CrowdStrike XDR: Solution Overview, Pricing, Pros and Cons

What Is CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR? 

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR is a platform that combines endpoint detection and response (EDR) with detection and response capabilities for other security layers, including identity and cloud. Built on CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform, it aims to provide unified visibility and protection across an organization’s endpoints and additional attack surfaces like cloud, identity, and mobile environments.

The platform helps correlate telemetry across various domains to identify attack patterns that might go unnoticed by siloed tools. Leveraging threat intelligence and AI, Falcon Insight XDR intends to help organizations eliminate blind spots and improve the efficiency of security operations.

Key Features of CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR 

Key features of CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR include:

1. Native cross-domain telemetry: Falcon Insight XDR unifies EDR telemetry with data from additional security domains, such as identity and cloud environments. This helps provide a view of an attack’s lifecycle, from entry to impact.
2. Incident workflows: The platform uses CrowdStrike Charlotte AI™ to prioritize incidents over individual alerts. The Incident Workbench provides context-based data, including entity linking and incident history, to help simplify investigations.
3. MITRE ATT&CK^® framework integration: Detection and investigation are mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK^® framework, providing analysts with intelligence on attack techniques and tactics. Automatic sandbox submissions and threat actor profiles might further improve understanding of adversaries.
4. Response and automation: Falcon Real Time Response (RTR) allows teams to remotely remediate threats. Security orchestration and automation capabilities (SOAR) are intended to simplify workflows, notifications, and repetitive tasks.
5. Rapid deployment and scalability: CrowdStrike’s relatively lightweight agent is designed to be deployed across an enterprise in minutes. The interface provides workflows across EDR, XDR, and threat intelligence modules.
6. Threat hunting and MDR services: Falcon Insight XDR integrates with CrowdStrike’s managed detection and response (MDR) services, enabling organizations to access from threat hunting and full-cycle remediation functions.
7. Third-party data ingestion: The platform supports up to 10GB per day of free third-party data ingestion, enabling organizations to use existing security systems.
8. Security ecosystem: By consolidating different security tools into one platform, Falcon Insight XDR hopes to eliminate silos and improve situational awareness.

Related content: Read our guide to CrowdStrike threat intelligence

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR Pricing 

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR is available as part of the Falcon Enterprise and Falcon Complete MDR bundles.

• Falcon Enterprise: Priced at $184.99 per device annually, this bundle includes Falcon Insight XDR along with endpoint detection and response, threat hunting, next-gen antivirus, and firewall management.
• Falcon Complete MDR: Pricing is available upon request. This package builds on Falcon Enterprise by adding managed detection and response (MDR), IT hygiene, and identity protection for a managed experience.

For smaller organizations or those with basic requirements, CrowdStrike also offers Falcon Go and Falcon Pro, which provide security features like next-gen antivirus and device control, but these do not include Falcon Insight XDR.

Optional add-ons like mobile device protection and identity protection are available for further customization.

CrowdStrike XDR Architecture

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR is built on the CrowdStrike Falcon platform, a cloud-native architecture designed for scalability, high performance, and simplified security operations. Its core architectural components include:

• Cloud-native infrastructure: The platform operates in the cloud, leveraging a distributed network of data centers. This enables fast processing of vast amounts of telemetry and helps ensure scalability.
• CrowdStrike Threat Graph^®: This proprietary database ingests and correlates a large number of endpoint-related events daily. It provides analytics by mapping relationships across different attack surfaces, such as endpoints, identities, and cloud workloads, identifying attack patterns.
• Lightweight agent: The Falcon agent, which is less than 40MB in size, is designed to operate with minimal resource usage. It continuously monitors endpoints and other environments, collecting telemetry data.
• Unified data layer: CrowdStrike XDR integrates endpoint data with telemetry from identity, cloud, and third-party sources into a centralized repository. This unified data layer aims to support cross-domain correlation and analytics, such as detecting lateral movement and uncovering stealthy threats.
• Extensibility through APIs: CrowdStrike XDR supports integration with third-party tools and data sources through an API. This is intended to allow organizations to enrich detection capabilities, share insights across platforms, and build customized workflows.
• Automation and orchestration: Built-in automation features, supported  by SOAR capabilities, help simplify response workflows, including automated threat remediation and notification systems. The platform also supports custom playbooks for handling various threat scenarios.

