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Microsoft Defender for Business vs Sophos EPP Suite 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
7.4
Microsoft Defender for Business boosts productivity, saves up to 30% on budgets, and expands sales through integrated Microsoft services.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.6
Microsoft's customer service is often seen as helpful but challenging to contact, with varied ratings and slow response times.
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.
There are challenges with the knowledge and experience of the support staff.
It is generally rated a seven out of ten for support skills and response time.
The Sophos people here in South Africa are very helpful.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Microsoft Defender for Business is highly scalable and reliable, effectively serving diverse industries despite potential configuration delays.
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
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Business offers reliable stability with minor issues, earning user ratings of eight to ten.
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.
Threat detection capabilities could be improved.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Business needs improvements in customization, integration, user interface, management, support, and multi-year contract pricing.
Sophos EPP Suite needs improvements in migration ease, resource usage, support efficiency, console usability, performance, and integration.
There can be improvements in the user interface to make it more intuitive.
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.
The enterprise integration is very poor, requiring a lot of manual work.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Business offers comprehensive security with competitive pricing and integration benefits within Office 365 premium subscriptions.
Sophos EPP Suite offers competitive pricing with three-year discounts, often cheaper than others, especially with annual payment options.
The package with Business Premium is good for what you get for the price.
I consider Microsoft Defender to be expensive, however, it offers considerable value for the features provided.
Single-year pricing remains good.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Business provides seamless security integration with AI-driven threat detection, user-friendly setup, and extensive monitoring capabilities.
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.
The security features are valuable because they come with more capabilities that other licenses do not have, including the enterprise license like E3.
Its vulnerability management is regarded as one of the best in the industry.
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)
32nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (17th)
Sophos EPP Suite
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
27th
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 February 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Business is 1.9%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos EPP Suite is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Vincent Gagnon - PeerSpot reviewer
Better security with comprehensive features but has a high cost
I have a lot of clients and I use Microsoft Defender for Business when we have certain types of licenses. It comes with Microsoft Business Premium. However, it is not available for many of my clients due to the high license cost, which makes it difficult to sell. I have a couple of clients who use…
Kiarash Heydari - PeerSpot reviewer
Integrates well, useful client auditing, and beneficial reporting
If you use an appliance, it can be challenging to scale. However, we can use solutions, such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) for cloud-based services or private cloud-based services with Kubernetes and Calico. Additionally, we can use a firewall for managing traffic on the internet or LAN and internal networks. We can integrate Sophos EPP Suite with enterprise solutions, such as Cisco ACI for managing role policies, among other things. We have around 400 to 500 users who are clients for our service on our internal network. Additionally, in our IDC we have thousands of clients who receive services from us.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) solutions are best for your needs.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
6%
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
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?
The package with Business Premium is good for what you get for the price. The standalone license's cost is a bit higher, and I would rate it as an eight out of ten for pricing.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Business?
It is not quick to make exclusions or specific configurations compared to other antiviruses on the market. It is less quick than Microsoft Defender or other antivirus solutions.
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: January 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.