SOAR Vs. EDR: 10 Critical Differences

In today’s cyber landscape of ruthless threats, security teams need something more advanced than basic antivirus or signature-based detection. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) has become a crucial solution that is growing at the rate of 26% per year and is estimated to reach USD 7.27 Bn by 2026, clearly showing the trends of endpoint monitoring of advanced nature. At the same time, SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) automates cross-tool alerts and workflows for expedient remediation and decreased manual overhead. As attackers target endpoints, cloud workloads, and everything in between, it is critical to understand SOAR vs EDR to build a strong defensive posture.

As there are a lot of questions about each of them, we’ll start by learning about EDR and SOAR, discuss how they differ, and uncover how the combination of both is used to fuel next-gen cybersecurity strategies.

In this article, we will explain what EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) is and why it’s different from older methods of security like basic AV. Next, we explore SOAR, demonstrating how it marshals data and automates tasks across the SOC. To help you see the strengths and limitations of each tool, we detail ten critical points of SOAR vs EDR.

We’ll also compare them side by side in a concise table and talk about synergy, which is how EDR and SOAR fill in each other’s shortcomings. We then finally wrap up with best practices for deploying them together.

What is EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response)?

EDR is focused on closely monitoring endpoints (laptops, servers, IoT devices) for malicious activity or anomalous behavior. EDR collects logs on process executions, file reads, and network connections to identify suspicious patterns in near real-time. Whereas standard antivirus relies on static signatures to detect zero-day or new exploits, EDR works on the basis of heuristics or AI to detect them.

This dramatically reduces attacker dwell time by enabling analysts to isolate infected machines, kill harmful processes, and gather forensic data. This approach exemplifies the difference between EDR and antivirus as EDR goes beyond scanning known threats, providing in-depth, behavior-centric detection. EDR is a critical layer for defending hosts from stealthy attempts to infiltrate as endpoint threats evolve.

What is SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response)?

SOAR takes security tasks that are currently manual (or at least not automated) across multiple tools in the SOC, like threat intel enrichment, firewall rule updates, or incident reporting, and coordinates and automates them. SOAR unifies data from EDR, SIEM, and threat intelligence, automates responses, and orchestrates multi-step playbooks.

According to the surveys, over 65% of IT and telecom companies have already implemented or plan to implement SOAR for incident response, which automates a lot of manual workloads. SOAR achieves consistent, fast resolution through guided workflows and custom runbooks. Now that we know about both, let’s understand the difference between EDR and SOAR.

10 Key Differences Between SOAR Vs EDR

Both SOAR and EDR enhance cybersecurity, but they do so in different areas. EDR is a detection focus on the endpoint level, looking at suspicious processes or user behaviors at a device level. Meanwhile, SOAR automates incident management, orchestrating tasks and bridging data across the entire toolset.

Below, we demystify SOAR vs EDR across ten critical contrasts: from data scope to the scale of automation. A better understanding of these nuances makes it easier to understand which solution can be used to create a cohesive, next-gen defense.

