Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms

Endpoint Protection Platforms Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

Key features and pros and cons of top Endpoint Protection Platforms products:

Bitdefender - Visionary

Pros:

Product strategy: Bitdefender has a strong product roadmap that aligns with the requirements of its target small and midsize customers.
Customer experience: Customers generally rate the support they receive from Bitdefender as good.
Sales execution: Bitdefender's pricing is generally lower than average compared to other vendors in this Magic Quadrant.

Cons:

Market responsiveness and track record: Bitdefender's share of the EPP market remains significantly lower than that of Leaders and Challengers in this Magic Quadrant.
Operations: Bitdefender is a smaller company and its operations are less diversified when compared to the EPP market Leaders.
Overall viability: Bitdefender is growing more slowly compared to the EPP market Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.

Broadcom - Niche Player

Pros:

Market understanding: Broadcom has a good understanding of the EPP market and its competitors, with its historical focus on large global enterprises.
Vertical strategy: Broadcom continues to offer a combination of cloud-delivered, hybrid and on-premises EPP deployments that appeals to certain industry verticals.
Sales strategy: Broadcom has a focused sales strategy aligned with the vendor's objectives to sell into global large enterprises.

Cons:

Customer experience: Customer feedback indicates that the technical support and account management they receive from Broadcom are variable, and the product may impact performance during scanning.
Product strategy: Broadcom's recent, incremental enhancements to its EPP products are unlikely to shape the broader EPP market.
Market responsiveness and track record: Broadcom's EPP market share growth is lower than that of market Leaders or Challengers in this Magic Quadrant.

Check Point Software Technologies - Visionary

Pros:

Market understanding: Check Point has a good understanding of the EPP market direction, with a focus on workspace security consolidation.
Geographic strategy: Check Point supports a higher-than-average number of geographic points of presence and languages compared to other vendors in this research.
Sales execution: Check Point's pricing is generally lower than average compared to other vendors in this research.

Cons:

Market responsiveness and track record: Check Point's share of the EPP market remains significantly lower than that of Leaders and Challengers in this Magic Quadrant.
Customer experience: Harmony Endpoint consumes more resources compared to other vendors in this research, which may negatively impact system performance.
Overall viability: Check Point is growing more slowly compared to the EPP market Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.

Cisco - Visionary

Pros:

Market understanding: Cisco has a good understanding of the EPP market, with a focus on workspace security consolidation and security operations modernization.
Sales strategy: Cisco's sales strategy benefits from the newly introduced User Protection suite, which combines EPP with other workspace security products, and the Breach Protection Suite, which combines EPP with XDR and other threat detection and response technologies.
Sales execution: Cisco's pricing is generally lower than average compared to other vendors in this research, especially through purchasing programs, such as Enterprise Agreements.

Cons:

Market responsiveness and track record: Cisco's share of the EPP market remains significantly lower than that of Leaders and Challengers in this Magic Quadrant.
Product: Cisco still has distinct administration consoles for Secure Endpoint, Orbital and XDR products, which may hinder operational effectiveness using the product.
Overall viability: Cisco Secure Endpoint is growing more slowly compared to the EPP market Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.

CrowdStrike - Leader

Pros:

Market responsiveness and track record: CrowdStrike's share of the EPP market and its rate of consideration by EPP buyers are significant.
Customer experience: Customers generally rate technical support, account management and managed security services from CrowdStrike as strong.
Product strategy: CrowdStrike's product strategy and security roadmap is aligned with emerging customer requirements.

Cons:

Operations: CrowdStrike's Channel File 291 incident on 19 July 2024 revealed limitations in the vendor's quality assurance and security content testing practices.
Sales execution: CrowdStrike's pricing is higher than average compared to other vendors in this research, and its growing set of product SKUs is becoming increasingly complex.
Geographic strategy: CrowdStrike supports a lower-than-average number of languages and an average number of geographic points of presence compared to other vendors in this research.

Cybereason - Niche Player

Pros:

Market understanding: Cybereason has a good understanding of the EPP market and its competitors, with a focus on serving midsize enterprises with MDR services.
Sales execution: Cybereason's pricing is generally lower than average compared to other vendors in this Magic Quadrant.
Product: Cybereason's EDR functionality is generally well-regarded by customers for its efficacy and usability.

