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Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
7th
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
Container Management (8th), Container Security (4th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (3rd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (3rd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (3rd), Compliance Management (2nd)
Microsoft Defender Vulnerab...
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
17th
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
25th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (21st), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 5.3%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is 3.4%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

Vibhor Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
A single tool for complete visibility and addressing security gaps
Currently, issues are structured in Microsoft Defender for Cloud at severity levels of high, critical, or warning, but these severity levels are not always right. For example, Microsoft might consider a port being open as critical, but that might not be the case for our company. Similarly, it might suggest closing some management ports, but you might need them to be able to log in, so the severity levels for certain things can be improved. Even though Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides a way to temporarily disable certain alerts or notifications without affecting our security score, it would be better to have more granularized control over these recommendations. Currently, we cannot even disable certain alerts or notifications. There should be an automated mechanism to design Azure policies based on the recommendations, possibly with AI integration. Instead of an engineer having to write a policy to fix security gaps, which is very time-consuming, there should be an inbuilt capability to auto-remediate everything and have proper control in place. Additionally, enabling Defender for Cloud at the resource group level, rather than only at the subscription level, would be beneficial.
René-SylvainBédard - PeerSpot reviewer
The vulnerability assessment is very accurate because it runs directly into the vulnerability database
I have three years of experience with Microsoft Defender and Office 365 for eleven years. My company operates as a shop for Microsoft products, and we have always stayed with Microsoft. We intend to displace the competition when my company enters a new client environment. I have dealt with customers who were using Carbon Black and SentinelOne. My company's customers switched work from their previous products to Microsoft because the tools they were using were power-hungry solutions, which had an impact on production. Microsoft Office 365's premium licenses have many built-in services, which our customers used to use from some other products. With Microsoft products, there is no need for our company's customers to pay extra for licensing charges. The major difference between Carbon Black and Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management revolves around areas like stability and integration capabilities within the operating systems, which are strong in Microsoft, especially compared to any of its competitors. The actual depth of knowledge that the platform offers is good because Microsoft has been very rigorous in documenting every single vulnerability that exists for its platform. Microsoft has the most complete list of vulnerabilities for its platform.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the regulatory compliance aspect, where we utilize predefined initiatives like NIST."
"The most valuable feature is the hunting feature, which integrates well into the entire Microsoft ecosystem."
"Scalability is great, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."
"It works seamlessly on the Azure platform because it's a Microsoft app. Its setup is similar, so if you already have a Microsoft account, it just flows into it."
"The valuable features include the ability to manage devices and the fact that Defender can replace other security tools like SCCM."
"The most valuable feature is the regulatory compliance aspect, where we utilize predefined initiatives like NIST. Alert management is another useful feature. Alerts are directly integrated with our email or DevOps board for easy viewing, allowing us to identify problem areas efficiently."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the vulnerability assessments and the glossary of compliance."
"The scalability of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is very good."
"The solution is up-to-date and helps prevent zero-day attacks."
"The recommendations, scores, and steps to remediate actions are highly useful."
"One valuable feature is the Microsoft Security Scorecard."
"The solution is highly scalable."
"The product's stability is very high...The scalability of the product is amazing."
"The solution helps identify threats and vulnerabilities."
"The product’s most valuable features are compliance, recommendations, and inventories."
"The most valuable aspect is the kind of assessment results I get, and the recommendations provided in Microsoft products really help in taking care of the resources."
 

Cons

"Defender is occasionally unreliable. It isn't 100% efficient in terms of antivirus detection, but it isn't an issue most of the time. It's also somewhat difficult to train new security analysts to use Defender."
"Microsoft can improve the pricing by offering a plan that is more cost-effective for small and medium organizations."
"As an analyst, there is no way to configure or create a playbook to automate the process of flagging suspicious domains."
"From a compliance standpoint, they can include some more metrics and some specific compliances such as GDPR."
"Defender could improve how data is represented. It can be unstructured or slow to load."
"The pricing could be better."
"Microsoft Defender could be more centralized. For example, I still need to go to another console to do policy management."
"The pricing could be improved, as it is somewhat high for smaller companies."
"It is challenging to extract and customize reports from the system."
"The technical support takes too much time to resolve tickets."
"The setup phase of the product is not that easy and needs a person to have a certain level of expertise."
"Integration can be improved."
"The automated remediations can be more specific."
"The constant changes in the product configuration or the console setup can sometimes be challenging."
"The general support could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'm not privy to that information, but I know it's probably close to a million dollars a year."
"The price of the solution is good for the features we receive and there is an additional cost for Microsoft premier support. However, some of my potential customers have found it to be expensive and have gone on to choose another solution."
"Azure Defender is definitely pricey, but their competitors cost about the same. For example, a Palo Alto solution is the same price per endpoint, but the ground strikes cost a bit more than Azure Defender. Still, it's pricey for a company like ours. Maybe well-established organizations can afford it, but it might be too costly for a startup."
"There are improvements that have to be made to the licensing. Currently, for servers, it has to be done by grouping the servers on a single subscription... We don't have an option whereby, if all those resources are in one subscription, we can have each of the individual servers subject to different planning."
"There are two different plans. We're using the secure basic plan, but we have used the end security plan as well. There are additional costs, but it gives us more functionalities compared to the basic plan."
"Pricing is difficult because each license has its own metrics and cost."
"Currently, Microsoft offers only one plan at the enterprise level which is $15 per machine."
"The pricing model for most plans is generally good, but the cost of the new Defender for Storage plan is high and should be revisited, as it could lead to disabling desirable security features due to cost."
"I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The licensing model follows a per-user per-month structure."
"The tool is a bit costly."
"The product’s pricing is medium."
"The licensing costs are reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How is Prisma Cloud vs Azure Security Center for security?
Azure Security Center is very easy to use, integrates well, and gives very good visibility on what is happening across your ecosystem. It also has great remote workforce capabilities and supports a...
What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
The entire Defender Suite is tightly coupled, integrated, and collaborative.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
The licensing is straightforward but can become expensive if you cover everything. You must balance the cost against the importance of what needs covering.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
We are aware of the pricing for some parts that we are using. Microsoft documentation helps figure out pricing and other aspects. Overall, every organization wishes for cheaper options, but we look...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
The automated remediations can be more specific. However, the score and recommendation aspects are good. Currently, I do not see any significant challenges.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.