Critical Start

MDR provider built around its Trusted Behavior Registry and MOBILESOC app, delivering managed detection across multiple EDR, XDR, and SIEM platforms.

CompanyManaged Security Service ProvidersCloud

Pricing: Custom (contact sales)

Updated June 2026.

What is Critical Start?

Founded in 2012 by Rob Davis to address alert fatigue, Critical Start's Trusted Behavior Registry (TBR) auto-resolves known-good behaviours at scale so analysts focus on true positives. The MOBILESOC iOS/Android app lets customers triage, escalate, and contain incidents from a phone. The firm runs MDR across multiple third-party EDR/XDR/SIEM stacks rather than shipping its own endpoint agent.

Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams that already own EDR/XDR and want managed response with strong noise reduction
Pros
  • ✓ Trusted Behavior Registry materially reduces alert noise at scale
  • ✓ MOBILESOC is one of the more mature mobile SOC apps in the MDR market
  • ✓ Multi-EDR / multi-XDR coverage gives customers stack optionality
  • ✓ Strong transparency posture; customers see every alert decision and SLA in the portal
Cons
  • ✗ Smaller scale than Arctic Wolf, Sophos/Secureworks, or eSentire
  • ✗ Service quality depends on customers having a supported EDR/XDR already licensed
  • ✗ Limited public pricing

Key Features

→MDR with 24x7x365 SOC monitoring
→Managed EDR across Defender, SentinelOne, CrowdStrike, Carbon Black, Trend Vision One, Cortex XDR
→Managed SIEM/XDR (Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, others)
→Trusted Behavior Registry for false-positive auto-resolution
→MOBILESOC mobile app (iOS/Android) for in-the-moment response
→Threat intelligence and threat hunting
→Incident response and tabletop exercises
→Vulnerability management and risk assessments

What People Are Saying

Real discussions and resources from the community.

Critical Start — Our Story
Critical Start
MOBILESOC app
Critical Start
Quick Info
PricingCustom (contact sales)
ModelSubscription per integrated surface
Founded2012
CloudYes
Self-HostedNo
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Last updated: Jun 2, 2026

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Certifications
SOC 2 Type II