The Top 10 Endpoint Detection And Response Solutions
Discover the top best endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. Explore features such as real-time endpoint monitoring, threat data analysis, automated threat response and centralized management.
Written by Caitlin Harris
Technical Review by Laura Iannini
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Cisco Secure Endpoint
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Crowdstrike Falcon Insight XDR
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions—or EDR products—help security teams to block, identify, and remediate malicious activity on corporate endpoints, including workstations, laptops, mobile and IoT devices, cloud systems, and servers.
To achieve this, EDR solutions monitor each endpoint in real-time for threats, aggregating and analyzing data—such as process execution, communications, and user logins—to identify anomalous, suspicious and potentially malicious activities. The EDR product uses this data to initiate automated responses to contain or remediate threats, as well as help inform the security team’s threat investigation and response processes.
Implementing an endpoint detection and response solution empowers IT security teams to take a proactive approach to their cybersecurity. The right EDR product can enable organizations to minimize endpoint risk by gaining greater visibility into their network, carrying out more informed investigations into threats, and more efficiently and effectively remediating threats with automated response workflows.
In this article, we’ll explore the top EDR solutions designed to help you identify and remove threats to your network’s endpoints. These solutions offer a range of key capabilities, including real-time endpoint monitoring, threat data analysis, automated threat response and centralized management. We’ll give you some background information on the provider and the key features of each solution, as well as the type of customer that they are most suitable for.
Heimdal™ Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is a robust cybersecurity solution that defends against a wide array of threats including malware, vulnerability exploits, and social engineering attacks. It offers a unified dashboard that provides a comprehensive view of an organization’s security posture across email, endpoint, web, application, and identity threats.
Why We Picked Heimdal™ EDR: We appreciate Heimdal™ EDR’s holistic approach to cybersecurity, integrating next-gen antivirus, Privileged Access Management (PAM), application control, patch management, DNS filtering, and encryption into a single platform. Its machine learning-driven intelligence enables proactive threat detection and remediation.
Heimdal™ EDR Best Features: Key features include next-gen antivirus, PAM, application control, patch management, DNS filtering, and encryption. It also offers automated remediation workflows and a user-friendly dashboard. Integrations include seamless deployment in the cloud, allowing for easy scalability and module addition.
What’s great:
- Comprehensive, layered approach to threat detection
- Machine learning-driven intelligence for proactive threat prevention
- Intuitive interface and user-friendly dashboard
- High-quality, reliable support from the product team
- Scalable cloud deployment with easy module addition
What to consider:
- Heimdal takes a holistic approach, going beyond traditional EDR with additional features and components
Pricing: Contact Heimdal™ directly for pricing information.
Who it’s for: Heimdal™ EDR is ideal for organizations of any size seeking a holistic, easy-to-use threat prevention, detection, and response platform that provides insights across multiple threat vectors and supports automated remediation.
ESET PROTECT Enterprise is an extended detection and response (XDR) platform that integrates endpoint security, full disk encryption, and proactive threat detection to protect businesses from known and zero-day threats.
Why We Picked ESET PROTECT Enterprise: We appreciate its robust endpoint security and real-time zero-day threat remediation using machine learning and adaptive scanning.
ESET PROTECT Enterprise Best Features: Key features include machine learning algorithms, adaptive scanning, behavioral analysis, cloud-based sandboxing, mobile device management, brute force protection, ransomware shield, full disk encryption for Windows and macOS, and live response options such as one-click isolations and PowerShell remediation. It supports both on-prem and cloud deployments and integrates with SIEM, SOAR, and ticketing tools via a public API.
What’s great:
- Efficiently identifies and remediates zero-day threats in real time
- Offers comprehensive endpoint security tools
- Provides easy integration with existing security systems
- Features a user-friendly interface with powerful forensic analysis
- Automatically adjusts alert sensitivity to reduce false positives
What to consider:
- Best for SMBs to mid-sized organizations looking for an EDR deployment
Pricing: For detailed pricing, visit the ESET website.
Who it’s for: ESET PROTECT Enterprise is ideal for mid-sized to larger organizations seeking to secure their endpoints and extended networks against known and zero-day threats.
ThreatLocker® Detect is an EDR solution that offers automated policy-based monitoring, alerting, and remediation for unusual endpoint activities. Powered by telemetry data from ThreatLocker® agents and Windows event logs, it identifies and addresses malicious activities on endpoint devices.
Why We Picked ThreatLocker® Detect: We appreciate ThreatLocker® Detect’s comprehensive threat detection capabilities and its ability to automatically respond to threats through incident response policies.
