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Microsoft Defender XDR vs Wazuh comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 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 XDR
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (2nd)
Wazuh
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
3rd
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (2nd), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 7.4%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Wazuh is 12.9%, up from 9.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
 

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.
Sandip_Patel - PeerSpot reviewer
Evaluating robust file monitoring with insights for community support improvements
Wazuh's most valuable features include file monitoring and compliance reporting, which do not require excessive costs. These aspects are vital as they provide alerts for changes and facilitate the monitoring of compliance. The platform is also relatively easy to set up and operate. Reports are straightforward to extract and prove useful for compliance requirements.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There is also one dashboard that shows us the status of many controls at once and the details I can get... It gives a great overview of many areas, such as files, emails, chats, and links. Even with the apps, it gives you a great overview. In one place you can see where you should look into things more deeply..."
"The visibility into threats is also very impressive because Microsoft helps you predict things and provides analytics to help you really improve your security. And all of this technology works across the domain, so it is pretty helpful in terms of threat analytics."
"I like that Defender is easy to use and the alerts are all in one central location."
"My clients like Defender's file integrity monitoring. They're monitoring Windows and Linux system files."
"It's a very scalable tool that can be used in a very small environment or in a very large environment. Everything can be managed from a simple dashboard and can be scaled up or down depending on the customer's environment."
"Microsoft Defender XDR is scalable."
"Microsoft Defender XDR is a complete package of different Defender solutions, including Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, Defender for Cloud, and Sentinel SIEM, among others."
"The summarization of emails is a valuable feature."
"If they support a solution, it is easy to do an integration."
"The log monitoring and analysis tools are great in addition to SIEM file activity monitoring."
"It allows you to aggregate all your logs in one place and provides a unified view to monitor your security environment."
"Good for monitoring, active response, and for vulnerabilities."
"My company implemented Wazuh because it was relatively inexpensive. They could quickly get their hands on it to check a box for some audit and compliance."
"Wazuh is simple to use for PCI compliance."
"The most valuable feature of Wazuh is its EDR capabilities."
"Wazuh has very flexible and robust features."
 

Cons

"It would be helpful if the solution could scan faster when it comes to scanning attachments to emails."
"The licensing process needs improvement and clarification, as it is currently difficult to understand which features are licensed to which users."
"Customers say they want absolutely seamless integration between other Microsoft solutions and Defender XDR, including the ability to change device settings within the Defender portal. They need to contact the IT team responsible for the device management tools to change some settings. They would prefer that those changes be initiated directly from the Defender portal or applied from Intune without involving the IT operations team."
"Microsoft tends to provide too many features, which makes the solution prone to bugs."
"The technical support from Microsoft Defender XDR has been disappointingly slow, to the point that I am considering not renewing my unified support contract."
"The AI could be improved. As an analyst, I want to be able to interact more with AI. The AI simply sends summaries. I can't ask it, for example, if it has seen any suspicious activity with device two. I have to go and check device two for myself."
"It would be highly beneficial if CoPilot could identify anomalies within the network and notify the IT team."
"At times, when we have an incident email and we click on the link for that incident, it opens a pop-up, but there is nothing. It has happened a couple of times."
"It would be great if there could be customization for the decoder portion."
"There could be a hardware monitoring tool for the solution."
"Integration with Vyara could be better."
"The technical support can be improved. Wazuh has some bugs that need to be fixed. It would be good if we can have automation with respect to incidence responses."
"The tool does not provide CTI to monitor darknet."
"So far, the recent updates have addressed most challenges we previously faced."
"While it is scalable, it can suffer from reduced latencies."
"One area where Wazuh could use some improvement is in its reporting mechanism, especially for high-level management like CSOs and CEOs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft Defender XDR's licensing is complicated."
"365 Defender can get expensive because you pay per gigabyte of data ingested. On the other hand, much of the data available in the other Microsoft security solutions are made available relatively cheaply—sometimes at cost or for free. Integrating only a limited set of third-party solutions with Sentinel would be cost-effective. It's much more affordable if companies only have Microsoft stuff."
"Defender XDR is included in the E5 license, but it's a bit too expensive."
"The bundling of software makes it easier to manage our setup, but Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs."
"While Microsoft Defender XDR carries a higher cost, its ease of use compared to Defender may justify the investment."
"They have moved from a licensing model to pay-per-use... The question is: What happens if, for any reason, there's not enough budget to accept this model? That could be a great problem."
"It is fairly priced because we get complete integrated services with the E5 license."
"Sometimes 365 Defender is expensive, but it can be moderate, depending on the organization's size and the license type. We're satisfied with the cost because it gives us a product that protects our entire environment with DLP. To compromise some cost, of course, we are to complete the most secure environment."
"Wazuh has a community edition, and I was using that. It's free and open source."
"Wazuh is open-source, so I think it's an option for a small organization that cannot go for enterprise-grade solutions like Splunk."
"Wazuh is open-source, therefore it is free. You can purchase support for $1,000 a year."
"The product is cheaper compared to other tools."
"The solution's pricing is very competitive."
"Wazuh is free and open source."
"The solution's cost is above the average."
"The current pricing is open source."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
7%
University
7%
 

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 Wazuh?
Integrates with various open-source and paid products, allowing for flexibility in customization based on use cases.
What needs improvement with Wazuh?
I am investigating more about the community support for Wazuh. I can't provide a definitive answer yet. An issue I noticed is with tag values in certain rules not functioning properly. It's unclear...
What is your primary use case for Wazuh?
I am currently evaluating and using Wazuh for file monitoring and compliance reporting. We are in the process of conducting a POC to understand how the rules work. I lead this effort to explore and...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
No data available
 

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. Wazuh and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.