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Huntress Managed EDR vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 28, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Huntress Managed EDR
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
9th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (3rd)
Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
188
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (6th)
 

Featured Reviews

Andy Larin - PeerSpot reviewer
Effortless to use and is one of the easiest products to deploy
Huntress is effortless to use. It's one of the easiest products to deploy. Pushing out through our RMM is simple, and using it is straightforward once it's on a machine. The end user doesn't have to do anything. Everything comes back to us. I love that the alerts are human-curated. They take a look at alerts before we get them. Other products are very noisy. They'll send you an alert about anything. About 95 percent of those alerts go to Huntress first. They check to make sure that it's real and only alert us if it's actionable, something that requires our attention. When I get an alert from Huntress, it must be looked at. I love that. It saves a ton of time for my people. It can fix low-severity threats. Their team is 24/7, whereas my team is not. We want them to take action on known bad things. Sometimes, that means fixing the problem or isolating the machine so multiple machines aren't getting hit. I love that they can address those issues within a very short time.
Sudhen Swami - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to update with good protection and a useful cloud portal
We've mainly used it for endpoints. However, we've also used it for DLP as well. We're also in the process of implementing it for cloud and identity as well. However, it's very good for endpoints, and that's our main focus. The malware protection is good. The visibility it provides is very useful. We can combine visibility with wider security features and alerts around malware, misconfiguration, or any other kinds of threats. The cloud portal is quite good. From there, we are able to see alerts and have colleagues review issues and monitor to see if any patterns arise. It's serving us quite well overall. It allows us to look at other items, like application and browser control. It helps us prioritize threats. We have a process in place now where we can review issues and remediate them effectively. We have been able to integrate a variety of Microsoft security products together. We use Azure AD, for example, and we've begun to implement DLP, among other items. We're looking at labeling and tagging and will expand into that soon. Defender has more stringent system requirements than, for example, Check Point. So when we implemented the Check Point Endpoint agent, that solution didn't mind what version of Windows you were using. When we moved to Defender, Defender had certain system prerequisites that had to be met. So we had to make sure that we're on a minimum version of Windows when we're utilizing Office, and Office has to be a particular version as well. It has more stringent system requirements that have to be met before you can implement it. It works natively together with other Microsoft solutions. Once you get more and more of those different components across the environment, then you start to get better visibility. So, rather than having lots of different solutions, you have fewer solutions and a single vendor solution. That way, you start getting into a position where you get better visibility and integration as well. The standardization is good. It's important. It's helping me with monitoring and learning. Updates and upgrades are quite smooth and seamless. Defender helps us automate routine tasks. Quite a lot of Microsoft is straightforward for us now. Previously, we didn't have enough resources and were unable to look at the alerts. Having this in place makes things a lot more straightforward for us. We have both the technology and the people in place now, alongside the process. We do see the benefits in that, and that's why we're continuing our adoption across the estate in terms of client and server as well. It's helping us avoid looking at multiple dashboards and centralized monitoring. We're not fully there yet. We're getting there. While we haven't witnessed time saving yet, once it's fully deployed, it will. By then, we'll have standardized processes across a single solution. We have saved money, however, as we continue to reduce non-Mircosft systems. Since we won't be using various competing technologies, we can save on licensing costs. We've likely so far saved 15%. While it's hard to estimate exactly how much, the solution has helped us decrease time to detection and time to respond.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It catches things that no one else catches. We occasionally have things slip through antivirus and other things, but Huntress catches them. It is awesome as an additional layer of defense on top of other things."
"Users usually note improvements in a matter of days. In others, it is immediately. It varies according to the environment."
"Foothold detection is a valuable feature, acting as a valuable second set of eyes for both us and our clients."
"Huntress is extremely well-written software. I used to be a developer, and I see how they've written it. It's excellent. I've never had an issue with it crashing a machine. It's small, tight code."
"The EDR product is simple to install. It is low maintenance. All the alerts go to Huntress first, and their analyst team reviews them and sends actionable things our way."
"After deployment, it takes some time to scan and process everything. Huntress has effectively flagged issues such as password files on desktops, which it identifies as low-level alerts. It also handles more significant threats effectively."
"I have found it valuable that this solution is always there and always armed."
"It is very easy to use. It is a great solution. They are one of the better vendors that I have ever worked with since I have been in the industry."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is extremely stable."
"I find the vulnerability management section of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to be very useful for organizations."
"We are a Microsoft shop, and Defender is a Microsoft solution that provides some security at a reasonable cost."
"We apply the DLP policies across a range of endpoints and it is very accurate when reporting vulnerabilities, including those in email attachments."
"The investigation aspect is the most useful. It's user friendly and has a good user interface."
"The most valuable aspect is information, specifically the automatic investigation of packages."
"It captures data through machine learning, which is built-in on the back-end. It also provides built-in analytics and a threat intelligence feature. It is a one-stop solution that doesn't require an antivirus because it comes prebuilt into Windows 10."
"The most valuable features are the Windows Firewall and the regular virus definition updates. These features are very helpful and have helped to improve our security."
 

