CrowdStrike Falcon vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR comparison

Why PeerSpot?

CrowdStrike and Qualys are both solutions in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category. CrowdStrike is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.0, while Qualys is ranked #78. CrowdStrike holds a 6.8% mindshare in EDR, compared to Qualys’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of CrowdStrike users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 13, 2026

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR and Qualys Multi-Vector EDR are direct competitors in cybersecurity. While CrowdStrike scores higher on pricing and support, Qualys' comprehensive features and perceived value give it an advantage in some aspects.

Features: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR offers advanced threat detection, real-time response functionalities, and seamless integration across multiple environments. Qualys Multi-Vector EDR is noted for robust vulnerability management, extensive asset inventory capabilities, and providing a more holistic endpoint security approach.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR highlights rapid deployment and effective customer support. Qualys Multi-Vector EDR delivers extensive deployment options suitable for various environments and efficient technical support, contrasting with CrowdStrike's simplified setup approach.

Pricing and ROI: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR typically has more competitive pricing and lower setup costs, which lead to quicker ROI due to streamlined implementation. Conversely, Qualys Multi-Vector EDR might require a higher initial investment, but its expansive features promise substantial long-term value for organizations needing comprehensive security coverage.

To learn more, read our detailed Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Report (Updated: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

October 2026

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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

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.8%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CrowdStrike Falcon is 6.8%, down from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Multi-Vector EDR is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
CrowdStrike Falcon	6.8%
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks	3.8%
Qualys Multi-Vector EDR	0.4%
Other	89.0%

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH

Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk

Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration

Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.

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Jacob White

Senior Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Centralized endpoint protection has strengthened compliance and accelerated incident response

There are a number of areas that I only touch a handful of times, but when I get in there, I realize why I don't do that. The main area would be within the support area. The support bot is not really as smart as you would expect it, especially in this day and age of LLM and other capabilities that I know CrowdStrike Falcon is already capable of doing. Additionally, I would appreciate a little bit more easy to read insights of some of the dashboards or maybe manipulation of the dashboards. It is still a little cumbersome to build custom dashboards and it's not as intuitive as you would think. Documentation is abysmal and needs to be improved dramatically. I know that there's a big effort to do this, however, even the new effort is honestly worse than it was before. Those are definitely major areas of improvement, just more in the usability of the features.

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reviewer1668453

Director, Security Innovation at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

Provides contextual alerts and risk ratings on findings

It's kind of difficult to quantify areas for improvement. In the larger picture, one challenge is that the NDR space is very crowded today. I can mention half a dozen names just off the top of my head. There are at least 12 to 20 different players. All of them are well-known brand names, and it's difficult to compare them. They all claim to be giving you the same network difference capability: catching malware, dealing with all the minor taxonomy of attack, all that. Still, it's very difficult to compare them side by side because they all do things a little differently, and they all have different presentations and output. We haven't deployed it, so I can't give you what we felt about it exactly. But in the larger perspective, the critical feature is really giving a clear separation between a low, high, and medium criticality. You need a rating that is really true to the actual attack. There's one other capability we are evaluating them for, and it's for custom alerts detection. A lot of these products are trying to profile the threats that are already out there in the industry. They're very well known and published. Today, there are targeted acts being played against organizations, so you have to be sensitive to how your firewalls, protocols, and your HTTP are all operating. You might have some fine-tuned threats that are targeting you, and you should be able to build custom defenses. They should have some openness in terms of how you specify your threats. You get a standard library of threats. On top of it, every organization builds its own.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are the fact that it was running in the background and it would intercept any weird stuff, and the fact that it would send things directly to the cloud for sandboxing. It's quite practical."

"Cortex XDR alerts us on the dashboard when there's a threat, which allows us to restrict that user and helps secure our infrastructure."

"There has been a significant reduction of approximately 70% to 80% in our internal MTTR and MTTD metrics, now around five to eight minutes whereas previously it was hours, which has helped tremendously."

"Implementing Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks has had a significant impact on my security analyst workload because it becomes much easier."

"Previously, we had to install endpoint protection per machine and then scan and update, but Cortex XDR basically does that centrally and predictably, so we have more time to do day-to-day work rather than spend time chasing those endpoints."

"We can use Cortex XDR to get the entire graph of the incidents from source to destination, and we can take remedial action."

"This software helps us understand any issues that may arise when someone is not at work."

"One thing that I like about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, it is detecting all the suspicious or malicious binaries, and it has integration with Palo Alto Firewall."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pros

"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."

"The initial setup was straightforward."

"We have a small IT Team, and this allows us to get sleep at night, knowing that someone else is taking care of any incidents that occur."

"Using CrowdStrike Falcon has changed the way my security team detects, investigates, and responds to threats because it gives us a lot of granularity on what goes on, what processes are being run, and what is actually being executed if anyone is trying to get onto our endpoints."

"What differentiates CrowdStrike Falcon from other cybersecurity platforms I have used or evaluated is that it is very accurate and I think there are not many false positives, making it more effective than any other product."

"Easy to use, intelligent, and stable threat detection software."

"CrowdStrike provides a lot of visibility in their tool."

