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Tier comparison / Sophos MDR

Sophos MDR Essentials vs Complete / 2026

Both tiers share the same 24x7 monitoring and threat hunting. The single decision that separates them is who finishes the response, and whether you get a contractual SLA plus a $1M breach protection warranty. Here is the full breakdown, and an honest account of why neither tier carries a published price.

The one decision

Sophos MDR Essentials and Complete both include 24x7x365 monitoring, threat hunting, and active threat containment by the Sophos SOC. The difference is who finishes the response. Under Essentials, Sophos contains the threat and hands you guided neutralisation; full incident response is a separate paid engagement. Under Complete, Sophos runs full-scale incident response end to end with no hourly caps, backed by a dedicated response lead, a contractual 60-minute SLA for 90% of high-severity cases, and a $1M breach protection warranty.

MDR Essentials

Price not published

  • 24x7 monitoring, threat hunting, active containment
  • Guided neutralisation: you finish the cleanup
  • Non-contractual ~30-min response target
  • Full incident response is a separate engagement
  • No breach protection warranty

MDR Complete

Price not published

  • Everything in Essentials, plus:
  • Full-scale incident response, no hourly caps
  • Dedicated Incident Response Lead
  • Contractual 60-min SLA, 90% of high-severity cases
  • Up to $1M breach protection warranty

If you have no in-house security team to execute remediation, Complete is almost always the right choice despite the higher cost. The full capability and cost breakdown is below.

Feature comparison

Essentials vs Complete, line by line

CapabilityMDR EssentialsMDR Complete
Per user / yearNot publishedNot published
24x7x365 monitoringYesYes
Threat huntingYesYes
Active threat containmentYesYes
Threat neutralisationGuided: you finish itFull, by Sophos analysts
Full incident responseSeparate paid engagementIncluded, no hourly caps
Dedicated Incident Response LeadNoYes (for confirmed incidents)
Analyst response commitment~30 min, non-contractual60-min SLA, 90% of high-severity
Breach protection warrantyNoUp to $1M
Works with non-Sophos EDRYes (via XDR)Yes (via XDR)

The biggest functional gap is incident response. Both tiers contain the threat and stop it spreading. Under Essentials you then neutralise it yourself with Sophos guidance, and any deep, end-to-end response is billed as a separate engagement. Under Complete the Sophos team runs the full response with a dedicated lead and no hourly caps, backed by the contractual 60-minute SLA and the $1M warranty. For an organisation without dedicated security staff, that included IR is the line that matters most.

The warranty, exactly

What the $1M breach protection warranty actually covers

The breach protection warranty is included at no extra charge with MDR Complete only. The published limits:

$1,000

per breached managed endpoint

Reimbursement is capped per endpoint, for the lesser of each paid-up licence or each breached endpoint.

$1M

aggregate per year

Total reimbursable response expenses across all claims in any one year.

$100,000

ransomware payment cap

A claim for a ransomware payment is limited to a maximum of $100,000 per claim.

$5,000

minimum to file a claim

You need demonstrable out-of-pocket expenses of at least $5,000 spent in direct response to qualify.

Read the warranty as a backstop, not the headline reason

The warranty is real and meaningful, but the day-to-day value of Complete is the full incident response included at no hourly cost and the dedicated response lead. The warranty is what you fall back on if a breach still causes loss; the included IR is what reduces the chance you get there. Weigh the upgrade on the IR coverage first.

Cost by tier

What to get quoted, since neither tier is priced in public

Channel-reported per-user pricing, before multi-year and volume discounts. Sophos sells through partners, so treat these as planning bands rather than a quote.

Ask your partner forEssentialsCompleteWhy it matters
Per-user rate at your seat countQuoteQuoteThe only number that binds anyone. Get both tiers on one sheet.
Per-server rateQuoteQuoteServers are licensed separately and are easy to miss in a headline total.
1, 3 and 5 year figuresQuoteQuoteDistinct SKUs exist per term, so the saving is real but unpublished.
Renewal mechanismQuoteQuoteWith no public list rate you have no anchor to test a renewal against.

This table used to model Essentials and Complete annual costs at 100, 250 and 500 users. Every cell in it was arithmetic on a per-user band we could not source, so the modelled costs have been replaced with the questions that actually get you a number. Sophos publishes no rate, checked 7 September 2026.

