Top 6 Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) Solutions in 2024

eSecurity Planet content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Endpoint detection and response (EDR) platforms help IT teams identify threats on devices and limit cyber attacks by remediating potential threats. The best ones offer features like threat hunting, behavioral analytics, and incident containment. We analyzed some of the top EDR products in the cybersecurity industry and scored them based on features and capabilities, selecting the six highest-scoring solutions.

Here are our picks for the six best EDR solutions:

• Microsoft Defender XDR: Best overall for a mix of features and usability
• Trend Micro Vision One: Best for supporting junior cybersecurity teams
• Cybereason Defense Platform: Best for security visualization functionality
• Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR: Best for experienced IT and security teams
• Cynet 360 AutoXDR: Best for a mix of deception technology and security ops
• CrowdStrike Falcon Insight: Best for advanced threat response capabilities

Top EDR Solutions Compared

The following table briefly compares our top picks, including features like asset categorization and risk scores as well as trial details:

✔️=Yes  ❌=No/Unclear  ➕=Add-On

Microsoft Defender XDR

Best Overall for a Mix of Features & Usability

Overall Rating: 4.1/5

• Core Features: 3.3/5
• Advanced Features: 5/5
• MITRE Ratings: 5/5
• Ease of Use: 4.9/5
• Pricing: 3.7/5
• Customer Support: 1.4/5

Microsoft Defender XDR is a detection and response solution for endpoints, cloud apps, collaboration software, and identity management. Microsoft has built a surprisingly strong security business, and consistently high MITRE scores show that. Consider Defender XDR if you’re looking for a product with thorough documentation and high ease-of-use reviews from existing customers. Microsoft also offers training videos for Defender XDR users.

While it could be challenging to integrate a large number of third-party apps with Defender, it’s a good choice for teams with an existing Windows ecosystem. It also offers a significant number of advanced EDR features, like threat hunting and incident triage, for teams that need those.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

• Contact for quote: Custom pricing available
• Free trial: 30 days

Key Features

• Automated remediation: Automatic incident response helps teams prioritize threats.
• Sandboxing: Intensive malware analysis allows teams to explore behavior in detail.
• Third-party integrations: Partner products include Splunk and Bitdefender GravityZone.
• Unmanaged device mapping: Defender XDR helps teams find unprotected devices.

Trend Micro Vision One

Best for Supporting Junior Security Teams

Overall Rating: 4/5

• Core Features: 4.5/5
• Advanced Features: 3.7/5
• MITRE Ratings: 4/5
• Ease of Use: 4.9/5
• Pricing: 3.7/5
• Customer Support: 2.5/5

Trend Micro’s Vision One platform is an XDR and attack surface management solution, also referred to as Trend Micro XDR. Another vendor now vying for the XDR space, Trend Micro’s range of security offerings is impressive, spanning cloud, containers, network security, and endpoints.

Trend Micro has multiple third-party security integrations for Vision One, notably Splunk, IBM QRadar, and Palo Alto Cortex XSOAR. Trend Micro can be a strong fit for businesses with multiple security products as they try to build a cohesive infrastructure. And its managed XDR services are a good choice for smaller organizations that don’t have an extensive IT team.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

• Contact for quote: Custom pricing available
• Free demo: Customers can test drive the XDR solution
• Free trial: 30 days

Key Features

• Guided investigation: Guided threat exploring helps teams identify remediation strategies.
• Detection rules: The rules are added based on discoveries from threat experts.
• Policy adjustments: These are based on recent insights from Trend Micro XDR.
• Customized dashboards: The boards are relevant to specific organizational roles.

Cybereason Defense

Best for Security Visualization Features

Overall Rating: 3.9/5

• Core Features: 4.2/5
• Advanced Features: 3.8/5
• MITRE Ratings: 5/5
• Ease of Use: 4.9/5
• Pricing: 1.2/5
• Customer Support: 3.1/5

Cybereason’s Defense Platform is a detection and response solution with a strong set of features and plenty of documentation and training resources. Cybereason scored very high in this year’s MITRE tests, with a perfect detection score and only one of 143 steps missed in all the protection evaluations.

Cybereason’s Defense Platform takes a comprehensive approach to threats, known as malicious operations (MalOps). By analyzing threat data and creating a comprehensive attack story, Cybereason aims to provide more context to malicious behavior. Consider Cybereason if your team is looking for detailed threat visualizations.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

• Contact for quote: Enterprise, Enterprise Advanced, and Enterprise Complete bundles available.

Key Features

• Cloud integrations: Cybereason supports Google, AWS, and Microsoft Azure.
• Cloud workload analysis: XDR for cloud also helps protect container environments.
• Digital forensics capabilities: Root cause analysis helps teams investigate incidents.
• Visualizations: MalOps centralize data to give comprehensive views of threats.

