EDR solutions ensure an organization's endpoints are running properly by monitoring and troubleshooting tech on the network. Compare the top tools now.
EDR solutions ensure an organization's endpoints are running properly by monitoring and troubleshooting tech on the network. Compare the top tools now.
Top 8 Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) Solutions
EDR solutions ensure an organization’s endpoints are running properly by monitoring and troubleshooting tech on the network. Compare the top tools now.
eSecurity Planet content and product recommendations are
editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links
to our partners.
Learn More
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) platforms help IT teams identify threats on devices and limit cyber attacks by remediating potential threats. The best solutions offer features like threat hunting, behavioral analytics, and incident containment. I analyzed many of the top EDR products in the cybersecurity industry and scored them based on features and capabilities, selecting the highest-scoring solutions for my final list.
Here are my picks for the eight best EDR solutions:
ESET’s endpoint protection offers highly customizable cybersecurity solutions with minimal impact on performance, that identify and neutralize known and emerging threats before they can be executed, support business continuity, and reduce the cost of implementation and management.
Their Extended Detection and Response (EDR/XDR) capabilities provide enhanced visibility and proactive threat hunting, allowing for swift identification and mitigation of complex cyber threats.
Additionally, ESET’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services deliver expert monitoring and incident response, with one of the fastest mean times to detect.
This is a paid placement. However, our team of experts approved it as an appropriate product and our content remains editorially independent.
Featured Partners: Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Software
We are able to offer our services for free because some vendors may pay us for web traffic or other sales opportunities. Our mission is to help technology buyers make better purchasing decisions, so we provide you with information for all vendors — even those that don't pay us.
Based on my analysis, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Defender XDR are your business’s best endpoint protection options. However, all of my picks are robust solutions depending on your organization’s needs. Continue reading to learn more, or skip down to see how I evaluated the best EDR products.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint & Defender XDR – Best Overall for Features & Administration
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Defender XDR are detection and response solutions for endpoints, cloud apps, collaboration software, and identity management. Microsoft has built a surprisingly strong security business, and a selection of advanced protective features — and consistently high MITRE scores — show that. Consider Defender for Endpoint or XDR if you’re looking for a product with administrative capabilities like dashboards and policy creation.
Pros
Glowing reviews for usability and support
Strong security performance in MITRE evals
Integrates well with other Microsoft products
Cons
Some reviewers report limited customization
Lacks transparent pricing info
Limited incident quarantine features
Contact for quote: Custom pricing available
Free trial: 30 days
Automated remediation: Automatic incident response helps security teams prioritize threats.
Sandboxing: Partner products include Splunk and Bitdefender GravityZone.
Third-party integrations: Defender XDR helps teams locate unprotected devices on their network.
Palo Alto Cortex XDR – Best for Experienced IT & Security Teams
Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex XDR is a sophisticated platform for advanced security teams that want features like sandboxing and forensics tools. Palo Alto topped the 2023 MITRE test results with perfect scores; it’s one of the market’s most established and secure endpoint protection vendors. If you’re a large enterprise with a built-out IT or security team, consider Cortex XDR — if you have the budget for it, it could be one of the best security investments you ever make.
Pros
Stellar protection and detection abilities
Third-party integrations with ticketing systems
Customization options for experienced teams
Cons
Might be overwhelming for smaller teams
Lacks transparent pricing details
No free trial
Contact for quote: Custom pricing available
Free demo: Contact to schedule
Root cause analysis: Automated discovery of threats’ root causes helps security teams focus on other tasks.
Forensic investigations: Administrators and analysts can perform detailed analysis on endpoint behavior.
Detection rules: Teams can use Palo Alto’s out-of-the-box and custom rules.
Incident triage: Cortex XDR filters threats using incident fields and prioritizes them for remediation.
Trend Micro Vision One – Best for Supporting Junior Security Teams
Trend Micro’s Vision One platform is an XDR and attack surface management solution, also referred to as Trend Micro XDR. Another vendor now vying for the XDR space, Trend Micro’s range of security offerings is impressive, spanning cloud, containers, network security, and endpoints. Its managed XDR services are a good choice for smaller organizations that don’t have an extensive IT team.
