October 6, 2025
Updated: September 6, 2026
Compare 2026's leading Security-as-a-Service providers from DeepStrike and CrowdStrike to Zscaler, Okta, and Microsoft by security function, operating responsibility, integration, and total cost.
Mohammed Khalil
Security as a service providers cover different jobs, so choosing one starts with defining the security function and who will operate it. This guide compares ten providers across penetration testing, managed detection and response, identity, email protection, and secure access. DeepStrike addresses offensive validation; other shortlisted providers supply preventive controls, detection platforms, or managed response. For security leaders and buyers, the useful comparison is scope, operational responsibility, integration, and total cost. Use the tables and evaluation checklist below to build a shortlist, confirm service boundaries, and test the promised outcome before signing.
Security as a service, or SECaaS, is a delivery model in which organizations obtain security capabilities through an external service, commonly using cloud infrastructure and subscription pricing. The service may provide software, specialists, or both. Its exact coverage depends on the product and contract. The Sophos explanation of SECaaS provides a useful starting definition.
This distinction matters when comparing security as a service companies. A cloud identity platform can enforce access policies, while a managed detection and response team can investigate incidents. A penetration testing service can validate exploitable weaknesses. Each addresses a different security task, and buying one does not automatically assign the others to the same provider.
SECaaS can help organizations obtain specialist capabilities, support distributed users, and spread spending across a service term. Those benefits depend on deployment and management: someone must still maintain asset inventories, approve access, act on findings, and own business risk. Teams facing a cybersecurity skills gap should identify which operational tasks a provider will actually take over.
Software as a service, or SaaS, describes how software is delivered. SECaaS describes the security capability being obtained. A managed security service provider, or MSSP, operates agreed security services for a customer; managed detection and response, or MDR, concentrates on detecting, investigating, and responding to threats. A security operations center, or SOC, is the team and operating function behind monitoring and response; SOC as a service contracts vary in what they include.
Extended detection and response, or XDR, brings security signals and investigation workflows together across supported sources. Buying an XDR platform does not by itself establish who will operate it. The Cisco and Microsoft profiles below distinguish the relevant tooling and managed services.
Secure access service edge, or SASE, combines network connectivity and security functions. Security service edge, or SSE, covers the security side, including capabilities such as secure web access and zero trust access to private applications. Cisco's SASE explanation distinguishes SSE from the wider architecture that includes software-defined wide area networking, or SD-WAN.
| Service category | Primary job | Typical deliverable | Responsibility to clarify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity and access management | Control who can access applications | Authentication, access policies, account lifecycle workflows | Who designs policies and removes access? |
| Email and data protection | Reduce email threats and inappropriate data exposure | Message protection, investigation tools, data policies | Who handles exceptions and investigates incidents? |
| SSE and SASE | Secure internet, SaaS, private application, and branch connectivity | Access controls, traffic inspection, network policies | Who deploys connectors and maintains traffic policies? |
| MDR and managed SOC services | Detect threats and coordinate response | Investigation, escalation, agreed containment | Who can act, on which assets, and at what hours? |
| Penetration testing as a service | Validate exploitable weaknesses within an agreed scope | Findings, impact evidence, remediation guidance, retesting | Who fixes weaknesses and confirms closure? |
Data loss prevention, or DLP, and cloud access security broker, or CASB, capabilities may appear within several categories. Treat them as functions to check against a specific subscription. A provider's wider portfolio is not a list of everything included in one order.
This September 5, 2026 research update retains the ten providers covered in the original DeepStrike guide. It compares their current documented offerings across five service categories. It is a shortlist for commercial evaluation, not an exhaustive market survey or a scored product benchmark.
DeepStrike publishes this guide and is included for penetration testing and offensive validation. The provider order follows the earlier edition. We reviewed official product documentation and relevant lifecycle notices; we did not conduct a comparative deployment test, buy every service, or independently measure detection rates, response times, availability, or customer retention.