"The most valuable feature of CrowdStrike Falcon is its accuracy. That's very important for me. False-positive are very bad for everyone. As we are a financial institution, it's even worse. I like Falcon because it's very accurate."

More CrowdStrike Falcon pros

"They can provide you very contextual alerts on if something bad is happening—coming into your network or going out of your network. As part of that, they gather a lot of threat intelligence and map your connections against that. The larger benefit is that they give you a risk rating on their findings."

Cons

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks could improve its user interface, which is more complicated compared to competitors such as SentinelOne."

"The downside to the solution is that there are a large number of false positives."

"Enhancing UI simplicity and playbook flexibility are areas that could benefit from more low-code automation options for smoother integrations."

"I have run into some detection issues with Cortex XDR. It needs to be better at detection of internal attacks."

"This product has not improved my organization - in fact, we are in the process of moving back to another product as a result of Cortex's horrible impact on system performance."

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is not only pricey; it is extremely expensive."

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks could improve by adding a sandbox feature to better compete with their competitors which have it."

"The solution should force customers to integrate with network traffic to see the full benefits of XDR."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks cons

"They offered a white glove service that was extremely costly. When we got into it, we saw it was relatively easy. If I was being nitpicky, I'd say that I don't like being sold something that's unnecessary. That's the only downside I've seen to the solution."

"I have not been able to integrate the tool with a third-party MFA authentication tool."

"The main area of improvement for CrowdStrike Falcon is making the names of the products and the licensing a little less confusing, as it can be quite confusing to know what the product stack is."

"I want more ability to customize how you summarize the data. The default views are fine, but it would be interesting to be able to customize them based on the kind of data you want to see immediately. This can help the administrator gain an immediate overview and reduce the investigation time."

"The management of the solution could improve."

"The UI is not efficient."

"Basically, they don't cover legacy OS or applications. That's the only issue we're concerned about."

"In CrowdStrike, with the variety of security tools available, learning the different query languages can be challenging."

More CrowdStrike Falcon cons

"My challenge is actually comparing offerings from different vendors across a threat spectrum that is very large."

"My challenge is actually comparing offerings from different vendors across a threat spectrum that is very large. We are talking about millions of threats. How are you confident that Blue Hexagon is catching all one million of them and Palo Alto is doing the same thing? They all have their strengths. Within that, Blue Hexagon might cover 990,000 of them. Palo Alto might cover another 990,000. It's a bit difficult to compare them and say, "Oh, are they catching the same 990,000?" I don't know."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution could be reduced. I have customers that have voiced that the solution is good for the value but if I want to sell more of the solution the price reduction would help."

"The tool's price is moderate."

"The pricing seems fair, and I do like the licensing model. You use wherever they are, and it is elastic."

"Every customer has to pay for a license because it doesn't work with what you get from a managed services provider."

"It is "expensive" and flexible."

"I don't have any issues with the pricing. We are satisfied with the price."

"The pricing is okay, although direct support can be expensive."

"I did PoCs on products called Cylance and CrowdStrike. Although, I consider these products and they were also good, when it come to cost and budgetary factors, Traps has been proven to be better than the other two products. It is quite cost-effective and delivers all the entire solution which we require."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"The cost is usually a challenge in the industry. I think we pay around sixty-eight dollars."

"With respect to pricing, my suggestion to others is to evaluate the environment and purchase what you need."

"It's an expensive solution but you get a very good product for the price. Compared to other products, SentinelOne is definitely cheaper and the Microsoft E5 package is probably more expensive. Not many companies are willing to purchase CrowdStrike Falcon in Turkey due to the cost, but the market is changing."

"Annual licensing."

"Pricing and licensing seem to be in line with what they offer. We are a smaller organization, so pricing is important. Obviously, we would make a business case if it is something we really needed or felt that we needed. So, the pricing is in line with what we are getting from a product standpoint."

"I do not have experience with the cost or licensing of the product."

"CrowdStrike Falcon's price is good."

"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."

More CrowdStrike Falcon pricing and cost advice

"It's difficult to state the setup cost. All the NDRs range anywhere between $500,000, plus or minus, to $2 million. There's a spread of pricing here, depending on who you are talking to. Obviously the major brand names want more money. They typically bundle it with their other offerings. With Cisco, for example, you don't just buy an NDR. So, typically it gets rolled into the cost."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

14%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Construction Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	50
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	57

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	62
Midsize Enterprise	54
Large Enterprise	103

No data available

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. ...

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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 th...

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How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface,...

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How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?

Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing u...

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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 pu...

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Is Crowdstrike Falcon better than Trend Micro Deep Security?

I like that Crowdstrike allows me to easily correlate data between my firewalls. What’s most useful for my needs is t...

