VENDOR COMPARISON

Expel vs. Rapid7

Rapid7 wants your telemetry in their SIEM. Expel connects to the stack you already run.

Head-To-Head

Why orgs choose Expel over Rapid7

		Rapid7
Fast and flexible Does it work with your tech stack, or replace it?
Onboarding approach	Agentless onboarding with bi-directional API connections, no proprietary agents	Telemetry collected through the InsightIDR SIEM, endpoint agents, and network sensors¹
Time to full coverage	Direct API connections pull richer data faster than log or SIEM-based ingestion, operational in hours, not months	Deployment can take up to 90 days²
What your SOC actually watches	Monitoring across every connected tool in your stack	Rapid7 SOC's proactive monitoring is limited on third-party solutions¹
Coverage Are all your attack surfaces protected?
Total coverage areas	160+ coverage areas across endpoint, cloud, identity, SaaS, and network	Cloud workload support for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, without coverage for cloud security tools like Orca, Wiz, and FortiCNAPP (Lacework)³
Custom detections	Expel helps build and monitor customized detections tailored to your environment	Your organization is responsible for configuring, tuning, and handling any detection rules marked as ‘Custom and Contextual.’¹
Transparency Can you see what your MDR is doing, in real time?
Real-time visibility into detections, investigations, and response	Full transparency via Expel Workbench™, as the work happens	Initial notification arrives as a customer portal case and an email, followed by a daily written update¹
24x7 direct access to SOC analysts	Direct 24x7 access via Slack or Teams, included	An assigned Customer Advisor relays between your team and the SOC Tactical Operations team¹
Humans + AI Does your MDR cut noise or just pass it along?
Context-aware prioritization	Ruxie™ AI surfaces what matters with context-based recommendations, then humans make the final call	Alerts triaged inside InsightIDR, with SOC monitoring limited to critical alerts from a few third-party tools¹
When investigations start	Expel averages an MTTT of 5 minutes, with remediation (MTTR) in 14 minutes, and differentiates itself with a quantifiable promise: a guaranteed 15-minute MTTT SLA for critical events and 30 minutes for high-severity events	Investigations begin within 15 minutes for critical alerts and one hour for high alerts, with incident response initiated within one hour of identification⁴
Automated response	Automated response across cloud, endpoint, identity, network, and SaaS, included in the service	Active Response quarantine of users or endpoints requires the separate InsightConnect SOAR product¹
Expertise and partnership Does your MDR partner make you better over time?
How you reach an expert	Direct SOC access via Slack or Teams, 24x7, with the analysts who live in your environment	Work spread across multiple managed services teams, and which ones you get depends on what you purchased⁵
Forrester Wave™ Q1 2025	Leader in the Forrester Wave™ for MDR Services, Q1 2025, rated 5/5 for Analyst Experience, and Dashboards & Reporting⁶	Rated 3/5 for Analyst Experience and 3/5 for Dashboards & Reporting⁶

Get a demo

Bring these to your next vendor call

Questions to ask Rapid7

Download one-pager

How long does deployment take from signed contract to full monitoring coverage, and what does “full coverage” include on day one?

Which of my existing tools will your SOC actively monitor, and which ones do you only ingest for investigation context after the fact?

Do I need InsightIDR as my SIEM for this to work, or can you connect directly to the tools I already run?

If I want you to quarantine a user or an endpoint, what else do I have to license to make that happen?

When I have a critical incident at 2am, do I reach a SOC analyst directly, or does everything route through my Customer Advisor and the portal?

Do you cover cloud security tools like Wiz, Orca, or FortiCNAPP, or is cloud coverage limited to AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud workloads?

No compromises

The Expel difference

Fast & flexible

Agentless onboarding with 160+ integrations across endpoint, cloud, identity, SaaS, and network. No proprietary agents or extra vendor tooling required.

Transparency

Full real-time visibility into every detection, investigation, and response via Expel Workbench™—with direct 24×7 SOC analyst access through Slack or Teams, included.

Humans + AI

Ruxie™ AI surfaces only what matters with context-based recommendations, driving a 14-minute mean time to remediate with automated response across 8 attack surfaces.

Expertise

Direct SOC access via Slack or Teams around the clock—not a ticketing queue—backed by a Forrester Wave™ 5/5 rating for Managed Investigations in Q1 2025.

"Technical architecture was a key consideration. What impressed us with Expel was its compatibility with our existing technology. Other vendors wanted us to change our tech stack or retool our systems. Expel works with our current setup and builds APIs compatible with commonly used software."

J.D. Whitlock

CIO

You're in good company

Frequently asked questions

How long does onboarding take with Expel compared to Rapid7?

Expel uses an agentless, bring-your-own-tech (BYOT) model and connects to your existing security tools through direct APIs. There’s no proprietary agent to roll out and no fixed stack to buy into, so coverage starts as soon as the connections are live. Rapid7 collects telemetry through the InsightIDR SIEM, endpoint agents, and network sensors, and its own documentation puts deployment at up to 90 days. That’s 90 days when you’re paying for detection and response you don’t have yet.

How does Expel's transparency compare to Rapid7's?

Expel runs on a glass-box model. Through Expel Workbench™, you see every detection, investigation, and response action as it happens, 24×7, plus real-time metrics, action reports, and root-cause analysis on incidents. You also get direct access to the SOC analysts working your environment through Slack or Teams, with no after-hours limits. Rapid7 opens a case in a customer portal and sends an email, then follows up with a daily written update. Communication runs through an assigned Customer Advisor who relays between your team and the SOC Tactical Operations team. When an incident is moving, a daily written update is a summary of what already happened.

When does an investigation actually start, with Expel versus Rapid7, and what SLA backs it?

Expel averages a MTTT of 5 minutes with remediation (MTTR) in 14 minutes. Expel differentiates itself with a quantifiable promise: a guaranteed 15-minute MTTT SLA for critical events and 30 minutes for high-severity events. This provides a clear, measurable metric for a customer to hold the provider accountable.

How does coverage across cloud, identity, and SaaS compare?

Expel covers 160+ coverage areas across endpoint, cloud, identity, SaaS, and network, and correlates signals across all of them so a threat moving between surfaces doesn’t fall into a gap. We also build your custom detections into the strategy so blind spots specific to your environment get closed. Rapid7 MDR supports AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud for cloud workloads but doesn’t cover cloud security tools like Orca, Wiz, or FortiCNAPP (Lacework). If your cloud security program runs on one of those, that telemetry stays outside your MDR.

What do I need to buy to get automated response?

With Expel, automated response across cloud, endpoint, identity, network, and SaaS is part of the service. There’s no separate orchestration product to license and no per-action fee. Rapid7’s Active Response can quarantine users and endpoints, but turning it on requires their InsightConnect SOAR product. Ask what the fully loaded price looks like once every piece you need is on the quote.