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Bitdefender MDR vs CRITICALSTART comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Bitdefender MDR
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
15th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CRITICALSTART
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
33rd
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (28th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of Bitdefender MDR is 3.0%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CRITICALSTART is 0.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Jörg Köhler - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient email security and link scanning streamline network protection
One area for improvement is the user-friendliness of the UI. It is not intuitive to manage policies as I have to go through several pages to find necessary information. Additionally, the profile management for scanning and protection profiles is clumsy and could be more straightforward. There should be some simplification in changing profiles due to performance issues.
JH
The transparency of data in the platform is perfect: You see everything as they are seeing it
Their Zero Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP) engine, which is kind of their correlation engine, is by far and away one of the best in the business. We can filter and utilize different lists to build out different alerts, such as, what to alert on and when not to alert. This engine helps reduce our number of alerts and false positives. The service's Trusted Behavior Registry helps the provider solve every alert. The way that they have it built out is very intelligent. The way every alert comes in, it gets triaged one direction or another. If it is already a false positive, then it is still getting addressed and reviewed on a regular cadence. Also, true positive alerts get escalated to the appropriate personnel. Its mobile app is great. The ability just to be able to quick reference and see what's coming in when you're on the move or go. You don't always need to have your computer or laptop handy, because you can operate it just from the mobile app. It can communicate with analysts, which is great. The mobile app is great at affecting the efficiency of our security operations. Those guys are using it throughout the day, whether that be at the office, home, or off hours. Typically, they triage from the mobile app. Then, if an escalation needs to be done on a computer, they will pull out a computer. We were on the original UI for a few years, so the updated UI has been a refreshing change. It has significantly more ability to filter and translate data, then load that data. It is rather intuitive to click through for some of our junior analysts or interns, especially as we are starting to onboard and teach them different aspects of the security operations team.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Customer service and support are very good."
"It's easy to use."
"We find it extremely effective. We probably have over 500 endpoints, and we have not had any reports of viruses since we have installed it. It is very reliable."
"A user cannot uninstall or disable the tool from their systems. It has ransomware blocking and zero-day threat protection. The tool also alerts us whenever a system or device has been compromised. It has a web control feature to manage website categories."
"It has a very good cloud console that's easy to use and install."
"Bitdefender MDR's integration capabilities have been smooth, leveraging cloud-based and various threat intelligence feeds. Bitdefender's array of technologies, including remote mapping and machine learning, with numerous patents, ensures effective threat management."
"The most valuable features include email security and web URL scanning, particularly the link scanning aspect."
"I would rate the stability a nine out of ten."
"There are two parts of CRITICALSTART's services that are most valuable to us. The MDR solution where they monitor our computers, laptops, and users across the board; and their knowledge of Palo Alto firewalls."
"The way that the user interface presents data enables our team to be able to make decisions significantly quicker, rather than have to dig into the details or go back to the original tools."
"The quick interaction between the agents is the most valuable feature. If we have questions, they're quick to answer. If we make a change to our system, they quickly make the changes that are necessary to filter the logs correctly."
"The most valuable feature of their service is their tuning... If we were getting 1,000 alerts a day without them, they tune it until they know what to do for 999 of them, and one will make it through to us per day. That tuning is the most valuable part of their solution."
"Their Zero Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP) engine, which is kind of their correlation engine, is by far and away one of the best in the business. We can filter and utilize different lists to build out different alerts, such as, what to alert on and when not to alert. This engine helps reduce our number of alerts and false positives."
"I also use their mobile app. It's very easy to use and very convenient to be able to respond to alerts wherever you are. I love the app. You can respond and communicate, per ticket, with their SOC in near real-time. The response is very quick."
"There is a team of people who monitor our traffic and processes 24/7, so if anything raises a flag or alert, it will escalate back to me right away. That's the most incredible part: Humans working behind the scenes 24/7 to monitor our networks."
"From where we were prior to going into them, the service has increased our analysts’ efficiency to the point that they can focus on other areas of the business. It gives me the ability to allow analysts to do Level 3 and 4 work and stay out of the weeds of the alerts, where you tend to get alert fatigue. The service takes care of much of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 triage. It is more effective than what we had been used to, because it allows the filtering of Level 1 and Level 2 type alerts to be taken care of. This leaves less for us to handle, which is a good thing."
 

