Forescout vs. Dragos

 

Threat Detection Without Response

 

Talk to An Expert

 

“Forescout is the most advanced and mature OT network monitoring and intelligence platform available. We want to use it to automatically learn and validate network communication patterns, and to apply the most in depth analysis of industrial protocols to create network and protocol whitelists”

— Richard White, Cybersecurity Architect, Tennessee Department of Transportation

Why Customers Choose Forescout Over Dragos

While Dragos is busy flexing its OT muscles, the reality is that cyber threats don’t respect boundaries. Many incidents start in IT environments and migrate to OT systems, exploiting gaps that classic OT security products miss. By the time threats hit the OT domain, the damage may already be done. Forescout, however, offers comprehensive coverage across IT, OT, and IoT environments. No blind spots, no guesswork—just solid, all-around protection.

Zero Downtime Cybersecurity

Say Goodbye to Siloed Information

No more barriers to collaboration and information sharing across teams. With Forescout, you don’t need multiple products to gain visibility and control across all assets and systems. Our Platform covers IT, OT, IoT, and IoMT devices, providing seamless integration and comprehensive visibility.

Flexible Deployment

Real Value Straight Out of the Box

You don’t need to be an OT expert to experience the benefits. We offer immediate value with support for multiple use cases, including visibility, risk management, network security, threat detection and response. With Forescout you spend less time learning the software and more time using it effectively.

Accelerate Zero Trust initiatives

Scalable Security Without Compromise

Why settle for a solution that can’t scale with your business needs? At Forescout, we don’t flinch at the number of sites, devices, or the complexity of your requirements. Whether you choose Cloud, custom sensors, or direct integration, Forescout deploys seamlessly ensuring unified IT and OT security.

You can’t use a laser pointer when you need a flashlight

  • Narrow Focus, Limited Insight – Dragos offers industrial cybersecurity with a tight focus on ICS/OT assets, like a laser pointer—precise but not much help when you need broader visibility.

  • Data Without Actionability – Despite offering detailed OT asset data, Dragos fails to provide contextual information and actionable insights. It’s like having a map but no directions, leaving you lost without a clear way forward.

  • The Price of Full Visibility – Ready to juggle multiple point solutions just for full visibility? With Dragos, a single pane of glass comes at the cost of extensive fine-tuning and higher TCO.

The Forescout Advantage

Let's get straight to the point—security is about more than just keeping the lights on in your OT environment. Dragos might brag about being "built by defenders for defenders," but that’s just flashy marketing for a niche product that expects you to be an OT guru. Most security analysts don’t have the luxury (or desire) to specialize to such an extent. They need something versatile, intuitive, and more effective—like Forescout.

Vulnerabilities, Risk, and Compliance: A Fragmented Approach

  • The OT Tunnel Vision – Focusing only on OT risks and ignoring threats from interconnected IT and OT systems doesn’t make them disappear—it only makes you more vulnerable.

  • Not Built for Compliance – Dragos only supports a few use cases and doesn’t have a policy engine or predefined templates, it’s far from the best choice when it comes to managing and enforcing compliance.

  • Limited Risk Perspective – Risk prioritization is mainly based on vulnerabilities. Users cannot view threats from different angles or prioritize risks based on different metrics, which limits effective threat management.

The Forescout Advantage

How do you prioritize risk and vulnerabilities? By impact? Likelihood? Severity? Proximity? Exploitability? Device type? Internet exposure? At Forescout, we believe in giving you the ability to prioritize and analyse risks from every angle. That’s why we consider networking and operational risks in addition to cyber exposure, offering a variety of metrics, including our proprietary Vedere Labs KEV, to help you evaluate all possible scenarios from your own perspective.

All Bark, No Bite: Threat Detection Without Response

  • Good at alerting – Dragos excels at detecting threats but falls short on response. It’s like having a guard dog that barks but doesn’t bite—great at signalling danger, but not at handling the threat.

