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CRITICALSTART vs Sophos MDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 3, 2024

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)
30th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (27th)
Sophos MDR
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of CRITICALSTART is 0.9%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos MDR is 4.4%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Sophos MDR4.4%
CRITICALSTART0.9%
Other94.7%
Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

Featured Reviews

JH
Sr. Manager, Security Engineering at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
The transparency of data in the platform is perfect: You see everything as they are seeing it
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. The service's Trusted Behavior Registry helps the provider solve every alert. The way that they have it built out is very intelligent. The way every alert comes in, it gets triaged one direction or another. If it is already a false positive, then it is still getting addressed and reviewed on a regular cadence. Also, true positive alerts get escalated to the appropriate personnel. Its mobile app is great. The ability just to be able to quick reference and see what's coming in when you're on the move or go. You don't always need to have your computer or laptop handy, because you can operate it just from the mobile app. It can communicate with analysts, which is great. The mobile app is great at affecting the efficiency of our security operations. Those guys are using it throughout the day, whether that be at the office, home, or off hours. Typically, they triage from the mobile app. Then, if an escalation needs to be done on a computer, they will pull out a computer. We were on the original UI for a few years, so the updated UI has been a refreshing change. It has significantly more ability to filter and translate data, then load that data. It is rather intuitive to click through for some of our junior analysts or interns, especially as we are starting to onboard and teach them different aspects of the security operations team.
Ahmed_Fahmy - PeerSpot reviewer
Operations Technical Lead at IT Supporters
Comprehensive management and support continuously enhance threat detection and response
Based on user feedback and reviews, here are some areas where Sophos MDR could be improved and suggestions for additional features that could be included in future releases: Areas for Improvement: ---------------------- * Resource Utilization: Some users have noted that Sophos MDR can be resource-intensive, which may impact system performance. Optimizing the software to be less demanding on system resources could enhance the overall user experience. * Support Responsiveness: While the dedicated MDR team is highly praised, the standard support has received mixed. Improving the responsiveness and effectiveness of the general support team could address this concern. * Integration with Other Tools: Enhancing integration capabilities with a wider range of third-party security tools and platforms could provide a more seamless experience for users who rely on multiple security. Suggested Additional Features: ------------------------------ * Advanced Reporting and Analytics: Introducing more detailed and customizable reporting and analytics features could help organizations better understand their security posture and the effectiveness of the MDR service. * Automated Incident Response Playbooks: Providing automated playbooks for common security incidents could help organizations respond more quickly and effectively to. * Enhanced Threat Intelligence: Incorporating more advanced threat intelligence capabilities, including real-time updates and predictive analytics, could help organizations stay ahead of emerging. * User Training and Awareness Programs: Offering integrated user training and awareness programs as part of the MDR service could help organizations improve their overall security culture and reduce the risk of human error

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main difference between the other options and this one is the quality of the personnel within the SOC. It's their knowledge and depth and the way they handle customers."
"Outside of using the platform to manage alerts, the feature of the service that we get the most value from is being able to reach out to them and say, "Hey, we might go buy a SIEM," for example. They give us their overview of what's out there, what they've dealt with, what they integrate with, and what that looks like. That's been pretty powerful over the years for us."
"The way that the user interface presents data enables our team to be able to make decisions significantly quicker, rather than have to dig into the details or go back to the original tools."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of their service is their tuning... If we were getting 1,000 alerts a day without them, they tune it until they know what to do for 999 of them, and one will make it through to us per day. That tuning is the most valuable part of their solution."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Organizations using Sophos MDR have seen a significant reduction in the value of their cyber insurance claims, with these claims being 97.5% lower compared to those relying solely on endpoint protection, translating to substantial cost savings and improved financial resilience."
"Sophos MDR enhances our clients' cybersecurity."
"There is a feature called XDR Central. With this, Sophos can connect to third-party security solutions."
"The product's most valuable feature is its ability to view environmental activities."
"The most valuable feature is threat hunting."
"The most valuable feature of the Sophos Managed Threat Response is the central management capabilities and monitoring."
"The initial setup is quick and simple. A couple of clicks, and you're up and running."
"The product’s most valuable feature is rapid response."
 

Cons

"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."
"They could dig a little bit deeper into the Splunk alerts when they feel like they need to be escalated to us. For example, if a locked account shows up, they could do a little extra digging to verify that the locked account was due to a bad password on the local system. They could just do a little extra digging within the Splunk environment instead of pushing it onto us to go do that extra little digging."
"There is room for improvement with the new UI, and that's about it. I would like to see a more intuitive design."
"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 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."
"The only thing I can think of that I would like to see, and I'm sure they could work this into a service pretty easily, is not only alerts on issues that are affecting my company, but some threat intelligence of a general nature on what's out there in the environment. That might be a nice add-in."
"The UI has become slower but it's not something I would call them out on."
"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."
"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."
"The product must provide zero trust security."
"Support could provide a faster response."
"There could be improvement in features like more detailed reporting for the end customer."
"The product's stability needs improvement."
"Maybe the reporting needs improvement."
"Sophos MDR's support and basic training of their devices could be improved."
"Some users have mentioned that Sophos MDR can be quite resource-intensive, which might affect the system."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"The pricing of other services was so insane that they weren't even an option."
"It costs a lot for what we felt comfortable to spend."
"I've told CRITICALSTART that I think the managed service they provide is cheaper than it should be. It's a really good deal."
"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 price falls somewhere in the middle range."
"Compared to other tools, Sophos has a pretty good price."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"The cost of the solution is based on how many users use it."
"I rate Sophos MDR’s pricing a seven or eight out of ten."
"Sophos MDR is a cheap solution."
"Sophos MDR is less expensive than other products like Fortinet or Palo Alto."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Real Estate/Law Firm
17%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise7
 

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.
What needs improvement with Sophos MDR?
Based on user feedback and reviews, here are some areas where Sophos MDR could be improved and suggestions for additional features that could be included in future releases: Areas for Improvement: ...
What advice do you have for others considering Sophos MDR?
I would recommend Sophos MDR because it is one of the leaders in Managed Detection and Response services and it is suitable for small, medium, and enterprise companies. I rate Sophos MDR between ni...
 

Also Known As

Critical Start, CriticalStart
Sophos Managed Threat Response
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about CRITICALSTART vs. Sophos MDR and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.