How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Rankite is independent; if a vendor ever pays for a featured spot, that listing is clearly labeled Partner.
Key takeaways
- Most MDR providers quote custom prices; only Huntress ($8.99/endpoint/month MSRP) and Blumira (from $12/employee/month) publish per-unit pricing.
- If you already run CrowdStrike or Sophos tooling, the vendor's own MDR tier usually slots in with the least friction.
- Arctic Wolf and Expel built their models around the security stack you already own; CrowdStrike Falcon Complete and Sophos MDR lean on their own platforms.
- Small IT teams should shortlist Huntress and Blumira first: both publish prices and onboard without enterprise sales cycles.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 CrowdStrike Falcon Complete | Enterprises that want the Falcon platform fully managed | See website (custom quote) | Free trial (Falcon platform trial advertised) |
 Arctic Wolf | Teams that want MDR across the tools they already own | See website (custom quote) | No (no free trial advertised) |
 Sophos MDR | Businesses already running Sophos endpoint, firewall or email | See website (custom quote) | No (no free trial advertised) |
 Rapid7 MDR | Mid-market teams invested in the Rapid7 Command platform | See website (custom quote) | No (no free trial advertised) |
 Expel | Teams that want a SOC working with their existing tools | See website (custom quote) | No (no free trial advertised) |
 Huntress | SMBs and MSPs wanting managed EDR with published pricing | $8.99/endpoint/month (Managed EDR MSRP) | Free trial (full-featured trial advertised) |
 Blumira | Small IT teams wanting flat-rate security operations | $12/employee/month (Detect edition) | Free trial (30-day trial of Automate advertised) |
 Deepwatch | Enterprises wanting measurable managed SOC outcomes | See website (custom quote) | No (no free trial advertised) |
 Critical Start | Regulated organizations that want SLA-backed accountability | See website (custom quote) | No (no free trial advertised) |
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
The best MDR software, picked for buyers who cannot staff a SOC
Nobody buys MDR because they enjoy it. They buy it because the alternative is hiring three security analysts who do not exist in the job market at a salary the budget cannot carry. Managed detection and response is a rented security team: a vendor's analysts watch your endpoints, cloud and identity around the clock, investigate alerts and contain threats, while your IT staff handles the day job. The nine services below cover the real market, from enterprise heavyweights to SMB-friendly providers with published prices.
#1
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Best for: Enterprises that want the Falcon platform fully managed
Visit crowdstrike.com
Starting priceSee website (custom quote)
Free planFree trial (Falcon platform trial advertised)
Falcon Complete is the premium end of the MDR market. It pairs the Falcon platform's prevention, EDR and threat intelligence with a CrowdStrike team that does the operational work: onboarding, configuration management, threat hunting, incident triage and hands-on remote remediation. The breach prevention warranty is the industry's loudest statement of confidence, paying up to $1 million if a breach occurs in the protected environment.
The catch is access. CrowdStrike publishes list prices for its self-managed tiers (Falcon Go at $59.99 per device per year, Pro at $99.99, Enterprise at $184.99), but Complete is quote-only and the model assumes serious endpoint counts. Small businesses should look at Falcon Go or Pro self-managed first, and talk to Complete only when the headcount justifies it.
What we like- 24/7 expert-led MDR with full-cycle remediation handled by CrowdStrike's own team
- Breach prevention warranty covering up to $1 million
- Single lightweight agent for the whole platform
Watch out for- Complete pricing is never published, so every engagement starts with a sales quote
- The buying model and minimums skew toward larger environments, which can price out small teams
Starting priceSee website (custom quote)
Free planNo (no free trial advertised)
Arctic Wolf's pitch is breadth without lock-in. The Aurora platform collects data from endpoints, networks, logs and cloud sources, including third-party tools, and a named concierge security team triages and responds around the clock. With more than 10,000 customers and over 250 integrations, it is one of the most widely deployed MDR services in the mid-market.
