Data as of:
LIVE
NET
Cloudflare, Inc. · Cybersecurity / Cloud Networking
$333.94
+10.81% this month
VERSUS
COMPARE
CRWD
CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. · Cybersecurity
$245.70
+15.40% this month
Comparison scoreboard
CRWD LEADS 4/5AI Scorei
NET 64.9
CRWD ✓66.5
1Y Returni
NET +52.32%
CRWD ✓+120.86%
Fwd P/Ei
NET 179.44
CRWD ✓131.85
Target Up.i
NET ✓+11.24%
CRWD +4.20%
Op. Margini
NET -7.60%
CRWD ✓-2.26%
Metrics last refreshed: 9/18/2026
Quick take
NET vs CRWD Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
NET and CRWD are both high-growth cybersecurity leaders protecting different attack surfaces. CrowdStrike secures endpoints and identities with AI-powered Falcon and 125%+ NRR. Cloudflare secures network traffic and provides SASE/Zero Trust from its global 300+ PoP network with 6M+ developer ecosystem. CrowdStrike has better near-term ARR predictability; Cloudflare has broader platform optionality. Both command premium valuations requiring sustained growth.
NET vs CRWD — Cloudflare (the global network infrastructure provider protecting web traffic, enabling SASE/Zero Trust from 300+ worldwide PoPs with a 6M+ developer ecosystem) versus CrowdStrike (the AI-powered endpoint/identity security leader with 28,000+ Falcon enterprise customers and 125%+ NRR expanding into cloud security and SIEM).
Live analysis · updated 9/18/2026
CRWD holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. CRWD leads on both 1-year return (+120.86%) and forward P/E quality (131.85x vs 179.44x for NET), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. On fundamentals, NET is growing revenue faster (35.90%), while CRWD maintains the higher operating margin (-2.26%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for NET (+11.24%) than for CRWD (+4.20%).
Want a full valuation workup? 46-section report — AI Score, Monte Carlo forecast, bull/bear case, DCF, and more.
Normalized 1Y performance
NET
CRWD
Recent returns
NET
CRWD
Analyst price targets & sentiment
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
NET · 31 analysts
Price target range
analyst low$160.00
analyst high$400.00
analyst mean$333.55
current price$333.94
+11.2% upside to analyst mean
CRWD · 50 analysts
STRONG BUYHOLDSTRONG SELL
Buy (1.9/5.0)
40 Buy / 12 Hold / 1 Sell
Price target range
analyst low$103.25
analyst high$250.00
analyst mean$227.58
current price$245.70
+4.2% upside to analyst mean
Who should consider this stock?
NET may suit investors who:
- believe Cloudflare's 300+ PoP network infrastructure creates a durable platform for winning SASE/Zero Trust enterprise budgets as VPNs are replaced with cloud-delivered access
- see Workers developer ecosystem as future revenue catalyst — 6M developers creates organic enterprise standardization beyond security spending alone
- value Cloudflare's broader market opportunity across networking, security, CDN, and developer tools vs CrowdStrike's focused endpoint/identity security footprint
- are comfortable with longer GAAP profitability runway, enterprise sales cycle complexity, and developer platform monetization uncertainty
CRWD may suit investors who:
- value demonstrated 125%+ net revenue retention from module expansion — CrowdStrike's customer economics are among the best in enterprise software
- see CrowdStrike's AI training data advantage (petabytes from 28,000+ customers) as a compounding moat that makes its threat detection increasingly accurate over time
- believe the 2024 outage trust impact is temporary — CrowdStrike's platform depth and threat intelligence reputation create switching costs that preserve customer relationships despite the incident
- are comfortable with Microsoft Defender bundling competition and premium pricing pressure in exchange for the cybersecurity sector's best documented net revenue retention
Performance & AI score
| Metric | NET | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 64.9 | 66.5 |
| AI ranki | #83 | #66 |
| Latest closei | $333.94 | $245.70 |
| 1M returni | +10.81% | +15.40% |
| 6M returni | +50.86% | +129.53% |
| 1Y returni | +52.32% | +120.86% |
$10,000 invested — hypothetical growth (dividends reinvested)
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | NET | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $15.61K (+56.1%) started 2025-09-17 | $22.06K (+120.6%) started 2025-09-17 |
| 5Y ago | $25.41K (+154.1%) started 2021-09-17 | $38.16K (+281.6%) started 2021-09-20 |
| 10Y ago | $185.52K (+1755.2%) started 2019-09-13 | $169.45K (+1594.5%) started 2019-06-12 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
Valuation & upside potential
| Metric | NET | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $106.77B | $223.63B |
| Trailing P/Ei | N/A | 5460.00 |
| Forward P/Ei | 179.44 | 131.85 |
| Price/Salesi | 42.56 | 42.86 |
| EV/Revenuei | 42.24 | 40.67 |
| Analyst targeti | $333.55 | $227.58 |
| Target upsidei | +11.24% | +4.20% |
Growth, profitability & risk
| Metric | NET | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 35.90% | 25.80% |
| Earnings growthi | N/A | N/A |
| EPS growthi | N/A | N/A |
| FCF margini | +27.54% | +36.98% |
| Operating margini | -7.60% | -2.26% |
| Profit margini | -8.21% | 0.83% |
| ROIC proxyi | -14.43% | 1.46% |
| Return on equityi | -14.43% | 1.46% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | N/A |
| Betai | 1.66 | 1.23 |
| Debt/equityi | 217.86 | 15.96 |
| Current ratioi | 1.82 | 1.57 |
| Quick ratioi | 1.75 | 1.37 |
Correlation
Over the past year, NET and CRWD have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.57), based on daily returns.