Cons:

Product strategy: Cybereason's recent and planned product developments, such as unified exclusions management and vulnerability management, are rolled out more slowly compared to market Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.
Innovation: Cybereason's recent innovations, such as the new mobile security offering and improved agent compatibility for server deployments, are less likely to shape the broader EPP market.
Sales strategy: Based on Gartner end-user client inquiries and Peer Insights customer feedback, Cybereason is rarely included on competitive EPP provider shortlists compared to market Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.

ESET - Challenger

Pros:

Overall viability: ESET has a long history and consistent revenue growth in the EPP market.
Customer experience: Customers generally rate the support they receive from ESET as good.
Vertical strategy: ESET has a well-diversified base of customers across most industry verticals and demonstrates a good understanding of unique vertical requirements.

Cons:

Product strategy: ESET's planned and recently added product enhancements, such as mobile device support and ESET Connect, are less likely to shape the broader EPP market.
Sales strategy: Based on Gartner end-user client inquiries and Peer Insights customer feedback, ESET is rarely included on competitive EPP provider shortlists compared to market Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.
Market understanding: ESET's market understanding is focused on the needs of its small and midsize customers rather than the broader EPP market.

Fortinet - Niche Player

Pros:

Geographic strategy: Fortinet supports a higher-than-average number of geographic points of presence compared to other vendors in this research.
Sales execution: Fortinet's pricing is generally lower than average compared to other vendors in this Magic Quadrant.
Overall viability: Fortinet's revenue growth in the EPP market is higher than that of other Niche Players.

Cons:

Market responsiveness and track record: Fortinet's share of the EPP market remains significantly lower than that of market Leaders and Challengers in this Magic Quadrant.
Product strategy: Fortinet's recent and planned product enhancements, such as improved UI, feature parity across non-Windows OS, appear to focus on closing technical gaps rather than driving innovation.
Innovation: Fortinet's recent innovations, such as FortiRecon integration with FortiEDR for common vulnerability and exposure (CVE) prioritization and mobile security, are less likely to shape the broader enterprise EPP market.

Microsoft - Leader

Pros:

Market responsiveness and track record: Microsoft's share of the EPP market and rate of consideration by EPP buyers are significant.
Product strategy: Microsoft's product strategy and security roadmap are aligned with emerging customer requirements around consolidating security operations.
Sales strategy: Microsoft has an effective sales strategy and a large, established customer base that presents opportunities to continue expanding its EPP product reach.

Cons:

Customer experience: Indications from customers are that the technical support and account management support they receive from Microsoft is variable.
Sales execution: Customers report that Microsoft's licensing model is complex and difficult to understand.
Vertical strategy: Microsoft offers limited industry-specific product packaging, pricing or discounting options, and does not support on-premises EPP deployments.

Palo Alto Networks - Leader

Pros:

Sales strategy: Palo Alto Networks has an effective sales strategy and a large, established customer base, presenting opportunities to continue expanding its EPP product reach.
Customer experience: Customers generally rate technical support, account management and managed security services from Palo Alto Networks as strong.
Market responsiveness and track record: Palo Alto Networks has been rapidly acquiring a bigger share in the EPP market in the past year.

Cons:

Sales execution: Palo Alto Networks' pricing is higher than average compared to other vendors in this research.
Product: Palo Alto Networks' product customization requires a steep learning curve and may be less suitable for lean security teams and those pursuing ease of use.
Vertical strategy: Palo Alto Networks does not publicly offer industry-specific product packaging, pricing or discounting options.

SentinelOne - Leader

Pros:

Market responsiveness and track record: SentinelOne's share of the EPP market and its rate of consideration by EPP buyers are significant.
Product strategy: SentinelOne's product strategy and security roadmap are aligned with emerging customer requirements.
Customer experience: Customers generally rate technical support, account management and managed security services from SentinelOne as strong.

Cons:

Sales execution: SentinelOne's pricing is higher than average compared to other vendors in this research.
Geographic strategy: SentinelOne supports a lower-than-average number of languages and an average number of geographic points of presence compared to other vendors in this research.
Sales strategy: SentinelOne's sales strategy is yet to result in significant market share and market visibility in product categories adjacent to the vendor's core EPP solution.

