The Top Extended Detection And Response (XDR) Solutions

ESET is a market-leading endpoint security provider, offering a suite of powerful antimalware and antivirus solutions for organizations of all sizes. ESET PROTECT Enterprise is ESET’s enterprise threat detection and response bundle, which includes endpoint protection, encryption, file server security, threat defense, and a powerful XDR component—ESET Inspect. ESET Inspect enables teams to identify suspicious activities and data breaches, provides comprehensive risk assessments, and automates threat investigation and remediation.

ESET Inspect quickly gives teams the information they need to analyze and respond to potential threats, such as ransomware, and prevent policy violations on user endpoint devices. The platform provides comprehensive data about malicious activity and highly complex threats with one click. ESET Inspect supports Windows, macOS and Linux, and integrates with a wide range of other security tools, including SIEM and SOAR solutions. Deployment is flexible; the service can run on-premises or in the cloud, and admins can configure granular policies and reports to manage users and endpoints.

ESET is a leading brand, trusted in the industry for over 30 years. ESET PROTECT Enterprise is a comprehensive endpoint security solution with XDR capabilities, making it a strong choice for organizations seeking a single, multilayered endpoint security platform. Customers praise the service for its ease of use, management and high-quality customer support. ESET also offers a managed detection and response service for teams that require advanced specialist support and threat hunting. Overall, we recommend ESET PROTECT Enterprise to teams of all sizes looking for all-in-one endpoint protection and an XDR solution, particularly those requiring XDR for cyber insurance purposes.

Founded in 2014, Heimdal is a provider of industry leading unified and AI-powered cybersecurity solutions that work to boost operational efficiency and security effectiveness for their more than 15k global customers. Heimdal XDR presents organizations with a robust solution to effectively detect, respond to, and mitigate advanced threats throughout their entire digital environment. This service brings together essential tools and security expertise for comprehensive protection, using precise monitoring and prompt response to secure data, networks, endpoints, emails, and identities against cyber threats.

Heimdal’s comprehensive XDR suite and managed services cater to a wide array of security concerns, from securing endpoints and networks, managing vulnerabilities, and safeguarding privileged access, to implementing cutting-edge Zero Trust principles, countering the threat of ransomware, and preventing Business Email Compromise (BEC). Heimdal XDR leverages advanced analytics, AI/ML, and behavioral analysis to identify and flag even the most evasive and sophisticated cyberthreats. By continuously monitoring the entire environment, Heimdal XDR provides real-time threat detection and alerts, enabling swift action to mitigate potential damage. Heimdal XDR also streamlines incident response processes with automated workflows, guided remediation, and orchestration capabilities.

In addition to the platform’s real-time threat hunting capabilities, Heimdal XDR provides users with live support and event mitigation 24/7—no matter the organization’s size,number of devices, or imposed compliance requirements. The platform also offers the opportunity for organizations to add on comprehensive management of the solution, including managed threat hunting and response, which is delivered via Heimdal’s MXDR SOC team. Overall, we recommend Heimdal XDR to both SMBs and larger enterprises across all verticals (including highly regulated industries) looking to mitigate cyberthreats, streamline security operations, and maintain compliance.

WithSecure Elements is a comprehensive and modular XDR platform that provides advanced protection for midsize businesses through a variety of integrated applications. These include vulnerability management, endpoint protection, endpoint detection and response, cloud security posture management, and Microsoft 365 email and collaboration protection, which defends against sophisticated phishing attacks and malicious content. By combining these applications, Elements offers end-to-end coverage for midsize businesses operating in unpredictable environments.

The platform’s centralized, cloud-based and highly automated nature provides resource constrained businesses with a seamless and easily manageable security solution, offering a single pane of glass for full visibility and situational awareness. WithSecure Elements offers a range of specialized security features and services to protect against modern threats. Endpoint Protection works to prevent malware, ransomware, and zero-day vulnerability exploits across mobiles, desktops, laptops, and servers. Endpoint Detection and Response focuses on detecting and combating advanced cyberattacks, providing actionable insights and guidance for maintaining a strong defense. Collaboration Protection enhances the native security of Microsoft 365 by defending against phishing attacks and malicious content in emails, calendars, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint. Vulnerability Management identifies an organization’s assets, pinpoints vulnerabilities, and helps users understand and minimize their attack surface across the network. Finally, Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) brings visibility into cloud environments, identifying misconfigurations and providing risk-based guidance for remediation. By integrating all these features into a unified XDR platform, WithSecure Elements aims to provide midsize businesses with a comprehensive, easy-to-manage security solution.

WithSecure Elements can be deployed as a fully managed service through WithSecure’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service or certified managed service providers. It can be also self-managed in-house with the optional support provided by WithSecure’s co-monitoring and on-demand expert services.

Founded in 2011, CrowdStrike is a global leader in cloud-native security and specializes in advanced endpoint protection and threat intelligence. Falcon XDR is its powerful XDR solution that’s designed to extend CrowdStrike’s acclaimed endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities, breaking down silos between tools and collecting telemetry across them. The solution can also analyze threats across multiple domains, as well as provide an orchestrated response—all from one, unified platform.

Falcon XDR correlates events and telemetries across endpoints, cloud, identity, and third-party tools, creating a single, prioritized stream of alerts. The platform can then automatically detect any threats and provide advanced investigation with MITRE ATT&CK mapping and visualization, helping teams to better understand and respond to them. The platform then makes response easy, by providing powerful analytics and root cause analysis, containment of suspicious activity, and automatic response workflows.