The trade is depth for coverage. Teams that want a single-vendor stack with one agent everywhere may find the multi-source model less tidy than CrowdStrike or Sophos. But for companies with a mixed estate and no appetite to standardize on one vendor, Arctic Wolf's bring-your-own-tools model is the point.
What we like- Open XDR approach ingests telemetry from your existing security stack instead of forcing a rip-and-replace
- Concierge security team assigned to the account
- Flat, predictable pricing model
Watch out for- No public pricing, so budgeting requires a sales conversation
- As a platform-plus-service bundle it can be more than a small team needs
#3
Sophos MDR
Best for: Businesses already running Sophos endpoint, firewall or email
Visit sophos.com
Starting priceSee website (custom quote)
Free planNo (no free trial advertised)
Sophos MDR is the natural upgrade path for the hundreds of thousands of organizations on Sophos Intercept X or Sophos Firewall. The MDR team works inside Sophos Central, the same console your IT staff already uses, and can also take in telemetry from third-party security tools for mixed environments. Sophos says the service defends tens of thousands of customers, which shows in the depth of its threat hunting playbooks.
The honest limitation is the quote wall. Sophos publishes nothing on MDR pricing, and the economics favor customers who buy the underlying Sophos products too. If you are not already a Sophos shop, get the combined quote before assuming it beats a platform-neutral provider.
What we like- 24/7 SOC that can monitor your existing Sophos deployment or ingest third-party telemetry
- Single Sophos Central console for managed and self-managed products
- Large installed base with mature playbooks
Watch out for- Pricing is quote-only with no published tiers
- Best value is clearly for shops already committed to the Sophos ecosystem
#4
Rapid7 MDR
Best for: Mid-market teams invested in the Rapid7 Command platform
Visit rapid7.com
Starting priceSee website (custom quote)
Free planNo (no free trial advertised)
Rapid7 positions its MDR as preemptive rather than purely reactive, pairing 24/7 monitoring and remediation with the company's vulnerability management and threat intelligence. The standout commercial term is unlimited incident response: when something bad happens, the DFIR work does not start a meter. For teams already running InsightIDR, the MDR team sees the same telemetry your staff sees.
The caveat is platform gravity. Rapid7's MDR is strongest when the underlying detection comes from its own stack, and the whole offering is sold through a consultative quote process. It suits mid-market security teams that want one vendor for exposure management, detection and response.
What we like- MDR with unlimited incident response bundled in
- Tight integration with InsightIDR telemetry and Rapid7's vulnerability data
- Coverage across endpoint, cloud and identity
Watch out for- Quote-only pricing with no public tiers
- The service makes most sense inside the Rapid7 platform, which is a commitment
#5
Expel
Best for: Teams that want a SOC working with their existing tools
Visit expel.com
Starting priceSee website (custom quote)
Free planNo (no free trial advertised)
Expel's model is SOC-as-a-service on your stack. Its Workbench platform plugs into your endpoint, cloud, SaaS and identity tools, adds its own detection content, and its analysts investigate and remediate with a 14-minute mean time to remediate that the company publishes. Because you keep your tools and your visibility, there is no black box: you see the investigation, the decision and the action.
The trade is that Expel amplifies what you have rather than replacing it. If your current tooling is thin, a vendor with its own platform (CrowdStrike, Sophos, Huntress) may deliver more. For teams with decent tools and no night shift, Expel is the shortlist pick.
What we like- Works with the security technology you already have instead of requiring its own agent everywhere
- Transparent workbench showing what analysts did and why
- Analysts reachable directly over Slack or Teams
Watch out for- Custom-quoted with no published pricing
- As a tech-agnostic service it depends on the quality of your existing detections
#6
Huntress
Best for: SMBs and MSPs wanting managed EDR with published pricing
Visit huntress.com
Starting price$8.99/endpoint/month (Managed EDR MSRP)
Free planFree trial (full-featured trial advertised)
Huntress is the SMB answer to the MDR price-opacity problem. Managed EDR lists at $8.99 per endpoint per month MSRP (the site shows example pricing of $7.99 at 100 endpoints), with managed ITDR, SIEM and security awareness training priced per identity, source and learner. Every product includes the 24/7 human SOC investigating and staging remediations, and deployment typically takes under an hour.
