EDR / XDR Tools Compared

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) tools monitor user workstations, servers, and cloud workloads for malicious activity. Side-by-side comparison across 6 tools — descriptive only, no recommendations.

8 min read Data verified: July 2026 6 tools compared

CrowdStrike Falcon

EDR / XDR

Paid

$59.99-$184.99/endpoint/yr across 4 tiers

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SentinelOne Singularity

EDR / XDR

Paid

From ~$6/endpoint/mo, custom enterprise pricing

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Microsoft Defender

EDR / XDR

Freemium

Free (built-in Windows AV) or included in Microsoft 365 E5 (~$60/user/mo for full E5)

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Wazuh

EDR / SIEM

Free / OSS

Free (open source, GPL-2.0) paid support and managed cloud available

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ClamAV

Antivirus

Free / OSS

Free (open source, GPL-2.0)

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Bitdefender GravityZone

EDR / Antivirus

Paid

From ~$3/endpoint/mo tiered with Business Security through GravityZone XDR

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Comparing →

CrowdStrike Falcon

EDR / XDR

SentinelOne Singularity

EDR / XDR

Microsoft Defender

EDR / XDR

Wazuh

EDR / SIEM

ClamAV

Antivirus

Bitdefender GravityZone

EDR / Antivirus

$ Pricing & plans

5 dimensions

Pricing model

Falcon Go ($59.99/endpoint/yr), Pro ($99.99/endpoint/yr), Enterprise ($184.99), Elite &…

Complete MDR (custom enterprise quote)

Singularity Core (~$6/endpoint/mo), Control, Complete, and Commercial tiers

volume and term-based negotiation common

Defender Antivirus is free with Windows

Defender for Endpoint P1 and P2 sold standalone (~$3-$5.20/user/mo) or included in M365 E5

Software is free under GPL-2.0

Wazuh Cloud SaaS is per-agent custom pricing; paid 24/7 support contracts available (typically ~$16K/yr median based on practitioner reports)

Free (GPL-2.0)

Business Security (~$3/endpoint/mo), Business Security Premium, GravityZone XDR…

(custom enterprise); per-endpoint, term-based

Pricing tier

Paid

Freemium

Free / OSS

Paid

Free tier / trial

Trial only

15-day trial of Falcon Prevent with Device Control and Express Support

Trial only

30-day evaluation available; no free tier

Free tier

Built-in Windows AV is free; 90-day trial available for Defender for Endpoint and full M365 E5

Free tier

Software permanently free; 14-day Wazuh Cloud trial available

Free tier

Permanently free; no paid tiers

Trial only

30-day free trial of all paid tiers

Volume discounts

Tiered pricing breaks at 500, 1000, and 5000 endpoints (typical 10-20% off list…

at enterprise scale)

Breaks at 500, 1000, 2500 endpoints

multi-year contracts reduce per-endpoint cost

Microsoft Enterprise Agreement and CSP volume tiers

typical 10-30% discount at enterprise scale

Not applicable for software (free)

managed support pricing scales with agent count

Not applicable (free)

Volume breaks at 25, 100, 500, 1000 endpoints

MSP licensing model also available

Hidden costs

Identity Protection, NG-SIEM, and Cloud Security are separate modules

extended data retention is an add-on; Elite support is a premium tier

Extended data retention, threat intelligence feeds (Singularity Threat…

Intelligence), and Vigilance MDR are priced separately

Full EDR/XDR/Sentinel integration value depends on M365 E5 licensing

cross-platform support and some Sentinel ingestion may incur additional cost

Infrastructure (servers, storage for OpenSearch indexer), specialized labor,…

training time, no built-in SOAR (typically integrated with TheHive/Cortex)

Operational labor for signature update management, false positive tuning, and integration

no commercial support

Premium support tier, advanced threat intelligence add-on, MDR service if elected

↗ Deployment & integrations

3 dimensions

Deployment

Cloud-native SaaS only

agent installs in minutes per endpoint

SaaS is standard; on-premises deployment available

uncommon among major EDR vendors

Cloud-managed via Microsoft 365 Defender portal

agent deployment via Intune, Group Policy, or System Center

Self-hosted (all-in-one server, single-node, or multi-node cluster) or Wazuh Cloud SaaS

Self-hosted; runs as a daemon (clamd) or command-line scanner; commonly…

integrated into Postfix/Sendmail mail flow

Cloud-managed SaaS console or on-premises GravityZone Control Center for self-hosted

Typical deployment time

Minutes per endpoint

enterprise-wide rollout typically days to weeks

Same-day for small deployments

multi-week phased rollouts for thousands of endpoints

Hours for Windows-centric M365-licensed organizations

longer when consolidating multiple endpoint vendors

All-in-one PoC

hours; production multi-node cluster: days to weeks (DevOps/security engineering required)

Minutes to hours for basic setup

production integration depends on the host system (mail gateway, file scanner, etc.)

