01 / Crowmark vs UnderDefense
Always-on AI triage is the right answer
— for a team that wants a human answering the phone.
Both bring 24/7 detection and a human in the loop to the table. UnderDefense routes findings through a named analyst pod on a scoped retainer; Crowmark writes a single morning brief for the 4-to-50 person team and auto-contains low-confidence items before anyone opens it. Same matrix, neither dressed up.
Five dimensions, side by side
Written in the question a buyer actually asks — not the vendor’s label. UnderDefense is described in their own framing; where they’re materially stronger on a row, we say so.
| What you weigh | Crowmark What we ship Always-on AI SOC for the one- or two-person security team — per-seat, cancel any month. | UnderDefense Their framing Services-heavy MDR/SOC provider aimed at mid-market and enterprise — manual triage by named analyst teams, scoped retainer engagement. |
|---|---|---|
| Monitoring coverageWhat the brief is actually watching | Continuous AI ingestion across endpoint, identity, cloud, dark-web, and CVEs — no analyst queue to pass through. | 24/7 ingest on a named analyst pod, manually triaged per the engagement scope. |
| Morning briefHow the signal reaches the team | One email plus a Slack DM at 9am local — plain-English items with the next step already attached. | Findings surface through the engagement portal and weekly reports reviewed by the analyst pod. |
| Auto-containmentWhat runs without a human in front of it | AI auto-contains low-confidence items before the brief — IOC egress quarantined, tokens revoked, edge blocked. | Containment actions are coordinated by the analyst pod and executed per the runbook the engagement scopes in. |
| Onboarding timeFrom signed contract to first useful signal | Self-serve. SSO and IdP linking in one afternoon; first brief lands the next weekday. | Scoped engagement onboarding — kickoff call, runbook scoping, connector list finalized per retainer; first steady-state signal typically 2–4 weeks. |
| Pricing modelPer-seat vs engagement-priced | Per-seat monthly — Bronze $49, Silver $99, Gold $199. Annual option saves ~10%. Cancel any month. | Engagement-priced — a custom proposal scoped to the retainer; annual, not per-seat, not per-alert. |
| Next step | Sign up | Visit UnderDefense |
Always-on AI SOC for the one- or two-person security team — per-seat, cancel any month.
- Monitoring coverageContinuous AI ingestion across endpoint, identity, cloud, dark-web, and CVEs — no analyst queue to pass through.
- Morning briefOne email plus a Slack DM at 9am local — plain-English items with the next step already attached.
- Auto-containmentAI auto-contains low-confidence items before the brief — IOC egress quarantined, tokens revoked, edge blocked.
- Onboarding timeSelf-serve. SSO and IdP linking in one afternoon; first brief lands the next weekday.
- Pricing modelPer-seat monthly — Bronze $49, Silver $99, Gold $199. Annual option saves ~10%. Cancel any month.
Services-heavy MDR/SOC provider aimed at mid-market and enterprise — manual triage by named analyst teams, scoped retainer engagement.
- Monitoring coverage24/7 ingest on a named analyst pod, manually triaged per the engagement scope.
- Morning briefFindings surface through the engagement portal and weekly reports reviewed by the analyst pod.
- Auto-containmentContainment actions are coordinated by the analyst pod and executed per the runbook the engagement scopes in.
- Onboarding timeScoped engagement onboarding — kickoff call, runbook scoping, connector list finalized per retainer; first steady-state signal typically 2–4 weeks.
- Pricing modelEngagement-priced — a custom proposal scoped to the retainer; annual, not per-seat, not per-alert.
Where UnderDefense is materially stronger (depth of retainer-billed coverage, named analyst pod on the engagement, war-room posture on declared incidents), it’s labelled above. The matrix is honest on purpose — a buyer scanning for a real comparison reads the rows we don’t win.
Founder note
The question to ask first is who’s actually buying. UnderDefense is shaped for the mid-market or enterprise team that wants a named analyst pod reviewing every alert and is comfortable paying retainer-billed engagement fees for it. Crowmark is shaped for the 4-to-50 person company where the buyer sits closer to the operator — the founder, the head of IT, the one-person security function. The two products are solving different problems for different buyers; the question is which one is yours.
If yours is the 4-to-50 person company with no appetite for a scoped engagement, pick Crowmark — morning brief on day one, per-seat invoice your operator-buyer can sign without a procurement cycle. If yours is a mid-market or enterprise team that explicitly wants a named analyst pod and retainer-billed coverage, pick UnderDefense — they’re set up to deliver the war-room call when a real incident is declared.
See the per-seat math → · How we compare SOC-managed vs MDR → · Crowmark vs Dropzone →
Lean team, no retainer
Per-seat math, transparent — Bronze $49, Silver $99, Gold $199. First brief the next weekday.