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Kandji vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Kandji
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
56th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (45th), Mobile Device Management (MDM) (7th), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (17th)
Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
192
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Kandji is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 10.6%, down from 14.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Amit-Sarkar - PeerSpot reviewer
An easy-to-manage and deploy solution, but it should provide open customization
You don't need a certification or great knowledge to manage and deploy the solution because it's not complex. It's a very easy plug-and-play solution where you can just enroll the devices and choose the features you want. Kandji doesn't require much customization because it has built-in features that we have to create manually otherwise.
AnuragSrivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides detailed visibility into threats but the ability to add exceptions needs improvement
One major item for improvement is the ability to add exceptions. We can add some exceptions, but not at the level we need to. The second major area for improvement involves enhanced capabilities for different operating systems or platforms. That is, even though we have coverage for different operating systems or platforms such as Linux, we don't get all of the controls and enhanced capabilities that are available with Windows devices. Reporting could also be improved because, at present, we get limited results at times. For example, in an environment with more than 100,000 devices, you may just get 10,000 results when you run a report.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's a very easy plug-and-play solution where you can just enroll the devices and choose the features you want."
"Easy to understand and easy to set up endpoint security solution. It's a multifeatured product with web content filtering and automated investigation features. It also has a fantastic vulnerability management dashboard."
"I've started to test it from the security point of view. There are plenty of features that are interesting, but at this time, the XDR functionality is most valuable. It is endpoint security on steroids."
"The most valuable feature is that we can use the solution right out of the box without too much configuration."
"It is already integrated with Windows 10, so you don't need to worry about that."
"The technical support from Microsoft is very good. We are part of the Microsoft Suite, and from being part of this we have consistent news regarding Microsoft Defender for Endpoint."
"We have very good visibility on our endpoints. The level of information it throws back is helpful."
"Technical support has been great."
"Defender's analytics are much better than CrowdStrike's."
 

Cons

"Kandji should give open customization."
"I think Microsoft needs to improve some of the security aspects of Defender. The email part, in particular, needs to be improved in terms of security effectiveness."
"In active mode, it's great that it gives you so much information, but it does record every keystroke so you have a lot of logs... that amount of data logging started to add up in the cost."
"Features like device inventory continue to lack essential workstation drill-downs showing the entire device information with the least effort."
"There is a need for improvement in reducing false positives."
"This solution needs to move beyond relying on virus definitions alone and protect the system using behavioral analysis of the processes that are running."
"It would be nice to have a paid upgrade that would provide additional screening of the day-to-day activities."
"It is not very scalable from the eyes of an MSP because there is no dashboard that you can use to see all of your devices that have Windows Defender unless you have your own dashboard or an RMM tool to actually look at it. So, you might not get to know that a particular computer of a client is doing something, and it might have got a virus. That person might know that, but unless you set it up to actually send you the information, you won't get to know that. That's one of the things that is hard with Microsoft Defender. It is not made for the MSP world where you have one pane of glass to see all of your clients with Microsoft Defender on it unless your RMM tool already has that built-in and it can see the telemetry from Microsoft Defender."
"The UI for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint needs to be better. Integration with client dashboards is also lacking in this product, e.g. client dashboards shouldn't just be viewable from the cloud, because when the client's computer is offline, you won't be able to see the client dashboard."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Users have to pay a yearly licensing fee for Kandji, which is expensive."
"Currently, for us, Windows Defender is free with the purchase of Windows Server. Pricing is an important point for us when we are looking at the competitors of this solution. If we choose to go with another vendor, we will have to pay some license fees."
"Its price at the moment is very good because you get a lot of value for your money, especially with the subscriptions. If you have the E1, E3, or E5 enterprise subscription, you pay per month per user, and you get almost an infinite number of solutions. If you compare the price to the number of solutions that you get, it is a very good deal."
"The price was a problem for me three years ago, but they improved their E3, E5, and a la carte licensing. In other words, you have to get all of E5. That used to be a problem because you had E3, Defender, and guardrails, but you needed an E5 license to get the management suite and the analytics. It's more flexible now. You can switch from a la carte to the entire suite when it starts to make sense. It's becoming more economically competitive to go that route."
"We have an enterprise agreement so from my perspective, this is a product that ships with Windows and it is not priced standalone."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is an expensive solution."
"The solution is free."
"The price for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is about three euros, which is considered reasonably priced."
"For most people, the price of the license is not something that they have to worry about."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
University
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Kandji?
It's a very easy plug-and-play solution where you can just enroll the devices and choose the features you want.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Kandji?
Users have to pay a yearly licensing fee for Kandji, which is expensive.
What needs improvement with Kandji?
Kandji should have certification experience, which they don't have. Kandji should give open customization. Most customers find required features from other vendors, which Kandji doesn't have. It wo...
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
Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft and others in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). Updated: January 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.