Critical Start Cortex XDR with MDR vs Kaseya MDR services: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Critical Start Cortex XDR with MDR

Mid-market and enterprise teams already committed to Palo Alto Cortex XDR should choose Critical Start's MDR layer if your SOC is understaffed or lacks incident response depth; the service resolves every alert regardless of severity, not just critical ones, which cuts alert fatigue and ensures nothing slips through triage. The bi-directional Cortex XDR integration means analysts work inside your existing platform rather than context-switching to a separate console, and the mobile SOC app actually works for remote containment, not just read-only dashboards. This is a poor fit for organizations without Palo Alto's NGFW and XDR stack already in place; you're buying tightly integrated MDR for a specific platform, not a platform-agnostic detection service.

Kaseya MDR services

Mid-market and enterprise teams tired of alert fatigue will value Kaseya MDR for its expert-driven incident response; you get human analysts doing the triage and remediation work, not just software flagging events. The service covers the full incident lifecycle from detection through mitigation, with particular strength in continuous monitoring and threat hunting, meaning you're not waiting for alerts to pile up before someone looks. Skip this if your security team wants to retain full control over response decisions or if you need deep forensics and post-incident recovery support as part of your SLA; Kaseya prioritizes stopping active threats over the investigation and rebuilding phases.