The comparison evaluates documented service scope, likely use case, operating responsibility, and questions that should be resolved before purchase. The suggested fit and evaluation questions are DeepStrike's editorial judgment. Pricing, regional availability, service levels, integrations, and license prerequisites must be confirmed for the buyer's exact order.
Start with the security task, then compare providers within that category. An identity platform and a penetration testing engagement can both be useful, but their outcomes are different. Product documentation supporting each row appears in the profiles immediately below the table.
| Provider | Offering to evaluate | Primary role in this guide | Key buying question |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepStrike | Penetration testing and continuous penetration testing | Offensive validation of applications and other agreed assets | What triggers testing, and what retesting is included? |
| Palo Alto Networks | Prisma Access; Cortex Cloud | Secure access; cloud security | Which product, modules, and operating services are in scope? |
| Fortinet | FortiSASE | Secure access across internet, private, and SaaS resources | How will existing network controls and remote users connect? |
| CrowdStrike | Falcon Complete MDR | Managed detection, investigation, and response | Which assets and response actions are covered? |
| Cisco | Secure Access; Cisco XDR | Secure access; detection and response tooling | Who operates XDR and owns incident escalation? |
| Zscaler | Zero Trust Exchange access services | Internet and private application access | Which applications, devices, and traffic paths are covered? |
| Okta | Workforce Identity | Identity and access management | Who maintains lifecycle workflows and access policies? |
| Proofpoint | Core Email Protection | Email threat protection | Is deployment through an API, a gateway, or both? |
| Check Point | Check Point SASE | Internet and private access security | Which capabilities run on the device and in the cloud? |
| Microsoft | Defender Experts MDR | Managed response across supported security telemetry | Which plan, prerequisites, and sources apply? |
DeepStrike's penetration testing services focus on identifying and validating weaknesses within an agreed scope, explaining their impact, and supporting remediation. This makes DeepStrike relevant when the buying question is whether an application, cloud environment, or other defined target contains exploitable weaknesses.
Its continuous penetration testing service describes automated monitoring of development signals that can alert human testers to changes. That distinction matters: detecting a change does not mean every release has immediately received a complete manual assessment.
Ask for a written asset list, authenticated user roles, testing cadence, change triggers, severity criteria, reporting access, and retest terms. Confirm who triages a new release and how quickly testing can begin. Do not assume unlimited testing capacity or retesting without a defined commercial scope.
Teams comparing delivery models can use the penetration testing as a service guide to distinguish a recurring testing arrangement from a single assessment. Offensive validation should feed remediation and security operations; it should not be assigned the responsibilities of a continuously staffed incident response service without an explicit agreement.
Palo Alto Networks offers distinct products for different problems. Prisma Access provides cloud-delivered access security. It is a relevant candidate for organizations evaluating internet and private application access controls across distributed users and locations.
For cloud security, Palo Alto Networks introduced Cortex Cloud in February 2025 as the next version of Prisma Cloud, bringing cloud detection and response together with cloud security capabilities. An existing Prisma Cloud customer should confirm its own migration path and entitlement.
Evaluate access security and cloud workload security as separate scope decisions. Ask which functions are licensed, what must be deployed in the environment, and who handles policy tuning and response. A broad platform portfolio does not itself define a managed service contract.
FortiSASE addresses secure access to internet, corporate, and SaaS resources. Its documented capabilities include secure web gateway, zero trust network access, CASB, and firewall as a service functions. Organizations already using Fortinet should examine how the proposed service fits their current network design.
During evaluation, map remote users, branches, private applications, endpoint requirements, and traffic routing. Confirm the required subscriptions and whether deployment depends on existing equipment or additional components.
FortiSASE is the specific cloud service being compared here. Fortinet's wider Security Fabric contains other products and deployment models, so a proposal should identify exactly which are included and whether the customer, a partner, or Fortinet will operate them.
Falcon Complete MDR is CrowdStrike's managed detection and response offering. Its service positioning includes around-the-clock expertise and response across supported environments. This is the relevant offering to evaluate when the requirement includes people investigating incidents and acting within agreed authority.
