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SaaS Security by Palo Alto vs Varonis Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

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

SaaS Security by Palo Alto
Ranking in SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM)
13th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Varonis Platform
Ranking in SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (16th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (8th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (6th), Data Governance (5th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (3rd), Compliance Management (7th), Ransomware Protection (7th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (6th), Insider Risk Management (1st), AI Security (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) category, the mindshare of SaaS Security by Palo Alto is 2.8%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Varonis Platform is 10.9%, up from 7.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Varonis Platform10.9%
SaaS Security by Palo Alto2.8%
Other86.3%
SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Saloni Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Pre Sales Executive at Ctap
A stable solution that offers WildFire analysis, but it is expensive than other products
The most valuable features of the solution are the lesser points of management and the WildFire analysis it offers SaaS Security by Palo Alto is more expensive than other products and could be a bit cheaper. I have been using SaaS Security by Palo Alto for the last six months. SaaS Security by…
TarunKumar11 - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Leadership 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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features of the solution are the lesser points of management and the WildFire analysis it offers."
"It can easily identify unusual behavior or access patterns that may pose a potential threat, while operating as a unified reporting system."
"Varonis Platform support has been amazing throughout every step that we have taken with them."
"The most important feature is remediation. In remediation support, there is no group permission. We'll go ahead and remediate the access from the Dell folder to the parent folder."
"This solution informs us about who's moving data, whether accidentally or on purpose."
"The analytics would have to be our most valuable feature."
"Varonis Platform's visibility feature helped us improve our data governance as we created a process that involved data classification and discovery over sensitive content."
"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."
"Varonis Platform has positively impacted my organization by providing clarity regarding data and permissions, improving visibility, security, and compliance."
 

Cons

"SaaS Security by Palo Alto is more expensive than other products and could be a bit cheaper."
"Be prepared that when you implement the product, you will have to tune it as you go."
"The troubleshooting capabilities could be improved. It has so many interconnected components."
"The solution's areas of improvement are the interface and the dependency on on-premises deployment for some components."
"The licensing pricing model and module licensing can be complex for customers to understand."
"Varonis requires more access permissions for its core functions compared to competitors, which can be a concern for companies about data safety."
"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."
"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."
"While Varonis Platform is powerful, the initial data scanning and indexing can take significant time in large environments."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It's expensive, kind of, really expensive."
"Varonis Platform wasn't certainly the cheapest solution."
"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 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."
"The platform is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

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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 data on that file share. Although Varonis Platform helped us gain more visibilit...
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 SharePoint. The main objective is to identify overexposed data, reduce access ris...
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, we could apply it and gain more visibility, but the performance of the solutio...
 

Also Known As

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Nottingham Building Society
Find out what your peers are saying about Varonis, Qualys, AppOmni and others in SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM). Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.