Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Avanan vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Avanan
Ranking in Email Security
7th
Average Rating
9.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (7th)
Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Avanan is 4.7%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 15.9%, down from 20.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Melendez - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2024
Enhances email security and has a very simple and easy-to-use UI
Spam protection is the most valuable feature. We have implemented the tool to enhance our email security. It helps prevent phishing attacks. The anomaly detection capabilities are baked into the security platform. The product integrates wonderfully with Microsoft 365. It's built right on a cloud platform and works almost natively. The solution has a very simple and easy-to-use UI. The tool appears extremely powerful and has a good solid feature set. It catches things that are bad for my environment. The user interface is good the way it is. If the solution continues down that path, I see no problems with the way it is going. It feels like a mature product.
Luis-Brown - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 8, 2023
Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 lacks proactivity in assisting us with preparing for potential threats before they occur. While they employ a substantial amount of threat intelligence to preemptively prevent incidents, their effectiveness diminishes when it comes to delivering proactive threat intelligence alerts from Microsoft. Their focus primarily revolves around managing the internal environment. On the other hand, my other vendor, Check Point, along with my membership in MS-ISAC, supplements me with this type of information. The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement. It is adequate, but it doesn't match the quality of Proofpoint or Mimecast. However, it comes close in effectiveness. Plus, if we're obtaining it for free, investing in the other products seems impractical.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Email Attachment Protection detects any insecure files and quickly blocks them to prevent the spread of viruses to other secure documents."
"If we look at four to five years ago, we had close to six or eight people click a link in an email per month. Now, we are probably down to about five or six clicks a year, if not less."
"I highly recommend this solution to any prospective buyer."
"The ease of installation and the AI capacity of the product are valuable."
"It is simple to deploy this platform and interact with the set features."
"Email inspection has saved many employees from spam attacks and viruses from unauthorized sources."
"It can detect corrupted files and filters out documents with viruses."
"I like Avanan's SmartDLP module. It's seamless, and the administrative overhead is low. We aren't a very sophisticated operation. We just want to reduce our exposure, so we find ThreatCloud helpful. Avanan's acquisition by Check Point was beneficial for them."
"The risk level notifications are most valuable. We get to know what kind of intrusion or attack is there, and we can fix a problem on time."
"Some of the valuable features on the email side are anti-phishing, anti-malware, and Safe Links."
"It’s easy to handle integrations, and we don't need a lot of people in our IT team."
"The deployment capability is a great feature."
"The most valuable feature is the integration. It's a single console, so we don't have to switch around between multiple products. Another valuable feature is the ease of operations and maintenance."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution."
"Defender for Office 365 has helped eliminate having to look at multiple dashboards and that is the aspect I like most about it. It is simpler, effective, and convenient. The users like the process efficiency."
"There are several features that I consider valuable."
 

Cons

"They should come up with a mobile application so that it can be more flexible."
"In Avanan, the email channel is one of the channels where data leakage happens, and they need to consider it from a DLP perspective."
"It is complicated for new users unfamiliar with the modern cloud networking infrastructure."
"There are times when we have false positives."
"The system response in a slow computing device affects performance when sending and receiving emails."
"Sometimes it seemed like the allow list wasn't working. I've created many allow list rules however, they still seem to be blocked; the same is true with the blocked list rules."
"The unified dashboard that it displays needs some improvements in terms of the KPIs that they have."
"It should also offer a quick backup in case any email is wrongly quarantined or deleted to ensure no data loss."
"The XDR dashboard has room for improvement."
"The company should focus on adding threats that the solution is currently unable to detect."
"The pre-sales cost calculations could be more transparent."
"The UI needs to be more user-friendly."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should improve the troubleshooting tools. It's unclear whether the device is blocked at the firewall level or at the device itself. The granularity needed for troubleshooting is currently lacking. From my perspective, Microsoft should address this issue to benefit many users who likely share the same sentiment."
"Several simulation options are available within 365, and the phishing simulation could be better."
"There is room for improvement with the UI."
"We noticed that from time to time, Microsoft's stability does have problems. Sometimes the service goes up and down. Sometimes they change without prior notice."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Good pricing arrangement as an SaaS offering."
"Having the flexibility and modeling to do the pricing that best fits the needs of the organization is incredibly ideal. That is what Avanan does. They know exactly how many users are using it, etc. We can tune the invoicing associated with how we are using the product so we can charge it back to the shows appropriately."
"The pricing of Avanan is reasonable."
"The product is not the cheapest in the market."
"Avanan’s price is comparable to Barracuda."
"We have a monthly license that is $4 to $8 per user."
"The pricing is normal. Considering its popularity, it's not overpriced."
"The product is expensive."
"While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 necessitates pricier E3 or E5 subscriptions, the extensive functionality offered by these licenses across various Microsoft products justifies the investment."
"The pricing has become expensive."
"Compared to other brands, Microsoft Defender for Office 365's pricing is competitive."
"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."
"Defender is a little bit more expensive as compared to others. We are in the manufacturing environment. So, we don't have a high budget for all of our endpoint devices. Its cost is a major concern for us."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Email Security solutions are best for your needs.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
48%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Avanan?
Spam protection is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement with Avanan?
Avanan doesn't cover certain tool segments. Barracuda provides backup and retention of emails and Microsoft 365’s backup and retention services. I've brought this up with the vendor. They told me t...
What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various email campaigns, pinpointing where they emanate from, and identifying the indi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The pricing is reasonable since it comes integrated with our Office 365 license.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detection capabilities. We also need alerting features for abnormal actions like unus...
 

Also Known As

No data available
MS Defender for Office 365
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bethel School District, ServiceSource, Capital Caring
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Find out what your peers are saying about Avanan vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.