1. Primary Focus: EDR focuses on real time endpoint detection and threat hunting by investigating process behaviors on every host. This local approach gives fine-grained information about suspicious file executions, registry modifications, and memory usage, thus making it easy to spot intrusions. In comparison, SOAR aggregates several data streams from EDR and SIEM logs, external threat intel and orchestrates the whole incident workflow at the organization level. This results in a response mechanism across the environment instead of just focusing on individual hosts. Therefore, EDR doesn’t halt malicious processes on a compromised laptop, but SOAR does trigger the creation of a ticket, notifies compliance teams, and even updates firewall configurations as well, showing how SOAR and EDR are complementary in modern security.
2. Data Collection Scope: EDR collects logs from OS events like file modification, registry change, or memory injections on each endpoint to provide deep visibility into host-level activity. This data is then processed locally or in the cloud to detect anomalies in process behaviors. On the other hand, SOAR correlates alerts and logs from disparate systems, such as EDR, SIEM, and vulnerability scanners, and aggregates them for a broader security perspective. EDR is device-specific, while SOAR is cross-domain, combining endpoint detections with broader threat intelligence, making this a multi-tool approach. For example, if EDR reports a suspicious file creation, SOAR checks that object against known malicious IP addresses or exploit patterns to provide a more complete view of the threat.
3. Detection & Analysis Approach: EDR is great at detecting unknown malware and zero-day exploits because of its endpoint behavior focus. Heuristics or AI-driven behavioral analysis is used to detect host-level anomalies, which can immediately be contained by quarantining infected devices. SOAR, meanwhile, uses logic-driven runbooks to tie EDR or SIEM alerts together to orchestrate actions across the security stack — such as blocking IP addresses at the firewall or running automated vulnerability scans. This highlights the difference between the local intelligence of EDR and the organizational orchestration of SOAR. EDR quarantining an unknown trojan could cause SOAR to check if other endpoints have the same indicators of compromise.
4. Response Mechanisms: With EDR, you can get a local response, for example, isolate compromised endpoints from the network, terminate malicious processes, or roll back file changes caused by ransomware. Host-level actions help contain a threat at the source. But with SOAR, incident response is scaled to an environment, automating tasks like adding new IPS rules, disabling a compromised user account, and alerting cross-functional teams. Therefore, EDR swiftly addresses issues on a single device, but SOAR offers a standardized and multi-step workflow that works in collaboration with other security technologies. For example, if EDR quarantines a device in minutes, it triggers a deeper network scan, logs the updates across the SIEM environment, and maintains consistent policy enforcement.
5. Automation vs. Localized Analytics: EDR is excellent in providing reliable, on-premise analytics for each endpoint by continuously scanning for suspicious processes, memory injections, and file manipulations. However, automation is present, but is usually limited to quarantining devices or killing malicious executables. On the other hand, SOAR is about broad automation, which orchestrates tasks across firewalls, ticketing systems, and threat intel services. SOAR can ingest an alert from EDR, cross-check it against known malicious domains, and update network controls with minimal human input. EDR excels at behavioral detection on endpoints; SOAR, however, is about unifying security processes in a way that minimizes manual overhead to comprehensively resolve incidents.
6. Integration Complexity: EDR is integrated with a SIEM or threat intelligence feed to bolster endpoint detection and only requires a limited number of targeted interconnections. This narrower endpoint-centric integration helps EDR to gather context, such as known malicious IP addresses or exploit patterns. On the other hand, SOAR requires a larger connector ecosystem to connect EDR, SIEM, WAF, IPS, and potentially more to automate cross-tool workflows. It centralizes tasks under one console, orchestrating everything from scanning suspicious files to tweaking firewall settings. The difference lies in the scope: while EDR integrates all the way to endpoints, SOAR is multi-domain, so you are trying to unify all of your security infrastructure with carefully managed connectors and playbooks.
7. Forensic Insight: EDR gathers detailed host logs, from process ancestry to user actions and registry changes, providing deep forensics to identify the point of origin for an attack and what transpired on a device afterward. The local data is very useful for root cause analysis, as it helps security teams put together how the compromise happened. While EDR does all the work that it is meant to do, SOAR compiles data from the EDR and other integrated tools (firewall logs, SIEM logs, threat intel feeds) and assembles a higher-level incident timeline. SOAR will correlate EDR data of the malicious script’s full process tree with other logs to show lateral spread or cross domain impacts. This is where EDR excels in device-level forensics, and SOAR embeds this level of detail into a broader picture of the environment.
8. Typical Users: EDR’s users are often endpoint administrators, threat hunters, or security engineers with a host-level infiltration scenario in mind. Real-time alerts on suspicious processes and immediate device isolation features are useful for these roles. On the other hand, SOAR is often used by SOC managers, incident responders, or DevSecOps professionals who want to automate multi-step tasks with multiple tools. Whereas EDR provides robust device-centric defense, SOAR provides end-to-end incident lifecycle management, encompassing detection and enrichment all the way to the final remediation and reporting. By working together, they make security operations more efficient, forming a complete coverage by combining EDR’s local detection with SOAR’s multi-platform automation.
9. Scalability Concerns: EDR scales with the number of endpoints to be protected, thousands or tens of thousands, and the primary performance overhead is bound to endpoint concurrency and data ingestion. With endpoint diversity growing (Windows, macOS, Linux, IoT devices), EDR solutions need to be able to handle more telemetry. However, SOAR scales by adding new integrations, runbooks, and automation tasks. Orchestrating across multiple security tools, each having connectors and specialized logic spikes complexity. When EDR alone causes an environment to become saturated due to big endpoint volumes, layering in SOAR automates repetitive work and guarantees consistent policy application. It allows the SOC to remain agile and the coverage thorough.
10. Evolution & ROI: EDR is evolving with AI-based detection enhancements, zero-day threat coverage, deeper memory, or behavioral forensics. Most of its ROI is through reduced breach impact (shorter dwell times, less data exfiltration) and faster remediation at the device level. The SOAR process matures to include more tool connectors, advanced runbooks, and extended automation, resulting in a highly orchestrated environment that reduces manual tasks. Its ROI shows itself in the form of streamlined incident resolution and standard workflows that reduce errors. Together, the solutions illustrate how a strong approach unites EDR’s detailed endpoint knowledge with SOAR’s orchestrated cohesion to take on today’s complex cyberattacks.

