Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services bridge the gap between traditional endpoint security and a fully staffed security operations center. CrowdStrike Complete MDR is a comprehensive managed security service that combines the Falcon platform's advanced detection capabilities with 24/7 expert monitoring, threat hunting, and rapid incident response. This guide covers CrowdStrike MDR features, pricing considerations, service capabilities, and how it compares to other MDR providers—helping you evaluate whether CrowdStrike's managed detection and response solution fits your organization's security requirements.
Why Organizations Look at Complete MDR
- Alert overload: Internal teams drown in Falcon alerts without enough analysts to triage, investigate, or escalate.
- Staffing shortages: Recruiting and retaining 24/7 security expertise is difficult and expensive for mid-market companies.
- Compliance pressure: Industries bound by HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, or SEC guidelines must prove they can detect and respond rapidly.
- Incident response maturity: Many teams can deploy Falcon sensors but struggle to isolate hosts, evict adversaries, or produce post-incident reporting.
CrowdStrike Complete MDR provides a dedicated response team that operates Falcon on your behalf, blending AI-driven telemetry with seasoned analysts.
CrowdStrike MDR Features and Capabilities
Understanding the CrowdStrike MDR security features helps organizations evaluate whether this managed service meets their detection and response requirements.
1. Falcon Platform Foundation
All endpoints run Falcon Insight (EDR) for real-time telemetry, behavior analysis, and machine learning detection. Complete MDR customers also gain access to modules like Falcon Discover (IT hygiene) and Falcon OverWatch (threat hunting).
2. 24/7 Security Operations Center
Global CrowdStrike analysts monitor detections round the clock. They investigate suspicious activity, determine severity, and contact your escalation list when necessary.
3. Active Response Capabilities
Analysts can kill processes, quarantine hosts, and remove persistence via the Falcon agent. You define playbooks and guardrails so high-risk actions stay aligned with your change management process.
4. Incident Command & Reporting
Every confirmed incident includes ready-to-share documentation: root cause, timeline, containment actions, and remediation guidance. These packages support executive briefings and compliance evidence.
5. Threat Hunting & Intelligence
Complete MDR teams leverage CrowdStrike's threat intelligence, enriched IOCs, and campaign tracking to hunt proactively for covert activity. Findings feed into detections and coverage expansion.
Key MDR Service Features
- Real-time threat detection with AI-powered behavioral analysis
- Automated response actions for rapid containment
- 24/7/365 expert monitoring by certified security analysts
- Proactive threat hunting to identify hidden threats
- Integrated threat intelligence from global telemetry
- Custom playbook development aligned with your requirements
- Multi-platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux, cloud workloads)
- SIEM and ticketing integrations (ServiceNow, Splunk, Sentinel)
- Compliance reporting for HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, and other frameworks
How the Engagement Works
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Onboarding & Hardening
- Baseline Falcon policy review and tuning.
- Integration of ticketing, SIEM, or SOAR tools where applicable.
- Definition of communication protocols, escalation paths, and business-critical systems.
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Continuous Monitoring
- Telemetry streams in real time to CrowdStrike SOC.
- Detections are enriched with context (user, host, process lineage).
- False positive reduction through policy adjustments and exclusion handling.
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Incident Response Lifecycle
- Analysts validate high-severity detections within minutes (SLA-backed).
- Remediation actions executed directly or coordinated with your internal team.
- Post-incident reviews provide strategic recommendations and evidentiary reports.
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Program Maturation
- Regular metrics reviews: dwell time, containment speed, asset coverage.
- Security roadmap updates covering patching gaps, identity hygiene, and lateral movement exposures.
- Joint tabletop exercises to rehearse high-impact scenarios (ransomware, credential theft, cloud intrusion).
