Gradient Cyber vs Northwave
Gradient Cyber is a Pure-play MDR that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Gradient Cyber targets Mid-market organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise. Gradient Cyber includes 5 attack surfaces in base pricing (Endpoint, Cloud, SaaS, Identity, Network), compared to 2 for Northwave (Endpoint, Network).
Buyer brief
Gradient Cyber is a Pure-play MDR that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Gradient Cyber targets Mid-market organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise. Gradient Cyber includes 5 attack surfaces in base pricing (Endpoint, Cloud, SaaS, Identity, Network), compared to 2 for Northwave (Endpoint, Network).
Gradient Cyber (Pure-play MDR) and Northwave (Services firm) serve different buyer profiles. Your decision depends on whether you prioritize Gradient Cyber's mid-market specialist that owns its platform, soc, and analyst team 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 | Maritime and transportation organizations needing OT visibility alongside IT security | Benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC |
| Price | Not published | Custom quote |
| Response authority | 5/6 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
- Maritime and transportation organizations needing OT visibility alongside IT security
- Price
- Not published
- Response authority
- 5/6 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 | Gradient CyberTECH-AGNOSTIC | NorthwaveTECH-AGNOSTIC |
|---|---|---|
| ›› Fit | ||
| Target size | Mid-market | Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Sentiment | Mixed | Mixed |
| ›› Your stack | ||
| Approach | Works with your tools | Works with your tools |
| EDR integrations | Microsoft Defender for EndpointSentinelOne SingularityVMware Carbon BlackCisco Secure EndpointFortinet FortiEDRSophos CentralDeep Instinct | Customer endpoint telemetry |
| SIEM integrations | Quorum AI native data lake (open XDR approach, works with or without customer SIEM) | 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 processContainQuarantineCustom 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 | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| 24/7 coverage | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Custom pricing based on environment size and coverage areas. Positioned for mid-market budgets, but no public pricing available. | Custom quote. Northwave does not publish MDR package pricing. |
| Hidden cost warnings | No public pricing. You will need a custom quote and have no benchmark to negotiate against.. Network sensors may require on-premises hardware deployment. Ask about hardware costs.. Active containment (isolate, quarantine, kill) is included, but full incident response and forensics beyond containment may require a separate professional services engagement. Clarify exactly where that line is.. Monthly reviews only, not quarterly business reviews like some competitors offer. | 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 | Custom |
| Channels | EmailPortal | PortalEmailPhone |
| Data access | Dashboards | Dashboards |
| Dedicated analyst | – | – |
| SOC regions | North AmericaEuropeAsia-Pacific | Europe |
| Onboarding | Days. Network sensors deploy quickly with minimal setup. Full deployment completed in less than a month. | 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 | HealthcareFinancial ServicesManufacturingGovernmentMaritime | Financial ServicesHealthcareManufacturingLogisticsTechnologyPublic SectorCritical Infrastructure |
| MTTD | Not published | Not published |
| MTTR | Not published | Not published |
| Community view | Limited public review volume. Gartner Peer Insights 4.2/5 with 13 reviews, very small market presence. Praise centers on communication quality, ease of deployment, and false positive reduction. Complaints focus on challenging ongoing management, limited customization, and gaps between sales promises and actual capabilities. No Reddit discussions found. | 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 27001GDPRHIPAAFIPS 140-2 | NIS2ISO 27001GDPRTISAX |
| Certifications | SOC 2 Type II (annual third-party audit, verified via GlobeNewsWire Dec 2023)ISO 27001 (vendor-claimed, not independently verified)GDPR compliant (vendor-claimed)HIPAA compliant (vendor-claimed)FIPS 140-2 (vendor-claimed, likely via AWS infrastructure) | – |
| Founded | 2017 | 2006 |
| Data retention | Longer-term storage for threat hunting, forensics, and reporting (specific retention period not published) | Not published as a standard MDR retention period. |
| API available | ✓ | – |
| Website | Visit → | Visit → |
›› FAQ
What is the main difference between Gradient Cyber and Northwave?
Gradient Cyber 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). Gradient Cyber covers 5 attack surfaces in base pricing vs. 2 for Northwave.
How do Gradient Cyber and Northwave differ in response capabilities?
Gradient Cyber supports 5 autonomous actions (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 Gradient Cyber pricing compare to Northwave?
Gradient Cyber pricing: Custom-quoted pricing. Northwave pricing: Not published. Watch for with Gradient Cyber: No public pricing. You will need a custom quote and have no benchmark to negotiate against.; Network sensors may require on-premises hardware deployment. Ask about hardware costs.. 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 Gradient Cyber or Northwave?
Choose Gradient Cyber if: mid-market organizations (200-2,000 employees) with limited security staff wanting 24x7 monitoring and active endpoint response without hiring a SOC. Choose Northwave if: benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC. Gradient Cyber is not ideal for sMBs under 200 employees or large enterprises over 5,000 employees (outside mid-market focus). 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.