EDR vs SOAR: 10 Critical Differences

To sum up the differences between EDR and SOAR, we’ve come up with a table explaining their basic functionality, data reach, automation, and more. This quick reference clarifies what SOAR vs EDR are and how each supports the other.

Here’s a concise side-by-side comparison and why these contrasts are important.

The key differentiator that this table illustrates is that EDR focuses on endpoint intelligence, logging suspicious activity, blocking malicious processes, and enabling deep host-level forensics, while SOAR orchestrates the tasks of incident response across multiple solutions (firewalls, vulnerability managers, and SIEM).

In other words, EDR provides strong device-based analytics, capturing everything from file execution through to memory manipulation, while SOAR unifies these endpoint alerts with other security data to offer a broader organizational insight. SOAR provides environment-wide automation and cross-tool synergy, but EDR’s local containment prevents infections from spreading. 

As new threats emerge, each technology evolves in distinct ways: SOAR creates new connectors and runbooks for complete coverage, and EDR fine-tunes its analysis engines to reduce dwell time. To understand this synergy a little in-depth, let’s move on to the next section.

EDR vs SOAR: How They Work Together?

What a lot of businesses get wrong is that the difference between EDR and SOAR doesn’t mean that they are mutually exclusive. In truth, the synergy between EDR and SOAR builds the foundation of effective, automated security operations. Combining these tools also shortens reaction times to cyber threats, as endpoint anomalies can be correlated with network-wide data.

We elaborate on six subheads below that describe how SOAR vs EDR solutions play nicely together, bringing host-level intelligence to orchestrated, automated incident management.

1. Automated Playbooks for Real-Time Endpoint Data: EDR captures suspicious processes or user activity in real-time and sends those alerts to SOAR, which then triggers the appropriate response steps, like opening a ticket or blocking an IP in your firewall. This brings together deep endpoint visibility and environment-wide automation. The integrated flow also means security analysts no longer have to juggle multiple consoles, pushing relevant data to the right systems.
2. Cross-Tool Intelligence Correlation: Combining EDR with SIEM and SOAR, endpoint alerts can be fed into a SIEM, while the SOAR platform orchestrates advanced correlation based on additional sources of intelligence. When a Trojan hits the EDR, it will alert the SIEM to look for suspicious logs at the same time, and SOAR will automatically quarantine the affected endpoints. Through this multi-layer approach and by drastically reducing the dwell time, this prevents massive infiltration.
3. Faster Forensics & Root-Cause Insights: EDR’s deep host logs can provide good clues on how the infection started, which processes were spawned, and how far the attacker moved. Meanwhile, SOAR also correlates these forensics with network or user data to provide a big picture story. Analysts can pivot from “Which host was infected first” to “Did the attacker escalate privileges across multiple segments?” without having to analyze logs. The synergy fosters thorough, efficient threat hunting.
4. Consistent Policy Enforcement: EDR and SOAR ensure that device-level policies conform to cross-organization guidelines. EDR can detect if a prohibited application is detected, and SOAR can automatically notify the compliance team, create an issue in an ITSM tool, or instruct firewalls to block suspicious communications. This harmony removes manual overhead to ensure policy consistency across endpoint fleets and network boundaries.
5. Reduced Alert Fatigue: Sorting through thousands of daily alerts is a major headache for security teams. Host-level EDR screens out many false positives, while SOAR automation fuses and prioritizes the alerts from all tools. This synergy eliminates the noise that has always plagued SOC analysts. Teams are freed of repetitive tasks in order to focus on strategic improvements such as zero-trust adoption or advanced threat detection heuristics refinement.
6. Future-Proofing Security Investments: Because cyber threats are constantly evolving, security solutions that are integrated and scale with your environment have lasting value. When you combine EDR’s advanced analytics with SOAR’s orchestration, you create a robust, flexible architecture. With this synergy, you can easily adapt as new endpoints, cloud services, or threat vectors come to light so that your approach to next-generation endpoint protection stays resilient over time.

