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Microsoft Defender for Business vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
8.2
Microsoft Defender for Business boosts ROI with increased productivity, cost savings, improved security, and enhanced business opportunities.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers cost savings, enhanced protection, and efficient threat management, with anticipated future benefits.
Using Microsoft Defender for Business results in cost reductions as it consolidates various features under one product, saving around 20% to 30% of the budget.
It is pretty good because it offers various features such as Exchange, OfficeSuite, OneDrive, and SharePoint.
The value I see in Microsoft Defender for Business is in its ability to track and respond to application usage and security threats through its CASB and automation features, which are cost-beneficial.
The return on investment is primarily in time savings and better observability of what's happening.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.4
Microsoft Defender for Business offers prompt support but lacks efficiency, with slower resolutions and mixed user satisfaction ratings.
Sentiment score
6.5
Support for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint varies, with premium tiers offering quicker responses, while basic support can be slow.
It is rated ten out of ten for its quality and assistance.
The onboarding support is exceptional, ensuring seamless integration and implementation.
Faster support is needed for endpoint security solutions.
The level-one support seems disconnected from subject matter experts.
I rate Microsoft support 10 out of 10.
Due to our size, we don't have access to direct technical support, but the knowledge base, Microsoft Learn, and the articles available are really good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Microsoft Defender for Business is praised for scalability, with high ratings, despite configuration challenges across sectors like IT and government.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a scalable solution integrating smoothly with Microsoft, ideal for diverse organizational needs and configurations.
The cloud-based nature of the solution ensures high scalability.
The scalability of Microsoft Defender for Business is rated as ten, indicating it is very scalable.
In terms of scalability, I find Microsoft Defender for Business to be good and reliable.
We managed to scale it out in a short amount of time, with two months of planning and three months of implementation on 10,000 computers.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable enough to handle various devices across environments, whether they are laptops, Android devices, or operating in hybrid environments.
It's pretty easy to scale with Microsoft, as they make it easy if you look into the documentation.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender for Business is stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and occasional bugs, maintaining user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is stable and reliable, with integration ease, despite occasional lags and minor update bugs.
No customer complaints about its functionality or reliability.
Although it generally works, there are occasional issues and errors that sometimes require a complete system format to rectify.
Threat detection capabilities could be improved.
I haven't seen any outages with Microsoft.
I rate Defender 10 out of 10 for stability.
Defender for Endpoint is extremely stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Business needs enhancements in reporting, integration, support efficiency, and pricing, with user-friendliness and communication issues.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint needs frequent updates, improved integration, user-friendly interface, enhanced analytics, and better support documentation.
Microsoft should provide batch management solutions with the application, integrating pass management with roles.
Features related to Advanced Persistent Threat detection vectors and cyber kill chain integrations are not available out-of-the-box.
There can be improvements in the user interface to make it more intuitive.
Repeated interactions are necessary due to Level One's lack of tools and knowledge, hindering efficient problem-solving and negatively impacting our experience with Microsoft support.
We use Microsoft partners to help govern the platform, and as part of an alliance, we want to gather data from each tenant and combine them for a complete view.
Providing more detailed information on how Microsoft Defender for Endpoint detects vulnerabilities.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Business offers cost-effective pricing within Office 365 Premium, valued for features and nonprofit discounts, despite some competitors.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is cost-effective with bundled licenses, but advanced features may incur additional fees.
Single-year pricing remains good.
The pricing is quite affordable at the enterprise level with no extra expenses noted.
The package with Business Premium is good for what you get for the price.
Given our extensive Microsoft licensing, transitioning to Defender for Endpoint did not affect licensing costs.
It costs $15 per VM for the P2 plan, which is seen as affordable for customers.
The pricing, setup, and licensing were very easy and simple.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Business provides scalable, cost-effective security with AI-powered threat detection, easy integration, and user-friendly features.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers seamless integration, real-time threat detection, and efficient management, enhancing security with minimal system impact.
The threat detection capabilities are robust, with a dedicated research team and a continuously updated threat feed.
Its vulnerability management is regarded as one of the best in the industry.
The most effective features of Microsoft Defender for Business include its threat detection and response capabilities in managing vulnerabilities and ransomware attacks.
Defender for Endpoint's coverage across different platforms in our environment is pretty good. We have devices running Linux, Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android. It covers all of them.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides a unified management interface allowing customers to manage their on-premises and hybrid infrastructures from a single pane.
Web filtering is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint because it effectively maintains security for website access.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Busi...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
28th
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
1st
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
192
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Business is 1.9%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 11.1%, down from 15.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Syed Abid  - PeerSpot reviewer
Advanced threat protection secures diverse workloads with cost-effective deployment
If I need logs and don't have local storage bundled with Defender, I need to add workspace and log analytics, which is costly for storing logs of 2 GB, 5 GB, 10 GB. A default storage of 5 GB for logs should be included with Defender. There are limitations in whitelisting folders and files, and the whitelisting feature for Defender threat protection was deprecated. A straightforward feature for this should be added.
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.
report
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842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Retailer
6%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
27%
Computer Software Company
11%
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 Microsoft Defender for Business?
A few things are valuable. One is the alerting we see when any kind of intrusion is happening, any kind of malware is being deployed across the endpoints, or any kind of suspicious activity is goin...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Business?
The pricing is very expensive and not for low-budget organizations. The full suite is quite pricey.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Business?
Pricing could be lowered as it is expensive and not suitable for low-budget organizations. The full suite is on the pricier side. Additionally, the completion of the integration within Microsoft Se...
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 Microsoft Defender for Business vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.