Which One Actually Saves You Money? Building your own security operations center sounds like control. But between hiring, tooling, and 24/7 coverage — the real cost might surprise you.
A functional SOC isn't one analyst and a SIEM license. You need tiered analysts for round-the-clock shifts, threat intelligence feeds, detection engineering, and incident response capability — that's a minimum of six to eight full-time hires before tooling even enters the conversation. Add licensing, endpoint detection, and ongoing training costs, and you're looking at $2M–$4M per year for a mid-market organization.
Most companies budget for a SOC. Few budget for what a SOC actually requires.
A managed security service provider gives you immediate access to a fully staffed team, an existing tool stack, and 24/7 monitoring from day one — no ramp-up, no recruiting wars, no coverage gaps when analysts quit. For organizations under 500 employees, the annual cost typically lands between $200K–$600K depending on scope.
The tradeoff is context. An MSSP serves dozens of clients simultaneously, so deep familiarity with your environment takes time to develop. Provider quality varies significantly.
For most mid-market companies, a hybrid model makes the most sense — an internal team handles strategy, architecture, and compliance while the MSSP covers 24/7 monitoring and triage. Pure in-house only pays off at scale, and pure MSSP only works if you choose the right partner and invest in proper onboarding.
The right answer isn't about ownership. It's about consistent coverage without burning budget that could go toward actual risk reduction.
