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Cynet vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.6
Cynet effectively protects sensitive information and counters cyberattacks quickly, though exact ROI data is unspecified yet users report value.
Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Defender XDR offers cost savings, enhanced security, and efficiency by consolidating measures, reducing cyberattack losses, and streamlining processes.
Ever since we turned on the M5 feature set back in June, we have seen a reduced number of potentially malicious clicks and faster alerting when incidents occur.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Cynet provides responsive 24/7 support, praised for SOC assistance but needs improvement in non-technical inquiries and local presence.
Sentiment score
6.3
Microsoft Defender XDR support varies; larger organizations benefit more, with issues in responsiveness and knowledge sharing for smaller companies.
Their SOC side support, when a threat is detected, is excellent.
Their technical support can be improved in terms of speed when opening a ticket.
You get stuck in low-level support for way longer than you should, instead of them escalating the issue up the chain.
It's critical to escalate SEV B issues immediately to a domestic engineer.
The technical support from Microsoft Defender XDR has been disappointingly slow.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Cynet provides seamless scalability and compatibility for varied company sizes, ensuring efficient performance across diverse operating systems and environments.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender XDR offers scalable solutions for diverse organizations, with strengths in cloud setups and dashboard management despite some challenges.
Cynet is very scalable.
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
It is suitable for enterprise-level deployment but has room for improvement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Cynet is praised for its stability, reliability, and minimal issues, achieving high user ratings despite minor initial false positives.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender XDR is praised for stability and reliability, with minor issues quickly resolved and high user satisfaction.
The services within our ecosystem have been reliable, meeting their SLAs.
The service has remained consistently online, with any issues isolated to specific components, suggesting a well-designed and modular architecture.
 

Room For Improvement

Improvements needed in mobile support, technical response, customization, reporting, usability, integrations, and feature enhancements like AI detection.
Microsoft Defender XDR needs faster scanning, better integration, simpler licensing, and improved automation for user-friendly threat management.
There should be more options than deploying solely through group policy, as the assumption that GPO is working isn’t always the case.
Integration with local Active Directory, not only Azure AD, is a must.
Having a DLP feature would also add value.
Improvements are needed in automated response capabilities.
The licensing process needs improvement and clarification.
Some inconsistencies exist between blades, which could be improved for a more seamless user and UI experience.
 

Setup Cost

Cynet offers competitive pricing with flexible subscription options, integrating multiple features in one solution, including optional support costs.
Microsoft Defender XDR is cost-effective with an E5 bundle but costly separately, influenced by complex licensing and geographic factors.
I think the pricing of Cynet is fair and one of the better options in the market.
Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs.
I would rate the pricing as eight out of ten, indicating it is a reasonable cost for the product.
Licensing is somewhat confusing, particularly when presenting our pitch decks to stakeholders and leveraging key features in premium SKUs, but we managed with some assistance from Microsoft.
 

Valuable Features

Cynet excels with user-friendly interface, strong threat detection, seamless integration, and comprehensive features for security and scalability.
Microsoft Defender XDR offers seamless integration, advanced threat hunting, and AI protection, streamlining operations and reducing costs.
The SOAR function, deception, and forensics are very useful.
The valuable aspects of Cynet are its EDR and XDR components, which are available at a reasonable price point.
The most effective features of Cynet are its ransomware protection and lateral movement deception.
With Microsoft threat intelligence information, it detects various types of threats, including insider attacks, malicious content, and data exfiltration.
The alerts are all in one central location.
It's because endpoint management is my primary focus, and this feature integrates well with my other skills.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cynet
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
14th
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
10th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (11th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (17th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (5th), Threat Deception Platforms (4th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (4th), Ransomware Protection (7th)
Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
5th
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cynet is 2.4%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 7.4%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Ch342 - PeerSpot reviewer
Continuously improving and comes with automated response and SIEM/SOC
This is the third company I've worked with, and I've brought them in as a provider. For me, it's as good as it gets. Nobody likes to talk about tens, but they have a better record of detection than CrowdStrike, and they didn't shut down the world like CrowdStrike. If you really dig down into it, who are the founders of the companies? On the one hand, you have a guy who used to be a consultant, I believe, and we know they're full of it. On the other hand, you got a guy who hacked into an Israeli bank, I think, when he was about 15 years old. They eventually hired him, and now this is his third startup. So, when you look at it that way, there's no comparison.
Gabor Nyerd - PeerSpot reviewer
Includes four services and four products, which can help organizations a lot
We found that sometimes integrations work, but testing them can take some time. Sometimes, configurations take much longer than expected. We have a configuration in place that needs to be synchronized with another server. However, the servers are four hours apart, so this can cause delays. In general, I believe that the time it takes to configure and test a service should be shorter. Sometimes, it can take a couple of hours to test a single configuration setting. Other times, it is only ten or fifteen minutes, which is normal. However, sometimes, even immediate actions can be triggered by configuration changes, and some settings can take up to eight hours to complete. I believe that this time can be improved. Microsoft is making a lot of improvements to its services in a short period of time. This is a good thing, as it means that the services are constantly being updated and improved. However, it can be challenging for customers to keep up with the changes. For example, a customer may read about an update, understand it, and share it with their colleagues and boss. However, it may take days or weeks to test the update and get the necessary approvals. This can be especially challenging for large customers with many users or machines. In some cases, Microsoft may change a service before the customer has had a chance to implement the previous update. This can be frustrating for customers, as it means that they have to constantly learn new things and adjust their workflows. On the one hand, it is important for Microsoft to keep updating and improving its services. This helps to ensure that the services are meeting the customers' needs and that they are staying ahead of the competition. Microsoft should also be mindful of the challenges that these changes can create for customers. One way to address this challenge is to provide customers with more time to implement changes. Microsoft could also provide more information about upcoming changes so that customers can plan ahead. Ultimately, Microsoft needs to strike a balance between keeping its services up-to-date and providing customers with a smooth transition to new features.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

When evaluating User Activity Monitoring, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
The support team that stands behind the detection and response. Is there adequate expertise and are they behind you 24x7x365? Cynet CyOps has been there for us.
What do you like most about Cynet?
In terms of incident response, Cynet can contain attacks, offer a trial period to customers, and uninstall if not continued. The most valuable aspect is its integration capabilities, covering endpo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cynet?
I think the pricing of Cynet is fair and one of the better options in the market. It's right in the middle compared to other solutions.
What do you like most about Microsoft 365 Defender?
Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and potential indicators of compromise.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Defender?
Licensing is somewhat confusing, particularly when presenting our pitch decks to stakeholders and leveraging key features in premium SKUs, but we managed with some assistance from Microsoft.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
It would be beneficial to reduce the number of clicks required to navigate between blades, as the current navigation and breadcrumb system can be a bit confusing. Some inconsistencies exist between...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Meuhedet, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cynet vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.