Competitive battlecards
When a prospect says "we already have something," ask one question: does it cover all five layers? EDR, DNS firewall, compliance automation, security training and a password manager. No single competitor class does all five at SME price points. That gap is where you win.
Partner-confidential. This page is for your sales conversations, not for forwarding to prospects. Competitor pricing is from public list prices as at April 2026; verify before quoting in writing. Print this page for a meeting-safe leave-behind (each card prints on its own sheet).
Quick-reference objection map
The in-meeting cheat: what you hear, what you say. Full reasoning and pricing evidence in the battlecards below.
| You hear | Class | Counter |
|---|---|---|
| "We have CrowdStrike" | Enterprise EDR | Comparable EDR cost, but StrongKeep bundles compliance and training. Ask: does CrowdStrike file your CE evidence? |
| "We have Sophos MDR" | Enterprise EDR | Position as the additive compliance layer now; revisit displacement at renewal. |
| "Microsoft Defender is enough" | Microsoft / E5 | Defender is detection-only. No CE automation, no training, no password manager. Layer StrongKeep on top. |
| "We have Microsoft E5" | Microsoft / E5 | E5 doesn't file CE evidence or run phishing training across a mixed environment. We add that layer. |
| "We use Norton / Bitdefender" | Consumer AV | AV is signature-based; Cortex XDR is behavioural EDR. The regulatory bar for HIA and CE is EDR, not AV. |
| "Our IT vendor handles it" | MSP bundle | Ask: does your IT vendor give you your own compliance dashboard and CE progress report? |
| "We have Trend Micro / Fortinet" | Enterprise EDR | Audit the existing contract first; migrate at expiry. Show cost: we have seen small clinics quoted $3,600/yr for a hardware firewall where StrongKeep's DNS layer costs $888/yr. |
The battlecards
Enterprise EDR CrowdStrike · Sophos · SentinelOne · Trend Micro · Fortinet
What they cover
Endpoint detection and response is their core strength. Threat hunting, SOC alerts and managed response at higher tiers or as paid add-ons. Some email and cloud-app security at premium tiers (Trend Advanced+, Sophos MDR).
Critical gaps
No compliance automation at any tier: no CE self-assessment, evidence collection or clause mapping. No training in base plans (KnowBe4 is a separate $18–25/user/yr purchase). No password manager. No DNS firewall at SMB tiers. And the pricing is built for enterprises: we have seen SMEs paying over $40,000 a year for Sophos MDR at around 150 devices, and CrowdStrike Falcon Go caps at 100 devices, forcing a 3x price jump for growing teams.
The five-layer comparison (20 devices, annual)
| StrongKeep Protection | CrowdStrike Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | $1,368 | $3,700 |
| EDR | Yes | Yes |
| Compliance automation | Yes | No |
| Security training | Yes | No (separate $18–25/user/yr) |
| DNS firewall | Yes | No |
| Password manager | Yes | No |
CrowdStrike Enterprise list price $184.99/device/yr (crowdstrike.com, Apr 2026). At comparable spend, CrowdStrike Falcon Go covers NGAV only, without EDR or any of the other four layers.
"CrowdStrike is excellent EDR. But your EDR won't file your Cyber Essentials evidence or train your staff not to click a phishing link. We do all three, at one price, without an IT team."
If they're mid-contract (common with Sophos MDR): don't fight the renewal. Position StrongKeep as the complementary compliance layer now, and book the full-displacement conversation for contract expiry.
Consumer / SMB Antivirus Norton · Trend Standard · ESET Entry · Avast · Bitdefender
What they cover
Signature-based antivirus and basic malware scanning. Some add a VPN, a personal password vault or non-DNS-grade web filtering. Cheap entry: Norton at $12.50–20/device/yr, Trend Standard at $39.64/user/yr.
