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Side by side

Cortex XSOAR vs Exaforce: facts side by side

The short answer

XSOAR is a SOAR product and Exaforce is an AI SOC analyst product. XSOAR adds AI inside SOAR, while Exaforce replaces SOAR. XSOAR documents on-premises, hybrid or customer-tenant hosting; Exaforce documents an optional service where its own people work the queue. We do not name a winner: which fits depends on your team, and the fit finder can order them by your answers.

By The Triage Desk · AI Cyber Compare · Published 2026-10-08

Desk research from public vendor pages: vendor facts read September 2026, updated 2026-10-13. Editorial reading of what vendors publish; we did not run the products and did not interview vendors.

How do XSOAR and Exaforce differ at a glance?

FactXSOARExaforce
Primary modelSOARAI SOC analyst
Also reaches intoAI SOC analystMDR
Position on SOARAdds AI inside SOARReplaces SOAR
Integrations900+ prebuilt integrations and automation packs; thousands of security actions in the Marketplace.130+ across IaaS, SaaS, identity, endpoint, SIEM, SOAR, email, ticketing, threat intel and AI.
DeploymentCortex XSOAR 8 SaaS, Cortex XSOAR 8 On-prem (end of life 30 September 2029 per Palo Alto documentation) and Cortex XSOAR 6.Not published
PricingNot publishedNot published
ComplianceNot reviewedNot reviewed
FundingNot in our sources$75M Series A (April 2025) and $125M Series B (May 2026), per Exaforce's newsroom.

Who carries each stage?

Cortex XSOAR

Work strip for Cortex XSOAR: Triage, rules you write; Investigate, shared; Respond, rules you write; Tune, your analysts; Nights and weekends, rules you write.TriageRules you writeInvestigateSharedRespondRules you writeTuneYour analystsNights and weekendsRules you write

Exaforce

Work strip for Exaforce: Triage, AI agent; Investigate, AI agent; Respond, shared; Tune, not described; Nights and weekends, provider's analysts.TriageAI agentInvestigateAI agentRespondSharedTuneNot describedNights and weekendsProvider's analysts
  • Your analysts
  • Rules you write
  • AI agent
  • Provider's analysts
  • Shared
  • Not described

Stages where they differ:

  • Triage: XSOAR rules you write, Exaforce AI agent
  • Investigate: XSOAR shared, Exaforce AI agent
  • Respond: XSOAR rules you write, Exaforce shared
  • Tune: XSOAR your analysts, Exaforce not described
  • Nights and weekends: XSOAR rules you write, Exaforce provider's analysts

Which capabilities does each document?

CapabilityXSOARExaforceDifference
Optional service where the vendor's people work the queueNot describedDocumentedDiffers
On-premises, hybrid or your own cloud tenantDocumentedNot describedDiffers
Runs response actions itselfDocumentedDocumented
Approval or sign-off before actionsDocumentedDocumented
Can act alone on some casesDocumentedDocumented
Translates existing SOAR playbooksNot describedNot described
Multi-tenant or MSSP offeringNot describedNot described
Single-tenant optionNot describedNot described
Data residency optionNot describedNot described
Integration count publishedDocumentedDocumented
Pricing unit or tiers publishedNot describedNot described

What are the strengths and limits of each?

XSOAR

Strengths

  • The largest integration and content catalog among the vendors here.
  • SaaS and on-premises editions, and a route to agents without migrating playbooks.

Limits

  • Investigation depth per alert still depends largely on the playbooks your team maintains.
  • Pricing is not published, and XSOAR 8 On-prem has a stated end-of-life date of 30 September 2029.

Exaforce

Strengths

  • Native response across endpoint, identity, cloud, SaaS and email, behind approval gates.
  • A choice of running it yourself or having Exaforce run it, on the same platform.

Limits

  • Deployment, tenancy and residency options are not described on the pages reviewed.
  • The only public price is a marketplace starter pack whose unit is not defined.

When would you choose XSOAR, and when Exaforce?

Choose XSOAR if you need:

  • on-premises, hybrid or customer-tenant hosting
  • The largest integration and content catalog among the vendors here.

Choose Exaforce if you need:

  • an optional service where its own people work the queue
  • Native response across endpoint, identity, cloud, SaaS and email, behind approval gates.

What does each vendor say about its own results?

XSOAR

Exaforce

Asked often about this page

Which is better, XSOAR or Exaforce?

We do not rank vendors. XSOAR documents on-premises, hybrid or customer-tenant hosting and Exaforce documents an optional service where its own people work the queue. The fit finder orders vendors by the needs your answers imply.

Do XSOAR and Exaforce publish pricing?

Neither publishes pricing on its own site.

Can XSOAR and Exaforce be used together?

Our sources do not describe an integration between XSOAR and Exaforce. Ask both vendors before planning to run them together.

Read next

Fit finderOrder vendors by the needs your answers imply.Which modelThe decision guide for all four models.XSOAR profilePalo Alto Networks' SOAR platform, with Cortex AgentiX described as its next generation.Exaforce profileAn agentic SOC in which Exabots handle detection, triage, investigation and response, run by your team or managed by Exaforce.