What users are saying about

Cisco Umbrella vs Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

Cisco Umbrella
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Top Rated
105 Ratings
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
6 Ratings

Cisco Umbrella

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Top Rated
105 Ratings
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Score 8.5 out of 100

Based on 105 reviews and ratings

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

6 Ratings
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Score 9 out of 100

Based on 6 reviews and ratings

Likelihood to Recommend

Cisco Umbrella

I think Cisco Umbrella is well suited for almost all organizations. It works so well that both a small business and a large business can use it without issues. Technically it can even be used by devices that don't support the client installer, so it can basically be used anywhere by anyone. The only downside to Cisco Umbrella is that it doesn't fully support Terminal Servers, in that it won't do user-based filtering, which can be a deal-breaker.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

For those with some investment in Palo Alto already in particular I would say that you can do well with Cortex XDR. People already using the Wildfire machine learning antimalware service in the firewall will find a nice overlap of visibility here. But I would say they may either want to consider a higher license tier than just Protect or consider something like Crowdstrike which seems to do a better job of showing what a given alert means and therefore how you might want to respond. We will probably POC Crowdstrike at the end of our license.

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Allan Crittenden Edwards | TrustRadius Reviewer
Allan Crittenden Edwards
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Feature Rating Comparison

Incident Response Platforms

Cisco Umbrella
—
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
8.2
Company-wide Incident Reporting
Cisco Umbrella
—
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
8.0
Integration with Other Security Systems
Cisco Umbrella
—
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
6.0
Attack Chain Visualization
Cisco Umbrella
—
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
5.0
Centralized Dashboard
Cisco Umbrella
—
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
10.0
Machine Learning to Prevent Incidents
Cisco Umbrella
—
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
10.0
Live Response for Rapid Remediation
Cisco Umbrella
—
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
10.0

Pros

Cisco Umbrella

  • Filters content at the DNS level. Makes it a little harder for the sneaky ones to make it through.
  • Since this is at the DNS level, using their DNS servers (as a forwarder to your local DNS) it is extremely fast. Transparent.
  • Always being updated. Not dependent on "definitions" or algorithms - a site is either blacklisted or whitelisted.
  • Easy to implement, apply, maintain

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Dan Reynolds | TrustRadius Reviewer
Dan Reynolds
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Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

  • Protection from advanced malware threats.
  • Cloud hosted service with good management interface.
  • Supports Windows, Mac, Linux (and Android, but I haven't tried that).

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Allan Crittenden Edwards | TrustRadius Reviewer
Allan Crittenden Edwards
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Cons

Cisco Umbrella

  • Keeping up to date on known malicious sites and blocking those is difficult for all vendors, but this could always be improved upon.
  • A more detailed descriptions of what is included the Security Categories would be useful. Generic descriptions are provided. For example, state lottery sites could be detailed in the description of the Gambling category.

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Randy Zuehlke | TrustRadius Reviewer
Randy Zuehlke
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Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

  • Showing the significance of behavior based alerts. It is hard to understand what is implicated by these alerts.
  • Rollout to Macs was a challenge for us because of the permissions that have to be allowed. Endpoint management could have helped with this.
  • Still waiting for support in the Palo Alto Splunk app for logs from Cortex.

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Allan Crittenden Edwards | TrustRadius Reviewer
Allan Crittenden Edwards
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Likelihood to Renew

Cisco Umbrella

Cisco Umbrella 10.0
Based on 3 answers
It is a great product. It is easy to manage and is affordable. We are a Cisco shop, so it is easily integrated with our other security suite of products to include Threat Response and SecureX.

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Randy Zuehlke | TrustRadius Reviewer
Randy Zuehlke
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Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Usability

Cisco Umbrella

Cisco Umbrella 9.4
Based on 4 answers
The product was easy to install and get running. To maintain the product is also a simple matter of maintaining lists of wanted and unwanted domains or URLs. The basic and advanced security features all do what they are intended to do with no known erroneous outcomes

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Randy Zuehlke | TrustRadius Reviewer
Randy Zuehlke
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Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR 9.0
Based on 1 answer
Cortex has a beautiful dashboard that is fairly easy to configure once you understand how policies work. My suggestion would be to definitely watch some of their training videos on copying and modifying the default policies before attempting to set anything up. But once you know, it is easy. Using endpoint management software (SCCM/JAMF/etc) for deployment is a must.

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Allan Crittenden Edwards | TrustRadius Reviewer
Allan Crittenden Edwards
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Support Rating

Cisco Umbrella

Cisco Umbrella 8.2
Based on 54 answers
We have been Cisco fans for quite some time. This product / support team lives up to expectations and the high degree of service we have come to expect from them. Whenever we had any sort of question / issue (which there were not many, as this was fairly seamless to integrate) they were responsive and helpful towards finding a solution

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR 8.0
Based on 1 answer
Cortex XDR ranks high for its abilities in prevention. We do see malware that Cortex is able to stop that is undetected by Microsoft's endpoint protection. But it seems comparable products such as Crowdstrike may do better in providing details around alerts. Without this context we can't mount a more thorough response to alerts because we don't have the appropriate information to do so.

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Allan Crittenden Edwards | TrustRadius Reviewer
Allan Crittenden Edwards
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Implementation Rating

Cisco Umbrella

Cisco Umbrella 9.0
Based on 2 answers
Overall, the implementation was smooth with little issues. Testing some of the advanced features and ensuring they did not impact our user population was the greatest challenge

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Randy Zuehlke | TrustRadius Reviewer
Randy Zuehlke
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Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Umbrella

At the time that we purchased Cisco Umbrella, then OpenDNS, we did not evaluate other products. Since then, several competing products have been released. I intend to evaluate these in the future, as we have not been happy overall with Cisco Umbrella. The unexpected side effects and poor support have been very frustrating.

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Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Verified User
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Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

We had MS Endpoint Protection in place. It is still useful for catching basic known commodity malware. But Palo Alto Cortex XDR shines in the fact that it can capture malware that has never been seen before. It has caused pen testers to get stopped in their tracks rather than pivoting to another system. That said, we are still very interested in Crowdstrike next license cycle so we can better visualize the attack timeline and understand the significance of alerts.

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Allan Crittenden Edwards | TrustRadius Reviewer
Allan Crittenden Edwards
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Return on Investment

Cisco Umbrella

  • Saved us lots of technician time dealing w/ Malware and virus issues, I don't think we've had a malware incident this year for example. This was the main reason we bought the product in the first place. We've renewed 2 times because we see the value.
  • Umbrella helped us reduce the risk of CryptoLocker variants infecting our clients.

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Todd Swartzman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Todd Swartzman
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Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

  • Cortex XDR has stopped malware from executing on EMU machines.
  • Cortex XDR has saved time managing endpoint protection.

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Allan Crittenden Edwards | TrustRadius Reviewer
Allan Crittenden Edwards
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Pricing Details

Cisco Umbrella

General

Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
No

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR

General

Free Trial
—
Free/Freemium Version
—
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—
Entry-level set up fee?
No

Rating Summary

Likelihood to Recommend

Cisco Umbrella
8.6
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
7.0

Likelihood to Renew

Cisco Umbrella
10.0
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
—

Usability

Cisco Umbrella
9.4
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
9.0

Support Rating

Cisco Umbrella
8.2
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
8.0

Implementation Rating

Cisco Umbrella
9.0
Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR
—

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