The 2026 MSP Cybersecurity Tool Pricing Matrix: Navigating the Hidden Costs
Building a security stack for a 40-seat client typically triggers a frustrating digital scavenger hunt. You need hard numbers for EDR, MDR, email security, awareness training, and ITDR. Yet, scanning six different vendor websites usually yields just one direct list price and five generic “Contact Us” forms. Crucially, not a single page reveals the actual wholesale partner rate you will pay.
Most comparison guides attempt to fill this void by scraping unverified figures from Reddit threads and anecdotal forums. This guide takes a different approach. We separate verifiable, publicly sourced pricing from the guarded wholesale figures, and we explore exactly why the MSP channel keeps partner rates hidden. Understanding the mechanics of quote-gating is ultimately far more valuable to your business operations than relying on a fabricated rate card.
Note: Guardz is featured in this matrix and adheres to the same non-published wholesale strategy as its peers. Every figure presented below links directly to the vendor’s source as of September 2026. Evaluate the data based on the vendor’s own documentation.
Why MSP Vendors Keep Wholesale Prices in the Shadows
It is easy to cynically assume that quote-gating is merely a sales tactic designed to extract maximum willingness-to-pay. However, in the MSP ecosystem, the reality is entirely different—a fact that two prominent vendors have explicitly put in writing.
Margin Protection Over Price Transparency
Huntress, a channel-first vendor built specifically for MSPs, publishes direct rates starting at $8.99 per endpoint per month for Managed EDR. However, their partner wholesale rate remains strictly gated behind a request form. The logic is simple: the list price is what your client sees, but the wholesale rate dictates your margin.
Guardz arrived at this identical policy independently. Their public documentation explicitly states that because MSPs package and monetize security services differently, exposing wholesale pricing publicly would allow clients to dictate the perceived value of an MSP’s comprehensive service delivery.
If wholesale costs were public, your client’s finance department could look them up in seconds and immediately demand to know why your invoice reflects a 3x markup. Suddenly, the value of your 24/7 monitoring, expert onboarding, and incident response is reduced to a debate over margins. Quote-gating is effectively a vendor’s refusal to arm your clients against you.
The Danger of Third-Party Trackers
We intentionally exclude third-party pricing trackers from this analysis because their methodologies are fundamentally flawed. For example, MDRCost.com lists Huntress partner wholesale rates at $2.50 to $3.50 per endpoint, while CheckThat.ai reports $1.95 to $4.50, admitting their data stems from Reddit rumors. Neither figure is officially sourced.
Similarly, SentinelOne’s entry pricing is frequently reported across trackers anywhere from $99 to $209.99 per endpoint, often conflating different tiers. SentinelOne’s actual site lists Core at $69.99, Complete at $179.99, and Commercial at $229.99. When trackers cite each other rather than the source, the data becomes dangerously unreliable.
The 2026 Pricing Structure Matrix
The following table outlines the vendors an MSP is most likely to shortlist. Notice the procurement lanes and the reliance on quote-only models for actual partner rates.
| Vendor | Billing Unit | Published Price (Verified Sept 2026) | Procurement Lane |
|---|
| Guardz | Per user (with endpoint flexibility) | Quote only | Channel |
| Huntress | Per endpoint, identity, data source, or learner | Direct list published (EDR $8.99/endpoint, ITDR $4.80/identity, SIEM $4.00/source, SAT $2.08/learner). Wholesale quote only. | Direct, MSP, Reseller |
| Blackpoint Cyber | Per endpoint | Quote only | Channel only |
| Sophos MSP | Per endpoint or user | Quote only | Channel |
| Kaseya 365 / Datto EDR | Per endpoint | Quote only | Channel |
| SentinelOne | Per endpoint | Core $69.99, Complete $179.99, Commercial $229.99 per endpoint/year (Enterprise: contact sales). Disclaimed as non-final. | Authorized partner only |
The Huntress and SentinelOne Caveats
Huntress stands out by offering list price transparency. Through volume tiers, their $8.99 EDR rate drops to $7.99 at 100 units. However, these figures represent raw platform costs—not the fully burdened cost of an MSP’s deployment and management. Furthermore, Huntress enforces a 50-unit minimum per product. If a client needs both EDR and ITDR, you must clear two separate minimums.
SentinelOne is the only vendor listing per-endpoint annual figures directly, but they immediately disclaim that all purchases must route through authorized partners and the displayed numbers do not reflect final pricing. The numbers exist, but they are not the reality of the transaction.
The Denominator Dilemma: Why Units Break Comparisons
Even with perfect price transparency, an apples-to-apples comparison is impossible because vendors measure a “40-seat client” differently:
- An EDR vendor bills for 60 endpoints once laptops, servers, and mobile devices are tallied.
- An ITDR vendor might bill for 55 identities, factoring in service accounts and shared mailboxes.
- An awareness training platform bills for 55 learners if it passively syncs from M365 without manual pruning.
- A SIEM vendor bills based on 3 data sources.
Scaling a business by hiring 8 employees could simultaneously increase endpoints by 11, identities by 8, and leave data sources unchanged. When the billing unit dictates the cost structure, the rate card itself becomes secondary.
The Kaseya Phenomenon: Rate Cards as Marketing
When Kaseya launched Kaseya 365 in 2024 at a highly publicized $3.99 per endpoint per month ($1.75 for the Express tier), it disrupted the market. Competitors rightly labeled it a “temporary extreme discount.” Today, the Kaseya 365 page has reverted to the standard quote-request model. The lesson is clear: treat any aggressively publicized MSP security price as a temporary marketing campaign. The rate card is an advertisement; the contract is the actual pricing.
Strategic Consolidation vs. Vendor Lock-in
One way to simplify the denominator dilemma is adopting a consolidated, single-unit billing structure, as seen with Guardz. Billing strictly per user—regardless of whether they carry one device or three—makes cost scaling entirely predictable. A 40-seat client remains a 40-seat client.
However, this predictability trades flexibility for lock-in. A consolidated bundle means the vendor selects the underlying engines (e.g., Guardz packaging SentinelOne for endpoints and Check Point for email). Deciding whether one predictable invoice outweighs the freedom to negotiate three separate best-of-breed contracts is a fundamental procurement strategy decision.
How to Interrogate a Vendor for Real Numbers
Because the wholesale rate is always gated, your negotiation call is the true pricing battleground. Do not ask what the software costs today; ask what it costs in Year 3. To strip away the customer acquisition discounts and find the real operational cost, demand answers to these six questions:
- What precisely is the billable unit? Does an “identity” mean a human being, a licensed mailbox, or every object in the active directory tenant?
- What are the exact thresholds for volume discounts? Demand hard numbers, not vague promises of future savings.
- Do minimums apply to my entire MSP book or per individual client? Furthermore, do minimums apply per account or per product module?
- What are the mechanics of renewal? Distinguish between floating annual prepays and actual monthly consumption billing.
- Is MDR included natively, or is it a separate line item? “Bundled” and “add-on” mean very different things to your bottom line.
- Which pricing terms are contractual, and which are merely current program policies? Partner programs change; contracts protect you.
A vendor that can answer all six questions on the first call possesses a mature pricing model. A vendor that dodges them is simply executing a negotiation strategy against you. Recognizing the difference between a vendor protecting your margins and a vendor protecting their own flexibility is the most valuable pricing insight you can possess in the MSP channel.
