Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs XM Cyber comparison

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

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100% willing to recommend

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

XM Cyber and Microsoft Defender for Cloud compete in the cybersecurity field. XM Cyber appears to have an advantage in complex security settings due to its focus on preventing lateral movement attacks. Microsoft Defender for Cloud, however, is more advantageous for businesses deeply integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem due to its comprehensive integration and robust features.

Features: XM Cyber offers agile threat detection, breach and attack simulation, and continuous risk assessment, essential for proactive threat mitigation. Microsoft Defender for Cloud is notable for its deep integration with Microsoft services, advanced threat protection, and a rich set of automation features beneficial for Microsoft-centric environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: XM Cyber provides an intuitive deployment process, allowing quick time to value. It is often praised for its simplicity. Microsoft Defender for Cloud requires a more complex setup but integrates seamlessly with Azure and other Microsoft services. XM Cyber offers responsive support, while Microsoft Defender for Cloud users have access to extensive online resources and comprehensive support.

Pricing and ROI: XM Cyber generally involves a lower initial setup cost, providing efficient ROI with its targeted threat simulation capabilities. Microsoft Defender for Cloud, although often higher in cost, offers significant ROI through integration efficiencies, especially for enterprises within the Microsoft environment. XM Cyber offers a cost-effective solution for specific threat mitigation, while Microsoft Defender for Cloud delivers broader value.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. XM Cyber Report (Updated: February 2025).

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. XM Cyber

February 2025

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Helped 841,004 peers since 2012

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 Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Container Management (9th), Container Security (4th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (3rd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (4th), Compliance Management (2nd)

XM Cyber

Ranking in Vulnerability Management

34th

Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

26th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Continuous Controls Monitoring (7th), Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 6.7%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of XM Cyber is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Vibhor Goel

Senior Cloud Platform Engineer at Deutsche Börse

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.

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HolgerHeimann

Ffounder at It.sec

Reliable with no false-positives and helpful support

There's a lot of improvement possible, however, most of it is in the details. I personally like the concept, as it's pretty straightforward and the product is not trying to overload functionality. It's a clean and straightforward approach. You know what you get. Most of the improvements are detail improvements. They're pretty open to future requests as well, so we send them a lot of suggestions. For example, at the moment, they have something called Battleground. That's a visualization of the network, and it's a visualization of the attack paths that are possible. The program uses so-called scenarios, and we say, "Okay, I'm watching traffic for maybe 24 hours," and then you get a result for that scenario, what happens in that time with what the attack paths are, et cetera. The result of the same scenario yesterday or tomorrow may be different as something might change. In that, one of the things I'm currently missing, which is on the list to be added, is some kind of diff visualization. For example, showing a two-screen split of activity. On the left side of the screen, that's how it was yesterday; on the right side, that's how it is today; and here are the differences. We'd like to see a cheaper price.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is very easy to deploy."

"With respect to improving our security posture, it helps us to understand where we are in terms of compliance. We can easily know when we are below the standard because of the scores it calculates."

"Defender for Cloud is an improvement over Trend Micro, our previous solution. We like integrating our endpoints and visualizing everything in one place. It provides comprehensive coverage for endpoints, servers, and overall environmental security."

"It's got a lot of great features."

"The most valuable feature is the hunting feature, which integrates well into the entire Microsoft ecosystem."

"Microsoft Defender has a lot of features including regulatory compliance and attaching workbooks but the most valuable is the recommendations it provides for each and every resource when we open Microsoft Defender."

"The solution is up-to-date with the latest updates and identified threats."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud can find potential phishing links and malicious code in data at rest."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

"What I personally like very much, from my experience, is that it is very reliable."

"The platform's most valuable feature is attack simulation."

Cons

"Integration into other third-party products, particularly those from tier three vendors like ManageEngine and Hexcode, has proven difficult."

"Another thing is that Defender for Cloud uses more resources than CrowdStrike, which my current company uses. Defender for Cloud has two or three processes running simultaneously that consume memory and processor time. I had the chance to compare that with CrowdStrike a few days ago, which was significantly less. It would be nice if Defender were a little lighter. It's a relatively large installation that consumes more resources than competitors do."

