CRITICALSTART vs eSentire comparison

Critical Start and eSentire are both solutions in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category. Critical Start is ranked #32, while eSentire is ranked #26 with an average rating of 7.0. Critical Start holds a 0.8% mindshare in MDR, compared to eSentire’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Critical Start users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of eSentire users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

eSentire and CRITICALSTART are competing cybersecurity solutions, with each offering unique benefits. While eSentire receives praise for pricing and deployment, CRITICALSTART's advanced features make it a preferred choice for comprehensive solutions despite higher costs.

Features: eSentire focuses on strong threat detection and response capabilities, streamlined system integration, and effective security measures. CRITICALSTART is recognized for customizable security postures, extensive analytics capabilities, and adaptability for varying security needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: eSentire is noted for ease of deployment and an efficient onboarding process, alongside strong customer support. CRITICALSTART involves a more detailed setup with comprehensive initial configuration, offering in-depth guides and expert assistance.

Pricing and ROI: eSentire provides competitive setup costs with an emphasis on long-term cost-effectiveness. CRITICALSTART requires a higher initial investment, which is justified by its extensive features providing substantial ROI over time.

To learn more, read our detailed CRITICALSTART vs. eSentire Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART vs. eSentire

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Binary Defense MDR

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of Binary Defense MDR is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CRITICALSTART is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of eSentire is 1.6%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

Featured Reviews

Rich Ullom

AVP, IT Security Compliance and Audit/Information Security Officer at Western Reserve Group

Worth the money, fantastic communication, and fast service with an average response time of about four minutes on an alert

This is my third SOC. I have never had anybody react as well. So, it's hard for me to provide something that they could do better because I'm really happy with them. I just signed another three-year contract with them. I don't find any downside to them, but if I have to put one, it would be consistent manpower or staffing. The only area where the solution can be improved is going to be with people. As they grow, they are struggling with the same thing that every other company is, which is getting talent and getting that talent to stay, but they've just revised their tiering system to go from a flat analyst and manager to a three-tier solution where it goes through two or three before it gets elevated. That seems to have worked out well, so if one level misses it, the next one picks it up, and it works out fine. Consistent staffing is the only challenge they have because when you're hiring level-one analysts, you go through them pretty quickly. You'll probably hire them at 50K or 55K, and after they do it for a year, they find out they can make 85K somewhere else, and they bounce. So, their turnover is a little high, but that's it.

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reviewer1395576

Cyber Security Manager at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Offers the ability to close review tickets or alerts through a mobile phone and to interact with engineers on their side via the app

They could dig a little bit deeper into the Splunk alerts when they feel like they need to be escalated to us. For example, if a locked account shows up, they could do a little extra digging to verify that the locked account was due to a bad password on the local system. They could just do a little extra digging within the Splunk environment instead of pushing it onto us to go do that extra little digging. We actually created dashboards for our help desk group to be able to hunt down locked down accounts. We've asked CRITICALSTART to start using that as a means of validating the lockdown accounts before they just start escalating them to us. If we go down the endpoint protection route, then I could probably have other input after I've used that for a while.

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reviewer2136705

Independent Information Technology Consultant at a non-profit with 1-10 employees

A solid product for security, but the MSP program should be simpler

Their MSP program should be made much more simple. It's too convoluted in its process. They have two different kinds of people that sell their product. They have resellers and MSPs. A reseller would just be a company going and saying that I need licenses, and that in turn goes to eSentire, which then goes to the customer, and they do the transaction. We were on the MSP side. We were the ones who took a potential customer to eSentire, and we were the ones who closed the deals. We were the ones who went through everything, and in the end, it was just a notice saying that let's spin up a new tenant. That's the kind of difference we're talking about. From my standpoint, their MSP program, in general, needed to be worked on. It should be made much more simple. It's too convoluted in its process. I know it was in the process of being revamped, and as of the end of January, it was not finished. That was the last contact I had with eSentire, but I know that, at this point of the year, they were supposed to have rolled that new MSP program out to take care of all of the negative things. They were going through that process and making it much better. Once they get that implemented, they will be a good, solid vendor.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"One of the main benefits of Binary Defense MDR is the ability to easily meet with their support team to discuss any issues we encounter."

