
6.9
Symantec Endpoint Security is scalable, efficient for large deployments, and adaptable, with minor integration and support challenges noted.
You can onboard 10,000 endpoints in just hours, which demonstrates the excellent scalability of this product.
Assistant Security Architect at Cloudnomics
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can be expanded anytime by purchasing another license without any issues related to scalability.
Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees
I think scalability for Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is good.
Threat Analyst II at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The tool's scalability is good, and I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Manager at Omgea Exim Ltd
Intercept X Endpoint's scalability is good.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
Symantec Endpoint Security is quite scalable, and it is very important for large clients.
Cyber Security Pre-Sales at SoftwareONE
The scalability of the servers is good, as it requires computational powers.
Senior Security Delivery Analyst at Accenture
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex XDR is highly regarded for stability, reliable performance, and well-received updates, despite minor occasional disruptions.
Sentiment score
8.0
Intercept X Endpoint is generally reliable with minimal issues, effective protection, and low resource use; manage updates during off-peak times.
Sentiment score
7.6
Symantec Endpoint Security is praised for stability and reliability, despite occasional crashes and compatibility issues during updates.
Cortex remains fast and responsive, even with increasing data and alerts.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The thresholds we've seen on our firewall boxes at some instances reached 80% to 85%, but even at that level of utilization, we don't observe any latency or any issues reported with respect to accessing the application.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
In terms of stability, I would rate Intercept X Endpoint an eight out of ten.
Manager at Omgea Exim Ltd
To improve Intercept X Endpoint performance, upgrades in RAM and other system features are needed.
Network Security Engineer at MIS Security Solutions (Pvt) Ltd
I have encountered issues where I had to uninstall and reinstall the product on end users' computers to view the logs again.
OT Technologist at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
Previously, we used to have multiple servers such as GUP servers and numerous servers for pushing updates, but we reduced it and transitioned almost 30,000 devices to CrowdStrike, which was easy to manage.
Senior Security Delivery Analyst at Accenture
 

Room For Improvement

Cortex XDR requires enhancements in UI, integration, reporting, and pricing, while addressing false positives and improving automation and mobile support.
Intercept X Endpoint needs improved integration, modern interface, resource efficiency, licensing flexibility, malware detection, reporting, and pricing.
Symantec Endpoint Security suffers from high resource usage, management complexity, outdated interface, and ineffective virus detection and support.
Improving reporting and dashboard customization, along with the addition of real-time and exportable reports, would help SOC teams greatly.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The inclusion of this feature would allow the application of DLP policies alongside antivirus policies via a single agent and console, making it more competitive as other OEMs often offer DLP solutions as part of their antivirus products.
Pre Sales Architect at network techlab
If the per GB data could be provided at a certain level free of cost or at the same cost which the customer is taking for the entire bundle, that would be better.
Cyber Security Information Security Specialist at MHM Holding GmbH
There should be a profile where I can see what files Sophos is scanning.
Team Lead at KO
Intercept X Endpoint's anti-ransomware capabilities failed us during a bad attack, and just because of our own backup policies, we could restore our normal operations.
IT Head at Dee Development
Intercept X Endpoint sometimes slows down machines due to high CPU utilization and significant RAM consumption during scanning.
Manager at Omgea Exim Ltd
Device management is not very good and I am not enabling it in my organization due to security reasons.
System Administrator at Aljazera Market co
I would like to see improvements in the scanning part of the solution, specifically to enhance the CPU and hard disk usage during scanning and updates to prevent disruption during work hours.
Head of Information System at EEC
It is cumbersome to use, particularly in handling firewall management.
OT Technologist at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
 

Setup Cost

Cortex XDR offers flexible pricing from $55 to $90 per endpoint annually, considered cost-effective for its advanced features.
Intercept X Endpoint pricing is moderate with discounts available; costs vary by user/server numbers and additional features.
Symantec Endpoint Security's pricing is diverse, being both negotiable and adaptable for different budgets and organizations' needs.
The pricing on SentinelOne is far more reasonable and cheaper than Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks.
Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would say it is definitely not a cheap product, considering how mature it is and how scalable all Palo Alto products are together.
Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
It is quite costly when measuring Intercept X Endpoint's protective capabilities against zero-day attacks.
Technology Solutions Head at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The setup costs and licensing for Sophos Intercept X Endpoint are good.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
The pricing of Intercept X Endpoint is a bit high.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
It seems to be half the cost or more affordable than other solutions.
OT Technologist at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
The pricing is very low compared to other companies like SentinelOne and others.
System Administrator at Aljazera Market co
I rate the pricing, setup cost, and licensing around nine out of ten.
Head of Information System at EEC
 

