Top 4 EDR Platforms for MSPs to Enhance Security

As of Q2 2026, EDR has stopped being optional for MSPs. The 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that 88% of SMB breaches included a ransomware component — more than twice the rate at large organizations. MSPs are the front line for those SMBs, and the EDR platform an MSP picks determines how fast a ransomware payload gets contained, how much forensic data survives, and whether the post-incident conversation with a client involves an apology or an insurance claim.

The challenge is that the best EDR platforms for MSPs do not look like the best EDR platforms for the Fortune 500. Multi-tenant consoles, per-endpoint billing, channel-friendly licensing, and PSA/RMM integration matter more for MSPs than raw MITRE ATT&CK scores. A platform that wins enterprise RFPs can still be a disaster for a 12-tech MSP running 4,000 endpoints across 90 clients.

This list ranks the four EDR platforms that consistently deliver across both axes: enterprise-grade detection and MSP-grade operational fit. No sponsored picks. No vendor PR.

Quick Take:

• #1 Huntress Managed EDR — 88/100. Best for general SMB-focused MSPs. The only platform here that bundles a 24/7 human-led SOC into base per-endpoint pricing without enterprise complexity or tiered upsells.
• #2 SentinelOne Singularity — 83/100. Best for MSPs and MSSPs with internal security depth. Strongest detection engineering on the list. Six consecutive Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader placements.
• #3 Sophos Intercept X with MDR — 77/100. Best for MSPs already standardized on Sophos Central or running Sophos firewalls. Single-pane management of EDR, firewall, and email in one console.
• #4 Bitdefender GravityZone — 72/100. Best for PSA/RMM integration-heavy MSPs. Broadest published native integration matrix: ConnectWise, Kaseya, NinjaOne, Atera, and Datto RMM.

At a glance: Top 4 EDR platforms for MSPs

#1. Huntress Managed EDR — Best for General SMB-Focused MSPs — 88/100

Huntress wins this list because it is the only platform here where the per-endpoint price meaningfully includes the SOC. Every alert is triaged by a human analyst before it reaches the MSP’s inbox, which collapses the alert-fatigue problem that has historically forced MSPs to either staff an internal SOC or accept that EDR alerts go ignored. Huntress was rated a Winter 2026 Leader in EDR by G2 with a 4.9 out of 5 across 800-plus reviews, and the platform’s standing in MSP community channels reflects that consistency.

The channel-first program design is also worth calling out specifically. Huntress does not compete with its partners through direct sales, which is not something every vendor on this list can say. Partner pricing is protected, and the program does not require enterprise commitment tiers to access reasonable per-endpoint rates.

Standout features

• 24/7 human-led SOC included in base pricing — not a premium tier, not an add-on. Every alert is triaged before it lands in the MSP’s queue.
• Persistent foothold detection focused on attacker dwell time — the highest-value detection category for ransomware prevention in SMB environments.
• Native Microsoft Defender for Endpoint integration for MSPs whose clients already hold E5 or Defender for Business licensing, keeping Microsoft’s detection engine while adding the human SOC layer.
• Ransomware canary files deployed at agent install for early-warning containment before encryption propagates.
• Channel-first partner program with pricing protected against vendor direct sales.

Pricing: 50-seat minimum. Partner pricing reported at $2.50 to $3.50 per endpoint per month at volume tiers (50, 100, 250, 500, and 1,000-plus endpoints). Direct retail list at $8.99 per endpoint per month (verified May 2026). Partner rates require channel program enrollment; they are not publicly published.

Best for: Channel-first MSPs serving SMB clients under 5,000 total managed endpoints who want predictable per-unit pricing and a real SOC behind every alert.

Skip if: You need a sub-one-hour contractual response SLA, deep cloud workload coverage, or a single-vendor platform that also handles firewalls and email security.

Nolan’s Verdict: Huntress earns the top spot because the operational model matches how general MSPs actually work. Most MSPs do not lose clients because their detection engine missed something — they lose clients because nobody triaged the alert at 2 a.m. Huntress solves that problem at base pricing. Start here unless you have a specific reason to go elsewhere.

