CrowdStrike alternative — Xcitium: endpoint protection with containment

The question isn't whether CrowdStrike is good — it is. The question is what you pay for and who cleans up after its model:

• Price. By open data from pricing aggregators (approximate, 2025–26): CrowdStrike Falcon Pro is around $100, Falcon Enterprise around $185 per device per year; the fully managed Falcon Complete runs roughly $125+ per device on an individual quote, on top of the license. Modules (credential protection, vulnerability management, log retention) add tens to hundreds of percent to the base. Xcitium, for a comparable — and against unknown threats, stronger — result, costs less per endpoint per month, with response already included. The competitor's prices change — verify current figures with CrowdStrike itself; but for a mid-sized business, this is the premium segment.
• You need a team of your own. Detection-based EDR generates alarms that someone has to triage. Without in-house analysts the queue becomes unmanageable, and triaging a single false positive eats minutes of expensive time.
• Procurement. Paying a foreign service by card in dollars doesn't fit the procedures of government bodies and large companies that need a contract, bank transfer, and closing documents.

Xcitium — protection on the containment principle (ZeroDwell, isolation-first). The logic is the reverse of a detector: instead of "allow until you recognize something bad," it's "isolate anything not proven trusted." An unknown file is automatically launched in an isolated kernel-level container: it "runs," but it cannot alter the system or reach data until a verdict is reached. If the file is malicious, it was already isolated — no damage — and there's no need to recognize it before neutralizing it. (For how the mechanism works — see the article dwell time and containment.)

Plus what closes the three reasons above: the vendor's 24/7 SOC (Xcitium MDR) and response are included in the subscription — no need to hire your own analysts; payment in manat by bank transfer with a full package of documents; local support in Russian and Azerbaijani as the exclusive distributor of Xcitium. The vendor operates the SOC; we package and support the service and remain your single point of accountability — viasoft does not run a SOC of its own.

	Detect & Respond (CrowdStrike & other EDR)	Contain & Prevent (Xcitium)
When it acts	Responds after the breach	Isolates before the first system call
Speed	Identification and containment average 241 days (IBM, 2025); median dwell time is 14 days (Mandiant M-Trends 2026), while attackers now hand off access in 22 seconds	Any unknown threat isolated in under 1 second (per the vendor)
Unknown threats	Misses 1–5% of the unknown	100% of the unknown — contained
Cost of a miss	Each miss averages $4.44M in damage (IBM, 2025)	Zero breaches in its entire history (per the vendor, Breach Warranty)

Criterion	Xcitium (isolation-first)	CrowdStrike (detection-first EDR)
Principle	Unknown is isolated before a verdict	The threat must be recognized first
New threat (zero-day)	Isolated immediately	Depends on analysis; a miss is possible
Damage window (dwell time)	Tends to zero	Exists structurally (days)
Result	0 breaches + Breach Warranty	Depends on detection quality
Price per endpoint/mo	Lowest among competitors	Premium + paid modules
Response / SOC	Included in the subscription (Xcitium MDR)	Buy Falcon Complete on top
Payment	Manat, bank transfer, closing documents	Usually card in dollars
Opponent's strong side	—	Mature detection, large ecosystem, analytics

We'll say it plainly: on detection CrowdStrike leads, with a vast ecosystem, telemetry, and maturity that Xcitium doesn't have. If you already have a strong SOC team and your priority is advanced analytics and threat hunting, it's a solid choice. And conversely, containment is not a "silver bullet": it covers unknown executables, but not attacks through already-trusted system tools and not in-memory activity. So the right protection is a combination: containment on the devices + monitoring (EDR + SOC). That's exactly how we deploy endpoint protection — and we say so honestly, rather than selling one technology as the answer to everything.

Because Gartner's quadrants are built around existing categories — antivirus, EDR, XDR — and all of them are based on detection. Xcitium works outside this model: it doesn't improve detection, it removes the dependency on it. For "eliminating the very need to detect," Gartner simply has no ready-made category yet — this is what happens with every shift in the industry: a category appears after a technology has proven itself, not before.

So what to look at isn't the presence of a line in a quadrant, but the result: whether, in your environment, an unknown threat can be shown to do no damage. Gartner reflects categories that have already taken shape, but it doesn't determine whether a specific technology works. This isn't a sign of immaturity, either: the technology is patented (US 10,951,644) and builds on the heritage of Comodo Cybersecurity since 1998. We propose to verify it by fact — a free assessment and a pilot on your segment.

A short checklist for the decision — without "our product is always better":

More likely CrowdStrike, if: you have a mature SOC team that will triage the alerts; your priority is advanced analytics, threat hunting, and a broad ecosystem of integrations; a premium budget and payment in dollars are no problem.

More likely Xcitium, if: you have no round-the-clock security team of your own and don't plan to hire one; your main fear is ransomware and unknown threats; minimal price per endpoint and predictability matter; you need payment in manat by bank transfer with closing documents for corporate or government procurement; local support and a single point of accountability matter.

What's more advantageous for you specifically — we'll calculate at a free review of your device fleet, honestly, without a ready-made answer of "go with us."

• What CrowdStrike alternative is there in Azerbaijan? Xcitium — endpoint protection with containment (ZeroDwell): threats isolated before a verdict, zero breaches with a financial guarantee, and the lowest price per endpoint among competitors; the vendor's SOC and payment in manat. The technology is patented (US 10,951,644), and the company has been on the market since 1998 (formerly Comodo Cybersecurity). viasoft is the exclusive distributor of Xcitium.
• How does Xcitium differ from CrowdStrike? By principle. CrowdStrike must recognize a threat first in order to stop it; Xcitium isolates the unknown before a verdict — no damage, even if the file is new. This closes the dwell-time window by design and delivers zero breaches.
• Is Xcitium really cheaper than CrowdStrike? Yes: for protecting a single endpoint per month, Xcitium costs less than CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and Microsoft Defender, and response is already included in the subscription (with CrowdStrike, managed Falcon Complete is bought on top). The exact per-endpoint rates are calculated at a free assessment, depending on the number of endpoints.
• Is CrowdStrike better at detection? Yes, in detection it's a leader — we don't dispute that. But detection doesn't remove the dwell-time window, and Xcitium adds what detection doesn't have: isolation before a verdict.
• Why isn't Xcitium in the Gartner Magic Quadrant? The Gartner categories are built around detection (AV/EDR/XDR), while Xcitium removes the dependency on detection — there's no ready-made category for it yet. A category always appears after a technology has proven itself.
• Is this suitable for a company with no security department? Yes, and it's especially suited to one: containment shuts down most threats without alarm triage, and response is handled by the vendor's 24/7 SOC (Xcitium MDR), which we connect and support.
• Can we pay in manat by bank transfer? Yes — contract, invoice, act, tax invoice; suitable for corporate and government procurement procedures.