CrowdStrike vs McAfee (Now Trellix): Which Fits MSPs and IT Teams

"CrowdStrike vs McAfee" can mean two different comparisons, because the McAfee that sold endpoint security to companies became Trellix in January 2022, while McAfee itself now sells mainly to consumers and small businesses. This guide sorts out which McAfee you are comparing, then sets CrowdStrike Falcon against both: McAfee's small business product and Trellix Endpoint Security. It covers public prices as of November 2026, the MSP routes and who each option fits.

TL;DR

• Which McAfee. McAfee's enterprise business was sold to Symphony Technology Group in 2021 and relaunched as Trellix on 19 January 2022. McAfee Corp. went private in March 2022 and focuses on consumer and small business protection.
• Small business. McAfee Business Protection, launched in June 2023, sits against CrowdStrike Falcon Go. Falcon Go adds the Falcon sensor and a free trial; McAfee publishes no business price list.
• Enterprise. Trellix Endpoint Security, Trellix EDR and the ePO console are the like-for-like rivals to Falcon Pro, Enterprise and Insight.
• Price. CrowdStrike publishes per-device prices for its three self-serve bundles. Trellix and McAfee's business bundle are quoted through partners, so the public figures are a UK reseller listing and contract medians.

McAfee or Trellix: The Split, With Dates

The history matters because older documentation, forum threads and even some consoles still say McAfee when they mean Trellix. Here is the sequence.

In March 2021, McAfee Corp. agreed to sell its enterprise business to Symphony Technology Group (STG) for about $4 billion, and the deal closed in July 2021. STG also bought FireEye's products business in 2021. On 19 January 2022, STG combined the two under a new name, Trellix, an extended detection and response company, per the launch announcement. The cloud security parts of McAfee Enterprise followed in March 2022 as a separate company, Skyhigh Security.

The consumer side kept the McAfee name. An investor group led by Advent International and Permira completed its acquisition of McAfee Corp. on 1 March 2022, in a deal valued at more than $14 billion, according to Permira's announcement. Since then McAfee has sold antivirus, identity protection and VPN subscriptions to households, plus a small business bundle.

So an ePolicy Orchestrator server named MCAFEE-EPO-01, an old "McAfee ENS" policy or a pre-2022 analyst report almost always points to Trellix today. When an r/msp poster asked in March 2024 whether anyone still deployed McAfee, one of the first replies asked whether they meant McAfee Enterprise, now Trellix, or the consumer products, in this r/msp thread.

CrowdStrike vs McAfee for Small Businesses

McAfee's business offer today is McAfee Business Protection, announced on 22 June 2023 for small businesses and sold through Dell from launch, per McAfee's launch release. It packages device security, web protection, a VPN and identity monitoring for a small team without its own IT staff. McAfee publishes no business price list and no partner program for it that we could find, so availability and price depend on the Dell channel in your country.

CrowdStrike's closest product is Falcon Go, the entry bundle for up to 100 devices. It runs the same Falcon sensor and cloud as the enterprise tiers, adds next-generation antivirus, device control and Express Support, and sells online with a 15-day free trial. Our Falcon Go review covers what the bundle includes and where it stops.

The practical gap between the two is detection and response. Falcon Go blocks threats and records endpoint activity in a console built for an administrator, Falcon Pro adds firewall management and Falcon Enterprise adds EDR, all on the same sensor. McAfee Business Protection is designed for owners without an IT team, so it suits a five-person office that wants protection and identity monitoring in one subscription more than a business that wants an administrator to investigate alerts.

CrowdStrike vs Trellix for Enterprises

For any organisation with an IT or security team, the like-for-like comparison is CrowdStrike against Trellix. Trellix Endpoint Security (ENS) is the successor to McAfee Endpoint Security, sold in Essentials, Core and Enterprise tiers, with Trellix EDR and the Helix security operations platform above it. Policies run from ePolicy Orchestrator, available on premises or as ePO SaaS, which many long-time McAfee customers still run on their own servers.

CrowdStrike Falcon is cloud-only. One lightweight sensor per device streams events to CrowdStrike's cloud, and modules for EDR, identity, cloud and SIEM switch on from the same console without new agents. Our Falcon explainer covers how the sensor, the Threat Graph and the modules fit together.

