Affordable EDR for small business: options with transparent monthly pricing

If you want the cheapest transparent EDR price I could verify directly from official vendor pages, Microsoft Defender for Business is the clear low end at $3 per user per month paid yearly. But that answer only holds if your business fits Microsoft's user-based model and you are prepared to operate the tool.

That last part matters.

The live site already has a category explainer in EDR vs MDR vs XDR: a buyer's guide. This draft is narrower. It is for buyers who are asking a simpler question:

"Which EDR products will tell me the price before they tell me to book a demo?"

The transparent-pricing shortlist

These are the official vendor prices I could verify directly from vendor-owned pages.

Vendor numbers verified directly from the official Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and SentinelOne pricing pages, June 2026.

Two important caveats:

• SentinelOne's pricing page says final pricing is purchased through an authorized partner, so treat the page as official list pricing, not the guaranteed final quote.
• Microsoft's number is unusually low because it is user-based, not because Microsoft somehow made detection and response costless to operate.

Monthly cost math, normalized

To make the pricing easier to read, here is the same list converted into simple monthly math.

This is why Microsoft changes the conversation so much for small businesses already living in Microsoft 365.

The direct answer by buyer type

Cheapest transparent option overall

If your environment is under 300 users and mostly lives in Microsoft 365, Microsoft Defender for Business is the cheapest official number I could verify directly.

The tradeoff is operational, not financial. You still need someone to watch it, tune it, and respond when it fires.

Cheapest clearly published device-priced EDR

Among the options with obvious device-level pricing and a direct online number, CrowdStrike Falcon Enterprise's annual price and SentinelOne Singularity Complete end up in roughly the same monthly band, around $15 per device per month when annualized.

That is a very different answer from Microsoft's $3 per user, which is why you need to compare billing unit before comparing price.

Worth the anchor most of these comparisons skip: Obsidian Ridge's Foundation tier is $15 per agent per month — the same ballpark as CrowdStrike's or SentinelOne's annualized device price, except Foundation is managed. The 24/7 SOC triage and response layer is included, not a separate cost you still have to staff. See pricing.

Best "budget but still serious" fit

For many small businesses, the real shortlist is:

• Microsoft Defender for Business if you want the lowest price and already trust the Microsoft stack
• CrowdStrike Falcon Enterprise if you want a clearly defined EDR bundle with public monthly and annual pricing
• SentinelOne Singularity Complete if you want a strong device-priced option and are comfortable buying through partner-based final quoting

What transparent pricing still does not tell you

This is where EDR buyers get into trouble.

Public pricing answers only the license question. It does not answer:

• who watches alerts on nights and weekends
• who tunes exclusions and policies
• who investigates suspicious behavior
• who isolates a machine when someone is on vacation

If the business has no honest answer to those questions, you are no longer doing an EDR comparison. You are doing an MDR comparison, and the more relevant internal link is Managed Detection and Response or the live MDR vs EDR vs MSSP vs SOC-as-a-service decision tree.

The cheap option is not always the cheap outcome

The most common small-business buying mistake is assuming the cheapest EDR license is the cheapest security decision.

It is often not.

For example, Microsoft's published rate is excellent on paper. But if nobody is going to review alerts, the business may still end up needing a managed layer later. The same is true with CrowdStrike and SentinelOne. Strong software does not remove the staffing problem.

That is also why the site already has a live Huntress vs SentinelOne operational comparison. Product cost and operating reality are not the same question.

What I would compare before buying

If you want a clean shortlist, compare these five things:

1. The billing unit. Microsoft is per user. CrowdStrike and SentinelOne are per device or per endpoint.

2. Whether the public bundle clearly includes EDR. Do not assume the cheapest prevention tier is the same thing as endpoint detection and response.

3. The monthly versus annual spread. CrowdStrike publishes both, and the gap is large enough to matter.

4. Retention and response features. Detection and response can look similar in headlines and behave very differently in practice.

5. Who will run it. If the answer is "probably our IT person when they have time," you are drifting toward MDR whether you say so or not.

My practitioner take

If you already run Microsoft 365 Business Premium or are comfortable inside Microsoft's stack, Defender for Business is the most budget-friendly transparent option I could verify.

If you want a device-priced standalone EDR and you value seeing the number before a sales call, CrowdStrike and SentinelOne are the clearest official vendor pages I found.

If you know from day one that nobody is going to watch the queue, skip the illusion that you are doing a software-only purchase. Move straight to a managed option and compare it honestly against your EDR shortlist.

FAQ

What is the cheapest transparent EDR option for a small business?

Microsoft Defender for Business is the cheapest official price I could verify directly at $3 per user per month paid yearly. It supports up to five devices per user, which can make the effective device cost very low for a Microsoft-centered small business.

Which EDR vendors publish pricing without making you talk to sales?

Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and SentinelOne all publish official pricing for at least some endpoint packages. Many other vendors still keep real pricing behind a quote request.

Is transparent EDR pricing the same thing as transparent MDR pricing?

No. EDR pricing is usually the software license. MDR pricing should include the human monitoring and response layer. If you need after-hours coverage, compare managed offers too.

Why does Microsoft Defender for Business look so cheap?

Because it is priced per user, not per endpoint, and Microsoft allows up to five devices per user. That creates a clear pricing advantage for small businesses already standardized on Microsoft, but it does not remove the need to operate the tool.

Should I compare monthly or annual pricing first?

Both. Monthly pricing helps with cash flow. Annual pricing often shows the truer long-term cost. CrowdStrike in particular publishes a meaningful gap between monthly and annual device pricing.

What should I compare besides sticker price?

Compare billing unit, minimums, whether EDR is clearly included, retention, response features, and whether anyone in your business will actually own the alert queue.