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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs VMware Carbon Black Endpoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 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
Users report positive ROI from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, citing cost savings, improved security, and effective system integration.
Sentiment score
7.1
Users reported significant ROI with VMware Carbon Black Endpoint, citing reduced malware and ransomware incidents, and 10% cost savings.
The return on investment is primarily in time savings and better observability of what's happening.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's support is generally reliable, with mixed reviews on response time and resolution quality.
Sentiment score
6.4
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint support is generally praised as effective and knowledgeable, but some report delays and issues with tiered support.
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.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers scalable integration and cloud-based management, but customization may need extra tools in complex settings.
Sentiment score
7.5
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint is highly scalable and adaptable for various enterprises, praised for ease of adding tenants and managing environments.
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.
Defender's scalability is phenomenal, and it's going to be one of the keys to resolving issues for the SOC.
It's pretty easy to scale with Microsoft, as they make it easy if you look into the documentation.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is stable, integrates well with Windows, but occasionally has configuration and memory issues.
Sentiment score
7.6
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint is stable, lightweight, reliable, and highly rated, though minor issues with sensors and updates occasionally occur.
I rate Defender 10 out of 10 for stability.
Defender for Endpoint is extremely stable.
I haven't seen any outages with Microsoft.
 

Room For Improvement

Users criticize Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's complex interface, limited integration, and request enhancements in analytics, protection, and support.
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint struggles with mobile support, complex UI, performance issues, inadequate reporting, and insufficient third-party integration.
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.
We have multiple endpoints, and we want to look for signals across tenants.
An additional feature that could be included in the next release is free Copilot.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers flexible, cost-effective pricing, especially in E5 bundles, adapting to various enterprise licensing needs.
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint licensing is seen as expensive and inflexible, with prices ranging from $15 to $7,000 per node.
Given our extensive Microsoft licensing, transitioning to Defender for Endpoint did not affect licensing costs.
The pricing, setup, and licensing were very easy and simple.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides comprehensive cybersecurity with seamless integration, robust threat analytics, and efficient management across platforms without performance impact.
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint offers robust remote security with intuitive real-time detection, AI-driven threat response, and centralized cloud control.
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 notification and reporting features are most valuable because we are part of a compliance project, and maintaining SOC 2 compliance is critical.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
1st
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
190
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (6th)
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
20th
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Security Incident Response (1st), Ransomware Protection (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 11.3%, down from 15.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Carbon Black Endpoint is 1.9%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

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.
Matthew Weisler - PeerSpot reviewer
Great granularity for policies or applications without needing hash values
The solution is cloud based which makes it easy to use for remote devices or work-at-home situations. The solution supports full trust or signature-based approvals. You can get very granular and band out policies or applications without having to do hash values. You can band through the entire environment by execution of the name or desk IDXE. This can be achieved on the policy side because of the signature, IOC, or naming convention itself. This is very effective for pushing more blockage or removing threats across the board. The solution has a very nice API on the back end for remoting into a system and executing scripts or utilizing self automation. This is useful for monitoring several different companies in a workspace or workbook-type format. For example, I report and send out mass emails from a clickable button in an Excel workbook. The APIs all exist for each client. I push out automatic endpoint monitoring and reports every single day at a particular time, with a simple clickable button that serves as a scheduled task for fifty clients.
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
27%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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 ...
What to choose: an endpoint antivirus, an EDR solution or both?
I can recommend Carbon Black, an award-winning next-gen anti-virus (NGAV) and endpoint detection and response (EDR) security solution. The CB Predictive Security Cloud platform combines multiple hi...
What's the difference between Carbon Black CB Response and Carbon Black CB Defense?
Carbon Black offers two different levels of Endpoint Detection and Response. One is the VM Carbon Black Cloud Endpoint Standard (CB Defense), and the other is the Carbon Black Endpoint Detection an...
What do you like most about Carbon Black CB Defense?
VMware Carbon Black Endpoint is a highly stable solution.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Carbon Black CB Defense, Bit9, Confer
 

Learn More

 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Netflix, Progress Residential, Indeed, Hologic, Gentle Giant, Samsung Research America
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. VMware Carbon Black Endpoint and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.