CrowdStrike Falcon vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager comparison

The compared CrowdStrike and SolarWinds solutions aren't in the same category. CrowdStrike is ranked #3 in EPP , with an average rating of 8.4, and holds a 5.8% mindshare in the category. SolarWinds is ranked #33 in SIEM , with an average rating of 7.5, and holds a 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of CrowdStrike users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 82% of SolarWinds users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2026

SolarWinds Security Event Manager and CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR compete in the security event management sector. CrowdStrike seems to have the upper hand with its advanced threat detection and integration capabilities.

Features: SolarWinds Security Event Manager supports extensive log monitoring with scalability and robust reporting. It allows for seamless deployment across various platforms and provides effective scalability options. By contrast, CrowdStrike Falcon Insight XDR excels in endpoint detection with behavior-based detection, real-time alerts, and comprehensive reporting. Its lightweight agent provides ease of integration and complete visibility into threat activities.

Room for Improvement: SolarWinds requires enhancements in UI, alert filtering, and third-party integrations. It also needs improved correlation capabilities. CrowdStrike needs to reduce false positives and enhance dashboard functionalities. More flexible integration with additional security tools would be beneficial for CrowdStrike.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SolarWinds is available primarily as an on-premises or hybrid solution with generally satisfactory support, though response times can occasionally be slow. Its setup can be complex. CrowdStrike offers flexible deployment in public, private, and hybrid clouds with faster and more effective technical support, praised for its responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: SolarWinds is priced in the mid-range with favorable renewal costs for existing clients, making it cost-effective with bundled services. CrowdStrike, considered premium-priced, offers a strong ROI due to its advanced security features and capabilities that reduce security management costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

August 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

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

Mindshare comparison

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
CrowdStrike Falcon	5.8%
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	6.7%
SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint	4.6%
Other	82.9%

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SolarWinds Security Event Manager	1.0%
Splunk Enterprise Security	7.6%
IBM Security QRadar	5.5%
Other	85.9%

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH

Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk

Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration

Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.

Read full review

Dipak M Gohil

IT Manager at Jord International Pty Ltd

Efficient threat detection and seamless deployment improve overall security

The single panel console of CrowdStrike Falcon is very user-friendly, which is what we are looking for. Having multiple administrators between various offices with this single console gives us the ability to see all offices, branch offices, and partners, making it very useful to detect machines, identify machines, and check security risks. Everything in the single console is very useful. CrowdStrike Falcon has positively impacted our organization in terms of efficiency because it's very lightweight, easy to deploy, easy to manage, and works very efficiently. It quickly detects issues and doesn't have a signature-based system, so it works fast and takes immediate action.

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Yashokanth Partkunan

Managed Services Engineer at Loop1 Systems

Has supported client needs efficiently but requires deeper analysis features and faster support

The log analyzing capability of SolarWinds Security Event Manager should go into more depth than the current environment. More modification and enhancements are required on the dashboard side in order to make it closer to optimal performance. From observation and feedback from users, they need more functionality related to monitoring, and in-depth analyzing needs to be improved.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"From a single pane of glass, you can easily manage all of your endpoints."

"We use Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks for its ability to detect based on behavior rather than simple virus scan to prevent malicious activities."

"Being a cloud solution it is very flexible in serving internal and external connections and a broad range of devices."

"We have found in our test Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks to be a very good tool."

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is easy to use and does not consume a lot of hardware resources."

"I've found the solution to be highly scalable for enterprises."

"What I like about Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is that it is a comprehensive solution that contains everything the organization may need when using endpoints."

"The anti-exploit is impenetrable."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pros

"The biggest ROI is the operational cost reduction, where automatic updates now take care of themselves and you are looking at saving six to seven months of a person's time, collectively, which would have been spent on just doing this one function alone."

"The features we showcase to potential customers are prevention, malware protection, zero-day protection, and application scripting, and vulnerability assessment is another valuable feature."

"The product is really good, but there is a lot of additional features that you need to have for it to be a complete solution."

"The biggest advantage of this solution for my customers is that it is a single solution that fulfills most of their security concerns while being easy to manage."

"The most beneficial part is the active response capability of the product."

