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Azure Bastion vs Microsoft Defender XDR 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
6.8
Azure Bastion offers significant savings and seamless infrastructure automation, though some users don't see specific cost or time benefits.
Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Defender XDR provides high ROI by consolidating security tools, streamlining operations, and enhancing security, despite licensing costs.
We have noticed savings of approximately twenty percent by using Azure Bastion compared to VM pricing.
We can quarantine and isolate a device within minutes.
Microsoft Defender XDR has saved me at least 50% of my time.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Azure Bastion's customer service is efficient and patient, with positive ratings, though some improvements are needed in data transfer.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Defender XDR's support is timely and responsive, yet smaller organizations experience slower, less effective assistance than larger ones.
We usually get backup within two hours.
Support is satisfactory but with room for improvement, primarily concerning data transfer issues.
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.
Once issues are escalated to the second or third layer, the support is much better.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Azure Bastion offers scalability for extensive use but lacks customization, meeting diverse organizational needs with varying user exploration.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender XDR scales well for various organizations, efficiently supporting growth and flexibility despite some network deployment challenges.
It is designed to provide access over a private network without hitting the internet.
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
Microsoft Defender XDR scales pretty well.
It is suitable for enterprise-level deployment but has room for improvement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Azure Bastion is praised for stability and performance, with minimal issues, especially in North America, ensuring long-term reliability.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender XDR is praised for high stability, reliable performance, minimal issues, frequent updates, and prompt issue resolution.
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.
It provides high-fidelity signals.
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Bastion users face data retrieval costs, limited functionality, browser issues, and call for improved protocol speed and AI support.
Microsoft Defender XDR requires enhancements in speed, integration, automation, AI, ease-of-use, and industry-specific threat intelligence.
I would like to see integrated AI features with Azure Bastion, especially for connectivity issues.
A storage solution must be created to transfer data, and this requires additional permissions like ACL or NFS.
It would be nice to have the capability to cut and paste across desktops, similar to old-fashioned Remote Desktop emulation.
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.
 

Setup Cost

Azure Bastion's pricing reflects its high-quality security, starting at $150/month, suitable for enterprises despite competitive alternatives.
Microsoft Defender XDR pricing is seen as complex but fair, with high costs alleviated in bundled Microsoft 365 packages.
Microsoft's pricing is on the higher side and could be more competitive.
The price is not necessarily cheaper, but it is acceptable.
There are certainly savings when using Microsoft Defender XDR, which can range from 30%, 40%, and even up to 50%.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Azure Bastion offers secure VM access with Azure AD integration, avoiding public IPs, supporting scripting, and infrastructure as code.
Microsoft Defender XDR integrates tools for comprehensive security, offering threat detection, automation, identity protection, and enhanced efficiency.
The most valuable feature of Azure Bastion is its security, which I find to be the best part.
The security is the main reason we use Azure Bastion because it is integrated with Azure Active Directory, ensuring that access is secure.
Azure Bastion eliminates the need for a jump server by providing secure access to servers without hitting the public network.
With Microsoft threat intelligence information, it detects various types of threats, including insider attacks, malicious content, and data exfiltration.
This allows us to secure our systems in advance and proactively improve security, rather than waiting for incidents to occur.
Once we have it on the security dashboard, we can see a real-time storyline.
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Bastion
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
19th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Network Monitoring Software (23rd), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (6th)
Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Bastion is 1.3%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 6.6%, up from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender XDR6.6%
Azure Bastion1.3%
Other92.1%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Aladin Steiner - PeerSpot reviewer
Has good scalability and provides secure access to the virtual machines
The product improved the security posture of our organization. We don’t have open ports and connect them to servers using it. We can carry out two-factor authentication to protect the devices with conditional access features. It would be nice to have a feature to copy and paste the files into servers. I rate the product a nine out of ten.
MohtesanShaikh - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience improves security management and simplifies threat protection
I have created automated investigations, and while they work, they operate rather slowly in the Microsoft portal. If I automate something, it takes considerable time; if I do it manually, I can complete it in a quarter of the time. The automation response being slow is the main concern; when an incident occurs or if I run a remediation, it takes significant time to complete the remediation. There are some limitations regarding the scalability of Microsoft Defender XDR with specific licensing. For SMB customers, there is only Microsoft Defender for Business, and if they want more features such as XDR features and automation investigation or incident response, they need to purchase Defender for Endpoint. We are currently using the EDR.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise37
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Bastion?
Azure Bastion makes it easy to provide quick virtual machine access to our customers.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Bastion?
Microsoft's pricing is on the higher side and could be more competitive. Startups and small organizations often prefer AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) or GCP due to their lower costs, while la...
What needs improvement with Azure Bastion?
Azure Bastion does its job. However, it would be nice to have the capability to cut and paste across desktops, similar to old-fashioned Remote ( /products/remote-reviews ) Desktop emulation. I am u...
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?
The pricing for Microsoft Sentinel operates on a pay-as-you-go model based on data ingestion. I recall that Defender XDR pricing is based on the number of endpoints.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
I have created automated investigations, and while they work, they operate rather slowly in the Microsoft portal. If I automate something, it takes considerable time; if I do it manually, I can com...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Bastion vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,513 professionals have used our research since 2012.