Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.4%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is 1.4%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 2.6%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks	3.4%
Microsoft Defender XDR	2.6%
Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)	1.4%
Other	92.6%

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH

Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk

Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration

Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.

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reviewer2406663

Director at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Effective risk response, easy deployment, and enhanced security

They use Datto EDR as part of the solutions that we supply Datto EDR has helped reduce overall security incident costs by fifteen percent. The ease of deployment has been good, and the responsiveness of the application to risks has been quite effective. The inclusion of web filtering would be…

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Kunle Oluwadiya

House security operator at Cypress Creek Renewables

Advanced threat hunting saves significant time in tracking and responding to incidents

Microsoft Defender XDR could be improved with a lower price. My main suggestion would essentially be what Copilot is providing, which is a single pane of glass, so I don't have to go to different windows. That's just a workflow consideration for me. It would be great to have all the information centralized into one particular data app. If I need to open up extra ones, I can, however, I would appreciate a future where everything I need is right there on one single pane of glass. Beyond that, there's really nothing else I see that I would want Microsoft to improve.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"They did what they said. This solution could apply to any scenario."

"I recognize that Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is one of the best products in its category regarding capabilities."

"Threat identification and detection are the most valuable features of this solution."

"Its ability to react to cyber data attacks is awesome. That is pretty much the use of it. What blows your mind is the ability to access your assets remotely and see what is actually going on with them. You can not only see them in a console. You can also react very rapidly to your assets that are compromised."

"The one feature of Palo Alto Networks Traps that our organization finds most valuable is the App ID service."

"Monitoring is most valuable."

"The dashboard is customizable."

"Stability is a primary factor, and then there's the ease of distribution and policy management."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pros

"The ease of deployment has been good."

"The most valuable feature of Datto EDR is the visibility of the endpoints."

"The insight that the solution provides is the most valuable aspect."

"Datto Endpoint Detection and Response is a perfect product for endpoint security."

"The insight that the solution provides is the most valuable aspect. The security scanning they do is excellent."

"Defender XDR can stop advanced attacks, like ransomware or business email compromise."

"The attack simulation is excellent; initially, this feature wasn't very robust, but Microsoft improved what we could achieve with it. We can now customize our practice phishing emails and include our company logo, for example. Attack simulation also helps integrate with third-party solutions where applicable and provides an overview of our security architecture through testing. The summary includes areas for improvement in our protection and what steps we need to take to get there."

"The advantage of Microsoft Defender XDR has over other XDRs in the market is that it's easy to use. You can quickly differentiate between alerts, incidents, devices, software, etc. It's easier to investigate an incident, and you have so many options. You can automate investigations and use playbooks. There's also the live response session, which is something you can't find in any other XDR."

"We are connected to Microsoft and have every laptop enrolled. This acts as an endpoint. The tool helps me check security and compliance. I can also check what a device is doing."

"Setting up Microsoft 365 Defender is easy. It's a user-friendly solution that provides threat protection. It has good stability and scalability."

"Microsoft 365 Defender's most valuable feature is the ability to control the shadow IP."

"Instead of using three or four tools for security, we can use one."

"A crucial aspect for our team is the inclusion of identity and access management tools from the vendor."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pros

Cons

"It's very time-consuming to log support issues and the people that answer the tickets aren't very knowledgeable."

"The solution should enhance the ADR and reporting."

"It should support more mobile operating systems. That is one of the cons of their infrastructure right now."

"I feel that it should not be a licensed activity because a feature should allow us to see applications running on end devices."

"I would like to see them include NDR (Network Detection Response)."

"Cortex XDR is trickier to configure than other Palo Alto products. This is one area where we are not so satisfied."

"However, if you do not have Palo Alto in your environment, you are paying these additional services just for Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, so it is not a cost-effective solution."

"Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks cons

"The solution should allow the automation of playbooks."

"The deployment of the solution right now is terrible. We find it to be very bad. It could be improved enormously."

"The deployment of the solution right now is terrible. We find it to be very bad."

"The solution could improve by having more deployment methods."

"The inclusion of web filtering would be good."

"While the XDR platform offers valuable functionalities, it falls short of other solutions in its ability to deliver a cohesive identity experience."

"For some scenarios, it provides good visibility into threats, and for some scenarios, it doesn't. For example, sometimes the URLs within the emails have destinations, and you do get a screenshot and all further details, but it's not always the case. It would be good if they did a better job of enabling that for all the emails that they identified as malicious. When you get an email threat, you can go into the email and see more details, but the URL destination feature doesn't always show you a screenshot of the URL in that email. It also doesn't always give you the characteristics relating to that URL. It would be quite good if the information is complete where it says that we identified this URL, and this is what it looks like. There should be some threat intel about it. It should give you more details."

"The only issue I've had is, when it comes to deployment, the steps I must take around policy setup. That is challenging."

"I haven't really come across the incident Q assistant helping improve the efficiency of my SOC workflow."

"There is no comprehensive visibility, making it less user-friendly."

