

Symantec Endpoint Security and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint compete in the cybersecurity space, focusing on endpoint protection. From the analysis, Microsoft Defender appears to have an edge with its seamless integration into Windows environments and cost-effective pricing.
Features: Symantec Endpoint Security provides comprehensive protection against threats with anti-virus, firewall, intrusion prevention, and device control capabilities. It supports multiple operating systems with extensive integration within its ecosystem. On the other hand, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers efficient malware protection with robust EDR functionalities integrated into Windows, alongside ease of use and seamless connectivity with other Microsoft services.
Room for Improvement: Symantec users report high resource consumption, complicated management, and slow responses to zero-day threats, suggesting enhancements in sandboxing and real-time updates. Meanwhile, Microsoft Defender could improve in handling false positives, enhancing third-party app integration, and providing clearer documentation. Its control centralization also needs refinement for easier management.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Symantec is mainly on-premises leading to complex setups, demanding significant integration and support efforts, with inconsistent customer service, particularly after Broadcom's acquisition. Microsoft Defender, however, offers flexible deployment with cloud integration, simplifying setups, and is complemented by reliable customer support with easily accessible resources.
Pricing and ROI: Symantec is seen as costlier, though users justify it for its extensive features. Conversely, Microsoft Defender is often bundled with Windows, making it more cost-effective for organizations using Microsoft products, providing substantial savings and good ROI by eliminating the need for multiple security solutions.
Without detection and protection measures, organizations would face substantial payments and reputational damage, including the necessity to inform customers about data breaches, potentially leading to loss of business.
We have seen a return on investment when using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, as it saves labor by reducing the need for staff to focus on it.
The biggest return on investment for me when using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the time saving.
Symantec Endpoint Security filled gaps in our toolset, particularly with the ability to control network firewall on hosts remotely, which was greatly appreciated.
The Microsoft agent, who did not actually work for Microsoft, is one of the vendors that Microsoft uses for support, said, 'Just to set expectations, my lunch break is in an hour and I am going to go away then.'
The level-one support seems disconnected from subject matter experts.
I rate Microsoft support 10 out of 10.
In some cases, it rates as high as ten out of ten, while in others, it can be as low as eight.
There is no support in the German language, which is a problem for many public tenders.
We managed to scale it out in a short amount of time, with two months of planning and three months of implementation on 10,000 computers.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable enough to handle various devices across environments, whether they are laptops, Android devices, or operating in hybrid environments.
Compatibility is its main feature.
Symantec Endpoint Security is quite scalable, and it is very important for large clients.
The scalability of the servers is good, as it requires computational powers.
I haven't seen any outages with Microsoft.
I rate Defender 10 out of 10 for stability.
Defender for Endpoint is extremely stable.
I have encountered issues where I had to uninstall and reinstall the product on end users' computers to view the logs again.
Previously, we used to have multiple servers such as GUP servers and numerous servers for pushing updates, but we reduced it and transitioned almost 30,000 devices to CrowdStrike, which was easy to manage.
Repeated interactions are necessary due to Level One's lack of tools and knowledge, hindering efficient problem-solving and negatively impacting our experience with Microsoft support.
In contrast, competing products offer reduced pricing for long-term commitments, which makes it difficult for us in that environment.
We use Microsoft partners to help govern the platform, and as part of an alliance, we want to gather data from each tenant and combine them for a complete view.
Device management is not very good and I am not enabling it in my organization due to security reasons.
I would like to see improvements in the scanning part of the solution, specifically to enhance the CPU and hard disk usage during scanning and updates to prevent disruption during work hours.
It is cumbersome to use, particularly in handling firewall management.
That has been the trend we have seen with Microsoft lately—it is just getting more and more expensive.
Given our extensive Microsoft licensing, transitioning to Defender for Endpoint did not affect licensing costs.
It costs $15 per VM for the P2 plan, which is seen as affordable for customers.
It seems to be half the cost or more affordable than other solutions.
The pricing is very low compared to other companies like SentinelOne and others.
I rate the pricing, setup cost, and licensing around nine out of ten.
Defender for Endpoint's coverage across different platforms in our environment is pretty good. We have devices running Linux, Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android. It covers all of them.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides a unified management interface allowing customers to manage their on-premises and hybrid infrastructures from a single pane.
One of the best features of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is its database for identifying zero-day attacks or malware attacks.
Symantec Endpoint Security offers great features such as reporting capabilities with a customized dashboard that pulls in EDR timelines, threat maps, and compliance metrics into one view.
Symantec Endpoint Security offers many valuable features, such as file explosion, application learning, DLP, injection detection, and EDR solutions for traffic control.
The incident response capabilities allow me to resolve authentication and support issues promptly, ensuring the system operates without downtime.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | 8.1% |
| Symantec Endpoint Security | 3.4% |
| Other | 88.5% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 80 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 40 |
| Large Enterprise | 92 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 69 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 32 |
| Large Enterprise | 63 |
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for organizations. It offers real-time protection against various types of cyber threats, including malware, viruses, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
With its powerful machine-learning capabilities, it can detect and block sophisticated attacks before they can cause any harm. The solution also includes endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities, allowing organizations to quickly investigate and respond to security incidents. It provides detailed insights into the attack timeline, enabling security teams to understand the scope and impact of an incident.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint also offers proactive threat hunting, allowing organizations to proactively search for and identify potential threats within their network. It integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft security solutions, such as Microsoft Defender XDR, to provide a unified and holistic security approach. With its centralized management console, organizations can easily deploy, configure, and monitor the security solution across their entire network.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a robust and scalable security solution that helps organizations protect their endpoints and data from evolving cyber threats.
Symantec Endpoint Security is a robust and reliable product that provides complete protection against viruses, malware, Trojans, and malicious files. It offers application and device control, ease of use in deploying and updating, a central control console, stability, scalability, auto-discovery capabilities, patch management, endpoint detection and response capabilities, intrusion detection module.
The Symantec Global Intelligence Network (GIN) provides threat intelligence and detection across endpoints, email, and web traffic. It has helped organizations reduce downtime, increase productivity, and improve security posture. Symantec Endpoint Security is easy to use, has a flexible administration, and offers more value than expected.
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