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Red Canary 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.5
Red Canary improved security ROI by efficiently detecting threats, reducing incident response times, and offering detailed alerts and cost savings.
Sentiment score
7.7
Sophos MDR delivers 24/7 threat protection with cost savings by reducing the need for additional IT specialists and minimizing staffing expenses.
It allows them to have access to a SOC-like service without the associated costs.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.6
Red Canary offers exceptional, proactive customer support with regular check-ins and emergency on-call services, enhancing user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.2
Sophos MDR customer service is highly rated for responsiveness, 24/7 availability, and technical expertise, despite occasional delays.
In emergencies, there is an on-call person available to resolve issues immediately.
Sophos offers different support levels depending on the severity of the issues, which ensures timely assistance.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Red Canary excels in scalability, seamlessly managing large data sets, integrating with systems, and maintaining performance in growing operations.
Sentiment score
7.8
Sophos MDR offers strong scalability and easy expansion, appealing to both small and large enterprises despite minor integration challenges.
Sophos MDR seems to have no limitations on scalability.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Users praise Red Canary for its stability and smooth, reliable performance, even within a short two-month usage period.
Sentiment score
8.2
Sophos MDR is generally rated highly for stability, despite some concerns about update failures and RAM usage.
I would rate the stability as very reliable.
 

Room For Improvement

Red Canary users seek on-premise versions, language support, firewall improvements, summary features, and pricing adjustments for smaller institutions.
Sophos MDR offers enhanced features but needs improvements in integration, reporting, customer support, pricing flexibility, and advanced AI capabilities.
Red Canary's pricing spectrum may not be ideal for smaller financial institutions.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find Red Canary's pricing fair at $100 per device annually, though some prefer lower costs.
Sophos MDR offers competitive subscription-based pricing with flexible negotiations, balancing cost with comprehensive 24/7 security features.
The services are higher priced.
The solution is cost-efficient, especially for small customers who cannot justify the expense of setting up an internal SOC.
 

Valuable Features

Red Canary integrates with EDR software for real-time threat detection, automation, and compliance support in banking and security.
Sophos MDR provides advanced threat hunting, integration, rapid response, and comprehensive cybersecurity, acting as a mini SOC.
Red Canary detects threats and attack patterns, allowing us to assess any significant damage caused to the banking environment, particularly if protected data has been damaged or corrupted.
The most valuable feature of Sophos MDR is that it offers a monitoring service directly from the OEM, which is beneficial for SMB customers who cannot afford a SOC.
 

Categories and Ranking

Red Canary
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
13th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (24th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (40th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (14th)
Sophos MDR
Ranking in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Managed Detection and Response (MDR) category, the mindshare of Red Canary is 4.2%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos MDR is 6.1%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Sagar Shekhar - PeerSpot reviewer
An open-source tool that offers great automation capabilities
Red Canary MDR generates a lot of output, so it would be good if, in the end, it generates a summary of all the previous attacks and what was the outcome of a single attack, especially so that it becomes easy for the user to see the summary and analyze the whole thing. In general, the solution currently fails to provide a summary to its users.
Shaun Gordon - PeerSpot reviewer
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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
16%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Financial Services Firm
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Red Canary MDR?
The most valuable feature of the solution is its automation part.
What needs improvement with Red Canary MDR?
Red Canary MDR generates a lot of output, so it would be good if, in the end, it generates a summary of all the previous attacks and what was the outcome of a single attack, especially so that it b...
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?
There could be improvement in features like more detailed reporting for the end customer. For example, reports should be in simple language that is easy to read and understand for management level ...
What advice do you have for others considering Sophos MDR?
I would absolutely recommend Sophos MDR to other organizations. It is rated ten out of ten overall, with a deduction of one point only due to the commercial cost. I'd rate the solution nine out of ...
 

Also Known As

Red Canary Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
Sophos Managed Threat Response
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

DuPont, Quanta Services, Microchip Technology, Hopkins Public Schools, Henny Penny, Schumacher Homes
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Red Canary vs. Sophos MDR and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
848,207 professionals have used our research since 2012.