Northwave vs Ontinue
Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Ontinue is a Microsoft-ecosystem that works with your existing tools. Northwave targets Mid-market and Enterprise organizations; Ontinue serves Mid-market and Enterprise. Northwave includes 2 attack surfaces in base pricing (Endpoint, Network), compared to 5 for Ontinue (Endpoint, Cloud, SaaS, Identity, Network).
Buyer brief
Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. Ontinue is a Microsoft-ecosystem that works with your existing tools. Northwave targets Mid-market and Enterprise organizations; Ontinue serves Mid-market and Enterprise. Northwave includes 2 attack surfaces in base pricing (Endpoint, Network), compared to 5 for Ontinue (Endpoint, Cloud, SaaS, Identity, Network).
Northwave (Services firm) and Ontinue (Microsoft-ecosystem) serve different buyer profiles. Your decision depends on whether you prioritize Northwave's northwave mdr fits european buyers that want a soc service connected to incident response, red te... or Ontinue's microsoft-native mxdr with 99.5% ai-automated incident resolution and teams-based collaboration.
At a glance
| FIELD |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC | Organizations heavily invested in Microsoft E5/Defender ecosystem |
| Price | Custom quote | Not published |
| Response authority | 1/6 actions · Configurable | 6/6 actions · Configurable |
| Stack | Works with existing stack | Works with existing stack |
| Data access | Dashboards | Full query access |
| Warranty | None listed | 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
- Best fit
- Organizations heavily invested in Microsoft E5/Defender ecosystem
- Price
- Not published
- Response authority
- 6/6 actions · Configurable
- Stack
- Works with existing stack
- Data access
- Full query access
- Warranty
- None listed
›› Detailed comparison
| FIELD | NorthwaveTECH-AGNOSTIC | OntinueTECH-AGNOSTIC |
|---|---|---|
| ›› Fit | ||
| Target size | Mid-market, Enterprise | Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Sentiment | Mixed | Very Positive |
| ›› Your stack | ||
| Approach | Works with your tools | Works with your tools |
| EDR integrations | Customer endpoint telemetry | Microsoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft Defender 365 XDR |
| SIEM integrations | Customer log sources | Microsoft Sentinel |
| Coverage | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: LimitedIDIdentity: LimitedSaaSSaaS: Not coveredNetNetwork: CoveredOTOT/IoT: Optional add-on | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: CoveredIDIdentity: CoveredSaaSSaaS: CoveredNetNetwork: CoveredOTOT/IoT: Optional add-on |
| ›› Response | ||
| Response type | Active Remediation | Active Remediation |
| Approval policy | Configurable | Configurable |
| Response actions | Custom playbooks | IsolateKill processContainDisable accountsQuarantineCustom playbooks |
| IR included | Separate | ✓ Included |
| ›› 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 | ~ Limited | ✓ Included |
| Identity | ~ Limited | ✓ Included |
| SaaS apps | Not offered | ✓ Included |
| Network | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| OT/ICS | + Optional | + Optional |
| Threat hunting | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| Response SLA | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| 24/7 coverage | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Custom quote. Northwave does not publish MDR package pricing. | Per-user or per-asset subscription |
| Hidden cost warnings | 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. | Requires Microsoft E5 or Defender licenses as prerequisite. Microsoft Sentinel consumption costs are separate and usage-based. Add-on services (vulnerability mitigation, IoT, phishing) increase total cost |
| Data portability | Partial | Full |
| Contract terms | Custom | Annual, Multi-year |
| Channels | PortalEmailPhone | TeamsEmailPortalPhone |
| Data access | Dashboards | Full query access |
| Dedicated analyst | – | ✓ |
| SOC regions | Europe | North AmericaEuropeAsia-Pacific |
| Onboarding | 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. | 1-5 days for 24/7 coverage, 10 days fully operational |
| Industry focus | Financial ServicesHealthcareManufacturingLogisticsTechnologyPublic SectorCritical Infrastructure | Financial ServicesHealthcareManufacturingTechnologyProfessional Services |
| MTTD | Not published | Not published |
| MTTR | Not published | Up to 50% reduction in mean time to investigate via Autonomous Investigator (vendor-published) |
| Community view | 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. | Gartner Peer Insights 4.8/5 (22 eligible reviews, 65 total ratings) with 97% willingness to recommend. Gartner Strong Performer in VoC for MDR 2024. Praised for Microsoft expertise and Teams-based collaboration. |
| Compliance | NIS2ISO 27001GDPRTISAX | ISO 27001ISO 27017ISO 27018 |
| Certifications | – | Microsoft Cloud Security Advanced Specialization (one of ~50 Microsoft partners worldwide)Microsoft Threat Protection CertificationMicrosoft-verified MXDR Service ProviderISO 27001ISO 27017ISO 27018 |
| Founded | 2006 | 2023 |
| Data retention | Not published as a standard MDR retention period. | Not publicly disclosed. Data resides in customer's own Sentinel instance. |
| API available | – | ✓ |
| Website | Visit → | Visit → |
›› FAQ
What is the main difference between Northwave and Ontinue?
Northwave is a Services firm that is technology-agnostic (works with your existing tools). Ontinue is a Microsoft-ecosystem that is technology-agnostic (works with your existing tools). Northwave covers 2 attack surfaces in base pricing vs. 5 for Ontinue.
How do Northwave and Ontinue differ in response capabilities?
Northwave supports 1 autonomous actions (custom playbooks) and approval is configurable. Ontinue supports 6 autonomous actions (account disable, custom playbooks, endpoint isolation, file quarantine, network containment, process termination) and approval is configurable. Incident response is not included with Northwave and included with Ontinue.
How does Northwave pricing compare to Ontinue?
Northwave pricing: Not published. Ontinue pricing: Custom-quoted pricing. 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.. Watch for with Ontinue: Requires Microsoft E5 or Defender licenses as prerequisite; Microsoft Sentinel consumption costs are separate and usage-based.
Should I choose Northwave or Ontinue?
Choose Northwave if: benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC. Choose Ontinue if: organizations heavily invested in Microsoft E5/Defender ecosystem. Northwave is not ideal for buyers that need public MDR pricing or response SLAs before engaging sales. Ontinue is not ideal for organizations using non-Microsoft EDR (CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, etc.).
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.