CRITICALSTART vs Exabeam comparison

Critical Start and Exabeam are both solutions in the Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) category. Critical Start is ranked #26, while Exabeam is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.5. Critical Start holds a 1.1% mindshare in SOAR, compared to Exabeam’s 3.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Critical Start users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 76% of Exabeam users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Exabeam and CRITICALSTART are competing security solutions providing distinct advantages aligning with specific requirements. Data comparisons suggest Exabeam is favored in pricing and support, while CRITICALSTART offers exceptional features and is considered worth the investment.

Features:Exabeam offers advanced security analytics, automated threat detection, and a user-friendly interface. CRITICALSTART provides comprehensive incident response, managed detection service capabilities, and a mobile app for on-the-go management.

Room for Improvement:Exabeam could enhance its application logging capabilities, while improving training resources would benefit new users. CRITICALSTART might enhance integration with various data sources and speed up its UI responsiveness. The cost of integrating additional data sources can be a factor for improvement as well.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:Exabeam simplifies deployment with a straightforward model and strong customer support for seamless system integration. CRITICALSTART offers a flexible and adaptable deployment process with a reputation for exceptional personalized customer service that stands out.

Pricing and ROI:Exabeam is known for competitive setup costs and promising ROI, making it attractive to budget-conscious buyers. CRITICALSTART has a higher initial cost but offers significant ROI through effective features and tailored services. The difference is Exabeam's affordability compared to CRITICALSTART's premium pricing for high-end features.

To learn more, read our detailed CRITICALSTART vs. Exabeam Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART vs. Exabeam

April 2026

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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

Torq

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) category, the mindshare of Torq is 3.7%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CRITICALSTART is 1.1%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Exabeam is 3.2%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Torq	3.7%
Exabeam	3.2%
CRITICALSTART	1.1%
Other	92.0%

Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR)

Featured Reviews

Nimrod Vardi

Global IT Director at OpenWeb

Automation workflows have transformed our IT, enabling secure just-in-time access control

We work with them quite often, so we have a direct line regarding areas in Torq that have room for improvement. If we have a feature request, we can request it. I do not have anything in mind at the moment. We were a design partner for a short while, so we feel that they listen and that users of the system have an impact on the way the system is designed for the better. They have a new community, which is something that I personally suggested years ago. There are many people like me in different places and they might have already built the workflow that I need. Having the option to share workflows or to jump on a thread and say I have this need, did anyone ever build a workflow for it, is amazing. Someone would jump in and say yes, sure, here, take this workflow. I think this is an amazing thing and I really hope that the community will come alive because I think this is really powerful. This is something that I already suggested and it did happen eventually, and I am quite happy with it. I do not have any specific feature in mind that I have a need for at the moment.

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Justin Hadley

Sr. Manager, Security Engineering at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

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.

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reviewer2265966

Enterprise Account Manager South at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees

Advanced analytics have transformed our threat detection and streamlined incident investigations

I would appreciate seeing additional dashboards in Exabeam Fusion SIEM or perhaps more options or the ability to customize them further. While we can customize them currently, there may be additional options available. I value the outcomes navigator because it matches the log piece to the use cases, which is helpful. The correlation rules are excellent. I am interested in whether there are additional threat intelligence feeds available that we could use, whether we can integrate our own, or if we could ingest different ones.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Any request that comes in, regardless of how complex it is, I can accomplish it with Torq."

"Torq has helped a lot regarding SOC analyst efficiency."

"As an analyst, it has demonstrated potential to reduce workforce requirements and time needed for related activities."

"Since we started working with Torq, I am handling much fewer alerts, it is becoming really easy for me to handle an alert, I have all the information that I need, I do not need to connect to different vendors to receive this information, and the main thing I got from Torq is time, which now helps me to build another automated system and learn."

"Torq's unified platform approach to AI, SOAR, automation, and case management is superior compared to my experience managing multiple point solutions."

