Darktrace vs Claroty vs Dragos

Darktrace, Claroty, and Dragos are all cybersecurity vendors that focus—at least in part—on detecting and responding to threats in industrial/OT (operational technology) environments. However, they come at the problem from slightly different angles and have different emphases in their offerings:

1. Darktrace

Core Focus:
- Darktrace is well-known for its AI-driven, network-level anomaly detection across IT environments.
- It also has a specific OT/ICS product line (Darktrace Industrial) that applies the same machine learning/anomaly detection capabilities to industrial networks.
Key Differentiators:
- AI-based approach that analyzes network traffic in real time, looking for deviations from a “self-learned” baseline.
- Broad coverage across IT, cloud, email, and ICS/OT (though ICS is not Darktrace’s historical core—it's an extension).
- Known for its “Enterprise Immune System” marketing concept, which positions the technology as similar to a human immune system, reacting to unknown threats by spotting anomalies.
Strengths:
- Automatic, self-learning threat detection that doesn’t rely heavily on signatures or known threat indicators.
- Single platform spanning multiple environments (IT, OT, cloud), which can be attractive to organizations seeking unified visibility.
Limitations or Considerations:
- Some organizations want deeper, ICS-specific threat intelligence and context beyond anomaly detection—this is where specialized OT/ICS vendors might be preferred or paired with Darktrace.

2. Claroty

Core Focus:
- Claroty is an industrial cybersecurity company focusing on safe and secure OT/ICS environments.
- It has grown from asset discovery and network monitoring toward broader OT security offerings (including remote access solutions, risk management, and vulnerability management).
Key Differentiators:
- Deep visibility into ICS networks, including the ability to identify and categorize industrial assets and protocols.
- Purpose-built for OT/ICS environments, with strong integration capabilities for existing industrial control systems.
- Offers OT-centric remote access and risk management features in addition to threat detection.
Strengths:
- Specialized in ICS/OT protocols—supports a wide range of these protocols out of the box.
- Often integrates well with major industrial automation vendors.
- Good for organizations that prioritize ICS-focused threat detection, asset discovery, and vulnerability management in operational environments.
Limitations or Considerations:
- Primary focus is on OT/ICS. If an organization needs AI-driven detection across a broader IT environment (cloud, endpoints, email, etc.), Claroty might need to be supplemented with other solutions.

3. Dragos

Core Focus:
- Dragos is almost exclusively focused on ICS cybersecurity, including threat detection, incident response, and deep ICS-specific threat intelligence.
Key Differentiators:
- Known for its ICS-specific threat intelligence and deep expertise on ICS threats, TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures), and attacker groups.
- Offers a platform that provides threat detection, asset visibility, and playbooks for incident response specifically tailored to ICS environments.
Strengths:
- Very strong ICS threat intelligence. They maintain a dedicated team that investigates and tracks OT-specific cyber threats globally.
- Dragos often goes deeper on ICS-specific attack vectors than more general cybersecurity tools.
Limitations or Considerations:
- Focuses primarily on OT/ICS; minimal coverage of broader enterprise IT security.
- Might require integration with an IT-focused security solution to offer end-to-end coverage across corporate and industrial networks.

4. How They Compare

Breadth vs. Depth:
- Darktrace offers broader coverage across IT, cloud, and OT, with an AI approach to anomaly detection.
- Claroty and Dragos are heavily specialized in OT/ICS. They typically provide deeper visibility into industrial protocols and specialized threat intelligence for those environments.
Methodology:
- Darktrace: Anomaly-based, “immune system” approach, using machine learning to detect unusual behaviors.
- Claroty and Dragos: Combine asset discovery, OT-aware monitoring, and ICS-specific threat intelligence, often with signature-based detections for known ICS threats plus behavior/anomaly detection.
Threat Intelligence & Incident Response:
- Dragos is widely recognized for ICS threat intelligence and post-compromise services.
- Claroty has its own research wing (Team82) providing ICS vulnerability research and threat intelligence.
- Darktrace has “cyber AI analysts” but is less known for ICS-oriented threat intelligence and research compared to the others.

5. Competitive or Complementary?

Are They Competitors?
- In the ICS space, Darktrace Industrial, Claroty, and Dragos all tackle OT threat detection and security monitoring, so they often compete for the same OT visibility and detection budget.
- Larger organizations sometimes evaluate two or three of these solutions side by side.
Can They Be Complementary?
- In some cases, yes. Particularly when an organization wants a “best of both worlds” approach:
  - Darktrace might be deployed across the entire network for anomaly detection (IT + OT).
  - Claroty or Dragos might be layered on specifically in critical OT environments that demand deeper asset discovery, ICS-protocol-level analysis, and specialized threat intel.
- However, practically speaking, many organizations pick one solution for OT detection. Because all three can monitor and alert on ICS networks, overlap may be significant and often leads to an either/or decision.

6. Summary

Similarities:
- All provide network monitoring, threat detection, and security in an OT context.
- Each aims to improve visibility and reduce risk in industrial environments.
Differences:
- Darktrace: Broad-based AI tool for IT & OT, known for anomaly detection.
- Claroty: ICS/OT specialist with strong asset discovery and protocol support, plus remote access and risk management features.
- Dragos: ICS/OT specialist known for deep threat intelligence, incident response, and threat hunting in industrial settings.
Complementary vs. Competitive:
- There is significant overlap in OT threat detection; hence, they often compete.
- Some large enterprises use Darktrace for enterprise-wide anomaly detection and also implement Claroty or Dragos for deeper ICS insight.
- The decision usually hinges on whether you need generalized enterprise security coverage (including OT) vs. a specialized ICS/OT-focused platform (or both, but that can be more costly and require integration work).

Ultimately, if your primary need is dedicated ICS/OT visibility, vulnerability management, and specialized threat intelligence, you might gravitate toward Claroty or Dragos. If your organization values a single AI-driven platform spanning IT/OT with less ICS-specific detail, Darktrace might take priority. If resources permit and operational security is paramount, pairing a broad anomaly solution like Darktrace with a specialized ICS security solution can be considered—though in practice, many organizations will choose one solution for OT depending on technical requirements, budget, and security objectives.