Pros
Integrations with other security vendors
Advanced features like guided investigation
Free trial for Vision One available for a month
Cons
Lacks transparent pricing and licensing info
Unclear incident triage functionality
Didn’t score as well in MITRE detection test
Contact for quote: Custom pricing available
Free trial: 30 days
Free demo: Contact to schedule
Guided investigation: Guided threat exploration helps teams identify the best remediation strategies.
Detection rules: Rules designed to locate and identify threats are added based on discoveries from threat experts.
Policy adjustments: You can change policies based on recent insights that Vision One discovers.
Customized dashboards: The boards are relevant to team members’ specific organizational roles, like SecOps or CIOs.
EDR isn’t just a solution you should set and forget (and often, you can’t). Read our guide to tuning your EDR product to learn more about tailoring it to your business’s needs so you’re not just using the default configurations and so hackers don’t have an easy in.
FortiEDR – Best for Integrations With FortiGate Firewalls
FortiEDR is a network security provider for Fortinet’s endpoint detection and response solution. While Fortinet is best known for its firewalls, its EDR solution is an excellent choice for existing customers and users outside the Fortinet ecosystem. Features include threat intelligence, USB device control, threat hunting, and detection rules. If you already have FortiGate firewalls installed, consider expanding to other products in Fortinet’s Security Fabric.
Pros
Integrates with FortiGate appliances
Available as a managed service
Cloud, on-premises, or hybrid deployment
Cons
No free trial
Unclear behavioral analytics capabilities
Support for mobile devices is unclear
Contact for quote: Custom pricing available
Free demo: Contact to schedule
Role-based access: Admins can set RBAC to help reduce misconfigurations and restrict access to sensitive controls.
Security policies: FortiEDR comes with out-of-the-box policies and allows admins to define additional policies as well.
Incident classification: FortiEDR automatically classifies security incidents so you can prioritize responses.
Code-tracing: One of the product’s threat-hunting features helps detect the cause of a threat even when the endpoint is offline.
SentinelOne Singularity – Best for Dedicated Forensics & Third-Party Integrations
SentinelOne Singularity is a comprehensive security platform with multiple plans ranging from essential endpoint protection to full XDR. Singularity offers RemoteOps Forensics as part of its platform, allowing teams to focus more intensely on endpoint and threat data. Singularity Marketplace’s third-party integrations include Splunk, ServiceNow, and Zscaler. SentinelOne is a good choice for teams that want to explore forensics and also need plenty of integrations.
Pros
Advanced options like hunting and forensics
Some pricing details provided
Receives excellent reviews from customers
Cons
Unclear policy creation functionality
Limited free training videos
Free trial is only for Singularity Control
Singularity Core: $69.99 per endpoint; unspecified period of time
Singularity Control: $79.99 per endpoint
Singularity Complete: $159.99 per endpoint
Singularity Commercial: $209.99 per endpoint
Singularity Enterprise: Contact for quote
Free trial of Singularity Control: 30 days
Free demo: Contact to schedule
Advanced endpoint controls: Singularity Control helps you manage USB and Bluetooth devices, set firewall controls, and discover rogue devices.
Managed threat hunting: SentinelOne’s WatchTower service is a 24/7 solution for threat hunting and detailed attack surface assessments.
Data retention: Singularity’s Commercial and Enterprise plans both retain data for 90 days.
Identity threat detection and response: Protect your Active Directory and Azure AD environments with tools like misdirection and hiding credentials.
CrowdStrike Falcon – Best for Advanced Threat Response Capabilities
CrowdStrike Falcon Insight is a solution for teams needing advanced EDR features. CrowdStrike offers robust security, as evidenced by its nearly-perfect MITRE scores, but its management and response capabilities are where the vendor shines. Features include threat hunting, prioritization, and security posture assessments. Consider Falcon Insight if your IT team wants advanced response features and plenty of opportunities to grow in their expertise.
Pros
One of the most advanced EDRs available
Strong MITRE results
Receives high customer reviews for usability
Cons
Limited pricing info for more expensive plans
No custom detection rules
Log retention capabilities are unclear
Contact for quote: Custom pricing available for Falcon Insight XDR, which falls under the Falcon Elite plan
Free trial: 15 days
Free demo: Contact to schedule
Posture assessments: Falcon’s assessments help teams identify unsafe or outdated sensors and settings.
Threat context: Falcon Insight offers threat attribution to give details about vulnerabilities.