  • Built by Defenders, Yet Falling Short – Surprisingly lacking essential event handling features to ease the analyst’s job, speed up triage and classification, or automate SOC workflows.

  • Basic Integration, Limited Automation – Dragos’s orchestration capabilities are limited to basic use cases and struggle to scale or automate responses across multiple sites and technologies.

The Forescout Advantage

Stuxnet and Triton may make headlines, but security analysts face countless routine, time-consuming threats every day. Forescout proactively identifies and addresses these threats and automates the remediation process, giving analysts more time for more important tasks. This increases efficiency, reduces costs and strengthens your security posture, allowing your team to focus on what matters most.

Dragos Fail to Execute Key Use Cases Outside the OT Domain

Analyst Recognition

According to Gartner, by 2025, 75% of OT security solutions will be interoperable with IT security solutions and delivered via multifunction platforms. The Gartner Market Guide for OT Security provides a holistic assessment of the current state of this changing market to help future-proof your OT cybersecurity strategy.

read the gartner market guide

Validated by Customers

Major European Defense Company Deploys Building Automation System Security & SOC Integration for Critical Manufacturing

The customer deployed eyeInspect (formerly SilentDefense) to improve BAS and ICS threat detection capabilities for critical production plants of defense components.

read the case study
Forescout Dragos
Visibility Complete ICS Coverage
Unmatched visibility across your entire ICS environment — IT, OT, IoT, IoMT and building automation systems. Forescout offers over 20 active and passive discovery methods to ensure you can see and secure every device, leaving no blind spots behind.		 Incomplete Without Add-Ons
Dragos’ strong focus on OT means you need add-ons to achieve full visibility. The solution also lacks comprehensive features for managing inventory and baselines, handling exceptions or fine-tuning asset discovery and classification.
Network Security Unmatched Network Security
Forescout excels in the field of network security, covering everything from NAC and segmentation to Zero Trust. We help you develop and enforce dynamic access and segmentation policies and ensure that all connected devices meet strict security standards.		 Basic Network Security
Dragos lacks a robust policy engine for managing complex scenarios across multiple technologies. It mainly relies on sharing asset and network flow information with third-party tools to support very basic NAC and segmentation use cases.
Risk Comprehensive Risk Management
With Forescout you can identify, prioritize and mitigate cybersecurity risks across your entire organization, not just OT networks. Advanced capabilities address vulnerabilities, prioritize cyber, network and operational risks, and streamline remediation to ensure comprehensive compliance.		 OT-Only Risk Management
Dragos provides basic risk management tailored exclusively to OT environments and lacks the versatility required for widespread enterprise use. Its methodology relies primarily on vulnerabilities with limited additional indicators and provides limited prioritization option or actionable insights for effective threat mitigation.
Threat Detection Actionable Threat Detection
Forescout provides reliable threat detection with high-fidelity event classification and advanced tuning capabilities to minimize false positives and correlate alerts. The persona-based view empowers security analysts with contextual information and actionable insights that streamline tasks and ensure accurate, efficient event analysis. 		Good Detection, Poor Execution
While Dragos provides solid detection supported by extensive playbooks, the user interface lacks essential features for efficient event handling. Less experienced users struggle to navigate the information to gain actionable insights. It also misses key features to manage large volumes of alerts, suppress false positives, and consolidate events.
Incident Response Enterprise Incident Response
Forescout can orchestrate and automate response actions across your existing third-party products, accelerating responses to emerging threats. This capability covers not just OT but also cloud, campus, remote, and data center environments.		 Service, Not a Feature
Dragos treats incident response more as an add-on service than a core feature. This approach reveals its limitations in handling incidents and orchestrating or automating remediation workflows across diverse technologies.

Talk to an Expert

The right cybersecurity partner makes all the difference. Discover why customers choose Forescout for peace of mind and reliable protection across IT, IoT, and OT environments.

Forescout Dashboard Product Screenshot

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