How to Use EDR and SOAR Together?

Each technology (EDR and SOAR) can work on its own, but when we bring these two together, it’s usually a huge step forward in security maturity in an organization. For those who are managing large endpoints or grappling with complex compliance mandates, SOAR integration with EDR will streamline threat response.

Additionally, we will discuss six subheads that help to highlight the prime scenarios for their adoption. Security leaders can recognize these cues (e.g., alert floods, intricate multi-cloud expansions) and time integration so that there is the best possible ROI and the least amount of friction to achieve SOAR vs EDR synergy.

1. High Alert Volume Overwhelming SOC: Unless you’re lucky, when your SOC deals with thousands of daily alerts, urgent triage gets drowned in false positives. EDR refines host-level alerts by pointing you in the right direction with real endpoint threats. Once SOAR has automated tasks like shutting down suspicious processes or tagging correlated alerts from other sources, that’s the end of the story. By reducing manual overhead, this synergy allows analysts to focus on real priorities. This results in a more calming, more productive SOC environment.
2. Complex Multi-Cloud Deployments: If you are an enterprise adopting AWS, Azure, GCP, or a hybrid solution, you have scattered logs and disparate threat surfaces. The synergy of EDR vs SIEM vs SOAR ensures endpoints are safe while orchestrating data across each cloud. EDR isolates compromised containers, and SOAR triggers incident runbooks that involve cloud compliance checks, IAM policy reviews, or auto-scaling security groups. This is a cross-environment approach that ensures security is consistent everywhere.
3. Advanced Persistent Threat Concerns: Deeper endpoint forensics, plus broader orchestration, are often required by organizations suspected of APT activity. Subtle infiltration steps or suspicious memory manipulations are revealed by EDR logs, and SOAR aggregates intelligence feeds that map the attacker’s TTPs. With automated runbooks you can react quickly to hints of lateral movement or user credential theft. This shortens the dwell time that sophisticated attackers rely on.
4. Ransomware Mitigation Strategy: Ransomware infiltrations are fast, meaning they can encrypt data in hours or minutes. EDR catches the first malicious file or weird disk encryption patterns, and SOAR orchestrates environment-wide responses like blocking malicious IPs, rotating privileged credentials, or mass scanning the environment for additional similarly infected endpoints. Together, this is especially powerful for large organizations, eliminating any wasted time spent on manual back-and-forth tasks.
5. Unified Compliance & Audit Trails: All incidents must be documented thoroughly by regulated industries. SOAR is fed device-level logs from EDR for orchestration and automated compliance reporting. The entire investigation, response steps, and recovery timeline are captured in a single system if an endpoint is compromised. This builds synergy to enable quick production of audit-friendly documentation that meets legal or regulatory timelines with little or no staff overhead.
6. Security Team Resource Optimization: Finally, EDR and SOAR integration acts as an efficient force multiplier when security staff is short or specialized skills are not available. EDR local detection is automated, while SOAR coordinates multi-step processes such as blocking repeated malicious domains or scheduling forensic scans. With routine tasks off your team’s back, they can focus on advanced threat hunting, training, or strategic improvements.

