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Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Vulnerab...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
19th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (12th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (18th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (6th)
Microsoft Purview Data Life...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
30th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (9th), Document Management Software (2nd), Data Governance (27th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is 1.1%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management is 1.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management1.1%
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management1.4%
Other97.5%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

OB
Microsoft Solutions Manager at Self-Employed
Ensures strong threat and vulnerability management with continuous risk assessment
The major priority is identity, which is crucial; we have lots of companies in manufacturing, energy, or various sectors, and it varies from one to another. I assess Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management as very effective in continuously assessing vulnerabilities without requiring scans. We use automatic investigation and remediation features, safe attachments, safe links, and real-time reports, which are also very effective. For Active Directory, Defender has threat intelligence, and we are using that. The risk-based prioritization within Vulnerability Management affects my ability to manage vulnerabilities, particularly in relation to the Zero Trust Model utilized by our customers. The end-users often do as they please in their systems.
RK
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
A comprehensive data management solution shows potential for improvement while providing strong integration with existing infrastructure
One of the requirements is to have data leak policies and data access policies. This is very critical to enforce data governance standards, which relate to data classification, access control, data protection, and retention. It covers the entire lifecycle, helping us to protect, detect, and classify the documents. Challenges are mostly related to the security products onboarded into the bank; they have challenges in terms of those products complying with the internal standards. Sometimes, we cannot just use the DLP across the state. For example, using Microsoft products has been easy to adopt, such as OneDrive and SharePoint on-premise, but it becomes a challenge when it comes to AWS, as data also exists in S3 buckets. Testing is still ongoing, but it will eventually be done. The time it takes to scan is one issue; when we raise high-volume issues and tickets related to scanning failures, it relates to permission errors, which are technical challenges. These take time because we have high volume tickets in terms of connectivity, scanning failures, and related matters. There are also frequent change requests, especially regarding scoping or rescoping due to complexities, creating several challenges. In both organizations I work with, there are gaps, and there is no enterprise-wide data classification available. However, there are pockets of implementations for various products. Some agencies are using it, but otherwise, there's no product existing across the enterprise. Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management is definitely a good solution, but there is significant room for improvement from a product perspective. Reporting is another area that needs improvement.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management has streamlined our threat management processes and provided region-specific customization for our healthcare operations."
"The integration with SIEM is the best, specifically the native integration with Microsoft SIEM."
"The solution helps identify threats and vulnerabilities."
"The most valuable aspect is the kind of assessment results I get, and the recommendations provided in Microsoft products really help in taking care of the resources."
"One valuable feature is the Microsoft Security Scorecard."
"The integration with Sentinel has been one of the most valuable features for my organization."
"The solution is highly scalable."
"Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is a good product, and I believe it deserves a positive recommendation."
"The impact of Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management on my unified data catalog has improved a lot; the improvements I see are in the lineage, the discovery, and the labeling."
"Purview's built-in functionality provides immediate access to reports, streamlining the entire process."
"The UI is the most valuable feature."
"The automatic data labeling is compelling, and we are investigating its use."
"The system is stable; I haven't encountered any worldwide stability issues unlike other office products."
 

Cons

"The documentation from Microsoft needs significant improvement. The documents are disorganized, with one document linking to another, making the steps unclear and difficult to follow."
"The product is not stable; it is very resource-intensive, consuming a lot of memory and CPU, which makes it slow."
"The constant changes in the product configuration or the console setup can sometimes be challenging."
"There should be risk scoring added to Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management; specifically, they call it quantification of the risk."
"The worst aspect is the refresh rate of the dashboard. A vulnerability I patch within 15 minutes takes 24 additional hours for an update."
"It is challenging to extract and customize reports from the system."
"When I create rules, it gave me problems and I did not know where the problem was located."
"The setup phase of the product is not that easy and needs a person to have a certain level of expertise."
"The time it takes to scan is one issue; when we raise high-volume issues and tickets related to scanning failures, it relates to permission errors, which are technical challenges."
"Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management can be challenging to implement due to its complexity and dense documentation, making it difficult to get started."
"I think labeling could use a lot more AI assistance. AI implementation into labeling would be beneficial."
"Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management can be challenging to implement due to its complexity and dense documentation, making it difficult to get started."
"Microsoft's Purview Data Lifecycle Management preview features can be unreliable, hindering their usefulness."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The licensing model follows a per-user per-month structure."
"The tool is a bit costly."
"The product’s pricing is medium."
"The service operates on a pay-as-you-go basis, charging an extra one cent per field of metadata scanned in our data."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
The documentation from Microsoft needs significant improvement. The documents are disorganized, with one document linking to another, making the steps unclear and difficult to follow. Regarding upd...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management?
We opted for Purview Data Lifecycle Management due to its significant cost advantage over competitors. At a 95 percent price reduction, it was a clear winner. The service operates on a pay-as-you-g...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management?
I think labeling could use a lot more AI assistance. AI implementation into labeling would be beneficial.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management?
My major use case for Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management is for the classification of data.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Information Governance, Microsoft Purview Records Management
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.