DefenseStorm vs Northwave
DefenseStorm is a Platform vendor that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. DefenseStorm targets SMB and Mid-market organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise.
Buyer brief
DefenseStorm is a Platform vendor that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. DefenseStorm targets SMB and Mid-market organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise.
DefenseStorm (Platform vendor) and Northwave (Services firm) serve different buyer profiles. Your decision depends on whether you prioritize DefenseStorm's defensestorm is a strong vertical mdr candidate for u.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 | U.S. community banks, regional banks and credit unions that need MDR plus examiner-ready evidence | Benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC |
| Price | Custom quote | Custom quote |
| Response authority | 0/6 actions · Approval required | 1/6 actions · Configurable |
| Stack | Works with existing stack | Works with existing stack |
| Data access | Dashboards | Dashboards |
| Warranty | None listed | None listed |
- Best fit
- U.S. community banks, regional banks and credit unions that need MDR plus examiner-ready evidence
- Price
- Custom quote
- Response authority
- 0/6 actions · Approval required
- 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 | DefenseStormTECH-AGNOSTIC | NorthwaveTECH-AGNOSTIC |
|---|---|---|
| ›› Fit | ||
| Target size | SMB, Mid-market | Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Sentiment | Positive | Mixed |
| ›› Your stack | ||
| Approach | Works with your tools | Works with your tools |
| EDR integrations | Microsoft DefenderCrowdStrikeCarbon BlackOther EDR options supported through customer-specific integration | Customer endpoint telemetry |
| SIEM integrations | GRID ActiveCustomer security logs and event sources | Customer log sources |
| Coverage | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: LimitedIDIdentity: LimitedSaaSSaaS: LimitedNetNetwork: CoveredOTOT/IoT: Not covered | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: LimitedIDIdentity: LimitedSaaSSaaS: Not coveredNetNetwork: CoveredOTOT/IoT: Optional add-on |
| ›› Response | ||
| Response type | Guided Response | Active Remediation |
| Approval policy | Approval Required | Configurable |
| Response actions | Alert and notify only | Custom playbooks |
| IR included | Separate | Separate |
| ›› Cost | ||
| Price range | Custom pricing. No public per-user or per-endpoint price found. | Not published |
| Minimum seats | None | None |
| Breach warranty | – | – |
| ›› More details | ||
| Requires own agent | No | No |
| Endpoints | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| Cloud workloads | ~ Limited | ~ Limited |
| Identity | ~ Limited | ~ Limited |
| SaaS apps | ~ Limited | Not offered |
| Network | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| OT/ICS | Not offered | + Optional |
| Threat hunting | Extra cost | ✓ Included |
| Response SLA | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| 24/7 coverage | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Predictable employee-count-based pricing with unlimited data ingestion, according to current vendor homepage copy. | Custom quote. Northwave does not publish MDR package pricing. |
| Hidden cost warnings | DefenseStorm is built exclusively for U.S. banks and credit unions, so it is a poor fit outside that vertical.. Response is collaborative/guided: the customer makes final decisions on actions in the environment.. No public contractual SLA table or service-credit terms were found despite published performance metrics.. Pricing varies by institution size, coverage tier and product mix, but no public price bands or minimums are disclosed. | 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 | Custom | Custom |
| Channels | EmailPortalPhone | PortalEmailPhone |
| Data access | Dashboards | Dashboards |
| Dedicated analyst | – | – |
| SOC regions | Europe | |
| Onboarding | G2 lists average time to implement as 1 month. Vendor site does not publish a standard MDR onboarding SLA. | 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 ServicesBankingCredit Unions | Financial ServicesHealthcareManufacturingLogisticsTechnologyPublic SectorCritical Infrastructure |
| MTTD | <15 minutes mean time to detect across the customer base (vendor-reported) | Not published |
| MTTR | <24 hours mean time to respond (vendor-reported) | Not published |
| Community view | G2 shows 4.8/5 across 29 reviews, with reviewers concentrated in banking and financial services and G2 category filters including MDR and EDR. Review themes are positive around customer support, team quality, onboarding and ease of use. Negative themes include querying/log complexity, asset discovery and navigation/reporting friction. Public Reddit signal was not meaningful in this pass. | 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 | FFIECGLBANCUANIST CSFCRI Profile | NIS2ISO 27001GDPRTISAX |
| Certifications | – | – |
| Founded | 2014 | 2006 |
| Data retention | Not published as a standard MDR retention period. DefenseStorm publishes GRID Active self-service restore/data retention content, but public retention terms were not found. | Not published as a standard MDR retention period. |
| API available | – | – |
| Website | Visit → | Visit → |
›› FAQ
What is the main difference between DefenseStorm and Northwave?
DefenseStorm is a Platform vendor that is technology-agnostic (works with your existing tools). Northwave is a Services firm that is technology-agnostic (works with your existing tools).
How do DefenseStorm and Northwave differ in response capabilities?
DefenseStorm supports 0 autonomous actions (none) and requires approval before acting. Northwave supports 1 autonomous actions (custom playbooks) and approval is configurable.
How does DefenseStorm pricing compare to Northwave?
DefenseStorm pricing: Custom pricing. No public per-user or per-endpoint price found.. Northwave pricing: Not published. Watch for with DefenseStorm: DefenseStorm is built exclusively for U.S. banks and credit unions, so it is a poor fit outside that vertical.; Response is collaborative/guided: the customer makes final decisions on actions in the environment.. 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 DefenseStorm or Northwave?
Choose DefenseStorm if: u.S. community banks, regional banks and credit unions that need MDR plus examiner-ready evidence. Choose Northwave if: benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC. DefenseStorm is not ideal for organizations outside U.S. banks and credit unions. 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.