ThreatLocker® Detect Best Features: Key features include automated policy-based monitoring, real-time alerting with detailed threat information, and automatic remediation options like network disconnection and lockdown mode. The solution also offers severity thresholds to reduce alert fatigue, an intuitive admin console for policy configuration, and integrations with the broader ThreatLocker® Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform for application, network, and storage control.
What’s great:
- Identifies a wide range of potential risks, including unusual traffic and multiple failed login events
- Automated responses controlled via incident response policies
- Reduces alert fatigue with configurable severity thresholds
- Integrates with ThreatLocker® Zero Trust for comprehensive endpoint protection
- Highly praised for ease of policy configuration and user control
What to consider:
- Advanced features may require time to fully configure
Pricing: For pricing details, visit ThreatLocker® directly.
Who it’s for: ThreatLocker® Detect is best suited for organizations seeking a robust EDR solution with automated threat detection and response capabilities, particularly those already using or considering the ThreatLocker® Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform.
Cisco Secure Endpoint is a cloud-native endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution designed to prevent breaches, block malware, and monitor process activity across digital networks. It leverages machine learning to identify and isolate threats, offering robust protection against fileless malware and ransomware.
Why We Picked Cisco Secure Endpoint: We appreciate its machine learning-based behavioral monitoring and the ability to quickly identify and isolate threats in a sandbox environment. Its integration with other Cisco products simplifies deployment and management.
Cisco Secure Endpoint Best Features: Key features include machine learning-driven behavioral monitoring, real-time threat detection, one-click endpoint isolation, advanced search capabilities with over 200 pre-defined queries, and proactive threat hunting through Cisco Talos. It integrates seamlessly with other Cisco products, enhancing its utility within existing Cisco ecosystems.
What’s great:
- Fast threat remediation and high visibility into endpoint security
- Effective against fileless malware and ransomware
- Proactive threat hunting with Cisco Talos
- One-click endpoint isolation for quick threat mitigation
- Cloud-native deployment for easy setup
What to consider:
- May be complex for smaller organizations without dedicated IT resources
- Optimal security outcomes may require integration with other Cisco products
Pricing: Available in three plans: Essentials, Advantage, and Premier. For detailed pricing, visit Cisco’s website.
Who it’s for: Cisco Secure Endpoint is best suited for mid-to-large enterprises seeking a robust EDR solution, especially those already using Cisco’s security products. Smaller organizations can opt for the managed version, Cisco Secure MDR for Endpoint, which includes monitoring and response services from Cisco’s SOC team.
CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR is a robust cybersecurity solution that provides extended detection and response capabilities through a single endpoint agent. It offers real-time threat monitoring, historical visibility, and powerful remediation tools to protect against a wide range of cyber threats.
Why We Picked CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR: We appreciate its comprehensive threat visibility and streamlined incident triaging, which enable security teams to prioritize and respond to threats efficiently.
CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR Best Features: Key features include behavioral analytics for continuous endpoint monitoring, real-time and historical visibility, AI-driven threat intelligence, and powerful response actions for real-time investigation and containment. Integrations include API-based compatibility with other security products for enhanced cross-platform threat visibility, supporting Windows, Windows Server, macOS, Chrome OS, and Linux.
What’s great:
- Provides full visibility into endpoint security status
- Streamlined notifications and incident triaging for faster remediation
- Maps security alerts to MITRE ATT&CK framework, reducing alert fatigue
- Lightweight agent deploys and secures endpoints in minutes
- Offers powerful response actions for real-time threat mitigation
What to consider:
- Pricing may be high for SMBs depending on required modules
Pricing: The Falcon Insight XDR module is available via the Enterprise package at $15.00/endpoint/month and the Premium package at $18.99/endpoint/month.
Who it’s for: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR is best suited for mid-to-large organizations seeking powerful, easy-to-deploy cybersecurity protection that won’t impact end-user productivity.
Huntress
Huntress is a leading managed Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) provider. Their flagship platform offers IT managers comprehensive endpoint security through persistent foothold identification, managed antivirus, ransomware canaries, and external reconnaissance.
Why We Picked Huntress: We appreciate Huntress’ 24/7 SOC that delivers detailed incident reports and one-click remediation actions, enabling swift threat response. The platform’s persistent foothold technology automatically identifies and analyzes threats on Windows and Mac devices.
Huntress Best Features: Key features include persistent foothold identification, managed antivirus with Microsoft Defender integration, ransomware canaries for early detection, external reconnaissance for entry point scanning, and a central dashboard for real-time security insights. The platform also offers one-click remediation, customizable antivirus configurations, and industry benchmarking.
