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CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 11, 2026

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

CrowdStrike Falcon
Ranking in Attack Surface Management (ASM)
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
137
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (6th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (1st), Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (1st), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (1st), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (1st), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st)
Microsoft Defender External...
Ranking in Attack Surface Management (ASM)
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (33rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Attack Surface Management (ASM) category, the mindshare of CrowdStrike Falcon is 7.5%, down from 21.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 3.1%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Attack Surface Management (ASM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
CrowdStrike Falcon7.5%
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management3.1%
Other89.4%
Attack Surface Management (ASM)
 

Featured Reviews

Waleed Omar - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Specialist at Arab Open University
Provides effective real-time threat detection with potential for cost optimization
Some features such as device control, firewall management, and file analysis are standalone products that we need to purchase separately. If these features came out of the box within the product, it would be much more beneficial for us. Other providers such as SentinelOne include these features in their base product. We attended a CrowdStrike Falcon event where they discussed some shallow AI features, but we cannot see these in our panel yet. We work with different solutions such as Darktrace and SocRadar, where AI features are automatically displayed in our dashboards after release. However, for CrowdStrike Falcon, we cannot see these features.
AndyChan3 - PeerSpot reviewer
General manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Enhanced visibility and exposes vulnerabilities but needs more integration
I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will move to full-scale production in another year, maybe Microsoft External Attack Surface Management…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The CrowdStrike Falcon dashboard is good, and we haven't had any problems with it."
"I like the detection rates of mobile threats."
"The real-time analytics aspect of CrowdStrike performs well because we get all logs in real-time, with no delay, allowing us to take action immediately."
"It has definitely minimized resources. When everything was on-prem, there was a lot more work maintaining it. One of the big value tickets: I don't have lists of hundreds of exceptions for certain applications that I have to maintain, add, delete, and move. The very nature of the product has lessened my workload considerably."
"The pay-as-you-go model enabled me to deploy quickly from the AWS Marketplace management account, scaled protection for workloads without upfront commitments, and reduced the initial operational overhead."
"The most valuable feature is its threat analysis."
"CrowdStrike is a great solution."
"I like Falcon's threat detection and endpoint investigation features. It's a user-friendly solution."
"Microsoft External Attack Surface Management helps improve the visibility of my exposed vulnerabilities and provides an overview of my security posture across the globe."
"Microsoft External Attack Surface Management helps improve the visibility of my exposed vulnerabilities and provides an overview of my security posture across the globe."
"It seems to be better at protecting from cyberattacks."
 

Cons

"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 should provide better visibility in its reporting. There should be more forensic details about detected threats."
"The pricing structure should allow for some flexibility."
"The detection time has room for improvement."
"The management of the solution could improve."
"It does take more time to scan than other solutions."
"The current database schema presents challenges and has potential for improvement."
"Support, particularly related to after-sales and after deployment, could be improved a bit. If you need to connect to support, it takes at least a day to reach the support team and get a proper reply."
"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."
"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."
"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a yearly subscription and find the price to be good. I'd give it a rating of four out of five for price, we got a good discount."
"The more endpoints an organization adds the cheaper the cost."
"The pricing is good and there are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"I would like them to further reduce the price, because it is quite pricey at the moment."
"The solution isn't very costly; it's affordable."
"The price is too high."
"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."
"When comparing to Microsoft, CrowdStrike Falcon is more expensive."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise62
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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 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 ...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?
Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement. Introduction of more AI automation into the products would also be beneficial. The integration is not as seamless co...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?
I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will ...
 

Also Known As

CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, CrowdStrike Falcon Threat Intelligence, CrowdStrike Identity Protection, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CrowdStrike Falcon Platform
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike Falcon vs. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.