Northwave vs VikingCloud
Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. VikingCloud is a Platform vendor that requires its own security platform. Northwave targets Mid-market and Enterprise organizations; VikingCloud serves SMB and Mid-market.
Buyer brief
Northwave is a Services firm that works with your existing tools. VikingCloud is a Platform vendor that requires its own security platform. Northwave targets Mid-market and Enterprise organizations; VikingCloud serves SMB and Mid-market.
VikingCloud is the choice if you want a single-vendor stack with deep integration. Northwave is better if you have existing tools and want flexibility.
At a glance
| FIELD |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Best fit | Benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC | Retail, hospitality, and financial services organizations where PCI DSS compliance is the primary driver for buying MDR |
| Price | Custom quote | Not published |
| Response authority | 1/6 actions · Configurable | 1/6 actions · Configurable |
| Stack | Works with existing stack | Requires own platform |
| Data access | Dashboards | Dashboards |
| 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
- Retail, hospitality, and financial services organizations where PCI DSS compliance is the primary driver for buying MDR
- Price
- Not published
- Response authority
- 1/6 actions · Configurable
- Stack
- Requires own platform
- Data access
- Dashboards
- Warranty
- None listed
›› Detailed comparison
| FIELD | NorthwaveTECH-AGNOSTIC | VikingCloudPLATFORM |
|---|---|---|
| ›› Fit | ||
| Target size | Mid-market, Enterprise | SMB, Mid-market |
| Sentiment | Mixed | Mixed |
| ›› Your stack | ||
| Approach | Works with your tools | Requires their platform |
| EDR integrations | Customer endpoint telemetry | VikingCloud Endpoint Security |
| SIEM integrations | Customer log sources | VikingCloud Managed SIEM |
| Coverage | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: LimitedIDIdentity: LimitedSaaSSaaS: Not coveredNetNetwork: CoveredOTOT/IoT: Optional add-on | EPEndpoint: CoveredCloudCloud: Not coveredIDIdentity: LimitedSaaSSaaS: Not coveredNetNetwork: CoveredOTOT/IoT: Not covered |
| ›› Response | ||
| Response type | Active Remediation | Guided Response |
| Approval policy | Configurable | Configurable |
| Response actions | Custom playbooks | Quarantine |
| IR included | Separate | Separate |
| ›› Cost | ||
| Price range | Not published | Not published |
| Minimum seats | None | None |
| Breach warranty | – | – |
| ›› More details | ||
| Requires own agent | No | Yes |
| Endpoints | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| Cloud workloads | ~ Limited | Not offered |
| Identity | ~ Limited | ~ Limited |
| SaaS apps | Not offered | Not offered |
| Network | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| OT/ICS | + Optional | Not offered |
| Threat hunting | ✓ Included | ✓ Included |
| Response SLA | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| 24/7 coverage | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Custom quote. Northwave does not publish MDR package pricing. | Custom pricing, not publicly disclosed. VikingCloud uses quote-based pricing requiring direct sales consultation. |
| 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. | Pricing is completely opaque: no public ranges, no published minimums, quote-only. Requires VikingCloud's proprietary endpoint agent (Bitdefender-based), replacing your existing EDR. DFIR incident response is a separate retainer, not included in base MDR. The 4M customer base is mostly compliance clients. Ask how many are active MDR customers to gauge service maturity. |
| Data portability | Partial | Limited |
| Contract terms | Custom | Annual |
| Channels | PortalEmailPhone | EmailPhonePortal |
| Data access | Dashboards | Dashboards |
| 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. | Not published. Agent installation is described as one-click download. |
| Industry focus | Financial ServicesHealthcareManufacturingLogisticsTechnologyPublic SectorCritical Infrastructure | RetailQuick Service RestaurantsFinancial ServicesHospitalityHealthcareTravel and Tourism |
| MTTD | Not published | Not published |
| MTTR | Not published | Less than 30 minutes (vendor blog claim, not independently validated) |
| 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. | Very limited public reviews for VikingCloud's MDR service specifically. The company is established in PCI compliance consulting (100+ QSAs, 35-year heritage) but has near-zero visibility in practitioner communities discussing MDR. No Reddit discussions found. Four customer testimonials on Featured Customers are positive but compliance-focused, not about detection and response quality. |
| Compliance | NIS2ISO 27001GDPRTISAX | PCI DSSISO 27001SOC 2 |
| Certifications | – | PCI QSA (Qualified Security Assessor Company)PCI ASV (Approved Scanning Vendor)PCI PFI (Payment Card Industry Forensic Investigator) |
| Founded | 2006 | 1989 |
| Data retention | Not published as a standard MDR retention period. | Not published |
| API available | – | – |
| Website | Visit → | Visit → |
›› FAQ
What is the main difference between Northwave and VikingCloud?
Northwave is a Services firm that is technology-agnostic (works with your existing tools). VikingCloud is a Platform vendor that is platform-native (requires their own security stack).
How do Northwave and VikingCloud differ in response capabilities?
Northwave supports 1 autonomous actions (custom playbooks) and approval is configurable. VikingCloud supports 1 autonomous actions (file quarantine) and approval is configurable.
How does Northwave pricing compare to VikingCloud?
Northwave pricing: Not published. VikingCloud 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 VikingCloud: Pricing is completely opaque: no public ranges, no published minimums, quote-only; Requires VikingCloud's proprietary endpoint agent (Bitdefender-based), replacing your existing EDR.
Should I choose Northwave or VikingCloud?
Choose Northwave if: benelux, DACH and Nordic buyers that want European MDR with a Utrecht SOC. Choose VikingCloud if: retail, hospitality, and financial services organizations where PCI DSS compliance is the primary driver for buying MDR. Northwave is not ideal for buyers that need public MDR pricing or response SLAs before engaging sales. VikingCloud is not ideal for organizations with existing EDR investments wanting vendor-agnostic MDR (VikingCloud requires their own endpoint agent).
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.