Critical Start vs Northwave
Critical Start is a Pure-play MDR that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Critical Start targets Mid-market and Enterprise organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise. Critical Start includes 5 attack surfaces in base pricing (Endpoint, Cloud, SaaS, Identity, Network), compared to 2 for Northwave (Endpoint, Network).
Buyer brief
Critical Start is a Pure-play MDR that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Critical Start targets Mid-market and Enterprise organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise. Critical Start includes 5 attack surfaces in base pricing (Endpoint, Cloud, SaaS, Identity, Network), compared to 2 for Northwave (Endpoint, Network).
Critical Start (Pure-play MDR) and Northwave (Services firm) serve different buyer profiles. Your decision depends on whether you prioritize Critical Start's technology-agnostic mdr with tbr deterministic alert auto-resolution, 100+ integrations, ot/ics s... or Northwave's northwave mdr fits european buyers that want a soc service connected to incident response, red te....
At a glance
| FIELD |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Mid-market to large enterprises wanting technology-agnostic MDR that works with their existing security stack | Benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC |
| Price | Not published | Custom quote |
| Response authority | 6/6 actions · Configurable | 1/6 actions · Configurable |
| Stack | Works with existing stack | Works with existing stack |
| Data access | Dashboards | Dashboards |
| Warranty | None listed | None listed |
- Best fit
- Mid-market to large enterprises wanting technology-agnostic MDR that works with their existing security stack
- Price
- Not published
- Response authority
- 6/6 actions · Configurable
- Stack
- Works with existing stack
- Data access
- Dashboards
- Warranty
- None listed
- Best fit
- Benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC
- Price
- Custom quote
- Response authority
- 1/6 actions · Configurable
- Stack
- Works with existing stack
- Data access
- Dashboards
- Warranty
- None listed
›› Detailed comparison
| FIELD | Critical StartTECH-AGNOSTIC | NorthwaveTECH-AGNOSTIC |
|---|---|---|
| ›› Fit | ||
| Target size | Mid-market, Enterprise | Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Sentiment | Positive | Mixed |
| ›› Your stack | ||
| Approach | Works with your tools | Works with your tools |
| EDR integrations | CrowdStrikeSentinelOneMicrosoft DefenderPalo Alto Cortex | Customer endpoint telemetry |
| SIEM integrations | Microsoft SentinelSplunkSumo Logic | Customer log sources |
| Coverage | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: CoveredIDIdentity: CoveredSaaSSaaS: CoveredNetNetwork: CoveredOTOT/IoT: Optional add-on | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: LimitedIDIdentity: LimitedSaaSSaaS: Not coveredNetNetwork: CoveredOTOT/IoT: Optional add-on |
| ›› Response | ||
| Response type | Active Remediation | Active Remediation |
| Approval policy | Configurable | Configurable |
| Response actions | IsolateKill processContainDisable accountsQuarantineCustom playbooks | Custom playbooks |
| IR included | Separate | Separate |
| ›› Cost | ||
| Price range | Not published | Not published |
| Minimum seats | None | None |
| Breach warranty | – | – |
| ›› More details | ||
| Requires own agent | No | No |
| Endpoints | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| Cloud workloads | ✓ Included | ~ Limited |
| Identity | ✓ Included | ~ Limited |
| SaaS apps | ✓ Included | Not offered |
| Network | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| OT/ICS | + Optional | + Optional |
| Threat hunting | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| Response SLA | ≤1 hour | Not disclosed |
| 24/7 coverage | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Custom enterprise pricing (annual subscription, tiered by coverage depth) | Custom quote. Northwave does not publish MDR package pricing. |
| Hidden cost warnings | No public pricing at all, requires sales call for any ballpark. OT/ICS monitoring and vulnerability management are separate purchases on top of base MDR. Full IR/DFIR requires separate CIRT engagement, not included in MDR contract. Annual contract commitment typically required with no published minimum seat count | Public pages do not publish response SLAs or named default response actions.. Rapid Response is a separate related service, so buyers should confirm what incident-response support is included in base MDR.. Cloud, SaaS and identity coverage are not named as clearly as endpoint, log and network telemetry.. Detection tuning depends on onboarding log sources and threat-based use cases, which may affect deployment effort. |
