CrowdStrike Falcon vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR comparison

CrowdStrike and Qualys are both solutions in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category. CrowdStrike is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5, while Qualys is ranked #73. CrowdStrike holds a 7.8% mindshare in EDR, compared to Qualys’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of CrowdStrike users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 11, 2026

CrowdStrike Falcon and Qualys Multi-Vector EDR compete in the endpoint security space. CrowdStrike appears to have an edge due to its swift threat detection and AI capabilities, while Qualys stands out with its comprehensive vulnerability management.

Features: CrowdStrike Falcon emphasizes real-time detection and response, offering robust threat intelligence, behavioral analysis, and endpoint protection. Qualys Multi-Vector EDR provides comprehensive vulnerability management, asset inventory, and threat prioritization, with a strong emphasis on extensive vulnerability management.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CrowdStrike uses a streamlined cloud-native architecture for quick integration, without heavy hardware requirements. Its customer support is known for being responsive and effective. Qualys Multi-Vector EDR, also cloud-based, facilitates cross-platform integration and scales well for various business sizes. While both deployments are smooth, CrowdStrike's process is more straightforward and less resource-intensive. Customer service for both is comparable, but CrowdStrike's rapid resolution reputation provides an advantage.

Pricing and ROI: CrowdStrike Falcon tends to have a higher initial setup cost, justified by its rapid threat detection returns. Qualys Multi-Vector EDR is often more competitively priced, offering savings for environments needing broad coverage. Despite its higher cost, CrowdStrike's quick ROI is appealing to organizations requiring immediate security. Qualys offers better value for cost-conscious firms with diverse security requirements.

To learn more, read our detailed Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

April 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.4%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CrowdStrike Falcon is 7.8%, down from 15.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Multi-Vector EDR is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
CrowdStrike Falcon	7.8%
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks	3.4%
Qualys Multi-Vector EDR	0.3%
Other	88.5%

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH

Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk

Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration

Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.

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Dhiren Jethwa

Team Lead - Network and Security at a outsourcing company with 11-50 employees

Endpoint security has improved and real-time detection and response reduce false positives

The best features CrowdStrike Falcon offers are endpoint detection and response, cloud-native lightweight agent, AI-powered threat detection, threat hunting, and Falcon Overwatch. The feature I use the most is endpoint detection and response, which you can call EDR. EDR makes the difference in this case because it provides real-time alerts for suspicious activity and full process tree visibility showing what ran, what spawned, and what is happening inside the LAN on the endpoint. It allows for quick investigation of endpoint logins and quick host isolation to stop the spread. Using CrowdStrike Falcon typically leads to faster threat detection, quicker response, and better visibility across the endpoints. This means I can understand, or an administrator can understand the logs and situation, what is happening with the endpoint, and what suspicious behaviors are occurring inside the endpoints. It has reduced false positives and has a lightweight performance impact, resulting in no heavy use or heavy scans of the agent. User productivity is also increased on the endpoint side.

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reviewer1668453

Director, Security Innovation at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

Provides contextual alerts and risk ratings on findings

It's kind of difficult to quantify areas for improvement. In the larger picture, one challenge is that the NDR space is very crowded today. I can mention half a dozen names just off the top of my head. There are at least 12 to 20 different players. All of them are well-known brand names, and it's difficult to compare them. They all claim to be giving you the same network difference capability: catching malware, dealing with all the minor taxonomy of attack, all that. Still, it's very difficult to compare them side by side because they all do things a little differently, and they all have different presentations and output. We haven't deployed it, so I can't give you what we felt about it exactly. But in the larger perspective, the critical feature is really giving a clear separation between a low, high, and medium criticality. You need a rating that is really true to the actual attack. There's one other capability we are evaluating them for, and it's for custom alerts detection. A lot of these products are trying to profile the threats that are already out there in the industry. They're very well known and published. Today, there are targeted acts being played against organizations, so you have to be sensitive to how your firewalls, protocols, and your HTTP are all operating. You might have some fine-tuned threats that are targeting you, and you should be able to build custom defenses. They should have some openness in terms of how you specify your threats. You get a standard library of threats. On top of it, every organization builds its own.