Hours for SMB deployments

days to weeks for distributed enterprise rollouts

Key integrations

Splunk, IBM QRadar, ServiceNow, Jira, Palo Alto XSOAR, AWS Security Hub,…

Microsoft Sentinel, Okta, Zscaler

Splunk, IBM QRadar, ServiceNow, Cortex XSOAR, Okta, Microsoft Sentinel, AWS, Azure, Slack

Microsoft Sentinel, Entra ID, Intune, Purview, Defender for Cloud, Office 365

third-party connectors via Microsoft Graph Security API

VirusTotal, MISP, TheHive, Cortex, Slack, PagerDuty, ServiceNow, Splunk…

forwarder, Elastic, Suricata; OSSEC-compatible rules

Postfix, Sendmail, Exim, ProFTPD, Squid, Amavis, ClamWin (Windows GUI)

third-party signature feeds available (e.g., SecuriteInfo)

Microsoft 365, Active Directory, Azure AD, AWS, Splunk, ServiceNow, Microsoft…

Sentinel, MISP

🛡 EDR / XDR-specific evaluation

7 dimensions

Detection technology

Cloud-delivered machine learning, behavioral analytics, indicator-of-attack…

patterns, integrated threat intelligence

Static and behavioral AI models running on the agent (works offline)

Storyline correlation engine reconstructs attack chains

Cloud-delivered ML, behavioral analytics, integrated Microsoft threat…

intelligence (signals from 78+ trillion daily events)

Signature-based rules, log analysis, file integrity monitoring, vulnerability…

detection, MITRE ATT&CK-mapped detections

Signature-based scanning

signature updates via freshclam from Cisco-maintained feeds; bytecode signatures support more complex detection

Machine learning, behavioral monitoring (Process Inspector), HyperDetect…

tunable ML, signature-based engine, network attack defense

MITRE ATT&CK eval (2024)

Consistently strong performance across MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations

Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection 2025

Strong detection coverage and analytic visibility in MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations

Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection 2025

Strong participation in MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations with high detection coverage

Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection 2025

Detection rules natively mapped to MITRE ATT&CK

not currently a participant in MITRE Engenuity vendor evaluations

Not a participant in MITRE Engenuity vendor evaluations (positioned as a…

scanning engine rather than full EDR)

Strong detection coverage in MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations

consistent Top Product ratings in AV-TEST/AV-Comparatives

Threat hunting

OverWatch human-led threat hunting included in Enterprise tier

Falcon Insight provides query-based hunting via CQL

Singularity Hunt with PowerQuery

deep visibility module for forensic queries

Advanced Hunting with Kusto Query Language (KQL) across all Microsoft 365 Defender signals

pre-built hunting queries and Jupyter notebook integration

Query-based hunting via Wazuh Dashboard (OpenSearch)

custom rule writing; performance typically linear up to ~500 EPS per node

Not applicable in the EDR sense

logs from scans can feed into SIEM for analysis

Threat hunting UI with custom queries

ATT&CK-mapped detections; visualization of attack progression

Managed detection (MDR)

Falcon Complete is a 24/7 managed SOC service (~$125/endpoint/yr at 500 endpoints)

OverWatch managed threat hunting included with Enterprise tier

Vigilance MDR available as add-on (24/7 SOC analysts on the Singularity platform)

Microsoft Defender Experts for XDR is a paid managed service

widely supported by Microsoft partner MSSP ecosystem

Not offered directly by Wazuh

partner ecosystem provides MDR services on top of the platform

Not offered (open-source project

commercial managed AV products typically use ClamAV alongside other engines)

GravityZone MDR (24/7 SOC) and MDR Plus tiers available

Automated response

Host containment, process termination, USB blocking

no native file rollback to pre-infection state

Native rollback to pre-infection state on Windows (a differentiator among EDRs)

auto-quarantine and host isolation

Automated investigation and response (AIR) for self-healing, quarantine, file…

removal, account containment

Active Response framework runs custom scripts (block IP, kill process, quarantine file)

not auto-rollback like some commercial EDRs

Quarantine via daemon configuration

primarily detection and removal, not behavioral response

Process termination, file quarantine, network isolation, rollback for…

ransomware-encrypted files (Ransomware Mitigation)

Platforms supported

Windows, macOS, Linux, AWS/Azure/GCP workloads, containers, iOS, Android

Windows, macOS, Linux, Kubernetes, containers, virtual machines

Windows (deepest integration), macOS, Linux, iOS, Android

broad Microsoft 365 and Azure coverage

Agents for Windows, Linux, macOS, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris

cloud integrations for AWS, Azure, GCP, M365, GitHub via API

Linux, Windows, macOS, BSD, Solaris

broad packaging across Linux distributions

Windows, macOS, Linux, mobile (iOS, Android), virtual environments (VMware,…

Citrix, Microsoft, Nutanix)