Palo Alto Cortex XDR

Best for Experienced IT & Security Teams

Overall Rating: 3.8/5

• Core Features: 3.4/5
• Advanced Features: 4.4/5
• MITRE Ratings: 5/5
• Ease of Use: 4.4/5
• Pricing: 1.7/5
• Customer Support: 2.5/5

Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex XDR is a sophisticated platform for advanced security teams that want plenty of features like sandboxing and forensics tools. Palo Alto topped the 2023 MITRE test results with perfect scores; it’s one of the most established and secure endpoint protection vendors in the market.

Cortex XDR is a cloud-native platform and is installed as a software agent on endpoint devices. The Cortex XDR API allows users to integrate third-party ticketing systems of their choice. If you’re a large enterprise with a built-out IT or security team, consider Cortex XDR — if you have the budget for it, it could be one of the best security investments you ever make.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

• Contact for quote: Custom pricing available

Key Features

• Root cause analysis: It’s automated, so security teams can focus on other tasks.
• Forensic investigations: Users can perform deep analysis on endpoint behavior.
• Detection rules: Teams can use out-of-the-box rules as well as custom ones.
• Incident triage: Cortex XDR filters threats using incident fields and prioritizes them.

Cynet 360 AutoXDR

Best for a Mix of Deception & Security Ops

Overall Rating: 3.7/5

• Core Features: 4.2/5
• Advanced Features: 3.3/5
• MITRE Ratings: 4.3/5
• Ease of Use: 4.4/5
• Pricing: 2.5/5
• Customer Support: 2.5/5

Cynet 360 AutoXDR is a detection and response platform that offers managed detection and response (MDR) services with no extra cost. Cynet offers on-premises, hybrid, SaaS, and IaaS deployment options for AutoXDR, making it a good fit for teams with hybrid infrastructures. And if you have a mid-sized business that needs managed XDR services, consider Cynet.

Cynet has an API for integrations and also integrates with remote monitoring and management (RMM) solutions and Active Directory. Cynet 360 also offers honeypot technology and has received some positive user reviews for its security operations center (SOC), which is why we named it best for deception and security operations.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

• Contact for quote: Custom pricing available
• Free trial: Contact for length

Key Features

• Cynet Responder: Teams can automatically remediate compromised accounts and infections.
• Deception technology: Catch and identify malicious activity to be more prepared.
• Asset inventory: View assets like users and configurations and your current threat coverage.
• Device control: Cynet blocks external devices like USBs that could contain malware.

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight

Best for Advanced Threat Response Capabilities

Overall Rating: 3.6/5

• Core Features: 3/5
• Advanced Features: 3.2/5
• MITRE Ratings: 5/5
• Ease of Use: 3.8/5
• Pricing: 3.6/5
• Customer Support: 3.5/5

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight is a solution for teams that need plenty of advanced EDR features. CrowdStrike offers strong security, as evidenced by its nearly-perfect MITRE scores, but where the vendor really shines is in its management and response capabilities. Features include threat hunting, prioritization, and security posture assessments.

Like the other vendors on this list, CrowdStrike is expanding into XDR, offering cloud, network, and managed protection services. Consider Falcon Insight if your IT team wants advanced response features and plenty of opportunities to grow in their expertise.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

• Contact for quote: Contact CrowdStrike for details on Falcon Insight XDR, which falls under the Falcon Elite plan.
• Free trial: 15 days

Key Features

• Posture assessments: These help identify unsafe or outdated sensors and settings.
• Threat context: Falcon Insight offers threat attribution to give details about vulnerabilities.
• Falcon Sandbox: Users can deeply analyze unknown malware and other threats.
• MITRE mapping: Compare threats to the MITRE ATT&CK framework to better understand detections. 

Top 5 Features of EDR Solutions

Top EDR features include behavioral analytics, automated remediation, vulnerability management, device monitoring and control, and threat intelligence integrations. Use this list of EDR features to narrow down a good fit for your business based on platform capabilities.

Behavioral Detection

Behavioral analytics use machine learning technology, which studies thousands to millions of user and device behaviors to identify abnormal patterns. These patterns could indicate a malicious user or a downloaded strain of malware. Behavioral detection is a key EDR feature because it uses an immense amount of data to automatically locate potential threats that would take more time to detect manually. It can be helpful in zero-day attacks too.

Automated Remediation

By setting remediation rules in advance or using prebuilt ones, security teams can configure automatic threat remediation. A particular action on an endpoint triggers a predefined remediation policy, and without any human interaction, the EDR tool sets remediation in motion. Automation is a helpful tool because it reduces manual remediation work for security admins. It’s a particularly good feature for small or overwhelmed security teams.