"Binary Defense has a human service department that provides live monitoring for our systems."

"The case interface is Binary Defense MDR's most valuable feature."

"The best part about Binary Defense MDR is that it runs on everything, and they keep an eye on things 24/7."

"The most valuable part of Binary Defense is its team of cybersecurity analysts. Their analysts filter out the noise and only forward the critical threats that require a response instead of false positives."

"In the six months we have been with Binary Defense on this, they run with the ball. They take care of our problems. When we get a ticket, they do not just give us a report."

"The customization has been the most valuable aspect and was really the reason we ended up selecting Binary Defense. They worked with us to provide exactly the level of support, features, response, and collaboration we needed."

"Binary Defense is comprehensive. We see most of the questionable activity. Once you see things a couple of times and are familiar with the processes, you know what those are. The level of activity is definitely favorable."

More Binary Defense MDR pros

"Outside of using the platform to manage alerts, the feature of the service that we get the most value from is being able to reach out to them and say, "Hey, we might go buy a SIEM," for example. They give us their overview of what's out there, what they've dealt with, what they integrate with, and what that looks like. That's been pretty powerful over the years for us."

"The new mobile app is awesome. It is one of the best I've ever seen. It's much better than its predecessor. It's more intuitive, a whole lot easier to navigate and get where you need to go. It's less repetitive and just generally easier to use. It allows me to not have to be sitting at my computer all the time. I can be on my phone or tablet or wherever I'm at. It makes it a lot easier to answer tickets and do that kind of thing."

"I also use their mobile app. It's very easy to use and very convenient to be able to respond to alerts wherever you are. I love the app. You can respond and communicate, per ticket, with their SOC in near real-time. The response is very quick."

"From where we were prior to going into them, the service has increased our analysts’ efficiency to the point that they can focus on other areas of the business. It gives me the ability to allow analysts to do Level 3 and 4 work and stay out of the weeds of the alerts, where you tend to get alert fatigue. The service takes care of much of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 triage. It is more effective than what we had been used to, because it allows the filtering of Level 1 and Level 2 type alerts to be taken care of. This leaves less for us to handle, which is a good thing."

"There is a team of people who monitor our traffic and processes 24/7, so if anything raises a flag or alert, it will escalate back to me right away. That's the most incredible part: Humans working behind the scenes 24/7 to monitor our networks."

"Customer service and their response are phenomenal. I would give their customer support a nine point five (out of 10). Our easy access to their SOC analyst, sales team, and leadership team instills confidence in me that they are there for us 24/7."

"The way that the user interface presents data enables our team to be able to make decisions significantly quicker, rather than have to dig into the details or go back to the original tools."

"There are two parts of CRITICALSTART's services that are most valuable to us. The MDR solution where they monitor our computers, laptops, and users across the board; and their knowledge of Palo Alto firewalls."

More CRITICALSTART pros

"The managed detection response (MDR) product was the most valuable."

"The Managed Detection and Response (MDR) feature was really good and most valuable. We were handling very sensitive data, and we needed a quick response in real-time, which eSentire provided. It was also cost-effective, and their SOC team was very responsive."

Cons

"I don't find any downside to them, but if I have to put one, it would be consistent manpower or staffing. The only area where the solution can be improved is going to be with people. As they grow, they are struggling with the same thing that every other company is, which is getting talent and getting that talent to stay, but they've just revised their tiering system to go from a flat analyst and manager to a three-tier solution where it goes through two or three before it gets elevated. That seems to have worked out well, so if one level misses it, the next one picks it up, and it works out fine."

"The only area for improvement that I can think of relates to statistical analysis for SLAs. They are in the middle of moving to a new product called D3 which is going to do some backend work for them. I know they are working to improve some of the help desk statistics, such as the time the tickets open and the time they are closed."

"I would like to get more reports from Binary Defense about what they're blocking."

"The current reporting system could benefit from improvement."

"If I were shopping for an MDR solution today, I would not only look for a company that has the ability to alert, detect, and remediate, but also the ability to integrate vulnerability management. That's a big thing that they're lacking today."

