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CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.4
Number of Reviews
126
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (6th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (2nd), Identity Management (IM) (6th), Threat Intelligence Platforms (2nd), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (1st), Active Directory Management (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (1st), Ransomware Protection (1st), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (1st), Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (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 (34th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Attack Surface Management (ASM) category, the mindshare of CrowdStrike Falcon is 18.7%, down from 29.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 2.8%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Attack Surface Management (ASM)
 

Featured Reviews

Chintan-Vyas - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to set up with good behavior-based analysis but needs a single-click recovery option
Most organizations are currently looking for a scheduled scan to meet their compliance needs. Other players like Symantec and Trend Micro, FireEye, et cetera, are still providing the signature-based regular scheduled scans also, which is not available in CrowdStrike. That is one parameter that we feel should be there in CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike is only working on the dynamic or the files under execution. CrowdStrike is not scanning the static files. The product could be more accurate in terms of performance. We'd like to have a single-click recovery option. With some machines getting corrupted by malware, we need an easy way to start with a blank slate if things happen. That one feature should be there in the EDR.
AndyChan3 - PeerSpot reviewer
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

"It provides very good protection and the ability to crosscheck environments."
"Regarding features, I appreciate its integration capabilities with identity providers...Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature is that we don't need to re-image machines as much as we had to."
"The ability to remote into other devices for investigation and the way it presents a graphical representation of the detection, like the parent-child process, are valuable features."
"I like the dashboard nature of it. Everything is clickable, linkable, and information is easy to obtain and find. How it presents that information is probably the biggest win as far as the information correlation aspect. The presentation of it is very good."
"Everything we've done with CrowdStrike is due to Arctic Wolf. We don't even need to get alerts from CrowdStrike anymore. It'll send those to Arctic Wolf, and then Arctic Wolf analyzes those and let us know if there's a major issue."
"The OverWatch is the most valuable feature to me. It's a 24x7 monitoring service, and when they see anything suspicious in my environment, they will investigate."
"The detection is very effective."
"It seems to be better at protecting from cyberattacks."
"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."
 

Cons

"The Integration with tools, SOC tools, could be better."
"We can't do scanning audits or device blocking or application control."
"CrowdStrike Falcon could be enhanced by extending its security capabilities to include NDR and XDR."
"CS Falcon sensing capabilities for non-domain machines should be enhanced since the agent doesn't detect the neighbor's IP Address and/or any anomaly which was identified in the network for the non-domain machine."
"The solution isn't known in my market. The brand isn't as recognizable. Their shortcomings are more on the marketing side."
"We can do a threat analysis of any machine at any time, but that threat analysis is very limited."
"The overall cost of CrowdStrike Falcon could be reduced."
"Too many false positives."
"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

"The price of CrowdStrike Falcon is reasonable."
"The cost of CrowdStrike Falcon could be reduced. It is quite expensive if you compare it to other solutions, such as Blue Coat, Symantec, McAfee, or Kaspersky."
"The price of CrowdStrike Falcon is expensive."
"Years ago, when we bought CrowdStrike, you got everything it had. I was a little concerned when they broke this out into a la carte modules where you can buy EDR, Spotlight, etc., picking and choosing off the menu. I was a little worried that the solution would get watered down. However, I realized in my previous organization when we had the full suite that there were a bunch of features in it that we didn't have time to operationalize. So, I warmed up to it. I get the whole, "Look, you can pick and choose. Okay, everybody buys a steak, but do you want mashed potatoes, or do you want lobster mac and cheese?" So, you can pick the sides that you want, so you can buy the solution that you want and operationalize versus paying a lot of money and getting a bunch of things, but not using 60 percent of the tools in the box."
"The pricing is not bad. It's on the higher end of the market, but you get what you pay for."
"CrowdStrike Falcon can be more expensive than some competitors, and its base price doesn't cover every feature."
"The pricing of CrowdStrike Falcon is competitive."
"Purchasing the product through the AWS Marketplace is just a click away. Since we were using the on-premise version of the product, we continued on the cloud by purchasing it through the AWS Marketplace."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Insurance Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
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, CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, CrowdStrike Falcon Threat Intelligence, CrowdStrike Identity Protection, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface
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: February 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.