Red Canary (a Zscaler company) vs Expel
Red Canary (a Zscaler company)
Red Canary delivers managed detection and response built on detection engineering rigor and broad telemetry ingestion (Microsoft Defender, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Palo Alto, Zscaler, AWS, Google Cloud, 200+ tools). It is widely regarded as a reference partner for organisations standardising on Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Sentinel. Zscaler closed the $692M acquisition on August 1, 2025; Red Canary operates as a separate business unit within Zscaler.
Pros
- Reputation as one of the strongest MDR partners for Microsoft-centric security stacks
- Industry-recognised detection engineering and public threat research (annual Threat Detection Report)
- Vendor-broad integrations — does not require ripping out incumbent EDR
- Strong public research output keeps customer detections current
Cons
- Future roadmap will be shaped by Zscaler's strategy; long-term independence uncertain
- Premium positioning; not the cheapest option in mid-market deals
- Limited public pricing
Pricing: Custom (contact sales)
Expel
Founded in May 2016 by ex-Mandiant/FireEye veterans Dave Merkel, Justin Bajko, and Yanek Korff, Expel takes a deliberate stance: no proprietary agent, full transparency into SOC activity via the Workbench portal, and integration with whatever security tools the customer already owns. The company reached unicorn status in November 2021 and was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave for MDR Services, Q1 2025. Independent and private.
Pros
- Genuinely vendor-neutral: no Expel agent, integrates with existing EDR/SIEM/cloud stack
- Transparent operations via Workbench (customers see every analyst action in real time)
- Strong public commitments such as a 13-minute MTTR for critical threats
- Founding team's Mandiant lineage gives credibility in IR and detection engineering
Cons
- 'Bring your own tech' means customers must already own (and license) suitable EDR/SIEM/cloud tooling
- Premium pricing relative to bundled MSSP offerings
- Limited public pricing; sales-led
Pricing: Custom (contact sales)