What’s great:
- Comprehensive real-time monitoring and threat detection
- Detailed incident reports with actionable remediation steps
- 24/7 SOC support for swift threat response
- Minimal system impact and easy deployment
- Industry benchmarking for contextual security strategy
What to consider:
- Primarily focused for SMBs and MSPs
Pricing: For detailed pricing, contact Huntress directly.
Who it’s for: Huntress is an ideal solution for SMBs and MSPs seeking a comprehensive endpoint security platform with excellent support services.
Huntress
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is Microsoft’s EDR solution that provides comprehensive endpoint protection across various platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and IoT devices. It is available in two plans, with the P2 plan offering advanced features for threat detection and remediation.
Why We Picked Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: We like its ability to discover and manage both managed and unmanaged devices, providing a single view of the attack surface. Its integration with Microsoft’s global intelligence network, processing over 78 trillion daily signals, ensures users have up-to-date threat information.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Best Features: The solution includes endpoint protection, antimalware, device controls, an endpoint firewall, threat detection, and remediation. It also features deception techniques for early threat exposure, misconfiguration identification, and decentralized encryption across devices. Integrations include Microsoft’s generative AI tool, Copilot for Security, for alert prioritization and natural language queries, and Microsoft Secure Score for security configuration recommendations.
What’s great:
- Comprehensive endpoint protection across multiple platforms
- Leverages vast global intelligence for up-to-date threat detection
- Automates threat detection and response workflows
- Integrates with AI for enhanced security operations
- Provides actionable security configuration recommendations
What to consider:
- Optimal performance may depend on integration with other Microsoft products
Pricing: Available in P1 and P2 plans; contact Microsoft for detailed pricing.
Who it’s for: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is ideal for organizations of any size seeking a robust solution to protect their endpoints from advanced threats.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
SentinelOne’s Singularity XDR is an advanced endpoint and network security solution that emphasizes automation and real-time threat intelligence. It leverages AI and next-gen antivirus to detect and remediate threats across various endpoints, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and IoT devices.
Why We Picked SentinelOne Singularity XDR: We appreciate its comprehensive endpoint protection and automated remediation workflows, which significantly reduce response times to security incidents.
SentinelOne Singularity XDR Best Features: Key features include behavioral AI for threat detection, real-time endpoint monitoring, automated remediation, Storyline technology for incident analysis, and integration with MITRE ATT&CK indicators. The platform supports multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and role-based access control (RBAC). It is available in three packages: Core, Control, and Complete, with the latter offering full EDR capabilities and additional controls like network and USB device management.
What’s great:
- Automates threat remediation, reducing manual intervention
- Provides deep insights into security incidents with Storyline technology
- User-friendly interface praised for ease of management
- Highly scalable cloud-based SaaS platform
- Offers data residency options in US, EU, or APAC
What to consider:
- Best security outcomes can be achieved with additional SentinelOne solutions, like Purple AI
Pricing: For detailed pricing, visit SentinelOne directly.
Who it’s for: SentinelOne Singularity XDR is ideal for organizations of all sizes, particularly those with limited security resources, seeking to secure traditional workstations, virtual machines, and containers with an automated, scalable security solution.
Sophos Intercept X Endpoint is a comprehensive endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution that leverages AI to protect against known and evolving threats in real time. It combines traditional threat detection with advanced anti-ransomware capabilities, including automated file recovery and incident analysis.
Why We Picked Sophos Intercept X Endpoint: We appreciate its deep learning technology for threat detection and its robust anti-ransomware features that include automated file recovery.
Sophos Intercept X Endpoint Best Features: Key features include deep learning-based threat detection, anti-ransomware with automated file recovery, behavior analysis, malicious traffic detection, and file integrity monitoring. It also offers application controls, peripheral device control, web traffic controls, and live response capabilities for real-time monitoring and remediation. Integrations support Windows, MacOS, and Linux across on-prem and cloud environments.
What’s great:
- Real-time threat detection and response with deep learning
- Comprehensive anti-ransomware protection with automated recovery
- Scalable across SMBs to enterprises
- Single, lightweight agent for multiple OS support
- Live response for real-time monitoring and remediation
What to consider:
- Best suited for organizations with experienced IT or security staff
- Managed service option available for less resourced organizations
Pricing: Contact Sophos directly for pricing information.
Who it’s for: Sophos Intercept X Endpoint is ideal for organizations with dedicated IT or security resources looking for a scalable, AI-driven EDR solution. It is also suitable for businesses seeking managed EDR services.