#2. SentinelOne Singularity — Best for MSPs and MSSPs with Security Depth — 83/100

SentinelOne offers the deepest detection engineering on this list and was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms for the sixth consecutive year. The Singularity Platform’s multi-tenant, multi-site, multi-group hierarchy is genuinely architectural — not a customer dropdown bolted onto a single-tenant product — which matters for MSSPs that need real client isolation at scale.

The reason it does not take the top spot for general MSPs is operational. SentinelOne is a platform, not a managed service. Without Vigilance MDR added on top, MSPs own the alert triage. For an MSP with a dedicated security analyst that is a feature; for a 10-tech shop running 90 clients, it is a gap.

Standout features

• Storyline behavioral correlation that automatically reconstructs attack chains across processes, files, and network activity — the most useful forensic feature on this list after an incident.
• One-click rollback that reverses ransomware encryption at the file system level without restoring from backup.
• Purple AI generative threat-hunting assistant for natural-language detection queries without requiring analyst-level query syntax.
• Vigilance MDR add-on delivers approximately 20 to 30 minute mean time to respond when the MSP needs a human SOC layer.
• True architectural multi-tenancy with API-first design, included at no additional cost in platform licensing.

Pricing: SentinelOne Singularity tiers run approximately $69.99 per endpoint per year (Core) to $229.99 per endpoint per year (Enterprise) at direct retail list. Vigilance MDR and Data Lake are priced separately. MSSP partner pricing flows through the SentinelOne Partner Program and is negotiated, not published. Deployment services range from $5,000 to $25,000 depending on environment complexity — worth confirming before quoting a client.

Best for: MSSPs, security-mature MSPs, and MSPs serving mid-market clients above 500 endpoints per client where the detection ceiling matters more than the operational floor.

Skip if: You are a small MSP without a dedicated security analyst on staff and you do not want to commit to the Vigilance MDR add-on budget.

Nolan’s Verdict: SentinelOne is the better product in isolation. The detection engineering, the Storyline correlation, and the multi-tenant architecture are ahead of everything else on this list. But for most MSPs, better product does not mean better operational fit. If you have the security depth to run it without Vigilance, it belongs at the top of your stack.

#3. Sophos Intercept X with MDR — Best for Sophos Central Stack MSPs — 77/100

Sophos earns the third spot because of consolidation value, not because it has the best raw EDR detection on this list. For MSPs already running Sophos XG or XGS firewalls, putting Intercept X on endpoints in the same Sophos Central console eliminates an entire vendor relationship and gives the operator one place to investigate cross-layer incidents. If you are not in the Sophos ecosystem, the consolidation case does not write itself the same way, and the other three options are more compelling on their own merits.

The MSP Flex licensing program shifts cost from capex to opex with monthly usage-based billing, and Sophos MDR Complete adds a contractual one-hour response SLA — the only platform on this list with that commitment at a published tier.

Standout features

• CryptoGuard ransomware rollback that automatically restores encrypted files without requiring a backup restore.
• Sophos Central single-pane management for EDR, firewall, email security, and MDR — the consolidation argument for existing Sophos shops.
• Sophos MDR Complete includes a contractual one-hour response SLA — the only published SLA commitment on this list.
• MSP Flex program with per-user or per-device monthly billing aligned to client billing cycles.
• Deep learning malware detection trained on Sophos Labs telemetry with strong macOS coverage relative to its price tier.

Pricing: Intercept X Advanced runs approximately $30 per user per year direct list, with XDR-tier packages between $48 and $70 per user per year. Sophos MDR through partners runs $7 to $17 per endpoint per month, or $80 to $200 per user per year (verified May 2026). Actual partner rates vary by region and commitment level.

Best for: MSPs already running Sophos firewalls or any other Sophos Central product. The cross-layer investigation value is real, and the consolidation economics work at volume.

Skip if: You have no other Sophos product in your stack. As a greenfield EDR pick, the operational depth of Huntress and the detection ceiling of SentinelOne both win.

Nolan’s Verdict: Sophos ranks third not because the product is third-best in isolation but because the strongest case for it is a stack you might already be in. If you are running Sophos firewalls and treating EDR as a separate decision, you are leaving the consolidation value on the table. If you are starting from scratch, look at Huntress first.