Vulnerability Monitoring & Management

EDR solutions consistently monitor endpoints, alerting security teams when the software unearths vulnerabilities that could be exploited. These can include outdated operating systems, backdoors, and misconfigurations. Automated searches for vulnerabilities are more efficient, allowing IT and security teams to catch them quickly and spend time on other tasks.

Device Control

EDR solutions monitor USB devices and other direct-attached storage for malicious behavior. Threat actors use USB and flash drives to infect systems with malware, and employees often plug unfamiliar storage devices into computers without knowing what’s on them. EDR tools allow admins to set strict policies for device use and determine when to give remote access permissions to USB devices.

Threat Intelligence Feed Integration

Threat intelligence integrations are essential because they compile threats, indicators of compromise (IoC), and more so your team can look for a wide range of behaviors and threats. Many EDR tools integrate with third-party threat intel solutions so your team has more information to keep the business on top of vulnerabilities.

How We Evaluated the Best EDR Solutions

We evaluated a broad selection of EDR products using a product scoring rubric containing six categories. Each of the categories had subcriteria with its own weighting, which factored into the total product score. The products received an overall score out of five based on their subcriteria ratings. The six highest-scoring products made our list, and the scores helped us determine the products’ use cases.

Evaluation Criteria

Our most important criteria included major EDR features, advanced features like threat hunting, and MITRE scores, which measure how well the vendors can actually protect systems and data. We also looked at the products’ ease of use and administration capabilities. Last, we considered pricing availability and customer support, for which EDR vendors often don’t offer much public information.

• Core features (25%): We scored products based on availability of core EDR capabilities like behavioral analytics, device controls, and remediation recommendations.
  • Criterion winner: Trend Micro Vision One
• Advanced features (20%): Advanced EDR features included threat hunting, rogue device discovery, custom detection rules, and incident triage or prioritization.
  • Criterion winner: Microsoft Defender XDR
• MITRE scores (20%): The MITRE ATT&CK corporation performs stringent evaluations that test vendors’ detection and protection abilities. We scored products based on their MITRE detection and protection scores.
  • Criterion winner: Multiple winners
• Ease of use and admin (15%): We measured products based on documentation and training videos, as well as independent reviews for ease of use and the option to use managed services.
  • Criterion winner: Multiple winners
• Pricing (10%): We evaluated vendors’ pricing availability, free trials, and information provided about licensing or plans.
  • Criterion winner: Multiple winners
• Customer support (10%): We looked at availability of support channels like phone and chat. We also reviewed the duration of vendor assistance with implementation, review scores, and demo availability.
  • Criterion winner: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why Do I Need an EDR Solution?

Endpoint detection and response products help IT and security teams manage hundreds to thousands of devices that they would be unable to secure otherwise. Because threat actors have developed such sophisticated tactics, you’ll need to be able to respond as quickly as possible to advanced threats. 

How Long Do EDR Products Retain Data?

Vendors will have different data retention and storage systems, but 30-60 days is a common time frame for storing threat data. Some vendors may offer more or fewer; however, for example, CrowdStrike Falcon Insight stores data for up to 90 days.

What’s the Difference Between EDR & XDR?

EDR mainly focuses on endpoints like devices and users. Extended detection and response (XDR) is broader, covering networks, cloud applications, and other technologies. XDR is designed to protect the entire tech ecosystem, but it’s an industry question whether individual products accomplish this goal. Your enterprise should look for solutions that have strong detection and response capabilities — look at user reviews and independent testing results.

What’s the Difference Between Antivirus, Endpoint Protection Platforms, & EDR?

Antivirus products find and eradicate malware and viruses from computer systems, but many are limited in scope. While endpoint protection platforms serve a similar purpose to EDR, they mainly identify vulnerabilities and protect systems from threats. EDR platforms do more active response and threat hunting, giving businesses more comprehensive protection. Read more about the differences between antivirus, EPP, and EDR to best choose one of the three.

Bottom Line: EDR Solutions Help Protect Your Devices & Systems

EDR is a foundational enterprise cybersecurity technology, as important as firewalls and SIEM. It’s important to choose the EDR system that best meets your organization’s needs and budget. These tools are useful for many organizations but especially critical for enterprises with many endpoint devices, including but not limited to servers, desktops, and laptops.

Don’t rely on your EDR to immediately fix everything for you. It takes time to learn, implement, and tune any endpoint platform, but the long-term benefits are worthwhile, including the experience security staff will gain from using any EDR software. As your IT and security teams learn to recognize behavioral and threat patterns, your enterprise will be more prepared overall to secure your endpoints and broader infrastructure.

Considering a broader range of security solutions? Read more about the best cybersecurity software for businesses, including cloud access security brokers and next-generation firewalls.

Paul Shread contributed to this article.