"The initial setup was straightforward."

"There's almost no maintenance required. It's very low if there's any at all."

"I like Falcon's threat detection and endpoint investigation features. It's a user-friendly solution."

More CrowdStrike Falcon pros

"The solution helps you monitor database instances, application instances, other customer application things, Linux servers, IBM servers, and Oracle servers."

"We did previously use a different solution, but SolarWinds is much better. It's easy to interact with SolarWinds. It's easy to operate, easy to configure and is generally easier compared to what we were working with before."

"SolarWinds has provided greater visibility into incidents and activities on the network."

"We had to integrate with other teams, and the infrastructure deployment didn't take long. The integration involves learning with different teams, networking, and configuring various network devices and servers. Infrastructure deployment only took one or two days."

"The out of the box reports and dashboard. It was easy to trim down these windows to something we could quickly use."

"It will identify things in your network that you just didn't know were going on."

"It's extremely easy to deploy."

"The product's most effective part in improving security stems from the fact that the solution is deployed for event management, log viewing, and information management."

More SolarWinds Security Event Manager pros

Cons

"As an improvement, I would like to see enhanced connection speeds."

"There are some false positives. What our guys would have liked is that it would have been easier to manipulate as soon as they found a false positive that they knew was a false positive. How to do so was not obvious. Some people complained about it. The interface, the ESM, is not user-friendly."

"The GUI could be improved. It's a little bit cumbersome. It could be more user-friendly."

"They've been having some issues with updating their endpoint agents, and it has been quite frustrating."

"It would be good to have a better way to search for a file within the UI."

"The price could be a little lower."

"In terms of areas of improvement, we have not completed our review of the product. We're also looking at other products. So, it's a little bit hard to tell what could be different because we have not completed the review of this product, but based on our experience so far, its implementation is quite complex."

"The solution should enhance the ADR and reporting."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks cons

"There is room for improvement in managing multiple customer IDs."

"This solution lacks basic functionality, such as being able to perform on-demand scanning."

"The console is not user-friendly or visually appealing and has room for improvement."

"CrowdStrike Falcon by itself does not supply in-depth reporting."

"I recommend that some deep-dive trainings are required for the NG SIEM, specifically for their next-generation SIEM module, as they need some basic trainings for that."

"CrowdStrike should provide better visibility in its reporting. There should be more forensic details about detected threats."

"The overall cost of CrowdStrike Falcon could be reduced."

"We encounter occasional issues, such as when disabling network access for a host that uses CrowdStrike."

More CrowdStrike Falcon cons

"I would like to be able to dig deeper into the visibility of events or incidents to determine whether they are malicious, such as by doing behavior analysis."

"The only issue is the pricetag. SolarWinds is a costly solution."

"The company had to use a third party for the implementation of the solution."

"It can be difficult for users who are inexperienced with the solution."

"I imagine we will have to develop our own reports soon, this seems to be more cumbersome."

"The reporting could be more robust. It can be a lot more granular and that will make it a lot more useful in comparison to how it is incorporated at the moment."

"The solution was a little slow when running some larger queries."

"I think the product can use some improvement on the reporting side. The reporting could be easier and more robust."

More SolarWinds Security Event Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I did PoCs on products called Cylance and CrowdStrike. Although, I consider these products and they were also good, when it come to cost and budgetary factors, Traps has been proven to be better than the other two products. It is quite cost-effective and delivers all the entire solution which we require."

"I don't have any issues with the pricing. We are satisfied with the price."

"We pay about $50,000 USD per year for a bundle that includes Cortex XDR."

"The solution has one subscription for endpoint protection and one subscription for detection and response. The two licenses combined give you the BRO version."

"In terms of the cost Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is very expensive because we are a Mexican company and when you translate dollars to pesos the cost is very high. The solution is very expensive for Mexican companies. I understand that they have international prices, but I do not think it offsets the price enough for many companies in countries, such as Mexico. The amount it is reduced is not a massive percentage."

"The price is on the higher side, but it's okay."

"It is "expensive" and flexible."

"When we first bought it, it was a bit expensive, but it was worth it. The licensing was straightforward."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"The licensing model is straightforward. We choose the features we want and we then can download the package we want."