"Once I started to use the system and I saw the potential, it changed all of our work in IT."

"If I review about 100 vendors that I might work with, Torq is definitely in the top five that gave me personally investment back, just because every bit of effort I put into Torq eventually became a workflow that gave it back to me."

"Using that one piece of AI, we auto-closed 511 cases in quarter four alone."

More Torq pros

"The new mobile app is awesome. It is one of the best I've ever seen. It's much better than its predecessor. It's more intuitive, a whole lot easier to navigate and get where you need to go. It's less repetitive and just generally easier to use. It allows me to not have to be sitting at my computer all the time. I can be on my phone or tablet or wherever I'm at. It makes it a lot easier to answer tickets and do that kind of thing."

"Out of all the service providers I've had to work with over the years—I've been here six years—CRITICALSTART is my favorite to work with."

"Outside of using the platform to manage alerts, the feature of the service that we get the most value from is being able to reach out to them and say, "Hey, we might go buy a SIEM," for example. They give us their overview of what's out there, what they've dealt with, what they integrate with, and what that looks like. That's been pretty powerful over the years for us."

"It is a comfort to know that there is a team of professionals backing you up, especially in an area that you don't feel 100 percent comfortable."

"My impression of the transparency of the data is that it has good detail. It allows you to see how many events have come in, how many of those events have made it down to their analysts to review, and then however many from their analysts to be able to close out, have been able to been escalated to us. It's a good metric that we can share with my management. They see the value of what the SOC is bringing on top of what my team is already doing."

"This has been a positive experience and money well spent."

"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."

More CRITICALSTART pros

"Valuable features are its timeline based analysis and that it's user friendly."

"Exabeam includes machine learning features and out-of-the-box rules that we rely on."

"The Exabeam SIEM has a user friendly UI interface."

"The platform is not extremely expensive compared to its direct competitors; I would rate its pricing around six out of ten."

"Exabeam has improved our organization by speeding up the investigation process."

"The solution has great technology, it's a very user-friendly product and a very comprehensive technology, the security on offer is very good, and cost-wise, compared to other technology, it's affordable."

"The most valuable feature of Exabeam is the timeline creation based on log sources, which helps in security investigations."

"The most valuable feature of Exabeam Fusion SIEM is the easy-to-use user interface."

More Exabeam pros

Cons

"We have MCP that we are working with our cloud security platform, and we wanted to connect this MCP to the case management."

"Even now, we have workflows that are in production that use AI steps and I get different results, making it unusable to some degree."

"Regarding stability, I have noticed some lagging, crashing, and downtime, which is one of my largest gripes."

"Regarding the pricing of Torq, I would say it is expensive."

"Additionally, the documentation for Torq is not very clear. Most of the information is presented in videos, which are not ideal for reading; there are mostly paragraphs and other text-based content."

"The initial deployment of Torq was not easy."

"It was able to capture data but was unable to differentiate between the agent hostname we are using and the hostname that resides on the back end of the Internet."

"The UI has become slower but it's not something I would call them out on."

"The only thing I can think of that I would like to see, and I'm sure they could work this into a service pretty easily, is not only alerts on issues that are affecting my company, but some threat intelligence of a general nature on what's out there in the environment."

"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 and I hate it."

"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 costs a lot for what we felt comfortable to spend."

"They could dig a little bit deeper into the Splunk alerts when they feel like they need to be escalated to us. For example, if a locked account shows up, they could do a little extra digging to verify that the locked account was due to a bad password on the local system. They could just do a little extra digging within the Splunk environment instead of pushing it onto us to go do that extra little digging."

"The UI has become slower but it's not something I would call them out on."

"There is room for improvement with the new UI, and that's about it. I would like to see a more intuitive design."

More CRITICALSTART cons

"I tried to send an email, however, no one has replied."

"The organzation is rigid and not flexible in the way they operate"

"There is a lack of Indonesian support, it would benefit us to have more support for the customers."

