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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Palo Alto Networks WildFire comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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 Endpoint offers cost savings, enhanced protection, and efficient threat management, with anticipated future benefits.
Sentiment score
7.5
Palo Alto Networks WildFire reduces costs and streamlines threat management with efficient detection and seamless firewall integration.
The return on investment is primarily in time savings and better observability of what's happening.
The service generates a low rate of false positives, reducing the overhead of managing false positive events.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Support for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint varies, with premium tiers offering quicker responses, while basic support can be slow.
Sentiment score
7.6
Palo Alto Networks WildFire customer service is praised for expertise but varies in responsiveness, with challenges in smaller regions.
I rate Microsoft support 10 out of 10.
Due to our size, we don't have access to direct technical support, but the knowledge base, Microsoft Learn, and the articles available are really good.
The level-one support seems disconnected from subject matter experts.
There is a lack of SLA adherence, and third-party partners do not provide prompt responses.
The service response times are aligned with standards, responding within a few hours based on the problem's criticality.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a scalable solution integrating smoothly with Microsoft, ideal for diverse organizational needs and configurations.
Sentiment score
8.1
Palo Alto Networks WildFire offers scalable, customizable, and flexible solutions efficiently accommodating growth, highly rated by larger enterprises.
We managed to scale it out in a short amount of time, with two months of planning and three months of implementation on 10,000 computers.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable enough to handle various devices across environments, whether they are laptops, Android devices, or operating in hybrid environments.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable.
Wildfire is highly scalable.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is stable and reliable, with integration ease, despite occasional lags and minor update bugs.
Sentiment score
8.4
Palo Alto Networks WildFire is highly stable, seamlessly integrates, and is reliable with minimal issues and exceptional cloud performance.
Defender for Endpoint is extremely stable.
I rate Defender 10 out of 10 for stability.
After setting appropriate exclusions, everything seemed to work fine.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint needs frequent updates, improved integration, user-friendly interface, enhanced analytics, and better support documentation.
Palo Alto Networks WildFire needs UI, pricing, deployment, integration, offline capabilities, support, and feature improvements for better user satisfaction.
Repeated interactions are necessary due to Level One's lack of tools and knowledge, hindering efficient problem-solving and negatively impacting our experience with Microsoft support.
It would also be beneficial if policies could be configured without relying on Microsoft Entra ID, allowing for better integration with local directories.
We have multiple endpoints, and we want to look for signals across tenants.
The dashboard should provide better visibility, especially in showing how many files are sent to Wildfire and their findings.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is cost-effective with bundled licenses, but advanced features may incur additional fees.
Palo Alto Networks WildFire, perceived as costly yet advanced, targets enterprises, offering a 30-day trial and complex pricing.
Given our extensive Microsoft licensing, transitioning to Defender for Endpoint did not affect licensing costs.
Additional add-ons are priced at $5.
The pricing, setup, and licensing were very easy and simple.
I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of affordability.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers seamless integration, real-time threat detection, and efficient management, enhancing security with minimal system impact.
Palo Alto Networks WildFire excels in real-time threat analysis, malware detection, easy integration, and improved network visibility with machine learning.
Automated Investigation and Remediation features are vital for advanced threat protection and beneficial for device protection.
Defender for Endpoint's coverage across different platforms in our environment is pretty good. We have devices running Linux, Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android. It covers all of them.
Attack surface reduction and limiting attack surface vectors are valuable features.
The most valuable feature of Wildfire is its sandboxing capability for examining suspicious files or locations.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
192
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (1st), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (5th)
Palo Alto Networks WildFire
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 9.1%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks WildFire is 12.5%, up from 12.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

AnuragSrivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides detailed visibility into threats but the ability to add exceptions needs improvement
One major item for improvement is the ability to add exceptions. We can add some exceptions, but not at the level we need to. The second major area for improvement involves enhanced capabilities for different operating systems or platforms. That is, even though we have coverage for different operating systems or platforms such as Linux, we don't get all of the controls and enhanced capabilities that are available with Windows devices. Reporting could also be improved because, at present, we get limited results at times. For example, in an environment with more than 100,000 devices, you may just get 10,000 results when you run a report.
AjayKumar17 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced cybersecurity with advanced sandboxing and effective in controlling DNS issues
Improvements are needed in the UI part. The dashboard should provide better visibility, especially in showing how many files are sent to Wildfire and their findings. This information should be integrated with the Dashboard so that system admins can see what is happening. Furthermore, technical support needs a lot of improvement, particularly in terms of responsiveness and adhering to service level agreements.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) solutions are best for your needs.
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Comparison Review

it_user206346 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 11, 2015
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
27%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior solution. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security s...
How does Microsoft Defender for Endpoint compare with Crowdstrike Falcon?
The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never push your machine hardware to "test", you don't have the usual "scan now" feature ...
How does Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks Wildfire?
The Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall is a very powerful and very complex piece of anti-viral software. When one considers that fact, it is all the more impressive that the setup is a fairly straightf...
Which is better - Wildfire or FortiGate?
FortiGate has a lot going for it and I consider it to be the best, most user-friendly firewall out there. What I like the most about it is that it has an attractive web dashboard with very easy nav...
How does Cisco ASA Firewall compare with Palo Alto's WildFire?
When looking to change our ASA Firewall, we looked into Palo Alto’s WildFire. It works especially in preventing advanced malware and zero-day exploits with real-time intelligence. The sandbox featu...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Palo Alto Networks WildFire and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.