"The most significant area for improvement is in support for non-English speakers; we're a global organization, so many of our users are not English speakers, which can make interacting with them a challenge. There's no Chinese language support, so we must rely on what we can do with the internet. We don't expect Binary Defense to build a language staff, but details can get lost in translation when we assume the whole world speaks English."

"We found a couple of bugs in the user interface."

"While my understanding is that they're working on this, I would like to see some more of the quantification or reporting."

More Binary Defense MDR cons

"During the six-month integration and rollout, there were some bumpy roads along the way. There were communication breakdowns between the project manager, CRITICALSTART leadership, and us (as the customer). I expressed my displeasure during the integration in their inability to effectively communicate when there were holdups or issues. They were going through some growing pains at that time, but they have been right there for us ever since."

"They could dig a little bit deeper into the Splunk alerts when they feel like they need to be escalated to us. For example, if a locked account shows up, they could do a little extra digging to verify that the locked account was due to a bad password on the local system. They could just do a little extra digging within the Splunk environment instead of pushing it onto us to go do that extra little digging."

"There is room for improvement with the new UI, and that's about it. I would like to see a more intuitive design."

"The biggest room for improvement is not necessarily in their service or offering, but in the products that they support. I would like them to further their knowledge and ability to integrate with those tools. They have base integrations with everything, and we haven't come across anything. They should just continue to build on that API interface between their applications and other third-party consoles."

"They just did a user interface overhaul to the website portal that you use for troubleshooting tickets. The old one was fine. The new one is not intuitive..."

"The updated UI is actually pretty bad. Regarding the intuitiveness, it is fairly easy to use, but the responsiveness, on a scale of one to 10, is a one. It's really poor performance."

"In terms of responsiveness, when I open up an alert, sometimes it takes a bit of time to load. However, it only happened once or twice."

"It has frustrated us that they don't have a native Slack integration, because most things do now. That's something we've asked for, for years, and it just doesn't really seem like it's a priority."

More CRITICALSTART cons

"Its GUI can be a lot better."

"From my standpoint, their MSP program, in general, needed to be worked on. It should be made much more simple. It's too convoluted in its process. I know it was in the process of being revamped, and as of the end of January, it was not finished."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's valued at the right price. Even with the number of endpoints we have, we don't feel that it's a lot more than any competitor. In fact, it might be less expensive when you look at the fact that you're getting a full flex SOC out of it along with the tools."

"From the initial cost that Binary Defense came in with, we pared it down quite a bit over the course of 30 or 60 days. My leadership would say that their cost was high, but realistically, they were in line with the market."

"Binary Defense has changed its pricing model from being primarily based on the volume of data to one based on escalations and incidents they handle."

"The pricing isn't that bad, it's very competitive. I don't feel that it's over-priced and I don't feel that it's under-priced."

"The pricing is on target. Working with their sales team on pricing negotiations was a pleasant process. They were very respectful of the constraints we had and I feel that we're paying a fair price."

"After we acquired this platform, we met with a number of different vendors. Binary Defense came in with a proposal that was surprisingly affordable. In fact, we were able to recoup the cost of their services within a short period of time. This is because Binary Defense is able to provide the same level of security as a team of two or three in-house analysts but at a fraction of the cost. As a result, Binary Defense is saving us an estimated $250,000 to $300,000 per year."

"It has been good. We have saved money, and we have a better product."

"The solution's price is spot on; if anything, it's slightly below the norm for most services. Compared to building the same team internally, it would cost more to create the same amount of capability than what we get from an external team. Price-wise, Binary Defense is in a great spot."

More Binary Defense MDR pricing and cost advice

"The pricing of other services was so insane that they weren't even an option."

"There are contractual penalties if their SLAs are not met. This commitment was very important in our decision to go with this service, because not having downtime is extremely important to us. The providers has not missed an SLA in the 18 months that I have worked with them."

"It costs a lot for what we felt comfortable to spend."

"As far as the expense goes, it's very competitive pricing and the services you get are almost like you have a person on your team."

"I've told CRITICALSTART that I think the managed service they provide is cheaper than it should be. It's a really good deal."