Ask the provider to map your endpoints, identities, cloud assets, and other required telemetry to the proposed service. Confirm response permissions, exclusions, escalation paths, and what happens when containment could disrupt an important business system.
Compare the managed service contract with your operational need. A Falcon software license and a Falcon Complete service engagement have different responsibilities. Avoid treating vendor performance claims or a single evaluation result as proof of how the service will perform in your environment.
Cisco Secure Access is an SSE offering for access to internet, SaaS, and private resources. It is relevant where buyers are reviewing access policy, user connectivity, and the role of existing Cisco infrastructure.
Cisco XDR addresses detection and response workflows. Evaluate its data integrations and operational ownership separately from the access service. Ask who reviews incidents, what response actions can be automated or approved, and whether any managed service is part of the purchase.
Older shortlists may refer to SecureX. Cisco's Duo documentation confirms SecureX reached end of life on July 31, 2024 and points to Cisco XDR for those capabilities. Existing customers should assess the current integration and migration requirements before using an old SecureX description in a procurement specification.
The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange includes services for secure internet and private application access. Zscaler is a candidate when the priority is controlling access between users, devices, applications, and resources across a distributed environment.
Map the actual traffic paths before comparing proposals: managed and unmanaged devices, internet access, private applications, branch connections, and workloads may have different requirements. Ask about connectors, policy design, inspection exclusions, and availability when a dependency fails.
The evaluation should also establish who investigates access-related incidents and who operates the wider security stack. A secure access service can enforce controls; the contract must separately establish any staffed monitoring or response obligations.
Okta Workforce Identity covers identity capabilities such as single sign-on, multifactor authentication, and lifecycle management. It is relevant for organizations seeking consistent access controls across applications and user populations.
An identity evaluation should include account provisioning, role changes, offboarding, administrator access, recovery procedures, and the authentication methods supported by important applications. Ask who owns exceptions and how promptly revoked access reaches each connected application.
Confirm the modules and workflows included in the proposed subscription. Identity security is a defined control layer; endpoint monitoring, email protection, and response staffing require their own scope decisions.
Proofpoint Core Email Protection addresses email threats, including phishing and business email compromise, with API-based or secure email gateway deployment options. Buyers should evaluate the approach that fits their Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace environment and mail flow.
Ask how the service handles suspicious messages, user reports, remediation, and investigation access. Confirm deployment permissions, message handling, exception management, and which additional capabilities require separate licensing.
Compare the specific product and package offered. Proofpoint's wider portfolio should not be described as if every enterprise capability is included in a single small-business management portal or subscription.
The current official name is Check Point SASE, formerly Harmony SASE. The platform addresses secure internet and private access, with an architecture that uses both device and cloud capabilities.
Evaluate endpoint requirements, private application connectivity, policy management, and fit with the current network. Ask which inspection and enforcement functions operate locally, which depend on cloud services, and how the design handles unmanaged devices and exceptions.
Keep the scope tied to the actual SASE proposal. Other Check Point products or partner services may solve additional problems, but they should be separately identified with their own licenses, responsibilities, and support arrangements.
Microsoft Defender Experts is a suite of separately sold services. Defender Experts MDR is the managed response service relevant to this comparison. Plan 1 covers Microsoft Defender workloads; Plan 2 extends coverage to supported third-party sources ingested through Microsoft Sentinel.
Microsoft's current MDR documentation says Plan 2 requires Microsoft Sentinel and at least 1,500 licensed seats. It also documents a September 1, 2026 change: Plan 1's third-party network signal enrichment is closed to new enablement, with existing coverage ending at the next renewal. Confirm the plan and transition terms against your agreement.
Evaluate eligible workloads, onboarding, response authority, and any separate server or incident response services. Microsoft's analysts augment the customer's SOC; the service still needs customer contacts and an agreed operating model. Do not assume that an existing Microsoft security subscription includes every Defender Experts service.