Benefits Compared to Traditional Endpoint Security
| Capability | Legacy AV / EDR Only | CrowdStrike Complete MDR |
|---|---|---|
| Detection Confidence | Signatures & basic ML | AI analytics + threat hunters |
| Response Speed | Hours/days (internal triage) | Minutes (analyst-led containment) |
| Staffing Requirement | Build your own SOC | Augment with CrowdStrike experts |
| Incident Documentation | Manual, time-consuming | Delivered automatically |
| Threat Intelligence | Public or basic feeds | Proprietary intel from global telemetry |
CrowdStrike MDR Pricing Considerations
CrowdStrike Complete MDR pricing is typically based on the number of protected endpoints and the service tier selected. While CrowdStrike does not publish standard pricing publicly, understanding the cost structure helps organizations budget appropriately.
Pricing Factors
- Endpoint Count: Per-endpoint licensing scales with your infrastructure size
- Service Tier: Complete MDR includes premium modules (OverWatch, Discover) beyond basic Falcon
- Contract Length: Annual or multi-year commitments typically offer better rates
- Add-on Modules: Identity protection, cloud workload protection, and log management affect total cost
- Included Services: 24/7 monitoring, threat hunting, incident response, and reporting are bundled
Typical Investment Range
- Small organizations (50-250 endpoints): Expect $15-30 per endpoint per month
- Mid-market (250-2,500 endpoints): Volume discounts reduce per-seat costs
- Enterprise (2,500+ endpoints): Custom pricing with dedicated support resources
InventiveHQ CrowdStrike MDR Service Tiers
Through InventiveHQ's partnership with CrowdStrike, SMBs can access Falcon Complete MDR at competitive rates with additional managed services:
| Tier | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Essential MDR | $15-25/endpoint/month | CrowdStrike Falcon Pro, 8x5 SOC monitoring, real-time detection, business hours response, monthly reporting |
| Comprehensive MDR | $25-40/endpoint/month | CrowdStrike Falcon Enterprise, 24/7 SOC monitoring and response, advanced threat hunting, forensic analysis, compliance reporting |
| Enterprise MDR | $40+/endpoint/month | Full CrowdStrike suite, dedicated security team, custom detection rules, executive reporting, strategic security guidance |
Pricing depends on endpoint count, service level, and contract length. Learn more about our MDR service.
What's Included vs. Add-Ons
Base MDR Service:
- Falcon Insight (EDR)
- 24/7 SOC monitoring
- Active response and remediation
- Incident reporting
- Threat hunting
Common Add-Ons:
- Falcon Complete Identity Protection
- Cloud workload protection (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- CrowdStrike LogScale for SIEM functionality
- Incident response retainers for advanced scenarios
Organizations should request detailed quotes that specify SLAs, response times, analyst availability, and escalation procedures. Compare total cost of ownership against building an in-house SOC or alternative MDR providers.
When Complete MDR Fits Best
- Lean security teams that want Falcon's power without building a 24/7 operation.
- Multi-regional enterprises needing consistent response coverage across time zones.
- M&A-heavy organizations onboarding new environments quickly and safely.
- Businesses recovering from incidents that require sustained monitoring while rebuilding trust with stakeholders.
If you already have a mature SOC but need enrichment and hunt support, Falcon OverWatch or Falcon LogScale might be sufficient. If you lack Falcon deployment entirely, budget time for rollout (sensors, policy tuning, network exclusions) before expecting MDR ROI.
Implementation Considerations
- Crown jewels identification: Map critical hosts, domain controllers, and cloud resources so analysts prioritize them.
- Change management alignment: Define what actions CrowdStrike can take autonomously (isolate host, disable account, delete scheduled task).
- Identity integration: Pair Falcon with identity protection (Azure AD, Okta, Ping) to detect adversary use of legitimate credentials.
- Network visibility: Consider adding Falcon Fusion workflows, LogScale, or partner integrations for firewall, VPN, and SaaS telemetry.
- Communication plan: Establish dedicated distribution groups, Slack/Teams channels, and after-hours escalation contacts.
Published Performance Metrics
CrowdStrike is one of the few MDR providers that publicly discloses both detection and response time benchmarks, and the only vendor to participate in both MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Enterprise and Managed Services evaluations.
