Key Takeaways
- SOC as a Service (SOCaaS) delivers security monitoring, detection and response as a subscription, run by an external provider's team and tooling instead of an in-house SOC.
- An in-house SOC is expensive. Between salaries for a 24x7 rota, tooling and facilities, a mid-market in-house SOC commonly runs into hundreds of thousands per year, and larger ones far more.
- Outsourced SOC usually costs a fraction of in-house because the provider spreads analysts and tooling across many clients. Pricing is typically per endpoint, per user, or per log volume, plus a management fee.
- Three models exist: fully in-house, fully outsourced (SOCaaS or MDR), and co-managed (hybrid) where you keep some control and the provider fills the gaps, especially overnight.
- The decision is not only cost. Staffing, speed to stand up, control, compliance and 24x7 coverage all matter. For most mid-market organisations, outsourced or co-managed wins on the maths.
What is SOC as a Service?
SOC as a Service (SOCaaS) is a subscription model in which an external provider delivers the functions of a Security Operations Center for you: continuous monitoring, threat detection, alert triage, investigation and, depending on the contract, active response. Instead of hiring analysts and buying tooling, you pay a recurring fee and the provider supplies the people, the platform and the processes.
It overlaps heavily with Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and managed SOC. The practical differences are in scope and how much response the provider takes on, but the core idea is the same: security operations delivered as a service rather than built and staffed in-house. The driver is simple. A genuine 24x7 SOC needs a rota of skilled analysts that very few organisations can afford to hire and retain.
What an In-House SOC Really Costs
The headline expense of an in-house SOC is people. Running genuine round-the-clock coverage requires enough analysts to staff multiple shifts, including nights and weekends, which in practice means a team of several people even at the smallest viable scale. Salaries for skilled SOC analysts, plus a SOC manager and detection engineers, dominate the budget.
On top of salaries come the tooling (SIEM or XDR, threat intelligence, SOAR, ticketing), the infrastructure to run it, training and certification, and the cost of recruitment and churn in a market where these skills are scarce. Industry estimates for a mid-market in-house SOC commonly land in the hundreds of thousands per year, and larger enterprise SOCs run well into the millions once staff, tools and facilities are counted.
There is also a hidden cost: time to stand up. Hiring, tool selection, deployment and tuning a SOC to usefulness takes many months. Treat these figures as directional rather than exact, since they vary widely by region and scope, but the pattern is consistent: in-house is the most expensive path.
Thinking About a SOC or SIEM Programme?
Codesecure builds and runs open-source SOC and SIEM platforms on Wazuh, TheHive, Cortex, MISP and n8n for businesses across India, Singapore, UAE and Malaysia. ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified delivery, named OSCP, CEH and CISSP consultants, fixed-price proposals and no vendor lock-in.
See SOC and SIEM Services →What an Outsourced SOC Costs
An outsourced or SOCaaS provider spreads its analysts, tooling and threat intelligence across many clients, so you pay for a share of a mature operation rather than funding one from scratch. That shared model is why outsourced SOC typically costs a fraction of building the equivalent in-house.
Pricing is usually structured around measurable units: per endpoint or asset per month, per user, or by log or data volume, often with a base management fee on top. The exact model varies by provider and by how much response is included. Because the cost scales with your environment, a smaller organisation pays proportionally less, which is precisely why SOCaaS opens enterprise-grade detection to businesses that could never staff it themselves.
The widely cited pattern across industry comparisons is that a managed service delivers equivalent or better coverage at a meaningful fraction of a fully staffed in-house SOC. The precise percentage depends on scope and provider, so the honest guidance is to get a quote for your own environment rather than rely on a single published figure. Most of the public numbers come from vendors, so treat them as a starting point for your own calculation.
The Co-Managed (Hybrid) Middle Ground
Between fully in-house and fully outsourced sits the co-managed SOC, and for many organisations it is the sweet spot. In a co-managed model you keep an internal security lead or small team who own context, relationships and decisions, while the provider supplies the tooling, the detection engineering and, crucially, the overnight and weekend coverage that is hardest to staff internally.
Co-managed works well when you already own a SIEM, such as a Wazuh deployment, but cannot watch it around the clock. The provider operates the platform you already have, extends its detection content, and handles triage during the hours your team is offline. You get 24x7 coverage and expertise without surrendering control or ripping out the tools you have invested in.
How to Decide: Build or Buy?
Cost is the obvious lever, but it is not the only one. Weigh five factors together. Budget and headcount: can you fund and, harder, actually hire and retain a 24x7 team? Speed: outsourced stands up in weeks, in-house in many months. Control and context: an in-house team knows your business intimately, while a provider brings breadth across many clients. Compliance: frameworks like ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS and HIPAA all expect monitoring, which either model can satisfy. Coverage: true round-the-clock monitoring is where in-house teams most often fall short.
For most mid-market organisations the maths and the staffing reality point to outsourced or co-managed. Large enterprises with the budget and a need for deep internal context may justify a full in-house SOC. The most common and pragmatic answer is a hybrid: own your detection platform, keep a small internal team for context, and buy the 24x7 muscle and detection engineering as a service.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is SOC as a Service?
SOC as a Service (SOCaaS) is a subscription model where an external provider delivers security monitoring, threat detection, triage, investigation and response for you, using their own team and tooling. It gives you the functions of a Security Operations Center without building and staffing one in-house. It overlaps closely with managed SOC and MDR.
How much does an in-house SOC cost?
An in-house SOC is dominated by staffing cost, because 24x7 coverage needs enough analysts to run multiple shifts, plus a manager and engineers, on top of tooling, infrastructure and training. Industry estimates for a mid-market in-house SOC commonly reach into the hundreds of thousands per year, with large enterprise SOCs running into the millions. Figures vary widely by region and scope.
Is outsourced SOC cheaper than in-house?
In most cases yes, often by a large margin, because a provider spreads analysts, tooling and threat intelligence across many clients instead of funding a full operation for one. Outsourced SOC is usually priced per endpoint, per user or by data volume, so it scales with your environment and a smaller organisation pays proportionally less.
What is the difference between SOCaaS and MDR?
They overlap heavily. Both deliver outsourced monitoring, detection and response. The differences are mainly in scope and emphasis: MDR usually foregrounds active threat response and brings its own detection platform, while SOCaaS is often framed around delivering full SOC functions, sometimes operating tooling you already own. In practice the terms are frequently used interchangeably.
What is a co-managed SOC?
A co-managed or hybrid SOC splits responsibility between your internal team and an external provider. You keep context, relationships and decision-making, while the provider supplies tooling, detection engineering and the overnight and weekend coverage that is hardest to staff. It works especially well when you already own a SIEM such as Wazuh but cannot monitor it around the clock.
Does Codesecure offer SOC as a Service?
Yes. Codesecure delivers managed and co-managed SOC services built on an open-source Wazuh, TheHive, Cortex, MISP and n8n stack, so you get 24x7 detection and response without per-gigabyte SIEM licensing or building a team from scratch. ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified delivery with named OSCP, CEH and CISSP consultants across India, Singapore, UAE and Malaysia.
Get 24x7 SOC Coverage Without Building A Team
Codesecure runs managed and co-managed SOC services on an open-source Wazuh stack, so you get round-the-clock monitoring, detection engineering and response at a fraction of in-house cost and with no vendor lock-in. Tell us your environment and we will size it on a free scoping call.
