FortiXDR vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

Fortinet and Microsoft are both solutions in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category. Fortinet is ranked #28 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.4. Fortinet holds a 0.6% mindshare in XDR, compared to Microsoft’s 7.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

FortiXDR

Read 4 FortiXDR reviews

809 Views
383 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender XDR

Read 97 Microsoft Defender XDR reviews

7,236 Views
5,536 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

FortiXDR

Microsoft Defender XDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between FortiXDR and Microsoft Defender XDR based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed FortiXDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

FortiXDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

February 2025

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Helped 848,207 peers since 2012

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

FortiXDR

Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

28th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Defender XDR

Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

4th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of FortiXDR is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 7.0%, up from 6.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

Featured Reviews

Abdulrahman Mashabi

Sales Director at Virtual Vision (V2)

Affordable pricing improves access to solutions with scalable and efficient protection

We are a system integrator and cloud service provider. Although I am in sales and not technical, I am involved with these products to sell them to our customers We are using FortiGate and FortiWeb mostly. Additionally, we are engaged with FortiXDR and FortiEDR. They could change their licensing…

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Gabor Nyerd

Enterprise mobility and security evangelist at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of FortiXDR is its ability to block clients, providing comprehensive endpoint protection."

"The most valuable feature of FortiXDR is it integrates well with other Fortinet solutions, such as Fortinet firewall, FortiMail, FortiSandbox, Forti Fabric, switches, and access points. Whatever the flow of the traffic comes in or goes out, the entire traffic can be managed and monitored properly."

"FortiXDR is valuable for its integration capabilities with one hundred percent compatibility with other vendors in cloud environments like Google, Oracle, and Microsoft."

"The most valuable feature of FortiXDR is its ability to block clients, providing comprehensive endpoint protection."

"Our customers are satisfied with FortiXDR."

"The product is stable enough."

"I like that Defender is easy to use and the alerts are all in one central location."

"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."

"It gives a lot of flexibility in terms of configuration and customization as per the business requirements."

"The EDR features are valuable. By getting the EDR features, we have more control over the device. We have information about events in real-time and more protection against zero-day threats and zero-day vulnerabilities. We can monitor every event or action that a device is going through. We can get an idea if it is something malicious or if we have to take any actions."

"The unified view of the threat landscape on a central dashboard is the most valuable feature."

"The product is very easy to use."

"There is also one dashboard that shows us the status of many controls at once and the details I can get... It gives a great overview of many areas, such as files, emails, chats, and links. Even with the apps, it gives you a great overview. In one place you can see where you should look into things more deeply..."

"The ability to isolate and address viruses is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender XDR."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pros

Cons

"Improvement is needed in the intuitiveness and integration measures of FortiXDR, especially in terms of compatibility."

"The pricing of FortiXDR should be improved. It's a point of concern for us."

"The pricing of FortiXDR should be improved."

"They could change their licensing costs to make it more affordable for smaller businesses."

"Many of the solutions, such as CrowdStrike have an MDR solution where remediation can be provided by the vendor. For example, if there is any zero data threat found, a new threat that the customer is not able to recognize, fix, or understand what needs to be done this feature has to be added in FortiXDR so that the customer feels comfortable."

"They could change their licensing costs to make it more affordable for smaller businesses."

"Improvement is needed in the intuitiveness and integration measures of FortiXDR, especially in terms of compatibility."

"A simple dashboard without having to use MS Sentinel would be a welcome improvement."

"The solution could improve by having better machine learning and AI. Additionally, the interface, documentation, and integration could be better."

"The user interface of Microsoft 365 Defender could improve. They could make it simpler."

"The mobile app support for Android and iOS is difficult and needs improvement."

"There are a few technical issues with Defender XDR that can be improved. Sometimes, the endpoint devices are not reporting properly to the Defender 365 portal. When you're getting all the information from the Microsoft portal, the devices are sometimes not in sync. We have hundreds of endpoint devices, some needing to be onboarded again."

"The only problem I find is that the use cases are built-in. There is no template available that you can modify according to your organization's standards. What they give is very generic, the market standard, but that might not be applicable to every organization."

"The cost can be high if you want to build custom license packages. Another area for improvement is the policies. In Azure, we need to implement policies in JSON format, but in 365 Defender 365, it would be helpful to use a different format so we can customize the platform."

"The price could be better. It'll also help if they can continuously update and upgrade the solution. Every day there's a new virus uploaded into the network, and we have to keep updating it to identify all these things."

More Microsoft Defender XDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an expensive solution compared to other vendors, such as Check Point."

"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."

"The licensing fee for Microsoft 365 Defender is fair."

"It is fairly priced because we get complete integrated services with the E5 license."

"Microsoft purposely makes its license combinations complex and includes combinations like Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, and Office 365 E1, so you get confused. Microsoft tries to sell you a bundle of a lot of things together."

"There are no issues with pricing, but sometimes, the clarity in licensing is a concern."

"On average, we pay around 55 euros per user for the services and features we receive."

"They have moved from a licensing model to pay-per-use... The question is: What happens if, for any reason, there's not enough budget to accept this model? That could be a great problem."

"365 Defender can get expensive because you pay per gigabyte of data ingested. On the other hand, much of the data available in the other Microsoft security solutions are made available relatively cheaply—sometimes at cost or for free. Integrating only a limited set of third-party solutions with Sentinel would be cost-effective. It's much more affordable if companies only have Microsoft stuff."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

24%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiXDR?

Comparing to the enterprise level, the pricing is reasonable. However, for some companies, it might be a little high.

See all answers

What needs improvement with FortiXDR?

They could change their licensing costs to make it more affordable for smaller businesses.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for FortiXDR?

We are a system integrator and cloud service provider. Although I am in sales and not technical, I am involved with these products to sell them to our customers.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

March 2025

Download FortiXDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR

March 2025

Download Microsoft Defender XDR product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender

Overview

XDR Defined and Explained
Extended detection and response (XDR) is a natural extension of the endpoint detection and response (EDR) concept, in which behaviors that occur after threat prevention controls act are further inspected for potentially malicious, suspicious, or risky activity that warrant mitigation. The difference is simply the location (endpoint or beyond) where the behaviors occur.

Fortinet

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

Information Not Available

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

Buyer's Guide

FortiXDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

February 2025

Free Report: FortiXDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

Find out what your peers are saying about FortiXDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.

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