Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs CrowdStrike Falcon comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 24, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
4th
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
7th
Ranking in Ransomware Protection
2nd
Ranking in AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CrowdStrike Falcon
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
3rd
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
1st
Ranking in Ransomware Protection
1st
Ranking in AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
122
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (6th), Identity Management (IM) (6th), Threat Intelligence Platforms (2nd), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (1st), Active Directory Management (2nd), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (1st), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Mohammad Qaw - PeerSpot reviewer
Perfect correlation and XDR capabilities for network traffic plus endpoint security
The solution should force customers to integrate with network traffic to see the full benefits of XDR. If you are not integrating it or feeding in your network traffic, then you are just buying a normal antivirus which doesn't make any sense. You are paying double the price to use the antivirus feature or to say you have XDR, but in reality you are not using it. The solution should include an on-premises option because some customers want only on-premises. It would be hard, but good to do if possible. Open XDR would be beneficial in the future. Right now, the solution is Closed XDR so cannot communicate with the few new vendors in the Open XDR market.
Chintan-Vyas - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to set up with good behavior-based analysis but needs a single-click recovery option
Most organizations are currently looking for a scheduled scan to meet their compliance needs. Other players like Symantec and Trend Micro, FireEye, et cetera, are still providing the signature-based regular scheduled scans also, which is not available in CrowdStrike. That is one parameter that we feel should be there in CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike is only working on the dynamic or the files under execution. CrowdStrike is not scanning the static files. The product could be more accurate in terms of performance. We'd like to have a single-click recovery option. With some machines getting corrupted by malware, we need an easy way to start with a blank slate if things happen. That one feature should be there in the EDR.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution allows us to make investigations. Other XDR solutions also provide similar capabilities but for investigation, Cortex XDR is better."
"They did what they said. This solution could apply to any scenario."
"The tool is designed to scale for large enterprises and handle large volumes of data."
"The platform has significantly improved our organization by enhancing our ability to detect and respond to threats."
"The most valuable features are incident creation, policy-based protection, IP whitelisting, and device encryption. These are beneficial for endpoint and server security."
"Cortex covers everything I need. It's a perfect solution. Cortex provides a different level of visibility because it's an extended EDR, allowing you to grab logs from the network and firewalls. Palo Alto invented the concept of the extended EDR or XDR."
"Traps has drastically reduced our endpoint attack surface via advanced detection capabilities, sandboxing of never before seen programs, and by drastically limiting where executables can launch in the first place."
"The solution allows control over the user and his machine through Cortex XDR security policies."
"The main feature we rely on is the product's intelligence. We appreciate the advice from the team during implementation. One of the main reasons we chose this product is its compatibility with Office 365."
"The EDR and XDR features have been most valuable."
"Cyberattack detection is very good. We use it for detecting different vulnerabilities, such as ransomware, virus, and malware. It is a good product today when compared to Symantec that we used previously."
"It seems to do a pretty good job of protecting the host. It offers good insights that it gives you when it has a detection. It's pretty incredible."
"The CS falcon agent is a lightweight agent compared with other agents of EDR products."
"The detection is very reliable. Also, OverWatch is a great feature."
"From what we have seen, it is very scalable. We have recently acquired a company where someone had a ransomware attack when we joined networks. Within the course of just a few days, we were able to easily get CrowdStrike rolled out to about 300 machines. That also included the removal of that company's legacy anti-malware tool."
"The most valuable features are the complete IPS and IDS."
 

Cons

"There are some false positives. What our guys would have liked is that it would have been easier to manipulate as soon as they found a false positive that they knew was a false positive. How to do so was not obvious. Some people complained about it. The interface, the ESM, is not user-friendly."
"The solution could improve by providing better integration with their own products and others."
"In general, the price could be more competitive."
"Cortex XDR should have a lightweight agent, and the agent size should not be heavy."
"Cortex does not offer an on-premises solution. However, some customers would prefer not to be on the cloud. It would be ideal if it could offer something on-prem as well."
"Although I would say this product is highly-rated, it could probably do more because nothing does everything that you want."
"Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR does not detect malicious activity like in other anti-virus solutions like Trend Micro and Windows with Cisco."
"It is a complex solution to implement."
"Sometimes CrowdStrike changes the GUI, and they need to be better at informing us and providing guidance concerning that."
"The technical support team often just replies to an issue with a link to an article rather than actually calling back and talking to someone and making sure the problem is solved. To me, that's kind of weak."
"The management of log aggregation is in need of improvement."
"The solution could improve by providing more types of reports because it's in the detection span you cannot re-export anything. If it could be exported to a CSV file directly there it would help a lot. I currently need to do this by API to get what I need."
"CrowdStrike Suites and the way that it bundles things can be a bit challenging. It should be easier to integrate with the other stuff that they sell or be included with what they sell. We have one piece, then they are talking about another piece on vulnerability management all of the sudden, and we don't own that piece. We can see it in the console, but nothing shows up. It simply appears within the tool as an option, but we can't use it without purchasing it."
"It would be nice if the dashboard had some more information upfront, and looked a little better."
"The UI is not efficient."
"CrowdStrike Falcon by itself does not supply in-depth reporting."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price was fine."
"The tool's price is moderate."
"It is "expensive" and flexible."
"It is present, but when compared to other competitive products, I would say it is not less expensive; however, when all of the other added values are considered, the price is reasonable."
"When we first bought it, it was a bit expensive, but it was worth it. The licensing was straightforward."
"In terms of the cost Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is very expensive because we are a Mexican company and when you translate dollars to pesos the cost is very high. The solution is very expensive for Mexican companies. I understand that they have international prices, but I do not think it offsets the price enough for many companies in countries, such as Mexico. The amount it is reduced is not a massive percentage."
"The product pricing is reasonable. The licensing model was flexible based on the number of endpoints."
"I don't like that they have different types of licenses."
"CrowdStrike is well priced. On a yearly basis, it costs between $60 and $100 per user."
"The pricing on CrowdStrike is per license. It was about $42 per seat yearly."
"The pricing will depend upon your volume of usage."
"I would like them to further reduce the price, because it is quite pricey at the moment."
"The pricing and licensing are reasonable. I don't think we are getting charged more than what it is worth. It is fair, but I do not like how it is a la carte. I realize they do that so other organizations can buy and get the agent, getting it cheaper than you could otherwise. However, if you want the main core package, which has all the main features with the exception of maybe the multi-cloud protections, that can get pricier for an organization. So, you have to pick and choose what you want. I do not care for a la carte pricing."
"The tool is a little bit expensive compared to other products, but I think it's okay owing to its quality."
"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."
"Different components are additional price points. We got the components that were right for us, but other organizations may require more (or less) components to suit their needs."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms solutions are best for your needs.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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. The ability to reverse damage caused by ransomware with minimal interruptions to...
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 that are very scalable, secure, and user-friendly. Cortex XDR by Palo Alto offers ...
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, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...
How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?
Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing user interface that makes setup easy and seamless. CrowdStrike Falcon offers a cl...
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 push your machine hardware to "test", you don't have the usual "scan now" feature ...
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 the intelligence modules feature. I also find that Crowdstrike Falcon’s dashboard...
 

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps
CrowdStrike Falcon, CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, CrowdStrike Falcon Threat Intelligence, CrowdStrike Identity Protection, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs. CrowdStrike Falcon and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.