"Overall, for what I'm paying for it, and the benefit I'm getting out of it, it is right where it needs to be, if not a little bit in my favor. For what it costs me to actually have this service, I could afford one internal person to do that job, but now I have a team of 10 or more who are doing that job, and they don't sleep because they work shifts."

"The pricing has always been competitive. They have always been good to us. They will make it a fight. They don't try to hide anything; it's always been fully transparent and well-worth what we pay for it."

"It was cost-effective and not very expensive. Licensing was on a yearly basis. There were no additional costs to the standard licensing fee."

"The MSP model we were in needed some work. It was not MSP-friendly, which means that an MSP is going to say that I have five thousand endpoints that I will eventually get to you, but for now, we're gonna start moving and let me purchase a thousand. So, you buy a thousand licenses, and you ramp up to that thousand. When you're ready to move on, you buy the next how many. That's the way an MSP likes to work, whereas it was a little bit different with eSentire. You had to purchase specific amounts for specific customers. It wasn't very friendly when it came to pricing for MSPs."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Healthcare Company

10%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Binary Defense MDR?

The most valuable feature is reviewing tickets and the notes added by technicians.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Binary Defense MDR?

It has been good. We have saved money, and we have a better product. We are a company that has become an enterprise f...

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What needs improvement with Binary Defense MDR?

We are going to have a meeting with them the following Monday. It will be our first quarterly business review. Half o...

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What do you like most about eSentire?

The managed detection response (MDR) product was the most valuable.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for eSentire?

The MSP model we were in needed some work. It was not MSP-friendly, which means that an MSP is going to say that I ha...

See all answers

What needs improvement with eSentire?

Their MSP program should be made much more simple. It's too convoluted in its process. They have two different kinds ...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Binary Defense MDR

December 2024

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Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART

December 2024

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Buyer's Guide

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

December 2024

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Also Known As

Binary Defense Vision, Binary Defense Managed Detection and Response, Binary Defense Managed Detection & Response

Critical Start, CriticalStart

No data available

Learn More

Binary Defense

Critical Start

eSentire

Overview

Binary Defense provides a Managed Detection and Response service using an Open XDR strategy that detects and isolates threats early in the attack lifecycle. Expert security analysts in the Binary Defense Security Operations Center leverage an attacker’s mindset, monitoring your environments for security events 24x7x365 and acting as an extension of your security teams. When a security event occurs, Binary Defense analysts triage, disposition, and prioritize the event. Analysts conduct full kill chain analysis and supply tactical and strategic mitigation recommendations to your security team with the goal of increasing your organization’s security posture against the latest adversary threats.

Visit us online at https://www.binarydefense.com

The cybersecurity landscape is growing more complex by the day with the arrival of new threats and new tools supposedly designed for combating them. The problem is it’s all creating more noise and confusion for security professionals to sort through.

CRITICALSTART is the only MDR provider committed to eliminating acceptable risk and leaving nothing to chance. They believe that companies should never have to settle for “good enough.” Their award-winning portfolio includes end-to-end Professional Services and Managed Detection and Response (MDR). CRITICALSTART MDR puts a stop to alert fatigue by leveraging the Zero Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP) plus the industry-leading Trusted Behavior Registry, which eliminates false positives at scale by resolving known-good behaviors. Driven by 24x7x365 human-led, end-to-end monitoring, investigation and remediation of alerts, their on-the-go threat detection and response capabilities are enabled via a fully interactive MOBILESOC app.

eSentire is the largest pure-play Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service provider, keeping organizations safe from constantly evolving cyber-attacks that technology alone cannot prevent. Its 24x7 Security Operations Center (SOC), staffed by elite security analysts, hunts, investigates, and responds in real-time to known and unknown threats before they become business disrupting events.

Sample Customers

Securitas USA, Black Hills Energy, Lincoln Electric,The J.M. Smuckers Company, New York Community Bank, State of Connecticut, NCR

Information Not Available

Melissa & Doug, Mavenir System, COMMONFUND

Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART vs. eSentire

December 2024

Free Report: CRITICALSTART vs. eSentire

Find out what your peers are saying about CRITICALSTART vs. eSentire and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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