Artificial intelligence (AI) may have many benefits, but it's also making it easier for hackers, online criminals, and other digital malefactors to threaten businesses, and those threats are getting more potent. Keeping them at bay requires a lot of funds to be devoted to cybersecurity, making companies like CrowdStrike (CRWD -1.98%) and SentinelOne (S -1.31%) excellent investment opportunities.
But is there an advantage to buying one over the other now?
Image source: Getty Images.
How do these two approach cybersecurity?
Both companies' base products are AI-powered protection platforms that analyze digital activity and learn to spot the threats among the normal activity. They deploy their software to network endpoints -- in other words, laptops, smartphones, and other devices that can access a client's internal network. By protecting these devices, companies make it harder for cyberattackers to gain access to their internal networks, where they might steal sensitive information, delete files, interfere with systems, or even lock them down with ransomware to extort payments from their victims.
While endpoint protection is how both companies land clients, each bolsters its offerings with an array of other cybersecurity products that clients can use to create a protection suite tailored to their unique situations.
Since these two direct competitors offer highly similar product types, it's hard to declare either a winner on this front from an investor perspective.
Winner: Tie.
CrowdStrike is much larger than SentinelOne
From a sheer size perspective, CrowdStrike is the clear winner. During its fiscal 2026 first quarter, which ended April 30, CrowdStrike's annual recurring revenue (ARR) rose to $4.4 billion. SentinelOne's ARR of $948 million in its fiscal Q1 was less than a quarter of that.
While size doesn't always matter, in this case, it does. Because so many more companies use CrowdStrike's platform, it's more likely that any given IT professional will have at least one contact already on its client list. If CrowdStrike is doing a great job with those clients, word will spread, and it will likely receive more serious consideration in future cybersecurity bidding processes.
This advantage cannot be understated. Indeed, it's one of the reasons why CrowdStrike's growth has remained strong despite its size.
Winner: CrowdStrike
SentinelOne is growing more quickly than CrowdStrike, but just barely
In terms of growth rates, SentinelOne is slightly outperforming CrowdStrike in this category. However, this should be no surprise because SentinelOne is a much smaller company. In fiscal Q1, SentinelOne's ARR rose 24% year over year, while CrowdStrike's increased 22% year over year.
While I will give the point to SentinelOne, it's important to understand that CrowdStrike is growing from a much larger base than SentinelOne, making this close call all the more impressive for CrowdStrike.
Winner: SentinelOne
Neither company is massively profitable
Due to its smaller size and focus on top-line growth, SentinelOne is far from profitable, while CrowdStrike has achieved intermittent profitability (although it reverted to a negative operating margin and a loss in its most recent quarter).
S Operating Margin (Quarterly) data by YCharts.
SentinelOne is far from breaking even, but CrowdStrike was in this same position about five years ago. There's no reason not to expect SentinelOne to follow a similar path to profitability, but it will take some time. Meanwhile, CrowdStrike should eventually turn a profit again, as it has proven that it can do that.
Winner: CrowdStrike
SentinelOne looks like a bargain
CrowdStrike is leading this battle of the stocks so far, but SentinelOne is about to change the narrative with one jaw-dropping metric.
CrowdStrike is the most popular cybersecurity stock in the market, and as a result, it has been bid up to expensive levels. From a price-to-sales (P/S) standpoint (the best metric to use to compare these companies since CrowdStrike flips between profitable and unprofitable, while SentinelOne is years away from profits), CrowdStrike has gotten far more expensive than SentinelOne over the past few years.
S PS Ratio data by YCharts.
CrowdStrike stock is now five times more expensive than SentinelOne, which is hard to believe, considering they compete in the same industry and are growing at nearly identical rates.
This leads me to believe that CrowdStrike's stock has been overly hyped up while SentinelOne has been forgotten. While I'm OK with valuing CrowdStrike at a premium due to its market leadership position, this is far too great a premium to pay.
SentinelOne is a dirt-cheap stock, and CrowdStrike is almost too expensive to consider. While I have been a long-term CrowdStrike bull, I'd be a bit cautious about buying the stock at its current lofty valuation.
As a result, I think SentinelOne is the better cybersecurity investment right now.
