The cheapest MDR for small business: real 2026 pricing by endpoint count

If you are shopping strictly on publicly posted pricing, be careful with any article that names one permanent "cheapest MDR" winner. Vendor pages change, and MDR pricing often moves behind a quote form. The number you can verify today matters more than an old table.

Small-business buyers run into the same problem over and over: the market talks about "affordable MDR," but most vendors still make you book a demo before they show a number.

That makes real comparison hard. So this article uses only pricing we could verify from vendor-owned pages or, for Obsidian Ridge, our own live pricing. If a provider makes you request a quote, we say that plainly instead of guessing.

What we counted as "real MDR pricing"

For this article, we only counted an offer as MDR if the provider says the service includes a human-led or SOC-led monitoring and response layer, not just endpoint software.

That distinction matters. If you want the category breakdown, the live MDR vs EDR vs MSSP vs SOC-as-a-service decision tree already covers it. This draft is narrower: what a small business can actually budget.

Public MDR pricing we could verify

Vendor pricing pages were checked directly in June 2026; vendors are named in prose, not linked. See Obsidian Ridge pricing.

That table tells the real story: public MDR pricing is still rare.

Endpoint-count math: where the cheapest sticker price stops being cheapest

The easiest way to get misled is to compare only the posted per-endpoint number, especially when one provider publishes a minimum but not the current dollar amount.

Here is the same comparison normalized around what can be verified from public terms without inventing quote-stage pricing.

Two important notes:

• Huntress states that higher committed volumes get lower rates, so a large direct buyer may pay less than the list figures above.
• Obsidian Ridge prices per person, not per endpoint, so it has no column here. Ridge Core is $25 per person per month with no minimum, and a shared computer with no named user counts as one person.

My direct answer by size

If you have fewer than 25 endpoints

Do not let the lowest posted rate fool you. A 50-endpoint minimum can make the "cheapest" MDR more expensive than a higher per-agent rate with no minimum. For a home or a very small office that only needs the computers watched, Ridge Watch is $15 per computer per month.

At this size, the budget question is really:

• Can you buy real 24/7 coverage without a forced floor
• Can you keep the bill predictable month to month
• Do you also need help with identity and phishing, not just endpoints

If you are still deciding whether you need managed coverage at all, the live EDR vs MDR vs XDR buyer's guide is the better first read.

If you have around 50 endpoints

This is where the Huntress minimum stops being a mismatch. At 50 endpoints you are no longer paying for unused capacity, so the direct licence at $449.50/month buys exactly what you use.

What a partner charges above the licence is what buys deployment, tuning, escalation into a named practitioner, and the compliance evidence package.

That does not automatically make direct the best fit. It means the buying question changes from "can I clear the minimum?" to "who is going to operate this?"

If you have 100 endpoints or more

Now you should expect quotes to move. Huntress says higher committed volumes get lower rates. Quote-only providers may also become more competitive at this point, especially if they bundle broader coverage or want an annual commitment.

The rule here is simple: once you are over 100 endpoints, do not make a buying decision from the website alone.

Where quote-only vendors fit

The quote-only vendors are not automatically overpriced. They are just harder to compare honestly.

That matters because buyers often search "cheapest MDR" when what they really mean is one of two things:

1. "What is the lowest real monthly bill I can get for 24/7 monitored coverage?"
2. "Which provider has the lowest rate once my environment is large enough to negotiate?"

Public pricing helps with the first question. It does a poor job with the second.

If you want a broad category decision before you ask for quotes, the internal link we would use is the decision tree article, not another vendor grid.

What we would buy in the real world

If the business is very small, we would optimize for:

• No painful minimum
• Clear monthly math
• A provider that can later add identity coverage and phishing training without ripping out the stack

If the business is closer to 50 endpoints and wants the lowest public MDR sticker price, Huntress is the cheapest rate we could verify directly.

If the business has cyber-insurance pressure, Microsoft 365 exposure, or repeated phishing risk, we would stop pretending the endpoint-only line item is the whole answer and look at the broader program.

That is where Managed ITDR, security awareness training, and the published pricing page start to matter.

The mistake we would avoid

Do not compare MDR the way people compare antivirus.

With antivirus, a low sticker price may be enough to shortlist a tool. With MDR, the service minimum, operating model, and included response layer matter just as much as the per-endpoint number.

That is why "cheapest MDR" is only a useful question if you finish the sentence:

"Cheapest for how many endpoints, and with what minimum?"

A closing caution on the word cheapest. If an insurance application is driving the timeline, the number that matters is not monthly cost but whether the control lets you answer the questionnaire truthfully.

That is the cyber insurance readiness view of the same purchase, and it occasionally reverses the ranking above.

FAQ

What is the cheapest MDR for a small business in 2026?

It depends far more on your endpoint count than on the per-endpoint rate. Huntress publishes Managed EDR at $7.99 per endpoint per month at 100 endpoints, and $8.99 at its 50-unit floor, but requires a 50-seat minimum per product on direct and reseller purchases, so a 10-endpoint business buying direct pays for 50 seats.

Obsidian Ridge publishes Ridge Core at $25 per person per month with no minimum, so a business of 17 people or fewer pays less than the cost of 50 direct seats. Verify both on the live pages before deciding.

Why is MDR pricing so hard to compare?

Most vendors still hide pricing behind a demo form. The few that publish numbers often use different units, minimums, and billing terms, so buyers end up comparing a monthly device price against an annual user commitment or a rate that only works at a certain minimum.

Does public MDR pricing usually include a 24/7 SOC?

It should. If the public number is only for endpoint software and the managed monitoring layer is separate or quote-only, we would not count that as true MDR pricing.

What matters more for a tiny business: the lowest rate or the minimum?

Usually the minimum. A low advertised rate with a 50-endpoint minimum can be more expensive than a higher rate with no minimum if you only need coverage for a small office.

Is the cheapest public MDR also the best fit?

Not always. The cheapest public rate can still be the wrong fit if you need identity monitoring, training, insurance evidence, or a service model that works without a 50-endpoint floor.

When should I stop comparing EDR licenses and move to MDR?

When nobody in the business is realistically going to watch detections after hours, respond on weekends, or own triage. That is the point where a cheap EDR license stops being a cheap security outcome.