Huntress vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

Huntress and Microsoft are both solutions in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category. Huntress is ranked #9 with an average rating of 9.5, while Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. Additionally, 100% of Huntress users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Huntress

Read 23 Huntress reviews

1,469 Views
1,131 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender XDR

Read 89 Microsoft Defender XDR reviews

5,960 Views
4,546 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Huntress

Microsoft Defender XDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Microsoft Defender XDR and Huntress are prominent cybersecurity solutions. While Huntress is favored for specialized features, Microsoft Defender XDR earns high marks for comprehensive coverage and integration with the Microsoft ecosystem.

Features: Microsoft Defender XDR offers seamless integration with other Microsoft tools, real-time threat detection, and automation. Huntress is noted for its robust threat hunting, incident response features, and targeted attack insights.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Defender XDR could improve its advanced threat detection capabilities, reduce false positives, and enhance user interface intuitiveness. Huntress could expand its integration options, enhance reporting functionalities, and improve scalability for larger organizations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Defender XDR has a seamless deployment process within Microsoft environments and efficient customer service. Huntress features a straightforward setup process and proactive customer support, especially in addressing security incidents.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Defender XDR is cost-effective for organizations already using Microsoft products, offering substantial ROI due to broad protective measures. Huntress, although slightly more expensive, provides high value through superior threat analysis and proactive support.

To learn more, read our detailed Huntress vs. Microsoft Defender XDR Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Huntress vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Huntress

Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

9th

Average Rating

9.4

Reviews Sentiment

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (10th), Anti-Malware Tools (5th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (3rd)

Microsoft Defender XDR

Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)

Featured Reviews

Andy Larin

Founder and CEO at allCare IT

Oct 7, 2024

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.

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Desray Liu

Project Manager at Freedom Systems Inc.

Nov 28, 2023

A time-saving and easy-to-integrate product that needs to offer a control center to users

As a part of Microsoft's attempt to reduce costs, there has been a direct cut down of the local technical support team. Sometimes, you have to use the technical support offered by Microsoft from other countries, but at times, we speak different languages, just like how people speak in Chinese or Mandarin, but there are still some differences between them. The front-line support from Microsoft has only limited technical abilities or access to their internal system. Sometimes, my company cannot even escalate an issue to Microsoft's senior team members. The support team of Microsoft is nice as they attempt to solve the problems together with you, but I believe that due to some cost-related issues, they don't have enough permissions. Sometimes, users might feel blocked when trying to connect with the support team. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

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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

"We don’t have the required staff to watch the issues that are happening. It is good to have a team from Huntress who can watch the logs 24/7. The tool’s automatic remediation is also fantastic. The solution’s interface is also nice and easy to use. The Huntress team saves us time by going through the issues."

"Huntress' best feature is the threat-hunting expertise that is part of their 24/7 SOC."

"It is incredibly efficient for our engineering team because Huntress provides all the information needed to fix issues, not just flag them."

"We saw the benefits of Huntress pretty quickly. Once it started detecting threats, it was great."

"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."

"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."

"Huntress helps by highlighting potential issues, allowing us to take proactive measures."

"While threat hunting is undoubtedly the most valuable feature, the combination of IP scanning, foothold identification, and canary monitoring has also proven to be incredibly beneficial."

More Huntress pros

"The 'Incidents and Alerts' tab is a valuable feature where we can find triggered alerts."

"My clients like Defender's file integrity monitoring. They're monitoring Windows and Linux system files."

"The ability to integrate and observe a more cohesive narrative across the products is crucial."

"Having a single pane of glass for all Microsoft security services makes everything much easier. A security analyst can go to a single portal and see everything in one view. The integration of everything into one portal is a huge benefit."

"The integration between all the Defender products is the most valuable feature."

"Defender XDR can stop advanced attacks, like ransomware or business email compromise."

"The most valuable feature depends on the scenario. For compliance, I like Microsoft Purview Information Protection and Data Loss Prevention. Sentinel is the most helpful feature for security. 365 Defender helps us prioritize threats across an enterprise. It's a crucial feature for the managed services team."

