Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response vs WatchGuard MDR: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response

Mid-market and enterprise security teams without in-house 24/7 SOC capacity should pick Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response for its concierge delivery model, which assigns dedicated analysts rather than rotating your account through a vendor pool. The $3M Security Operations Warranty backs their incident response commitments in writing, and their Alpha AI handles continuous monitoring and adverse event analysis across your environment. Skip this if you need a technology platform you'll operate yourself; Arctic Wolf sells managed services, not software, so you're outsourcing detection and response entirely rather than augmenting your team.

WatchGuard MDR

Mid-market and SMB security teams without dedicated threat hunting staff should pick WatchGuard MDR for its 24/7 managed hunting service that actually surfaces threats your alerts would miss. The platform covers the full incident lifecycle from detection through guided remediation, with particular strength in continuous monitoring and threat analysis per NIST DE.CM and DE.AE. Skip this if you need deep forensics and recovery orchestration; WatchGuard prioritizes the hunt and initial response over post-incident investigation depth.