"Exabeam should be a bit faster, especially in loading and vulnerability scanning."

"I would say the pricing for Exabeam Fusion SIEM is not cost prohibitive, but it was a little more than I initially thought."

"Exabeam's reporting dashboard could have included a filtering option to filter by the most recent detection."

"Adding to the number of certifications that they have, for example, ISO 27001, would be helpful."

"The solution's reporting and dashboarding could be improved."

More Exabeam cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"It costs a lot for what we felt comfortable to spend."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"There is an annual license required to use Exabeam Fusion SIEM. The price of the solution should be reduced."

"Exabeam is not a cheap solution."

"The platform is not extremely expensive compared to its direct competitors; I would rate its pricing around six out of ten."

"Exabeam Fusion SIEM's pricing is reasonable."

"The solution is expensive."

"They have a great model for pricing that can be based either on user count or gigabits per day."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Construction Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Real Estate/Law Firm

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Torq?

This is exactly what we discussed two days ago with the Torq team. We told them where we want to see improvements. Fo...

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What is your primary use case for Torq?

I use Torq as my case management and alert system. Working as a SOC analyst, the first thing I do every morning is ge...

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What advice do you have for others considering Torq?

I would definitely recommend Torq. I have no doubt, really. When we looked for another vendor, Torq really answered a...

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Ask a question

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What are the biggest differences between Securonix UEBA, Exabeam, and IBM QRadar?

It mostly depends on your use-cases and environment. Exabeam and Securonix have a stronger UEBA feature set, friendli...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Exabeam Fusion SIEM?

I do not have much information about the pricing. However, I am aware that Exabeam is cheaper than Palo Alto based on...

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What needs improvement with Exabeam Fusion SIEM?

Exabeam's integration capabilities are not good, as Exabeam has a very limited number of integrations and no out-of-b...

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Comparisons

Tines vs Torq

Compared 27% of the time

Splunk SOAR vs Torq

Compared 15% of the time

Blink Ops vs Torq

Compared 12% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR vs Torq

Compared 10% of the time

Swimlane vs Torq

Compared 8% of the time

More Torq Competitors

ServiceNow Security Operations vs CRITICALSTART

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR vs CRITICALSTART

Compared 10% of the time

SentinelOne Wayfinder Threat Detection and Response vs CRITICALSTART

Compared 9% of the time

Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response vs CRITICALSTART

Compared 6% of the time

Expel vs CRITICALSTART

Compared 6% of the time

More CRITICALSTART Competitors

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Exabeam

Compared 5% of the time

Securonix Next-Gen SIEM vs Exabeam

Compared 4% of the time

IBM Security QRadar vs Exabeam

Compared 4% of the time

Dtex Systems vs Exabeam

Compared 3% of the time

Splunk User Behavior Analytics vs Exabeam

Compared 3% of the time

More Exabeam Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Torq

April 2026

Download Torq product report

Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART

May 2026

Download CRITICALSTART product report

Buyer's Guide

Exabeam

May 2026

Download Exabeam product report

Also Known As

No data available

Critical Start, CriticalStart

No data available

Overview

Torq is the enterprise AI SOC solution that effectively combines adaptive insights and automation to handle critical threats efficiently. It manages threat lifecycles, swiftly moving from triage to response, ensuring effective risk management.

Torq is designed to streamline security operations by aggregating telemetry across your security stack. It investigates significant risks and manages threats from triage to containment and remediation. This AI-driven tool enhances the capabilities of your SecOps team, allowing them to achieve more impactful results without introducing complicated processes.

What are the key features of Torq?

Adaptive Agentic Insights: Provides real-time threat intelligence tailored to specific security challenges.
Automation: Automates responses to security incidents, minimizing manual intervention requirements.
Threat Lifecycle Management: Comprehensive handling of threats from detection to remediation.
Telemetry Aggregation: Integrates data across platforms for a unified security overview.

