Extended detection and response (XDR) is a consolidation of a number of threat prevention, detection, analysis, and response tools, integrated into one simple platform. The idea is that integrating these tools from the very beginning increases visibility between silos, enables better alert correlation and prioritization, and speeds up threat remediation.
And, while XDR remains an emerging technology, it’s been steadily gaining traction over the past few years—with the market set to reach a revenue of $2.06 billion by 2028, according to a recent report by Grand View Research.
So, what should an XDR solution do?
To put it simply, an XDR solution should enable security teams to easily prevent, detect, investigate, and remediate threats all from one platform, and should encompass a range of integrated, built-in tools to do so. This means collecting telemetry from a range of sources (including endpoints, email, networks, servers, identity, and more), consolidating related information into more contextualized alerts, prioritizing these using AI and machine learning, and automating response workflows.
XDR is currently a growing market, so it can be difficult to keep up with which solutions are the most robust, powerful, and advanced—which is why we’ve done the research for you. We’ve put together a list of the top XDR solutions currently on the market, including their key features, pricing, and who they’re best suited for.
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.
Trend Micro is a well-established cybersecurity vendor that specializes in protecting IT environments as well as detecting and responding to threats. Vision One is its acclaimed XDR solution that combines XDR, zero-trust risk insights, and other threat defense applications to enable security admins to continuously monitor their organizations’ environments and effectively respond to threats.
Vision One performs particularly well in its telemetry detection capabilities, automatically correlating data across multiple vendors, security tools, and layers and giving security teams the ability to investigate, analyze, and respond to threats easily and efficiently. Security teams can gain a holistic view of their environments with custom dashboard views, prioritized lists, and activity data, as well as analysis augmented by its threat intelligence network. With the addition of Zero Trust risk insights security teams can also monitor and assess their environment’s risk score and identify critical areas for improvement.
Users praise Vision One for its advanced platform, effective log correlation and prioritization, and easy integration with other security tools—such as SIEM, SOAR, and Active Directory. But we should note that some users find it lacking in its reporting capabilities. We recommend the solution for SMBs and enterprises looking for powerful cross-telemetry detection and analysis, as well as easy integrations with current security tools.
FAQs
What Is Extended Detection And Response (XDR)?
Extended Detection And Response (XDR) is a complete security tool that gathers data from across your network, then orchestrates and manages the automated response and remediation of threats. Where Endpoint Detection And Response (EDR) tools gather information from your endpoints, XDR solutions also compile data from endpoints, networks, servers, cloud workloads, and SIEM solutions.
XDR tools have extensive visibility which allows them to detect a wider range of indicators of compromise (IOCs) before other technologies. When it comes to remediation, these tools are ideally placed to enact effective and targeted actions.
What Are The Benefits Of Using an XDR Solution?
At a high level, XDR solutions are valuable to companies because they improve network security through increased detection rates, and more targeted remediation. Some of the other key features of an XDR solution include:
- XDR can detect more complex, advanced threats
- Protects a wider range of network areas than other solutions
- Effective data analysis
- Reduces IT team workload, allowing them to redirect their efforts
- Constantly evolving and improving through machine learning capabilities
- A unified solution is less hassle to manage than multiple independent technologies
What’s The Difference Between XDR, EDR, and MDR?
Let’s start with EDR.
- EDR – EDR takes information from your endpoints that is then analysed to identify any malicious activities or events that occur at your endpoints. This technology will then enact targeted remediation to mitigate the threat.
- XDR – This is similar to EDR, except that its features are expanded. Rather than focusing on endpoints alone, XDR takes information from across your network – including cloud environments and other security tools in your stack. As with EDR, XDR can deploy targeted remediation to eliminate the threat effectively.
- MDR – MDR stands for Managed Detection and Response and uses the same technology but outsources its management to specialist IT teams. This is ideal for organizations who do not have the technical expertise in house that allows them to implement and manage the solution by themselves, but do require a good level of security.
