Cybersecurity pricing is deliberately opaque. Most enterprise platforms hide behind “contact sales” buttons. The few that publish prices present per-endpoint tiers that don’t account for the modules, add-ons, and professional services you’ll actually need. And comparing across vendors is nearly impossible when one charges per endpoint, another by network size, and a third bundles security into a broader software licence.
This guide cuts through the opacity. We’ve compiled verified pricing from vendor sites, published tiers, analyst reports, and user accounts to show what AI cybersecurity tools actually cost in 2026 — from a 10-person micro-business to a 5,000-endpoint enterprise — including the hidden costs that vendor pricing pages don’t mention.
Master Pricing Table (March 2026)
Endpoint Protection Platforms
| Tool | SMB Tier | Mid-Market Tier | Enterprise Tier | Pricing Model | MDR Option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CrowdStrike Falcon | Go: | Pro: ~$100/device/year | Enterprise: ~$185/device/year; Custom for large deployments | Per-endpoint, tiered | Falcon Complete (premium add-on) |
| SentinelOne Singularity | Core: | Control: ~$120/device/year | Complete: ~$180/device/year; Custom for large deployments | Per-endpoint, tiered | Vigilance (premium add-on) |
| Microsoft Defender | Included with M365 Business Premium (~£18/user/month) | Included with M365 E5 (~£47/user/month) | M365 E5 + Sentinel (per-GB ingestion) | Per-user (bundled with M365) | Microsoft managed security services |
Network and Specialised Platforms
| Tool | Entry Point | Mid-Market | Enterprise | Pricing Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darktrace | ~$30,000/year minimum | $30,000–60,000/year | $100,000+/year | Network-size based, custom |
| Vectra AI | Not typical for SMB | Custom | Custom | Enterprise custom |
| Wiz | Not typical for SMB | ~$50,000+/year | Custom | Cloud-resource based |
| Abnormal Security | Not typical for SMB | Custom | Custom | Enterprise custom |
Supplementary Tools
| Tool | Function | Pricing | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| KnowBe4 | Security awareness training | ~$20–50/month (small teams); per-user at scale | Per-user, tiered |
| Cisco Umbrella | DNS security | ~$2–5/user/month | Per-user |
| Acronis Cyber Protect | Backup + endpoint security | ~$5–8/device/month | Per-device |
All prices are estimates reflecting published tiers and market data. Enterprise pricing is heavily negotiated and varies by deployment scope, contract length, and volume.
For our full review of each platform’s capabilities, see: Best AI Cybersecurity Tools in 2026.
SMB Pricing Tier: What Small Businesses Actually Pay
For businesses with 10–50 employees, the cybersecurity budget conversation is straightforward: how much protection can you get for a few hundred pounds per month?
The Microsoft-first path (lowest incremental cost):
If your business already uses Microsoft 365, the cheapest path to AI-powered security is upgrading to Microsoft 365 Business Premium at £18/user/month. This includes Defender for Office 365 (email security), Defender for Endpoint (EDR), Intune (device management), and Azure Information Protection. For a 25-person company, that’s £450/month — and the security features are bundled with the productivity suite you’re already paying for.
The marginal security cost is striking: upgrading from M365 Business Standard (£10/user/month) to Business Premium (£18/user/month) adds £8/user/month — just £200/month for a 25-person team to gain enterprise-grade email security, endpoint protection, and device management. No separate security vendor required.
The best-of-breed path (strongest protection):
CrowdStrike Falcon Go at approximately £5/endpoint/month brings the industry’s leading endpoint protection to SMBs. For 25 endpoints: £125/month. SentinelOne Core at a similar price point competes with stronger autonomous response. Either option provides significantly deeper endpoint protection than Microsoft Defender alone.
The optimal SMB stack combines the two: Microsoft 365 Business Premium for email security and basic endpoint coverage, plus CrowdStrike Falcon Go or SentinelOne Core for best-in-class EDR on top. Total: approximately £575/month for a 25-person company with both email and endpoint protection layers.
What SMBs should avoid: Darktrace (minimum ~$30,000/year — more than most SMBs spend on their entire IT infrastructure), Vectra AI, Wiz, and any platform that requires a dedicated security analyst to operate. These tools are designed for organisations with security teams, not businesses where the office manager also handles IT.
Enterprise Pricing Tier: What Large Organisations Pay
Enterprise cybersecurity pricing is defined by three realities: everything is negotiable, multi-year commitments unlock significant discounts, and the total cost always exceeds the per-endpoint sticker price.
CrowdStrike at enterprise scale:
The published per-device pricing ($60–185/year depending on tier) is the starting point for negotiation, not the final price. Enterprise deployments of 1,000+ endpoints typically negotiate 20–35% below published rates, particularly for multi-year commitments (3–5 years). A 3,000-endpoint CrowdStrike Enterprise deployment might carry a sticker price of $555,000/year but negotiate to $370,000–440,000/year on a 3-year agreement.
Add Falcon Complete MDR (managed detection and response) for 24/7 monitoring and expert threat hunting, and budget an additional 40–60% on top of the platform cost. Falcon Identity Threat Detection, Cloud Security, and other modules add further. A fully loaded CrowdStrike deployment for a 3,000-endpoint enterprise with MDR, identity, and cloud modules can reach $600,000–800,000/year.
SentinelOne at enterprise scale:
SentinelOne consistently prices 15–25% below CrowdStrike at comparable tiers, making it the cost-effective enterprise choice when the security requirements are similar. The same 3,000-endpoint deployment on SentinelOne Complete might negotiate to $300,000–370,000/year. Add Vigilance MDR and the total reaches $500,000–650,000/year.