Falcon Sandbox: Users can analyze unknown malware and other threats in more detail with the sandbox.
MITRE mapping: Compare threats to the MITRE ATT&CK framework to better understand specific detections.
ESET Protect is a platform for antivirus, endpoint protection, and device control, leading to managed detection and response if your business needs it. It also offers protection for your team’s mobile devices. With essential features like anti-phishing and advanced capabilities such as XDR network protection, ESET is a great choice if you’re just starting EDR but will want to expand those features over time.
Pros
Available as a managed service
Multiple customer support channels
Can be deployed in the cloud and on-prem
Cons
Lacks some of its competitors’ features
Didn’t perform well in MITRE evaluations
Limited security policy options
ESET Protect Entry: $211 annually for 5 endpoints
ESET Protect Advanced: $275 annually for 5 endpoints
ESET Protect Complete: $287.72 annually for 5 endpoints
ESET Protect MDR: Contact for quote
Free trial: 30 days
Free demo: Contact to schedule
Vulnerability and patch management: ESET automatically scans your operating systems and applications, reports gaps, and patches issues as needed.
Mobile threat defense add-on: This extra product includes mobile device management for iOS, lateral movement prevention, and app blocking.
Cloud Office Security: ESET protects Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace apps from threats like phishing and malware.
Mail security: Microsoft Exchange and IBM email servers receive host server protection and anti-phishing coverage.
Cybereason’s Defense Platform is a detection and response solution with strong features and extensive documentation. Cybereason’s Defense Platform takes a comprehensive approach to threats, known as malicious operations (MalOps). By analyzing threat data and creating a comprehensive attack story, Cybereason aims to provide more context to malicious behavior. Consider Cybereason if your team is looking for detailed threat visualizations.
Pros
Offers strong visualization through MalOps
MITRE results show strong protection abilities
Helps protect your public cloud environments
Cons
No free trial
No rogue device discovery features available
Lacks transparent pricing info
Contact for quote: Enterprise, Enterprise Advanced, and Enterprise Complete bundles available
Free demo: Contact to schedule
Cloud integrations: Cybereason supports significant cloud providers such as Google, AWS, and Microsoft Azure.
Cloud workload analysis: XDR for cloud also helps your team protect container environments.
Digital forensics capabilities: Root cause analysis helps businesses investigate incidents in greater detail.
Visualizations: MalOps centralizes data to give you a comprehensive view of each threat.
5 Key Features of EDR Solutions
Important EDR features include behavioral analytics, automated remediation, vulnerability management, device monitoring and control, and threat intelligence integrations. Use this list of EDR features to narrow down a good fit for your business based on platform capabilities.
Behavioral Detection
Behavioral analytics use machine learning technology, which studies thousands to millions of user and device behaviors to identify abnormal patterns. These patterns could indicate a malicious user or a downloaded strain of malware. Behavioral detection is a crucial EDR feature because it uses an immense amount of data to automatically locate potential threats that would take more time to detect manually. It can be helpful in zero-day attacks, too.
Automated Remediation
Security teams can configure automatic threat remediation by setting remediation rules in advance or using prebuilt ones. A particular action on an endpoint triggers a predefined remediation policy, and without any human interaction, the EDR tool sets remediation in motion. Automation is helpful because it reduces manual remediation work for security admins. It’s a particularly good feature for small or overwhelmed security teams.
Vulnerability Monitoring & Management
EDR solutions consistently monitor endpoints, alerting security teams when the software unearths vulnerabilities that could be exploited. These can include outdated operating systems, backdoors, and misconfigurations. Automated searches for vulnerabilities are more efficient, allowing IT and security teams to catch them quickly and spend time on other tasks.
Device Control
EDR solutions monitor USB devices and other direct-attached storage for malicious behavior. Threat actors use USB and flash drives to infect systems with malware, and employees often plug unfamiliar storage devices into computers without knowing what’s on them. EDR tools allow admins to set strict policies for device use and determine when to give remote access permissions to USB devices.
Threat Intelligence Feed Integration
Threat intelligence integrations are essential because they compile threats and indicators of compromise (IoC) so your team can look for a wide range of behaviors and threats. Many EDR tools integrate with third-party threat intel solutions, so your team has more information to keep the business on top of vulnerabilities.
