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The top MDR providers in 2026 are Arctic Wolf, CrowdStrike Falcon Complete, eSentire, Expel, Microsoft Defender Experts, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, Rapid7, SentinelOne Wayfinder, Sophos, and Zscaler (formerly Red Canary). On their own pages, these managed detection and response providers differ most on what "response" covers, how fast they say they act, and which alerts they investigate.
On the mdrproviders.io directory, 112 of 131 MDR providers show their response SLA as "Not disclosed" (directory updated August 2026). That's 85%. The ten below say more than most about what response covers, though only two of them show an SLA on that directory.
A note on our stake. Simbian sells an AI SOC Agent, which is an alternative to MDR for some teams and also runs inside MDR operations. About 280 of the 300+ enterprise environments we run in are delivered through MSSP and MDR partners. So the providers are listed alphabetically, not ranked, each provider's capabilities and speed figures come from its own pages as of November 2026, and the last section says when MDR is the better buy and when an AI SOC is.
A managed detection and response (MDR) provider watches your alerts around the clock, hunts for threats, investigates the ones its process selects, and acts on confirmed threats within limits you agree in advance. Most bundle telemetry, often from their own EDR agent, with a team of analysts and a list of actions they may take in your environment.
That list is the product. Two providers can both sell "24/7 MDR" while one isolates a compromised laptop at 3 a.m. and the other emails you a recommendation to do it in the morning.
Nine of the ten top MDR providers in this guide recur across 2026 "best MDR providers" lists. The tenth, Microsoft Defender Experts MDR, is here because it's the MDR service Microsoft sells for its own Defender stack. Each speed figure is the vendor's own claim, timed on its own clock, so don't line them up against each other.
Arctic Wolf runs its Aurora MDR on an open XDR platform with 200+ integrations, so it can work from the tools you already have. Containment runs "with humans in the loop", and remediation is guided through its concierge team. Arctic Wolf bought BlackBerry's Cylance endpoint business in February 2025 and was named a 2026 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for MDR, at 4.9 out of 5 on 241 reviews in that report. Its MDR page states no response time; its separate Incident Response service promises a 1-hour response.
Best for: Mixed-stack teams that want concierge guidance and have staff to act on it.
Falcon Complete runs on the CrowdStrike Falcon platform, with third-party data added. CrowdStrike promises "full-cycle remediation on your behalf" and states a 1-minute median time to contain on an endpoint. It launched Agentic MDR in March 2026, with analysts validating what the agents do. Falcon Complete is also a 2026 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for MDR.
Best for: Falcon customers who want the provider to do the remediation.
eSentire connects to any vendor stack through 300+ integrations and takes action itself, with host isolation, user suspension, and unlimited incident response written into the MDR contract. It states a 15-minute mean time to contain. Its Atlas AI platform runs what eSentire calls AI operatives, and in June 2026 it added AI pen testing.
Best for: Teams that want unlimited incident response written into the MDR contract.
Expel works with 160+ tools and needs no agent of its own. Its Ruxie engine runs automated remediation alongside human-executed response, and Expel states a mean time to remediate of about 14 minutes on high and critical incidents. Forrester named it a Leader in The Forrester Wave: MDR Services, Q1 2025.
Best for: Teams that want to keep their current tools and get hands-on remediation.
Defender Experts MDR covers Microsoft Defender workloads, and Plan 2 adds selected third-party telemetry through Microsoft Sentinel. Microsoft's own documentation describes the scope as action or guided response on Defender workloads and guidance only on third-party ones. Neither plan is an incident response engagement. Coverage is high- and medium-severity incidents on Windows, Linux, and macOS. The service was renamed from Defender Experts for XDR in July 2026.
Best for: Defender estates that can handle third-party alerts themselves, since those get guidance only.
Unit 42 MDR is built into Cortex. Its responders contain active threats and remove malicious activity. Palo Alto Networks states up to a 90% reduction in mean time to respond.
Best for: Cortex XDR customers who want MDR built into the platform they already run.
Rapid7 runs MDR on its own SIEM and pulls in third-party data. Its analysts contain and remediate. Incident response is in the base Essentials package. It prices by endpoints, servers, and networks. Rapid7 added a separate MDR for Enterprise offering in April 2025.
Best for: Teams that want SIEM and MDR from one vendor, with IR in the base package.
Wayfinder MDR runs on the SentinelOne Singularity platform and launched in November 2025. It kills processes, isolates endpoints, and rolls back unauthorized changes. Your response policy sets the limits. SentinelOne says certified analysts investigate every alert, and it states a 3.3-minute average time to detect.
Best for: SentinelOne customers who want every alert reviewed under their own response policy.
Sophos works with 500+ integrations or its own stack. Its base tier stops an attack from spreading, then guides you to finish the job. MDR Plus adds full incident response with a dedicated lead. Sophos says its AI resolves 52% of MDR cases end to end, at 89 seconds from alert to automated response on those cases. It bought Secureworks in February 2025 and is a 2026 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for MDR, rated 4.8 out of 5 on 290 reviews in that report.
Best for: Buyers who want to choose their response depth by tier.
Zscaler closed its purchase of Red Canary in August 2025, and the service now sells as Zscaler MDR. It's vendor-agnostic, with containment playbooks that block URLs, isolate endpoints, and suspend users across network, endpoint, and identity. You choose which response actions your team starts and which run automatically.
