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Huntress Managed ITDR vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

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

Huntress Managed ITDR
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
9.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (11th)
Microsoft Defender XDR
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (4th), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
Peace of mind in identifying compromises in your M365 tenants
Huntress Managed ITDR examines various signals from the M365 tenants. If anything suspicious is identified, their SOC analysts can take a closer look and subsequently take action. It's a comprehensive solution covering endpoints and cloud tenants, offering peace of mind. I recognized its benefits immediately, as it provides protection against M365 identity compromises, like admin account breaches.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup was very easy."
"The centralized management with the EDR and ITDR is beneficial."
"I rate the overall solution as a ten out of ten."
"Huntress Managed ITDR examines various nulls from the M365 tenants. If anything suspicious is identified, their SOC analysts can take a closer look and subsequently take action."
"The most valuable features are machine learning, AI, and auto-remediation of none malicious alerts."
"I like Defender XDR's automation capabilities. XDR isn't automated by default, but you can automate it to respond. If an attack is performed anywhere within the organization, you can isolate that instance from the network. This is what I can figure out for it. When integrated with Sentinel, you can set up playbooks to automate all the alerts gathered on Sentinel from different Microsoft solutions. Sentinel has a wider range of capabilities than XDR."
"The unified view of the threat landscape on a central dashboard is the most valuable feature."
"Microsoft Defender is stable."
"Microsoft Defender XDR has significantly improved our operational security."
"The integration between all the Defender products is the most valuable feature."
"The incident threat response and its ability to facilitate effective remediation against threats are the standout features."
"It gives a lot of flexibility in terms of configuration and customization as per the business requirements."
 

Cons

"More in-depth reporting could be beneficial for the solution."
"More in-depth reporting could be beneficial for the solution."
"The product needs further maturity, with some improvements in the user interface."
"The product needs further maturity, with some improvements in the user interface."
"The tool gives inconsistent answers and crashes a lot."
"The price should be adjustable by region."
"The only issue I've had is, when it comes to deployment, the steps I must take around policy setup. That is challenging."
"From a performance standpoint, improvements could be made."
"The support from Microsoft could improve. There are times I have to wait for a response from a qualified specialist."
"The AI could be improved. As an analyst, I want to be able to interact more with AI. The AI simply sends summaries. I can't ask it, for example, if it has seen any suspicious activity with device two. I have to go and check device two for myself."
"The dashboard should be easier to use. There is also improvement needed in the reporting when it comes to exporting or scheduling reports."
"The message trace feature for investigating mail flow issues should add more detailed information to the summary report... if they could extend the summary report a little bit, make it more descriptive, ordinary administrators could understand what happened and that the emails failed at this or that point. That way they would know the location to go to try to correct it and to prevent it from occurring again."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We have a lot of problems in Latin America regarding the price of Microsoft 365 Defender, because the relationship between dollars and the money of the different countries, it's is a lot. Many customers that have small businesses say that they would like the solution but it is too expensive. However, large companies do not find the cost an issue."
"Microsoft Defender XDR is expensive."
"The price of the solution is high compared to others and we have lost some customers because of it."
"The license cost for a year is approximately forty-four thousand, and this annual saving is a significant factor in our decision to switch."
"The most valuable licensing option is expensive, so pricing could be improved. Licensing options for this solution also need to be consolidated, because they frequently change."
"The pricing of Microsoft 365 Defender is definitely on the costly side, but with the features and services that Microsoft provides, such as the seamless integration of all the Defender tools, while the price is on the higher side, there is no alternative."
"On average, we pay around 55 euros per user for the services and features we receive."
"For Defender, they have Endpoint Plan 1 and Endpoint Plan 2, but I don't know on what basis they have classified Endpoint Plan 1 and Plan 2, but it has given me enough pain to pick and design Endpoint Plan 1 or Endpoint Plan 2 for my organization. In fact, we are still struggling with it. Too many SKUs are confusing. There should not be too many SKUs, and they shouldn't charge for every new feature."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
31%
Insurance Company
26%
Retailer
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Huntress Managed ITDR?
More in-depth reporting could be beneficial for the solution.
What is your primary use case for Huntress Managed ITDR?
I use Huntress Managed ITDR for 365 protection, monitoring log run events, security, and abnormal logons.
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?
There is nothing I can think of at the moment that needs improvement. I am a contractor and finishing up soon, so I haven't encountered any issues requiring enhancements.
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne and others in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR). Updated: April 2025.
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