Choose Arctic Wolf or Expel
Choose Arctic Wolf if
- Mid-market organizations without a dedicated SOC that want a named security team, not just a monitoring service
- IT teams managing multiple security tools that want a single pane of glass without replacing their existing stack
- Organizations that value the industry's largest breach warranty ($3M) and compliance-aligned security reviews
- Breach warranty matters to you (Arctic Wolf offers one, Expel does not)
- Threat hunting included in base pricing (it's an add-on with Expel)
Choose Expel if
- Mid-market and enterprise organizations with existing security tools wanting vendor-agnostic MDR
- Security teams that value transparency and want to see every SOC action in real time
- Multi-cloud environments needing broad integration coverage including Oracle Cloud
- You need Cloud and SaaS coverage included in base pricing
- You want direct Slack integration with your SOC
What’s actually different
Buyer brief
Updated 2026-03-08
Fit. Arctic Wolf assigns a named concierge team that runs scheduled security reviews (4-18 per year depending on tier) and serves as an extension of your staff. Expel gives you a transparent platform where you can query security data, see every SOC analyst action and configure auto-remediation through APIs. Both work with your existing tools, but the experience of using them is very different.
Response. If your team wants to investigate alongside the MDR provider, Expel's full query access and audit trail make that possible. Arctic Wolf's dashboards don't support raw data queries, a limitation reviewers consistently note. If your team doesn't have the bandwidth to investigate and wants someone managing the security program for them, Arctic Wolf's concierge model fits better.
Cost and scope. Expel covers all six core response actions via API. Arctic Wolf handles three through partner integrations and advises on the rest. Neither includes incident response. Arctic Wolf offers a $3M breach warranty with qualifying bundles. Expel has none.
FAQ
What is the main difference between Arctic Wolf and Expel?
Arctic Wolf is a Pure-play MDR that is technology-agnostic (works with your existing tools). Expel is a Pure-play MDR that is technology-agnostic (works with your existing tools). SLA commitments differ: Arctic Wolf offers ≤1 hour, Expel offers Not disclosed. Arctic Wolf covers 3 attack surfaces in base pricing vs. 5 for Expel.
How do Arctic Wolf and Expel differ in response capabilities?
Arctic Wolf supports 3 autonomous actions (endpoint isolation, network containment, account disable) and approval is configurable. Expel supports 6 autonomous actions (endpoint isolation, process termination, network containment, account disable, file quarantine, custom playbooks) and approval is configurable.
How does Arctic Wolf pricing compare to Expel?
Arctic Wolf pricing: Third-party buyer data reports Arctic Wolf MDR observed pricing around $12-18/endpoint/month for 100-500 endpoint buyers and $8-14/endpoint/month for 1,000+ endpoint buyers. AWS Marketplace also lists MDR Basic starting at $44,000/year for up to 100 users.. Expel pricing: Starting at $11,640/year. Custom quotes based on environment size and coverage areas.. Watch for with Arctic Wolf: Remediation is guided, not performed on your behalf. May need a separate IR retainer for hands-on incident response.; Normalized data and threat feeds are not directly accessible. You get dashboards and reports, not raw data.. Watch for with Expel: Threat hunting is NOT included in base MDR, it is a separate add-on; Incident response is NOT included and must be obtained separately.