We performed a comparison between ESET Endpoint Security and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: ESET Endpoint Security ultimately won out in this comparison. Our reviewers agree that ESET Endpoint Security is easy to install and easy to use. In addition, it has excellent customer support.
"Additionally, when it comes to EDR, there are more tools available to assist with client work."
"It is very easy to set up. I would rate my experience with the initial setup a ten out of ten, with ten being very easy to set up."
"We have FortiEDR installed on all our systems. This protects them from any threats."
"The ease of deployment and configuration is valuable. It's very easy compared to other vendors like Sophos. Sophos' configuration is complex. Fortinet is a lot easier to understand. You don't need a lot of admin knowledge to do the configuration."
"NGAV and EDR features are outstanding."
"Ability to get forensics details and also memory exfiltration."
"It notifies us if there's any suspicious file on any PC. If any execution or similar kind of thing is happening, it just alerts us. It doesn't only alert. It also blocks the execution until we allow it. We check whether the execution is legitimate or not, and then approve it or keep it blocked. This gives us a little bit of control over this mechanism. Fortinet FortiEDR is also very straightforward and easy to maintain."
"It is stable and scalable."
"This solution does not slow down your systems. It is very light."
"The product is quite affordable."
"The stability is good."
"The administration is its most valuable feature as I can see all versions in one place."
"We use ESET, which is pretty much perfect for us. It is also absolutely simple and automatic once setup."
"The solution provides good accessibility and is not heavy on resources when there are updates or when it is in operation."
"A feature we like is setting the GUI of ESET Endpoint Security/ESET File Security to silent mode because some servers and clients can have performance issues."
"If it detects ransomware or something, it can isolate that computer."
"Provides good vulnerability assessment."
"The solution's threat protection is mostly AI and machine-learning based. That is the most important feature of the product. It also offers centralized management so I can remotely manage devices."
"The most important and the most relevant features of Defender for Endpoint are the malware and ransomware protection."
"The features I have found most valuable are the ransomware and malware protection. The solution detects malware live and whenever it detects suspicious activity, it quarantines it."
"Defender should be fine for home use. It has all the basic functionality you need. I can't speak to how well it works as an enterprise solution because I'm not in the space."
"We can run the virus scan across our entire environment."
"The solution's latest features for threat analysis are updated to provide us with future protection against the latest threats worldwide."
"We had certain compliance and usage issues. For example, our company wanted to go with CIS, but we didn't have a proper way of measuring whether the endpoints have the right standards in place or whether they were compliant with CIS. Microsoft Defender was like a one-stop for most things because it gave us the vulnerability and patching scores so that our vulnerability management teams can focus on covering up the vulnerabilities and the patching team can check the vulnerable versions and deploy the right versions."
"There's room for improvement in the quick response time and technical support for integration issues, especially when dealing with multiple vendors."
"The security should be strong for the cloud. Some applications are on-prem and some are on the cloud. Fortinet should also have strong security for the cloud. There should be more security for the cloud."
"It takes about two business days for initial support, which is too slow in urgent situations."
"The solution is not stable."
"We've encountered challenges during API deployment, occasionally resulting in unstable environments."
"The solution should address emerging threats like SQL injection."
"ZTNA can improve latency."
"Making the portal mobile friendly would be helpful when I am out of office."
"There are some new antivirus technologies that rely on AI, artificial intelligence. ESET does not have this technology right now."
"I suspect there will be some changes required to ESET because some experts I know just moved to MDR. I can imagine there might be some issues that were not fully covered by the ESET Endpoint that would be covered by MDR that we're on now."
"They should focus more on the offline market as well. Everybody is connected nowadays, and they want to do everything via cloud or fast internet connections, however, that's still not possible in many situations."
"iOS compatibility for mobile security and parental control."
"The new versions only support no operative systems in Mac and do not support operative systems."
"The console or GUI of ESET Endpoint Antivirus should improve. Additionally, they should provide an addon feature for HyperV and VMware."
"The solution is not ideal for use in large enterprises"
"ESET Endpoint Security could improve EDR integration."
"The frequency of the patching, and the frequency of the updates, are not included with the free version."
"The GUI is very complex and could be more user friendly."
"The integration and effectiveness of email security could be better. It's already built-in to the solution and checks emails, scans the links they contain etc."
"Integration with third-party vendors could be better. It would be better if it integrates with other protection solutions or other products outside of Microsoft. Nowadays, anti-virus protection doesn't really have to be planned as overall protection for your environment in terms of security. There are really different avenues that bad actors can take to wreak havoc on your machine."
"There's scanning going on that occasionally topples the memory, causing everything to freeze. This should be fixed."
"If they integrate with the EDR then it will benefit this solution."
"Lowering the price would be an improvement."
"It should support non-Windows products better. Microsoft is now one of the leading vendors in the security area. So, they should be product-independent."
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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is ranked 11th in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 97 reviews while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is ranked 1st in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 182 reviews. ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is rated 8.2, while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform writes "Easy to set up with good security and rapidly improving capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint writes "Eliminates the need to look at multiple dashboards by automatically providing one XDR dashboard to show the security score of each subscription". ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is most compared with Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity Complete, Check Point Harmony Endpoint and Fortinet FortiClient, whereas Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is most compared with Symantec Endpoint Security, Intercept X Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Complete, CrowdStrike Falcon and Fortinet FortiClient. See our ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint report.
See our list of best Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) vendors, best Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) vendors, and best Anti-Malware Tools vendors.
We monitor all Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.