Guides · cost & budget
Cybersecurity cost & budget guides
Straight answers on what security actually costs — built from the same source-cited model behind our calculator. No vendor spin, no gated PDFs. Every figure is a defensible range, not false precision, and every guide links its sources. Start with the overview, then drill into the control or benchmark you need.
How much does cybersecurity cost?
The full picture: ~7% of IT budget, ~0.4% of revenue, and ~$520/employee at the median — and what moves those numbers.
Read guideAverage security budget per employee
Per-head spend benchmarks from startup to enterprise — $280–$1,180/employee — and why the number falls as you scale.
Read guideCybersecurity budget by company size
Typical annual security spend and % of IT budget for <50, 50–250, 250–1,000, 1,000–5,000 and 5,000+ employee orgs.
Read guideSIEM cost guide
How SIEM pricing works (per GB/day, retention, staffing), the Splunk/Sentinel/QRadar/Elastic spread, and hidden costs.
Read guideEDR cost guide
Per-endpoint pricing ($8–$15/user/mo), the AV → EDR → MDR → XDR ladder, and the true total cost of ownership.
Read guideMDR cost guide
Managed detection & response pricing models, the vendor spread, and the build-vs-buy math against an in-house SOC.
Read guideData breach cost calculator
The drivers behind the $4.44M global / $10.22M US average — per-record cost, detection time, ransomware — and how to size your own exposure.
Read guideEstimates are for planning only — not professional, financial, or legal advice. Verified Jun 2026.