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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

"The solution's most valuable feature is its ability to rapidly detect certain hardware files."

"The good thing about the product is that it's always scanning."

"This software helps us understand any issues that may arise when someone is not at work."

"On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks a nine."

"The most valuable features are incident creation, policy-based protection, IP whitelisting, and device encryption. These are beneficial for endpoint and server security."

"Threat identification and detection are the most valuable features of this solution."

"One of the main benefits of the solution is its intelligence to correlate the events into an incident."

"It can automatically correlate events and logs, which is very helpful for an IT administrator. It can correlate different kinds of malware activities over a network, agent, or host system. You do not need to do it manually. It is a good feature. It is also a user-friendly solution. We have deployed it on the cloud because our space does not provide any flexibility for on-premises deployment, but Palo Alto has added some flexibility to install it on-premises. It must be like the same Cortex XDR agent for all the VPN services, web filtering services, and everything else."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pros

"The most valuable features of CrowdStrike Falcon are the AI in detecting and real-time detections."

"The biggest ROI is the operational cost reduction, where automatic updates now take care of themselves and you are looking at saving six to seven months of a person's time, collectively, which would have been spent on just doing this one function alone."

"This solution has made the lives of the IT staff much easier, compared to the previous one."

"Scalability hasn't been an issue for us."

"We have a small IT Team, and this allows us to get sleep at night, knowing that someone else is taking care of any incidents that occur."

"CrowdStrike Falcon's most valuable features are the lightweight agent which has absolutely zero performance issues."

"It's very easy to set up."

"We are happy with CloudStrike's ease of use and touch notification."

More CrowdStrike Falcon pros

"They can provide you very contextual alerts on if something bad is happening—coming into your network or going out of your network. As part of that, they gather a lot of threat intelligence and map your connections against that. The larger benefit is that they give you a risk rating on their findings."

"They can provide you with very contextual alerts on if something bad is happening—coming into your network or going out of your network."

Cons

"Basically, they don't provide customer support tools just to investigate the logs."

"I feel that it should not be a licensed activity because a feature should allow us to see applications running on end devices."

"It should support more mobile operating systems. That is one of the cons of their infrastructure right now."

"Cortex XDR could improve its sales support team, including better commission structures and referral programs."

"Cortex XDR could be improved with more GUI features."

"I recommend adding a data loss prevention (DLP) solution to Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks. The inclusion of this feature would allow the application of DLP policies alongside antivirus policies via a single agent and console, making it more competitive as other OEMs often offer DLP solutions as part of their antivirus products."

"Based on our experience so far, its implementation is quite complex."

"There are some false positives."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks cons

"The solution should have included remote wipe capability out of the box."

"It would be nice if they did have some sort of Active Directory tie-in, whether that be Azure or on-prem. Sometimes, it is difficult for us to determine if we are missing any endpoints or servers in CrowdStrike. We honestly don't have a great inventory, but it would be nice if CrowdStrike had a way to say this is everything in your environment, Active Directory-wise, and this is what doesn't have sensors. They try to do that now with a function that they have built-in, but I have been unsuccessful in having it help us identify what needs a sensor. So, better visibility of what doesn't have a sensor in our environment would be helpful."

"I would like to see a more accurate integration and an option to check the local machine."

"They don't really have anything when it comes to scanning attachments."

"The current version of Falcon does not support DLP which may be good to have in an EDR solution."

"As the company has grown, the technical support has felt less personal."

"They need to strengthen the forensic capabilities of this product, for e-discovery."

"The management of log aggregation is in need of improvement."

More CrowdStrike Falcon cons

"My challenge is actually comparing offerings from different vendors across a threat spectrum that is very large. We are talking about millions of threats. How are you confident that Blue Hexagon is catching all one million of them and Palo Alto is doing the same thing? They all have their strengths. Within that, Blue Hexagon might cover 990,000 of them. Palo Alto might cover another 990,000. It's a bit difficult to compare them and say, "Oh, are they catching the same 990,000?" I don't know."

