NDR vs. EDR: 6 Key Differences and How to Choose

Key Features of EDR

EDR solutions offer a range of capabilities to detect, investigate, and respond to endpoint threats:

• Real-time threat detection: Continuously monitor endpoint activities, identifying malicious behaviors, unauthorized access attempts, or unusual activity patterns in real time. They use behavioral analytics and machine learning to detect threats that may evade signature-based antivirus software.
• Automated response capabilities: Can automatically initiate pre-configured responses to contain threats, such as isolating compromised devices, terminating malicious processes, or blocking suspicious connections.
• Incident investigation and forensic analysis: Provide forensic capabilities, including the ability to trace the timeline of an attack, identify how the breach occurred, and determine the scope of compromise.
• Threat hunting: Allow security analysts to proactively search for threats by analyzing endpoint data and hunting for indicators of compromise (IoCs) or tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by attackers.
• Integration with threat intelligence: Leverage threat intelligence feeds to provide contextual information about detected threats, such as IP addresses, domains, or file hashes known to be associated with malicious activities.

Key Features of NDR

NDR tools provide insights into network activities, enabling organizations to detect and respond to threats that traditional security measures might miss:

• Network traffic analysis: Analyze raw network traffic and metadata, monitoring both north-south (external) and east-west (internal) traffic. This ensures visibility into suspicious activities like lateral movement, privilege escalation, and unusual data transfers.
• Behavioral anomaly detection: Using machine learning models, NDR systems establish a baseline of normal network behavior and detect deviations that may indicate potential threats, such as command-and-control communications or data exfiltration attempts.
• Encrypted traffic analysis: Can analyze encrypted traffic patterns without decrypting the data, leveraging metadata and flow characteristics to identify threats while preserving privacy and compliance.
• Threat visualization and correlation: Provide a unified view of detected threats, correlating data across the network to visualize the progression of an attack.
• Integration with security ecosystems: NDR solutions integrate with other security tools, such as SIEMs, firewalls, and endpoint protection systems, enabling a coordinated defense strategy.

EDR vs. NDR: Key Differences

Here’s an overview of the main differences between these two types of security solutions.

1. Core Functions

EDR’s primary function is to manage endpoint-level threats by monitoring device-specific activities. It relies on data from individual endpoints to detect and respond to suspicious behaviors, making it suitable for forensic investigation and threat hunting. EDR solutions focus on endpoint integrity, supporting post-breach analysis.

NDR focuses on the overarching network, analyzing all communications and traffic flowing across the network. Its function is to detect threats that might spread laterally across the network or exploit multi-step attack methods. NDR is best for environments where understanding network dynamics and stopping in-progress network threats is critical.

2. Response Mechanism

EDR systems provide endpoints with automated capabilities to contain and remediate threats through predefined measures like isolating affected devices or killing processes. This mechanism helps mitigate endpoint-specific threats quickly without affecting the broader network system. 

NDR’s response mechanism involves isolating network segments and redirecting traffic to limit threat propagation. Its focus is on minimizing the spread of threats across the network infrastructure. NDR tools equip security teams with an architectural view of the threat’s trajectory, allowing them to implement network-wide responses that EDR might not address.

3. Data Sources

EDR draws its data primarily from endpoints, leveraging logs, file modifications, and process activity data. This endpoint-centric approach is pivotal for granular analysis and detailed incident responses, yet it may miss network-based threats that fall outside the endpoint perimeter.

NDR pulls data from network traffic capturing, metadata analysis, and flow information. This enables a wider net for threat detection, capturing threats that traverse multiple network vectors. However, it may lack the granularity EDR provides.

4. Detection Methods

EDR detection emphasizes detailed endpoint behavior analysis using signatures, heuristics, and anomaly-based detections. These systems are useful for identifying deviations in endpoint activities but might miss threats hidden at the broader network level.

NDR utilizes traffic analysis, anomaly detection, and pattern recognition to identify threats. Employing AI and machine learning improves its capability to detect complex threats dispersed across network streams. 

5. Cost

EDR solutions generally involve costs associated with software subscriptions, maintenance, and integration with existing IT environments.

NDR systems may come with higher upfront infrastructure costs, owing to the need for hardware and software setups to manage network-wide visibility and threat detection. However, the return on investment can be significant when considering the broad security coverage it offers, especially for large or complex network environments.

6. Use Cases

EDR is well-suited for organizations prioritizing endpoint security, crucial in industries where sensitive data is frequently processed, such as the financial and healthcare sectors. Its deep analysis capabilities allow for efficient handling of insider threats and malware at the endpoint level.

NDR is suitable for enterprises focused on securing their entire network infrastructure, particularly those with complex architectures or those facing advanced persistent threats. It is beneficial in environments like large corporate networks, cloud systems, and data centers.

Related content: Read our guide to EDR healthcare.

EDR vs. NDR: Comparison Table

Network Threat Detection Capabilities

Network threat detection systems identify and respond to network threats and risks. They track suspicious patterns across east-west (internal lateral movement) and north-south (inbound-outbound) traffic. This is done by analyzing traffic behavior and employing mechanisms like baselining, heuristics, and AI/ML:

• North-South Traffic Monitoring – NDR tools monitor inbound and outbound traffic for unusual patterns that may indicate threats, such as data exfiltration or unauthorized access attempts. They analyze behaviors like unexpected communication with external IPs, unusual bandwidth spikes, or atypical connection destinations to detect potential command-and-control (C2) activity or other malicious actions.
• East-West Traffic Monitoring (Internal Lateral Movement) – NDR scans communication between servers, endpoints, containers, and microservices. It looks for patterns like credential reuse across hosts, odd port usage, or communication between unrelated devices. 