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processes, providing a unified platform for managing and automating security operations. It can automate various security tasks, such as threat detection, incident response, and remediation. SentinelOne offers real-time cloud workload protection and securely manages attack surfaces with its combined EPP+EDR solution. Users can reduce Active Directory risks, prevent lateral movements, and stop credentials misuse.

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Idenity-based infrastructure protection is a top priority for organizations. Singularity Identity responds to in-progress attacks with holistic solutions for Active Directory and Entra ID. It can thwart attack progression and prevent new threat opportunities. Enterprises can gain intelligence and insights into adversarial tactics to prevent future compromises.

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Conclusion

Ultimately, we learned how organizations are dealing with an increasingly dynamic threat landscape, from polymorphic malware to zero-day exploits to advanced persistent threats. With the stakes increasing, the debate around SOAR vs EDR is less about which of the two tools to select and more about how they complement each other to form the foundation of next-generation security. While SOAR takes automation and orchestration to multiple layered solutions (firewalls, threat intelligence feeds, etc.), EDR shines in granular endpoint insight (suspicious processes, host quarantine, data logging for forensics).

The combination of EDR and SOAR changes your security posture, allowing for real-time threat mitigation and automated workflows, freeing your analysts from mundane tasks.

Additionally, next-gen endpoint protection is also about harnessing device-level intelligence with enterprise-wide incident management. Combining EDR’s pernicious detection with SOAR’s more expansive orchestration, organizations can rapidly isolate infected machines, block malicious IPs on the firewall, or assemble compliance reports without manual overhead.

For organizations looking for a single security strategy that unifies EDR and SOAR, modernize your threat defense by investing in SentinelOne Singularity XDR. To understand how the platform can suit your business needs, request a free demo and be confident in protecting your assets in 2025 and beyond.

FAQs

1. What is the Difference Between EDR and SOAR?

EDR looks to find malicious behaviors at each endpoint, isolate infected hosts, and produce rich forensics. SOAR orchestrates alerts from across multiple tools (EDR, SIEM, firewall, etc.) to automate incident workflows, while SOAR vs EDR synergy unites local device detection with environment-wide remediation tasks. In short, endpoint infiltration is addressed by EDR, while SOAR powers multi-step automation.

2. Can EDR replace Antivirus Software?

Yes! EDR, in fact, generally does better than AV in detecting unknown or fileless malware by using behavioral analytics. EDR is different from antivirus because it brings continuous monitoring, advanced heuristics, and automated containment. EDR solutions may include signature-based scans, but their main focus is real-time analysis. In modern context, EDR replaces basic antivirus as a robust endpoint defense layer.

3. How do EDR, SIEM, and SOAR complement each other?

EDR vs SIEM vs SOAR are three pillars of a modern security ecosystem. These three are responsible for endpoint monitoring, log aggregation across the IT environment, and automation of cross-tool responses, respectively. EDR flags local anomalies, events are correlated at scale by SIEM, and incident workflows are orchestrated by SOAR. In this trio, you get complete visibility, with minimal manual overhead and precise threat mitigation.

4. When should I implement both EDR and SOAR?

If you have a SOC that works with high alert volumes, multi-cloud complexities, or stringent compliance requirements, consider bringing EDR and SOAR together. EDR provides in-depth endpoint detection, and SOAR automates tasks across tools. When your environment is beyond just antivirus or manual incident handling, this synergy is ideal. By merging them, you get next-generation endpoint protection that drastically reduces response time.

5. What are the key benefits of using SOAR with EDR?

When you combine EDR and SOAR, you combine local endpoint threat detection and automated organization-wide incident response. Suspicious processes are quarantined by EDR, and SOAR triggers broader tasks, e.g., updating firewall rules or informing compliance. This creates the synergy of reducing alert fatigue and cutting false positives, as well as decreasing dwell time. In the end, it makes your entire SOC more efficient, covering potential threats completely.