Best for: Zscaler customers who want to set, action by action, what runs automatically.
Huntress and Cynet recur as often as some of the providers above. They, Blackpoint, Kaseya MDR (formerly RocketCyber), and Field Effect (formerly Covalence) sell largely to MSPs and smaller teams. Mandiant Managed Defense and TrendAI Vision One MDR also make shortlists. A newer group builds MDR solutions around AI agents: Exaforce, AirMDR, UnderDefense, Daylight, and TENEX.AI.
Three of these ten MDR vendors (Arctic Wolf, Microsoft, and Rapid7) publish no MDR speed figure, and the seven that do time different events. Each row uses the vendor's own wording and figures, as of November 2026.
| Provider | Runs on | Response, as the vendor describes it | Vendor-stated speed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arctic Wolf MDR | Open XDR, 200+ integrations | Containment "with humans in the loop"; remediation guided | Not stated | Mixed stacks, guided service |
| CrowdStrike Falcon Complete | Falcon, plus third-party data | "Full-cycle remediation on your behalf" | 1-minute median time to contain, endpoint | Falcon customers |
| eSentire MDR | Any vendor stack, 300+ integrations | Host isolation, user suspension; unlimited IR | 15-minute mean time to contain | IR in the contract |
| Expel MDR | Vendor-agnostic, 160+ tools | Automated and human-executed remediation | 14-minute mean time to remediate, high/critical | Keeping current tools |
| Microsoft Defender Experts MDR | Defender; Plan 2 adds Sentinel | Action or guided response on Defender workloads; no IR in either plan | Not stated | Microsoft estates |
| Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 MDR | Cortex | Contains threats, removes malicious activity | Up to 90% MTTR reduction | Cortex customers |
| Rapid7 MDR | Rapid7 SIEM, plus third-party data | Contains and remediates; IR in the base package | Not stated | SIEM plus MDR from one vendor |
| SentinelOne Wayfinder MDR | Singularity | Kills processes, isolates, rolls back per your policy | 3.3-minute average time to detect | SentinelOne customers |
| Sophos MDR | 500+ integrations, or the Sophos stack | Base tier stops the spread and guides you; MDR Plus adds full IR | 89 seconds, on the 52% of cases its AI resolves | Choosing response depth by tier |
| Zscaler MDR (formerly Red Canary) | Vendor-agnostic, plus Zscaler | Containment playbooks; you choose which actions run automatically | 10x faster response (no baseline stated) | Zscaler customers |
Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler publish relative claims, and the other five use four different clocks (time to contain, to remediate, to detect, and to automated response).
To choose an MDR provider, send each one on your shortlist the same five contract questions and compare the written answers before you compare price. Every MDR provider on this list says it responds. What that buys you is in the contract.
Response can mean an email with advice, a contained host, or a cleaned-up environment. Get the list of permitted actions, and who gets paged when one needs approval at night.
A published average tells you about last quarter. Only an SLA gives you something to enforce, so ask what happens when the provider misses it.
Microsoft's service covers high and medium severity; SentinelOne says every alert. Ask to see every closed alert with the reason it was dismissed.
MDR pricing is usually per endpoint, per user, or per asset, and the tier decides what that covers. Check incident response, log retention past the default, custom detections, and coverage below high severity.
If detections and case history live in the provider's platform, switching usually means rebuilding them. Ask what you get back, and in what format.
Q: What is the difference between MDR and EDR? EDR is software on each endpoint that records activity and can block or isolate a device. MDR is a service, run by people and now AI agents, that watches that telemetry around the clock and acts on what it finds. Most MDR providers run on an EDR, often their own, so buying MDR usually means buying or keeping one.
Q: What is the difference between MDR and XDR? XDR is a product, a single platform that pulls detections from endpoint, network, cloud, and identity tools into one console. MDR is a service that works alerts from tools like EDR, SIEM, or XDR around the clock. Several MDR providers, including Arctic Wolf and Palo Alto Networks, run their MDR on their own XDR platform.
Q: How does MDR pricing work? MDR cost depends on the pricing unit and the tier. Pricing is usually per endpoint, per user, or per asset, quoted monthly or annually, and the tier decides what that covers. Rapid7 prices by endpoints, servers, and networks. Two quotes at the same per-endpoint price can differ on incident response, log retention, and which severities get investigated, so compare what the base tier includes.
Q: What is the difference between MDR and a SOC? An in-house SOC is a team you staff and run, and it decides which alerts get investigated and which actions run. MDR rents that work from a provider, under a contract that sets those limits. For a team with at least one analyst, the MDR alternative to price first is an in-house AI SOC, where an AI SOC Agent investigates every alert without shifts. Without anyone on staff to approve and steer, MDR is still the better buy.
If you have analysts who can't get through the queue, rely on an AI SOC instead of adding an MDR contract. An AI SOC investigates every alert in the tools you already own, and your team sets which actions it takes without sign-off. With MDR, that list is negotiated into a contract and run by the provider. Here's what changes with Simbian's AI SOC Agent.
Expect a ramp. The Agent starts by confirming it sees the same data your team sees, then converges on your team's verdicts over 60 to 90 days.
No analyst on staff to approve what it proposes? Then buy an MDR that runs on an AI SOC. If you have even one, book a demo and watch an AI SOC Agent work your own queue.
