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Microsoft Defender for Business vs Sophos EPP Suite comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 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
7.7
Sophos EPP Suite enhances productivity and security, offering ROI within 12-16 months through integration, encryption, and effective response times.
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.
 

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
7.6
Sophos EPP Suite support is mixed; some praise responsiveness and expertise, others cite delays and lack of communication.
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 Sophos people here in South Africa are very helpful.
 

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
8.5
Sophos EPP Suite offers excellent scalability with seamless expansion, especially for cloud deployments, but integrates mainly with Sophos products.
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.
 

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
8.5
Sophos EPP Suite is rated highly for stability, with minor issues like resource consumption and occasional system lags.
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.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Business needs enhancements in reporting, integration, support efficiency, and pricing, with user-friendliness and communication issues.
Sophos EPP Suite needs improvements in migration ease, resource usage, support efficiency, console usability, performance, and integration.
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.
The enterprise integration is very poor, requiring a lot of manual work.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Business offers cost-effective pricing within Office 365 Premium, valued for features and nonprofit discounts, despite some competitors.
Sophos EPP Suite offers competitive pricing with three-year discounts, often cheaper than others, especially with annual payment options.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Business provides scalable, cost-effective security with AI-powered threat detection, easy integration, and user-friendly features.
Sophos EPP Suite offers strong virus protection, seamless integration, centralized management, ransomware rollback, and advanced threat detection with AI.
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.
With the reseller management, I can manage multiple clients without having to log in to each client.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Busi...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
25th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (15th)
Sophos EPP Suite
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
24th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 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 Sophos EPP Suite is 0.7%, up from 0.5% 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.
Sherwin De Claro - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution provides endpoint detection and response with a nice-looking dashboard
The solution is easily scalable because it's in the cloud and we can push the agents using our Cafea solution. We can even deploy the applications to our remote branches easily. We currently have four people using the solution and if the number of computers increases we can scale up by increasing the number of licenses.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) solutions are best for your needs.
847,772 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Retailer
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

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?
Microsoft Defender for Business offers the best pricing option in the market and is very cost-effective.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Business?
The areas where Microsoft Defender for Business could improve include the support, installation process, and wiki. I should be able to find solutions to issues quickly without having to delve too d...
What do you like most about Sophos EPP Suite?
Sophos EPP Suite is a powerful antivirus.
What needs improvement with Sophos EPP Suite?
The automation side of the setup is a pain. I have to run the installers manually. The enterprise integration is very poor, requiring a lot of manual work. I need an on-premises Active Directory th...
 

Also Known As

No data available
EPP Suite
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
EK Services
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Business vs. Sophos EPP Suite and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
847,772 professionals have used our research since 2012.