Cortex XDR vs. CrowdStrike

Learn why organizations choose Cortex XDR® over CrowdStrike for attack prevention, detection and response.

Cortex XDR is the better choice
to stop modern threats


Endpoint protection lays the groundwork for an effective security strategy and Cortex XDR’s endpoint protection consistently rates superior to CrowdStrike EDR in independent third-party evaluations. In the MITRE ATT&CK® Round 3 Evaluations, Cortex XDR blocked 100% of attacks versus CrowdStrike’s 70%. And in the MITRE ATT&CK Round 4 Evaluations, Cortex XDR led with 98% technique-level detections over CrowdStrike's 71%, continuing to demonstrate leadership in endpoint protection and detection.

So why trust CrowdStrike when these endpoint-focused results are clear? And what about the fuller scope of true XDR across endpoint, network, cloud and more? Cortex XDR® is the first XDR with a proven track record of success and is trusted by over 3,000 customers. Learn the details about how Cortex XDR outperforms CrowdStrike below.

 Comprehensive Prevention

The Best Protection

A prevention-first approach should be the foundation of your organization’s endpoint security strategy. And when it comes to unknown malware, Cortex XDR’s behavioral threat protection and AI-driven analysis bests CrowdStrike in both real-world MITRE ATT&CK evaluations and AV-Comparatives testing.

Behavioral threat protection matters. By tracking the sequence of the activity chain and applying context to those actions as they occur, behavioral threat protection is able to recognize and prevent highly evasive, complex attacks automatically and accurately. Combined with technique-based exploit prevention, global threat intelligence, and cloud-assisted analysis, the Cortex XDR agent offers better, more robust protection.

CrowdStrike’s reliance on hash-based protections and IoCs focuses only on known attacks and after-the-fact detection, so protection suffers, as evidenced by their inability to stop 30% of attacks in MITRE Round 3.

Broader Visibility

Clearly Superior Detection

Protection is never perfect. And when it comes to detection and visibility, Cortex XDR is again clearly superior to CrowdStrike. Cortex’s rich telemetry collection and extensive cloud-based analytics detection modules identify malicious activity across the attack lifecycle and arm analysts with the data they need to drive resolution.

These superior detection capabilities help explain why Cortex XDR consistently outperforms CrowdStrike in MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations. In MITRE Round 4, CrowdStrike found only 94 of 109 analytics detections, with 11 delayed detections. Delays can have significant consequences. Real-time detections mean faster response times and less impact to your organization.

Superior Analytics & Detection

Faster, More Complete Investigation & Response

Cortex XDR automatically groups alerts into incidents, provides threat modeling, gathers full context and builds a timeline and attack sequence to understand the root cause and impact of an attack. Customer studies show that Cortex XDR can reduce security alerts by over 98%* and cut investigation times by 88%.** Plus, one-click remediation speeds attack recovery across all affected endpoints.

CrowdStrike relies much more heavily on the analyst to investigate and recover from attacks. Events are presented separately, responses are done individually, and remediation is done manually with limited automation. More risk, less efficiency and delayed recovery may be the end result.

*Based on an analysis of Cortex XDR customer environments.
** Palo Alto Networks SOC analysis showing reduced investigation time from 40 minutes to 5 minutes.
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Compare Cortex XDR to CrowdStrike

Cortex XDR
CrowdStrike
The Best Protection
Cortex XDR
    100% threat prevention – leading the pack
  • 100% threat prevention 3 years in a row in MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations and 100% Overall Active Prevention in AV-Comparative EPR.
  • A single agent includes a purpose-built ransomware engine, AI-based local analysis, and behavioral threat protection to thwart sophisticated and evasive attacks.
  • Built-in endpoint firewall, device control, and WildFire® sandbox-plus analysis identifies new threats and automatically distributes updates.
CrowdStrike
    Is 70% protection good enough?
  • Failed to stop 30% of attacks in MITRE Round 3 and 7 missed (substep) protections in MITRE Round 4 Evaluations. CrowdStrike continues to struggle with misses and delays on tested threats.
  • Protection suffers from lack of behavioral threat protection and reliance on static hash analysis.
  • Limited prevention modes, with endpoint firewall and device control available only as costly add-on options.
Clearly Superior Detection
Cortex XDR
    Analytics-based detection drives results
  • 98.2% analytic coverage and technique-level detections in the MITRE Round 4 Evaluations.
  • Extensive data collection and AI-driven data analysis drives quick and accurate detection.
  • New detection rules analyze both new and historical data for complete visibility.
CrowdStrike
    Incomplete visibility and missed detections
  • Missed 15 technique detections in MITRE Round 4 Evaluations, with 11 delayed detections.
  • Machine learning is narrowly focused on identity-related events and logs and only available for an added cost.
  • Historical data is excluded from new detection rules scope.
Faster, More Complete Investigation & Response
Cortex XDR
    Automation speeds results
  • Automatic correlation of events lets analysts see the entire incident, with alert grouping and incident scoring reducing investigation time by 88%.
  • Machine isolation and restoration can be done individually or in bulk.
  • One-click remediation allows responders to quickly recover from incidents.
CrowdStrike
    Manual activities add delays
  • Events are each presented separately, requiring more effort and time to analyze and determine the incident scope.
  • Lack of automated tasks means that valuable time is wasted by analysts who must respond individually and manually, without one-click remediation.
Enterprise Fit
Cortex XDR
    Tailored to your organization
  • Data can be ingested from virtually any syslog, event log, filebeat, or source, enterprise-wide.
  • XDR includes endpoint protection and is fully delivered through a single unified agent.
  • Industry-leading Linux OS coverage.
  • Detection rules and dashboards are easily customizable to support each organization’s unique needs.
  • Proven, mature XDR product with over 5,000 customers.
CrowdStrike
    One size does not fit all
  • Data beyond endpoints is limited to CrowdSrike alliance partners.
  • Separate agents for EDR and identity analysis increase complexity and user experience.
  • Incomplete Linux coverage with limited feature support.
  • Rudimentary and minimal customization options.
  • Unproven, first-release XDR product.

Ready to see Cortex in action?

Is Your Endpoint Security Solution Good Enough?

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Cortex XDR consistently outperforms CrowdStrike in MITRE ATT&CK® Evaluations

In the MITRE ATT&CK Round 4 Evaluations, Cortex XDR identified over 97% of attack substeps with “technique level analytics detections” versus CrowdStrike’s 71%. Technique detections are the gold standard, providing all the detail and context needed to understand what was done, why, and how, empowering the security analyst to take action and remediate the threat. Cortex XDR gives your analysts superior intelligence to stop attackers at the earliest stage.

You should demand that your endpoint security provider be able to defend against all adversary tactics and techniques to avoid overloading your SOC team with alerts, incidents and possible breaches – all of which could have been prevented.

Need more proofpoints?

Check out more but don’t delay – your endpoint security and SOC productivity depend on it!

Request your Personal Cortex XDR Demo

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Request your Personal Cortex XDR Demo

Request your Personal Cortex XDR Demo

Let's explore ways to find fewer alerts, build end-to-end automation and enable smarter security operations.
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