The 12 Best Managed Detection & Response (MDR) Services, Compared and Priced

Best value overall: Huntress — published pricing, purpose-built for small business, and genuinely good at the threats that segment faces.

Best response authority: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete.

Best transparency: Expel.

Best bring-your-own-tools: Red Canary and Expel.

Best Microsoft-native: Ontinue.

The contract clause that determines whether MDR actually protects you is buried on page nine.

Evaluating MDR options requires understanding how telemetry interacts with next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) and endpoint agents across your estate.

This playbook tells you what it says and how to negotiate it.

Stage 1 — Decide What “Response” Must Mean in Your Contract

Providers use one word for four different services. Only one of them protects you at 3 a.m. on a Sunday.

Tier	What happens when a threat is detected at 3 a.m.	Providers typically here
Monitoring	You get an email	Legacy MSSPs
Triage	You get a filtered, prioritized alert	Entry MDR tiers
Guided response	You get told exactly what to do — you do it	Many mid-tier services
Full response	They isolate the host and kill the process. You find out later	Falcon Complete, Sophos MDR, Vigilance, deepwatch

Get the pre-authorized action list written into the contract. Which actions, under what conditions, with what notification and escalation. A provider unwilling to specify this is selling you monitoring at an MDR price, rather than true zero-trust containment under Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).

Second question, equally important: do you have to buy their tools? CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, and Sophos run their own platforms, which you must license.

Expel, Red Canary, Arctic Wolf, deepwatch, and ReliaQuest work with tools you already own. You cannot compare monthly prices until you normalize for this.

Stage 2 — Know the Two Consolidation Facts

Sophos MDR and Secureworks are the same company. Sophos completed its acquisition of Secureworks in February 2025 at approximately $859 million.

Both remain in market with distinct heritage Sophos MDR built for the mid-market, Secureworks Taegis around two decades of Counter Threat Unit research but a competitive process containing both is a negotiation with one vendor.

Ask how the portfolios will be positioned long term as you evaluate leading cybersecurity companies

Arctic Wolf now owns Cylance. Arctic Wolf acquired BlackBerry’s Cylance endpoint assets, completing in February 2025. Arctic Wolf historically positioned itself as endpoint-agnostic, monitoring whatever you already ran.

Owning an endpoint product changes that. If vendor neutrality was part of why you shortlisted them, ask directly how the acquisition affects it.

Stage 3 — What MDR Actually Costs

Pricing model: per endpoint or per user per month, almost universally quote-based. Huntress is the notable exception and publishes pricing, which makes it the useful benchmark even if you buy elsewhere.

Four cost tiers, roughly:

Tier	Who’s here	What you’re paying for
SMB / MSP-delivered	Huntress, Sophos MDR entry	Volume economics, focused scope
Mid-market	Arctic Wolf, Rapid7, deepwatch, Ontinue	Broad coverage, named teams
Premium tool-agnostic	Expel, Red Canary, ReliaQuest	Analyst quality, keep your stack
Premium platform-native	Falcon Complete, Vigilance, eSentire	Maximum containment authority

Three cost mechanics that change the total:

1. Platform included or not. Falcon Complete requires CrowdStrike licensing on top. Expel does not include tools but expects you to have them. Total cost only becomes comparable when you add the platform line.

2. Log ingestion. Providers monitoring cloud, identity, and network telemetry usually charge by volume. Arctic Wolf is notable for a more inclusive ingestion posture; others meter it.

3. Coverage breadth. Endpoint-only is cheapest. Adding identity, Microsoft 365, cloud, and network raises the price — and is usually worth it, since that’s where modern attacks progress.

Compare against in-house honestly. A genuine 24/7 rota needs roughly five to six analysts plus tooling, holiday cover, and attrition. Most MDR contracts cost less than that team, which is why the category exists.

Stage 4 — The Twelve Providers

Premium platform-native

CrowdStrike Falcon Complete

Elite detection with full unilateral containment authority and a breach prevention warranty, integrating directly with top EDR companies.