"Sometimes, configurations take much longer than expected."

"Sometimes, digging into the information and knowing where to go can be difficult. It would be better if much of that information were immediately visible, especially when looking at endpoints or users."

"The price could be better. It'll also help if they can continuously update and upgrade the solution."

More Microsoft Defender XDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's price is moderate."

"Compared to CrowdStrike, Cortex XDR is an expensive solution."

"The pricing is a little bit on the expensive side."

"It is cost-effective compared to similar solutions. It fits for the small businesses through to the big businesses."

"Cortex XDR's pricing is ok."

"It's about $55 per license on a yearly basis."

"Its pricing is kind of in line with its competitors and everybody else out there."

"The return on investment is from the user side because we have seen the performance of it increase the delivery time of the product if we are using too many web-based and on-premise applications. In indirect ways, we saw the return of investment in terms of performance and user satisfaction increase."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"Datto Endpoint Detection and Response is not an expensive solution."

"There is an annual license to use this solution. The price of the solution can be expensive depending on the company."

"While Microsoft Defender XDR carries a higher cost, its ease of use compared to Defender may justify the investment."

"The product is fairly priced for what we get from it."

"The price could be better. Normally, the costs depend on the country you're located in for the license. When we were in the initial stage, we went with the E5 license they call premium standard. It cost us around $5.20 per month for four users."

"Microsoft 365 Defender offers competitive pricing."

"Purchasing Microsoft Defender XDR as part of a Microsoft 365 bundle can be cost-effective, but acquiring it as a standalone product may be more expensive."

"Microsoft should provide lower-level licensing options. They should do it in such a way that even an individual could purchase a license, and it should be entirely flexible."

"The solution is too expensive."

"Defender XDR is included in the E5 license, but it's a bit too expensive."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions are best for your needs.

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886,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	45
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	48

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	40

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. ...

Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions th...

How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface,...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Infocyte HUNT?

The price is quite low. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate it a four, meaning it is quite cheap.

What needs improvement with Infocyte HUNT?

The inclusion of web filtering would be good.

What is your primary use case for Infocyte HUNT?

They use Datto EDR as part of the solutions that we supply.

What do you like most about Microsoft 365 Defender?

Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and p...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Defender?

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing of Microsoft Defender XDR is that we are on an E5 license,...

What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?

From my perspective, Microsoft Defender XDR can be improved with better visibility in certain areas where I can trigg...

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Comparisons

Compared 8% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 6% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

Cortex XSIAM vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 1% of the time

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks Competitors

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Compared 15% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Compared 9% of the time

Intercept X Endpoint vs Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Compared 6% of the time

More Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Competitors

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 10% of the time

Wazuh vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 6% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 4% of the time

Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Defender XDR Competitors

Product Reports

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Download Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks product report

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Download Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) product report

Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) report

Microsoft Defender XDR

Download Microsoft Defender XDR product report

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps

Infocyte HUNT

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender

Overview

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks provides advanced threat detection with AI-driven endpoint protection and seamless integration, ensuring multi-layered security and automatic threat response.

Cortex XDR is designed to safeguard endpoints against malware and suspicious activities. It offers advanced threat detection and response capabilities using behavioral analysis, AI, and machine learning. It seamlessly integrates with security infrastructures, providing endpoint security, firewall integration, and enhanced visibility in both cloud-based and on-premises environments.

What are the key features of Cortex XDR?

Advanced Threat Detection: Uses AI and machine learning for proactive threat identification.
Multi-layered Security: Combines various security measures for comprehensive protection.
Endpoint Protection: Safeguards against malware and exploits.
Behavioral Analysis: Monitors suspicious activity for early detection.
Automatic Threat Response: Automates responses to neutralize threats.

What benefits should users expect?

Ease of Use: Simplifies security management with intuitive design.
Resource Efficiency: Minimizes impact on system resources.
Integration Capabilities: Works well with existing security setups.
Reduced Analyst Workload: Automates processes to decrease manual intervention.

Organizations in diverse sectors deploy Cortex XDR to protect against malware, leveraging its advanced threat detection capabilities. Its integration with existing security infrastructures appeals to those seeking comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments, providing enhanced visibility and threat intelligence.

Palo Alto Networks

With Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) you can detect and respond to advanced threats. Datto EDR is an easy to use cloud based EDR solution that's designed for Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

datto

Microsoft Defender XDR is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect against threats in the Microsoft 365 environment.

It offers robust security measures, comprehensive threat detection capabilities, and an efficient incident response system. With seamless integration with other Microsoft products and a user-friendly interface, it simplifies security management tasks.

Users have found it effective in detecting and preventing various types of attacks, such as phishing attempts, malware infections, and data breaches.

Watch the Microsoft demo video here: Microsoft Defender XDR demo video.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank

Check Point Software, PwC, Grant Thornton, AT&T, DHL, U.S. Department of Defense

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.

Datto Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) vs. Microsoft Defender XDR