The honest math is the bundle. One product at $8.99 is the headline; a full stack of EDR plus identity plus SIEM runs several times that. Still, for small businesses and the MSPs that serve them, Huntress is the easiest MDR quote to understand and the fastest to deploy.
What we like- Transparent per-unit pricing with no tiers or add-on fees to get full response
- 24/7 human SOC included in every product
- Channel-first model means most buyers purchase through their MSP
Watch out for- Buying direct requires a 50-seat minimum per product
- The product suite is per-unit priced, so identity, SIEM and training stack on top of EDR
#7
Blumira
Best for: Small IT teams wanting flat-rate security operations
Visit blumira.com
Starting price$12/employee/month (Detect edition)
Free planFree trial (30-day trial of Automate advertised)
Blumira prices the way small IT teams wish every security vendor priced: per employee, not per gigabyte. Detect starts at $12 per employee per month, Respond at $16 adds the endpoint agent and 24/7 incident support, and Automate at $21 adds AI-assisted investigation and automated containment. Every edition includes a year of unlimited log retention, which removes the retention anxiety that plagues SIEM budgeting.
The catch is the employee-count model. Pricing is based on knowledge workers (staff with a corporate email and workstation), so headcount audits matter at renewal. For lean IT teams drowning in alerts, though, the combination of flat pricing and guided response playbooks is exactly the pitch.
What we like- Flat per-employee pricing with no data-volume charges, so costs stay predictable as log volume grows
- SIEM, XDR and EDR in one platform with one year of retention on every edition
- 24/7 SecOps support on Respond and Automate
Watch out for- Annual contracts on all editions with white-glove onboarding fees on lower tiers
- Per-employee (knowledge worker) licensing can surprise companies with many contractors or part-timers
Starting priceSee website (custom quote)
Free planNo (no free trial advertised)
Deepwatch sells outcomes rather than tools: fewer low-value alerts, faster detection, and a managed SOC that investigates, contains and responds. Its NEXA AI layer correlates telemetry from your existing stack, and the company leans on threat intelligence and hunting to catch what automated detections miss. The positioning is squarely enterprise, with service depth to match.
The limitation for smaller buyers is fit. Deepwatch does not publish pricing and does not court the SMB segment the way Huntress and Blumira do. If you run a mid-size or large security program and want a managed partner measured on results, it belongs on the shortlist.
What we like- Managed detection and response built on its NEXA AI platform with expert oversight
- Works with your existing SIEM, EDR, cloud and identity tools
- Publishes outcome metrics like alert-noise reduction
Watch out for- Quote-only enterprise pricing with no public tiers
- The platform-plus-service model is built for larger environments, not small teams
Starting priceSee website (custom quote)
Free planNo (no free trial advertised)
Critical Start's differentiator is contractual accountability. Where most MDR vendors promise effort, Critical Start writes response-time SLAs into the contract and pays service credits when it misses. Its CORR platform shows customers every alert investigated, with the status, context, decision and analyst attached, which answers the black-box complaint that dogs managed services.
The trade is scale and brand. Critical Start is smaller than CrowdStrike, Arctic Wolf or Rapid7, with fewer public reviews to triangulate. For regulated industries where the contract matters as much as the technology, the SLA model is worth the extra diligence.
What we like- Contractual SLAs with service credits, a rarity in MDR
- Full transparency into every investigated alert through its CORR platform
- Strong numbers on false-positive reduction and alert notification times
Watch out for- Quote-only pricing aimed at mid-market and enterprise
- Smaller and less widely reviewed than the category leaders
How we chose
We started with the searches buyers actually run: best MDR software, managed detection and response providers, MDR for small business. For each candidate we opened the vendor's homepage and pricing page, checked plan details against public reviews on G2 and Capterra and practitioner discussion on Reddit, and compared coverage (endpoint, cloud, identity, email), response authority, pricing transparency and company-size fit. Where a price could not be verified on the vendor's own page we wrote "See website" instead of guessing. We excluded pure MSSPs without a defined MDR offer and vendors whose products had been discontinued or folded into another brand.