Cost: premium; requires CrowdStrike platform licensing.

Watch for: the most expensive option here; you’re committing to Falcon.

Image ALT: CrowdStrike Falcon Complete managed response console

SentinelOne Vigilance

Analysts operating a platform whose autonomous response already does much of the work, at better value than Falcon Complete, aligned with core network security principles.

Cost: mid-premium; requires SentinelOne licensing.

Watch for: less independent threat research than the specialists; tier definitions vary.

Image ALT: SentinelOne Vigilance managed detection and response

eSentire

Delivers 24×7 managed detection and response (MDR) backed by 24/7 security operations, proactive threat hunting, and human-led investigation and response across endpoint, network, cloud, and identity telemetry alongside actionable threat intelligence tools.

Cost profile: premium MDR tier; generally quote-based.

Watch for: eSentire is primarily a managed security/MDR service, so organizations wanting direct control of an XDR platform should verify portal access, integrations, response authority, and supported telemetry sources before treating it as a like-for-like Taegis replacement.

Image ALT: eSentire managed detection and response threat hunting and security operations

Premium tool-agnostic

Expel

Radical transparency: you see every alert, analyst decision, and action in real time. Works with the stack you own, integrating telemetry from your cloud security solutions.

Cost: premium, tools not included.

Watch for: response is more collaborative than unilateral by default confirm what’s pre-authorized.

Image ALT: Expel Workbench transparent investigation and analyst notes

Red Canary

Exceptional detection engineering with publicly documented methodology and widely used threat intelligence tools.

Cost: premium, tools not included.

Watch for: confirm response authority at your tier; you supply the EDR.

Image ALT: Red Canary managed detection threat timeline

ReliaQuest

GreyMatter aggregates and normalizes your existing security tooling, adding automation and analyst coverage on top of managed detection and response (MDR).

Cost: mid-to-premium.

Watch for: value depends on how many tools you’re unifying; smaller than the largest providers.

Image ALT: ReliaQuest GreyMatter unified security operations

Mid-market

Arctic Wolf

The concierge model gives you a named security team that learns your environment, securing your business network infrastructure.

Cost: mid-market, generally predictable.

Watch for: response is more advisory than unilateral confirm precisely; the Cylance acquisition changes the vendor-neutral positioning.

Image ALT: Arctic Wolf concierge security team and risk dashboard

Sophos MDR

Delivers a full-response tier at genuinely accessible pricing, working seamlessly with third-party telemetry as well as native Sophos products, helping streamline operations alongside top managed detection and response (MDR) services and modern network security tools.

Cost: mid-market, strong value.

Watch for: which tier includes full response; Secureworks portfolio positioning.

Image ALT: Sophos MDR threat response and case management

deepwatch

A dedicated MDR specialist with strong SIEM-centric operations and named squad model, optimizing cloud access security brokers (CASB) and enterprise log feeds.

Cost: mid-to-premium; SIEM-based, so ingestion matters.

Watch for: deepest value if you already run a SIEM; confirm current platform support.

Image ALT: deepwatch managed detection and response squad operations

Ontinue

Microsoft-native MDR built entirely around Defender and Sentinel, enforcing a Zero Trust security framework with a distinctive collaboration model inside Microsoft Teams.

Cost: mid-market; assumes Microsoft licensing you already hold.

Watch for: Microsoft-only by design irrelevant if your stack isn’t Defender; smaller than the generalists.

Image ALT: Ontinue Microsoft-native MDR with Teams-based collaboration

Rapid7

MDR combined with vulnerability management, actively monitoring CISA known exploited vulnerabilities and cloud security in one relationship.

Cost: mid-market, better bought together.

Watch for: response generally advisory; broad portfolio needs scoping.