Sophos - Leader

Pros:

Product strategy: Sophos' recent product enhancements, such as Adaptive Attack Protection, focus on serving resource-constrained customers with prevention-focused features and MDR services, and its product roadmap is aligned with the needs of its target customers.
Sales strategy: Sophos has been effective at selling its EPP product bundled with MDR services to small and midsize organizations with managed services augmentation needs.
Overall viability: Sophos has a long history and consistent revenue growth in the EPP market.

Cons:

Product: Sophos Intercept X Endpoint offers fewer product customization options compared to other Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.
Vertical strategy: Sophos' market penetration is skewed toward the services industry, and the vendor does not support the on-premises EPP deployments required by some verticals.
Customer experience: Indications from customers are that the technical support they receive from Sophos is variable, and the product may impact performance during scanning.

Trellix - Challenger

Pros:

Market responsiveness and track record: Trellix's share of the EPP market is significantly higher than that of Niche Players and Visionaries.
Operations: Trellix has continued to grow its employee headcount despite the challenging economic environment.
Geographic strategy: Trellix has a global presence of technical and sales resources and supports a higher-than-average number of languages in its administration console compared to other vendors in this research.

Cons:

Product strategy: Trellix's recent product enhancements, such as unification of EDR with Forensics, XConsole integration and product roadmap items evaluated for this Magic Quadrant, are less likely to shape the broader EPP market.
Sales strategy: Based on Gartner end-user client inquiries and Peer Insights customer feedback, Trellix Endpoint Security Suite is included on competitive EPP provider shortlists less frequently if compared to Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.
Product: Trellix administration consoles are loosely integrated, providing only moderate improvements to ease-of-product use over the prior product versions.

Trend Micro - Leader

Pros:

Market understanding: Trend Micro demonstrates a strong understanding of EPP market competitors and market direction with a focus on comprehensive workspace security.
Product strategy: Trend Micro has a product roadmap that is aligned with emerging EPP market requirements.
Overall viability: Trend Micro has a long history and consistent revenue growth in the EPP market.

Cons:

Sales strategy: Based on Gartner end-user client inquiries and Peer Insights customer feedback, Trend Micro appears on competitive EPP provider shortlists less frequently than other market Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.
Sales execution: Trend Micro's sales execution lags behind other market Leaders, with comparatively slower revenue growth in the EPP space.
Geographic strategy: Trend Micro's market penetration outside Europe and Japan is limited compared to other Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.

WithSecure - Niche Player

Pros:

Sales execution: WithSecure's pricing is generally lower than average compared to other vendors in this Magic Quadrant.
Customer experience: Customers generally rate the support they receive from WithSecure as good.
Market understanding: WithSecure demonstrates a good understanding of the EPP market and its target buyers with EU-specific MDR service localization.

Cons:

Market responsiveness and track record: WithSecure's share of the EPP market remains significantly lower than that of Leaders and Challengers in this Magic Quadrant.
Sales strategy: Based on Gartner end-user client inquiries and Peer Insights customer feedback, WithSecure appears on competitive EPP provider shortlists less frequently than market Leaders in this Magic Quadrant.
Geographic strategy: In our assessment, WithSecure's geographic strategy lags behind competitors, and most of the vendor's customers are in Europe.

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2024?

A: CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, SentinelOne, Sophos, Trend Micro

Q: What does "Leader" mean in MQ terms?

A: Leaders demonstrate balanced and consistent progress in relation to all Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision criteria. They offer broad, tightly integrated workspace security capabilities, deep EDR functionality, vendor-delivered service wrappers (such as MDR), and proven management capabilities for enterprise customers. Increasingly, leaders provide holistic XDR platforms that enable customers to consolidate or converge their security tools and incident management capabilities. Leaders have a strong momentum in the market in terms of sales and mind share. However, a Leader is not a default choice for every buyer. Customers should not assume that they must buy only from a Leader. Leaders may be less able to react quickly when Visionaries challenge the status quo in the market.

Q: How do I interpret a Gartner Magic Quadrant?

A: https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/magic-quadrants-research

Report:

Top Vendor Products for Endpoint Protection Platforms in 2024

Endpoint Protection Platforms Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2024?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in MQ terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Gartner Magic Quadrant?

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