EDR vs EPP: Why Endpoint Protection Alone Isn’t Enough in 2026

**Executive summary:** This vendor-authored analysis argues that prevention-focused Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP) are insufficient alone given 2025 trends—fileless techniques, credential-based access, rising zero-days, and rapid lateral movement (median 29-minute breakout)—and promotes Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) as the complementary capability providing continuous visibility, investigation tools, live queries, automated containment, and threat hunting to close that gap.