Thousands of organizations worldwide trust Darktrace’s unique approach to defend against known, novel and insider threats.
See for yourself why organizations of all sizes choose Darktrace to get better security outcomes in Network Detection and Response (NDR) and beyond.
Trusted by thousands of organizations globally, from small enterprises to the largest multinational organizations and governments
Darktrace is recognized as a Leader in NDR by Gartner® and IDC.
We also do so much more, from cloud to OT, email security, forensics and proactive security capabilities.
Discover why Darktrace was named as the only Customers’ Choice in the 2025 Gartner® Peer Insights™ Voice of the Customer for NDR.
Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences with the vendors listed on the platform, should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. The GARTNER PEER INSIGHTS CUSTOMERS’ CHOICE badge is a trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Darktrace. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Magic Quadrant and Peer Insights are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Multi-layered AI approach that understands normal behavior for each unique deployment. Builds a behavioral ‘pattern of life’ for every network entity that is updating continuously and dynamically.
AI is deployed locally and learns each unique environment from scratch, without relying on cloud processing via globally trained and centralized vendor models. In turn this also supports an air-gapped solution, helping maintain data sovereignty.
Uses machine learning (ML) to establish traditional baselines of expected
behavior, and learns based on historical and statistical observations (Source).
Telemetry is processed locally, but
behavioral analysis and machine
learning is split between local sensors and cloud processing via centralized vendor models (Source).
Self-Learning AI continually and autonomously learns each unique environment and eliminates most detection engineering efforts.
Minimal fine-tuning required over time, however each detection can be fine-tuned if desired.
Comprehensive and intuitive Model Editor to change existing models and create custom models. Native in the Darktrace UI with no scripting required.
Core detection methods may require ongoing manual tuning, rule creation, signature updates or threat intelligence ingestion (Source).
Basic manual tuning rules available via ‘Tuning Rules’ and ‘Tuning Parameters’ (Source).
Custom detections can be built with ‘Custom Triggers’ but requires manual scripting, user-defined code integration with the ExtraHop Trigger API (Source).
Uses advanced AI techniques to accurately detect known threats, novel attacker behavior and insider risks. Not reliant on known attack data, threat intelligence, or creating custom rules/signatures.
Not reliant on decryption to detect threats, however can decrypt network traffic if desired.
Proven to detect and contain zero-day threats on average 8 days before public CVE disclosure. (Source)
Detects known threats and attacker
behavior based on rule-based triggers, ML models and IDS detections (Source).
Emphasis on decrypted traffic analysis suggests ExtraHop is less able to detect lateral movement and advanced threats without decrypting network traffic, which can introduce deployment complexity, cost and privacy risks (Source).
Approach means ExtraHop is less equipped to detect zero-day exploitation, evolving attacker behaviors or emerging threats without prior threat intelligence, matching known CVEs or the creation of custom models (Source).
Darktrace Cyber AI Analyst™ is purpose-built, sophisticated agentic AI for security.
Autonomously performs end-to-end triage and investigation of all relevant alerts, including third-party alerts. Does not require any user interaction or prompting.
Mirrors the L1 + L2 human investigative process, continually investigating and updating hypotheses as new data is available. Shows clear investigation and decision logic and clear recommended actions.
Many public examples of transforming SOC workflows and investigating sophisticated threats. (Source)
Operates in fully air-gapped environments and is included by default with every deployment.
‘AI Search Assistant’ that is based on a generative AI core, which uses an LLM to process NLP queries from users (Source).
Requires human analysts to write their own prompts to perform ‘point-in-time’ queries of data. Does not operate autonomously, or continuously re-investigate based on new data (Source).
Requires a connection to ExtraHop Cloud Services, and user prompts may be stored by ExtraHop for analysis and product improvements, which may include any confidential data inputted by users (Source).
AI Search Assistant is disabled by
default and administrators must opt-in to share user prompts with the ExtraHop Machine Learning Service (Source).
Takes precise, behavioral response actions to contain threats at the earliest stages. Acts autonomously based on the context and behavioral understanding of the environment, containing known threats, ‘low and slow’ attacks and insider risks in real-time.
Autonomously applies the most appropriate action (fully natively or via third party integration) based on the severity of the threat, at machine speed.
Can enforce only normal activity for a device or user as a response action (pattern of life), while blocking anything else – containing threats while preventing business disruption.
5,000+ organizations use Darktrace in fully autonomous mode. Completely configurable.
Some automated response but requires integration with a third-party tool such as an EDR, firewall or SOAR to act. Not able to take native network-level actions (Source).
Automation only responds when a threat reaches a level of certainty or risk, which automates actions via REST API calls to integrated solutions. These include blocking of IPs and domains that are already known to be malicious, plus full device quarantines (Source).
‘Low and slow’ attacks require human analysts to validate detections and
respond manually, rather than autonomously containing a threat based on a behavioral and contextual understanding of the device and the environment (Source).
