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Microsoft Defender for Business vs WatchGuard EPDR 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
7.0
WatchGuard EPDR delivers strong performance, enhancing security and productivity while offering cost-effective, comprehensive threat protection and efficient endpoint management.
It is pretty good because it offers various features such as Exchange, OfficeSuite, OneDrive, and SharePoint.
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.
 

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
8.6
WatchGuard EPDR support is valued for excellent technical assistance, effective forums, and reliable service with minimal issues reported.
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.
They create a case, tell me to refer to articles, and if not resolved, they take a remote session to solve the issue.
 

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
8.3
WatchGuard EPDR is scalable, efficiently manages workloads, offers centralized deployment, easy licensing, and robustly supports expanding needs.
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
8.1
WatchGuard EPDR is praised for its stability, reliable performance, and efficiency in threat management, meeting user expectations consistently.
No customer complaints about its functionality or reliability.
Threat detection capabilities could be improved.
It is very stable with no hanging problems.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Business needs improvements in customization, integration, user interface, management, support, and multi-year contract pricing.
WatchGuard EPDR requires competitive pricing, enhanced features, better integration, improved antivirus, and refined web filtering for Latin America.
Microsoft should provide batch management solutions with the application, integrating pass management with roles.
There can be improvements in the user interface to make it more intuitive.
Features related to Advanced Persistent Threat detection vectors and cyber kill chain integrations are not available out-of-the-box.
Other firewalls allow adding categories and in-app controls which WatchGuard currently lacks.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Business offers comprehensive security with competitive pricing and integration benefits within Office 365 premium subscriptions.
WatchGuard EPDR pricing is seen as justified and competitive, offering value compared to alternatives like Palo Alto XDR.
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.
Although the cost can be slightly higher, it expedites deployment, which is beneficial, especially for startups.
The pricing is slightly high, but the product quality justifies it.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Business provides seamless security integration with AI-driven threat detection, user-friendly setup, and extensive monitoring capabilities.
WatchGuard EPDR offers zero-trust security, AI alerts, patch management, and excels in ransomware handling and application-based configurations.
The threat detection capabilities are robust, with a dedicated research team and a continuously updated threat feed.
Microsoft Defender for Business works well with the Microsoft Azure Security ecosystem, including Defender for Endpoint and Office 365 Cloud.
The security features are valuable because they come with more capabilities that other licenses do not have, including the enterprise license like E3.
The cloud of WatchGuard lets me see all my devices, updating me to minute levels with detailed information, such as patch status and vulnerabilities.
 

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)
WatchGuard EPDR
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
44th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (39th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 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 WatchGuard EPDR is 0.4%, up from 0.1% 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…
Phillip Evely - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides good reporting features, saves time, and protects endpoints
The setup is very easy. We have deployed the solution on-premise but can also do it on the cloud. It has a cloud functionality. I can push it from the cloud directly to the endpoint, or I can do it via a group policy. The enterprise-wide deployment takes a day. It is very simple. Once the agent is deployed in any subnet, it monitors the network traffic and informs me about endpoints that don't have the agent. I get alerted via a report. If I have a problem, I can manually deploy on those endpoints. The product is set to auto-update. It updates on its own.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
6%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Retailer
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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 WatchGuard EPDR?
The product's most valuable features are the zero-trust application service and its capability to detect threats and attacks.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for WatchGuard EPDR?
The solution's pricing is better compared to other products.
What needs improvement with WatchGuard EPDR?
WatchGuard EPDR does have areas for improvement. One significant gap is the lack of a virtual patching feature integrated into the endpoint security. This would be particularly useful for endpoints...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Business vs. WatchGuard EPDR and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.