Binary Defense MDR vs Field Effect MDR comparison

Binary Defense and Field Effect are both solutions in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category. Binary Defense is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.4, while Field Effect is ranked #3 with an average rating of 9.2. Binary Defense holds a 0.6% mindshare in MDR, compared to Field Effect’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Binary Defense users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Field Effect users who would recommend it.

Binary Defense MDR

Read 16 Binary Defense MDR reviews

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2,121 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Field Effect MDR

Read 30 Field Effect MDR reviews

4,921 Views
4,921 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Binary Defense MDR

Field Effect MDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

Binary Defense MDR and Field Effect MDR are major players in the cybersecurity market, each with their unique strengths in threat detection and response. Binary Defense appears to have the upper hand in patient customization and rapid response, while Field Effect is favored for its continuous vigilance and intuitive action recommendations.

Features:Binary Defense MDR boasts seamless integration, swift response times, and unparalleled customization capabilities, providing a strong support system with detailed documentation. Field Effect MDR emphasizes continuous monitoring, including cloud protection, and offers effective notifications coupled with automated responses and actionable recommendations.

Room for Improvement:Binary Defense MDR users seek enhanced language support, better API integration, and expanded SIEM capabilities, citing a need for improved staffing stability and proactive account management. Field Effect MDR users point to desired enhancements in patch management, interface improvements, and more comprehensive third-party integrations, noting deficiencies in DNS coverage and email security.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:Binary Defense MDR is renowned for excellent customer service and streamlined deployment across various cloud environments, supported by a highly responsive team. Field Effect MDR offers strong support and multi-environment compatibility, though some users note complexities in integrations that could be simplified for smaller clients.

Pricing and ROI:Binary Defense MDR provides competitive pricing viewed as cost-effective compared to in-house security costs, delivering significant ROI through enhanced security posture and reduced resource needs. Field Effect MDR has reasonable pricing, particularly appealing with its user-based model, though justifying the spend can be challenging within tight budget constraints. Both platforms offer value in security monitoring and management, reducing the risk of costly breaches.

To learn more, read our detailed Binary Defense MDR vs. Field Effect MDR Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Binary Defense MDR vs. Field Effect MDR

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Binary Defense MDR

Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

8th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Field Effect MDR

Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

3rd

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of Binary Defense MDR is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Field Effect MDR is 3.1%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

Featured Reviews

Rich Ullom

AVP, IT Security Compliance and Audit/Information Security Officer at The Western Reserve Group

Worth the money, fantastic communication, and fast service with an average response time of about four minutes on an alert

This is my third SOC. I have never had anybody react as well. So, it's hard for me to provide something that they could do better because I'm really happy with them. I just signed another three-year contract with them. I don't find any downside to them, but if I have to put one, it would be consistent manpower or staffing. The only area where the solution can be improved is going to be with people. As they grow, they are struggling with the same thing that every other company is, which is getting talent and getting that talent to stay, but they've just revised their tiering system to go from a flat analyst and manager to a three-tier solution where it goes through two or three before it gets elevated. That seems to have worked out well, so if one level misses it, the next one picks it up, and it works out fine. Consistent staffing is the only challenge they have because when you're hiring level-one analysts, you go through them pretty quickly. You'll probably hire them at 50K or 55K, and after they do it for a year, they find out they can make 85K somewhere else, and they bounce. So, their turnover is a little high, but that's it.

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Anmol Nagpal

Operations Support Specialist at SupportMyMac

Effective MDR with great support and an easy setup

The feature I've found the move valuable is the 24/7 monitoring. We are a small organization that supports a LOT of endpoints and clients. Without this tool, it would be impossible for us to confidently tell clients that we are secure. Alongside this, the ability for Field Effect to make decisions on its own based on what it has learned from all the "training data" that we have provided in the past. It will only get better over time. We have had some false positives; for example, using a legitimate networking scanning tool from the terminal has been blocked. However, we were actually impressed when something so simple was caught!

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"With Binary Defense, we don't just get an alert, but also a detailed rundown of why they're alerting us on it. They tell us what was executed, or the username, script, or IP. That way, we're not wasting time investigating."

"The best part about Binary Defense MDR is that it runs on everything, and they keep an eye on things 24/7."

"Among the valuable features are the agent, continuous reporting, and dashboard. It has all the features we need and we haven't had to customize it, other than turning on certain features that we wanted."