"My challenge is actually comparing offerings from different vendors across a threat spectrum that is very large."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has reasonable pricing for the use cases it provides to the company."

"It has a higher cost than other solutions, like CrowdStrike or Microsoft’s EDR tools, but it reduces the cost of our operations because it’s a new generation antivirus tool."

"It's the most expensive solution, but features-wise, it's quite strong. It's very good for protection, so the results are very good in the case of protection. I would rate it a two out of ten in terms of pricing."

"If one wishes to work with another team or large number of users at a future point, he must purchase a license for them."

"I feel it is fairly priced."

"The price was fine."

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is quite an expensive solution."

"Every customer has to pay for a license because it doesn't work with what you get from a managed services provider."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"When comparing to Microsoft, CrowdStrike Falcon is more expensive."

"The pricing is definitely high but you get what you pay for, and it's not so high that it prices itself out of the market."

"The pricing is good and there are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"There are approximately a hundred different modules you have to purchase, depending on what you want to do. I have most of the modules. How it works is you buy the portfolio, you have to decide all the components you want in it, and then they price out a bundle for you. I have almost all of the package features in my bundle. You only need to pay for the modules you want."

"The price is too high."

"I do not have experience with the cost or licensing of the product."

"The price is high in comparison to similar brands."

"As I'm part of the technical team, not the budgeting team, I don't have information on CrowdStrike Falcon pricing."

More CrowdStrike Falcon pricing and cost advice

"It's difficult to state the setup cost. All the NDRs range anywhere between $500,000, plus or minus, to $2 million. There's a spread of pricing here, depending on who you are talking to. Obviously the major brand names want more money. They typically bundle it with their other offerings. With Cisco, for example, you don't just buy an NDR. So, typically it gets rolled into the cost."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

14%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Construction Company

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	45
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	48

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	53
Midsize Enterprise	33
Large Enterprise	63

No data available

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. ...

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Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions th...

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How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface,...

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How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?

Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing u...

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How does Microsoft Defender for Endpoint compare with Crowdstrike Falcon?

The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never pu...

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Is Crowdstrike Falcon better than Trend Micro Deep Security?

I like that Crowdstrike allows me to easily correlate data between my firewalls. What’s most useful for my needs is t...

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Comparisons

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Compared 8% of the time

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Cortex XSIAM vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

Trellix Endpoint Security Platform vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 2% of the time

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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 3% of the time

Fortinet FortiEDR vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 3% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 3% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

VMware Carbon Black Endpoint vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 21% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 12% of the time

Huntress Managed EDR vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 9% of the time

Darktrace vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 7% of the time

Lookout vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

April 2026

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Buyer's Guide

CrowdStrike Falcon

April 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

April 2026

Download Qualys Multi-Vector EDR product report

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps

CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, CrowdStrike Falcon Threat Intelligence, CrowdStrike Identity Protection, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CrowdStrike Falcon Platform

Blue Hexagon

Overview

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks provides advanced threat detection with AI-driven endpoint protection and seamless integration, ensuring multi-layered security and automatic threat response.

Cortex XDR is designed to safeguard endpoints against malware and suspicious activities. It offers advanced threat detection and response capabilities using behavioral analysis, AI, and machine learning. It seamlessly integrates with security infrastructures, providing endpoint security, firewall integration, and enhanced visibility in both cloud-based and on-premises environments.

What are the key features of Cortex XDR?

Advanced Threat Detection: Uses AI and machine learning for proactive threat identification.
Multi-layered Security: Combines various security measures for comprehensive protection.
Endpoint Protection: Safeguards against malware and exploits.
Behavioral Analysis: Monitors suspicious activity for early detection.
Automatic Threat Response: Automates responses to neutralize threats.

What benefits should users expect?

Ease of Use: Simplifies security management with intuitive design.
Resource Efficiency: Minimizes impact on system resources.
Integration Capabilities: Works well with existing security setups.
Reduced Analyst Workload: Automates processes to decrease manual intervention.

Organizations in diverse sectors deploy Cortex XDR to protect against malware, leveraging its advanced threat detection capabilities. Its integration with existing security infrastructures appeals to those seeking comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments, providing enhanced visibility and threat intelligence.