Image ALT: Rapid7 managed detection with vulnerability context

SMB and MSP

Huntress

The value leader, with published pricing and a service genuinely built for small business, providing accessible defenses compared to traditional on-premises security controls.

Cost: published per-endpoint pricing, the lowest credible here.

Watch for: coverage breadth is narrower than enterprise providers; expanding beyond endpoint into identity and Microsoft 365.

Image ALT: Huntress managed detection and response for small business

Stage 5 — Negotiate the Contract That Matters

Get pre-authorized response actions in writing. Which actions, what conditions, what notification. This is the single clause that determines whether you bought MDR or monitoring.

Specify coverage sources explicitly. Endpoints, identity provider, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, cloud accounts, firewalls. Get the list in the contract, not the sales deck.

Clarify where MDR ends and incident response begins. Most MDR includes containment; full forensics, root cause analysis, and regulatory notification support are usually a separate retainer. Establish this before a breach, not during one.

Ask for the ingestion allowance and overage rate. Providers monitoring cloud and identity telemetry meter volume. Get the allowance and the overage price stated.

Test the escalation path during evaluation. Ask each provider to walk through ransomware detected at 2 a.m. Saturday: who does what, in what order, how fast, and who calls you. The quality of that answer predicts your experience better than any capability matrix.

Negotiate the exit. Data export format, transition assistance, and notice period. Switching MDR providers is painful; make it less so before you sign.

Common mistakes: buying MDR while leaving identity telemetry out of scope; assuming “24/7” means someone will act; and paying premium prices for an EDR platform and premium MDR when a mid-priced platform plus good MDR delivers more security per pound.

Cost-Focused FAQ

How much does MDR cost?

MDR is priced per endpoint or per user per month, and almost all providers are quote-based. Huntress is the notable exception and publishes pricing, making it a useful benchmark.

Cost varies by whether the technology platform is included, how many telemetry sources are monitored, and what response authority you’re granted.

Which MDR service is cheapest?

Huntress is the clear value leader for small businesses, with published pricing and a service designed for that segment rather than scaled down from enterprise.

Sophos MDR’s entry tiers are the most accessible among the broad providers. For Microsoft-centric organizations, Ontinue leverages Defender licensing you already hold, which lowers total cost.

Is MDR cheaper than hiring a security team?

Usually, if you need genuine 24/7 coverage. A round-the-clock rota requires roughly five to six analysts plus tooling, holiday cover, and recruitment costs, which exceeds most MDR contracts.

For business-hours-only coverage of a small estate, in-house may be cheaper and many organizations use MDR to extend an in-house team rather than replace it.

Do I have to buy the provider’s security tools?

It depends on the provider. CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, SentinelOne Vigilance, and Sophos MDR run on their own platforms which you must license.

Expel, Red Canary, Arctic Wolf, deepwatch, and ReliaQuest work with tools you already own. This distinction must be normalized before comparing any monthly prices.

Does MDR include incident response?

Usually only containment. Full incident response — forensics, root cause analysis, regulatory notification support, and recovery — is generally a separate engagement or retainer.

Confirm exactly where the service boundary sits before you need it, because that conversation is much harder during a live breach.

What is the difference between MDR and MSSP?

A traditional MSSP manages security devices and forwards alerts, leaving investigation and response to you. MDR includes analyst-led investigation, threat hunting, and response actions.

The labels have blurred as MSSPs added MDR offerings, so evaluate what the contract actually authorizes rather than what the service is called.

Bottom Line

Huntress is the right answer for most organizations under a few hundred endpoints, and its published pricing gives you a benchmark for everyone else.

CrowdStrike Falcon Complete buys maximum containment authority if you can fund it and standardize on Falcon.

Expel and Red Canary are the picks when you want to keep your own tools and see the work being done.

Sophos MDR delivers real response authority at mid-market pricing, and Ontinue is the Microsoft-native option worth quoting if your stack is Defender. Whatever you choose, the pre-authorized response clause is the contract everything else is commentary.

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