When a client asks which EDR platform is the best, Bitdefender GravityZone, SentinelOne or CrowdStrike, we answer that the question is framed the wrong way. All three are serious, all three stop modern attacks, and we deploy all three for our clients. The difference is not which one is “stronger” but which one fits a specific company, its infrastructure and the people who will administer it.
This is not a ranking. Independent tests are published by specialised labs, and their results change from year to year. We write about something else: the criteria we apply when a company with 30, 80 or 300 workstations asks us to propose protection.
In this article we describe the five questions we ask before making a proposal, and when we usually recommend each platform.
First question: how many devices, and what kind
The number of workstations matters, but their mix matters more. Windows computers alone are one situation. A mixed environment with Macs, Linux servers, virtual machines on VMware and a few dozen mobile devices is another.
All three platforms support the main operating systems, but the depth differs. Bitdefender GravityZone has very mature support for virtualised environments: the agent barely loads the hypervisor, which we value in our own cloud. SentinelOne is strong in Linux and container environments, where servers and workstations need the same agent. CrowdStrike has historically focused on large, geographically distributed environments with thousands of devices and a very light agent.
If a client has 40 computers and two servers, all three will fit and other criteria will decide. If it has 400 devices in five countries, the assessment is different.
We also ask about remote workers. If half the team works from home and the computers rarely connect to the company network, the agent must receive policies and send events over the internet without a VPN. All three can do this, but they behave differently when there is no connection for several days in a row.
Second question: who will administer the console
For small and mid-sized companies this is most often the deciding criterion. An EDR platform whose console nobody opens is just an expensive antivirus.
In our experience the GravityZone console is the simplest for a beginner administrator: policies, reports and alerts are laid out so that within an hour you can understand what is going on. That is why we most often offer it to companies where one IT specialist is responsible for everything.
The SentinelOne console is more powerful but requires more learning. Its event chains (Storyline) and automatic recovery after an attack (rollback) are very strong tools, but you need to know how to read them and to trust the automation.
The CrowdStrike Falcon console is built for a security analyst, not a general-purpose IT specialist. Its value shows when someone works with threat hunting every day. For a small company without such a person, a large part of the capabilities goes unused.
If we administer the console, as part of managed IT services, this criterion becomes less important, because our team works with all three every day.
Third question: how the price is calculated
We do not quote prices here, but the calculation logic differs and is worth understanding before you compare proposals.
All three are licensed per device per year. The differences:
- Bitdefender GravityZone packages are split by features, from basic protection to EDR, XDR and MDR. Servers and workstations are often counted differently, and virtual machines can be licensed by hypervisor cores.
- SentinelOne tiers differ by features; higher tiers add device control, USB control, network visibility and longer data retention.
- CrowdStrike is sold in modules: core EDR, identity protection, vulnerability management, threat intelligence. Each module is a separate line item, and the total depends on how many you choose.
The practical conclusion: when comparing proposals, compare the same set of features, not just the price per device. The cheapest basic package without EDR is not an alternative to another platform’s EDR package, even though it looks more attractive in a table.
One more nuance is the licence term. A three-year contract is usually cheaper than an annual one, but it ties the company to a platform for a period in which the infrastructure may change considerably. For growing companies we offer annual licences with the option to add devices, and for stable ones, longer terms.
Fourth question: what it must integrate with
If the company lives in a Microsoft 365 environment, it matters how the platform connects with Entra ID and Microsoft Defender signals. All three have integrations, but of different depth, and some functions overlap with what is already paid for in the Microsoft licence.
If there is a SIEM, or one is planned, we check log export. If Veeam backups are used, it helps when the EDR can flag an infected recovery point. If the company manages mobile devices, we ask whether a separate MDM will be needed or whether the platform covers it.
GravityZone is integrated directly in our cloud: cloud servers are rented with protection already installed, so for a client moving servers to us it is a natural choice, with no extra installation and no separate console.
Fifth question: is MDR needed
All three vendors offer their own MDR service: analysts who monitor alerts around the clock. If a client wants the vendor’s MDR, the differences are in response time, report format and the language used during an incident.
Most often our clients choose another option: the platform is administered and monitored by our team, which knows their environment and knows which night-time process is the month-end close and which is not. Then the platform can be any of the three, and our response from 30 minutes applies equally.
In either case we agree in advance on what the analyst may do without asking: isolate a workstation, yes; shut down a production server, only after a phone call. Without such an agreement an MDR service is either too cautious or too independent, and both cost the client.
When we offer which
To sum up our practice:
- Bitdefender GravityZone: for companies of up to roughly 150 workstations, with virtualised servers, where the console will be administered by one IT specialist or by us. Also for all of our cloud clients.
- SentinelOne Singularity: for companies with a significant Linux and server layer, where automatic recovery after an encryption attack and a single agent for all platforms matter.
- CrowdStrike Falcon: for larger, international or regulated companies that have (or are buying) security analyst capacity and want a modular platform for managing identity and vulnerabilities.
These are not rules but a starting point. There have been cases where a company of 30 employees chose CrowdStrike because of a parent company’s requirements, and cases where a factory with 300 workstations stayed with GravityZone because it worked very well on the production network with older operating systems.
Where to start
- Make an inventory of your devices: how many Windows, Mac, Linux, virtual machines and mobile devices. Without this list any proposal will be approximate.
- Decide who will administer the console: an in-house specialist, the vendor’s MDR or an IT partner.
- Check which security features you already have in your Microsoft 365 licence. Sometimes part of them is already paid for and does not need to be duplicated.
- Ask for a trial of two platforms, not one, and let your IT specialist work with both consoles for a week.
- Contact us: we will prepare a comparison based on your inventory and propose an option that will be maintained as part of managed IT services.