Critical gaps
No EDR at any SMB tier. Signature AV misses behavioural threats, zero-days and living-off-the-land attacks; Trend and ESET require their top tier for any EDR at 2.5–3x the base price. No DNS firewall, no compliance, no centralised management. Personal-vault password managers have no organisational controls or audit logs. In the field these products are frequently found expired or misconfigured, with nothing monitoring the drift.
The five-layer comparison
| StrongKeep Protection (5 devices) | Norton Small Business (10 devices) | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | $468 | $150 |
| EDR | Yes (Cortex XDR) | No (signature AV only) |
| DNS firewall | Yes | No |
| Compliance path | Yes | No |
| Training + phishing simulation | Yes | No |
| Centralised management | Yes | No |
Norton list price $149.99/yr for 10 devices (us.norton.com, Apr 2026). The price gap is real; the coverage gap is bigger. Sell the difference, not the discount.
"Norton is a smoke alarm. We're the sprinkler system with a building inspector included. For $39 a month, you get EDR that catches what AV misses, plus the compliance trail your next tender requires."
The regulatory framing closes this one. For SMEs handling patient data or bidding on government contracts, the bar is EDR, not antivirus. Consumer AV cannot produce CE evidence, so the prospect would be buying twice.
Microsoft Defender / 365 E5 Defender for Endpoint · Intune · E5 suite
What they cover
E5 is Microsoft's most comprehensive bundle: Defender for Endpoint (behavioural EDR), Defender for Identity, Cloud Apps and Office 365, plus Intune device management and Azure AD identity. A genuinely strong stack at enterprise scale.
Critical gaps
No CE/PDPA compliance automation: Defender maps to NIST and Microsoft-native frameworks, not CSA Cyber Essentials clause mapping or evidence filing. No DNS-grade firewall across all traffic. No phishing simulation outside E5's Defender for Office 365. No password manager. And the big one: at roughly SGD $57/user/month, a 10-person team pays about $6,840/yr for E5. Most SMEs are actually on Business Basic or Standard, which includes only basic Defender, not Defender for Endpoint.
Positioning note: be additive, not adversarial. Lead with "StrongKeep works alongside Defender. We add the compliance automation and training layer Microsoft doesn't provide." This avoids a Microsoft-vs-StrongKeep debate entirely and positions StrongKeep as the missing piece.
The qualifying question
"Which Microsoft plan are you on?" If the answer is Business Basic or Standard (most SMEs), they do not have Defender for Endpoint, and the EDR conversation is wide open. If they are on E5, pivot to the compliance, training and password layers E5 still lacks.
"Defender is a solid base. It doesn't file your Cyber Essentials application or run your phishing simulation. We do that automatically, on top of whatever Microsoft you already have."
MSP Bundles Acronis · SentinelOne · Sophos resold via IT vendors
What they cover
Managed endpoint security bundled into a broader IT support retainer. The MSP handles patching, monitoring and helpdesk, with security as part of the package. Typically resold at 4–8x wholesale cost (tools wholesaling at $2/endpoint commonly sell at $8 in this region).
Critical gaps
No compliance automation: MSP-managed EDR does not file CE evidence, and the MSP bills hourly to help. No self-service: the owner has no view of their own security posture without asking. Lock-in and price opacity: changing the tool means changing the relationship, and the customer rarely knows the wholesale price. We have seen IT vendors mandate their own EDR and threaten to pull services if it was removed. The tool serves the vendor, not the customer.
The displacement approach
Don't fight the MSP relationship; this class has the highest switching friction. Ask the owner: "Does your IT vendor give you a monthly report showing what threats were blocked, your team's training scores, and where you stand on Cyber Essentials?" If not, that's the gap StrongKeep fills, independently of the MSP. Full displacement waits for contract expiry.
"Your MSP manages IT. We give you the compliance layer and the owner's view: your own dashboard, your own CE progress, without depending on your IT vendor to tell you what's safe."
Need a counter that isn't here? Email your StrongKeep partner manager. Every new objection you log makes the next version of this card better.