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Models side by side

MDR vs SOAR: which model fits your SOC?

The short answer

MDR buys people; SOAR buys automation your own people write. SOAR without staff to maintain playbooks decays, and MDR without access to your tools sees little. Choose MDR when people are the constraint, and SOAR when repeatable responses are.

By The Triage Desk · AI Cyber Compare · Published 2026-10-08

Desk research from public vendor pages: vendor facts read September 2026, updated 2026-10-13. Editorial reading of what vendors publish; we did not run the products and did not interview vendors.

How do the two models divide the work?

RowMDRSOAR
What you buyPeople and process from a provider, delivered on a contract, usually with the provider's tooling or access to yours.Software plus the ongoing work of writing and maintaining playbooks.
Who decidesThe provider's analysts work the queue. The contract sets which actions they may take and which they escalate to you.The playbook author decides in advance. At run time the engine follows the logic, and people handle what the logic does not cover.
Fits when
  • You have no analysts, or too few to cover nights and weekends.
  • You want a contract that names who responds, and how fast.
  • Your team prefers to own decisions on escalations rather than the whole queue.
  • Responses are fixed and audited, such as disabling a leaver's accounts or blocking a known-bad hash everywhere.
  • You have engineers who can write and maintain playbooks.
  • You need a very broad integration catalog for actions.
Strains when
  • You want your own team to build knowledge of your environment.
  • You need to see every step of how a verdict was reached.
  • Your environment is unusual and the provider's standard process fits it poorly.
  • Each alert needs a different set of lookups.
  • A tool swap would break many playbooks at once.
  • Playbook upkeep competes with investigation for the same people.

Managed detection and response (MDR)

Work strip for Managed detection and response (MDR): Triage, provider's analysts; Investigate, provider's analysts; Respond, shared; Tune, provider's analysts; Nights and weekends, provider's analysts.TriageProvider's analystsInvestigateProvider's analystsRespondSharedTuneProvider's analystsNights and weekendsProvider's analysts

SOAR playbook engine

Work strip for SOAR playbook engine: Triage, rules you write; Investigate, shared; Respond, rules you write; Tune, your analysts; Nights and weekends, rules you write.TriageRules you writeInvestigateSharedRespondRules you writeTuneYour analystsNights and weekendsRules you write
  • Your analysts
  • Rules you write
  • AI agent
  • Provider's analysts
  • Shared
  • Not described

Stages where they differ:

  • Triage: MDR provider's analysts, SOAR rules you write
  • Investigate: MDR provider's analysts, SOAR shared
  • Respond: MDR shared, SOAR rules you write
  • Tune: MDR provider's analysts, SOAR your analysts
  • Nights and weekends: MDR provider's analysts, SOAR rules you write

When would you choose MDR, and when SOAR?

Choose MDR if:

  • You have no one to write or maintain playbooks.
  • You need cover around the clock.
  • You want a provider to own first response.

Choose SOAR if:

  • You have engineers and repeatable, audited responses.
  • You want automation you control and can inspect.
  • You need actions across a large tool estate.

Which profiled vendors cover each model?

MDR

SOAR

Vendors that cover both: Artemis Security.

Model definitions are general descriptions of each category. MDR providers and SIEM copilots have lighter profiles built from vendor pages read in October 2026; they are not in the fact table, fit finder vendor list or pair pages, which compare the thirteen AI SOC and SOAR products on the same 11 capabilities.

Asked often about this page

Which is better, MDR or SOAR?

Neither in general. MDR buys people; SOAR buys automation your own people write.

Do MDR providers use SOAR?

The MDR pages we read describe automation inside the service, such as Expel's automated response and Zscaler MDR's AI triage and auto-actions, but they do not say which SOAR, if any, runs underneath.

Which profiled vendors cover both?

Artemis Security covers both in our profiles.

Read next

MDRHow the MDR model works.SOARHow the SOAR model works.Fit finderFive questions that order the models by your answers.Which modelThe decision guide for all four models.