The MDR market underwent explosive consolidation in 2025. Sophos acquired Secureworks for $859M. Arctic Wolf acquired Cylance from BlackBerry. Cybereason merged with Trustwave. All of this was driven by the realization that owning both the EDR technology and the managed service optimizes detection and response. The market reached $3.4B in 2025 and is projected to exceed $12B by 2030. Organizations increasingly recognize that building and staffing an in-house SOC is impractical for all but the largest enterprises.

How We Evaluated

We assessed detection coverage including threat detection breadth, accuracy, and MITRE ATT&CK coverage. Response capabilities mattered, including speed and effectiveness of containment and remediation. Technology stack quality and whether the provider owns the EDR technology counted. Analyst expertise including team qualifications, certifications, and threat intelligence depth were important. Transparency into analyst workflows, detection logic, and investigation processes factored in, along with customer experience covering onboarding, communication, reporting, and SLA clarity.

1. CrowdStrike Falcon Complete

Score: 96/100

CrowdStrike’s MDR leverages the industry-leading Falcon platform with OverWatch threat hunters providing 24/7/365 monitoring. The integration of Charlotte AI into the analyst workflow has reduced mean time to investigate, and the service now covers endpoint, cloud, and identity attack surfaces.

24/7/365 monitoring by OverWatch threat hunters with under 10-minute response to critical threats. Full remediation authority means CrowdStrike analysts can contain and remediate without customer approval. Breach prevention warranty up to $1M is included. Charlotte AI augments human analysts for faster triage. Coverage extends to cloud workloads and identity-based threats. A single Falcon agent means no additional software deployment required.

Best for: Enterprises wanting premium MDR backed by the market-leading endpoint and XDR platform

2. Arctic Wolf

Score: 93/100

Arctic Wolf strengthened its position by acquiring Cylance from BlackBerry, adding proprietary AI-powered endpoint technology to its MDR platform. The Concierge Security Team model, which assigns dedicated analysts to each customer, remains a key differentiator for mid-market organizations.

The Concierge Security Team provides named, dedicated analysts who learn the customer environment. Cylance AI-powered endpoint technology is now owned and integrated. Arctic Wolf Platform was purpose-built for managed security operations. Strong vulnerability management and security posture assessment integration is included. Managed risk and compliance reporting come standard. Competitive pricing makes enterprise-grade MDR accessible to mid-market.

Best for: Mid-market organizations wanting a dedicated security team experience with integrated vulnerability management

3. Sophos MDR (+ Secureworks)

Score: 91/100

The $859M Secureworks acquisition transforms Sophos MDR from a product-ecosystem play into a full managed security operation backed by Secureworks’ Counter Threat Unit research and decades of incident response expertise. Staff reductions of roughly 6% eliminated duplicative roles while preserving technical depth.

Secureworks Counter Threat Unit research provides deep threat intelligence. Integration with Sophos endpoint, firewall, cloud, and email products is comprehensive. Incident response retainer options with Secureworks IR team are available. CryptoGuard anti-ransomware with automatic file rollback protects managed endpoints. Breach protection warranty is included. Flexible deployment supports fully managed or co-managed models.

Best for: Organizations wanting MDR backed by enterprise-grade threat intelligence and incident response from the combined Sophos-Secureworks operation

4. Palo Alto Unit 42 MDR

Score: 89/100

Palo Alto’s MDR leverages Cortex XDR technology and Unit 42’s threat research, one of the most respected incident response teams in the industry. The pending CyberArk acquisition adds identity threat detection to the MDR coverage.

Unit 42 threat intelligence and incident response expertise are core to the service. Cortex XDR provides native correlation across endpoint, network, cloud, and identity. Proactive threat hunting uses Palo Alto’s global threat telemetry. Strong cloud workload monitoring covers AWS, Azure, and GCP. CyberArk integration will add privileged access monitoring to MDR coverage. Premium positioning with enterprise-scale SLAs.

Best for: Large enterprises with significant Palo Alto infrastructure investments

5. SentinelOne Vigilance

Score: 87/100

SentinelOne’s MDR extends the Singularity platform’s autonomous response with human analyst oversight. Purple AI integration allows analysts to investigate faster with natural language queries, while the service includes digital forensics and incident response capabilities.

