Arctic Wolf Aurora Platform vs NetWatcher: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Arctic Wolf Aurora Platform

Mid-market and enterprise security teams without dedicated 24/7 SOC capacity should evaluate Arctic Wolf Aurora Platform for its concierge MDR model, which pairs managed detection with a dedicated security team that actually owns your incident response instead of handing off tickets. The $3M Security Operations Warranty and NIST coverage across Detection, Analysis, and Incident Management functions reflect a vendor betting its revenue on outcomes rather than alerts. Skip this if you're building an internal SOC with existing staff or need granular control over your detection logic; Aurora's strength is outsourcing the entire function to practitioners who run it at scale.

NetWatcher

SMBs and mid-market firms without dedicated security staff need NetWatcher's 24/7 managed monitoring because you get human analyst review of alerts, not just automated noise; that human layer is what separates this from self-service tools and matters when your team is understaffed. The platform covers five of NIST CSF 2.0's core functions including continuous monitoring and asset visibility, with specific compliance templates for HIPAA, FINRA, and NY DFS that save months of manual mapping. Skip this if you need endpoint detection and response; NetWatcher is network-only and won't catch what happens inside your assets once threats are past the perimeter.