Cons

"The product could be improved in terms of customization options available for reports."
"The integration with our RMM could be better."
"Huntress should have a more user-friendly interface because it takes some understanding to work our way through the interfaces."
"Not every time, but sometimes when we click on the remediation, the auto-resolution of the alert, the screen gets stuck, and I need to contact support so they can confirm the remediation was applied, and they have to close the ticket."
"To enhance the platform, I suggest adding a feature to forward Huntress's recommended response directly to the client, ensuring their clear understanding of the gathered information."
"I had been requesting Huntress support for macOS for a while, and they recently rolled it out, making it generally available within two months. Having a regular support line would be good."
"The solution's UI is an area with certain shortcomings that need improvement."
"We need an API to automatically retrieve metrics and data about backend activity so we can generate client reports."
"Its user interface (UI) can be improved. Currently, in the console, you have to dig down for certain things. They've got many different layers to get to things instead of having it all on the surface. You have to go three folds lower to get to specific functionality or click a particular option. It would be good if we can manage the console through menus and instead of three clicks, we can do things in one click. They need to change the UI and work on it in terms of a better user experience."
"Right now, the solution provides some recommendations on the dashboard but we don't have any priorities. It's a mix of all the vulnerabilities and all the security recommendations. I would like to see some priority or categorization of high, medium, and low so that we can fix the high ones first."
"The profiling method currently in use is not very user-friendly and has ample scope for improvement."
"If you have multi-cloud like Google and AWS, the native solutions are better for those particular cases."
"The frequency of the patching, and the frequency of the updates, are not included with the free version."
"The central management console should be improved because it provides limited options to configure Windows Defender."
"Where we stand right now, compared to other products that are there in the market, they still have to work on their threat intelligence and the overall maturity of detecting the malware."
"It is currently more suitable for end-users rather than enterprises with lots of other processes and third-party tools. It needs improvement on that front. We had many issues while integrating it with our enterprise solutions, such as Splunk, and third-party tools. It provides everything via APIs. Other vendors provide integration with third-party tools, but Microsoft doesn't do that. It is also logging too much and is not serialized from the process aspect. It has all the data, but it is not in a proper format or not properly indexed, which doesn't make it easier for enterprises to use this data. Other vendors provide troubleshooting information that can be used to troubleshoot issues, but Microsoft doesn't provide anything like that."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is cheap compared to other alternatives. It offers good value for money. For the whole solution, it's up to about five pounds per device per month. Considering what it does, I think that's very good value."
"The tool’s price is very good. You just need to pay for the standard license. However, you need to pay the additional cost for Microsoft Defender."
"It is simple. It is reasonable. They raised my prices this year. We never like price increases, but they continue to add value, so we just keep adding agents as we grow and as our clients grow."
"The pricing is competitive, in line with Huntress's offerings, and aligns well with our business model."
"Huntress is an easy sell to clients because it does all the heavy lifting. Sometimes, they will buck a little at the price because they want a free antivirus or EDR. We tell them that we use Huntress on all our machines. That is our standard process for all the machines we roll out. When we give that advice, people are pretty willing to say okay."
"The Huntress pricing is an excellent value for what the product provides."
"It is fair. They provide good value for the product that they deliver. I have had one price increase in the entire time I have used them. They added a bunch of features and then said that they have to increase our price a little bit. That is a fair way to handle it."
"We haven't had any problems with Huntress' pricing. We're at 250 workstations, and we've grown considerably this year. They've been able to handle everything that we've thrown at them within that time frame. They're also reducing the price based on how many endpoints we add."
"The solution comes as a part of Windows 10 and it is covered under its license."
"It is free."
"Microsoft Defender is an expensive product in my country."
"For most people, the price of the license is not something that they have to worry about."
"The solution comes free with Microsoft Windows 10."
"The solution is an open source version and was free with a paid version of Windows 10."
"There is no license needed, the solution comes with Microsoft Windows."
"Everybody would like to see a lower price on everything. The Slovenian market is basically an SME market with clients having up to 100 seat licenses, comprising 90% of the company. They're very price sensitive. So, the price could be cheaper."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
7%
Healthcare Company
5%
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Huntress?
It is very easy to use. It is a great solution. They are one of the better vendors that I have ever worked with since I have been in the industry.
What needs improvement with Huntress?
One issue is the managed antivirus. Huntress takes control of the antivirus built into Windows Defender, but it doesn't if, for some reason, Defender isn't working properly and doesn't attempt to f...
What is your primary use case for Huntress?
We roll Huntress out across the board. It's in our base security shield, so we use it everywhere. We also use ThreatLocker. It's an application for allowlisting and blocklisting. It blocks any soft...
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

No data available
Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
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