Which Offers Better Cloud Security and Value?

CrowdStrike and Wiz are two safety suppliers working from vastly completely different positions. On one hand, CrowdStrike has been within the area since 2011 and has solidified itself as an trade chief in endpoint detection and response options.

In the meantime, Wiz is a a lot youthful cybersecurity startup based in 2020 that goals to make a reputation for itself on this planet of cloud safety.

On this article, we look at how CrowdStrike and Wiz stack in opposition to one another to find out which one is finest for you and your group.

CrowdStrike vs Wiz: Comparability desk

CrowdStrike vs Wiz: Pricing

As a disclaimer, this text compares CrowdStrike and Wiz and their total product choices. Whereas there’s an emphasis on cloud safety options, we purpose to offer the overall variations between the 2 suppliers as a complete.

CrowdStrike pricing

CrowdStrike presents a number of cybersecurity options that cater to completely different safety necessities and enterprise sizes.

Beneath is transient abstract of pricing and have variations for every:

• Falcon Go: $59.99 per yr; next-generation antivirus, system management, and categorical assist.
• Falcon Professional: $99.99 per system, billed yearly; all Falcon Go options plus firewall administration.
• Falcon Enterprise: $184.99 per system, billed yearly; all Falcon Professional options plus EDR, menace looking, and intelligence capabilities.
• Falcon Elite: Contact gross sales for pricing; all Falcon Enterprise options plus IT Hygiene and id safety.
• CrowdStrike Cloud Safety: Contact gross sales for a value quote; CSPM, ASPM, container safety, and server menace graphs.

CrowdStrike presents free trials for many of the subscriptions listed above. I like to recommend trying out these trials for patrons to get a really feel for CrowdStrike’s companies and whether or not they suit your group’s wants.

Wiz pricing

Wiz doesn’t present a normal value for its cloud companies. As a substitute, it presents one-to-one curated pricing relying in your group’s present cloud workload and setting.

On their official web site, Wiz has a value request portal that asks a couple of questions earlier than offering the customized value quote. Beneath are some questions and particulars requested by Wiz:

• What number of clouds are you utilizing? (AWS, GCP, Azure, and so on.)
• Offering title and work electronic mail tackle.
• Job title, firm title, and telephone quantity.

You can even get a customized, 30-minute demo of Wiz’s software program by way of their official web site. Like the value request, that is accessible after offering a couple of particulars.

CrowdStrike vs Wiz: Characteristic comparability

Space of focus

Whereas each within the cybersecurity area, CrowdStrike and Wiz take completely different approaches to the companies they’re most recognized for.

On the one hand, Wiz primarily offers with cloud environments and securing cloud infrastructures. That is achieved by way of their Cloud Safety Posture Administration, Vulnerability Administration, Infrastructure Entitlements Administration, and Cloud Native Software Safety Platform consoles, amongst others.

On the flip aspect, CrowdStrike hovers extra on endpoint safety and is taken into account an trade chief with its EDR and XDR choices. In addition they have managed detection and response, NGAV, and threat-hunting service choices.

To be clear, CrowdStrike has a devoted Falcon Cloud Safety product that overlaps with Wiz’s choices. This bundles collectively CSPM, CNAPP, and CIEM performance right into a unified console.

Regardless of these similarities, I feel it is a good place to begin in discerning which supplier to go for. Are you searching for an answer that solely gives sturdy visibility and safety to your cloud infrastructure? On this case, Wiz often is the more sensible choice.

In the meantime, if you’d like a extra complete supplier that gives each cloud and endpoint safety instruments, CrowdStrike needs to be your prime consideration.

Impartial assessments

If we glance into impartial assessments, each CrowdStrike and Wiz are well-ranked amongst their rivals within the cloud area.

Within the Forrester Wave’s Cloud Workload Safety report for Q1 2024, CrowdStrike was named a Chief, whereas Wiz was acknowledged as a Sturdy Performer.

The report praised CrowdStrike for its CWS imaginative and prescient, sturdy container runtime safety, and robust agent-based CWP. In the meantime, Wiz was highlighted as being a strong alternative for organizations that “prioritize agentless CWP, want assault path visualization, however solely minimal agent-based workload protections.”

One factor to notice is that is Wiz’s first inclusion in a Forrester report. Regardless of solely being 4 years previous, I really feel this reveals how the corporate has already made impression on each end-users and impartial evaluators alike.

