What Is EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) and Does Your SME Need It?

More and more SMEs are asking us the same question: "Our cyber insurer wants to know whether we run EDR. What actually is that?" The short answer: EDR is the successor to classic antivirus. It looks at behaviour rather than known virus files, and it takes action itself when something suspicious happens. Under the new Dutch Cybersecurity Act (the national implementation of NIS2), in insurance applications and increasingly as a condition in customer contracts, EDR is becoming mandatory in all but name. In this article we explain what EDR is, when you really need it, what it costs and how to make a sensible choice as a small or mid-sized business.

What exactly does EDR mean?

EDR stands for Endpoint Detection and Response. An endpoint is any device with access to your business data: laptops, desktops, servers, virtual machines and sometimes phones and tablets too. EDR software runs on those devices and continuously records what happens: which processes start, which files change, which network connections are made and what user behaviour goes with them.

Where classic antivirus reacts to known virus signatures (a list of malicious files seen before), EDR looks at patterns and behaviour. A script that uses PowerShell to start encrypting hundreds of files often looks harmless to antivirus, because the file itself isn't on the signature list. To EDR, it's a textbook ransomware pattern, and the process is stopped immediately.

The "Response" in EDR is what sets it apart from detection alone: the tool can isolate a device, roll back changes or kill the process itself, without an administrator having to be at the controls.

The difference between antivirus, EDR, XDR and MDR

These terms are often used interchangeably, but they measure and do different things:

• Antivirus (AV) or NGAV. Detects known malware based on signatures and simple heuristics. Runs locally on the device. Good enough against mass malware, hopeless against targeted attacks.
• EDR. Continuously monitors behaviour on endpoints, correlates events and can take action itself. Usually with a central console in the cloud.
• XDR (Extended Detection and Response). Extends EDR with signals from email, cloud workloads, identity and the network, so it correlates more sources.
• MDR (Managed Detection and Response). The service in which an external party watches your EDR or XDR 24/7, validates incidents and steps in where needed. For SMEs without their own SOC, often the only realistic option.

In short: antivirus is the skirting board, EDR is the door, XDR is the whole wall, and MDR is the security guard who patrols at night. For SMEs, the question is rarely "EDR or no EDR" but "MDR on top or not". You can read more about that choice in our article on outsourcing MDR.

Why antivirus alone is no longer enough

EDR isn't suddenly turning up everywhere because of marketing. It's a response to how attacks have changed. In M-Trends 2026, Mandiant reports that the median global dwell time (the time between intrusion and discovery) rose to 14 days in 2025, up from 11 days in 2024. When the breach is reported externally (someone calls to tell you you've been hacked), that time is as long as 25 days. Ransomware can move fast: some groups go from initial access to full encryption within 24 hours.

IBM's Cost of a Data Breach 2025 puts the average time to identify a breach at 194 days and the time to contain it at 64 days. During those 194 days, attackers roam freely, reach backups and install persistent access. Antivirus misses the vast majority of those steps, because the tools attackers use (living-off-the-land techniques, PowerShell, WMI, legitimate admin tools) look harmless.

EDR is designed precisely to recognise this kind of chain of small, individually harmless actions as a pattern. That is why cyber insurers have started explicitly requiring EDR: without behavioural monitoring, the chance of timely detection is small and the chance of a large payout is high.

What NIS2 and cyber insurers ask of you

The Dutch Cybersecurity Act (Cyberbeveiligingswet, implementing NIS2), adopted on 7 July 2026, requires around 10,000 Dutch organisations to take appropriate technical and organisational measures. Real-time monitoring and threat detection are named explicitly. For SMEs that fall under NIS2 as an essential or important entity, EDR on every endpoint is effectively a given. Businesses that aren't directly covered by NIS2 often still face indirect pressure from customers or suppliers that are. Our NIS2 guide for SMEs explains the requirements per entity type.

With cyber insurance, we've seen since 2024 that almost every insurer asks during the application whether EDR is in place. More and more often, it's a hard condition: no EDR, no policy, or only at a much higher premium. In some cases there is also a requirement for a SOC or MDR provider to monitor 24/7. The reason is simple: attackers most often strike at night and at weekends, and without monitoring the detection time is then unacceptably long.

What does EDR cost for an SME?

Prices vary enormously depending on the vendor, licence model and number of endpoints. Some benchmarks (in US dollars, mid-2026):

• Microsoft Defender for Business: around $3 per user per month standalone, and already included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium (around $22 per user per month). For organisations of up to 300 users. Often the most accessible choice for SMEs already using Microsoft.
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 1: around $2.50 per user per month for the basics. Plan 2 costs around $5.20 per user per month, with full EDR functionality, automated investigation and 90 days of raw event data.
• CrowdStrike Falcon Go (SMB edition): around $60 per device per year (roughly $8 per month). Falcon Enterprise around $185 per device per year.
• SentinelOne Singularity Core: around $70 per endpoint per year. Singularity Complete around $180 per endpoint per year.
• Sophos Intercept X Advanced: around $66 per user per year for small deployments, down to around $25 at enterprise scale. With the XDR add-on, the starting price is about $130 per user per year.