#4. Bitdefender GravityZone — Best for PSA/RMM Integration-Heavy MSPs — 72/100

Bitdefender earns the fourth slot because it does one thing better than anyone else on this list: it plugs cleanly into the MSP tool stack that already exists. GravityZone publishes native integrations with ConnectWise Automate, ConnectWise PSA, ConnectWise Asio, Kaseya VSA 9.5, Kaseya VSA X, Datto RMM, NinjaOne, Atera, and HaloPSA. For MSPs whose technicians live inside their RMM console all day, that integration depth is operationally decisive in ways that a better detection engine is not.

Detection quality is solid — consistently strong in independent AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives evaluations. The reason it does not rank higher is that the MDR service layer is less mature than Huntress or Sophos, and the multi-tenant console UX has lagged behind SentinelOne on the roadmap.

Standout features

• Broadest MSP integration matrix in the category — native plugins for ConnectWise Automate, Kaseya VSA 9.5 and X, Datto RMM, NinjaOne, Atera, and HaloPSA.
• Parent-child multi-tenant architecture with policy inheritance across client sub-tenants.
• Monthly usage-based billing in arrears against the previous month’s active endpoint count — no upfront commitment.
• HyperDetect machine-learning detection tunable per client risk profile, which matters for MSPs with mixed vertical exposure.
• Lightweight agent consistently low on CPU and memory — relevant for MSPs supporting older hardware in SMB environments.

Pricing: The MSP program uses monthly usage-based licensing billed in arrears. Per-endpoint rates are partner-quoted and not publicly disclosed. GravityZone Business Security direct list starts at $149 per year for a 5-device minimum; MSP partner rates run significantly below that (verified May 2026).

Best for: MSPs whose technicians work primarily inside ConnectWise Automate, Kaseya VSA, NinjaOne, or Datto RMM and need an EDR that lives natively inside those consoles without a separate browser tab.

Skip if: You need a fully managed 24/7 SOC bundled into the EDR price (Huntress), or you need the highest detection ceiling for mid-market clients (SentinelOne).

Nolan’s Verdict: Bitdefender is the right pick when the integration story matters more than the detection story. If your techs live in ConnectWise Automate or Kaseya VSA and you want EDR that surfaces through the tools they already have open, GravityZone is worth a serious look. Just go in knowing the MDR layer is not as mature as the others.

Huntress vs SentinelOne: which is right for your MSP?

This is the comparison MSPs actually debate. Both rank at the top of independent evaluations. The difference comes down to who runs the SOC.

SentinelOne is the better product in isolation. Huntress is the better operational fit for general MSPs. If you need to run EDR well without a dedicated security analyst, the bundled SOC is what matters — and Huntress is the only one that includes it at base pricing.

A note for MSPs serving regulated industries

If your book is heavy in healthcare (HIPAA), defense supply chain (CMMC), or finance (SOC 2, PCI-DSS), the ranking shifts. Compliance framework coverage and extended log retention become the determining factors. SentinelOne offers up to 365 days of data retention at the Enterprise tier. Sophos MDR Complete includes formal compliance reporting bundles for HIPAA and PCI-DSS. Huntress does not match either out of the box. For regulated industry work, evaluate SentinelOne, Sophos, Bitdefender, and Huntress in that order.

How we ranked these platforms

Each platform was evaluated against a 100-point rubric across six criteria weighted toward what matters operationally for MSPs, not what wins enterprise RFPs.

• Detection Quality (20 pts) — Independent third-party evaluations, MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise results, and AV-TEST/AV-Comparatives data. Vendor marketing scores ignored.
• MSP Licensing Model (20 pts) — Per-endpoint monthly billing, no minimums above 50 seats, partner-protected pricing, and month-in-arrears billing. Penalized for annual commitments and quote-gate-only pricing.
• Multi-Tenant Console Depth (20 pts) — Real client isolation, policy inheritance, cross-tenant reporting. Not a customer dropdown on a single-tenant product.
• PSA/RMM Integration (20 pts) — Bidirectional ticketing with ConnectWise, Kaseya/Datto, HaloPSA, NinjaOne, and Autotask. Depth of native plugin versus API-only integration.
• SOC Inclusion (10 pts) — 24/7 human analyst response bundled at base pricing, not as an add-on tier.
• Pricing Transparency (10 pts) — Published per-unit rates versus full quote-gate. Penalized for requiring a sales cycle to get a number.

