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Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence vs Microsoft Defender for Identity 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
6.7
Microsoft Defender for Identity effectively prevents incidents, reduces administration time, is cost-effective, and helps satisfy client needs, despite mixed returns.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence offers major ROI by saving 62% on budgets and providing comprehensive threat protection and business value.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.4
Microsoft Defender for Identity's support is effective yet inconsistent, with delays and variable service quality across subscription tiers.
Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Defender support experiences vary; community platforms help, technical support is inconsistent, with level two proving effective.
The quality of support is very good, but troubleshooting can take time due to complex setups and the need to provide many logs.
Generally, the support is more effective than other providers like Oracle.
Level two support is knowledgeable and knows how the product works, which is very good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.8
Microsoft Defender for Identity is scalable and adaptable, supporting diverse enterprises and seamlessly integrating within Microsoft infrastructures.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence is highly scalable, serving diverse businesses effectively, though costs may rise with increased users.
In a Microsoft-centric organization, especially with Azure infrastructure and Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity is scalable.
If there were some customizations available, I would rate its scalability as nine out of ten.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly stable, credited to Azure's infrastructure, despite occasional regional incidents and initial issues.
Sentiment score
8.3
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence offers high reliability and performance, with occasional regional outages, comparable to Office 365 stability.
Microsoft Defender for Identity is quite robust and built on Azure hyperscale infrastructure, with a 99% availability.
It provides a high level of security and avoids phishing and scam emails.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Identity requires enhancements in cloud security, SIEM integration, and user access controls, facing various operational challenges.
Improving pricing, integration, stability, and support could enhance Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence's market accessibility and effectiveness.
One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform.
Reducing false positives is something we've been working on with Microsoft.
There is room for improvement in delivering knowledge to technical users, especially regarding what we can gain from the solution and how to apply it.
Providing code customization would help keep pace with new vulnerabilities and threats.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Identity, integrated with Microsoft 365 E5, is competitively priced, offering value for Azure and Office 365 users.
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence offers cost-effective bundling with E5 licenses, beneficial for enterprises but challenging for SMEs preferring E3.
the Microsoft Defender Suite is quite expensive, especially when integrated into Sentinel.
From an organization perspective, using E5 licenses is value for money, especially if Azure and Office 365 are already in use.
Ensuring a fair price according to market standards.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Identity excels in threat detection, offers customization, and enhances security across environments with synced capabilities and automation.
Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence offers advanced detection, seamless integration, robust security, proactive monitoring, and effective zero-day vulnerability management.
The most valuable features of Microsoft Defender for Identity include its automatic remedies, possibilities for avoiding incidents, the privilege manager, and the generation of logs that facilitate a safer environment.
The integration into the Microsoft Defender ecosystem is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Identity.
The seamless integration with other Microsoft solutions within our Microsoft-centric environment is also a major advantage.
One of the best features is that it provides a certain level of customization, allowing us to set our spam confidence levels.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
5th
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
7th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (1st)
Microsoft Defender Threat I...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
11th
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
18th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Threat Intelligence Platforms (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 7.1%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

Sachin Vinay - PeerSpot reviewer
Easily detects advanced attacks based on user behavior
The best feature is security monitoring, which detects and investigates suspicious user activities. It can easily detect advanced attacks based on the behavior. The credentials are securely stored, so it reduces the risk of compromise. It will monitor user behavior based on artificial intelligence to protect the identities in your organization. It will even help secure the on-premise Active Directory. It syncs from the cloud to on-premise, and on-premise modifications will be reflected in the cloud. Identity harvesting is the most common threat. Legacy Microsoft solutions and Amazon face the same issues in the cloud. Users don't implement other security mechanisms in the cloud. In an on-premise environment, we would have multiple security devices like firewalls and several layers of security. Cloud users are less bothered because cloud features are there and only need to be configured. Microsoft Defender for Cloud is the best solution because all threats are completely visible, and it has a great dashboard. The dashboard displays each threat and score, so we can identify the threat rating and act efficiently to avoid compromising user identities. We have a single sign-on feature on the cloud. If we lose a single set of identities, it can compromise the entire organization, including cloud and on-premise. The same identities are being used everywhere. The user activity has to be completely visible on the dashboard, and it has to