"The speed at which their services are reactive is valuable. Nowadays, when a threat hits an endpoint, you've got minutes, not hours or days. Their average response time is about four minutes on an alert. For anything that needs to be sent to us, it's about fourteen minutes, which is pretty good. They're the third SOC that I've used in fifteen years. By far, they are the quickest ones to act. When you're looking at prevention, that's a key factor."

"The case interface is Binary Defense MDR's most valuable feature."

"The biggest aspect for us is that they are able to conform to our environment and utilize our tools. That way, we still maintain ownership of all the data and access to the applications, and we never lose control of the ability to run the solution ourselves if we need to."

"Our mean time to response has gone down. We're much faster with direct response and have more investigative capabilities than we did before."

"One of the main benefits of Binary Defense MDR is the ability to easily meet with their support team to discuss any issues we encounter."

More Binary Defense MDR pros

"The automated response feature is incredibly effective."

"Direct and easy and quick communication to the Field Effect cybersecurity team experts has led to quick resolution of any problems or alerts."

"Hackers are trying to breach a business when they least expect it - that's often at night, weekends, and holidays. Covalence never sleeps or misses a second of monitoring."

"There are user notifications about our cloud solutions and access, meaning authentication and possible breaches. Overall, the notifications and alerts are valuable. There are also new features like the DNS protection, which is quite good."

"The AROs have been incredibly helpful."

"I appreciate the "set it and forget it" nature of Field Effect Covalence."

"The solution's advanced detection behaviors, automated notifications and responses, and automated remediation behaviors are valuable features."

"I get alerts if there's malicious activity or restrictions, should they any suspicious activity emerge."

More Field Effect MDR pros

Cons

"The most significant area for improvement is in support for non-English speakers; we're a global organization, so many of our users are not English speakers, which can make interacting with them a challenge. There's no Chinese language support, so we must rely on what we can do with the internet. We don't expect Binary Defense to build a language staff, but details can get lost in translation when we assume the whole world speaks English."

"It's hard to think of anything that they need to improve on, but just to point out something, I would like to see them provide advanced XDR."

"I don't find any downside to them, but if I have to put one, it would be consistent manpower or staffing. The only area where the solution can be improved is going to be with people. As they grow, they are struggling with the same thing that every other company is, which is getting talent and getting that talent to stay, but they've just revised their tiering system to go from a flat analyst and manager to a three-tier solution where it goes through two or three before it gets elevated. That seems to have worked out well, so if one level misses it, the next one picks it up, and it works out fine."

"We found a couple of bugs in the user interface."

"The only area I see for improvement with Binary Defense is their service portal. It could benefit from some enhancements."

"The current reporting system could benefit from improvement."

"I would like to get more reports from Binary Defense about what they're blocking."

"We found that an earlier version of the agent had high memory usage and that was a bit concerning, but we raised the concern with their support team and they immediately replied that they had noticed the same thing and had a candidate fix already available... it totally fixed the issue."

More Binary Defense MDR cons

"I would like Covalence to include patching."

"I'd like improved visibility into the backend data where logs are stored, along with integrations with a wider range of products."

"They could use more third-party integrations with other MSP tools."

"I'd suggest that Field Effect focus more on including things like phishing simulation and cybersecurity training."

"While Covalence addresses our notification and visibility needs, it falls short in keeping information up-to-date, which is where our MSP comes in to supplement its functionality."

"Field Effect MDR could broaden its cloud application integrations to integrate better with Office 365, Azure, Salesforce, etc. They integrate about 15 to 20 out of the box. I'd love to see a lot more than that."

"I'd love the price to be a little bit less."

"There are tags for security threats, but I only view them. I do not action anything. I just see what is happening. Sometimes, they are a little bit vague, and I am unsure what they mean, so I leave that to the IT experts. Overall, we are quite satisfied with their product and how it is working."

More Field Effect MDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Binary Defense has changed its pricing model from being primarily based on the volume of data to one based on escalations and incidents they handle."

"The pricing is very good. They are definitely competitive and they were lower at the time that we went with them."

"The pricing isn't that bad, it's very competitive. I don't feel that it's over-priced and I don't feel that it's under-priced."

"After we acquired this platform, we met with a number of different vendors. Binary Defense came in with a proposal that was surprisingly affordable. In fact, we were able to recoup the cost of their services within a short period of time. This is because Binary Defense is able to provide the same level of security as a team of two or three in-house analysts but at a fraction of the cost. As a result, Binary Defense is saving us an estimated $250,000 to $300,000 per year."