Why consider Torq based on reviews?

Efficiency: Users notice significant reductions in time spent managing threats.
Risk Reduction: Enhanced ability to identify and address critical threats promptly.
Resource Optimization: Allows teams to allocate effort to other critical tasks by reducing manual security operations.
Scalability: Adaptable to meet the demands of growing or changing infrastructures.

In industries like finance and healthcare, Torq shows effectiveness by adapting to specific risk scenarios often encountered in these fields. Its integration with existing infrastructures makes it a valuable asset for maintaining stringent security standards, essential for protecting critical data and operations in diverse high-stakes environments.

Torq

CRITICALSTART enhances cybersecurity through advanced alert management, expert guidance, and a user-friendly interface. It promotes efficient monitoring and response to alerts, utilizing a Zero Trust model for heightened security.

CRITICALSTART is designed for organizations seeking to manage security alerts and streamline monitoring processes. Known for its quick response times and efficient alert filtering, it integrates tools like Cylance and Carbon Black to offer managed detection and response services. Users experience enhanced security by focusing on critical threats while the platform's easy navigation aids in efficiently responding to alerts. Improvement areas include better alert prioritization, enhanced compliance disclosure, and smoother integration with third-party communication tools.

What are the key features of CRITICALSTART?

Alert Management: Efficient handling and filtering of alerts to minimize noise.
Expert Guidance: Insights for integrating SIEM and optimizing response strategies.
Mobile Access: Easy access through a mobile app to manage alerts on the go.
Zero Trust Model: Enhances security by minimizing unnecessary access and noise.
User-Friendly Interface: Seamless navigation enhances user interaction and response times.

What advantages and ROI should users consider?

Improved Security Confidence: Advanced alert handling promotes a secure environment.
Increased Efficiency: Streamlined monitoring allows focus on critical threats.
Expert Insight: Professional guidance enhances security strategies and operations.
Quick Response Times: Rapid handling of threats reduces potential impacts.

In industry applications, organizations use CRITICALSTART to bolster cybersecurity measures across finance, healthcare, and technology sectors. Managed detection services and third-party integration make it suitable for enterprises looking to optimize security operations and minimize alert fatigue while ensuring 24/7 monitoring and protection.

Critical Start

Exabeam offers intuitive interfaces, detailed dashboards, and powerful analytics to enhance security investigations. Its machine learning detects complex threats with automation streamlining tasks for efficiency and integration with AWS.

Exabeam stands out with its robust cybersecurity management capabilities, offering advanced user behavior analytics and incident detection tools. Security teams can use its systems to monitor events, create investigative timelines, and analyze log data. While praised for easy use, it benefits from initial training for optimal utilization. Challenges include the need for better flexibility, cost-management, and enhanced AI integration. However, it facilitates seamless AWS integration, real-time updates, and vulnerability prioritization within business contexts. Improvements in dashboard customization and overall performance, especially in UI and log ingestion, could enhance usability.

What are Exabeam's key features?

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies navigation with clear dashboards.
Advanced Analytics: Uses behavior and machine learning for threat detection.
Automation: Reduces workload and streamlines security workflows.
Seamless Integration: Works efficiently with AWS services.
Real-Time Updates: Provides configuration updates instantly.

What benefits and ROI can be found in user reviews?

Enhanced Security: Provides thorough threat detection.
Efficiency: Automation reduces time and labor costs.
Comprehensive Support: Facilitates integration across platforms.
Risk Management: Assists in prioritizing vulnerabilities effectively.

Exabeam is widely used across industries such as finance and government for cybersecurity management. Organizations leverage its capabilities for integrating logs, protecting sensitive environments, and supporting compliance efforts. Its tools aid in detecting anomalies and managing security operations within infrastructures effectively.

Exabeam

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Hulu, ADP, Safeway, BBCN Bank

Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART vs. Exabeam

April 2026

Free Report: CRITICALSTART vs. Exabeam

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