Offline operation

Cloud-architected

reduced detection capability when fully offline, though local prevention policies still apply

On-agent AI continues making detection and prevention decisions when…

disconnected from cloud

Windows-native AV provides offline protection

cloud-delivered features (EDR sensor analytics) require connectivity

Agents work offline, queue events locally, sync with manager on reconnect

Fully offline-capable

signature updates require periodic connectivity

Local detection engines provide offline protection

cloud-based threat intelligence updates require connectivity

✓ Compliance & certifications

1 dimension

Compliance certifications

SOC 2 Type II, FedRAMP High, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR

SOC 2 Type II, FedRAMP Moderate, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS

FedRAMP High, SOC 1/2/3, ISO 27001/27018, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR, IRAP, C5, HITRUST

Wazuh Cloud: SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS Level 1, GDPR-ready

built-in compliance mappings for PCI DSS, HIPAA, NIST 800-53, GDPR, TSC, GPG13

Software has no specific certifications

users deploy in their own compliant environments

ISO 27001, SOC 2, Common Criteria EAL2+

HIPAA-aligned configurations available

◧ Positioning

3 dimensions

Target deployment

Mid-market to Enterprise (500+ endpoints)

SMB to Enterprise wanting autonomous response

Organizations standardized on Microsoft 365 / Windows

Technical teams, budget-conscious organizations, MSSPs, compliance-driven workloads

Linux servers, email gateway scanning, file scanning pipelines, embedded…

scanning use cases

SMBs and mid-market wanting strong AV/EDR at competitive pricing

Strengths cited

Strong detection performance in MITRE evaluations, lightweight single agent,…

mature threat intelligence integration, 24/7 OverWatch managed threat hunting included at Enterprise tier

On-agent AI for real-time detection without cloud roundtrip, native rollback to…

pre-infection state on Windows, optional on-premises deployment, strong autonomous response automation

Native Windows integration with no separate agent, bundled into Microsoft 365…

E5, broad XDR coverage across endpoint/identity/email/cloud, no additional vendor relationship for M365 customers

Unified XDR + SIEM in one open-source platform, no licensing cost, built-in PCI…

DSS/HIPAA/NIST 800-53/GDPR compliance mappings, scales horizontally with cluster architecture

Free and open source, widely used as a scanning engine in mail gateways and…

file pipelines, cross-platform (Linux/Windows/macOS/BSD), Cisco-stewarded

Consistently strong AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives detection scores, competitive…

pricing for SMB tier, low system resource footprint, on-prem console available for regulated environments

Where it fits less well

Enterprise-tier pricing, modular licensing where advanced capabilities are…

add-ons, requires security expertise to operationalize fully

Higher tiers add data ingestion and feature depth

some advanced XDR features behind premium SKUs

Full EDR/XDR value tied to Microsoft 365 E5 licensing

cross-platform parity (macOS/Linux) is closer to Windows feature set than in previous years but still maturing on some advanced telemetry

Requires in-house security engineering and DevOps capacity for production scale

no commercial SLA without paid support contract

Signature-based scanning rather than modern EDR/behavioral detection

not designed as a primary user endpoint protection platform

MDR services are less broadly adopted than CrowdStrike/SentinelOne

XDR tier is newer and ecosystem narrower than market leaders

Head-to-head comparisons

4 pairs

◧ Bottom line

Last updated 6 July 2026

How this category breaks down This page compares 6 EDR / XDR tools. Open-source / free-tier options: Microsoft Defender, Wazuh, ClamAV. Commercial platforms: CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, Bitdefender GravityZone. Use the comparison table above to match each tool’s stated best-fit to your environment.

🛡 Tracked vulnerabilities

defend.network corpus

Vulnerabilities we track for these products Advisories in defend.network’s vulnerability corpus that name a product in this comparison. Each links to our tracked CVE record.

Frequently asked questions

3 questions

Which EDR / XDR tools does this comparison cover?

This comparison covers 6 EDR / XDR tools: CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, Microsoft Defender, Wazuh, ClamAV, Bitdefender GravityZone.

Which EDR / XDR tools are open-source or offer a free tier?

Open-source or free-tier options: Microsoft Defender, Wazuh, ClamAV.

Which EDR / XDR tools are commercial (paid)?

Commercial / paid options: CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity, Bitdefender GravityZone.

Methodology Comparison data synthesized from publicly available vendor documentation, MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations, AV-TEST results, Gartner Peer Insights, G2/Capterra/TrustRadius reviews, anonymized transaction data (Vendr, CostBench, CheckThat.ai), and publicly reported pricing as of May 2026. defend.network is independent and has no commercial relationship with the vendors compared.