Through these techniques, NDR tools can identify and help mitigate threats that EDR tools miss. This includes securing:

• Unmanaged Devices – Unmanaged devices are not always enrolled in EDR, since they belong to contractors or partners and not the organization. NDRs monitor their traffic patterns, flagging suspicious behavior like lateral movement, unusual port usage, or beaconing.
• Subnet-to-Subnet Traffic – EDRs monitor the endpoint, but not the traffic between endpoints, even if it’s in the same network segment. NDR monitors east-west traffic in real time, detecting anomalies like SMB scanning, unexpected RDP connections, or sudden file transfers across hosts that shouldn’t typically communicate.

NDR vs. EDR: How to Choose?

When deciding between NDR and EDR, it is essential to evaluate the organization’s security requirements, IT infrastructure, and threat landscape. Here are key considerations to guide your decision:

Organizational Needs and Risk Profile

• Endpoint-centric security: If your organization relies heavily on endpoints such as workstations, laptops, or mobile devices, EDR may be a better fit. It offers visibility into endpoint activities, making it ideal for detecting malware, insider threats, and file-based attacks.
• Network-wide protection: Organizations with complex or distributed network environments, such as multi-cloud infrastructures or large data centers, may find NDR indispensable. It provides insights into network traffic, helping detect advanced persistent threats (APTs) and lateral movements.

Visibility Requirements

• Granular endpoint insights: EDR excels at monitoring and analyzing endpoint-specific activities like process execution, file access, and user behavior. This level of detail is crucial for forensic investigations and compliance reporting.
• Holistic network view: NDR provides visibility across the entire network, identifying anomalies that might go unnoticed at the endpoint level. This is critical for detecting encrypted threats, command-and-control traffic, and data exfiltration attempts.

Detection and Response Capabilities

• Targeted response at endpoints: EDR solutions enable rapid responses, such as isolating compromised devices or killing malicious processes.
• Network-level containment: NDR tools can quarantine suspicious network segments or reroute traffic to limit an attack’s spread.

Hybrid Approach: The Case for XDR

For organizations seeking comprehensive security coverage, extended detection and response (XDR) is an emerging solution that combines the strengths of EDR and NDR. XDR integrates data from endpoints, networks, and other sources into a single platform, offering unified visibility and coordinated response capabilities.

By choosing XDR, organizations can benefit from:

• Improves threat detection by correlating data across multiple domains.
• Simpler incident response workflows.
• Reduced complexity through a consolidated security platform.

Why Combining NDR & EDR Strengthens Security?

Employing both NDR and EDR strengthens the organizational security posture by creating a comprehensive, layered defense. In modern, complex networks, this is the recommended way to achieve robust security.

This allows for:

• Holistic Threat Visibility – EDR focuses on individual device security and integrity, while NDR analyzes network traffic. Together, the entire environment is protected. In addition, combining both provides a comprehensive, correlated, and contextual view of attacks. They enable tracing an attack from the first endpoint compromise to network reconnaissance, privilege escalation, and data movement, whereas using only one tool can leave critical signs of an attack undetected. This cross-layer insight enables quick identification of sophisticated threats, reducing dwell time, and mounting an effective response before damage is done.
• Smarter Detection and Contextual Insights – Combining insights from both NDR and EDR provides full context. Security and IT can see what file was executed, what behavior triggered it, where the communication came from, whether it’s communicating with a known C2 server, etc. This correlation helps security teams identify threats faster, reduce false positives, and act with greater precision.
• Improved Forensic Investigation – NDR’s packet capture capabilities enable analysts to inspect full traffic sessions, while EDR provides granular endpoint-level context (e.g., which user executed a process or where a file was downloaded). Together, they give security teams the “who, what, when, where, and how” of an incident. This accelerates root cause analysis and improves response precision.
• Reduced False Positives and Faster Incident Response – Correlated and context-rich data helps security teams distinguish between benign and malicious activity more accurately. This reduces false positives and helps focus on real threats, for faster, more confident incident response and containment.

Security Automation with Cynet

Cynet is the world’s first Autonomous Breach Protection platform that natively integrates the endpoint, network and user attack prevention & detection of XDR with the automated investigation and remediation capabilities of SOAR, backed by a 24/7 world-class MDR service.  End-to-end, fully automated breach protection is now within reach of any organization, regardless of security team size and skill level.

XDR Layer: End-to-End Prevention & Detection

• Endpoint protection—multilayered protection against malware, ransomware, exploits and fileless attacks.
• Network protection—protecting against scanning attacks, MITM, lateral movement and data exfiltration.
• User protection—preset behavior rules coupled with dynamic behavior profiling to detect malicious anomalies.
• Deception—a wide array of network, user, and file decoys to lure advanced attackers into revealing their hidden presence.

 SOAR Layer: Response Automation

• Investigation—automated root cause and impact analysis.
• Findings—actionable conclusions on the attack’s origin and its affected entities.
• Remediation—elimination of malicious presence, activity and infrastructure across user, network and endpoint attacks.
• Visualization—intuitive flow layout of the attack and the automated response flow.

MDR Layer: Expert Monitoring and Oversight

• Alert monitoring—First line of defense against incoming alerts, prioritizing and notifying customers of critical events.
• Attack investigation—Detailed analysis reports on the attacks that targeted the customer.
• Proactive threat hunting—Search for malicious artifacts and IoC within the customer’s environment.
• Incident response guidance—Remote assistance in isolation and removal of malicious infrastructure, presence, and activity.

Simple Deployment

Cynet can be deployed across thousands of endpoints in less than two hours. It can be immediately used to uncover advanced threats and then perform automatic or manual remediation, disrupt malicious activity, and minimize damage caused by attacks.

Get a free trial of Cynet and experience the world’s only integrated XDR, SOAR, and MDR solution.