Use a three-part evaluation: scope, operate, validate. This is DeepStrike's proposed buying framework, not a certification or a scored assessment of the providers above. It turns a feature comparison into questions that can be answered through a contract and a controlled evaluation.
List the assets and security outcomes you need to cover. Include production applications, APIs, endpoints, identities, email, cloud accounts, and branch or remote access only where they are relevant. For each, record the current owner, provider role, exclusions, and evidence of completion.
Separate similarly named tasks. A web application penetration test needs application roles and workflows in scope; a network access service needs traffic paths and access policy. A dashboard showing both does not make their responsibilities interchangeable.
For cloud environments, document the accounts, services, roles, and application paths included in the evaluation. A cloud penetration testing scope should explain which agreed weaknesses will be assessed and how findings reach the people able to fix them.
| Evaluation gate | Evidence to request | Example acceptance question |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Asset inventory, service description, exclusions | Can every required asset be mapped to a contracted capability? |
| Operate | Responsibility matrix, escalation process, permissions | Who acts when an alert requires a business decision after hours? |
| Validate | Evaluation record, sample report, remediation or response evidence | Can the provider demonstrate the agreed outcome on a safe test case? |
Write a responsibility matrix that covers onboarding, policy changes, monitoring, investigation, containment, recovery, and offboarding. Distinguish time to acknowledge an incident from time to investigate or contain it. The service agreement should define severity, clock start, coverage hours, dependencies, and exclusions for each commitment.
Ask what happens if a required connector stops sending data or an endpoint becomes unhealthy. An evaluation should include how that coverage gap is detected, who receives it, and who restores service. Response authority also needs boundaries: disabling an account or isolating a production system may require different approvals.
For engineering teams, connect testing to release management. A DevOps penetration testing workflow should establish what changes trigger review, how testers receive access, who owns remediation, and when a retest closes a finding.
Use provider-approved simulations, test accounts, and agreed environments for a proof of value. Define the expected signal, the owner, the expected action, and the evidence you will accept before the exercise starts. Record failures as well as successful demonstrations.
For an MDR evaluation, a safe simulation can show whether a relevant signal reaches the service, becomes an investigation, and follows the agreed escalation process. For identity, use a test account to check provisioning and removal. For penetration testing, review a redacted report and confirm that a remediated finding includes a documented retest outcome.
These exercises evaluate workflow and coverage within their defined scope. They do not establish a universal detection rate or prove that every attack will be prevented.
Compare proposals over the same contract period and asset scope. A practical budget includes subscription charges, onboarding, required components, data ingestion and retention, internal operating time, optional response work, and migration or exit costs. This is a budgeting checklist; it is not a claim that every provider charges each item separately.
| Cost or contract item | Question for the proposal |
|---|---|
| License unit | Is the service priced by user, endpoint, workload, asset, data volume, or another measure? |
| Minimum commitment | What minimum term, seat count, or spend applies, and how can scope change? |
| Implementation | Who pays for deployment, integration work, training, and migration? |
| Data | What are the ingestion, retention, search, export, and deletion terms? |
| Service coverage | Which operating hours, response actions, retests, and support levels are included? |
| Renewal and exit | How are price changes, transition support, exports, and access revocation handled? |
For testing services, scope and complexity should be compared before price. The penetration testing cost guide explains scoping considerations that help buyers request comparable proposals. Confirm retesting and additional release coverage explicitly instead of assuming they follow from a recurring subscription.
Integration claims also need a practical check. Ask the vendor to demonstrate the exact identity provider, ticketing workflow, logging destination, and API permissions your team will use. Establish who repairs the integration after a platform change and how the team detects missing data.
At exit, the customer should know how to obtain usable findings, incident records, configurations, and audit evidence to which it is contractually entitled. Plan credential revocation and data deletion alongside export. Keep overlap between old and new services long enough to validate coverage under an agreed migration plan.
Security outsourcing can support an assurance program, but the buyer still needs to understand its own obligations and the provider's precise role. Ask for evidence that matches the contracted service, legal entity, locations, and time period. A logo on a product page does not establish the scope of an assessment.
