Sophos vs Arctic Wolf | Feature Comparison

Fully managed response

Sophos MDR takes direct action to remediate threats. Sophos MDR Plus adds critical incident management for major incidents, including root-cause analysis, attacker removal, and recovery guidance.

A broader cyber defense system

Sophos Fusion is the industry’s leading cyber defense system. It sees everything, connects everything, and enables your defenses to respond as one.

Intelligence that compounds

Sophos defends 625,000+ organizations worldwide. Every threat encountered in any customer environment improves the defenses of every other customer, automatically, instantly, with no configuration.

WHY SOPHOS MDR

Fully Managed Response. Broad Cyber Defense System.

Sophos Fusion is the industry’s most complete cyber defense system. It sees everything, connects everything, and enables your defenses to respond as one.

Sophos MDR takes hands-on action to remediate threats, while MDR Plus extends response to critical incident management.
Sophos protects 625,000+ organizations, creating compounding intelligence that continuously improves detections and response playbooks.
With Sophos Endpoint included at no extra cost, Sophos MDR prevents more attacks upfront, cutting down noise and enabling analysts to focus on high value investigations.

See all Sophos awards and recognition

Rated a "Customers' Choice" for MDR, XDR, Endpoint, Email, and Firewall

A Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Managed Detection and Response Service for Midmarket 2026.

Won three awards at the SE Labs Awards 2026: Enterprise Endpoint (Windows), Small Business Endpoint (Windows), and Small Business Security Development

BEYOND ALERTSBEYOND CONTAINMENTBEYOND MDR SILOS

MDR That Resolves Threats, Not Just Escalates Them

See how Sophos MDR and Arctic Wolf Aurora MDR compare across the capabilities that matter most.

Capability	Sophos MDR	Arctic Wolf
CYBER DEFENSE SYSTEM	Sophos Fusion Sophos Fusion sees everything, connects everything, and enables your defenses to respond as one. It’s the industry’s most complete cyber defense system, engineered for a world where threats move at AI speed.	No equivalent cyber defense system Arctic Wolf primarily focuses on MDR, security operations, and risk management services rather than providing a comparable breadth of natively integrated security controls.
COMPLETE MANAGED RESPONSE	Response from containment through remediation Sophos MDR takes direct action on customers’ behalf, not just alert or advise. It provides end-to-end response ownership across native controls and a growing range of third-party integrations, while Sophos MDR Plus adds critical incident management.	Limited response capabilities Arctic Wolf focuses on containment actions and remediation recommendations, with full incident response available only through a paid retainer.
CRITICAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT	Included with MDR Plus Sophos MDR Plus provides critical incident management, including root-cause analysis, removal of attacker tools and persistence mechanisms, and recovery guidance.	Available through an incident retainer Arctic Wolf requires purchasing a retainer separately, with coverage and response terms varying by license.
DIRECT SOC ACCESS	Direct access to SOC analysts MDR Customers can contact Sophos SOC analysts through the console or by phone when they have questions about a case or potential threat.	Access through the Concierge Security Team Arctic Wolf restricts access to SOC analysts, requiring customers to engage through the Concierge team—even during active attacks—potentially delaying response when speed is critical.
INTEGRATED XDR VISIBILITY	Customer visibility through XDR Sophos MDR includes an integrated XDR platform that gives customers visibility into detections, investigations, and response activity across first- and third-party security data.	Limited customer-facing visibility Arctic Wolf offers limited customer-facing visibility and charges extra to search ingested telemetry through its paid Data Explorer add-on.
ENDPOINT PROTECTION INCLUDED	Endpoint protection and XDR included Sophos Endpoint and XDR are included with Sophos MDR, providing integrated prevention, detection, investigation, and response capabilities.	Endpoint protection purchased separately The Arctic Wolf Agent collects telemetry and supports assessment functions, but it is not a full endpoint protection agent. Aurora Endpoint Security is sold separately.
THREAT INTELLIGENCE	Compounding intelligence at global scale Every threat across 625,000+ customers, MDR resolved edge case, and onboarded environment feeds Sophos AI models, detections, and response playbooks—so every customer benefits from shared intelligence.	Narrower native telemetry base Arctic Wolf’s more limited native telemetry, customer base, and threat intelligence resources constrains its ability to rapidly respond to emerging threats.

Capability

Sophos MDR

Arctic Wolf

CYBER DEFENSE SYSTEM

Sophos Fusion

Sophos Fusion sees everything, connects everything, and enables your defenses to respond as one. It’s the industry’s most complete cyber defense system, engineered for a world where threats move at AI speed.

