CRITICALSTART vs Sophos MDR comparison

Critical Start and Sophos are both solutions in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category. Critical Start is ranked #33, while Sophos is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.8. Critical Start holds a 0.8% mindshare in MDR, compared to Sophos’s 6.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Critical Start users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

CRITICALSTART

Read 10 CRITICALSTART reviews

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100% willing to recommend

Sophos MDR

Read 32 Sophos MDR reviews

3,472 Views
3,472 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

CRITICALSTART

Sophos MDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

CRITICALSTART and Sophos MDR compete in the managed detection and response market. CRITICALSTART is noted for competitive pricing and strong support while Sophos MDR offers advanced features, potentially providing superior value depending on user needs.

Features: CRITICALSTART supports robust threat detection with customizable dashboards, real-time incident reporting, and a mobile app for remote management. Sophos MDR stands out with comprehensive threat intelligence, automated response capabilities, and an integrated dashboard for multiple security functions.

Room for Improvement: CRITICALSTART could enhance its tuning to reduce false positives, speed up the user interface, and improve integration with certain data sources. Sophos MDR might benefit from simplifying its deployment process, reducing initial costs, and improving global telemetry reach.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CRITICALSTART offers straightforward deployment and responsive customer service ensuring quick integration. Sophos MDR provides comprehensive setup with detailed guidance, though it may be seen as complex by some users.

Pricing and ROI: CRITICALSTART presents cost-effective setup options, offering clear ROI with efficient threat management. Sophos MDR has higher upfront costs but justifies it with enhanced threat protection suitable for organizations needing comprehensive security solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed CRITICALSTART vs. Sophos MDR Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART vs. Sophos MDR

July 2025

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Helped 865,384 peers since 2012

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

CRITICALSTART

Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

33rd

Average Rating

9.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (28th)

Sophos MDR

Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

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 CRITICALSTART is 0.8%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos MDR is 6.0%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

Featured Reviews

Preston Broesche

Director of Information Technology at Kirby Corporation

Saves my team time and alert fatigue, allowing us to concentrate on more important things

The Trusted Behavior Registry helps resolve alerts in the sense that CRITICALSTART is doing a lot of that initial triage for me. Out of a given 500,000 events and alerts, for example, that come through, they're taking out 495,000 of them. That only leaves me with a subset of that to actually have to triage, and that's where it benefits us. They take care of Tier-1 and Tier-2 triage. And the new mobile app is awesome. It is one of the best I've ever seen. It's much better than its predecessor. It's more intuitive, a whole lot easier to navigate and get where you need to go. It's less repetitive and just generally easier to use. It allows me to not have to be sitting at my computer all the time. I can be on my phone or tablet or wherever I'm at. It makes it a lot easier to answer tickets and do that kind of thing. Also, the intuitiveness of the updated user interface for the service is spot-on. It is much easier to navigate, and know where to navigate, in the newer interface. I've never had an issue with responsiveness. It's very quick and doesn't sit there and chug on anything. It's fast, it's efficient. It has enabled our SecOps team to take action faster because if you have multiple ways of connecting to it and actually getting your alerts answered and taking care of things fast, it is extremely helpful. All the information that you need to make a determination is usually in the alert itself that comes through the Zero-Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP). I don't find myself going back to the app itself very often. That still happens, but not as often. The ability to flow the information forward, from the alert standpoint, helps me because it saves me from running back to get the information. It's improved my efficiency. Finally, there haven't been any data sources that the service wasn't able to integrate with.

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Shaun Gordon

Chief Security Officer at Duxbury

Extensive data lake, ease of use is great and you can really get started very quickly