VMware Carbon Black EDR is a robust endpoint detection and response solution that leverages advanced threat intelligence to secure endpoints across various environments, including online, offline, and air-gapped systems.
Why We Picked VMware Carbon Black EDR: We appreciate its comprehensive threat detection capabilities and the ability to record and store endpoint data for real-time visibility and effective threat mitigation.
VMware Carbon Black EDR Best Features: Key features include anomaly-based threat detection, continuous endpoint data recording, real-time security visibility, attack timeline visualization, remote response capabilities, and automated watchlist functionality. The platform supports on-premises, virtual private cloud, and SaaS deployment options. It offers open APIs and over 120 integrations for seamless integration into existing security stacks.
What’s great:
- Offers powerful protection against emerging threats
- Provides real-time visibility into endpoint security status
- Enables efficient threat mitigation and in-depth investigations
- Supports various deployment options to meet diverse needs
- User-friendly interface and management
What to consider:
- Requires dedicated resources for configuration and alert management, best suited for enterprise teams
Pricing: Available on a per-endpoint subscription basis, with additional modules for threat hunting, vulnerability monitoring, and patch management at an extra cost.
Who it’s for: VMware Carbon Black EDR is best suited for larger enterprises with dedicated security resources or those able to outsource management to an MSP, ensuring effective configuration and management of the solution.
FAQs
Everything You Need To Know About Endpoint Detection and Response (FAQs)
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) is a type of software solution that enables IT and security teams to identify endpoint threats such as malware, viruses, fileless attacks and the misuse of legitimate applications—be that malicious or mistaken. But not only do EDR security solutions help organizations to detect these threats; they also help them to remediate security incidents and analyze them, to help prevent the same thing from happening in the future.
81% of businesses have experienced an attack involving some sort of malware, and 53% of organizations were hit by a successful ransomware attack in the last year alone. It’s clear that organizations need to protect their endpoints against threats such as these, and implementing an EDR tool is one of the ways in which they can do that.
Endpoint detection and response solutions enable IT and security teams to more efficiently identify malicious activity across their organizations’ endpoints, and then quickly and effectively remediate that activity.
EDR solutions monitor each endpoint—be it a desktop, laptop, mobile device, cloud system or server—in real-time for suspicious or unusual behavior that could indicate the system has been compromised. When a threat is detected, the solution can either initiate a response automatically to contain and remediate the threat, or provide suggestions to the security team to help inform their manual threat response processes. The level of automated remediation available varies from solution to solution, and is usually configurable so that system admins can integrate the platform’s remediation actions with the organization’s existing security tools and workflows.
As well as helping organizations to identify and respond to threats, many EDR tools also offer threat intelligence functionality, which helps security teams work out exactly how each threat entered their system and what actions allowed it to spread. This enables them to fix the root cause of the problem and prevent repeat attacks.
EDR solutions monitor a company’s endpoints—including desktops, laptops, mobile devices, cloud systems, and servers— in real-time for anomalous behavior that might indicate that the endpoint has been breached. When the solution detects anomalous or malicious activity, it either automatically responds to it as per admin-configured remediation workflows, or it alerts admins to the activity so that they can respond to it manually.
Some EDR products also offer threat intelligence features. These help SOC teams to identify the root cause of the attack so that they can fix the vulnerability and prevent any repeat attacks in the future.
There is a, seemingly, endless list of acronyms in the world of cybersecurity, so it is worth breaking down how EDR is different to MDR and EPP:
- EDR vs. EPP: EDR tools differ from traditional endpoint protection platforms (EPPs), or endpoint security solutions, as they provide heightened threat intelligence and automated incident response.
- EDR vs. MDR: Managed detection and response (MDR) solutions offer the same functionality as EDR products, but the management of the solution—including the remediation of any threats it detects—is taken care of by a team of security experts external to your own company, who work for the MDR provider. This can be a strong option for businesses that don’t have the in-house resource to manage an EDR system or respond to incidents themselves. Some EDR providers offer managed response as an add-on to their core EDR technology.
EDR solutions allow businesses to identify endpoint threats such as viruses, malware, fileless attacks, the use of illegitimate applications, and the misuse of legitimate applications. They also help you to remediate threats and provide in-depth analysis on how each incident began and spread, so that you can take steps to prevent future attacks.
Endpoint attacks are some of the most common threats—and in the case of ransomware, the most expensive—that business today are facing, so it’s important that you’re able to identify and remediate them when they do occur. Due to their frequency and severity, we recommend that every business invest in some type of endpoint security solution. However, you need to analyze the needs of your business when choosing which type of solution to go for.