"From the initial cost that Binary Defense came in with, we pared it down quite a bit over the course of 30 or 60 days. My leadership would say that their cost was high, but realistically, they were in line with the market."

"It has been good. We have saved money, and we have a better product."

"The solution's price is spot on; if anything, it's slightly below the norm for most services. Compared to building the same team internally, it would cost more to create the same amount of capability than what we get from an external team. Price-wise, Binary Defense is in a great spot."

"It's valued at the right price. Even with the number of endpoints we have, we don't feel that it's a lot more than any competitor. In fact, it might be less expensive when you look at the fact that you're getting a full flex SOC out of it along with the tools."

More Binary Defense MDR pricing and cost advice

"Field Effect is fairly priced from my perspective. You get a lot of bang for the buck with this and a level of visibility that provides you with greater peace of mind knowing that the system is carefully monitored. You also have automated responses for known malicious behavior at any time of the day. Someone could have their Office 365 mailbox compromised at 2 in the morning on a Saturday when most people are asleep or not paying attention, and the system can prevent an issue in an automated way."

"The licensing model itself is solid, but we're ironing out some inconsistencies in how customer profiles are configured."

"Covalence is cost-effective."

"We're currently enrolled in the volume package, which offers tiered pricing based on usage."

"It is on the high end, but it is worth it for the service that you get from them."

"The cost of the solution is high."

"The shift to a per-user pricing model and the introduction of a base price for the on-premises or virtual appliance has been particularly advantageous."

"It is a little pricey. It is a little on the high end, but we are continuing to use it. We signed the contract and have not canceled, so we find value in having it."

More Field Effect MDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

51%

Retailer

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Binary Defense MDR?

The most valuable feature is reviewing tickets and the notes added by technicians.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Binary Defense MDR?

It has been good. We have saved money, and we have a better product. We are a company that has become an enterprise from a small medium business in two years. Our company passed a certain dollar ma...

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What needs improvement with Binary Defense MDR?

We are going to have a meeting with them the following Monday. It will be our first quarterly business review. Half of it is going to be looking at new products and new functions that they are brin...

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What do you like most about Field Effect Covalence?

It is very user-friendly. We have regular reports to see what is going on.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Field Effect Covalence?

Pricing was initially a concern, but the recent updates have resolved that by offering a more accessible buying cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Field Effect Covalence?

Some resources lack experience, but issues can be escalated to more knowledgeable contacts. Pricing needed improvement, which was addressed by reducing the buying cost recently. Like any product, s...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Binary Defense MDR

August 2025

Download Binary Defense MDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Field Effect MDR

August 2025

Download Field Effect MDR product report

Also Known As

Binary Defense Vision, Binary Defense Managed Detection and Response, Binary Defense Managed Detection & Response

Field Effect Covalence

Overview

Binary Defense provides a Managed Detection and Response service using an Open XDR strategy that detects and isolates threats early in the attack lifecycle. Expert security analysts in the Binary Defense Security Operations Center leverage an attacker’s mindset, monitoring your environments for security events 24x7x365 and acting as an extension of your security teams. When a security event occurs, Binary Defense analysts triage, disposition, and prioritize the event. Analysts conduct full kill chain analysis and supply tactical and strategic mitigation recommendations to your security team with the goal of increasing your organization’s security posture against the latest adversary threats.

Visit us online at https://www.binarydefense.com

Binary Defense

Field Effect MDR (Managed Detection and Response) is a comprehensive cybersecurity solution designed to protect your organization's IT infrastructure. It provides multi-layered threat protection for endpoints, networks, and cloud services, ensuring no gaps in defense. The product features 24/7 threat detection and monitoring, combining advanced technology with human expertise from a Security Operations Center (SOC) to identify potential threats early. It includes automated threat response capabilities to block malware, isolate compromised devices, and prevent further damage. Additionally, it offers vulnerability management to identify and remediate system weaknesses, and risk management to analyze and mitigate risks, providing robust security for your organization.

Field Effect

Sample Customers

Securitas USA, Black Hills Energy, Lincoln Electric,The J.M. Smuckers Company, New York Community Bank, State of Connecticut, NCR

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Binary Defense MDR vs. Field Effect MDR

July 2025

Free Report: Binary Defense MDR vs. Field Effect MDR

Find out what your peers are saying about Binary Defense MDR vs. Field Effect MDR and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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