Sophos MDR is a service. MDR is managed detection and response. It's a managed security service. So instead of having an anti-malware, which in Sophos' case would be Intercept X, with MDR, they add human-led threat hunting. It's a managed service. So it's not a product that you sell the client per se. You're selling them a service, which is almost like an SLA, and that includes Cloud MDR. MDR is not a product. It's a service. The reality is that when it comes to the likes of SentinelOne, McAfee, CrowdStrike, ESET, and all the other players out there, they're single-product security companies. CrowdStrike is an anti-malware. That's one thing. ESET, same thing. But if you look at the other vendors, within the appliances, you're looking at Fortinet, Palo Alto, and Checkpoint. They only sell firewalls. That's all they do. When you deal with Sophos, they are the entire product suite. They sell firewalls. They sell Intercept X, which is their anti-malware, Intercept X for Server with anti-malware, email protection with ties into Office 365, and Sophos Plus encryption. All of these security products pull telemetry. So every time somebody hits a firewall, it's called, for argument's sake, that goes into their central data lake. All the firewalls around the world add that information to a data lake. Now, when you're dealing with Sophos, because of their exposure, because they've got so many different products, their data lake is a lot more extensive than competing vendors because they're not relying on one threat factor. They're not relying on one area of expertise. They're a global company. So, I can't compare their telemetry, for instance, to the likes of CrowdStrike. If CrowdStrike has probably started doing appliances, then the users will get that benefit as well. Sophos is the only vendor that does do that. It's like hiring a security team. Sophos do things differently in that they've got more telemetry and more insight into a network because they offer a variety of products. The other part about it is Sophos MDR; the service, unlike other vendors like CrowdStrike, is not limited to their products. If you are running CrowdStrike in your company, for instance, you can get their integration packs, in which case Sophos will manage your CrowdStrike system for you. Whereas with CrowdStrike, it's only CrowdStrike. You are locked into that vendor. So Sophos offers that flexibility. It's a multi-vendor service as opposed to SentinelOne or CrowdStrike, which is a single-vendor service. For instance, if I'm running Sophos, I would like to go with CrowdStrike MDR. I would have to remove my entire security investment, in this case, Sophos, and reinstall CrowdStrike in order to use their service. Sophos doesn't have that problem. If you've got CrowdStrike and you've already invested in CrowdStrike, cool. You stay on CrowdStrike. They will still manage it for you.

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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

"The quick interaction between the agents is the most valuable feature. If we have questions, they're quick to answer. If we make a change to our system, they quickly make the changes that are necessary to filter the logs correctly."

"The new mobile app is awesome. It is one of the best I've ever seen. It's much better than its predecessor. It's more intuitive, a whole lot easier to navigate and get where you need to go. It's less repetitive and just generally easier to use. It allows me to not have to be sitting at my computer all the time. I can be on my phone or tablet or wherever I'm at. It makes it a lot easier to answer tickets and do that kind of thing."

"Customer service and their response are phenomenal. I would give their customer support a nine point five (out of 10). Our easy access to their SOC analyst, sales team, and leadership team instills confidence in me that they are there for us 24/7."

"I also use their mobile app. It's very easy to use and very convenient to be able to respond to alerts wherever you are. I love the app. You can respond and communicate, per ticket, with their SOC in near real-time. The response is very quick."

"Their Zero Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP) engine, which is kind of their correlation engine, is by far and away one of the best in the business. We can filter and utilize different lists to build out different alerts, such as, what to alert on and when not to alert. This engine helps reduce our number of alerts and false positives."

"From where we were prior to going into them, the service has increased our analysts’ efficiency to the point that they can focus on other areas of the business. It gives me the ability to allow analysts to do Level 3 and 4 work and stay out of the weeds of the alerts, where you tend to get alert fatigue. The service takes care of much of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 triage. It is more effective than what we had been used to, because it allows the filtering of Level 1 and Level 2 type alerts to be taken care of. This leaves less for us to handle, which is a good thing."

"There is a team of people who monitor our traffic and processes 24/7, so if anything raises a flag or alert, it will escalate back to me right away. That's the most incredible part: Humans working behind the scenes 24/7 to monitor our networks."

"My impression of the transparency of the data is that it has good detail. It allows you to see how many events have come in, how many of those events have made it down to their analysts to review, and then however many from their analysts to be able to close out, have been able to been escalated to us. It's a good metric that we can share with my management. They see the value of what the SOC is bringing on top of what my team is already doing."

More CRITICALSTART pros

"The initial setup is quick and simple. A couple of clicks, and you're up and running."

"It is a scalable solution."

"The product’s most valuable feature is ease of use."

"The tool's ability to work with security threats is competitive. The best part is monitoring and the way we receive automated emails and updates. When an issue arises, a ticket automatically gets raised, clearly outlining the necessary actions to be taken from our end."

"The solution provides the best security features."

"The product’s most valuable feature is rapid response."

"The automated threat hunting feature and integration capabilities are valuable."

"I like Sophos MDR's inbuilt feature for DLP (Data Loss Prevention)."

More Sophos MDR pros

Cons

"The UI has become slower but it's not something I would call them out on."

"It has frustrated us that they don't have a native Slack integration, because most things do now. That's something we've asked for, for years, and it just doesn't really seem like it's a priority."

"During the six-month integration and rollout, there were some bumpy roads along the way. There were communication breakdowns between the project manager, CRITICALSTART leadership, and us (as the customer). I expressed my displeasure during the integration in their inability to effectively communicate when there were holdups or issues. They were going through some growing pains at that time, but they have been right there for us ever since."

"In terms of responsiveness, when I open up an alert, sometimes it takes a bit of time to load. However, it only happened once or twice."