"There are three to four licensing models available to choose from for CrowdStrike Falcon. The price of CrowdStrike Falcon depends on the distributor and the reseller partner. The price we received was good."

"CrowdStrike Falcon's price is good."

"The cost of CrowdStrike Falcon could be reduced. It is quite expensive if you compare it to other solutions, such as Blue Coat, Symantec, McAfee, or Kaspersky."

"Pricing and licensing seem to be in line with what they offer. We are a smaller organization, so pricing is important. Obviously, we would make a business case if it is something we really needed or felt that we needed. So, the pricing is in line with what we are getting from a product standpoint."

"This solution offers annual subscriptions. The pricing for this solution could be reduced."

"With respect to pricing, my suggestion to others is to evaluate the environment and purchase what you need."

"The price of CrowdStrike Falcon is expensive."

More CrowdStrike Falcon pricing and cost advice

"We do a yearly license renewal. For a year, the solution costs roughly $500,000 USD. There are no costs beyond this yearly fee."

"It is in the appropriate mid-range. It is not as expensive as some of the other solutions. It is also not cheap."

"Licenses can only be purchased in blocks of fifty at a time."

"The tool is available at a good price for customers compared to other solutions in the market. I rate the product's price as an eight out of ten."

"The pricing model would benefit from having package deals with other SolarWinds products."

"The price of SolarWinds Security Event Manager is reasonable."

"Licensing is on devices, so if you have many, then this may be high."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

12%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Construction Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	54

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	54
Midsize Enterprise	34
Large Enterprise	63

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. ...

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Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions th...

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How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface,...

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How does Crowdstrike Falcon compare with Darktrace?

Both of these products perform similarly and have many outstanding attributes. CrowdStrike Falcon offers an amazing u...

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How does Microsoft Defender for Endpoint compare with Crowdstrike Falcon?

The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never pu...

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Is Crowdstrike Falcon better than Trend Micro Deep Security?

I like that Crowdstrike allows me to easily correlate data between my firewalls. What’s most useful for my needs is t...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?

The tool is available at a good price for customers compared to other solutions in the market. I rate the product's p...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?

The log analyzing capability of SolarWinds Security Event Manager should go into more depth than the current environm...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Security Event Manager ?

I work with all SolarWinds products mostly, including Network Configuration Manager and NPM. I am a reseller. I usual...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 14% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 5% of the time

Cortex XSIAM vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

Trellix Endpoint Security Platform vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Competitors

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 3% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

Fortinet FortiEDR vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

Tanium vs CrowdStrike Falcon

Compared 2% of the time

More CrowdStrike Falcon Competitors

Splunk Enterprise Security vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager

Compared 11% of the time

IBM Security QRadar vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager

Compared 10% of the time

Sumo Logic Security vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager

Compared 7% of the time

ManageEngine Log360 vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager

Compared 5% of the time

SurfWatch Labs SurfWatch vs SolarWinds Security Event Manager

Compared 3% of the time

More SolarWinds Security Event Manager Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

August 2026

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Buyer's Guide

CrowdStrike Falcon

August 2026

Download CrowdStrike Falcon product report

Buyer's Guide

SolarWinds Security Event Manager

August 2026

SolarWinds Security Event Manager report

Download SolarWinds Security Event Manager product report

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps

CrowdStrike Falcon XDR, CrowdStrike Falcon Threat Intelligence, CrowdStrike Identity Protection, CrowdStrike Falcon Surface, CrowdStrike Falcon Platform

SolarWinds LEM, Solarwinds SIEM, TriGeo, Log and Event Manager

Overview

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks provides advanced threat detection with AI-driven endpoint protection and seamless integration, ensuring multi-layered security and automatic threat response.

Cortex XDR is designed to safeguard endpoints against malware and suspicious activities. It offers advanced threat detection and response capabilities using behavioral analysis, AI, and machine learning. It seamlessly integrates with security infrastructures, providing endpoint security, firewall integration, and enhanced visibility in both cloud-based and on-premises environments.

What are the key features of Cortex XDR?

