MDR & managed SOC cost UK: what to expect.
Bought standalone, a managed SOC or MDR contract often runs £1,500–£10,000+ per month — genuinely enterprise-priced. Bought as a bundled per-seat service alongside managed IT, the same 24/7 detection becomes a modest add-on to a per-user bill. The model you choose matters far more than the brand.
- Standalone SOC/MDR is enterprise-priced — often £1.5k–£10k+/month — because you fund a whole platform and 24/7 team alone.
- The cost isn’t unreasonable; it’s just too big to carry solo on an SMB budget.
- Bundled per-seat MDR shares that SOC across many clients, turning it into a per-user line item.
- For most SMBs, the question isn’t “which MDR vendor?” — it’s “standalone or bundled?”
SOC vs MDR: what you’re actually buying
A SOC — Security Operations Centre — is the team and facility that watches your systems around the clock and responds when something looks wrong. MDR — managed detection and response — is the service you buy: detection technology plus that SOC, delivered to you as an outcome rather than a tool you have to staff yourself.
The distinction matters for cost because building a SOC is expensive, but consuming one through MDR doesn’t have to be. The price you pay is decided almost entirely by whether you fund the SOC alone or share it. Our 24/7 SOC and Microsoft 365 MDR are built around the shared model for exactly this reason.
Why standalone SOC/MDR is enterprise-priced
A round-the-clock SOC has unavoidable fixed costs:
- Analysts on shift 24/7. True 24/7 cover needs a rota of several skilled people — nights, weekends and holidays included.
- A detection platform. A SIEM or XDR ingesting and correlating your logs, licensed by data volume or endpoint count.
- Threat intelligence and tuning. Feeds, detection content and constant tuning to keep false positives down.
None of that is wasteful — it’s simply a large fixed cost. When one organisation funds it alone, the monthly bill is enterprise-sized. That’s why standalone managed SOC contracts land in the £1,500–£10,000+ per month range, scaling up sharply with data volume and headcount.
A SOC isn’t expensive because it’s overpriced. It’s expensive because round-the-clock human expertise is — and the answer is to share it, not skip it.
The SMB-viable model: bundled per-seat
Here’s the unlock. A good MSP runs one SOC and one detection platform across many client tenants. The fixed cost of analysts and tooling is spread across hundreds or thousands of seats, so each client pays a small, predictable per-user-per-month figure rather than funding the whole thing alone.
That’s how a 10–100 person business gets genuine 24/7 detection and response for a fraction of a standalone contract. You’re not buying less security — you’re buying the same SOC on a shared cost base.
Standalone vs bundled per-seat: the comparison
The figures below are indicative UK market ranges, ex VAT — not quotes. They show why the buying model, not the brand, drives the bill for an SMB.
| Standalone enterprise SOC/MDR | Bundled per-seat MDR | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical cost | £1,500–£10,000+/month | A modest per-user-per-month add-on |
| How it’s priced | By data volume, endpoints, dedicated coverage | Per user, shared SOC & platform |
| Who funds the SOC | You, alone | Shared across many clients |
| Best for | Large enterprises, regulated estates | SMBs wanting 24/7 cover affordably |
| Predictability | Can spike with log volume | Scales cleanly with headcount |
Indicative market ranges only. Exact pricing depends on scope, seat count and data volume. Techzura quotes a firm per-user-per-month figure after a short discovery call.
How to buy MDR sensibly
- Start with the model, not the logo. For an SMB, bundled per-seat almost always wins on cost and simplicity. Confirm the SOC is genuinely 24/7 with humans, not just an alerting tool.
- Check what’s covered. Endpoints are table stakes; ask whether identity and your Microsoft 365 tenant are in scope, since that’s where most modern attacks start.
- Pin down response, not just detection. “Detection” alone is an alarm. Confirm the SOC will actually contain an incident on your behalf, and how fast.
- Insist on transparent pricing. A per-user figure you can budget beats a usage-based contract that surprises you the month you generate more logs.
New to the category? Our explainer on what MDR is covers the fundamentals before you compare costs.
Questions we get asked.
How much does MDR cost in the UK?
It depends on how you buy it. A standalone enterprise managed SOC or MDR contract often runs £1,500–£10,000+ per month, because you fund a dedicated platform and 24/7 analyst coverage alone. Bought as a bundled per-seat service alongside managed IT, MDR typically adds only a modest amount to a per-user-per-month plan, because the SOC and tooling are shared. For most SMBs, bundled per-seat is far cheaper.
Why is a standalone SOC so expensive?
A 24/7 SOC needs analysts on shift around the clock, a detection platform ingesting your logs, threat-intelligence feeds and constant tuning — a large fixed cost. When one organisation funds it alone, the bill is enterprise-sized. The cost isn’t unreasonable; it’s just too big to carry on a single SMB’s budget, which is why the shared per-seat model exists.
What’s the difference between SOC and MDR?
A SOC is the team and facility that monitors and responds to threats 24/7. MDR is the service you buy — detection technology plus that SOC, delivered as an outcome. The terms overlap in practice: MDR is how most SMBs consume a SOC without building one themselves.
Can a small business afford 24/7 security monitoring?
Yes — through the bundled per-seat model. Instead of funding a whole SOC alone, you pay a per-user-per-month figure and share a SOC and detection platform across many clients. That turns a five-figure monthly enterprise cost into a predictable per-user line, putting genuine 24/7 detection within reach of a 10–100 person firm.
Where we help.
SOC-grade cover,
per seat.
Book 30 minutes. We’ll scope your endpoints and Microsoft 365 tenant and give you a clear per-user-per-month figure for genuine 24/7 detection and response.