"I like how Microsoft XDR and the other Microsoft products are integrated into a single unified security stack covering identity access management, endpoint protection, email, cloud applications, etc."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pros

Cons

"The product could be improved in terms of customization options available for reports."

"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."

"Huntress should have a more user-friendly interface because it takes some understanding to work our way through the interfaces."

"The Huntress is not a standalone solution. It really needs to be used with something else such as Microsoft Defender or another antivirus solution. It would be nice to see the product fleshed out by the Huntress team and include the antivirus solution part as well. I want it to be a full-fledged XDR product. It would push the tool to a higher price range but it would be nice to see the fleshed out features. I want them to integrate more features from the XDR realm."

"Some of Huntress' reporting could be improved."

"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 application control system could benefit from improvements in identifying and managing both whitelisted and blacklisted applications."

"The integration with our RMM could be better."

More Huntress cons

"The data recovery and backup could be improved."

"Defender's AI for identifying suspicious activity could be improved. Also, I do a lot of home updates. Maybe there is a way to set it up faster. For example, let's say that I want to automatically update seven computers, servers, etc. I wouldn't do it to a user, but maybe the server. I don't mind if the server restarts automatically."

"At times, when we have an incident email and we click on the link for that incident, it opens a pop-up, but there is nothing. It has happened a couple of times."

"There are other SIEM solutions that are easier to use, mainly based on the creation of rules, use cases, and groups."

"I'd like to see a wider solution that includes not only desktop devices but also other devices, such as servers, storage cabinets, switching equipment, et cetera."

"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."

"There is definitely scope for improvement in the automation area. Because the solution is a SaaS platform, we don't have the overall ability to automate stuff.... There is no direct way to go ahead because it's a SaaS platform."

"In the future, it would be beneficial for Microsoft to consider making the product more user-friendly or simplified for those who are interested in using it. Currently, it requires a high level of technical expertise, making it challenging for beginners or less experienced individuals."

More Microsoft Defender XDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 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."

"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."

"Huntress is priced fairly for the services and value it provides."

"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 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 Huntress pricing is an excellent value for what the product provides."

"The solution's pricing is fair."

More Huntress pricing and cost advice

"With the little idea I have about the costs, I can say that XDR tools tend to be a bit expensive. If you are using Microsoft Defender XDR, then you need to go for a subscription-based pricing model."

"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."

"The solution is too expensive."

"All I can say again is the E5 gives you all the capabilities that it offers. It also gives Office 365 and one terabyte of storage. All in all, the E5 license model makes sense. There are some people who say it's quite costly, but rather than paying different vendors, it makes sense to go all in with Microsoft if you've got that licensing. From that perspective, it's cost-effective, but I can't comment much on that."

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

"Sometimes 365 Defender is expensive, but it can be moderate, depending on the organization's size and the license type. We're satisfied with the cost because it gives us a product that protects our entire environment with DLP. To compromise some cost, of course, we are to complete the most secure environment."

"Microsoft Defender XDR's licensing is complicated."

"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."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Huntress?

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.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Huntress?

It integrates seamlessly with RMM, making it easy to roll out and use. Many fixes are automated, so you can approve them and let the system handle them, avoiding the need to go through individual s...

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?

The pricing is reasonable. It's cheaper than other options.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?

The solution could enhance the threat Intelligence feature by making it more relevant to specific industries. Much of the threat intelligence information isn't directly applicable to our environmen...

See all answers

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Compared 8% of the time

Trend Vision One vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 5% of the time

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 1% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Huntress

October 2024

Download Huntress product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR

October 2024

Download Microsoft Defender XDR product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender

Learn More

Huntress

Microsoft

Overview

Hackers are constantly evolving, exploiting new vulnerabilities and dwelling in small business environments—until they meet Huntress. Discover the power of managed detection and response backed by ThreatOps.

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.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Buyer's Guide

Huntress vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

October 2024

Free Report: Huntress vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

Find out what your peers are saying about Huntress vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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