Advanced Threat Detection: Uses AI and machine learning for proactive threat identification.
Multi-layered Security: Combines various security measures for comprehensive protection.
Endpoint Protection: Safeguards against malware and exploits.
Behavioral Analysis: Monitors suspicious activity for early detection.
Automatic Threat Response: Automates responses to neutralize threats.

What benefits should users expect?

Ease of Use: Simplifies security management with intuitive design.
Resource Efficiency: Minimizes impact on system resources.
Integration Capabilities: Works well with existing security setups.
Reduced Analyst Workload: Automates processes to decrease manual intervention.

Organizations in diverse sectors deploy Cortex XDR to protect against malware, leveraging its advanced threat detection capabilities. Its integration with existing security infrastructures appeals to those seeking comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments, providing enhanced visibility and threat intelligence.

Palo Alto Networks

CrowdStrike Falcon delivers AI-powered endpoint protection, detection, and response to help organizations stop malware, ransomware, fileless attacks, and sophisticated adversaries. Built on the cloud-native Falcon platform and a single lightweight sensor, it combines prevention, EDR, threat intelligence, and automated response to protect endpoints while simplifying security operations.

What features make CrowdStrike Falcon stand out?

AI-Powered Prevention: Uses next-generation antivirus, machine learning, behavioral analysis, and exploit blocking to protect against known and unknown threats.
Endpoint Detection and Response: Provides continuous endpoint visibility and contextual detection to accelerate threat investigation and response.
Adversary Intelligence: Enriches endpoint telemetry and detections with CrowdStrike threat intelligence to help teams understand and prioritize threats.
Automated Response: Enables endpoint isolation, remediation, and automated workflows to contain and eliminate threats quickly.

What benefits can users expect?

Stronger Endpoint Protection: Helps stop malware, ransomware, and sophisticated attacks before they lead to breaches.
Faster Investigation and Response: Combines detection, context, and automation to help security teams respond more efficiently.
Reduced Complexity: Consolidates endpoint security capabilities through a unified platform, console, and lightweight sensor.
Scalable Security: Cloud-native architecture helps organizations deploy and manage protection across endpoint environments without legacy on-premises infrastructure.

Across industries, CrowdStrike Falcon helps organizations modernize endpoint security, improve security team efficiency, and stop sophisticated threats with AI-powered protection and adversary intelligence.

CrowdStrike

SolarWinds Security Event Manager is recognized for its ease of use, offering efficient log monitoring and a user-friendly interface. The tool supports a range of monitoring functions and provides strong security capabilities across platform configurations.

Designed for comprehensive log analysis and security event monitoring, SolarWinds Security Event Manager provides robust reporting, timely alerts, and supports file integrity monitoring. Entities use it to ensure compliance, monitor network activities, and prevent threats such as ransomware. Integration and setup are straightforward, enhancing its flexibility for centralized log collection and analysis. While the tool is effective, improvements are needed in performance scaling, interface updates from Flash, and enhanced customization and reporting options.

What are the key features of SolarWinds Security Event Manager?

Log Monitoring: Tracks and analyzes log files for security events.
File Integrity Monitoring: Detects unauthorized changes in files.
Reporting and Alerts: Provides extensive reporting with timely security alerts.
Compliance Maintenance: Assists in maintaining compliance with audit standards.
User-Friendly Interface: Features intuitive navigation and versatile integration capabilities.

What benefits should users consider when evaluating SolarWinds Security Event Manager?

Ease of Use: Intuitive setup and navigation simplify user experience.
Security Enhancements: Strong monitoring helps detect and prevent ransomware threats.
Compliance Support: Ensures compliance with audit requirements, facilitating regulatory adherence.
Integration: Seamlessly connects with other tools for centralized data management.

Industries such as financial services, healthcare, and government often implement SolarWinds Security Event Manager to monitor sensitive information, ensure adherence to regulatory compliance, and manage network security efficiently. The tool's ability to analyze logs and prevent threats makes it valuable for businesses needing robust security event management.

SolarWinds

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank

Information Not Available

NetSuite, EasyStreet, Legacy Texas Bank, and Energy Federal Credit Union, to name a few.

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

August 2026

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