CrowdStrike vs. SentinelOne: Which One Is Better For Endpoint Security?

When it comes to endpoint detection tools, the cybersecurity market is a pretty crowded place. Finding the right one for your business can be a minefield.

Some are designed to do one thing very well; others offer a broader, more unified solution. One product might be perfect for enterprises, but far too expensive and unwieldy for smaller businesses. And so the list goes on…

CrowdStrike and SentinelOne are two heavy names in the market. Both platforms have their merits, and there are plenty of good reasons to choose either.

But which one is right for you? How do they shape up? And are these the only good choices available? [Tl;dr: No!].

Let’s dive in!

About CrowdStrike: Falcon

CrowdStrike is an important name on the enterprise cybersecurity scene. Since 2011, they’ve quickly grown to become a respected and well-established brand, with a particular focus on enterprise clients. The company has also been involved in defending against several high-profile cybersecurity attacks, particularly those involving malicious nation-state actors like Russia.

When it comes to CrowdStrike products, there’s really only one show in town: the Crowdstrike Falcon platform.

Falcon takes a distinctively platform-based approach and aims to offer as many features as possible within a single integrated offering. This contrasts particularly with SentinelOne, which has a more complex package of products and add-ons (see more below).

While Falcon is designed as a single platform, it features several distinct modules:

• Falcon Prevent (antivirus capabilities);
• Falcon Intelligence (threat intelligence);
• Falcon Insight (endpoint detection and response);
• Falcon Overwatch (managed threat-hunting services);
• Falcon Discover (endpoint discovery);
• Falcon Device Control (managing peripheral devices).

Why CrowdStrike? And Why Not?

For many, the key benefit of Falcon is its scale. As one of the largest cybersecurity vendors on the market, the company benefits from an increased visibility over real time threats that they can use to create more effective cybersecurity defenses.

This is referred to as ‘telemetry data’. This means the platform can often be quicker and more reactive when rolling out new features. They can also deliver effective threat intelligence services to customers.

That being said, the scale can also be a drawback, with Falcon consistently being rated as one of the most expensive products in the market.

And while it’s a pretty expansive endpoint management tool, there is less functionality for other areas of security like vulnerability management, privileged access management, and more.

For these functions, organizations will generally need to combine Falcon with third-party tools (e.g. vulnerability scanners, PAM solutions), or replace it with a more expansive, all-in-one cybersecurity tool like Heimdal®. Scroll down for more details.

About SentinelOne

SentinelOne was founded in 2013, just a couple of years after CrowdStrike, and has seen a similarly impressive growth trajectory since then. The main product is called Singularity, which consists of several different packages and modules that customers can choose from, depending on their budget and coverage needs.

In total, there are five packages ranging from Core all the way up to Enterprise, with several additional add-ons and modules addressing specific cybersecurity needs – including endpoint forensics, ID protection, and more.

The main goal of the platform is to offer real time threat detection and prevention for a broad range of devices.

Like with CrowdStrike, it relies on machine learning and cloud-based analytics to identify and protect against real time threats.

One key feature of the product is the Singularity Marketplace, which features a whole range of third-party apps, integrations, and plugins, designed to extend the scope of the product.

Why SentinelOne? And Why Not?

The Singularity Marketplace is a key draw for many customers, as it allows them to build a more bespoke, customized solution, by adding specific add-ons to extend the functionality of the product.

For instance, while SentinelOne doesn’t offer native email security features, integrations with relevant third-party tools like Mimecast and Proofpoint are available via Marketplace apps.

This can be both a pro and con. While customers have more options, it can also increase confusion, complexity, and costs – while leaving important gaps in a company’s overall cybersecurity posture.

Whatever your views on the Marketplace, SentinelOne has much to offer elsewhere.

The UX and intuitive design of the product are regularly cited as a plus by customers. At the same time, it offers some of the broadest support anywhere in the endpoint security market, with wide availability across Windows, macOS, and Linux. It even supports legacy systems like Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (Unlike CrowdStrike).

But with every pro comes a con. The suite lacks important features like next-gen antivirus, ransomware encryption protection, and privilege and application control – which other competitors may make available as part of the same product.

