CRITICALSTART vs Expel comparison

Critical Start and Expel are both solutions in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category. Critical Start is ranked #32, while Expel is ranked #28. Critical Start holds a 0.7% mindshare in MDR, compared to Expel’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Critical Start users are willing to recommend the solution.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 18, 2024

We compared Expel Workbench and CRITICALSTART based on our user reviews across 5 parameters. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

Expel Workbench is applauded for its simplicity, automation, customizable alerts, and reasonable pricing. Users find the interface confusing and suggest improvements in integration and customer support response times. CRITICALSTART offers advanced threat detection, real-time monitoring, and excellent customer support. Users appreciate its interface but point out areas for improvement in UI navigation, reporting, integrations, and response times.

Features: Expel Workbench stands out for its easy-to-use dashboard and automated response capabilities. Users value its customizable alerts and notifications. CRITICALSTART is prized for its advanced threat detection system and real-time monitoring features. The user-friendly interface and responsive customer support also receive high praise.

Pricing and ROI: Expel Workbench setup costs have been praised for their reasonable pricing and value, with users highlighting the straightforward process and varied licensing options. CRITICALSTART's setup costs are also seen as competitive and offer flexibility, allowing businesses to customize services based on specific needs. Expel Workbench users found an impressive ROI, noting value and impact on business. Its user-friendly platform significantly enhanced security operations. CRITICALSTART highlighted increased security and threat detection effectiveness for ROI.

Room for Improvement: Expel Workbench users found the user interface and reporting features need improvement, as well as better integration with other platforms. CRITICALSTART users highlighted the difficulty in navigating the interface, limited integrations, and the need for enhanced reporting and customer support.

Deployment and Customer Support: Expel Workbench is praised for its simplicity and effectiveness in deployment, with clear setup instructions and useful documentation. Users appreciate CRITICALSTART for its smooth implementation, ease of use, and helpful support in ensuring trouble-free deployment. Customers appreciate Expel Workbench for their responsive, knowledgeable, and exceeding support. CRITICALSTART is known for prompt responses, knowledgeable team members, and beneficial resolutions for clients.

The summary above is based on interviews we conducted recently with Expel Workbench and CRITICALSTART users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.

To learn more, read our detailed Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Report (Updated: August 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

August 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Binary Defense MDR

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2024, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of Binary Defense MDR is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CRITICALSTART is 0.7%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Expel is 2.0%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

Featured Reviews

Paul Farley

Corporate Vice President | Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at NCR Voyix

Jul 1, 2024

Saves money, helps reduce false positives, and has excellent customization capabilities

Sometimes, something may not install right; however, whenever we have challenges, they are very solution-oriented and ready to figure things out. While my understanding is that they're working on this, I would like to see some more of the quantification or reporting. They're working on better detecting the impact they're having and what they're working on. That's an area they should continue to focus on. Having those metrics will be valuable. They just need to continue to be focused on Open MDR, and on being open to many tools and being broadly compatible across tool sets if possible. That's unique, and it is a differentiator in the marketplace.

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reviewer1395576

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

Aug 17, 2020

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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Quotes from Members

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

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."

"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 very good. They are definitely competitive and they were lower at the time that we went with them."

"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."

"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 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."

"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."

"Binary Defense MDR is priced competitively and may be slightly lower than CrowdStrike."

More Binary Defense MDR pricing and cost advice

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Healthcare Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

20%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

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.

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

The pricing is very competitive; it's on par with or below others. For those sensitive to pricing, I'd advise that th...

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What needs improvement with Binary Defense MDR?

Sometimes, something may not install right; however, whenever we have challenges, they are very solution-oriented and...

See all answers

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Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs Binary Defense MDR

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Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response vs CRITICALSTART

Compared 26% of the time

ReliaQuest GreyMatter vs CRITICALSTART

Compared 25% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon Complete MDR vs CRITICALSTART

Compared 18% of the time

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Red Canary vs Expel

Compared 28% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon Complete MDR vs Expel

Compared 19% of the time

Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response vs Expel

Compared 16% of the time

Wiz vs Expel

Compared 12% of the time

ReliaQuest GreyMatter vs Expel

Compared 12% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Binary Defense MDR

September 2024

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Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART

September 2024

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Buyer's Guide

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

August 2024

Download Expel product report

Also Known As

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

Critical Start, CriticalStart

Workbench, Expel SOC-as-a-Service

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Binary Defense

Critical Start

Video not available

Expel

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.

Expel offers comprehensive security monitoring and incident response, detecting threats efficiently, providing actionable insights, and reducing security risks. It enhances a company's security posture and frees up internal resources by integrating with existing security tools and offering support from experienced analysts.

Expel is designed for real-time monitoring, effective threat detection, and automated response capabilities. Users appreciate its intuitive dashboard, timely alerts, and comprehensive reporting. Integration with existing security systems and minimal maintenance requirements are key advantages. Customer support is noted as exceptional. Some users suggest improvements in alert categorization to reduce noise, a more intuitive dashboard design with better customization, faster response times, more comprehensive threat analysis reports, and enhanced communication with customer support.

What are Expel's key features?

Real-time monitoring: Continuously keeps track of potential threats and network activity.
Effective threat detection: Identifies suspicious behavior and potential security breaches quickly.
Automated response: Responds to threats automatically to mitigate risks efficiently.
Intuitive dashboard: User-friendly interface for navigating security operations.
Timely alerts: Provides immediate notifications about potential security incidents.
Comprehensive reporting: Generates detailed analyses of security events for better decision-making.
Integration capabilities: Works seamlessly with existing security systems.
Minimal maintenance: Requires little upkeep from internal teams.

What benefits should users look for in Expel?

Enhanced security posture: Strengthens overall defenses against cyber threats.
Resource optimization: Allows internal teams to focus on strategic tasks.
Experienced analysts: Provides expert support from seasoned security professionals.
Actionable insights: Delivers data-driven recommendations for security improvements.
Integration ease: Fits smoothly with pre-existing security tools and infrastructures.

Expel is implemented across various industries that require robust security measures. In the financial sector, it helps safeguard sensitive data and ensure compliance. Healthcare organizations use Expel to protect patient records and meet strict regulatory standards. Retail companies leverage its capabilities to secure customer information and transaction data, while manufacturing entities rely on Expel to secure intellectual property and operational technology networks.

Sample Customers

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

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Amanda Fennell CSO

Buyer's Guide

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

August 2024

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We monitor all Managed Detection and Response (MDR) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.