For years, cybersecurity professionals have debated the wide price range of DLP solutions. Should you choose a budget-friendly option to save money — or invest in a more expensive system because it promises higher quality?

If you’re currently stuck at the crossroads of “invest or save,” this guide will help you understand the true cost and long-term ROI of DLP systems.

Cheap ≠ Cost-Effective

Let’s start with budget DLP products. Their low upfront price may look appealing, but after deployment companies often discover that:

• administration requires an entire team due to the system’s complexity;
• architectural limitations or poor optimization demand additional hardware;
• technical support is slow, unavailable, or sold separately;
• updates also come at an extra cost;
• incidents are detected inconsistently, reports lack detail, and the interface works against the user instead of helping.

There is another long-term risk. As your business grows, the system may fail to scale with it. For companies with strong growth and ambitious plans, this becomes a serious bottleneck — leading to new licensing expenses and a full rebuild of the security infrastructure.

In the end, a cheap initial purchase can turn into expensive ownership, costing more time, budget, and resources.

What Stands Behind the Price of a Quality DLP?

A well-built DLP system offers significantly more than a low entry price. Typically, customers receive:

1. Extensive analytics and automation, allowing one security specialist to oversee up to 1,500 workstations — reducing staffing needs.
2. Flexible deployment (on-premises or cloud) and optimized performance that eliminates the need for extra hardware.
3. Full support and maintenance included, without hidden fees.
4. Regular updates at no additional cost.
5. Dozens of built-in security policies with the ability to customize them — no need to reinvent the wheel.
6. A comprehensive log of user activity, ensuring nothing escapes visibility.
7. An intuitive interface that simplifies daily work.
8. Multiple reporting options with automated delivery to HR, finance, and other departments.

How to Understand Whether a DLP Is Worth Its Price

There is only one way to determine whether a DLP system truly fits your organization: test it.

A confident vendor will offer a full-function trial without limitations on the number of endpoints.

Always test the system under maximum load. Evaluate what it detects — and what it misses. Ideally, you should work with the DLP for at least one month before making a decision.

DLP as an Investment: Does It Pay Off?

Let’s imagine you conducted a thorough trial, implemented the right solution, and reminded yourself that “security is an investment.”

But any investment must eventually pay off. What about DLP?

The average payback period is 3–5 years, but in many cases it happens even faster. In our practice, exposing hidden fraud schemes alone has allowed companies to recover the entire cost of DLP in just six months.

A Long-Term Strategy

Security is a long game. Saving on DLP (or any other protective system) today may result in serious consequences tomorrow: data leaks, insider fraud, regulatory fines, reputational damage, customer churn, and financial loss.

When choosing a DLP, the right question isn’t “How much does it cost?” but rather “What value does it deliver for this investment?”

Consider how many resources it can help you save, which risks it eliminates, which incidents it can prevent, and how quickly you’ll see tangible results.

ABOUT SEARCHINFORM

SearchInform is an information security and risk management product vendor as well as an MSS provider. The company's clients are more than 4000 companies in 20+ countries. Today, the team has products and services for comprehensive protection against insider threats at all levels of corporate information systems: FileAuditor (the DCAP class solution); DLP system with extended functionality; Risk Monitor (advanced platform for internal threat mitigation); SIEM system, IS outsourcing service.