| Data portability | Partial | Partial |
| Contract terms | Annual, Multi-year | Custom |
| Channels | EmailPortalPhone | PortalEmailPhone |
| Data access | Dashboards | Dashboards |
| Dedicated analyst | ✓ | – |
| SOC regions | North America | Europe |
| Onboarding | 5-10 business days to first detection value (vendor-stated). 4-6 weeks for full enterprise onboarding. Vendor claims 2.66-day median TTFV for Microsoft Sentinel specifically. | Northwave says implementation starts with a plan covering service elements, phases, planning and threat-based use cases, then onboarding log sources and processes. No standard public onboarding duration was found. |
| Industry focus | Financial ServicesHealthcareManufacturingTechnologyGovernmentProfessional ServicesRetailTransportation | Financial ServicesHealthcareManufacturingLogisticsTechnologyPublic SectorCritical Infrastructure |
| MTTD | Not published | Not published |
| MTTR | 60 minutes or less median time to resolution for ALL alerts regardless of priority | Not published |
| Community view | Gartner Peer Insights 4.8/5 (53 reviews). PeerSpot 9.4/10, skewing large enterprise. Glassdoor 4.3/5 (140 reviews, some concerns about RIFs and turnover). IDC MarketScape Major Player (Emerging MDR, 2024). Praised for TBR noise reduction and SOC analyst accessibility. Criticized for onboarding communication gaps, missing Slack integration and opaque pricing. | Northwave has limited MDR-specific public review volume. The public buyer case rests on European delivery, Utrecht SOC operations and the connection between MDR, CERT, red team and threat research. Buyers should validate response authority, cloud and identity coverage, pricing and escalation rules before signing. |
| Compliance | SOC 2 Type IIISO 27001 | NIS2ISO 27001GDPRTISAX |
| Certifications | SOC 2 Type IIISO 27001MISA (Microsoft Intelligent Security Association)Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security | – |
| Founded | 2012 | 2006 |
| Data retention | CORR platform provides API access and data export (CSV/XLSX). Specific retention periods not publicly documented. | Not published as a standard MDR retention period. |
| API available | ✓ | – |
| Website | Visit → | Visit → |
›› FAQ
What is the main difference between Critical Start and Northwave?
Critical Start is a Pure-play MDR that is technology-agnostic (works with your existing tools). Northwave is a Services firm that is technology-agnostic (works with your existing tools). SLA commitments differ: Critical Start offers ≤1 hour, Northwave offers Not disclosed. Critical Start covers 5 attack surfaces in base pricing vs. 2 for Northwave.
How do Critical Start and Northwave differ in response capabilities?
Critical Start supports 6 autonomous actions (account disable, custom playbooks, endpoint isolation, file quarantine, network containment, process termination) and approval is configurable. Northwave supports 1 autonomous actions (custom playbooks) and approval is configurable.
How does Critical Start pricing compare to Northwave?
Critical Start pricing: Custom-quoted pricing. Northwave pricing: Not published. Watch for with Critical Start: No public pricing at all, requires sales call for any ballpark; OT/ICS monitoring and vulnerability management are separate purchases on top of base MDR. Watch for with Northwave: Public pages do not publish response SLAs or named default response actions.; Rapid Response is a separate related service, so buyers should confirm what incident-response support is included in base MDR..
Should I choose Critical Start or Northwave?
Choose Critical Start if: mid-market to large enterprises wanting technology-agnostic MDR that works with their existing security stack. Choose Northwave if: benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC. Critical Start is not ideal for sMBs or budget-conscious organizations, enterprise-focused pricing not published. Northwave is not ideal for buyers that need public MDR pricing or response SLAs before engaging sales.
Daylight Security
AI-native MDR for buyers comparing active remediation across endpoint, cloud, identity, and SaaS. Daylight works with existing EDR/SIEM stacks and uses ChatOps-native collaboration, so it can be a useful third reference point in this comparison.