Cybersecurity services pricing 2026: MSSP, MDR, pentest and consulting

“Cybersecurity services” spans everything from a per-endpoint MDR subscription to a one-off penetration test to a fractional CISO on retainer — each billed differently. If you’re trying to price outsourced security, the first step is separating the recurring services (monitoring, managed operations) from the project services (tests, audits, advisory). Here’s what each typically costs in 2026.

Services pricing at a glance

Service	Typical price	How it’s billed
MDR (managed detection & response)	$3–$45 / endpoint / mo ($6 typical)	Per endpoint, monthly/annual
MSSP (managed firewall/SIEM/monitoring)	~$1K–$10K+ / mo	Per device/log volume, monthly
Penetration test	$5K–$50K per engagement (~$18K)	Per project, by scope
Incident response retainer	~$10K–$150K / yr	Pre-paid hours/credits
vCISO / security consulting	~$200–$400 / hr, or $5K–$15K / mo retainer	Hourly or monthly
Compliance consulting (SOC 2 / ISO)	~$15K–$60K per framework	Per project + readiness

These are directional ranges from vendor pricing and buyer data; your quote depends on scope, size and coverage.

Recurring services: monitoring and operations

The biggest ongoing outsourced line for most organisations is detection. MDR (a 24/7 team running EDR-class tooling for you) is priced per endpoint and typically runs $70K–$180K a year for a 1,000-endpoint mid-market org. A traditional MSSP — managing firewalls, SIEM and log monitoring — is usually priced by device count and log volume, from a few thousand dollars a month up.

Why outsource? A 24/7 in-house SOC needs 8–12 analysts to cover shifts — roughly $1.34M–$2.02M a year in loaded salaries (at ~$168K per FTE). For most teams, a managed service delivers round-the-clock coverage for a fraction of that.

Project services: tests, audits and advisory

• Penetration testing runs $5K–$50K per engagement (around $18K typical), scaling with scope — a single web app is far cheaper than a full network-plus-cloud red team.
• Incident response retainers pre-pay for forensics and breach response so you’re not negotiating rates mid-crisis; $10K–$150K a year depending on the committed hour block and SLA.
• vCISO / advisory brings senior strategy without a full-time hire — commonly $200–$400 an hour or a $5K–$15K monthly retainer, popular with SMBs and scale-ups.
• Compliance consulting (SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI, HIPAA) is usually $15K–$60K per framework, and readiness work often exceeds the audit fee itself.

Buy vs build

The recurring question is whether to buy services or hire. As a rule of thumb: outsource what needs 24/7 coverage or specialised, infrequent expertise (monitoring, IR, pen testing); hire for what needs deep context and continuity (GRC, security engineering, program ownership). Most organisations land on a hybrid — a small in-house team plus MDR and project services.

Three service-mix scenarios

Organization	Practical mix	Approximate annual service spend	Main caution
75-person SaaS company	vCISO, MDR, annual web-app test, SOC 2 readiness	$90K–$240K	Avoid buying overlapping EDR and MDR licenses.
800-person regulated business	MDR, IR retainer, two pentests, compliance support	$180K–$500K	Confirm whether response hours and remediation are included.
5,000-person enterprise	Specialist tests, red team, IR retainer, overflow SOC support	$500K–$2M+	Compare each service against internal capability and utilization.

Before accepting a quote, normalize it into annual cost and write down the billing unit, minimum commitment, implementation fee, included tools, response authority, and renewal uplift. Two providers quoting the same monthly number may be delivering materially different coverage.

Contract questions that change total cost

Ask who owns telemetry and case data if the contract ends, whether unused retainer hours roll over, what constitutes an incident, and whether containment actions need pre-approval. For compliance work, separate readiness consulting from the independent assessor’s fee. For penetration testing, confirm retesting, travel, source-code review, and the number of applications or external IPs in scope. These details often move the final invoice more than the headline day rate.

Price your service mix

To see how outsourced services (MDR, testing, IR) stack against in-house staffing and tooling for your size and industry, run the free, ungated cybersecurity budget calculator, or browse our cost guides for each service in depth.