1Y
0.57
-1.0+1.0
5Y
0.02
-1.0+1.0
10Y
0.04
-1.0+1.0
Drawdown & downside risk
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
1Y risk snapshot
NET max drawdowni36.76%
CRWD max drawdowni37.18%
NET max wkly dropi23.58%
CRWD max wkly dropi18.46%
5Y risk snapshot
NET max drawdowni82.58%
CRWD max drawdowni74.94%
NET max wkly dropi39.37%
CRWD max wkly dropi74.83%
10Y risk snapshot
NET max drawdowni82.58%
CRWD max drawdowni74.94%
NET max wkly dropi39.37%
CRWD max wkly dropi74.83%
Performance metrics by period
| Period | Metric | NET | CRWD |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +56.13% | +120.61% |
| CAGRi | +56.23% | +120.86% | |
| Volatilityi | 64.01% | 55.73% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.96 | 1.62 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 1.37 | 2.76 | |
| Max drawdowni | 36.76% | 37.18% | |
| Current drawdowni | 0.00% | 0.00% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 14.71% | 12.00% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 17.64% | 15.61% | |
| Max daily dropi | 23.62% | 9.85% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 23.58% | 18.46% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +154.12% | +281.58% |
| CAGRi | +20.51% | +30.77% | |
| Volatilityi | 69.34% | 437.57% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.55 | 1.14 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.81 | 4.32 | |
| Max drawdowni | 82.58% | 74.94% | |
| Current drawdowni | 0.00% | 18.06% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 47.27% | 47.90% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 53.91% | 52.06% | |
| Max daily dropi | 23.62% | 74.75% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 39.37% | 74.83% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +1755.22% | +1594.48% |
| CAGRi | +51.67% | +47.61% | |
| Volatilityi | 67.38% | 364.47% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.89 | 1.01 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 1.34 | 3.74 | |
| Max drawdowni | 82.58% | 74.94% | |
| Current drawdowni | 0.00% | 18.06% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 36.39% | 38.69% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 45.99% | 45.39% | |
| Max daily dropi | 23.62% | 74.75% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 39.37% | 74.83% |
Business comparison
| Category | NET | CRWD |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Cloudflare, Inc. | CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Infrastructure | Software - Infrastructure |
| Core business | Cloudflare operates a global network of 300+ data centers in 100+ countries providing network security, CDN, DDoS protection, Zero Trust access (SASE/ZTNA), and developer services (Workers, Pages, R2 storage). Cloudflare sits between websites and their users — filtering malicious traffic, accelerating content delivery, and enforcing security policies at the network layer. Cloudflare One is the enterprise SASE/ZTNA platform replacing traditional VPNs with cloud-delivered secure network access. Workers is a serverless computing platform for edge applications reaching 6M+ developers. | CrowdStrike is the leader in endpoint detection and response (EDR/XDR) with its Falcon platform deployed as lightweight agents on endpoints that use AI and machine learning for real-time threat detection. The Falcon platform has expanded beyond endpoint into identity security, cloud security, and SIEM (Falcon LogScale). CrowdStrike's Counter Adversary Operations threat intelligence team is among the world's most respected. CrowdStrike suffered a global IT outage in July 2024 from a faulty content update that affected millions of Windows systems worldwide. |
| Investor focus | Investors focus on Cloudflare's ARR growth, large enterprise customer expansion, Cloudflare One SASE adoption rate, Workers platform monetization, and path to GAAP profitability. | Investors focus on CrowdStrike's ARR growth, module adoption per customer, net revenue retention (125%+), recovery from 2024 customer remediation commitments, and cloud/identity security expansion. |
NET strengths
- Global 300+ PoP network as defensible infrastructure moat: Cloudflare's worldwide network took years and billions to build — competitors cannot replicate it quickly, creating genuine infrastructure barriers to entry in SASE and network security
- Developer ecosystem creating organic enterprise growth: 6M+ developers on Workers creates organic enterprise standardization — developer adoption pulls Cloudflare into more security and networking budgets organically
- SASE/Zero Trust architecture timing: enterprises are replacing VPN-based with cloud-delivered Zero Trust access — Cloudflare One is positioned as the pure-cloud-native SASE alternative
CRWD strengths
- Endpoint market leadership: 28,000+ Falcon customers including 60% of Fortune 100 — the de facto enterprise endpoint security standard
- Module expansion driving 125%+ net revenue retention: customers consistently add Falcon modules (identity, cloud, SIEM) over time, creating highly predictable expanding revenue
- AI threat detection compounding advantage: petabytes of training data from 28,000+ customers trains increasingly accurate AI detection models — a virtuous cycle improving detection quality vs competitors with smaller data pools
Risks to watch — NET
- Long GAAP profitability timeline: Cloudflare is growing fast but carries high stock-based compensation and modest free cash flow margins relative to its premium valuation
- Large enterprise sales cycle complexity: competing against Zscaler, Palo Alto Networks, and Cisco in large enterprises involves long displacement cycles for incumbent vendors
- Developer platform monetization uncertainty: 6M+ Workers users but generating enterprise-scale revenue from a developer platform is inherently less predictable than direct security product sales
Risks to watch — CRWD
- 2024 global IT outage customer trust impact: the July 2024 faulty update caused global Windows crashes across airlines, hospitals, and banks — customer remediation commitments exceeded $1B
- Microsoft Defender bundling competition: Microsoft bundles Defender endpoint security into Windows M365 E5 at no incremental cost — creating zero-cost competition for CrowdStrike's core product
- Premium pricing pressure in tight IT budgets: CrowdStrike's premium pricing is a target for budget-constrained enterprise IT procurement when macroeconomic conditions tighten
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