If you don’t have too many endpoints to manage and your team has sufficient resource to respond efficiently to any incidents that they’re alerted to, then you may just want an endpoint protection platform.
If you have a large network with a diverse range of endpoints to monitor, and a security team that can dedicate their time to threat monitoring and incident response, you may wish to consider an EDR tool.
If you don’t have the in-house resource to investigate alerts and conduct incident response, however big or small your endpoint fleet is, an MDR solution might be better suited to your needs.
There are five key features that you should look out for when choosing an EDR solution:
- Effective threat detection.
This is the “D” in “EDR”. Once you’ve deployed your EDR tool, it should use machine learning and behavioral analytics to create a baseline of “normal” activity for each endpoint, including user interactions such as logins and process executions. The EDR solution can then use this baseline to highlight any anomalous (and therefore potentially malicious) activity across your endpoints. If an EDR solution can’t do this effectively, it isn’t an EDR solution.
- Automated threat response.
There are several ways in which an EDR tool can offer incident response. “Guided remediation” usually means that the solution will give your SOC team suggestions on how to respond to a threat. “Automated incident response” usually means that your SOC team can create incident response workflows that enable the platform to automatically remediate or contain certain types of threat on your behalf. “Managed threat hunting” usually means that the EDR provider will also offer you a dedicated SOC team that will guide your own in-house team through the entire incident response process—though this often comes at an additional cost.
- Intuitive, prioritized alerting.
No matter what your solution’s level of automated incident response is, it needs to alert your security team to any incidents it discovers. The best solutions also triage these alerts, so that your team knows which ones they need to prioritize. Ultimately, this helps them to reduce their mean-time-to-respond (MTTR) and the overall damage caused by the attack.
- Threat intelligence.
This is one of the biggest differences between EDR and EPP solutions: an EDR solution should use the behavioral data it’s collected to create a full trail of the attacker’s activities within your network. This begins at the moment the account was breached, and all of their movements after that. This can help you prevent future breaches of the same nature and fix any vulnerabilities that enabled the attack to spread.
- Intuitive, customizable management.
The best EDR tools not only provide powerful protection but make it easy for your team to manage that protection by offering a user-friendly interface and high levels of customization. This not only enables security teams to gain clearer visibility into their endpoint data, but also to fine-tune the solution to their environment, which can help reduce false positives.
Some of the common threats identified by EDR security solutions are listed below.
Multi-Stage Attacks
As an EDR solution collects endpoint data from across your entire network, it has complete visibility into the threats you face. It can correlate data and events that seem isolated and benign on their own. When taken together, EDR can uncover evidence of multi-stage attack patterns. This might include evidence of “reconnaissance”, where a series of smaller breaches are used to probe a network and find vulnerabilities. By identifying these indicators early, an attack can be prevented before it comes to fruition, thereby keeping you safer.
Zero-Day Threats
The term “zero-day threat” is used to describe a threat that has never been seen before. As such, there is no predefined route to respond to the threat. In these cases, EDR solutions must react proactively to isolate the threat from the wider network and monitor behavior to identify the best way to resolve it. It is important to ensure that the threat has not replicated or hidden, and that the threat is fully resolved.
Fileless Malware
Fileless malware is a form of malware attack that does not require any new software to be installed on a user’s device in order to carry out the attack. It will modify native, legitimate tools and software on the user’s device. As there is no malicious code being installed, legacy AV, sandboxing, and allow-listing tools may struggle to detect fileless malware. Attackers may use exploit kits, memory-only malware, or stolen credentials to gain access to a device.
It is essential that an EDR solution gathers as much data as possible and analyzes it in an effective way. This ensures that it can provide comprehensive network coverage and respond at the earliest sign of a threat. Understanding how the threat entered your network, and predicting its future movements through behavioral analysis, can help to ensure that remediation efforts are targeted and effective.
With this data ingested and analyzed, EDR is able to perform effective remediation.
Written By
Caitlin Harris is Deputy Head of Content at Expert Insights. Caitlin is an experienced writer and journalist, with years of experience producing award-winning technical training materials and journalistic content. Caitlin holds a First Class BA in English Literature and German, and provides our content team with strategic editorial guidance as well as carrying out detailed research to create articles that are accurate, engaging and relevant. Caitlin co-hosts the Expert Insights Podcast, where she interviews world-leading B2B tech experts.
Technical Review
Laura Iannini is an Information Security Engineer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from the University of West Florida. Laura has experience with a variety of cybersecurity platforms and leads technical reviews of leading solutions. She conducts thorough product tests to ensure that Expert Insights’ reviews are definitive and insightful.