Palo Alto Networks

CrowdStrike Falcon provides cutting-edge endpoint detection with automatic alerts, real-time monitoring, and seamless integration capabilities. Cloud-native architecture and AI-driven processes ensure scalable protection and efficient threat remediation.

CrowdStrike Falcon is recognized for its robust EDR and threat intelligence features that enhance security and streamline operations. Its lightweight agent minimizes system impact while offering real-time monitoring and detailed reporting. This platform uses cloud-native architecture for scalable, consistent protection, significantly reducing administrative demands. AI and machine learning empower precise threat hunting and behavioral analysis, which mitigates false positives and boosts cybersecurity efficiency. Users seek improvements in integration with other systems, reporting functions, and compatibility with specific operating systems. While the solution handles malware mitigation and threat response efficiently, suggestions for on-demand scanning, enhanced visibility, and better dashboard features are noted.

What are the key features of CrowdStrike Falcon?

Automatic Alert System: Provides instant alerts to enhance threat detection.
Robust EDR: Offers advanced endpoint detection capabilities.
Threat Intelligence: Delivers detailed insights for proactive security measures.
Real-time Monitoring: Enables continuous security assessments.
Seamless Integration Options: Streamlines operations with existing infrastructure.
Lightweight Agent: Minimizes system impact, maintaining performance efficiency.
Cloud-native Architecture: Provides scalable, consistent protection against threats.
AI and ML-driven Processes: Offers accurate threat hunting and behavioral analysis.

What benefits or ROI should users expect from CrowdStrike Falcon?

Enhanced Security: Comprehensive protection for endpoints using cutting-edge technologies.
Reduced Administrative Burden: Simplifies management of security incidents.
Efficient Threat Remediation: Minimizes downtime with quick threat response actions.
Improved Threat Visibility: Provides detailed reports and insights.
Scalable Protection: Ensures adaptable security measures across multiple devices.

In technology sectors, CrowdStrike Falcon commonly supports endpoint protection and threat response initiatives, allowing companies to replace traditional antivirus systems with more advanced solutions. In finance, it secures sensitive data across multiple platforms, ensuring compliance. In healthcare, real-time security analysis protects patient data on critical devices like servers and laptops, utilizing AI to enhance cybersecurity defenses.

CrowdStrike

Qualys Multi-Vector EDR is designed for real-time threat detection and response, offering comprehensive visibility into potential security breaches across endpoints.

This solution integrates seamlessly with other Qualys modules, facilitating automated workflows that streamline incident management and enhance efficiency in monitoring and mitigating cyber threats. With features like real-time monitoring, detailed reporting, and proactive alerting, security teams can quickly identify and address vulnerabilities. While appreciated for its scalability and ease of deployment, users suggest improvements in integration, reporting, and configuration to further enhance its capabilities.

What are the key features of Qualys Multi-Vector EDR?

Real-time Threat Detection: Continuously monitors endpoints to detect potential threats immediately.
Seamless Integration: Integrates with other Qualys modules and existing systems for streamlined operations.
Automated Response: Automates incident response workflows to enhance efficiency and reduce manual tasks.
Detailed Reporting: Provides in-depth reports to support proactive security measures and quick remediation.
Scalability: Suitable for businesses of varying sizes due to its scalable architecture.

What are the benefits and ROI to look for when evaluating Qualys Multi-Vector EDR?

Enhanced Security: Comprehensive threat detection ensures robust security measures.
Improved Efficiency: Automated workflows save time and reduce manual intervention.
Quick Remediation: Real-time alerts and detailed reports facilitate swift vulnerability mitigation.
Cost-effective Deployment: Scalable and resource-efficient architecture suitable for businesses large and small.

Qualys Multi-Vector EDR is implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, where real-time threat detection and automated response are critical. Its ability to integrate with existing systems and provide detailed reporting makes it a valuable asset for enhancing cybersecurity measures in diverse environments.

Qualys

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank

Information Not Available

Pacific Dental Services, Greenhill and Co, Heffernan Insurance Brokers

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

April 2026

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