For CrowdStrike’s half, their frequent presence on the prime of third-party reviews reveals that they proceed to be some of the influential gamers in cybersecurity at present.

Agent-based vs agentless

One predominant distinction between the 2 is their alternative concerning agent-based and agentless safety.

CrowdStrike is understood for its agent-based Falcon platform however has additionally launched agentless safety lately. Now, it positions its Falcon Cloud Safety service as a “versatile” agent-based and agentless unified platform, aiming to carry the advantages of each methods of their software program.

In the meantime, Wiz’s CSPM platform is an agentless resolution that prioritizes ease of deployment, low upkeep wants, and scalability.

CrowdStrike vs Wiz on Reddit

To spherical out this comparability, I explored on-line boards and communities like Reddit to see how CrowdStrike and Wiz fared with completely different customers worldwide.

For each, consumer notion appears to be very constructive. Within the Cybersecurity Reddit group, one poster requested what different customers’ expertise was with Wiz and their cloud-based options.

One commenter in that thread mentioned, “Wiz has been actually efficient for us. We went with it as a result of it’s agentless, making deployment tremendous fast and simple. It’s nice at figuring out vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, which is a large assist.”

“The interface is fairly strong, placing all the pieces we have to see in a single spot, and whereas it’s on the expensive aspect, the quantity of labor it saves us justifies the price,” the commenter added.

Then again, current conversations about CrowdStrike revolved round their involvement in a worldwide IT outage again in July 2024. In that incident, a defective CrowdStrike Falcon sensor replace induced a large IT disruption that impacted 8.5 million Home windows units worldwide. You may be taught extra in regards to the CrowdStrike outage by way of our information article.

Regardless of this, many customers proceed to precise their assist for CrowdStrike. In one other publish throughout the Cybersecurity Reddit group, one consumer mentioned this in response to being requested if they’d proceed to make use of CrowdStrike:

“CrowdStrike has at all times been a decent model with top-performing metrics. Each firm has their hiccups. The actual query is how they deal with their errors. (IMO, they dealt with it nice. There was a repair in lower than 12 hours and an automation repair in 24). A few of my very own safety options with software program breaking points don’t even come shut, and more often than not, I’ve to show it’s their software program for them to assist,” the commenter mentioned.

“The actual fact CrowdStrike gained a lot consideration within the media is a testomony to what number of prospects they’ve,” the commenter added.

SEE: The High 4 CrowdStrike Options & Rivals in 2024 (TechRepublic)

CrowdStrike professionals and cons

Execs of CrowdStrike

• Agent-based and agentless resolution.
• Deep cloud visibility.
• Additionally presents EDR and XDR.

Cons of CrowdStrike

• Involvement in July 2024 IT outage.

Wiz professionals and cons

Execs of Wiz

• Full deal with cloud infrastructure safety.
• Utterly agentless.
• Easy deployment and intuitive UI.

Cons of Wiz

• Fewer choices when it comes to different safety options.

Ought to your enterprise use CrowdStrike or Wiz?

Each CrowdStrike and Wiz are high quality decisions in terms of securing your group’s cloud infrastructure. That being mentioned, there are variations between the 2 which will sway your resolution to 1 over the opposite.

In the event you’re searching for a supplier with years of trade expertise, sturdy real-time menace response, and an agent-based platform, CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Safety needs to be your choose. It’s additionally the higher alternative if your enterprise is searching for extra safety companies, notably in endpoint safety.

Then again, in the event you favor investing in a more moderen cybersecurity supplier that emphasizes solely on cloud safety, Wiz is the higher choice. It’s additionally the clear alternative if you’d like a completely agentless resolution and if your enterprise isn’t eager on working with CrowdStrike following the July 2024 outage.

SEE: Every part You Have to Know in regards to the Malvertising Cybersecurity Menace (TechRepublic Premium)

Methodology

My comparability of CrowdStrike and Wiz concerned doing a head-to-head comparability of their software program choices, options, and total worth.

Specifically, I thought of key variations between the 2 cloud suppliers, corresponding to their space of focus, impartial assessments, and selection between agent-based or agentless safety. Analysis on the suppliers included an in depth evaluate of official product documentation, accessible demos, and marketed use circumstances for every product.

As well as, actual consumer suggestions and verified third-party opinions have been additionally thought of to spherical out the ultimate suggestions.