Lumifi vs Northwave
Lumifi is a Pure-play MDR that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Lumifi targets SMB, Mid-market, and Enterprise organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise.
Buyer brief
Lumifi is a Pure-play MDR that works with your existing tools. Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Lumifi targets SMB, Mid-market, and Enterprise organizations; Northwave serves Mid-market and Enterprise.
Lumifi (Pure-play MDR) and Northwave (Services firm) serve different buyer profiles. Your decision depends on whether you prioritize Lumifi's pe-backed mdr roll-up with healthcare specialization, ex-military soc personnel, and a technology... 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 | Healthcare organizations needing HIPAA-aligned MDR, especially those already in the Critical Insight customer base | Benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC |
| Price | Not published | Custom quote |
| Response authority | 3/6 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
- Healthcare organizations needing HIPAA-aligned MDR, especially those already in the Critical Insight customer base
- Price
- Not published
- Response authority
- 3/6 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 | LumifiTECH-AGNOSTIC | NorthwaveTECH-AGNOSTIC |
|---|---|---|
| ›› Fit | ||
| Target size | SMB, Mid-market, Enterprise | Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Sentiment | Mixed | Mixed |
| ›› Your stack | ||
| Approach | Works with your tools | Works with your tools |
| EDR integrations | Microsoft Defender for EndpointSentinelOne Singularity XDRCrowdStrike FalconVMware Carbon BlackPalo Alto Cortex XDR | Customer endpoint telemetry |
| SIEM integrations | Microsoft SentinelExabeamElasticStellar CyberNetWitnessEventTracker (Netsurion platform) | Customer log sources |
| Coverage | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: Optional add-onIDIdentity: Optional add-onSaaSSaaS: Optional add-onNetNetwork: 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 | IsolateQuarantineCustom 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 | + Optional | ~ Limited |
| Identity | + Optional | ~ Limited |
| SaaS apps | + Optional | 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, coverage areas, and platform integrations. No public pricing information available. | Custom quote. Northwave does not publish MDR package pricing. |
| Hidden cost warnings | Incident response is NOT included in base MDR. It is a separate service from the Critical Insight division, likely priced separately.. OT/ICS coverage requires the NetWitness partnership (announced Feb 2026) and is not part of standard MDR. Pricing and maturity of this offering are unknown.. Roll-up strategy means the service you buy today may have been three different companies 13 months ago. Ask about integration status between Datashield, Netsurion, and Critical Insight operations.. Zero public pricing. No way to benchmark costs before a sales conversation.. Single US SOC in Scottsdale, AZ. No follow-the-sun coverage, which may affect overnight response quality. | 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 | EmailPortalPhone | PortalEmailPhone |
| Data access | Dashboards | Dashboards |
| Dedicated analyst | – | – |
| SOC regions | North America | Europe |
| Onboarding | Varies by integration complexity. API-based integrations for Microsoft Sentinel, Defender, and SentinelOne can take days to weeks. | 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 | HealthcareCritical InfrastructureEnergyManufacturingFinancial ServicesLegalGovernment (local/state) | Financial ServicesHealthcareManufacturingLogisticsTechnologyPublic SectorCritical Infrastructure |
| MTTD | Not published | Not published |
| MTTR | Not published | Not published |
| Community view | Gartner Peer Insights 4.9/5 (25 reviews in Managed Security Services, 6 in MDR), but very small sample size. Virtually no Reddit or G2 discussion. Glassdoor 2.9/5 (25 employee reviews) with only 39% recommending and 22% positive business outlook. Compensation rated 3.3/5, down 17% year-over-year. The Gartner rating looks good on paper but the tiny review count and lack of independent practitioner discussion make it hard to assess real-world performance. | 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 IINIST CSFHIPAAPCI DSS | NIS2ISO 27001GDPRTISAX |
| Certifications | SOC 2 Type II (SOC facility attestation) | – |
| Founded | 2022 | 2006 |
| Data retention | Customer data remains on customer infrastructure in co-managed model. Retention varies by platform and contract. | Not published as a standard MDR retention period. |
| API available | ✓ | – |
| Website | Visit → | Visit → |
›› FAQ
What is the main difference between Lumifi and Northwave?
Lumifi 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).
How do Lumifi and Northwave differ in response capabilities?
Lumifi supports 3 autonomous actions (custom playbooks, endpoint isolation, file quarantine) and approval is configurable. Northwave supports 1 autonomous actions (custom playbooks) and approval is configurable.
How does Lumifi pricing compare to Northwave?
Lumifi pricing: Custom-quoted pricing. Northwave pricing: Not published. Watch for with Lumifi: Incident response is NOT included in base MDR. It is a separate service from the Critical Insight division, likely priced separately.; OT/ICS coverage requires the NetWitness partnership (announced Feb 2026) and is not part of standard MDR. Pricing and maturity of this offering are unknown.. 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 Lumifi or Northwave?
Choose Lumifi if: healthcare organizations needing HIPAA-aligned MDR, especially those already in the Critical Insight customer base. Choose Northwave if: benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC. Lumifi is not ideal for buyers who need published MTTD/MTTR metrics, transparent pricing, or independent validation (MITRE, Forrester) before committing. 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.