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Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence [EOL] vs VirusTotal comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 16, 2025

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 Threat I...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VirusTotal
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (5th), Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (6th)
 

Featured Reviews

Charles Mokoena - PeerSpot reviewer
Mobility & IT Project Manager at Voicevine Pty Ltd
Has strengthened our ability to detect threats in real time and improved internal security decision-making
The features that I find most valuable in Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence include the Sentinel part of it. There are several features we've looked at, including Sentinel as well as extended Defender, which is XDR. I've used those two, and that's what I've found quite useful for us, especially in the hardening and analysis part of the whole threat analysis. We use the real-time threat detection features in Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence. If it wasn't for that real-time threat detection on the vulnerability, I think we would not have survived the attack. The integration capabilities of Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence with other Microsoft security tools have benefited our organization's threat management process by initially being quite a challenge, especially coming from other security tools such as Fortinet and Check Point. However, once you've gotten used to it, it's quite easy and user-friendly. The dashboard, especially the threat analysis dashboard, is quite detailed in terms of providing a view of which areas in our environment need attention, making it quite useful.
reviewer2588199 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Improves security alerts and analysis with comprehensive insights
I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy. VirusTotal should add more details like those from competitors such as URL Void or Symantec URL Checker, which show the category of websites. The addition of a file selection option to analyze files would also enhance the service.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product's anti-spam and malware-scanning features are useful. We scan email attachments, documents, and malicious codes."
"They seem to be pretty up to date with the latest threats in the world."
"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."
"The solution is well integrated with other Microsoft security products."
"If it wasn't for that real-time threat detection on the vulnerability, I think we would not have survived the attack."
"Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence helps to make sure that our systems are intact and not vulnerable."
"The most valuable aspects are its integration capabilities with other Microsoft products like Intune, Office 365, and Azure cloud applications."
"The product is useful when the end user downloads malware files."
"It provides detailed insights into possible malicious behavior, dropped files, and TCP connections."
"The product is easy to use with coding, such as Python or Java, via its API."
"The most valuable feature is the worldwide malware information database."
"It can scan the dark web and find if an email ID has been compromised. This is another area that we have not explored yet."
"I have never had any problems with stability or bugs while using VirusTotal."
"With VirusTotal, I can check for any hash, malware, file, domain, IP URL, or malicious URL, and Kaspersky stays clean."
"It allows us to see if there have been previous reports on certain indicators of compromise, providing insights from other security professionals."
"The feature I like the most is the ability to see the MD5 or SHA-256 signature of the file, and also the composition of the file according to its segments."
 

Cons

"Some of the customization features could be improved by providing a portion of it as open source."
"Microsoft itself is a major target for attacks and threats due to its size and popularity. That could be considered Microsoft's Achilles heel."
"There could be a better notification system."
"It's a bit complicated to manage because you have many dependencies of servers, many dependencies in queue, and so on. Entries or different endpoints, and you make different configuration topics for each one. So that's a major problem."
"One area where Microsoft Defender could be improved is in its support for non-Microsoft products, particularly for systems running Linux or other open-source platforms across ecosystems."
"We encounter problems connecting the product deployed on the user endpoints with the servers."
"Non-Microsoft products may not integrate as smoothly."
"I would like to see more frequent updates, which is always better for security because of daily threats."
"There is room for improvement, particularly in making some of the most useful features more accessible in the non-paid version."
"VirusTotal has predefined reports, but there is a lot of manual effort involved."
"I would like to see an improved user interface and some automation."
"VirusTotal is hard to understand because you need to know Google Docs to create queries, and it doesn't have documentation for that."
"I would like to see improved correlation with other threat intelligence sources, not just reliant on its own database, to enhance the database of threat intelligence that VirusTotal offers."
"They can improve the telemetry. Whenever we handle a sample, they cannot provide any information about a victim."
"I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy."
"VirusTotal needs better advertisement and promotion, especially in the Middle East, since it is not yet widely recognized or popular in that region."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution can be licensed, but most users would already have it in their Office 365 license."
"It's reasonably priced, though there's room for further improvement."
"The solution is relatively expensive; however, our status as a gold partner provides us with several complimentary licenses, which offsets the cost."
"The product is a part of my Microsoft 365 subscription, so there is no additional cost. It is cost-effective."
"There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the product."
"The tool is expensive as a stand-alone solution. However, it is not cheap when you purchase it as a bundle."
"They offer two license plans: Microsoft Defender for endpoints and Microsoft Defender for businesses."
"I rate the product's price a six or seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is expensive, and ten is cheap."
"The pricing is very economical."
"We are using VirusTotal with free licenses, managing the license limits across three or four accounts, thus incurring no costs."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"VirusTotal is an expensive solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
8%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
From the telemetry data standpoint, I would prefer Defender data to be more open in future updates.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
We have tried Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence. I have expertise with Microsoft Defender products. I am not familiar with Microsoft Defender for IoT because we did not use that in our environ...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
I will recommend Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence because it is a complete automation solution for threat production detection and an end-to-end solution for client security. Unfortunately, s...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VirusTotal?
I do not know about the pricing or licensing as our organization services VirusTotal for our clients.
What needs improvement with VirusTotal?
I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy. VirusTotal should add more details like those from competitors such as URL Void or Symantec URL Checker, which show the categ...
What is your primary use case for VirusTotal?
As I work in an incident response role, my daily task is to mitigate the security alert and perform the analysis part. When any alerts come, I check the IPs from where they originate and the locati...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Recorded Future, Anomali, SOCRadar and others in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP). Updated: August 2026.
913,630 professionals have used our research since 2012.