"The biggest room for improvement is not necessarily in their service or offering, but in the products that they support. I would like them to further their knowledge and ability to integrate with those tools. They have base integrations with everything, and we haven't come across anything. They should just continue to build on that API interface between their applications and other third-party consoles."

"They just did a user interface overhaul to the website portal that you use for troubleshooting tickets. The old one was fine. The new one is not intuitive..."

"The updated UI is actually pretty bad. Regarding the intuitiveness, it is fairly easy to use, but the responsiveness, on a scale of one to 10, is a one. It's really poor performance."

"There is room for improvement with the new UI, and that's about it. I would like to see a more intuitive design."

More CRITICALSTART cons

"There is room for improvement in performance and upgrades."

"The service could enhance its scope, particularly in managing firewalls."

"Sophos is not integrating the same console and umbrella with its product."

"Multitenancy features of Sophos Managed Threat Response should be improved. You cannot use the solution for multiple clients."

"Maybe the reporting needs improvement."

"One of the limitations that we have found is with communications and the languages in different countries."

"The solution's integration should be made easier because it is difficult."

"The technical team for Sophos MDR is not so good since they take a long time, like a week, to provide a solution to a simple case or problem we face in our company."

More Sophos MDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are contractual penalties if their SLAs are not met. This commitment was very important in our decision to go with this service, because not having downtime is extremely important to us. The providers has not missed an SLA in the 18 months that I have worked with them."

"As far as the expense goes, it's very competitive pricing and the services you get are almost like you have a person on your team."

"The pricing of other services was so insane that they weren't even an option."

"The pricing has always been competitive. They have always been good to us. They will make it a fight. They don't try to hide anything; it's always been fully transparent and well-worth what we pay for it."

"I've told CRITICALSTART that I think the managed service they provide is cheaper than it should be. It's a really good deal."

"Overall, for what I'm paying for it, and the benefit I'm getting out of it, it is right where it needs to be, if not a little bit in my favor. For what it costs me to actually have this service, I could afford one internal person to do that job, but now I have a team of 10 or more who are doing that job, and they don't sleep because they work shifts."

"It costs a lot for what we felt comfortable to spend."

"Sophos MDR is less expensive than other products like Fortinet or Palo Alto."

"The cost of the solution is based on how many users use it."

"The solution has subscription-based pricing plans."

"Sophos MDR is not a cheap product. Compared with other solutions in the market, Sophos MDR is available at a good price, especially considering its performance."

"Compared to other tools, Sophos has a pretty good price."

"I rate Sophos MDR’s pricing a seven or eight out of ten."

"The price falls somewhere in the middle range."

"The product is reasonably priced considering the cybersecurity features."

More Sophos MDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Real Estate/Law Firm

12%

Healthcare Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Retailer

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What do you like most about Sophos MDR?

The user doesn't need a technician; it offers 24/7 support to identify and manage your infrastructure and take complete care of any technological incidents.

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What needs improvement with Sophos MDR?

I don't have many suggestions for improvement in Sophos MDR as it performs quite well. It would be beneficial to have the ability to pull a report of all incident responses within a tenant, with ca...

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What advice do you have for others considering Sophos MDR?

I believe Sophos MDR pricing is reasonable for my customers. I would recommend those planning to use Sophos MDR to consider what financial impact a compromise could have on their organization and c...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART

August 2025

Download CRITICALSTART product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos MDR

July 2025

Download Sophos MDR product report

Also Known As

Critical Start, CriticalStart

Sophos Managed Threat Response

Overview

The cybersecurity landscape is growing more complex by the day with the arrival of new threats and new tools supposedly designed for combating them. The problem is it’s all creating more noise and confusion for security professionals to sort through.

CRITICALSTART is the only MDR provider committed to eliminating acceptable risk and leaving nothing to chance. They believe that companies should never have to settle for “good enough.” Their award-winning portfolio includes end-to-end Professional Services and Managed Detection and Response (MDR). CRITICALSTART MDR puts a stop to alert fatigue by leveraging the Zero Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP) plus the industry-leading Trusted Behavior Registry, which eliminates false positives at scale by resolving known-good behaviors. Driven by 24x7x365 human-led, end-to-end monitoring, investigation and remediation of alerts, their on-the-go threat detection and response capabilities are enabled via a fully interactive MOBILESOC app.

Critical Start

Threat Notification Isn’t the Solution – It’s a Starting Point
Other managed detection and response (MDR) services simply notify you of attacks or suspicious events. Then it’s up to you to manage things from there.

With Sophos MTR, your organization is backed by an elite team of threat hunters and response experts who take targeted actions on your behalf to neutralize even the most sophisticated threats.

Sophos

Buyer's Guide

CRITICALSTART vs. Sophos MDR

July 2025

Free Report: CRITICALSTART vs. Sophos MDR

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