Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

CRITICALSTART vs Huntress Managed EDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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

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)
Huntress Managed EDR
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
2nd
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of CRITICALSTART is 0.8%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Huntress Managed EDR is 10.5%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Anto Baharian - PeerSpot reviewer
Never misses anything and has an attractive price point and a simple interface
One thing they could improve is evolving from an EDR to an MDR, like Blackpoint. This transition would enable automatic remediation of anything that looks dangerous, including within Microsoft 365. For instance, when one of my clients' Microsoft 365 account was breached, Blackpoint identified suspicious activity and disabled the account. It was in Dallas, and we are in California. Blackpoint knew something was wrong there, and they went in and disabled the account. Developing more automated remediation features would elevate them to an MDR level, but I understand that it might affect pricing. They are trying to keep it at a good price point because once they go to MDR, it is probably going to double the price. For now, I find the current features satisfactory, as they continue to add improvements. They have added security awareness training and then log collectors. They are adding pillars as they move along, and I assume they are going to have an option for MDR.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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 solution's most valuable feature is that it has a manned security operation center, not AI-driven."
"Huntress helps us replace traditional antivirus solutions with an EDR. I like how easy it is to use and deploy. Support is good- they've responded quickly when I've had issues. I like it a lot so far. It reports valuable information and filters out things I don't need to know."
"Users usually note improvements in a matter of days. In others, it is immediately. It varies according to the environment."
"Huntress is extremely well-written software. I used to be a developer, and I see how they've written it. It's excellent. I've never had an issue with it crashing a machine. It's small, tight code."
"It is clear, simple, and easy to use. There are things that I can automate in terms of escalation, but if I want to go into the settings and play with it, I can. They provide detailed remediation steps, explaining why an issue is a problem and what steps to take."
"I immediately recognized the benefits of Huntress Managed EDR."
"It catches things that no one else catches. We occasionally have things slip through antivirus and other things, but Huntress catches them. It is awesome as an additional layer of defense on top of other things."
"Huntress Managed EDR has helped me reduce the need for expensive security tools or to hire expensive security analysts."
 

Cons

"The UI has become slower but it's not something I would call them out on."
"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."
"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."
"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..."
"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 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. That might be a nice add-in."
"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."
"Installing Huntress on a Mac presents a challenge for end users due to the operating system's security features, which require administrator privileges for installation."
"The application control system could benefit from improvements in identifying and managing both whitelisted and blacklisted applications."
"To enhance the platform, I suggest adding a feature to forward Huntress's recommended response directly to the client, ensuring their clear understanding of the gathered information."
"Their EDR can have increased coverage for Macintosh. They do not fully secure Macintosh computers."
"The product could be improved in terms of customization options available for reports."
"Huntress has a cyber education platform, but it lacks all the languages we need. Since we support customers in different countries, expanding the language options for their training would be beneficial."
"Some of Huntress' reporting could be improved."
"I would request that they make it an agent for Linux because we need it on Linux."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"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."
"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 of other services was so insane that they weren't even an option."
"It costs a lot for what we felt comfortable to spend."
"I believe Huntress offers competitive pricing overall."
"The cost-effectiveness of Huntress is much better compared to BlackPoint. Although Huntress does not offer all the finer details that BlackPoint does, it remains much more competitive in pricing."
"It is simple. It is reasonable. They raised my prices this year. We never like price increases, but they continue to add value, so we just keep adding agents as we grow and as our clients grow."
"The pricing model for Huntress is similar to competitors and is charged per endpoint."
"The solution's pricing is fair."
"The pricing is competitive, in line with Huntress's offerings, and aligns well with our business model."
"It is very fair. I started at $2.50 and now I am at $3.50. When I signed up, I thought it was too cheap. It now reflects the price. It is very fair. I do not think you can find anything better."
"Huntress has a favourable pricing structure, and I appreciate the cost-effectiveness compared to previous solutions."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions are best for your needs.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Healthcare Company
13%
Real Estate/Law Firm
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Insurance Company
7%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Huntress?
It is very easy to use. It is a great solution. They are one of the better vendors that I have ever worked with since I have been in the industry.
What needs improvement with Huntress?
We would love for Huntress Managed EDR to ingest logs from Microsoft Sentinel. Microsoft Sentinel is another SIM tool that produces logs, and we would want Huntress to be able to ingest those so th...
What is your primary use case for Huntress?
We use Huntress Managed EDR for threat hunting with our clients to try to keep their environment safe and make sure that if there's any kind of bad activity going on, we can try to find out about i...
 

Also Known As

Critical Start, CriticalStart
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about CRITICALSTART vs. Huntress Managed EDR and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.