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Elastic Security vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint 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
5.5
Elastic Security often delivers positive ROI within two years, though user satisfaction and views on cost-effectiveness vary.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers cost savings, enhanced protection, and efficient threat management, with anticipated future benefits.
The return on investment is primarily in time savings and better observability of what's happening.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
Elastic Security feedback is mixed; users praise community support, yet criticize inconsistent technical support and seek faster solutions.
Sentiment score
6.5
Support for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint varies, with premium tiers offering quicker responses, while basic support can be slow.
Support is prompt and helpful.
The level-one support seems disconnected from subject matter experts.
I rate Microsoft support 10 out of 10.
Due to our size, we don't have access to direct technical support, but the knowledge base, Microsoft Learn, and the articles available are really good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Elastic Security is scalable and adaptable, suitable for diverse business needs, though skilled personnel are important for effective management.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a scalable solution integrating smoothly with Microsoft, ideal for diverse organizational needs and configurations.
We managed to scale it out in a short amount of time, with two months of planning and three months of implementation on 10,000 computers.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable enough to handle various devices across environments, whether they are laptops, Android devices, or operating in hybrid environments.
It's pretty easy to scale with Microsoft, as they make it easy if you look into the documentation.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Elastic Security is stable and reliable, though challenges arise with big data and real-time usage without proper configuration.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is stable and reliable, with integration ease, despite occasional lags and minor update bugs.
In terms of stability, I would rate Elastic a solid eight out of ten.
I haven't seen any outages with Microsoft.
I rate Defender 10 out of 10 for stability.
Defender for Endpoint is extremely stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Elastic Security faces challenges in setup, AI integration, permissions management, user support, and requires improved dashboards and cost-efficiency.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint needs frequent updates, improved integration, user-friendly interface, enhanced analytics, and better support documentation.
CrowdStrike and Defender have more established threat intelligence integration due to having a larger client base.
Elastic Security consumes a lot of resources, requiring a substantial deployment setup.
Repeated interactions are necessary due to Level One's lack of tools and knowledge, hindering efficient problem-solving and negatively impacting our experience with Microsoft support.
We use Microsoft partners to help govern the platform, and as part of an alliance, we want to gather data from each tenant and combine them for a complete view.
Providing more detailed information on how Microsoft Defender for Endpoint detects vulnerabilities.
 

Setup Cost

Elastic Security offers a free open-source option with enterprise features based on usage, making it cost-effective for enterprises.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is cost-effective with bundled licenses, but advanced features may incur additional fees.
The pricing is reasonable, especially for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), making it a viable option for businesses building their security infrastructure.
Elastic Security is considered cost-effective, especially at lower EPS levels.
Given our extensive Microsoft licensing, transitioning to Defender for Endpoint did not affect licensing costs.
It costs $15 per VM for the P2 plan, which is seen as affordable for customers.
The pricing, setup, and licensing were very easy and simple.
 

Valuable Features

Elastic Security is praised for fast search, scalability, machine learning, customization, integration, and user-friendly, cost-effective features.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers seamless integration, real-time threat detection, and efficient management, enhancing security with minimal system impact.
Elastic Security offers good insight regarding alerts, reports, and cases.
Elastic Security offers advanced features such as machine learning and integration with ChatGPT.
Defender for Endpoint's coverage across different platforms in our environment is pretty good. We have devices running Linux, Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android. It covers all of them.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides a unified management interface allowing customers to manage their on-premises and hybrid infrastructures from a single pane.
Web filtering is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint because it effectively maintains security for website access.
 

Categories and Ranking

Elastic Security
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
16th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (7th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (5th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (6th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (8th)
Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
192
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Elastic Security is 2.4%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 10.6%, down from 15.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Nikhil-Kumar - PeerSpot reviewer
Customizable with great dashboards but the premium support is poor
The initial setup can be complex if you don't have technical knowledge. However, once it is deployed, it works well. I'm not sure how long it took to deploy. I wasn't there when it was set up and configured. We have an internal team that handles deployment and maintenance. It doesn't require too many people to deploy. Five or six people would be enough. However, for 24/7 monitoring, you need to have someone always on it.
AnuragSrivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides detailed visibility into threats but the ability to add exceptions needs improvement
One major item for improvement is the ability to add exceptions. We can add some exceptions, but not at the level we need to. The second major area for improvement involves enhanced capabilities for different operating systems or platforms. That is, even though we have coverage for different operating systems or platforms such as Linux, we don't get all of the controls and enhanced capabilities that are available with Windows devices. Reporting could also be improved because, at present, we get limited results at times. For example, in an environment with more than 100,000 devices, you may just get 10,000 results when you run a report.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
27%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Datadog vs ELK: which one is good in terms of performance, cost and efficiency?
With Datadog, we have near-live visibility across our entire platform. We have seen APM metrics impacted several times lately using the dashboards we have created with Datadog; they are very good c...
What do you like most about Elastic Security?
Elastic provides the capability to index quickly due to the reverse indexes it offers. This data is crucial as it contains critical information. The reverse index allows fast data indexing because ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Elastic Security?
Elastic Security is considered cost-effective, especially at lower EPS levels. However, a direct comparison was not made due to different pricing structures.
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, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior solution. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security s...
How does Microsoft Defender for Endpoint compare with Crowdstrike Falcon?
The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never push your machine hardware to "test", you don't have the usual "scan now" feature ...
 

Also Known As

Elastic SIEM, ELK Logstash
Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Texas A&M, U.S. Air Force, NuScale Power, Martin's Point Health Care
Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Find out what your peers are saying about Elastic Security vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.