CrowdStrike Falcon: Pros, Cons, And Main Features

One of the key benefits of CrowdStrike is the speed and responsiveness of new features, particularly when it comes to cloud-based infrastructure. Here are some of the most effective tools that CrowdStrike offers across the seven modules of the Falcon product:

CrowdStrike Falcon Pros:

1. Functionality – Generally, the functionality available is more extensive and sophisticated than with SentinelOne, with more extensive cloud security modules like cloud workflow protection, cloud infrastructure entitlements management (CIEM), and application security posture management (ASPM) being included.
2. Accuracy – Falcon is often praised by reviewers and analysts for its low number of false positives, meaning it’s more effective than competitors at distinguishing genuine risks from fake ones.
3. Telemetry – CrowdStrike’s large market share is another draw, since it gives them more data to analyze on new and emerging threats. This data can be reinvested into developing innovative new threat intelligence capabilities.
4. Managed services – CrowdStrike’s managed services offering is superior when compared to some competitors, and particularly SentinelOne. While both products have managed detection and response (MDR) offerings, CrowdStrike’s is generally considered more advanced and responsive.
5. Consolidation – Falcon aims to be a complete platform, and therefore offers an impressive suite of endpoint management products. Customers generally find they need fewer additional apps, services, and plug-ins than with SentinelOne and other competitors.

But it’s not all plain sailing, and long-time users also have plenty of gripes. Here are some of the most common:

CrowdStrike Falcon Cons:

1. Price – CrowdStrike products are among the most expensive in the market.
2. Not a ‘one-stop shop’ – While the endpoint detection features are extensive, CrowdStrike lacks other broader cybersecurity tools like privileged access management, vulnerability management, and native workplace security. It’s unlikely this is the only cybersecurity tool you’ll need.
3. Legacy systems – Falcon lacks extensive support for legacy operating systems, unlike SentinelOne.
4. Cloud-dependent – Falcon lacks support for hybrid and on-premises environments, making it less appealing to organizations that don’t have fully cloud-based systems.
5. Support – Though Falcon is available across Windows, Mac, and Linux, it’s predominantly designed for Windows and does not have feature parity across all operating systems.

SentinelOne: Pros, Cons, And Main Features

SentinelOne’s Singularity tool is generally aimed at mid-market SME companies, unlike CrowdStrike’s more enterprise-focused feature set.

For that reason, the benefits of the platform are more focused on ease of use and the ability to customize your own tech stack. If your company fits this profile, there are plenty of reasons that SentinelOne could be the right choice for you:

SentinelOne Singularity Pros:

1. Support – The Singularity product has wide support across all devices, including legacy systems like Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
2. Cost – Singularity is significantly cheaper than CrowdStrike [see below], though prices may rise when additional products are included.
3. Responsive – Singularity is generally quite fast and responsive when bringing new products to market.  
4. Design – The user interface and design of the product are generally considered more intuitive than CrowdStrike and other competitors.
5. Parity – SentinelOne offers feature parity across Windows, Mac, and Linux, making this a popular choice for non-Windows users.
6. Marketplace – Customers can customize and extend the functionality of the product through third-party add-ons and apps available through the Singularity Marketplace.

Here are some of the Singularity features that are less universally popular:

SentinelOne Singularity Cons:

1. Less extensive – Generally, the feature set for SentinelOne is less extensive than with products like CrowdStrike. While users can extend functionality through the marketplace, this can lead to multiple products, rising costs, and confusion.
2. Cloud-native solution – SentinelOne lacks modern, cloud-native security tools like CSP, CIEM, or ASPM.
3. Managed services – SentinelOne’s managed support is also less extensive. While some level of managed detection and response (MDR) is available, this doesn’t cover products like identity protection and EXDR.
4. Proactive monitoring – The platform lacks modern tools like next-gen antivirus, ransomware encryption protection, and privilege application control – which makes the overall platform quite reactive in comparison to some competitors.

CrowdStrike vs. SentinelOne: Which Platform Has Better Reviews?

Both CrowdStrike and SentinelOne have their fair share of satisfied reviewers. In fact, they’re pretty much identically rated across all major sites. Here are some highlights:

CrowdStrike Falcon

• TrustRadius – 9.1/10 (234 Reviews)
• G2 – 4.7/5 (261 Reviews)
• Gartner – 4.8/5 (1444 Reviews)

SentinelOne Singularity

• TrustRadius – 9.1/10 (108 Reviews)
• G2 – 4.7/5 (160 Reviews)
• Gartner – 4.8/5 (1486 Reviews)

From the reviews, it’s clear that both platforms are robust and well-liked among their customer bases. And while we can’t read too much into these headline scores, there are plenty more useful details to unfold when we dig into the reviews themselves.