Because Falcon XDR is built on extending CrowdStrike’s EDR capabilities, the platform is well suited for current EDR users looking to extend their solution into XDR, as well as those that have a high number of endpoints to protect. We recommend the solution for enterprises looking for a powerful XDR solution to provide holistic threat protection and response that goes above and beyond the endpoint.

An industry giant in the tech space, Microsoft offers a powerful cloud-based XDR solution that combines many of the core offerings from its security portfolio to form a holistic threat detection and response service. Microsoft 365 Defender is designed to automatically collect telemetry across an organization’s Microsoft 365 environment (including endpoints, applications, email, and identities), leveraging artificial intelligence to automate alert correlation, analysis, and remediation.

Microsoft 365 Defender integrates and combines native security products—including endpoint, email, cloud and identity protection—within one platform to power its XDR service. The platform effectively prevents attacks while enabling security teams to view, analyze, and understand threats across domains. Defender also offers prioritized alerts and automated investigation and response, as well as sharinginformation between products to give security teams a more comprehensive, unified view of their environment to help them more efficiently identify and stop attacks.

Microsoft 365 Defender is included with a number of Microsoft licenses—we recommend checking whether 365 Defender is included with your existing subscription—otherwise, it can be purchased as an add-on.

Users praise Microsoft 365 Defender for its user-friendly dashboard and advanced alert correlation and analysis, as well as its inclusion within existing licenses. But we should note that some users can find the interface difficult to navigate and find customer support to be poor. We recommend the product either for existing Microsoft customers, or those looking to invest in XDR as part of a wider tech stack.

Palo Alto Networks is a global leader in enterprise cybersecurity solutions, and not only coined the term “XDR” but also created the industry’s first-ever XDR product—Cortex XDR. Cortex XDR comes in two versions: Prevent and Pro. Prevent includes next-gen antivirus and protection for endpoints only—it doesn’t include detection and response, threat hunting, and forensics. This is why we recommend Pro, which incorporates telemetry for endpoints, networks, cloud, and third-party sources, as well the full suite of features outlined below.

Cortex XDR Pro works by integrating telemetry from a range of sources to help security teams more effectively detect, investigate, and respond to sophisticated threats and attacks. With advanced endpoint protection, organizations can block malware, exploits, and fileless attacks, as well as detect sophisticated threats using behavioral analysis, machine learning, and AI capabilities. Threat investigation and response is then made easy because of the platform’s powerful incident management, automated root cause analysis, in-depth forensics, and advanced response capabilities.

Users rate Cortex XDR highly for its advanced investigation capabilities, detailed insights, and easy integration with other Palo Alto Networks products. However, some users report experiencing a high number of false positives. We recommend Cortex XDR for mid-sized and enterprise organizations looking for a powerful, well-established XDR solution, as well as for existing Palo Alto Networks customers that are looking to build on their existing tooling (for example, Cortex XSOAR).

Founded in 2013, California-based SentinelOne is a cybersecurity vendor that specializes in providing autonomous security across endpoints, cloud environments, and more. Singularity XDR is its feature-rich XDR platform that unifies endpoint protection, detection, and response with containers, network attack surface management, and cloud workload protection to provide organizations visibility across their environments and to effectively detect and respond to threats on one platform.

Singularity XDR firstly works by collecting and unifying telemetry across multiple security layers and tools in real-time. Its patented Storyline technology then automatically collates this data, combining related events to form a single “story” that details the entire attack timeline with full context included. The solution also enriches threat detection with integrated threat intelligence from third-party feeds, providing additional context to the data already collected. Finally, Singularity XDR can automate response with automated autonomous remediation.

The SentinelOne Singularity XDR platform currently offers three packages: Core, Control, and Complete. Core comes with limited features for endpoint security, while Control adds firewall control, device control, and other features. Complete is its most feature-rich offering, with advanced protection, detection, and response. We recommend Complete for organizations looking for powerful XDR features as opposed to more basic endpoint security. Pricing for Complete starts at $12 per agent, per month.

Current users praise the platform as an easy-to-use and versatile XDR solution that provides total visibility into threats and effective response. The platform also integrates seamlessly with SIEM and SOAR technologies via its Singularity marketplace. We recommend SentinelOne’s Singularity XDR platform for mid-sized and enterprise organizations looking to extend their EDR capabilities into XDR using a powerful, user-friendly tool.

Founded in 1985, Sophos is a well-established cybersecurity software vendor that offers an expansive portfolio of services—including solutions for endpoint, network, email, cloud, and web. Part of its Intercept X platform, Sophos XDR provides security teams and IT administrators with holistic, synchronized data (spanning across endpoints, servers, firewalls, email, cloud, and Microsoft 365) alongside strong threat protection, deep analysis, and response.

What sets Sophos apart is that it’s a highly data-driven solution. The product collects telemetry across a range of tools and can leverage both real-time and historic data from the Sophos Data Lake to contextualize threats. The solution can then combine artificial intelligence and machine learning with threat intelligence to provide a prioritized risk score for each threat detected. Threat response is then easy, with the ability to remotely access devices and remediate any issues.

Users praise Sophos XDR for its high level of visibility across environments and easy-to-use interface—but some users note experiencing a high number of alerts, and that customer support can be poor. Intercept X is a scalable platform that’s compatible with all major operating systems across most devices. Because of this, we recommend Sophos XDR for businesses of all sizes that are looking for an XDR solution that provides advanced data aggregation across silos.