Expel vs Northwave
Expel is a Pure-play MDR that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Expel targets Mid-market and Enterprise organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise. Expel includes 5 attack surfaces in base pricing (Endpoint, Cloud, SaaS, Identity, Network), compared to 2 for Northwave (Endpoint, Network).
Buyer brief
Expel is a Pure-play MDR that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Expel targets Mid-market and Enterprise organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise. Expel includes 5 attack surfaces in base pricing (Endpoint, Cloud, SaaS, Identity, Network), compared to 2 for Northwave (Endpoint, Network).
Expel (Pure-play MDR) and Northwave (Services firm) serve different buyer profiles. Your decision depends on whether you prioritize Expel's api-first, vendor-agnostic mdr with 160+ integrations and full transparency into every soc action... 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 and enterprise organizations with existing security tools wanting vendor-agnostic MDR | Benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC |
| Price | TrustRadius: from $11,640/yr | Custom quote |
| Response authority | 6/6 actions · Configurable | 1/6 actions · Configurable |
| Stack | Works with existing stack | Works with existing stack |
| Data access | Full query access | Dashboards |
| Warranty | None listed | None listed |
- Best fit
- Mid-market and enterprise organizations with existing security tools wanting vendor-agnostic MDR
- Price
- TrustRadius: from $11,640/yr
- Response authority
- 6/6 actions · Configurable
- Stack
- Works with existing stack
- Data access
- Full query access
- 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 | ExpelTECH-AGNOSTIC | NorthwaveTECH-AGNOSTIC |
|---|---|---|
| ›› Fit | ||
| Target size | Mid-market, Enterprise | Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Sentiment | Very Positive | Mixed |
| ›› Your stack | ||
| Approach | Works with your tools | Works with your tools |
| EDR integrations | CrowdStrikeMicrosoft DefenderSentinelOneCarbon BlackPalo Alto CortexElasticCybereason | Customer endpoint telemetry |
| SIEM integrations | SplunkMicrosoft SentinelPalo Alto Cortex XSIAMGoogle ChronicleExabeamSecuronixSumo LogicIBM QRadar | Customer log sources |
| Coverage | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: CoveredIDIdentity: CoveredSaaSSaaS: CoveredNetNetwork: CoveredOTOT/IoT: Not covered | 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 | Starting at $11,640/year. Custom quotes based on environment size and coverage areas. | 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 | Not offered | + Optional |
| Threat hunting | Extra cost | ✓ Included |
| Response SLA | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| 24/7 coverage | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Custom pricing by coverage type: cloud infrastructure (by resources), on-prem (by endpoints), SaaS (by user accounts), phishing (by email count). Three tiers: Starter, Select, Premium. | Custom quote. Northwave does not publish MDR package pricing. |
| Hidden cost warnings | Threat hunting is NOT included in base MDR, it is a separate add-on. Incident response is NOT included and must be obtained separately. Premium tier required for direct Slack/Teams SOC communication. Pricing scales significantly based on number of integrations and coverage areas | 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 | Full | Partial |
| Contract terms | Annual, Multi-year | Custom |
| Channels | SlackTeamsEmailPortal | PortalEmailPhone |
| Data access | Full query access | Dashboards |
| Dedicated analyst | – | – |
| SOC regions | North America | Europe |
| Onboarding | Hours to days via API integrations. 7-minute initial tool connection demonstrated. | 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 ServicesHealthcareTechnologyEducationEnergy | Financial ServicesHealthcareManufacturingLogisticsTechnologyPublic SectorCritical Infrastructure |
| MTTD | Not separately published | Not published |
| MTTR | 14 minutes for critical/high incidents with auto-remediation. 22 minutes average alert-to-fix for critical alerts. | Not published |
| Community view | Forrester Wave MDR Leader Q1 2025 (5/5 in 15 of 21 criteria). Gartner Peer Insights 4.6/5 (142 reviews). G2 4.8/5. PeerSpot 9.0/10. Widely praised for transparency, integration breadth, and speed. Primary criticism: threat hunting and incident response are add-ons, not included. | 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 27001:2013ISO 27701:2019GDPR | NIS2ISO 27001GDPRTISAX |
| Certifications | SOC 2 Type II (annual audit May 1 to April 30)ISO 27001:2013ISO 27701:2019 (processor) | – |
| Founded | 2016 | 2006 |
| Data retention | Per-contract basis with automated secure disposal per retention policy | Not published as a standard MDR retention period. |
| API available | ✓ | – |
| Website | Visit → | Visit → |
›› FAQ
What is the main difference between Expel and Northwave?
Expel 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). Expel covers 5 attack surfaces in base pricing vs. 2 for Northwave.
How do Expel and Northwave differ in response capabilities?
Expel 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 Expel pricing compare to Northwave?
Expel pricing: Starting at $11,640/year. Custom quotes based on environment size and coverage areas.. Northwave pricing: Not published. 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. 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 Expel or Northwave?
Choose Expel if: mid-market and enterprise organizations with existing security tools wanting vendor-agnostic MDR. Choose Northwave if: benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC. Expel is not ideal for organizations wanting platform-native MDR from a single vendor (Expel requires existing security tools). 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.