To do that, we’ve aggregated comments from the ten most recent reviews for both products on TrustRadius. Here’s what the reviewers had to say:

For CrowdStrike Falcon, reviewers frequently mentioned the effectiveness of the threat detection and response technology.

Users also highlight how there are fewer false positives than other platforms, reducing the amount of time they have to spend manually reviewing irrelevant threats.

Other popular factors include the consolidation of tools into one platform, as well as innovative features like network segmentation, USB blocking, and identity protection.

It has lots of useful features like USB blocking/logging, logging process, logs network connections/DNS requests, command line activity, and scheduled tasks. Real-Time Response is my favorite, I have used many Powershell scripts with this feature.

Verified G2 Review for CrowdStrike

While most reviews were broadly positive, a few downsides were mentioned by reviewers, such as the solution being resource-intensive, the slow support and response time and a less intuitive UI than some competitors might offer.

Some users have noted that CrowdStrike Falcon Endpoint Protection might be resource-intensive on the endpoint, which may cause system slow performance problems. Additionally, some users have remarked that it is needed to have extensive training on this platform to fully utilized it and familiarity on configuration if need.

Verified G2 Review for CrowdStrike

For SentinelOne Singularity, the reviews were similarly positive. Like CrowdStrike, users praised the overall responsiveness and threat protection features in the platform.

It was also praised for its user-friendly interface and easy deployment process, in contrast to CrowdStrike.

Users also particularly highlighted how the platform offers particularly granular control of endpoints, allowing for targeted management and configuration.

The console is well designed and full of relevant detail making it easy to understand issues and find devices which need attention. The agent itself is interesting in the fact that it finds associated devices, while I do not get a huge amount of benefit from this – it does provide a good insight as to what normal looks like for a device which sets a benchmark for identifying anomalies.

Verified Gartner Review on SentinelOne

But of course, there were also downsides reported here as well, particularly when it comes to visibility, reporting, and automation. Reviewers also generally agree that it could be easier for users to create reports and access insights.

Support can sometimes take a few days to respond. It took me a little bit to figure out how top perform certain actions in the dashboard.

Verified Gartner Review on SentinelOne

CrowdStrike vs. SentinelOne Pricing: Which Brings Better Value?

When it comes to pricing, the picture is similarly balanced. Here’s a look at the highlights from each product:

CrowdStrike Pricing

Like most SaaS and cybersecurity companies, CrowdStrike doesn’t publish its rates online. However, third-party pricing information is available from TrustRadius, based on aggregated customer reviews. These prices haven’t been validated by CrowdStrike, so should be taken with a pinch of salt:

• Starting price: $6.99 per endpoint/month (billed annually)
• Falcon Pro: $6.99 per endpoint/month + starting price (billed annually)
• Falcon Enterprise: $14.99 per endpoint/month + starting price (billed annually)
• Falcon Premium: $17.99 per endpoint/month + starting price (billed annually)

A free trial is also available through the CrowdStrike website.

SentinelOne Pricing

Like CrowdStrike, SentinelOne tends to bill annually, based on the number of endpoints being monitored. However, they do publish their standard rates online.

Please note, these rates are quoted for the total yearly cost, rather than the equivalent monthly cost, like CrowdStrike – even though both products are billed annually.

• Singularity Core: $69.99 per endpoint/year
• Singularity Control: $79.99 per endpoint/year
• Singularity Complete: $159.99 per endpoint/year
• Singularity Commercial: $209.99 per endpoint/year
• Singularity Enterprise: Custom pricing

Over the course of a whole year, this makes CrowdStrike significantly more expensive than SentinelOne. This sentiment is generally reflected by reviewers, who agree that CrowdStrike is between two and three times more expensive than SentinelOne.

However, a few words of caution:

• As SentinelOne explains on their website, all their services are sold through a vendor or reseller, whose markups and costs aren’t reflected in these prices. This is likely also the case for CrowdStrike, but this is not specified on their website.
• Users of the Singularity product may find themselves needing to buy additional services and add-ons to extend the functionality of the platform. This is also likely to increase overall costs over time.
• While both platforms claim to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for cybersecurity, this isn’t necessarily the case. Both products lack advanced vulnerability management capabilities. CrowdStrike lacks privileged access management tools, and SentinelOne lacks cloud security modules like CSPM, CIEM, ASPM, and more.

