Managed SIEM cost in 2026: MSSP pricing, what's included, in-house comparison
Reference for managed SIEM pricing. Monthly ranges by organisation size, the line items every MSSP contract should specify, in-house vs managed cost comparison, and where managed SIEM ends and MDR begins. The monthly ranges and the four MSSP price structures are our model of the market, not a published rate card (no MSSP publishes one); the in-house salaries are the Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide rates and the Splunk line is its filed list price. Updated October 2026.
Page updated 13 October 2026/First published 7 April 2026
What is managed SIEM pricing in 2026?
Managed SIEM pricing runs roughly $3,000-$5,000 per month for small businesses (under 100 endpoints, business-hours coverage), $5,000-$15,000 per month for mid-market (100-1,000 endpoints, 24x7 triage), $15,000-$50,000 per month for enterprise (1,000-10,000 endpoints, dedicated SOC capacity), and $50,000-$150,000+ per month for large enterprise. That is $36K to $1.8M+ per year depending on scale and scope. MSSPs price on one of four structures: per-endpoint ($15-$50 per asset per month), per-GB ($0.50-$2.00 per GB per day), flat monthly tier, or a hybrid of per-asset plus GB overage. The headline rate usually excludes incident response hours, custom detection development, and threat hunting, so the quoted figure is a floor. The in-house alternative, a genuine 24x7 SOC of 5-6 analyst FTEs, costs $450K-$900K per year fully loaded before SIEM licensing, which is why managed SIEM almost always wins under 1,000 endpoints.
Managed SIEM pricing by org size
Business-hours coverage, basic alerts, monthly reports
24x7 monitoring, alert triage, weekly reports, basic IR support
24x7 SOC, custom rules, dedicated CSM, IR retainer, threat hunts
Multi-region, dedicated team, custom integrations, board-level reporting
MSSP pricing structures
Four common pricing structures across MSSPs. Most providers will offer two or more depending on your environment.
In-house 24x7 SOC: what does it really cost?
A genuine 24x7 SOC requires shift coverage. Eight analyst-hours per shift, three shifts per day, plus shift overlap and leave coverage averages 5-6 FTE for the frontline tiers, plus engineering and leadership.
| Role | Count | Salary | Annual cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 analyst | 4 | $85K + 28% benefits | $435K |
| Tier 2 analyst | 2 | $110K + 28% benefits | $282K |
| Tier 3 / lead | 1 | $145K + 28% benefits | $186K |
| SIEM engineer | 1 | $130K + 28% benefits | $166K |
| Total fully loaded | $1.07M/yr |
Salaries reflect 2026 US market rates from the Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide. Add SIEM platform licensing on top, and size it from your own daily log volume rather than headcount, because the two do not track each other reliably. On the Splunk End Customer Pricelist filed under G-Cloud 15 on 30 January 2026, Splunk Cloud plus Enterprise Security Essentials is $2,479.40 per GB per day per year in the 50 to 99 GB per day tier, so about $124,000 a year at 50 GB per day, and $1,562.28 in the 200 to 499 tier, so about $312,000 at 200 GB per day. Convert your event rate with the EPS-to-GB tables before assuming a band.
When managed SIEM makes sense
- Org under 1,000 endpoints
- No security operations capability today
- Compliance demands 24x7 monitoring
- Hiring market makes SOC building impractical
- Predictable monthly bill matters more than control
- Org over 5,000 endpoints with budget for talent
- Custom detection logic core to business
- Existing SOC ops capability with retention
- Data sensitivity prohibits MSSP access
- Threat hunting and red team coordination matters