If you’ve ever Googled “how much does a SOC cost,” you’ve probably found answers built for Fortune 500 IT departments — not the kind of guidance that helps a 50-person company in Honolulu figure out whether they can actually afford 24/7 threat monitoring.

This guide is different. It’s built for medium and large businesses, MSPs evaluating security partnerships, and defense contractors who need to meet CMMC monitoring requirements without breaking their budget. We’ll walk through what a managed SOC actually includes, what drives the price up or down, and what to look for when you’re comparing providers.

What Is a Managed SOC, and What Does It Include?

A Security Operations Center (SOC) is the team and technology responsible for monitoring your systems around the clock, detecting threats, and responding before an incident becomes a breach. Building one in-house requires security analysts, SIEM platforms, endpoint detection tools, and a management layer to tie it all together.

A managed SOC — sometimes called SOC as a Service — outsources that function to a third-party provider. You get 24/7 monitoring, threat detection, and incident response capabilities without hiring a full security team.

At minimum, a managed SOC should include:

Continuous log ingestion and SIEM analysis
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) monitoring
Alert triage, investigation, and escalation
Incident response support and containment guidance
Regular reporting and compliance-ready documentation

Some providers also include threat hunting, vulnerability scanning, and managed detection and response (MDR) capabilities — which meaningfully affect cost.

What Does a Managed SOC Actually Cost in 2026?

Pricing varies significantly based on the provider model, your organization’s size, and how much of the technology stack is included. Based on current market data from Huntress, typical managed SOC pricing breaks down as follows:

Pricing Model	Typical Range
Per user / month	$50–$200
Per endpoint / month	$8–$30
Setup / onboarding (one-time)	$0–$5,000+
Add-on SLA / faster response	Variable

For a 50-person company with 75 endpoints, this translates to roughly $4,000–$15,000 per month depending on the provider and service tier — a wide range driven by what’s actually bundled in.

Why Pricing Varies So Much

Several factors drive cost differences across providers:

Coverage hours — Some providers charge a base rate for business-hours monitoring and add a premium for true 24/7 coverage. Confirm what “24/7” actually means in your contract.
Response vs. monitoring-only — A provider that monitors and alerts is materially less expensive (and less valuable) than one that investigates, contains, and remediates. Know which you’re buying.
Technology stack inclusions — If the SIEM, EDR, and endpoint agent licenses are bundled, you’re paying for convenience but avoiding the complexity of managing multiple vendor contracts.
Compliance requirements — Meeting CMMC Level 2 (which requires continuous monitoring per NIST SP 800-171) or HIPAA adds documentation and reporting overhead that some providers charge for separately.
Number of log sources — Cloud environments, SaaS applications, and network devices all generate log data. More sources = higher volume = higher cost in per-source pricing models.

What Does an In-House SOC Cost Instead?

The comparison point that makes managed SOC pricing compelling is the build-your-own alternative. According to TechMagic’s 2025 managed SOC cost analysis, establishing an in-house SOC can run:

$167,000–$333,000 per month for a fully staffed, enterprise-grade SOC
$2M–$4M annually when factoring in analyst salaries, tooling, and management overhead

Even for smaller internal teams, the math rarely favors building from scratch. A single experienced SOC analyst commands $80,000–$130,000+ per year in salary alone — and a functional SOC requires at least three to four analysts to cover shifts, plus tool and infrastructure costs.

For most medium and large businesses, managed SOC isn’t a luxury. It’s the only realistic path to genuine 24/7 protection.

The Co-Managed SOC Option: Best of Both Worlds

If you already have an internal IT team or IT manager, you don’t have to choose between fully in-house and fully outsourced. The co-managed SOC model lets your team retain control of day-to-day operations while a managed security provider handles the monitoring, detection, and after-hours response that your internal staff can’t cover.

This is particularly common among:

Medium and large businesses with a single IT generalist who handles everything from help desk to security
MSPs augmenting their security practice without hiring dedicated security analysts
DoW contractors who need continuous monitoring to satisfy CMMC requirements but don’t want to build a full compliance infrastructure

Cyberuptive’s SOC as a Service is built with this co-managed use case in mind — US-based analysts working alongside your existing team, not replacing it.

Red Flags to Watch When Evaluating Managed SOC Vendors

Not all managed SOCs are built the same. As you compare providers, watch for these common pitfalls:

“Monitoring-only” presented as a full SOC — If the provider sends alerts but leaves your team to investigate and respond, that’s a monitoring service, not a SOC. Ask specifically: who performs incident triage, and what’s the escalation path?
Offshore or unclear analyst geography — For CMMC and DFARS compliance, your security data handling must meet US-person access controls. Confirm that SOC analysts are US-based and credentialed appropriately.
Tool costs sold separately — Some providers quote a low SOC fee but then charge separately for SIEM licensing, EDR agents, and log storage. Get a total cost of ownership before comparing.
Vague SLAs — “Fast response” is not an SLA. Ask for mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR) benchmarks, and verify they’re contractually committed.
No compliance documentation support — If you’re subject to CMMC, HIPAA, Hawaii HRS Chapter 487N, or other frameworks, your SOC provider must be able to produce audit-ready reports. Confirm this before signing.

What mid-market organizations in Hawaii Should Specifically Consider

Hawaii-based businesses face a few compliance and operational factors that mainland-centric providers may underweight:

Hawaii HRS Chapter 487N requires breach notification to affected residents without unreasonable delay, and notification to the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection if more than 1,000 residents are affected. Your SOC provider’s incident response procedures should be built around this timeline.
CIRCIA (federal) mandates 72-hour reporting to CISA for critical infrastructure sectors. If your business falls under critical infrastructure definitions, confirm your provider has experience with CIRCIA notification workflows.
INDOPACOM support contractors face DFARS 252.204-7012 flowdown requirements — including 72-hour cyber incident reporting to DoW — that require a SOC capable of producing the required evidence packages. See Cyberuptive’s CMMC Compliance Services page for more.
Time zone coverage — Hawaii Standard Time is UTC-10, meaning many mainland East Coast providers’ “24/7” coverage is monitored by staff working unusual hours. Ask where your primary analysts are based and how overnight escalations are handled.

How to Choose the Right Managed SOC for Your Business

Use this framework to evaluate providers:

Define your scope first — How many users, devices, and cloud systems need coverage? This determines cost inputs before you start comparing quotes.
Clarify what “response” means — Get a specific definition: does the provider contain threats (blocking a compromised account, isolating an endpoint), or do they only notify you?
Verify analyst credentials and location — For government contractors and regulated businesses, US-person staffing is not optional.
Request compliance references — If CMMC, HIPAA, or Hawaii state law applies, ask for examples of how the provider has supported clients through audits or regulatory inquiries.
Ask about your first 90 days — Onboarding quality predicts long-term performance. A provider who can’t explain their baseline-tuning and false-positive reduction process in concrete terms is a risk.

Ready to See What a Managed SOC Costs for Your Business?

Cyberuptive offers 24/7 SOC as a Service built specifically for medium and large businesses, MSPs, and DoW contractors — with US-based analysts, transparent onboarding, and compliance documentation support for CMMC, DFARS, and Hawaii state law requirements.

Schedule a discovery call and get a scoped cost estimate for your environment — no commitment required.

External references: NIST SP 800-171 (CMMC Level 2 controls) · DoW CMMC Resources & Documentation · Hawaii HRS § 487N-2 — Notice of Security Breach