For organizations subject to the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Rules, a cloud service provider that creates, receives, maintains, or transmits electronic protected health information on behalf of a covered entity or business associate can be a business associate. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) explains the relevant cloud computing and business associate agreement requirements. Review the data flow and agreement before sending that information to a service.
Testing can contribute technical evidence within a broader healthcare security program. The HIPAA penetration testing guide explains that relationship; a successful test does not by itself establish HIPAA compliance.
For payment environments, the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) states that merchants which outsource all payment processing still retain PCI DSS responsibilities. PCI DSS is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Establish the applicable responsibilities with the parties managing the payment environment and compliance program.
Where testing is part of that program, define systems, segmentation, and the evidence expected from the engagement. DeepStrike's PCI DSS penetration testing guide provides further context for scoping; no provider selection automatically delivers compliance.
For processing covered by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Article 28 sets conditions for using processors, including contractual requirements and provisions involving other processors. Review the actual processing arrangement and subprocessors, rather than using a generic claim that a service is “GDPR certified.”
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 concerns information security management systems. If a provider supplies a certificate, check the certified entity, service scope, validity, and issuing body. It does not certify that every possible customer deployment is secure.
Finally, evaluate zero trust claims through the access decisions the service enforces. NIST SP 800-207 describes zero trust architecture without treating network location as sufficient grounds for implicit trust. Ask how the proposed design authenticates users and devices and authorizes access to the specific resources you need to protect.
Yes. Start with the most consequential gap and a service the team can operate or have operated on its behalf. Define the owner and expected outcome before expanding. A small business with an application assurance requirement can use a scoped testing engagement; a business struggling to handle alerts should evaluate the relevant managed response service.
For application-focused teams, the startup and small-business penetration testing guide can help frame an initial assessment around the systems the business depends on.
It can still require agents, connectors, identity integrations, or network configuration. Ask for the deployment diagram and a list of dependencies. Include device coverage, private application access, fallback behavior, and the work required from your own team in the evaluation.
Identify the contracting party, the underlying technology vendor, and the team delivering each service. Ask which organization handles support, configuration changes, incident escalation, and service credits. Request a single written responsibility map so a problem cannot fall between separate vendor and partner agreements.
Ask where each type of data is collected, processed, stored, backed up, and accessed by support personnel. Cover logs, email content, files, identity information, and test evidence separately. Review the proposed arrangement against your organization's requirements and applicable obligations before activation.
Use an assurance approach that provides the independence your organization needs. An operational demonstration can confirm configuration and workflow. A separately scoped assessment can examine whether important weaknesses remain. Define the evaluator's access, independence, evidence, and limitations rather than treating any one test as complete assurance.
Revisit scope when the business adds important applications, changes identity or cloud architecture, acquires another organization, or introduces a new data handling requirement. Confirm the cost and operating impact before expanding coverage. Include a scheduled scope review in the service relationship as well as reviews triggered by material changes.
For example, a new mobile product may require its own mobile application penetration testing scope, including relevant client behavior and backend interfaces. An existing web application test does not automatically cover that new product.
The right SECaaS shortlist starts with a defined security job and a clear operating model. Compare providers on contracted scope, responsible people, integration requirements, total cost, and evidence from an agreed evaluation. Preserve the controls that already work and use additional services to address identified gaps.
If offensive validation is part of your requirement, ask DeepStrike for a scoped penetration testing consultation covering your assets, testing cadence, and retest expectations.
Mohammed Khalil is a Cybersecurity Architect at DeepStrike, specializing in advanced penetration testing and offensive security operations. With certifications including CISSP, OSCP, and OSWE, he has led numerous red team engagements for Fortune 500 companies, focusing on cloud security, application vulnerabilities, and adversary emulation. His work involves dissecting complex attack chains and developing resilient defense strategies for clients in the finance, healthcare, and technology sectors.
Stay secure with DeepStrike penetration testing services. Reach out for a quote or customized technical proposal today
Contact Us