generate a pattern. It will notify us if there is any security breach. It is a complete monitoring set. Minor changes in the user identity can lead to data leakage. If a password is changed in the cloud, it will be reflected automatically in the on-premise. This minor change will trigger an alert in Microsoft Defender for Identity. It ensures that each cloud identity is well protected from spoofing. It has a comprehensive database of well-known spoofing techniques, enabling us to provide cloud identity protection completely. It has a vast scope because it is completely single sign-on. In the emerging industry, we use single sign-on because users need to authenticate, but it's challenging to remember multiple passwords. Once your user signs in, you can access all the data. An identity compromise would lead to various issues and affect the data on-premises. Defender maintains a constantly updated database with the latest signatures, attack models, and threats. If it detects one threat, it will monitor the suspicious event and give us frequent alerts. Identity protection is vital because we use an identity mechanism for everything, including firewall-related activities. The exact identity used in the cloud is used in the most complex firewalls. We require an excellent migration technique to regain this user credential if something gets compromised. Blocking this requires a massive set of procedures. Microsoft Defender comprehensively monitors identity and provides frequent alerts regarding any issue, so we don't need to think of anything else. Defender's bidirectional sync capabilities are helpful because we need to sync data from multiple directions, including tenant-to-tenant, on-premise-to-cloud, and cloud-to-cloud syncing. As a university, we have multiple tenants, so we need to sync or access data across platforms. That way, everything is more secure, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud also provides ample security for cloud transfers. The bidirectional sync capabilities are flawless—10 out of 10. Our on-premise Active Directory is perfectly synced with the Azure AD. Everything is synced with on-premise, and changes are reflected in minutes. If a problem with identity is addressed on the cloud, the fix will be mirrored on-premise and vice versa. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Identity are bundled. If we have these two solutions, we don't need to worry about anything else or third-party antivirus. Microsoft Defender for Identity acts as a link to all the Microsoft security features that require identity-based validation. Microsoft Defender instantly provides identity security for all our applications, and users need not worry about typing their passwords. Even in situations with less complex encryption mechanisms, users don't need to worry about typing in their passwords. Defender will check and monitor if there are any flaws in that, and it will let us know if there are any issues. We're a Microsoft shop, so everything works together. If one feature isn't working, everything will be affected. If Defender isn't working, half of our Microsoft security features will be dead. Without identity security, user data can easily be compromised, and data can fall into the hands of intruders or other hackers. The solutions have to complement each other. If anything got wrong, the entire setup would have flaws. Microsoft security has a legacy security mechanism. A while back, we might have gone with Defender for Endpoint, but Microsoft has also grown into the face of the cloud. The same Defender solution is completely maintaining cloud security. We can imagine Microsoft's vast scale and how Defender can protect the cloud environment from vulnerabilities and attacks. We are definitely delighted with Microsoft products. The dashboard features are fantastic because it provides a comprehensive overview. It has a great alert mechanism and log inspector that tracks when users access various servers. With this kind of identity validation, we can control which servers the users can access. We have total visibility from the dashboard. We can track identity usage even if there are no issues. That is an essential advantage.
Nim Nadarajah - PeerSpot reviewer
A native Microsoft solution the provides great ROI and continuously improves its offering
We have Microsoft bias. We generally don't have any significant negative feedback or improvement points around Defender, EDR and CMDR platforms. It does a good job across the board. The price point is something they can improve slightly for those who don't have an M 365 E5. I believe it's a $2.80 cents add-on. In Canadian, that's expensive. If they can drop it to a dollar, for those who don't have M 365 E5, they're going to open up market share and increase affordability for an entire market segment in the medium business category. Other than that, we have no major negative feedback.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Educational Organization
11%
Government
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Identity?
Microsoft Defender for Identity provides excellent visibility into threats by leveraging real-time analytics and data intelligence.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Identity?
There is room for improvement in delivering knowledge to technical users, especially regarding what we can gain from the solution and how to apply it. The documentation provided by Microsoft is oft...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?
The primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity is to maintain control and privilege inside our organization and revoke rights when they are not needed. The solution is used to keep our or...
What do you like most about Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
It just runs in the background. I don't have to worry about, making sure it's Intelligence. So, you know, this kind of makes it very easy, have to worry about installing. It is easy to use.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
Some of the customization features could be improved by providing a portion of it as open source. This would allow integration with other solutions, enhancing Threat Intelligence. Providing code cu...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
We are using Microsoft Defender ATP specifically as an email security solution, as well as for our critical servers as a web security solution. We have almost eleven hundred users utilizing it for ...
 

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence vs. Microsoft Defender for Identity and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,600 professionals have used our research since 2012.