AI-assisted threat analysis uses Purple AI to augment human analysts. Autonomous containment comes with analyst-verified remediation. Digital forensics and incident response capabilities are included. Singularity Data Lake provides extended telemetry for hunting. Competitive pricing versus CrowdStrike Falcon Complete. WatchTower threat hunting proactively searches for campaign-specific threats.

Best for: SentinelOne customers wanting enhanced monitoring with AI-augmented human analysis

6. Red Canary

Score: 86/100

Red Canary differentiates through detection engineering transparency, publishing detailed documentation of its detection logic and MITRE ATT&CK mapping. The platform-agnostic approach supports multiple EDR vendors, making it a strong choice for organizations that want MDR without vendor lock-in.

Transparent detection logic with publicly documented methodologies. Platform-agnostic support for CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft, and Carbon Black. Threat hunting program with named detection engineers. Detailed investigation narratives for every alert. Atomic Red Team open-source testing framework validates detections. Good communication cadence with clear escalation procedures.

Best for: Security-mature organizations valuing detection transparency, EDR vendor flexibility, and open-source alignment

7. Expel

Score: 85/100

Expel differentiates with radical transparency. Customers see exactly what analysts are doing in real-time through the Workbench dashboard. The self-service capabilities allow security teams to investigate alongside Expel analysts rather than simply receiving reports.

Real-time visibility into analyst investigation workflow via Workbench. Strong automation reduces mean time to investigate by 60%. Broad technology integration covers SIEM, EDR, cloud, identity, and network. Customer-friendly SLA terms with clear response commitments. Transparent metrics and reporting on detection and response performance. Resilience recommendations proactively address root causes.

Best for: Organizations wanting full visibility into MDR operations and collaborative investigation alongside analysts

8. eSentire

Score: 83/100

eSentire provides Atlas XDR-powered MDR with a focus on complete response, not just detection. The company’s Response Agents can take direct remediation actions including isolating hosts, disabling accounts, and blocking network connections.

Complete response authority with direct remediation actions. Atlas XDR platform combines endpoint, network, cloud, and log telemetry. Dedicated Security Operations Center with 24/7 coverage. Managed Vulnerability Service integration is available. Strong mid-market and mid-enterprise positioning. Incident response is included without separate retainer.

Best for: Mid-market organizations wanting an MDR provider that takes complete remediation actions, not just alerts

9. Binary Defense

Score: 81/100

Binary Defense focuses on threat hunting-led MDR, with dedicated hunting teams that proactively search for threats beyond automated detections. The counterintelligence capabilities, monitoring criminal forums and dark web sources, add an intelligence dimension.

Dedicated threat hunting teams proactively search for threats. Counterintelligence capabilities monitor criminal forums and dark web. Integration with major EDR platforms without vendor lock-in. Vision SIEM technology enables extended telemetry collection. Competitive mid-market pricing. Strong partnership model with MSSPs and channel partners.

Best for: Organizations prioritizing proactive threat hunting and dark web intelligence

10. Deepwatch

Score: 79/100

Deepwatch provides flexible managed security across SIEM, EDR, and cloud platforms with a platform-agnostic approach. The service tiers allow organizations to scale from basic monitoring to full managed detection and response.

Platform-agnostic approach supports multiple SIEM and EDR vendors. Flexible service tiers range from monitoring-only to full MDR. Good SIEM management capabilities for organizations with existing investments. Dedicated squad model for larger enterprise customers. Cloud security monitoring covers AWS, Azure, and GCP. Growing customer base with strong net retention.

Best for: Organizations with existing SIEM investments wanting flexible managed detection layered on top

Choosing an MDR Provider

When evaluating MDR providers for 2026, several questions matter more than others.

Does the provider own the EDR technology? Vendors that own both the technology and the service (CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Sophos) can optimize detection. Those that don’t depend on third-party telemetry.

What is the coverage scope? Endpoint-only MDR is insufficient. Demand coverage across cloud, identity, and network.

What remediation authority will they have? The value gap between “alert-only” and “full remediation” MDR is enormous.

How transparent is the detection logic? Can you see what they’re detecting and how?

What happens during a major incident? Understand the escalation path, DFIR capabilities, and whether incident response requires a separate retainer.

What is the mean time to detect and respond? Demand specific SLA metrics, not marketing claims.