Vendor briefing / Sophos

Sophos MDR pricing / 2026

Sophos publishes no MDR rate, and neither does any reseller we could find. This page covers what is verifiable instead: how Essentials and Complete differ, what the licensing units are, what to make your partner put in writing, and how Sophos MDR works alongside non-Sophos EDR tools.

Essentials vs Complete at a glance

Both Sophos MDR tiers include 24x7 monitoring, threat hunting, and active threat containment. The single decision is who finishes the response. Essentials contains the threat and then hands you guided neutralisation, on a non-contractual response target, with full incident response sold as a separate engagement. Complete adds full incident response with a dedicated response lead, end-to-end neutralisation by Sophos analysts with no hourly caps, a contractual response SLA on high-severity cases, and a $1M breach protection warranty. Sophos attaches no public price to either tier. See the full Essentials vs Complete breakdown.

MDR Essentials

Price not published

24x7 monitoring, threat hunting, active containment
Guided neutralisation: you finish the cleanup
Full incident response is a separate engagement
No breach protection warranty

MDR Complete

Price not published

Everything in Essentials, plus:
Full incident response with a dedicated response lead
End-to-end neutralisation by Sophos, no hourly caps
Up to $1M breach protection warranty

For organisations without dedicated security staff, Complete is usually the right choice despite the higher cost. Sophos publishes service level targets rather than prices: 2 minutes from detection to case creation and 30 minutes from case creation to initial response action, per its MDR service tiers documentation. Full capability breakdown below.

What Sophos publishes

Nothing

no rate on any public page

Sophos's MDR product page carries no figure. Its Get Pricing page promises 'simple per-user and per-server pricing with no hidden extras' and then routes you to a sales form without showing a rate. The resellers carrying the SKUs list part numbers and terms but require a quote request. We previously published a $7-17 per endpoint per month band here and have removed it: we could not trace it to Sophos or to any named reseller. Re-checked 23 September 2026; the Get Pricing page still shows no rate.

Quick facts

TiersEssentials, Complete

Min. seatsNo hard minimum

DistributionChannel / MSP

Response target2 min to case, 30 min to action

Coverage24x7x365

Pricing modelPer-user and per-server

Published rateNone

Tier comparison

MDR Essentials vs MDR Complete

Capability	MDR Essentials	MDR Complete
Per user / year	Not published	Not published
24x7 monitoring	Yes	Yes
Threat hunting	Yes	Yes
Active threat response	Containment, guided neutralisation	Full neutralisation by Sophos
Incident response	Separate engagement	Full IR included, no hourly caps
Breach response warranty	No	Up to $1M
Response commitment	~30 min, non-contractual	60-min SLA, 90% of high-severity

The single biggest functional difference is who finishes the response. Both tiers contain the threat: Sophos analysts act to stop an attack and prevent it spreading. Under Essentials you then neutralise it yourself with their guidance, and full incident response is a separate engagement. Under Complete the Sophos team neutralises end-to-end with a dedicated response lead and no hourly caps, backed by the breach protection warranty: up to $1 million in response expenses, up to $1,000 per breached machine, and up to $100,000 toward a ransom payment, included at no extra charge per Sophos's own MDR Complete warranty terms. For organisations without dedicated security staff, Complete is usually the right choice despite the higher cost.

Contract terms

The terms Sophos actually sells on

Sophos licenses MDR on fixed multi-year terms, and this part is verifiable even though the prices are not. Reseller catalogues carry distinct SKUs per term for both the per-user and per-server products, which tells you the term options exist and which units they attach to. What no public source states is how much the longer terms save you, so we do not print a discount percentage.

1-year

SKU exists

Shortest term offered. Easiest out at renewal.

3-year

SKU exists

The common middle commitment. Ask what it saves against the 1-year rate.

5-year

SKU exists

Longest term offered. Locks the rate but limits flexibility.

Term availability confirmed from reseller catalogue listings for the Sophos Central MDR Essentials and MDR Complete SKUs, checked 7 September 2026. Those listings show the part numbers and terms but no prices. An earlier version of this page claimed 10-15% off at two years and 20-30% off at three; those percentages had no source and have been removed.

Watch for the renewal step

A multi-year lock shields you during the term but the renewal quote is where the increase lands. Because Sophos publishes no list rate, you have no external anchor to test that renewal against, which makes it worth agreeing the renewal mechanism in the original contract. Ask the partner for a renewal cap in writing before you sign, and get the year-one, year-three and renewal figures on the same sheet of paper.

Integrations

Sophos MDR with non-Sophos tools

Sophos MDR works as part of the broader Sophos XDR ecosystem and pulls telemetry from a wide list of integrations. Common third-party data sources covered:

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. The most common non-Sophos pairing. No EDR replacement required.
CrowdStrike Falcon. Sophos analysts can monitor your existing Falcon agents.
SentinelOne. Telemetry ingestion supported.
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Email, identity, and collaboration coverage.
AWS and Azure. Cloud telemetry across major hyperscalers.