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Comparisons

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 16% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

Cortex XSIAM vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

Trellix Endpoint Security Platform vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Competitors

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

Fortinet FortiEDR vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

VMware Carbon Black Endpoint vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

Huntress Managed EDR vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 1% of the time

More CrowdStrike Falcon Competitors

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 15% of the time

ExtraHop Reveal(x) vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 9% of the time

Darktrace vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 7% of the time

Huntress Managed EDR vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 6% of the time

TrendAI Vision One vs Qualys Multi-Vector EDR

Compared 6% of the time

More Qualys Multi-Vector EDR Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

October 2026

Download Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks product report

Buyer's Guide

CrowdStrike Falcon

October 2026

Download CrowdStrike Falcon product report

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

October 2026

Download Qualys Multi-Vector EDR product report

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps

CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, CrowdStrike Falcon Threat Intelligence, CrowdStrike Identity Protection, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CrowdStrike Falcon Platform

Blue Hexagon

Overview

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks provides advanced threat detection with AI-driven endpoint protection and seamless integration, ensuring multi-layered security and automatic threat response.

Cortex XDR is designed to safeguard endpoints against malware and suspicious activities. It offers advanced threat detection and response capabilities using behavioral analysis, AI, and machine learning. It seamlessly integrates with security infrastructures, providing endpoint security, firewall integration, and enhanced visibility in both cloud-based and on-premises environments.

What are the key features of Cortex XDR?

Advanced Threat Detection: Uses AI and machine learning for proactive threat identification.
Multi-layered Security: Combines various security measures for comprehensive protection.
Endpoint Protection: Safeguards against malware and exploits.
Behavioral Analysis: Monitors suspicious activity for early detection.
Automatic Threat Response: Automates responses to neutralize threats.

What benefits should users expect?

Ease of Use: Simplifies security management with intuitive design.
Resource Efficiency: Minimizes impact on system resources.
Integration Capabilities: Works well with existing security setups.
Reduced Analyst Workload: Automates processes to decrease manual intervention.

Organizations in diverse sectors deploy Cortex XDR to protect against malware, leveraging its advanced threat detection capabilities. Its integration with existing security infrastructures appeals to those seeking comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments, providing enhanced visibility and threat intelligence.

Palo Alto Networks

CrowdStrike Falcon delivers AI-powered endpoint protection, detection, and response to help organizations stop malware, ransomware, fileless attacks, and sophisticated adversaries. Built on the cloud-native Falcon platform and a single lightweight sensor, it combines prevention, EDR, threat intelligence, and automated response to protect endpoints while simplifying security operations.

What features make CrowdStrike Falcon stand out?

AI-Powered Prevention: Uses next-generation antivirus, machine learning, behavioral analysis, and exploit blocking to protect against known and unknown threats.
Endpoint Detection and Response: Provides continuous endpoint visibility and contextual detection to accelerate threat investigation and response.
Adversary Intelligence: Enriches endpoint telemetry and detections with CrowdStrike threat intelligence to help teams understand and prioritize threats.
Automated Response: Enables endpoint isolation, remediation, and automated workflows to contain and eliminate threats quickly.

What benefits can users expect?

Stronger Endpoint Protection: Helps stop malware, ransomware, and sophisticated attacks before they lead to breaches.
Faster Investigation and Response: Combines detection, context, and automation to help security teams respond more efficiently.
Reduced Complexity: Consolidates endpoint security capabilities through a unified platform, console, and lightweight sensor.
Scalable Security: Cloud-native architecture helps organizations deploy and manage protection across endpoint environments without legacy on-premises infrastructure.

Across industries, CrowdStrike Falcon helps organizations modernize endpoint security, improve security team efficiency, and stop sophisticated threats with AI-powered protection and adversary intelligence.

CrowdStrike

Qualys Multi-Vector EDR is designed for real-time threat detection and response, offering comprehensive visibility into potential security breaches across endpoints.

This solution integrates seamlessly with other Qualys modules, facilitating automated workflows that streamline incident management and enhance efficiency in monitoring and mitigating cyber threats. With features like real-time monitoring, detailed reporting, and proactive alerting, security teams can quickly identify and address vulnerabilities. While appreciated for its scalability and ease of deployment, users suggest improvements in integration, reporting, and configuration to further enhance its capabilities.

What are the key features of Qualys Multi-Vector EDR?

Real-time Threat Detection: Continuously monitors endpoints to detect potential threats immediately.
Seamless Integration: Integrates with other Qualys modules and existing systems for streamlined operations.
Automated Response: Automates incident response workflows to enhance efficiency and reduce manual tasks.
Detailed Reporting: Provides in-depth reports to support proactive security measures and quick remediation.
Scalability: Suitable for businesses of varying sizes due to its scalable architecture.

What are the benefits and ROI to look for when evaluating Qualys Multi-Vector EDR?

Enhanced Security: Comprehensive threat detection ensures robust security measures.
Improved Efficiency: Automated workflows save time and reduce manual intervention.
Quick Remediation: Real-time alerts and detailed reports facilitate swift vulnerability mitigation.
Cost-effective Deployment: Scalable and resource-efficient architecture suitable for businesses large and small.

Qualys Multi-Vector EDR is implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, where real-time threat detection and automated response are critical. Its ability to integrate with existing systems and provide detailed reporting makes it a valuable asset for enhancing cybersecurity measures in diverse environments.

Qualys

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank

Information Not Available

Pacific Dental Services, Greenhill and Co, Heffernan Insurance Brokers

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

October 2026

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