While CrowdStrike is generally the more expansive of the two, neither can realistically claim to be the only cybersecurity platform you’ll need.

It’s important, therefore, to be aware of what other subscriptions and third-party tools may be required.

Heimdal®: The Best CrowdStrike and SentinelOne Alternative

Like I said in the beginning of the article, there are other alternatives available to CrowdStrike and SentinelOne that you might want to check out, such as Heimdal®, that brings you everything you need to be well protected in one place.

Heimdal® stands out as a robust, all-in-one cybersecurity platform, that empowers you with a suit of top-notch tools designed to protect organizations best against sophisticated threats, be them even unforeseen.

Supercharged Cybersecurity: Heimdal® XDR – Unified Security Platform

Heimdal® XDR is the next level of security, and it will be the only XDR platform you will ever need.

With the Heimdal® XDR, you can eliminate the complexity of managing multiple security solutions and gain the peace of mind that comes with having a comprehensive, integrated approach to cybersecurity.

Whether you’re dealing with complex, multi-vector attacks or advanced malware infections, our platform has you covered.

Heimdal® Benefits

Want to know what you will benefit from going with Heimdal®?

• Unified Security: End-to-end consolidated security, different from traditional solutions that operate in silos. This seamless integration allows for complete visibility across your infrastructure, leading to faster and more accurate threat detection and response.
• Supercharged Detection & Response: Empower your company with a unified high-fidelity view and advanced AI/ML-based detection capabilities, for faster and more accurate detection than traditional security solutions.
• Reduced Complexity & Costs: Eliminate the need for multiple disparate solutions, which are harder to keep track of and costly to implement. Our XDR consolidates multiple security technologies, simplifying security management and reducing complexity and costs.

Key Features of Heimdal®

Here are some of Heimdal®’s key features:

• Next-Gen Threat Intel: Gain advanced threat intelligence, bi-lateral telemetry, advanced forensics details, ransomware process details, and much more, through our AI/ML predictive models, XTP detection engine and MITRE ATT&CK techniques.
• Intelligent Insights for all Operations: XDR provides definitive, arbitrary heuristics without false positives out-of-the-box, pre-scored, and fully contextualized for any purpose.
• Integrated Threat Hunting: Empower your security teams with pre-computed risk scores, indicators, and detailed attack analysis – all presented in various investigative and insightful views.
• Automated Remediation & Response: Take your cybersecurity to the next level. Our advanced platform comes equipped with an Action Center, which allows for seamless and efficient one-click automated and assisted actioning across your digital enterprise.

Ready to transform your cybersecurity game? Take our solutions for a spin! Book a call with our experts for a demo and receive a personalized pricing offer, based on your organization’s specific needs!

FAQs

How does CrowdStrike compare to SentinelOne?

CrowdStrike and SentinelOne are both popular and well-reviewed endpoint management tools. CrowdStrike customers generally appreciate the wider functionality and broad global reach of the platform. SentinelOne is preferred for lower costs, ease of use, and wider functionality across legacy devices.

What are the pros and cons of CrowdStrike?

CrowdStrike is one of the most advanced tools on the market. It has broad, cloud-native endpoint management functionality, and its 20% market share helps security teams by providing advanced insights and actionable intelligence feeds into real and emerging threats.

On the other hand, it’s considered one of the most expensive products on the market and lacks support for legacy and on-premises systems. Some customers may also prefer a more expansive cybersecurity platform, including privileged access management, vulnerability management, and more.

What are the pros and cons of SentinelOne?

SentinelOne is a popular endpoint management tool. It’s well-liked for the wealth of integrations and add-ons that users can install via the Singularity Marketplace, as well as the intuitive design, comparatively low costs, and wide support across legacy and on-premises devices.

On the other hand, Singularity acts more like a point solution than a comprehensive cybersecurity platform, meaning companies might end up with important gaps in their cybersecurity posture – or need to resort to conflicting and overlapping tools to plug them.

Cristian Neagu

CONTENT EDITOR

Cristian is a Content Editor & Creator at Heimdal®, where he developed a deep understanding of the digital threat landscape. His style resonates with both technical and non-technical readers, proof being in his skill of communicating cybersecurity norms effectively, in an easy-to-understand manner.