On the tier decision itself, price is not the deciding factor and it should not be. Complete includes full incident response with no hourly caps, which is the line item you cannot forecast and cannot easily buy in a hurry. If you have no in-house team to finish a response, that inclusion is the reason to choose Complete, whatever the two quotes come back at.

Model your Sophos MDR spend →

Decision guide

Which tier should you choose?

Choose Essentials if

  • You have a capable internal IT or security team that can execute remediation with guidance.
  • You already hold an incident response retainer elsewhere, or accept buying IR ad hoc.
  • Budget is the binding constraint and you want 24x7 detection at the lowest Sophos entry point.
  • You want managed monitoring layered on an existing Microsoft Defender or third-party EDR estate.

Choose Complete if

  • You have no in-house security staff to finish an incident, which is most mid-market buyers.
  • You want a contractual response SLA, not a best-effort target, for high-severity cases.
  • You want predictable IR cost: full response included with no hourly caps and no surprise retainer.
  • The $1M breach protection warranty matters to your board, insurer, or compliance posture.

For the wider context, the cost of either Sophos tier still sits below CrowdStrike Falcon Complete and is broadly comparable to Arctic Wolf at the same seat count, while Huntress remains the cheaper option for small businesses that do not need the warranty or included IR.

Vendor

Sophos MDR pricing

Full pricing, partner model, integrations.

Tool

Cost calculator

Model Sophos MDR spend by seat count.

Vendor

Huntress pricing

Cheaper SMB alternative.

FAQ

Sophos MDR Essentials vs Complete questions

What is the difference between Sophos MDR Essentials and Complete?
Both tiers give you 24x7x365 monitoring, threat hunting, and active threat containment by the Sophos SOC. The single decision that separates them is who finishes the response. Essentials contains the threat and then hands you guided neutralisation, with full incident response sold as a separate engagement. Complete adds full-scale incident response at no extra cost (threats are fully removed, not just contained, with no hourly caps), a dedicated Incident Response Lead, a contractual 60-minute response SLA for 90% of high-severity cases, and a $1 million breach protection warranty. Essentials carries only a non-contractual 30-minute response target and no warranty.
How much do Sophos MDR Essentials and Complete cost?
Sophos publishes no price for either tier, so we do not print one. Its MDR product page carries no figure, its Get Pricing page promises simple per-user and per-server pricing and then routes you to a sales form, and the resellers carrying the SKUs list part numbers and contract terms but require a quote request. We previously showed roughly $80-130 per user per year for Essentials and $140-200+ for Complete; neither band was traceable to Sophos or to a named reseller and both have been removed. What is verifiable is the structure: two tiers, per-user and per-server licensing, one, three and five year terms. Ask your partner for the per-user rate, the per-server rate, the term and the renewal mechanism in writing. Longer terms are a real lever because Sophos sells them as distinct SKUs, but it does not publish what they save, so we no longer quote a discount percentage or a worked 250-user total. Checked 7 September 2026.
Is the Sophos MDR Complete breach protection warranty worth the upgrade?
The warranty reimburses up to $1,000 per breached managed endpoint, capped at $1 million in aggregate per year, with ransomware payments capped at $100,000 per claim and a $5,000 minimum out-of-pocket threshold to file. It is included at no extra charge with Complete. The warranty itself is a backstop, not the main reason to upgrade; the bigger value is the full incident response included at no hourly cost and the dedicated response lead. For organisations without in-house security staff, that included IR is usually the deciding factor.
Does Sophos MDR Essentials include incident response?
Not full incident response. Essentials includes 24x7 monitoring, threat hunting, and active containment: Sophos analysts act to stop an attack and prevent it from spreading, then give you guidance to neutralise it yourself. Deep, end-to-end incident response under Essentials is a separate paid engagement. Full-scale incident response with no hourly caps is included only in MDR Complete.
Which Sophos MDR tier should a business with no security team choose?
Complete, in almost every case. If you have no in-house security staff to finish a response, the guided-neutralisation model in Essentials leaves the hardest part of an incident on your desk. Complete's included full incident response, dedicated response lead, and contractual 60-minute SLA exist for exactly that situation. Essentials makes sense when you have a capable internal IT or security team that can execute remediation steps with Sophos guidance.
Do both Sophos MDR tiers work with non-Sophos endpoint protection?
Yes. Both Essentials and Complete integrate with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne, and other major EDR platforms through the Sophos XDR ecosystem, plus Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, AWS, and Azure telemetry. The tier you choose does not change which tools Sophos can monitor; it changes how far Sophos takes the response once a threat is found.

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.