This flexibility is one of Sophos MDR's clearest advantages over CrowdStrike Falcon Complete which requires the Falcon platform underneath. If you have invested in Microsoft Defender across the estate, Sophos MDR Essentials or Complete can layer on top without the migration overhead.

MSP delivery

Buying Sophos MDR through a managed service provider

Most SMBs encounter Sophos MDR through their MSP rather than directly. The MSP buys at partner pricing, marks up modestly, and wraps the service into a broader managed IT contract. This route has three advantages:

Single bill. MDR rolls into your existing MSP invoice rather than a separate vendor relationship.
First-line response. Your MSP handles tier-1 incident response and only escalates to Sophos when needed.
Bundled tooling. MSPs frequently package Sophos MDR with patching, backup, and Microsoft 365 management at a blended monthly price per seat.

The trade-off is that you cannot negotiate Sophos MDR pricing directly. Your MSP sets the markup, typically 20-40% above their partner cost. For organisations that want the flexibility to direct-quote, going through a Sophos partner reseller (rather than a full MSP) keeps the relationship closer to source.

Fit profile

Who Sophos MDR suits and who should look elsewhere

Best fit: mid-market organisations with 100-2,000 endpoints, businesses already using Sophos firewalls or endpoint protection, MSPs offering managed security to their clients, and organisations that want the ability to mix Sophos with Microsoft Defender or other EDR tools.

Poor fit: very small businesses (Huntress is cheaper at 50-100 seats), organisations that want direct vendor relationship without channel intermediary, and large enterprises that need named Concierge Security Team analysts (Arctic Wolf is the better fit there).

Looking for Sophos endpoint protection without the managed service?

For Sophos Intercept X (the EDR product underneath MDR), see Sophos pricing on edrcost.com. We used to quote a $30-80 per user per year band here and have dropped it: Sophos's endpoint Get Pricing page carries the same "simple per-user pricing with no hidden fees" line and the same quote form, with no rate anywhere on it.

Tool

Cost calculator

Model Sophos MDR spend.

Vendor

Huntress pricing

Budget alternative.

Guide

For small business

Affordable MDR options.

FAQ

Sophos MDR pricing questions

How much does Sophos MDR cost in 2026?

There is no honest answer to this from public sources, and we would rather say that than print a number. Sophos publishes no rate. Its MDR product page has no figure on it, and its own Get Pricing page states only that there is "simple per-user and per-server pricing with no hidden extras" before routing you to a sales form. The large resellers that carry the SKUs, including CDW, list the part numbers for MDR Essentials and MDR Complete on one, three and five year terms but show no price and require a quote request. We removed the per-user and per-endpoint bands this page used to carry because we could not trace them to any of that. What is verifiable is the structure: two tiers, per-user and per-server licensing, sold through partners. Re-checked 23 September 2026: the Get Pricing page still carries the same per-user and per-server line and still routes to a sales form without a rate.

What's the difference between MDR Essentials and MDR Complete?

MDR Essentials includes 24x7 monitoring, threat hunting, and active threat containment: the Sophos Ops team works to stop an attack and prevent it from spreading, then gives you guidance to neutralise it yourself. Full incident response is a separate engagement at this tier. MDR Complete adds full incident response with a dedicated response lead, complete threat neutralisation by Sophos analysts with no hourly caps, and a $1M breach protection warranty (up to $1,000 per compromised device and $100,000 toward ransom). Complete typically costs more than Essentials; exact pricing is set by your Sophos partner.

Why does Sophos sell through partners instead of directly?

Sophos has built its growth on a channel-led model where authorised partners and MSPs deliver pricing, deployment, and ongoing support. This makes pricing harder to publish but means you can often negotiate better terms through a partner with margin to spend. It also means MSPs can wrap Sophos MDR into their own managed service offering, which is a common SMB delivery path.

Does Sophos MDR work with non-Sophos endpoint protection?

Yes. Sophos MDR will integrate with Microsoft Defender, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne, and other major EDR platforms through their XDR ecosystem. This is a meaningful differentiator from CrowdStrike Falcon Complete which requires Falcon-only deployment. If you have an existing EDR investment, Sophos MDR is one of the easier ways to add managed analyst coverage without a full migration.

What does Sophos MDR cost for 250 endpoints?

We cannot tell you, and nor can anyone else without a quote. This page used to carry a $21,000 to $45,000 a year band for 250 endpoints; we have removed it for the same reason we removed the per-endpoint band above, which is that it traces to no Sophos page and no named reseller. What you can take to a partner call: Sophos licenses per user and per server, not per endpoint, so a 250-endpoint estate is the wrong unit to quote against in the first place. Count users and servers separately, ask for MDR Essentials and MDR Complete side by side, and ask for one, three and five year terms on the same sheet. Re-checked 23 September 2026.

Disclaimer

MDRCost.com is an independent pricing guide. We are not affiliated with any MDR vendor. Where a vendor publishes a price, we cite the vendor's own pricing page or marketplace listing with the date we checked it. Where a vendor does not publish, we say so and label the figure as channel-reported or as a third-party aggregate, naming the aggregator. We do not run our own buyer survey. Always request a direct quote for your environment.