Microsoft Defender + Sentinel at enterprise scale:
The economics are different because security is bundled with productivity. An organisation of 3,000 users on Microsoft 365 E5 (£47/user/month) pays approximately £1.7 million/year — but that includes Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, Office apps, advanced compliance, and the full security stack. The marginal cost of security above an E3 licence is approximately £15/user/month (£540,000/year for 3,000 users).
Microsoft Sentinel’s SIEM pricing adds approximately $2.46 per GB/day for log ingestion. For a mid-size enterprise ingesting 100 GB/day, that’s roughly $90,000/year. Large enterprises ingesting terabytes daily can see Sentinel costs escalate into six figures, making TCO less predictable than per-endpoint pricing.
Darktrace at enterprise scale:
Darktrace prices by network size rather than endpoint count, making direct comparison difficult. Enterprise deployments typically run $100,000–300,000+/year depending on network complexity, number of locations, and coverage scope (network + cloud + email + OT). Darktrace is frequently deployed alongside CrowdStrike or SentinelOne rather than as a replacement, adding network-layer visibility to endpoint protection. Combined, the stack can reach $400,000–700,000/year.
Per-Endpoint vs Flat-Rate vs Per-User Models
The pricing model affects your economics depending on your specific situation:
Per-endpoint (CrowdStrike, SentinelOne) charges for each protected device. Cost scales linearly with device count. This model favours organisations with fewer devices per employee (primarily desktops/laptops). It penalises organisations where employees have multiple devices (laptop + phone + tablet) or server-heavy environments. Most enterprise agreements define what counts as an “endpoint” — servers may be priced differently from workstations.
Per-user bundled (Microsoft Defender) charges per user regardless of device count. This favours organisations where employees use multiple devices — a single M365 E5 licence covers all of a user’s devices. It penalises organisations with many servers or IoT devices that don’t map to named users.
Network-size based (Darktrace) charges based on the complexity and scale of network traffic rather than device count. This model is cost-effective at large scale (one price covers all devices on the network) but expensive at small scale (you pay for network-level monitoring even with 30 endpoints). Best for organisations with complex networks where device-by-device pricing would be more expensive than monitoring the network as a whole.
The hybrid reality: Most enterprises use multiple pricing models simultaneously — per-endpoint for EDR, per-user for email security, and per-GB for SIEM ingestion. Calculating true TCO requires summing across all models, which is why vendor comparison based on a single pricing dimension is misleading.
Managed Security Service Pricing
For organisations without dedicated security teams, managed detection and response (MDR) services bundle AI-powered tools with human expertise — outsourcing your SOC to security professionals.
Vendor MDR services:
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete provides 24/7 managed endpoint protection, threat hunting, and incident response. Pricing runs approximately 40–60% above the self-managed Falcon licence cost. For a 500-endpoint deployment, expect $70,000–100,000/year for Falcon Complete versus $50,000 for self-managed Falcon Pro.
SentinelOne Vigilance offers similar managed capabilities at a 15–25% cost advantage over Falcon Complete, consistent with SentinelOne’s broader pricing positioning.
Third-party MSSP/MDR services:
Regional and specialist managed security service providers (MSSPs) bundle tools from multiple vendors with 24/7 monitoring. Pricing typically runs £30–80/endpoint/year for basic managed EDR, scaling to £100–200/endpoint/year for comprehensive managed security including SIEM, vulnerability management, and incident response.
For SMBs: MDR services from CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, or regional MSSPs start at approximately £5,000–15,000/year for 25–50 endpoints — a premium over self-managed tools, but justified by the 24/7 expert monitoring that a small business simply cannot provide internally. The rule of thumb: if you don’t have at least one person dedicated to reviewing security alerts daily, an MDR service delivers better security outcomes than self-managed tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the minimum effective cybersecurity budget for a 25-person business?
Approximately £200–600/month depending on your approach. The minimum path: upgrade to Microsoft 365 Business Premium (£450/month for 25 users) to get bundled email and endpoint security. The recommended path: M365 Business Premium plus CrowdStrike Falcon Go or SentinelOne Core (£125/month) for layered endpoint protection. Both approaches provide AI-powered email security, endpoint protection, and device management — the three essentials.
Can I negotiate cybersecurity pricing?
At enterprise scale (500+ endpoints), always. CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Darktrace, and every other enterprise vendor expects negotiation. The strongest levers are multi-year commitment (3 years typically saves 20–30% over annual), competitive quotes (present SentinelOne pricing to CrowdStrike and vice versa), and deployment phasing (start with a smaller deployment and expand contractually). Annual purchasing near the vendor’s fiscal year-end also creates leverage. SMB-tier published pricing (Falcon Go, SentinelOne Core) has less room for negotiation but typically offers 10–15% savings with annual billing.
Is it cheaper to bundle everything with Microsoft or use best-of-breed tools?
For Microsoft-heavy organisations: bundling with M365 E5 is almost always cheaper in total because you’re already paying for productivity tools. The marginal security cost is lower than adding separate vendors. For mixed environments (Mac, Linux, non-Azure cloud, non-Microsoft email): best-of-breed endpoint protection (CrowdStrike or SentinelOne) plus your existing productivity suite is typically more effective, because Microsoft Defender’s depth outside the Microsoft ecosystem is limited.
How much should cybersecurity cost as a percentage of IT budget?
Industry benchmarks suggest 10–15% of total IT spending for established businesses. For SMBs with modest IT budgets, the practical minimum is £2,000–7,000/year (approximately £200–600/month). For mid-market companies, budget £30,000–100,000/year. For enterprises, cybersecurity investment ranges from £200,000 to several million annually depending on industry, risk profile, and regulatory requirements. Financial services and healthcare typically spend at the higher end of these ranges.
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