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Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers cost-effective security, enhancing efficiency and preventing breaches through seamless Azure integration and proactive features.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager offers cost-effective compliance, reducing expenses, processing time, and enhancing security within Office 365 E5.
Defender proactively indexes and analyzes documents, identifying potential threats even when inactive, enhancing preventative security.
Identifying potential vulnerabilities has helped us avoid costly data losses.
The biggest return on investment is the rapid improvement of security posture.
The process is reduced from weeks to a day, showcasing a solid nine for return on investment.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Defender for Cloud support is effective, but satisfaction varies based on support tier and representative expertise.
Sentiment score
4.7
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's support is slow and inefficient, with delays in resolving compliance issues, especially for smaller organizations.
Since security is critical, we prefer a quicker response time.
The support team was very responsive to queries.
They understand their product, but much like us, they struggle with the finer details, especially with new features.
Since I approach them with more complicated issues, it takes quite a bit of time to get through those two support tiers.
The support staff, who are often outsourced, seem not adequately equipped to handle issues quickly and efficiently.
Users have no specific forum for addressing queries, which impacts the overall support experience.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is praised for its scalability, supporting diverse organization sizes and efficient handling of workloads.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager scales well but faces limitations with detailed policy configurations in large deployments.
We are using infrastructure as a code, so we do not have any scalability issues with Microsoft Defender for Cloud implementation because our cloud automatically does it.
Defender won't replace our endpoint XDR, but it will likely adapt and support any growth in the Microsoft Cloud space.
There might be scalability issues as you scale up to large enterprises.
As services increase, eDiscovery capabilities also increase, allowing easy deployment.
It is straightforward since it scans everything, covering all aspects needed in our operations.
While the solution is scalable in terms of user numbers, there are limitations when creating more granular level policies.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is stable and reliable, with minor issues in portal access and agent deployment noted.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is reliable and stable but needs enhanced usability and competitiveness, especially for Outlook users.
Defender's stability has been flawless for us.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is very stable.
Microsoft sometimes changes settings or configurations without transparency.
Despite stability, it needs to be more user-friendly and competitive compared to other eDiscovery tools.
It is reliable and I can depend on it.
In terms of latency, stability is not an issue.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Cloud needs improvements in usability, integration, customization, pricing, and comprehensive documentation to enhance its utility.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager needs better integration, automation, monitoring, and cost-effective features for improved user experience, especially for non-profits.
Microsoft, in general, could significantly improve its communication and support.
It would be beneficial to streamline recommendations to avoid unnecessary alerts and to refine the severity of alerts based on specific environments or environmental attributes.
The artificial intelligence features could be expanded to allow the system to autonomously manage security issues without needing intervention from admins.
Microsoft Copilot Security converts human language to search queries using its AdLM language model.
The speed and accessibility, particularly in the user interface, require significant work.
The Purview Compliance Portal's log management could be more user-friendly, making data retrieval, like email logs, challenging.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers competitive pricing but may incur hidden costs, affecting budgeting and cost-effectiveness evaluations.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is competitively priced, benefiting from existing licenses and often cheaper than previous solutions and competitors.
Every time we consider expanding usage, we carefully evaluate the necessity due to cost concerns.
We appreciate the licensing approach based on employee count rather than a big enterprise license.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is pricey, especially for Kubernetes clusters.
I rate the pricing as a one since it is included in what I am already paying for, as part of the Microsoft 365 E5 licensing.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Cloud enhances security with AI-driven detection, multi-cloud support, compliance management, and seamless integration with Microsoft Sentinel.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager simplifies multi-cloud data protection with automation, real-time visibility, and extensive compliance and security features.
The most valuable feature for me is the variety of APIs available.
This feature significantly aids in threat detection and enhances the user experience by streamlining security management.
The most valuable feature is the recommendations provided on how to improve security.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's eDiscovery is essential for organizations using Outlook as their email service.
The most valuable feature is data classification retention since I deal with terabytes of data, and managing and monitoring it simplifies the process.
The best aspect is that it requires little to no time for implementation if I am using all of Microsoft's tools.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (7th), Container Management (9th), Container Security (4th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (3rd), Compliance Management (3rd)
Microsoft Purview Complianc...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 6.6%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is 1.3%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

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.
Peter-Murphy - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined data management and improved compliance with efficient document classification
The most valuable feature is data classification retention since I deal with terabytes of data, and managing and monitoring it simplifies the process. Additionally, the system provides a dashboard showing our compliance status, which aids in managing compliance tasks. The compliance score feature allows me to assess and compare our compliance across organizations. I've also noticed efficiency gains, especially in handling subject access requests. Previously, these tasks were manual and time-consuming, but now they are streamlined, reducing the process from weeks to just a day.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
7%
Healthcare 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?
Initially, the cost was reasonable, but additional services from Microsoft sometimes incur extra expenses that seem higher than expected.
What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
We have more visibility of data and how it is being shared.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
While not cheap, Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors. Additional costs may involve OCR page scanning.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
I am primarily using Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager for data leakage prevention, blocking USBs, and monitoring data sharing through OneDrive and web-based interfaces.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
Microsoft Compliance Manager
 

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 for Cloud vs. Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.