"Agent features need to be improved. They support agents through Azure Arc or Workbench. Sometimes, we are not able to get correct signals from the machines on which we have installed these agents. We are not able to see how many are currently reporting to Azure Security Center, and how many are currently not reporting. For example, we have 1,000 machines, and we have enrolled 1,000 OMS agents on these machines to collect the log. When I look at the status, even though at some places, it shows that it is connected, but when I actually go and check, I'm not getting any alerts from those. There are some discrepancies on the agent, and the agent features are not up to the mark."

"Defender could provide more in-depth visibility into vulnerabilities and services. For instance, we wanted to scan Azure NetApp for sensitive data, but they didn't have that feature. It was only for storage accounts. I want Azure Defender features to cover all Azure resources rather than a few."

"The pricing could be better."

"Microsoft Graph needs improvement."

"We haven't experienced issues with Microsoft Defender for Cloud for our company size of about five hundred people. However, I've heard there might be issues with scalability for larger enterprises."

"The range of workloads is broad, but we'd love to add more workloads and make it a single security solution that covers all those workloads. Covering more would allow us to see and protect more workloads from a single pane of glass. Additional features should include protection for more AI workloads as it currently focuses primarily on OpenAI."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

"XM Cyber could identify all areas of vulnerability. They could expand the identification span for different areas."

"We'd like to see a cheaper price."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Defender for Cloud is pretty costly for a single line. It's incredibly high to pay monthly for security per server. The cost is considerable for an enterprise with 500-plus virtual machines, and the monthly bill can spike."

"Our clients complain about the cost of Microsoft Defender for Cloud."

"Defender's basic version is free, which is good. Many of our teams are evaluating the paid version against third-party products."

"The product's pricing policy is generally favorable."

"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."

"This solution is more cost-effective than some competing products. My understanding is that it is based on the number of integrations that you have, so if you have fewer subscriptions then you pay less for the service."

"I'm not privy to that information, but I know it's probably close to a million dollars a year."

"They have a free version, but the license for this one isn't too high. It's free to start with, and you're charged for using it beyond 30 days. Some other pieces of Defender are charged based on usage, so you will be charged more for a high volume of transactions. I believe Defender for Cloud is a daily charge based on Azure's App Service Pricing."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

"We have to pay standard licensing fees."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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 do you like most about XM Cyber?

The platform's most valuable feature is attack simulation.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for XM Cyber?

We have to pay standard licensing fees. There are no additional costs. It is an expensive product. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.

What needs improvement with XM Cyber?

XM Cyber could identify all areas of vulnerability. They could expand the identification span for different areas.

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Microsoft Defender for Cloud

February 2025

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Also Known As

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender

No data available

Interactive Demo

Microsoft

Demo not available

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for cloud workloads. It offers real-time visibility into the security posture of cloud environments, enabling organizations to quickly identify and respond to potential threats. With its advanced machine learning capabilities, Microsoft Defender for Cloud can detect and block sophisticated attacks, including zero-day exploits and fileless malware.

The solution also provides automated remediation capabilities, allowing security teams to quickly and easily respond to security incidents. With Microsoft Defender for Cloud, organizations can ensure the security and compliance of their cloud workloads, while reducing the burden on their security teams.

Microsoft

XM Cyber is a leading hybrid cloud security company that’s changing the way innovative organizations approach cyber risk. Our attack path management platform continuously uncovers hidden attack paths to your critical assets across cloud and on-prem environments, so you can cut them off at key junctures and eradicate risk with a fraction of the effort. This overcomes the big disconnect that security teams experience when they’re presented with endless alerts, yet can’t see which exposures impact risk the most, how they come together to be exploited by an attacker, or how to efficiently eliminate them. This approach is a complete game-changer, which is why some of the world’s largest, most complex organizations choose XM Cyber to help eradicate risk. Founded by top executives from the Israeli cyber intelligence community, XM Cyber has offices in North America, Europe, and Israel.

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.

Hamburg Port Authority, Plymouth Rock Corporation