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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)
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
138
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (6th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (3rd), Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (2nd), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (2nd), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (1st), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (3rd)
Microsoft Defender External...
Ranking in Attack Surface Management (ASM)
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (33rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Attack Surface Management (ASM) category, the mindshare of CrowdStrike Falcon is 5.8%, down from 13.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 2.9%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Attack Surface Management (ASM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CrowdStrike Falcon5.8%
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management2.9%
Other91.3%
Attack Surface Management (ASM)
 

Featured Reviews

Dipak M Gohil - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Jord International Pty Ltd
Efficient threat detection and seamless deployment improve overall security
The single panel console of CrowdStrike Falcon is very user-friendly, which is what we are looking for. Having multiple administrators between various offices with this single console gives us the ability to see all offices, branch offices, and partners, making it very useful to detect machines, identify machines, and check security risks. Everything in the single console is very useful. CrowdStrike Falcon has positively impacted our organization in terms of efficiency because it's very lightweight, easy to deploy, easy to manage, and works very efficiently. It quickly detects issues and doesn't have a signature-based system, so it works fast and takes immediate action.
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

"Regarding features, I appreciate its integration capabilities with identity providers...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The initial setup is a very fast process."
"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."
"We don't need to maintain onsite servers and deep end user updates with the new vulnerabilities."
"The product's deployment phase is easy."
"I like Falcon's threat detection and endpoint investigation features. It's a user-friendly solution."
"I like its detection capabilities, number one."
"The detection is very effective."
"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 overall cost of CrowdStrike Falcon could be reduced."
"Technical support could be better than what is currently offered."
"There are a lot of open integrations, but they are external factors that cause dependencies on the integrator, not really on CrowdStrike, so it's a bit of a challenge as there is no comprehensive solution."
"This solution lacks basic functionality, such as being able to perform on-demand scanning."
"The support for different OS versions needs improvement because sometimes due to business conditions, updating our OS is impossible."
"The price of CrowdStrike Falcon could be better. It is very expensive, we pay approximately $900 per month for the licenses."
"We would like to be able to perform on-demand scanning, rather than relying on the scheduler."
"The content-filtering features for children could be improved. We have young grandchildren aged 12 and 8. My daughter, their mother, wants to keep them from getting in trouble on the net. She looked at all these other solutions from Google, Microsoft, etc., and she couldn't figure out how to make any of those work. I told her that I bet CrowdStrike could handle this. Sure enough, CrowdStrike can do exactly that. It's the same solution that the Defense Department gets. It works, but it's a little complicated to implement. It could be simpler to set the policies."
"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."
"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."
"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no license required to use this solution."
"The other administrator and I can log in to check the exact details of what happened, what was running, and what caused the detection. We know exactly what was happening on the end users PC and we can tell if it's something that we actually need or something that's malicious."
"The pricing and licensing are fairly good. It is definitely not a cheap product, but I have felt that it is worth the money that we spent. So, we have discussed it in the past, and were like, "Yes, it is probably pricier than some other solutions, but we also feel they really are the leader. We are very comfortable with their level of expertise. So, it's kind of worth the price that we pay.""
"CrowdStrike Falcon is one of the more expensive endpoint solutions on the market."
"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."
"Our licensing fees were between $50,000 and $60,000 per year, which was pretty expensive for a small business."
"I would like them to further reduce the price, because it is quite pricey at the moment."
"The price of CrowdStrike Falcon is reasonable."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
5%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business54
Midsize Enterprise34
Large Enterprise63
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: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.