What an MDR quote should include before you sign
MDR quotes are hard to compare because they price different things. Before signing, pin down five items in writing. First, coverage: which telemetry sources are monitored (endpoints, servers, cloud, identity, email, network) and which are extra. Second, response authority: does the vendor isolate hosts and kill processes on your behalf, or does it alert and wait for your approval. Third, the SLA: mean time to detect and respond, and whether misses trigger service credits or just an apology.
Fourth, onboarding: how long from contract to full monitoring, what the vendor needs from your team, and whether data migration or agent deployment is included. Fifth, the commercial terms: per-asset or per-user pricing, minimums, annual versus multi-year commitments, and what happens to pricing at renewal. Get the quote for your actual asset count, not a band, and ask which features sit behind higher tiers.
MDR vs. hiring your own SOC analyst
A single US-based security analyst costs roughly $90,000 to $130,000 per year in salary alone, before benefits, tooling and turnover. That buys you one person covering business hours, not 24/7. Three analysts for round-the-clock coverage runs $300,000-plus annually, which is why companies under a few hundred employees rarely staff a real SOC.
MDR flips the math. Huntress at $8.99 per endpoint per month costs about $5,400 a year for 50 endpoints; Blumira at $12 per employee per month costs about $7,200 a year for 50 staff. Even the enterprise MDR providers typically land well under a single analyst's salary for mid-size environments. The trade is control: a rented team follows its playbooks, not yours, and response actions need pre-agreed authority. For most SMBs the economics are not close, which is exactly why MDR exists.
Frequently asked questions
What does MDR actually do?
MDR combines security technology with a vendor's human analysts. The vendor monitors your endpoints, cloud accounts, identity systems and other telemetry 24/7, investigates suspicious activity, and takes response actions like isolating a compromised machine or blocking a malicious process. You get the outcome of a security operations center without hiring one.
How much does MDR cost?
It ranges widely. Published SMB pricing runs from about $9 per endpoint per month (Huntress) or $12 per employee per month (Blumira) up to custom enterprise quotes that can reach six figures annually. Most enterprise MDR providers do not publish prices; expect a quote based on asset count, coverage scope and contract length.
What is the difference between MDR and MSSP?
An MSSP (managed security service provider) is the broader category: any outsourced security service, from firewall management to compliance reporting. MDR is a specific service focused on threat detection and response. Many MSSPs now sell MDR as their flagship offering, so the labels overlap, but MDR implies proactive hunting and hands-on response, not just monitoring.
Can MDR work with the security tools I already own?
Some can. Arctic Wolf, Expel and Deepwatch are built to ingest telemetry from third-party tools, which suits mixed environments. CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, Sophos MDR and Huntress work best with their own platforms. Ask specifically which of your current tools the vendor integrates with before assuming compatibility.
How long does MDR onboarding take?
It varies from under an hour (Huntress, per the vendor) to several weeks for enterprise deployments with custom detection logic and integrations. Agent-based vendors deploy fastest; platform-agnostic providers that need to integrate with your SIEM, identity provider and cloud accounts take longer. Ask for the onboarding timeline in the quote.
Sources we checked (11)
- https://www.crowdstrike.com/
- https://arcticwolf.com/
- https://sophos.com/
- https://www.rapid7.com/
- https://expel.com/
- https://www.huntress.com/pricing
- https://www.blumira.com/pricing
- https://www.deepwatch.com/
- https://www.criticalstart.com/
- https://www.g2.com/categories/managed-detection-and-response-mdr
- https://www.capterra.com/managed-detection-and-response-software/
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has spent more than a decade helping SaaS and e-commerce brands grow through search. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.