Detection and Response Times
| Metric | CrowdStrike Complete MDR | Industry Context |
|---|---|---|
| Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) | ~4 minutes | Measured in MITRE Engenuity Managed Services evaluation |
| Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) | ~36 minutes | Published for Falcon Complete MDR, includes remediation |
| 1-10-60 Framework | 1 min detect, 10 min investigate, 60 min contain | Industry average breakout time: 62 minutes |
MITRE ATT&CK Evaluation Results
CrowdStrike is the only MDR vendor to participate in both tiers of MITRE Engenuity evaluations:
- Enterprise Evaluation: Tests the Falcon platform's detection coverage against known ATT&CK techniques. CrowdStrike achieved broad detection coverage across tactics and techniques.
- Managed Services Evaluation: Tests Falcon Complete MDR's end-to-end managed detection and response. This evaluates not just the technology but the human analysts, workflows, and response actions.
Most competing MDR providers either participate only in Enterprise evaluations (testing their platform, not their managed service) or do not participate at all. This distinction matters because strong platform detection does not guarantee fast or effective managed response.
How CrowdStrike Compares to Other MDR Providers
| Vendor | MTTD | MTTR | MITRE MDR Eval | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CrowdStrike | ~4 min | ~36 min | Yes (Enterprise + Managed Services) | MITRE eval, vendor SLA |
| Expel | ~5 min | ~13 min (high severity) | No | Vendor annual report |
| Huntress | Not published | ~8 min (from SOC alert receipt) | No | Vendor marketing |
| eSentire | Not published | 15 min guaranteed containment | No | Vendor SLA |
| Arctic Wolf | Not published | Not published | No | N/A |
| Microsoft (Defender Experts) | Not published | Not published | Platform only | MITRE Enterprise eval |
Important context on metric comparisons: Vendors measure response time differently. Huntress measures from SOC alert receipt (not initial compromise). Expel publishes rolling averages for high-severity incidents. CrowdStrike's MTTR includes full remediation. When vendors don't publish metrics, this itself is informative—ask them why during evaluation.
CrowdStrike MDR Advantages
- Speed: ~36 minutes mean time to respond, backed by SLA
- Independent validation: Only MDR vendor in MITRE Managed Services evaluation
- Integrated platform: Falcon endpoints feed MDR service directly (no agent fragmentation)
- Threat intelligence: Access to data from 28+ trillion security events daily
- Scale: Proven at enterprise scale with Fortune 500 deployments
- Cloud-native architecture: Lightweight agent with minimal performance impact
Evaluating MDR Providers? Ask These Questions
- What is the guaranteed response time for critical incidents? CrowdStrike advertises minutes—not hours—backed by SLAs.
- How is success measured? Review quarterly metrics: mean time to detect, isolate, and remediate.
- What integrations are supported out of the box? Ticketing (ServiceNow, Jira), SIEM (Splunk, Sentinel), and SOAR connectors accelerate adoption.
- How customizable are response actions? Ensure playbooks respect your compliance boundaries and business tolerances.
- What happens post-incident? Look for executive-ready reporting, lessons learned sessions, and roadmap adjustments.
Complementary Services
- Falcon Complete Identity Protection for credential-based attacks.
- CrowdStrike Falcon LogScale to consolidate log analytics across platforms.
- Incident Response Retainers to cover non-endpoint vectors (cloud accounts, OT environments).
- Cybersecurity Program Assessments to align MDR output with governance, risk, and compliance requirements.
Next Steps
- Assess readiness: Inventory endpoints, confirm Falcon agent versions, and close obvious hygiene gaps.
- Engage stakeholders: Include IT operations, compliance, finance, and executive sponsors in MDR planning.
- Pilot critical segments: Start with high-value assets to demonstrate time-to-value and refine playbooks.
- Document responsibilities: Clarify where CrowdStrike’s mandate ends and your internal team’s begins.
CrowdStrike Complete MDR is not a “set and forget” product—it’s a partnership. Success comes from pairing their always-on expertise with informed internal champions who can act on recommendations, remediate root causes, and continually improve your security posture. With clearly defined processes and regular program reviews, organizations gain the speed, visibility, and confidence needed to stop modern adversaries before damage spreads.