Cons

"Integration capabilities are not as rich as other tools like CrowdStrike's. Bitdefender wasn't as feature-rich in that aspect."
"The automatic backup isn't very big."
"One area for improvement is the user-friendliness of the UI. It is not intuitive to manage policies as I have to go through several pages to find necessary information."
"Bitdefender MDR consumes too many resources during scanning which further affects developers' productivity."
"Bitdefender needs to probably position this product and create more awareness among people because a lot of companies use products like CrowdStrike, which is doing pretty well."
"The lack of integration with Microsoft Outlook is a significant drawback."
"They can improve their support a little bit. We've had some issues with some of the installations in terms of getting the installation, configuration, and flows correct, and sometimes, their support is not as simple and easy to deal with as we'd like."
"For improvements, focusing on the commercial viability of markets like India could make it more accessible. The pricing structure, especially for price-sensitive markets like those in Asian countries."
"There is room for improvement with the new UI, and that's about it. I would like to see a more intuitive design."
"They just did a user interface overhaul to the website portal that you use for troubleshooting tickets. The old one was fine. The new one is not intuitive..."
"The biggest room for improvement is not necessarily in their service or offering, but in the products that they support. I would like them to further their knowledge and ability to integrate with those tools. They have base integrations with everything, and we haven't come across anything. They should just continue to build on that API interface between their applications and other third-party consoles."
"During the six-month integration and rollout, there were some bumpy roads along the way. There were communication breakdowns between the project manager, CRITICALSTART leadership, and us (as the customer). I expressed my displeasure during the integration in their inability to effectively communicate when there were holdups or issues. They were going through some growing pains at that time, but they have been right there for us ever since."
"In terms of responsiveness, when I open up an alert, sometimes it takes a bit of time to load. However, it only happened once or twice."
"The updated UI is actually pretty bad. Regarding the intuitiveness, it is fairly easy to use, but the responsiveness, on a scale of one to 10, is a one. It's really poor performance."
"It has frustrated us that they don't have a native Slack integration, because most things do now. That's something we've asked for, for years, and it just doesn't really seem like it's a priority."
"The UI has become slower but it's not something I would call them out on."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I know it is based on the volume and size and also on different multi-year agreements. There are different discounts applied, but I can't really speak about the specifics."
"As far as pricing is concerned, I would rate them not expensive, not cheap."
"Bitdefender fit well for customers with about 50 to 200 users. The price point is great, and you get a lot of bang for your buck."
"I would rate the tool's pricing a four out of ten."
"It varies based on the number of licenses."
"I've told CRITICALSTART that I think the managed service they provide is cheaper than it should be. It's a really good deal."
"There are contractual penalties if their SLAs are not met. This commitment was very important in our decision to go with this service, because not having downtime is extremely important to us. The providers has not missed an SLA in the 18 months that I have worked with them."
"The pricing has always been competitive. They have always been good to us. They will make it a fight. They don't try to hide anything; it's always been fully transparent and well-worth what we pay for it."
"As far as the expense goes, it's very competitive pricing and the services you get are almost like you have a person on your team."
"The pricing of other services was so insane that they weren't even an option."
"Overall, for what I'm paying for it, and the benefit I'm getting out of it, it is right where it needs to be, if not a little bit in my favor. For what it costs me to actually have this service, I could afford one internal person to do that job, but now I have a team of 10 or more who are doing that job, and they don't sleep because they work shifts."
"It costs a lot for what we felt comfortable to spend."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Retailer
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Healthcare Company
13%
Real Estate/Law Firm
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Bitdefender MDR?
The product is on the lower price range compared to competitors. However, there are additional licenses for every add-on, which increases the cost gradually. Despite this, it remains below average ...
What needs improvement with Bitdefender MDR?
One area for improvement is the user-friendliness of the UI. It is not intuitive to manage policies as I have to go through several pages to find necessary information. Additionally, the profile ma...
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Also Known As

Bitdefender Managed Detection and Response
Critical Start, CriticalStart
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Northstar, SeSa, Greenman-Pederson, TUI Benelux
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Find out what your peers are saying about Bitdefender MDR vs. CRITICALSTART and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.