Valuable Features

Cortex XDR provides advanced threat detection with AI analytics, real-time blocking, and seamless integration for enhanced security.
Intercept X Endpoint excels with deep learning, threat detection, synchronized security, ransomware protection, and user-friendly management features.
Symantec Endpoint Security provides integrated, user-friendly protection for multiple platforms with advanced malware detection and comprehensive endpoint management.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
Cyber Security Manager at Welab bank
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
Pre Sales Architect at network techlab
It includes machine learning to easily analyze data and detect complex threats across endpoints, networks, or clouds.
Final Year Student at Gitam University
The stronger the AI/ML in an endpoint, the better the protection against unknown threats.
Manager at Omgea Exim Ltd
Intercept X Endpoint is the only endpoint security product I know that provides content filtering and application controls.
Network Security Engineer at MIS Security Solutions (Pvt) Ltd
Intercept X Endpoint offers multiple features, including the Threat Analysis Center, remote run ransomware protection, and CryptoGuard.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
Symantec Endpoint Security offers great features such as reporting capabilities with a customized dashboard that pulls in EDR timelines, threat maps, and compliance metrics into one view.
Senior Associate at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Symantec Endpoint Security offers many valuable features, such as file explosion, application learning, DLP, injection detection, and EDR solutions for traffic control.
System Administrator at Aljazera Market co
The incident response capabilities allow me to resolve authentication and support issues promptly, ensuring the system operates without downtime.
Head of Information System at EEC
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
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Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (7th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (6th), Ransomware Protection (2nd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (2nd)
Intercept X Endpoint
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
109
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (14th), ZTNA (9th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (7th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (13th), Ransomware Protection (4th)
Symantec Endpoint Security
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
16th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
146
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.5%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Intercept X Endpoint is 1.6%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security is 3.3%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks3.5%
Intercept X Endpoint1.6%
Symantec Endpoint Security3.3%
Other91.6%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Q&A Highlights

Udhayakumar Murugan - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Administrator at Enterstellar Softwares(OPC) Pvt Ltd
Aug 31, 2021
 

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.
AM
IT Head at Dee Development
Has struggled to detect major threats but has offered basic protection over time
Intercept X Endpoint could learn from CrowdStrike in terms of overall performance and filtering because performance is most important, especially these days as Windows is getting buggier and buggier, which puts a huge load on the PC, and even with the most advanced CPUs and everything in place, it still lags in performance in so many places, thanks to Windows' clumsy design of these collaboration suites that make it extremely heavy on PC's resources. The interface of Intercept X Endpoint is quite old-fashioned. The Sophos interfaces, including for Intercept X Endpoint, are quite bad actually; to be very honest, even in UTM boxes, they are not great at all. You can hardly see a very small portion of windows while it's creating the firewall rules, and we have been complaining about this for quite some time, but there hasn't been any improvement on those grounds. Intercept X Endpoint's anti-ransomware capabilities failed us during a bad attack, and just because of our own backup policies, we could restore our normal operations; otherwise, if we had to depend on this solution, we would have been long dead because the infection was so bad, it couldn't even detect the infection. Intercept X Endpoint cannot handle zero-day attacks; in my experience, last year, we had this major issue with a malware attack, and it happened just because of our backup policies that we were able to recover without any support from Sophos, which just told us they would charge us some 1 Crore in rupees. Intercept X Endpoint should improve their implementation; things will never be perfect for the new world. This new world is always facing new kinds of attacks and new ways to compromise the system. They need to learn fast, implement fast, and sometimes redesigning the solution is the solution—not just patchwork. There was a time we used to love Sophos because of its fresh design and innovative thought. In my experience, when technical companies are led by MBA professionals, they lose their shine on the technical part and become more dependent on target sales; it turns into a marketing-centric operation that loses the technical focus completely.
Kumbesh Rajagopal - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Delivery Analyst at Accenture
Management becomes easier with minimal complications, but improvement in support tools needed
Regarding areas of improvement for Symantec Endpoint Security, there are many changes, and the support portal tool is complicated compared to other tools. When trying to get service from Symantec, the process is complex. I'm not sure whether it's because of my project or something else. Though it is easy to manage, easy to get, easy to install, and works efficiently for managing policies, we faced a significant disadvantage. We wanted to add multiple hashes because of numerous new alerts coming, but we could only add them one by one, which is a considerable disadvantage in Symantec.
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Answers from the Community

Udhayakumar Murugan - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Administrator at Enterstellar Softwares(OPC) Pvt Ltd
Aug 31, 2021
Aug 31, 2021
Having used both I'd go with something other than either of these two solutions. Both deep dive onto your local computers making them impossible to remove, Should the need arise you'll end up having to reimage equipment to fully remove the products. Bloated and they dig their hands into everything on the local machines. If these are your only two choices, then go with Sophos as it's a MUCH be...
2 out of 5 answers
MB
Founder, Director at Tres Infosol Pvt. Ltd.
Aug 20, 2021
I would recommend going with Sophos Intercept X Advance. Additionally if you invest in Sophos XG/XGS Firewall, you can avail the benfit of Sophos Synchronized Security wherein the Firewall and Intercept X Advanced share the threat intelligence and provide a comprehensive cover with single window management using Sophos Central.
EB
Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)
Aug 26, 2021
Hi @Mohamed Y Ahmed , @Cliff Matonda, @Jeevan Kumar and @Mostafa ​ , What would be your advice?​​
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
5%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise22
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business69
Midsize Enterprise32
Large Enterprise63
 

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,...
How does Crodwstrike Falcon compare with Sophos Intercept X?
I like that Crowdstrike Falcon allows me to easily correlate data between my firewalls. Its detection and machine lea...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Intercept X?
Intercept X Endpoint has some impact on the budget. It is quite costly when measuring Intercept X Endpoint's protecti...
Which is better - Cortex XDR or Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valu...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior sol...
What do you like most about Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets.
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
Sophos Intercept X
Symantec EPP, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Flexible Systems
Audio Visual Dynamics, Red Deer Advocate, Asia Pacific Telecom Co. Ltd., Kibbutz Ein Gedi, and AMETEK, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Intercept X Endpoint vs. Symantec Endpoint Security and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.