Dutch partner prices are often 15 to 30 percent higher because of exchange rates and margins, but almost all vendors offer discounts on multi-year contracts or bundles. For an SME with 30 to 100 employees, the cost of EDR alone usually falls between €3,000 and €15,000 a year.

What does MDR cost on top?

Managed Detection and Response is considerably more expensive, because you're hiring an external SOC to watch your environment 24/7. Dutch rates for SMEs often start at €1,500 to €3,000 per month for smaller environments, rising to €7,500 to €20,000 per month for 500 endpoints or more complex setups. That sounds steep, but factor in the alternatives: building your own SOC easily costs more than a million euros a year, and most SMEs don't have the scale to justify that.

For the majority of Dutch SMEs, the practical route is to buy EDR through an MSSP or licensing partner and take MDR with it straight away. That is significantly cheaper than the sum of the parts and guarantees that someone actually responds when an alert goes off at night. More on choosing an MSSP in What is an MSSP?.

How do you choose an EDR solution for your business?

Four practical selection criteria come first:

1. Does it fit your existing environment? If you already run Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Defender for Business is the logical starting point, because it's included and doesn't add to your bill. If you run a mix of Windows, macOS and Linux, a cross-platform solution (CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Sophos) is often the better fit.
2. Can you respond 24/7 yourself? Hardly any SME can answer yes. In that case, choose a solution that can be linked to a reputable MDR provider, or take the vendor's MDR option.
3. How much telemetry do you want to keep? For NIS2 purposes, longer retention (30 to 90 days of raw event data) helps. For cyber insurance, 30 days is often enough.
4. What does the provider handle in an incident? Ask concretely: what is the time to human response? What evidence do you receive? Who takes over communication with the regulator? These are questions no SLA negotiation should skip.

What doesn't work: buying EDR on its own without a plan for managing it. A dashboard with thirty alerts a day that nobody reads costs you more than having no EDR at all, because when an incident happens it's on record that you were watching.

Implementation: what does it ask of you?

A good EDR rollout at an SME typically takes 2 to 6 weeks. The main steps:

• Inventory endpoints and operating systems. Don't forget servers, virtual machines and RDP servers.
• Deploy the agent through your existing MDM or endpoint management (Intune, Jamf, MDM). For 100 endpoints, usually a day's work once the basics are in place.
• Baseline and tuning. In the first two weeks, fine-tune the detection rules around your legitimate software; otherwise you'll get false positives.
• Define playbooks. What happens automatically (isolate, kill), and what needs human approval? Who calls whom at the weekend?
• Test. Run a tabletop exercise or a simulated attack to make sure the process works.

And remember that EDR doesn't replace your patch management either. You need both: patching shrinks the attack surface, and EDR catches what still gets through despite the patches.

Frequently asked questions about EDR for SMEs

Do SMEs really need EDR, or is antivirus enough? Antivirus alone is not enough in 2026. Attackers use techniques that antivirus can't see: PowerShell scripts, legitimate admin tools and fileless malware. For anyone processing critical data (customer data, financial records, medical data), EDR is an essential layer. Cyber insurers increasingly make it a condition, and NIS2 requires real-time detection.

What is the difference between EDR, XDR and MDR? EDR runs on endpoints. XDR broadens the scope to email, cloud, identity and the network. MDR is the service in which an external party watches your EDR or XDR 24/7 and validates and handles incidents. For SMEs without their own 24/7 SOC, EDR with MDR is usually the practical route.

What does EDR cost an SME per year? For 30 to 100 employees, the licence cost of EDR alone usually falls between €3,000 and €15,000 a year. MDR on top starts at around €1,500 to €3,000 per month for smaller SME environments. If you already use Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Defender for Business is included and you pay no extra licence fee.

Is Microsoft Defender for Business enough for my business? For most Microsoft-based businesses with fewer than 300 users, Defender for Business is a defensible choice. It delivers genuine EDR, integrates with Intune and fits into the Microsoft console. For complex multi-OS environments or stricter compliance requirements, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne or Sophos are better suited.

How quickly will I notice an attack with EDR? EDR typically detects within minutes to a few hours, whereas antivirus can take days to months. With MDR on top, most contracts give you a guaranteed response time of 15 minutes to an hour for a critical alert.

Does EDR replace my backup? No. EDR tries to stop an attack before damage is done, but if something does break through, you still need an immutable backup to restore your data safely. EDR and backup complement each other; it isn't either/or.

Conclusion

For Dutch SMEs, EDR is no longer a luxury but an essential layer on top of classic antivirus. The reason isn't marketing but how attacks have changed: targeted, fast, behaviour-based breaches that antivirus simply can't see. Cyber insurers, NIS2 and customers increasingly make EDR a condition, and the investment ranges from a few thousand to several tens of thousands of euros a year, depending on your size and whether you add MDR.

Want to know which EDR solution fits your environment, or do you urgently need something set up for your NIS2 deadline or insurance application? TRON Group helps Dutch SMEs select, roll out and monitor EDR and MDR 24/7. Explore our cybersecurity services or call +31 85 303 5869 for a conversation without the sales pitch. TRON Group. Moving IT Forward: IT that works, grows and protects.