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CRITICALSTART vs ThreatLocker Cyber Hero MDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 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)
ThreatLocker Cyber Hero MDR
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
11th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.7
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 ThreatLocker Cyber Hero MDR is 0.6%, up from 0.1% 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.
Andres Plaza - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables granular control through Ringfencing and works seamlessly for us as an MSP
The most valuable feature is ringfencing. It enables us to only allow what needs to be allowed into the environment and keep out anything else. It permits applications to perform without accessing anything they are not supposed to. For instance, if an application tries to utilize the command prompt unnecessarily, it blocks this action while still allowing users to operate the application. Being able to let the user or the customer continue to use that application but block the application from using the command prompt because it is not necessary is great. Being able to inform customers about enhanced security from a zero-trust standpoint has significantly improved our sales. We are able to walk up to a customer or call a new prospect and let them know that we are going to keep them secure at a level that they have not seen before. We are able to explain to them how cybersecurity works through it.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"The main difference between the other options and this one is the quality of the personnel within the SOC. It's their knowledge and depth and the way they handle customers."
"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."
"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."
"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 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."
"Our customers now have the confidence that they can work without being impeded, losing access or getting compromised."
"I believe it is probably the best around."
"ThreatLocker is worth every penny and a couple more."
"The most valuable feature is ringfencing. It enables us to only allow what needs to be allowed into the environment and keep out anything else. It permits applications to perform without accessing anything they are not supposed to."
"Our clients feel a bit more secure when using their equipment now, and they can feel confident that we have their backs kind of when they're when they either get compromised."
"We stopped two attacks so far."
"Customer service and support are exceptional."
"The customer service is really good."
 

Cons

"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 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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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..."
"There are still gaps in the EDR when benchmarked against SentinelOne, but it's improving quickly."
"The ultimate, most amazing solution in the market could be less pricey and more transparent."
"The Cyber Hero Support is not as effective as it is portrayed. There is a lot of miscommunication in notes, which are very buried and not easy to find."
"From an MDR perspective, the solution can have the ability to ingest logs from other sources, such as M365, firewalls, external sources, and even cloud SaaS-based platforms. This way, we can obtain a holistic picture."
"It would be great if they handled patch management, and I am aware that they are currently working on it."
"If there is any aspect to improve, perhaps affordability for small businesses could be considered."
"From an MDR perspective, the solution can have the ability to ingest logs from other sources, such as M365, firewalls, external sources, and even cloud SaaS-based platforms. This way, we can obtain a holistic picture."
"The Cyber Hero Support is not as effective as it is portrayed. There is a lot of miscommunication in notes, which are very buried and not easy to find."
 

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."
"It costs a lot for what we felt comfortable to spend."
"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 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."
"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."
"I've told CRITICALSTART that I think the managed service they provide is cheaper than it should be. It's a really good deal."
"The pricing of other services was so insane that they weren't even an option."
"The pricing is not so bad. My clients do not like it, but they are following our pricing."
"ThreatLocker is worth every penny and a couple more."
"It is pretty good. We would have been one of the biggest partners in Ireland, so we got pretty good pricing at the start, and it is still competitive. Pricing depends on what we are up against."
"It has been excellent."
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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
29%
Retailer
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Insurance Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ThreatLocker Cyber Hero MDR?
The pricing is cost-efficient and provides good value given the level of security enhancement it provides.
What needs improvement with ThreatLocker Cyber Hero MDR?
There are still gaps in the EDR when benchmarked against SentinelOne, but it's improving quickly. The ability for ThreatLocker to digest the 365 logs provides an elevated level of 365 protection th...
What is your primary use case for ThreatLocker Cyber Hero MDR?
Our primary use case for ThreatLocker Cyber Hero MDR ( /products/threatlocker-cyber-hero-mdr-reviews ) is to reinforce a zero trust environment. We utilize it to avoid security faults and improve d...
 

Also Known As

Critical Start, CriticalStart
No data available
 

Overview

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