Extends far beyond NDR with a full platform that includes CDR, automated cloud forensics, specialist OT capabilities, native endpoint visibility, email security and the ability to secure enterprise usage of AI.
Full range of pre-emptive and proactive capabilities such as attack path modeling, exposure management, attack surface management, incident readiness and simulations.
Focuses primarily on NDR and NPM (Network Performance Monitoring).
No dedicated platform capabilities for securing enterprise usage of AI and connecting agent usage (or user prompts) to network behavior (Source).
Can cover OT and IoT, but is not recognized as a standalone OT solution by industry analysts such as Gartner (Source).
No native endpoint agent for remote worker and/or satellite office coverage if desired (Source).
No preemptive or proactive security products beyond an additional ‘Packet Forensics’ module (Source).
4.8* and 620+ reviews on Gartner Peer Insights as of July 2026 (Source).
Recognized as the Only Customer’s Choice Vendor in the 2025 Gartner® Peer Insights™ for Network Detection and Response.
4.7* and 413 reviews on Gartner Peer Insights as of July 2026. (Source)
This comparison has been prepared by Darktrace Holdings Limited using publicly available information believed to be reliable as of July 2026. It is provided for general informational purposes only, is not intended to be exhaustive, and may change over time as vendors update their offerings, so prospective customers should independently evaluate solutions based on their own requirements. Darktrace makes no representations, warranties, or assurances, whether express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, or currency of the information presented, including the suitability of any product or feature for any particular purpose. All trademarks, logos, and brand names referenced are the property of their respective owners.
Disclaimer: The 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Network Detection and Response (NDR) ,The 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Network Detection and Response (NDR), Thomas Lintemuth, Charanpal Bhogal, Nahim Fazal, 18 May 2026.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Gartner® Peer Insights™ content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences, and should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Magic Quadrant and Peer Insights are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Customer story
“I don’t see any other way other than Darktrace. It learns from our network using unsupervised machine learning and looks at our traffic. Any deviation will be alerted. That’s a beautiful thing.”
Jagadeesh Reddy Bhimireddy, Director of Information Security
Protect your organization from known, unknown and insider threats. See what Darktrace's AI can find in your environment.
Darktrace detects threats in encrypted traffic without needing decryption by analyzing rich metadata and behavioral patterns rather than payload content. This includes analysis of metadata such as packet headers and session parameters including origin, destination, data volumes, TLS handshake details, and JA3/JA3S fingerprints to learn what is “normal” and surface anomalies.
Darktrace Self‑Learning AI also models the typical behavior of devices and users. Even in fully encrypted sessions, unusual destinations, uncommon user agents, rare JA3 hashes, or abnormal data transfer patterns become detectable signals that can be used to detect known, novel and insider threats.
Encrypted traffic analysis using Darktrace's methods is very effective, and Darktrace has published many advanced or new threat findings involving some or nearly all encrypted traffic, notably using traffic feature rarity analysis (e.g. connecting to a rare internet destination with a rare user agent or JAx).
Darktrace covers hybrid networks with native coverage across IT, OT, hybrid cloud, remote worker endpoints, identities, SaaS, ZTNA and much more. With a range of deployment options and sensors available, Darktrace can cater for even the largest and most complex modern networks.
Yes, Darktrace is capable of operating in fully air-gapped environments without significant loss of functionality. Unlike many other NDR vendors, threat hunting capabilities (such as Darktrace Advanced Search) and the creation of custom detection and response models (via the Darktrace Model Editor) do not require a cloud connection and can be utilized completely offline. They also do not incur any additional cost or require additional licensing.
“Darktrace supports full functionality for air-gapped deployments, eliminating the need for cloud connectivity required by some NDR solutions. This is appealing to buyers with cyber physical systems (CPS) or classified environments.” - 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for NDR
Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI detects anything that is considered anomalous for a network entity or a peer group of devices, based on its continual understanding of what is normal for the environment. However, just because something is ‘anomalous’, does not mean it is suspicious or malicious.
That's where Darktrace's Cyber AI Analyst comes in. It is sophisticated agentic AI that automatically triages and investigates all relevant alerts, including third party alerts, to determine what is suspicious and/or interesting for a human SOC analyst to review. It autonomously contextualizes alerts across multiple security domains to generate high-fidelity incidents, which are prioritized so analysts know exactly where to spend their time. This also typically results in a very low number of incidents that need to be addressed by security teams.
Yes, Darktrace has +100 integrations to seamlessly operate alongside your existing technology stack, including security tools such as EDRs, firewalls and SASE, plus workflow solutions such as ServiceNow and Jira. Darktrace has the most integrations in the NDR industry* and does not require additional licensing to ingest or export data to/from third party tools.
*IDC MarketScape for NDR, 2024.