That difference shapes the day-to-day work. Trellix fits estates that need on-premises management, air-gapped segments or a long ePO history of policies and tasks, and it brings data loss prevention, email security and network detection from the same vendor. Falcon fits teams that want no management servers, a single agent and a cloud console reachable from anywhere. Both offer EDR and managed detection, so the EDR and XDR guide is the place to compare the detection layers in depth.

Pricing as of November 2026

CrowdStrike publishes self-serve prices for three bundles: Falcon Go at $59.99, Falcon Pro at $99.99 and Falcon Enterprise at $184.99 per device a year, on its pricing page read on 9 November 2026.

Larger fleets and Falcon Complete are quoted, as the CrowdStrike pricing breakdown explains.

Trellix publishes no price list. The nearest public figure is a UK G-Cloud 15 listing from Integrity360, a Trellix reseller, filed in January 2026, which lists Trellix Endpoint Security "from £5 per device per year" and Trellix MDR for SecOps from £36 per user per year in its pricing document. A "from" price is a floor for the smallest tier at volume, not a typical quote.

Contract data gives a sense of scale. Vendr put the median Trellix contract at $13,377 a year in November 2026, with a range of $7,916 to $136,899, against a median of $55,892 for CrowdStrike on the same marketplace. Medians mix every product and company size, so they show where typical deals land rather than what your fleet will cost.

MSP Routes

CrowdStrike reaches MSPs through distributors and its partner program. The MSP manages clients from Flight Control, the parent-child console, and can resell Falcon Complete so CrowdStrike's analysts handle the 24/7 watch. Our CrowdStrike for MSPs guide covers the minimums and the multi-tenant setup.

Trellix sells through its Xtend partner program, which it revamped on 14 January 2025 with tracks for solution providers, security advisors, marketplaces and technology alliances, per the Xtend announcement. Partners can resell endpoint, data security, email, network detection and MDR. An MSP taking over a former McAfee estate will often inherit an ePO server and decide whether to keep it, move to ePO SaaS or migrate the fleet.

McAfee's consumer business has no MSP route we could find. An MSP that finds McAfee on a client's laptops is usually looking at retail or OEM licences bought with the hardware, which the MSP cannot manage centrally and should plan to replace with whatever the client's managed stack uses.

What Practitioners Report

Admins in r/sysadmin argued in September 2023 over whether third-party antivirus still earns its place next to Microsoft Defender. The original poster pointed out that in one AV-Comparatives malware protection run, Trellix tied Defender at 99.9%, and noted that Trellix is the former McAfee. The top replies moved the discussion from signature antivirus to EDR and managed response, which is where CrowdStrike and Trellix both compete today. Our CrowdStrike vs Microsoft Defender comparison covers that third option.

The IT Operations Angle

Neither CrowdStrike nor Trellix replaces the tools that run a fleet day to day. CrowdStrike's closest product is Falcon for IT, which queries live endpoint state and runs remediation and risk-based patching through the sensor. Trellix's ePO manages security policies and agents, and leaves remote access, software deployment and the help desk to other tools.

That work sits with an RMM in both cases. Flamingo builds OpenFrame, which competes with some of the tools covered here. OpenFrame is an open, AI-native infrastructure layer for IT and security that runs its own RMM beside either security stack. At $1 per device a month with 10M AI tokens included, per OpenFrame pricing, it covers the management work neither security purchase does.

Who It Fits: MSPs and In-House IT Teams

For a small business or its MSP. If the choice is McAfee Business Protection or Falcon Go, Falcon Go fits when someone will look at the console and wants a path to EDR on the same sensor. McAfee Business Protection fits an owner-run office that wants one consumer-style subscription with identity monitoring and no administrator.

For an in-house IT team. Trellix fits estates with on-premises or air-gapped segments, a long ePO history, or a plan to buy DLP, email and network security from one vendor. CrowdStrike fits teams that want a single cloud agent, no management servers and modules they can add later.

For an MSP. CrowdStrike fits an MSP that wants Flight Control across clients and the option to resell Falcon Complete. Trellix fits an MSP inheriting a former McAfee Enterprise estate or serving regulated clients that require on-premises management. Ask both for quotes on the same device count, term and scope, and check the CrowdStrike alternatives guide for other options worth a quote.

The short answer: first name the McAfee. Against McAfee's small business bundle, CrowdStrike Falcon Go is the step up for teams with an administrator. Against Trellix, the former McAfee Enterprise, the choice turns on cloud-only versus on-premises management and on which vendor's wider portfolio you want.