No equivalent cyber defense system

Arctic Wolf primarily focuses on MDR, security operations, and risk management services rather than providing a comparable breadth of natively integrated security controls.

COMPLETE MANAGED RESPONSE

Response from containment through remediation

Sophos MDR takes direct action on customers’ behalf, not just alert or advise. It provides end-to-end response ownership across native controls and a growing range of third-party integrations, while Sophos MDR Plus adds critical incident management.

Limited response capabilities

Arctic Wolf focuses on containment actions and remediation recommendations, with full incident response available only through a paid retainer.

CRITICAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

Included with MDR Plus

Sophos MDR Plus provides critical incident management, including root-cause analysis, removal of attacker tools and persistence mechanisms, and recovery guidance.

Available through an incident retainer

Arctic Wolf requires purchasing a retainer separately, with coverage and response terms varying by license.

DIRECT SOC ACCESS

Direct access to SOC analysts

MDR Customers can contact Sophos SOC analysts through the console or by phone when they have questions about a case or potential threat.

Access through the Concierge Security Team

Arctic Wolf restricts access to SOC analysts, requiring customers to engage through the Concierge team—even during active attacks—potentially delaying response when speed is critical.

INTEGRATED XDR VISIBILITY

Customer visibility through XDR

Sophos MDR includes an integrated XDR platform that gives customers visibility into detections, investigations, and response activity across first- and third-party security data.

Limited customer-facing visibility

Arctic Wolf offers limited customer-facing visibility and charges extra to search ingested telemetry through its paid Data Explorer add-on.

ENDPOINT PROTECTION INCLUDED

Endpoint protection and XDR included

Sophos Endpoint and XDR are included with Sophos MDR, providing integrated prevention, detection, investigation, and response capabilities.

Endpoint protection purchased separately

The Arctic Wolf Agent collects telemetry and supports assessment functions, but it is not a full endpoint protection agent. Aurora Endpoint Security is sold separately.

THREAT INTELLIGENCE

Compounding intelligence at global scale

Every threat across 625,000+ customers, MDR resolved edge case, and onboarded environment feeds Sophos AI models, detections, and response playbooks—so every customer benefits from shared intelligence.

Narrower native telemetry base

Arctic Wolf’s more limited native telemetry, customer base, and threat intelligence resources constrains its ability to rapidly respond to emerging threats.

"Sophos MDR has dramatically reduced our cyber risk by cutting incident response times from days to hours. The service has proven its worth multiple times, stopping active attacks before any damage can be done.”

IT Manager in the Manufacturing Industry, $50M-$250M

_{High Five: Sophos Named a 2026 Gartner®️ Peer Insights™️ Customers' Choice for Managed Detection and Response | SOPHOS}

Validated by the analysts, testing firms, and organizations that matter most.

Sophos earns top recognition from leading analyst firms, customer review platforms, and independent testing organizations.

A Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms for 17 consecutive reports

Sophos vs ESET - Recognition Cards - Mitre

A top performer in the MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations for Enterprise Products and Managed Services (MDR)

Sophos vs ESET - Recognition Cards - IDC

A Leader in the IDC MarketSpace assessments – Worldwide MDR for Midmarket 2026, Worldwide XDR 2025, and Endpoint Security for SMBs 2024.

The only vendor named Gartner Customers’ Choice for Endpoint Security, XDR, MDR Services, Email, and Firewall

The only vendor named a G2 Leader in EPP, EDR, XDR, MDR, and Firewall in the G2 Summer 2026 Reports

Won three awards at the SE Labs Awards 2026: Enterprise Endpoint (Windows), Small Business Endpoint (Windows), and Small Business Security Development

Disclaimer:
The content on this page was prepared by Sophos based on publicly available data as of August 2026. It is intended for informational purposes only.

Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences, and should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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Capability	Sophos MDR	Arctic Wolf
CYBER DEFENSE SYSTEM	Sophos Fusion Sophos Fusion sees everything, connects everything, and enables your defenses to respond as one. It’s the industry’s most complete cyber defense system, engineered for a world where threats move at AI speed.	No equivalent cyber defense system Arctic Wolf primarily focuses on MDR, security operations, and risk management services rather than providing a comparable breadth of natively integrated security controls.
COMPLETE MANAGED RESPONSE	Response from containment through remediation Sophos MDR takes direct action on customers’ behalf, not just alert or advise. It provides end-to-end response ownership across native controls and a growing range of third-party integrations, while Sophos MDR Plus adds critical incident management.	Limited response capabilities Arctic Wolf focuses on containment actions and remediation recommendations, with full incident response available only through a paid retainer.
CRITICAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT	Included with MDR Plus Sophos MDR Plus provides critical incident management, including root-cause analysis, removal of attacker tools and persistence mechanisms, and recovery guidance.	Available through an incident retainer Arctic Wolf requires purchasing a retainer separately, with coverage and response terms varying by license.
DIRECT SOC ACCESS	Direct access to SOC analysts MDR Customers can contact Sophos SOC analysts through the console or by phone when they have questions about a case or potential threat.	Access through the Concierge Security Team Arctic Wolf restricts access to SOC analysts, requiring customers to engage through the Concierge team—even during active attacks—potentially delaying response when speed is critical.
INTEGRATED XDR VISIBILITY	Customer visibility through XDR Sophos MDR includes an integrated XDR platform that gives customers visibility into detections, investigations, and response activity across first- and third-party security data.	Limited customer-facing visibility Arctic Wolf offers limited customer-facing visibility and charges extra to search ingested telemetry through its paid Data Explorer add-on.
ENDPOINT PROTECTION INCLUDED	Endpoint protection and XDR included Sophos Endpoint and XDR are included with Sophos MDR, providing integrated prevention, detection, investigation, and response capabilities.	Endpoint protection purchased separately The Arctic Wolf Agent collects telemetry and supports assessment functions, but it is not a full endpoint protection agent. Aurora Endpoint Security is sold separately.
THREAT INTELLIGENCE	Compounding intelligence at global scale Every threat across 625,000+ customers, MDR resolved edge case, and onboarded environment feeds Sophos AI models, detections, and response playbooks—so every customer benefits from shared intelligence.	Narrower native telemetry base Arctic Wolf’s more limited native telemetry, customer base, and threat intelligence resources constrains its ability to rapidly respond to emerging threats.

Capability

Sophos MDR

Arctic Wolf

CYBER DEFENSE SYSTEM

Sophos Fusion

No equivalent cyber defense system

Arctic Wolf primarily focuses on MDR, security operations, and risk management services rather than providing a comparable breadth of natively integrated security controls.

COMPLETE MANAGED RESPONSE

Response from containment through remediation

Limited response capabilities

Arctic Wolf focuses on containment actions and remediation recommendations, with full incident response available only through a paid retainer.

CRITICAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT

Included with MDR Plus

Sophos MDR Plus provides critical incident management, including root-cause analysis, removal of attacker tools and persistence mechanisms, and recovery guidance.

Available through an incident retainer

Arctic Wolf requires purchasing a retainer separately, with coverage and response terms varying by license.

DIRECT SOC ACCESS

Direct access to SOC analysts

MDR Customers can contact Sophos SOC analysts through the console or by phone when they have questions about a case or potential threat.

Access through the Concierge Security Team

Arctic Wolf restricts access to SOC analysts, requiring customers to engage through the Concierge team—even during active attacks—potentially delaying response when speed is critical.

INTEGRATED XDR VISIBILITY

Customer visibility through XDR

Sophos MDR includes an integrated XDR platform that gives customers visibility into detections, investigations, and response activity across first- and third-party security data.

Limited customer-facing visibility

Arctic Wolf offers limited customer-facing visibility and charges extra to search ingested telemetry through its paid Data Explorer add-on.

ENDPOINT PROTECTION INCLUDED

Endpoint protection and XDR included

Sophos Endpoint and XDR are included with Sophos MDR, providing integrated prevention, detection, investigation, and response capabilities.

Endpoint protection purchased separately

The Arctic Wolf Agent collects telemetry and supports assessment functions, but it is not a full endpoint protection agent. Aurora Endpoint Security is sold separately.

THREAT INTELLIGENCE

Compounding intelligence at global scale

Narrower native telemetry base

Arctic Wolf’s more limited native telemetry, customer base, and threat intelligence resources constrains its ability to rapidly respond to emerging threats.

Sophos vs. Arctic Wolf

Fully Managed Response. Broad Cyber Defense System.

MDR That Resolves Threats, Not Just Escalates Them

Validated by the analysts, testing firms, and organizations that matter most.

MDR That Resolves Threats, Not Just Escalates Them

Validated by the analysts, testing firms, and organizations that matter most.

Ready to see the difference?