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Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Defender XDR offers cost savings, enhanced security, and efficiency by consolidating measures, reducing cyberattack losses, and streamlining processes.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager offers cost-effective compliance, reducing expenses, processing time, and enhancing security within Office 365 E5.
Ever since we turned on the M5 feature set back in June, we have seen a reduced number of potentially malicious clicks and faster alerting when incidents occur.
The process is reduced from weeks to a day, showcasing a solid nine for return on investment.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
Microsoft Defender XDR support varies; larger organizations benefit more, with issues in responsiveness and knowledge sharing for smaller companies.
Sentiment score
4.7
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's support is slow and inefficient, with delays in resolving compliance issues, especially for smaller organizations.
You get stuck in low-level support for way longer than you should, instead of them escalating the issue up the chain.
It's critical to escalate SEV B issues immediately to a domestic engineer.
The technical support from Microsoft Defender XDR has been disappointingly slow.
Since I approach them with more complicated issues, it takes quite a bit of time to get through those two support tiers.
The support staff, who are often outsourced, seem not adequately equipped to handle issues quickly and efficiently.
Users have no specific forum for addressing queries, which impacts the overall support experience.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender XDR offers scalable solutions for diverse organizations, with strengths in cloud setups and dashboard management despite some challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager scales well but faces limitations with detailed policy configurations in large deployments.
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
It is suitable for enterprise-level deployment but has room for improvement.
As services increase, eDiscovery capabilities also increase, allowing easy deployment.
It is straightforward since it scans everything, covering all aspects needed in our operations.
While the solution is scalable in terms of user numbers, there are limitations when creating more granular level policies.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender XDR is praised for stability and reliability, with minor issues quickly resolved and high user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is reliable and stable but needs enhanced usability and competitiveness, especially for Outlook users.
The service has remained consistently online, with any issues isolated to specific components, suggesting a well-designed and modular architecture.
The services within our ecosystem have been reliable, meeting their SLAs.
Despite stability, it needs to be more user-friendly and competitive compared to other eDiscovery tools.
It is reliable and I can depend on it.
In terms of latency, stability is not an issue.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender XDR needs faster scanning, better integration, simpler licensing, and improved automation for user-friendly threat management.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager needs better integration, automation, monitoring, and cost-effective features for improved user experience, especially for non-profits.
The licensing process needs improvement and clarification.
Improvements are needed in automated response capabilities.
Some inconsistencies exist between blades, which could be improved for a more seamless user and UI experience.
Microsoft Copilot Security converts human language to search queries using its AdLM language model.
The speed and accessibility, particularly in the user interface, require significant work.
The Purview Compliance Portal's log management could be more user-friendly, making data retrieval, like email logs, challenging.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender XDR is cost-effective with an E5 bundle but costly separately, influenced by complex licensing and geographic factors.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is competitively priced, benefiting from existing licenses and often cheaper than previous solutions and competitors.
I would rate the pricing as eight out of ten, indicating it is a reasonable cost for the product.
Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs.
There are no issues with pricing, but sometimes, the clarity in licensing is a concern.
I rate the pricing as a one since it is included in what I am already paying for, as part of the Microsoft 365 E5 licensing.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender XDR offers seamless integration, advanced threat hunting, and AI protection, streamlining operations and reducing costs.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager simplifies multi-cloud data protection with automation, real-time visibility, and extensive compliance and security features.
With Microsoft threat intelligence information, it detects various types of threats, including insider attacks, malicious content, and data exfiltration.
It's because endpoint management is my primary focus, and this feature integrates well with my other skills.
The Email Explorer feature has proven invaluable, offering a broader perspective than automated alerts and incidents alone.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's eDiscovery is essential for organizations using Outlook as their email service.
The most valuable feature is data classification retention since I deal with terabytes of data, and managing and monitoring it simplifies the process.
The best aspect is that it requires little to no time for implementation if I am using all of Microsoft's tools.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (4th)
Microsoft Purview Complianc...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
21st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 5.3%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is 1.2%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Gabor Nyerd - PeerSpot reviewer
Includes four services and four products, which can help organizations a lot
We found that sometimes integrations work, but testing them can take some time. Sometimes, configurations take much longer than expected. We have a configuration in place that needs to be synchronized with another server. However, the servers are four hours apart, so this can cause delays. In general, I believe that the time it takes to configure and test a service should be shorter. Sometimes, it can take a couple of hours to test a single configuration setting. Other times, it is only ten or fifteen minutes, which is normal. However, sometimes, even immediate actions can be triggered by configuration changes, and some settings can take up to eight hours to complete. I believe that this time can be improved. Microsoft is making a lot of improvements to its services in a short period of time. This is a good thing, as it means that the services are constantly being updated and improved. However, it can be challenging for customers to keep up with the changes. For example, a customer may read about an update, understand it, and share it with their colleagues and boss. However, it may take days or weeks to test the update and get the necessary approvals. This can be especially challenging for large customers with many users or machines. In some cases, Microsoft may change a service before the customer has had a chance to implement the previous update. This can be frustrating for customers, as it means that they have to constantly learn new things and adjust their workflows. On the one hand, it is important for Microsoft to keep updating and improving its services. This helps to ensure that the services are meeting the customers' needs and that they are staying ahead of the competition. Microsoft should also be mindful of the challenges that these changes can create for customers. One way to address this challenge is to provide customers with more time to implement changes. Microsoft could also provide more information about upcoming changes so that customers can plan ahead. Ultimately, Microsoft needs to strike a balance between keeping its services up-to-date and providing customers with a smooth transition to new features.
Peter-Murphy - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined data management and improved compliance with efficient document classification
The most valuable feature is data classification retention since I deal with terabytes of data, and managing and monitoring it simplifies the process. Additionally, the system provides a dashboard showing our compliance status, which aids in managing compliance tasks. The compliance score feature allows me to assess and compare our compliance across organizations. I've also noticed efficiency gains, especially in handling subject access requests. Previously, these tasks were manual and time-consuming, but now they are streamlined, reducing the process from weeks to just a day.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft 365 Defender?
Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and potential indicators of compromise.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Defender?
Licensing is somewhat confusing, particularly when presenting our pitch decks to stakeholders and leveraging key features in premium SKUs, but we managed with some assistance from Microsoft.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
It would be beneficial to reduce the number of clicks required to navigate between blades, as the current navigation and breadcrumb system can be a bit confusing. Some inconsistencies exist between...
What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
We have more visibility of data and how it is being shared.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
While not cheap, Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors. Additional costs may involve OCR page scanning.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
I am primarily using Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager for data leakage prevention, blocking USBs, and monitoring data sharing through OneDrive and web-based interfaces.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
Microsoft Compliance Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
839,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.