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Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Pentera comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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 Vulnerability Management
17th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (21st), Microsoft Security Suite (25th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (6th)
Pentera
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
14th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Penetration Testing Services (1st), Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is 3.4%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pentera is 4.3%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

René-SylvainBédard - PeerSpot reviewer
The vulnerability assessment is very accurate because it runs directly into the vulnerability database
I have three years of experience with Microsoft Defender and Office 365 for eleven years. My company operates as a shop for Microsoft products, and we have always stayed with Microsoft. We intend to displace the competition when my company enters a new client environment. I have dealt with customers who were using Carbon Black and SentinelOne. My company's customers switched work from their previous products to Microsoft because the tools they were using were power-hungry solutions, which had an impact on production. Microsoft Office 365's premium licenses have many built-in services, which our customers used to use from some other products. With Microsoft products, there is no need for our company's customers to pay extra for licensing charges. The major difference between Carbon Black and Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management revolves around areas like stability and integration capabilities within the operating systems, which are strong in Microsoft, especially compared to any of its competitors. The actual depth of knowledge that the platform offers is good because Microsoft has been very rigorous in documenting every single vulnerability that exists for its platform. Microsoft has the most complete list of vulnerabilities for its platform.
Richard Marlow - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides good features and helps monitor the status of ransomware protection in an organization
The tool is quite scalable. There's a one-to-one relationship between the engine and how many scans we can do. We can only do one scan with one engine. We had some issues around the password assessments because we added a lot of users. It took a long time. I rate the scalability a seven out of ten. We have three users in our organization.

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 stability is very high...The scalability of the product is amazing."
"The recommendations, scores, and steps to remediate actions are highly useful."
"The product’s most valuable features are compliance, recommendations, and inventories."
"The solution is highly scalable."
"The solution is up-to-date and helps prevent zero-day attacks."
"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."
"The solution helps identify threats and vulnerabilities."
"One valuable feature is the Microsoft Security Scorecard."
"The most valuable feature of Pentera is that you can do continuous vulnerability assessment, which is automated."
"Maybe there are some remediation steps on the website, we can mask sensitive information on the website better."
"The solution is SaaS-based. From a cloud perspective, it has Pentera Surface and Pentera Core. The Core is the on-prem deployed solution, while the Surface is the cloud-hosted solution that scans your public infrastructure. From the Surface perspective, the most valuable feature so far has been the attack surface mapping."
"The platform's most valuable features are credential management and vulnerability management."
"The vulnerability scanner, exploit achievements, and remediation actions are all great."
"The tool showed us that our ransomware protection wasn’t working on some machines."
"Pentera has many authentic features."
"What I like the most about Pentera is its solution-oriented approach."
 

Cons

"Integration can be improved."
"The setup phase of the product is not that easy and needs a person to have a certain level of expertise."
"The automated remediations can be more specific."
"It is challenging to extract and customize reports from the system."
"The general support could be improved."
"The technical support takes too much time to resolve tickets."
"The constant changes in the product configuration or the console setup can sometimes be challenging."
"The vulnerability scanner, exploit achievements, and remediation actions are all great."
"There is room for improvement in virtualization compatibility."
"Maybe scalability. I know that the Pentera right now is high level in order to scan big deals over 500 IPs and not less, and not less. That can be more granular. This will be useful."
"The licensing and IP management need improvement."
"The price could be improved."
"One area for product improvement could be the inclusion of a dashboard to cover multiple branches and subsidiaries, allowing for centralized monitoring."
"The licensing and IP management need improvement. When the IP is imported into a system, we cannot withdraw or revoke the license."
"The automated penetration testing features must be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is a bit costly."
"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"The product’s pricing is medium."
"The licensing model follows a per-user per-month structure."
"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 tool is relatively cheap."
"It's not that expensive, but it could be more cost-effective."
"The product's cost is reasonable. I rate the pricing a three out of ten."
"We have to pay a yearly licensing cost for Pentera."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
We are aware of the pricing for some parts that we are using. Microsoft documentation helps figure out pricing and other aspects. Overall, every organization wishes for cheaper options, but we look...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
The automated remediations can be more specific. However, the score and recommendation aspects are good. Currently, I do not see any significant challenges.
What do you like most about Pentera?
What I like the most about Pentera is its solution-oriented approach.
What needs improvement with Pentera?
One area for product improvement could be the inclusion of a dashboard to cover multiple branches and subsidiaries, allowing for centralized monitoring.
What is your primary use case for Pentera?
Our customers use the product to validate their security environment, ensuring that vulnerabilities within the network are identified and addressed.
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Blackstone Group Caterpillar Apria Healthcare Taylor Vinters Sandler Capital Management Drawbridge BNP Paribas British Red Cross
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Pentera and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,265 professionals have used our research since 2012.