Elastic Security vs Huntress (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Elastic Security if

• Fits if you have a security team that wants SIEM and endpoint data in one place
• Works for teams that want detection rules published openly on GitHub

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a flat price per device, because the bill follows GB ingested and retained
• Pricey if you send a lot of data, since ingest and retention charges still apply
• Skip it if you want a simple antivirus: this is a platform to run
• Tight if you need response actions or Device Control, which are Complete tier only
• Watch out: AI triage comes with the higher Complete tier and the trial length is not stated

Pick Huntress if

• Fits if you run IT for several small businesses and want a security team watching
• Works for a company with endpoints to cover and no in-house analysts

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you're a home user, as there's no consumer plan
• Not for you if you want a free plan, as the pricing page lists none
• Pricey if you want a plain antivirus: $8.99 per endpoint a month is a managed service price
• Watch out: pricing is list price, quotes come from a demo form, the term is 12 months and multi-year price protection isn't offered

Elastic Security

• Serverless pricing has two tiers, Essentials and Complete, billed per GB ingested and retained; the page says as low as $0.09 and $0.11 per GB ingested, with no plan price to list.
• Per-endpoint fees no longer apply as of March 23, 2026; ingest and retention charges still do.
• Advanced endpoint features such as response actions, tamper protection and Device Control are in the Complete tier only.
• This is a platform for a security team, not a consumer antivirus; the cost follows how much data is sent in.

Huntress

• Pricing shown is MSRP and falls as volume rises; exact quotes come from a demo form, and Huntress says it is channel-first and sells mostly through partners.
• The standard term is 12 months, and the pricing FAQ says multi-year price protection is not offered.
• Business product only: there is no consumer plan, and the pricing page lists no free plan.
• Each product is priced on a different unit: endpoints, identities, data sources or learners.

Elastic Security

Endpoint protection with Elastic Defend

The agent applies behavioral protections on Linux, macOS and Windows, and the vendor says they work offline. Ransomware, memory and behavior prevention are in the entry tier.

SIEM and detection rules

Prebuilt detection rules, triage, investigation and hunting. Elastic Security Labs writes the rules and publishes them openly on GitHub.

AI-assisted triage

Attack Discovery correlates alerts into attack chains, and an AI Assistant helps analysts; both come with the higher Complete tier.

Workflow automation

Scripted automation and AI agents run together in Elastic Workflows, so a playbook can call an agent when a step needs judgment.

Long-term data retention

Data is kept in a searchable store billed per gigabyte retained, so older logs can be queried without restoring an archive first.

Huntress

Managed EDR

A lightweight agent for Windows and macOS, with Linux also covered, feeds detections to the Huntress SOC, which investigates and remediates.

Free managed antivirus

The Managed EDR price includes managed antivirus, so the product can stand in for a conventional antivirus on a business machine.

Identity threat detection

Managed ITDR looks for privilege escalation, suspicious logins and mail flow manipulation in Microsoft 365 and Google accounts.

Athena engine

The site describes Athena as agentic AI that investigates every alert alongside the human SOC analysts.

Incident reporting

Custom incident reports come with Managed EDR and Managed ITDR at no extra cost, according to the pricing page.

Log collection and training

Managed SIEM correlates logs from many sources, and Managed SAT runs phishing simulations and training for employees.

Elastic Security

Pricing could not be confirmed. See elastic.co.

Huntress

• Managed EDR$8.99

  per endpoint / month, MSRP

  24/7 detection and response by the SOC, remediation, incident reporting and managed antivirus. Rate falls with volume.

• Managed ITDR$4.80

  per licensed identity / month, MSRP

  Watches Microsoft 365 and Google identities for account takeover, suspicious policy changes and mail flow tampering.

• Managed SIEM$4.00

  per data source / month, MSRP

  Collects and correlates logs from endpoints, firewalls, cloud apps and identity systems, with pooled storage.

• Managed ISPM$4.00

  per licensed identity / month, MSRP

  Managed hardening of Microsoft 365 identity settings, with drift fixed in about 15 minutes, as the page says.

• Managed SAT$2.08

  per learner / month, MSRP

  Managed security awareness training with phishing simulation and automated reporting.