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Symantec Data Loss Prevention vs Varonis Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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

Symantec Data Loss Prevention
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Varonis Platform
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (4th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (5th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (4th), Compliance Management (7th), Ransomware Protection (11th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) category, the mindshare of Symantec Data Loss Prevention is 5.8%, down from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Varonis Platform is 6.2%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
 

Featured Reviews

ARAVINDAN K - PeerSpot reviewer
Strengthened security operations with endpoint-level protection but database flexibility could improve
Symantec Data Loss Prevention has proprietary metadata and is well-suited for endpoint-level security. It stands out for supporting multiple protocols like email and SMTP without needing user profile login for endpoint agents. Once policies are downloaded to the local system, they function independently of a user's login. The solution helps enhance security operations when integrated with ServiceNow and offers robust incident response capabilities.
Frederic  Delos - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers the ability to identify sensitive areas, allowing you to drill down into the sensitive data
The most effective feature for me is its ability to identify sensitive areas, allowing you to drill down into the sensitive data, provided you have access, to determine whether it's a false positive or a true positive. That's the best thing for me, out of all of it. It's got everything, like other ones, but I like to be able to look at something if I'm doing forensics on the alert and say, "Okay, do I really need to do something with this?" For example, we don't want sensitive data in our OneDrive. So it identifies the sensitive data that's possibly in the OneDrive. And what I can do is look at it and identify whether it's actually sensitive data in Datalert or whether it looks like sensitive data, but I know it's a false positive. If it is a false positive, I can basically say ignore this pattern based on X, Y, and Z, you know, whether it's Redjax or keyword proximity. So I like that. With other tools, I gotta go through a whole process because it's a little bit more complex. Here, I can tag it and bag it in one shot. And the next good time I scan, it slips over it. So it helps in that.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With respect to the amount of intelligence that they have with respect to how they formed the DLP solution, for example, exact data matching. If you compare Forcepoint with Symantec, Symantec is more sophisticated than Forcepoint."
"The product is very robust."
"It has good options for policy findings. You can do granular policy enhancements with multiple options. And the SMB blocking is a very good feature."
"Symantec has one of the best incident management capabilities."
"The product's deployment phase was easy."
"The most valuable features of Symantec Data Loss Prevention are endpoint security, endpoint agent, and DLP. Additionally, we have been satisfied with the policies."
"The incident response options and reporting features are particularly strong, with the inclusion of Incident Classification Assessment (ICA) for integrated reporting."
"I'm able to track everyone who is trying to send information outside the environment and to know if they are not supposed to be sending it. I'm also able to see the people who are accessing or maybe try to access the information they are not supposed to be accessing based on their level of classification. It gives me overall control of who has got access to what and at what point. And who can do what with specific information."
"The 24/7 support is the most valuable feature. They have been able to answer support questions pretty quickly."
"The solution ensures that users have not accidentally shared sensitive information with the wrong people or too many people."
"Varonis offers robust data access governance, allowing us to understand which sensitive data exists and who has access to it."
"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."
"That alerting and reporting service is great."
"The telemetry to capture everything and the reports are very easy to configure without having a developer degree."
"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."
 

Cons

"Their support program needs a lot of improvement. If you are stuck somewhere, getting their support can be difficult."
"We want a more proactive reporting structure."
"In a majority of cases, most of the companies are using DLP for endpoint sessions, where you have a user that might be communicating information outside of the company. However, they forget there are actual interfaces that can directly communicate with either the database or other files within the data center that uses end-to-end encryption. In those cases, you might need things like your DLP to be able to monitor and block some of that. The solution needs to catch information communicated through the data center on the server-side."
"What could be improved in Symantec Data Loss Prevention is its security. It should be more secure."
"Where things could be improved is that product engineering takes time to respond when we make a request. They get on a call for troubleshooting, but fixing the issue takes time."
"From a management perspective, it takes a lot of time to manage the infrastructure."
"The product's pricing and support services need improvement."
"We lost a POC despite installing 2,000 endpoints because Symantec Data Loss Prevention is more expensive compared to other solutions."
"It is significantly complex."
"For unstructured data monitoring, it's one of the top ones, if not the top one, due to its usability."
"I'd like to see automatic updates for this solution. Currently, it's a manual process to update all the keywords"
"The GUI should be more functional. There should be a process for connecting through Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc."
"I would like it to have cloud integration."
"The remediation process can be improved. There will be no existing permission group for the McAfee channel domains. We can create a new permissions group for the required folder."
"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 solution's areas of improvement are the interface and the dependency on on-premises deployment for some components."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Symantec DLP is fair. I don't recall the cost of the license, but it wasn't outrageous enough that it was an obstacle to approval. I'm not concerned with how much per seat or server, but I know they charge a lot."
"The solution should be less expensive to allow more people the opportunity to use it. Some of their competitors are less expensive. There is a license required to use the solution and we purchased an annual license."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"Support is a little costly, but you get what you pay for."
"The pricing is competitive and not pricey. We also receive corporate discounts."
"I think that it's an expensive product, even as an enterprise-suite product."
"Pricing is reasonable."
"The price is competitive."
"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."
"It's expensive, kind of, really expensive."
"The platform is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Symantec Data Loss Prevention?
It can prevent copying and encoding of HTTP data to various sites like Google, and Webex.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Data Loss Prevention?
I do not have an idea about pricing, as it is handled by another team responsible for procurements.
What needs improvement with Symantec Data Loss Prevention?
A main disadvantage of Symantec DLP is its reliance on Oracle, especially compared to other products like Forcepoint, which offer MSSQL database options that are more convenient.
What do you like most about Varonis Platform?
The solution has significantly improved data security and compliance posture by allowing us to track and monitor activities. We can see who accesses data and when files are created and understand w...
What needs improvement with Varonis Platform?
Varonis started as an on-premises solution and is transitioning to cloud. It hasn't fully moved yet, which is an area for improvement. Varonis requires more access permissions for its core function...
What is your primary use case for Varonis Platform?
The primary use case for Varonis Platform is data discovery, specifically for discovering sensitive data in our organization to protect it. We are looking for a solution that can scan our repositor...
 

Also Known As

Symantec DLP
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hadassah University Hospital, Her Majestys Government (HMG), United Kingdom, Hitachi Consulting Software Services India Pvt Ltd., Hua Nan Bank, Hyundai Department Store Group,JW Marriott Hotel Seoul, Lake Health, McCann Erickson Israel, Molina Healthcare Inc., PGi, Quilvest Switzerland Limited, State of Nevada Public Employees Benefits Program, Symantec Corporation (Enterprise Security), The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust (DLP), The Saudi Industrial Property Authority, TSO cloud, Visa, Yunnan Power Grid Company
Nottingham Building Society
Find out what your peers are saying about Symantec Data Loss Prevention vs. Varonis Platform and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.