No vendor sponsored this post. Rankings reflect publicly available product documentation, vendor partner program details, MSP community discussion on r/msp and MSP Geek Slack, and analyst coverage from Gartner, Forrester, and IDC reviewed in May 2026.

Honorable Mentions

CrowdStrike Falcon is a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader and a defensible enterprise pick but its MSP partner program targets larger MSSPs. Minimum commitments push it out of reach for most general MSPs under roughly 5,000 endpoints. Worth evaluating if you are operating at MSSP scale.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a strong choice when clients already hold Microsoft 365 E5 or Defender for Business licensing, but it does not function cleanly as a standalone MSP-friendly platform without significant tenant management overhead. Many MSPs run Huntress on top of Defender specifically to get the human SOC layer while keeping Microsoft’s detection engine in place.

Blackpoint Cyber is widely respected in the MSP community for active response but is priced and positioned more as an MDR layer than a primary EDR. It competes in a separate category and belongs on the shortlist for our top managed detection and response providers roundup.

Datto EDR (now Kaseya) bundles cleanly with Datto RMM but lacks the SOC depth of the four platforms above. Worth evaluating only if you are deep in the Kaseya ecosystem and integration simplicity outweighs service depth.

FAQ

What is the best EDR for small MSPs in 2026?

Huntress Managed EDR is the best EDR for small MSPs in 2026. It includes a 24/7 human-led SOC in base pricing, deploys in roughly 30 minutes per client environment, and has a 50-seat minimum that fits most MSPs serving clients with 25 to 500 endpoints. The bundled SOC is what separates it — smaller competitors lack it entirely, larger competitors require enterprise commitments to unlock it.

How much does managed EDR cost per endpoint in 2026?

Managed EDR runs $5 to $25 per endpoint per month across these four platforms, depending on vendor and tier. Huntress partner pricing is reported at $2.50 to $3.50 per endpoint per month at volume, with direct retail at $8.99. SentinelOne Singularity runs $69.99 to $229.99 per endpoint per year at direct retail list. Sophos MDR through partners runs $7 to $17 per endpoint per month. Bitdefender MSP rates are quote-based and not publicly published. All pricing verified May 2026.

Is Huntress better than SentinelOne for MSPs?

For most MSPs serving SMB clients under 5,000 endpoints, Huntress is the better operational fit because the 24/7 SOC is included in base pricing. SentinelOne has the stronger detection engineering and is the right choice for MSSPs and security-mature MSPs with dedicated analysts on staff, or for mid-market client work above 500 endpoints per client. SentinelOne is the better product. Huntress is the better operational fit for general MSPs.

What is the difference between EDR and MDR for MSPs?

EDR is the platform technology that detects and contains threats on endpoints. MDR is the human service layer that monitors, triages, and responds on the MSP’s behalf. Huntress bundles both at base pricing. SentinelOne sells them separately through its Vigilance MDR add-on. Sophos and Bitdefender offer both as configurable tiers. For a deeper look at the MDR layer specifically, see our top managed detection and response providers roundup.

Sources

1. Verizon. 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report. 2025. verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir
2. CrowdStrike. “CrowdStrike Named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms.” 2025. crowdstrike.com
3. MDRCost.com. “Huntress Pricing 2026: Managed EDR for SMBs and MSPs.” 2026. mdrcost.com/huntress-pricing
4. ITECS. “SentinelOne for MSPs: Complete Deployment and Feature Guide.” 2026. itecsonline.com
5. MDRCost.com. “Sophos MDR Pricing 2026: Essentials vs Complete, Per-Endpoint Cost.” 2026. mdrcost.com/sophos-mdr-pricing
6. G2. “Huntress Managed EDR, Winter 2026 EDR Grid Report.” 2026. g2.com
7. SentinelOne. “SentinelOne Named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms for 6th Consecutive Year.” May 27, 2026. sentinelone.com
8. UnderDefense. “Sophos Pricing: Endpoint Protection Cost Explained.” 2026. underdefense.com
9. Bitdefender. “GravityZone Integration Documentation: ConnectWise Automate, Kaseya VSA, Datto RMM, HaloPSA.” 2026. bitdefender.com
10. Bitdefender. “GravityZone Cloud Security for MSP FAQ.” 2026. bitdefender.com
11. Huntress. “Managed EDR Pricing and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Integration.” 2026. huntress.com/pricing/edr