Advertisement
How I Evaluated the Best EDR Solutions
I evaluated a broad selection of EDR products using a product scoring rubric with six main categories. Each category was weighted based on importance and contained subcriteria with their own weighting, which all factored into the product’s overall score out of five. The eight highest-scoring products made our list, and the scores helped us determine the products’ use cases.
Evaluation Criteria
My most important criteria included major EDR features, like threat intelligence and remediation suggestions, and administration, which looked at features like security policies and APIs. Then I considered customer support, including channels like phone and email, and pricing, which evaluated vendors’ transparency and free trials. I also looked at usability, including documentation and MITRE scores, which evaluate practical detection and protection abilities.
Core features (25%): I scored products based on the availability of core EDR capabilities like behavioral analytics, device controls, and remediation recommendations.
Customer support (15%): I looked at the availability of support channels like phone and chat. I also reviewed the duration of vendor assistance with implementation, review scores, and demo availability.
Usability (15%): I measured products based on documentation, training videos, and the option to use managed services.
Criterion winner: Multiple winners
MITRE scores (10%): The MITRE ATT&CK corporation performs stringent evaluations that test vendors’ detection and protection abilities. I scored products based on their MITRE detection and protection scores. scores, and demo availability.
Criterion winner: Multiple winners
Advertisement
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why Do I Need an EDR Solution?
Endpoint detection and response products help IT and security teams manage hundreds to thousands of devices they would be unable to secure otherwise. Because threats have developed such sophisticated tactics, you’ll need to be able to respond as quickly as possible to advanced threats. EDR solutions automate much of that response, which could otherwise overwhelm you and your teammates over time.
How Long Do EDR Products Retain Data?
Vendors will have different data retention and storage systems, but 30-60 days is a common time frame for storing threat data. Vendors offer more or fewer; for example, CrowdStrike Falcon Insight stores data for up to 90 days. Some vendors store certain types of data for 180 days.
What’s the Difference Between EDR & XDR?
EDR mainly focuses on endpoints like devices and users. Extended detection and response (XDR) is broader, covering networks, cloud applications, and other technologies. XDR is designed to protect the entire tech ecosystem, but whether individual products accomplish this goal is an industry question. Your enterprise should look for solutions that have strong detection and response capabilities — look at user reviews and independent testing results.
What’s the Difference Between Antivirus, Endpoint Protection Platforms, & EDR?
Antivirus products find and eradicate malware and viruses from computer systems, but many are limited in scope. While endpoint protection platforms serve a similar purpose to EDR, they mainly identify vulnerabilities and protect systems from threats. EDR platforms respond more actively and hunt threats, giving businesses more comprehensive protection. Read more about the differences between antivirus, EPP, and EDR to choose one of the three best.
Advertisement
Bottom Line: EDR Solutions Help Protect Your Devices & Systems
EDR is a foundational enterprise cybersecurity technology as important as firewalls and SIEM. Choosing the EDR system that best meets your organization’s needs and budget is important. These tools are useful for many organizations but especially critical for enterprises with many endpoint devices, including but not limited to servers, desktops, and laptops.
Don’t rely on your EDR to fix everything for you immediately. Learning, implementing, and tuning any endpoint platform takes time, but the long-term benefits are worthwhile, including the experience security staff will gain from using any EDR software. As your IT and security teams learn to recognize behavioral and threat patterns, your enterprise will be more prepared to secure your endpoints and broader infrastructure.
Considering a broader range of security solutions? Read more about the best cybersecurity software for businesses, including cloud access security brokers and next-generation firewalls.
Jenna Phipps is a staff writer for eSecurity Planet and has years of experience in B2B technical content writing. She covers security practices, vulnerabilities, data protection, and the top products in the cybersecurity industry. She also writes about the importance of cybersecurity technologies and training in business environments, as well as the role that security plays in data storage and management.
Skip the traps. Discover the top free VPNs of 2025, featuring no logs, unlimited bandwidth, and regular audits, where available. Tested, secure, and ready to use.
eSecurity Planet is a leading resource for IT professionals at large enterprises who are actively researching cybersecurity vendors and latest trends. eSecurity Planet focuses on providing instruction for how to approach common security challenges, as well as informational deep-dives about advanced cybersecurity topics.
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on
this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice
receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and
where products appear on this site including, for example,
the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not
include all companies or all types of products available in
the marketplace.