How CrowdStrike XDR Addresses Different Security Layers

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR aims to provide protection across multiple security layers. Here’s how it addresses key domains:

• Endpoint security: The platform builds on CrowdStrike’s EDR capabilities to detect and respond to endpoint threats. It identifies malware, fileless attacks, and suspicious behaviors using behavioral analytics and AI.
• Identity protection: By integrating with identity management systems, CrowdStrike XDR attempts to detect credential abuse, lateral movement, and privilege escalation. It focuses on protection against identity-based attacks like phishing and account takeovers.
• Cloud security: Falcon Insight XDR provides visibility into cloud workloads and containerized environments. It helps identify misconfigurations, unauthorized access, and anomalous behaviors in cloud deployments.
• Email and network security: CrowdStrike XDR ingests telemetry from email gateways and network security tools, using this data to improve detection of phishing campaigns, lateral network movement, and other threats that cross traditional boundaries.
• Third-party integration: The platform can ingest data from third-party tools, including SIEMs, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems. This allows organizations to reach into existing security layers and gain a view of their environment.

CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR Limitations 

When evaluating CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR, it is important to be aware of several important limitations, as reported by users on the G2 platform:

• Slow system performance: Some users report that the CrowdStrike Falcon Endpoint Protection slows down systems, especially during intensive operations like upgrades or scans.
• Remediation limitations and lacking CVE protection: Some users report that the product’s remediation capabilities lag behind competitors. Additionally, there is a desire for improved protection against CVEs and better signature-based detection.
• Sensor update issues: Occasional issues with rolling out faulty sensor updates have been reported. These incidents, such as the recent outage due to a poorly tested update, highlight the need for improved testing infrastructure.
• Cost concerns: The solution is priced on the higher side, and organizations often need to purchase separate licenses for additional products and features.
• Limited troubleshooting efficiency: Troubleshooting can sometimes take longer than expected. Users may need to raise tickets and contact customer support for resolving issues or obtaining detailed insights.
• Uninstallation challenges: Uninstalling the CrowdStrike sensor can be time-consuming and complex, particularly when the host is disconnected. In such cases, obtaining a maintenance token requires using the CrowdStrike API console and executing commands.
• Limited local information: The system tray interface provides minimal information, such as the running version, system status, and online security status. However, it lacks features like a local scan option to manually check computer status.
• Plugin development limitations: Although the platform provides an API for integration, its documentation for plugin development is insufficient. A no-code plugin development system could help users quickly build workflows and integrations.
• Confusing feature set: The wide range of features and options in policies can sometimes confuse users, especially those new to the platform.

Exabeam: Ultimate Alternative to Crowdstrike XDR 

Exabeam is a leading provider of security information and event management (SIEM) solutions, combining UEBA, SIEM, SOAR, and TDIR to accelerate security operations. Its Security Operations platforms enables security teams to quickly detect, investigate, and respond to threats while enhancing operational efficiency.

Key Features:

• Scalable log collection and management: The open platform accelerates log onboarding by 70%, eliminating the need for advanced engineering skills while ensuring seamless log aggregation across hybrid environments.
• Behavioral analytics: Uses advanced analytics to baseline normal vs. abnormal behavior, detecting insider threats, lateral movement, and advanced attacks missed by signature-based systems. Customers report that Exabeam helps detect and respond to 90% of attacks before other vendors can catch them.
• Automated threat response: Simplifies security operations by automating incident timelines, reducing manual effort by 30%, and accelerating investigation times by 80%.
• Contextual incident investigation: Since Exabeam automates timeline creation and reduces time spent on menial tasks, it cuts the time to detect and respond to threats by over 50%. Pre-built correlation rules, anomaly detection models, and vendor integrations reduce alerts by 60%, minimizing false positives.
• SaaS and cloud-native options: Flexible deployment options provide scalability for cloud-first and hybrid environments, ensuring rapid time to value for customers. For organizations who can’t, or won’t move their SIEM to the cloud, Exabeam provides a market-leading, full featured, and self-hosted SIEM.
• Network visibility with NetMon: Delivers deep insight beyond firewalls and IDS/IPS, detecting threats like data theft and botnet activity while making investigation easier with flexible searching. Deep Packet Analytics (DPA) also builds on the NetMon Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) engine to interpret key indicators of compromise (IOCs).

Exabeam customers consistently highlight how its real-time visibility, automation, and productivity tools powered by AI, uplevel security talent, transforming overwhelmed analysts into proactive defenders while reducing costs and maintaining industry-leading support.

Learn more about Exabeam SIEM