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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
7.3
Organizations achieve positive ROI with Microsoft Defender XDR by consolidating security measures, enhancing protection, and saving time and resources.
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.
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.
Previously, identifying and containing threats took a long time, but now, with Microsoft Defender XDR, it takes just a few minutes.
 

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 support ranges in effectiveness; premium users receive better service, while standard support often involves delays and inefficiencies.
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
8.0
Microsoft Defender XDR is scalable, integrating seamlessly across devices and departments, despite some limitations with specific requirements.
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
7.8
Microsoft Defender XDR is highly stable, reliable, and effective, with minimal bugs and proactive issue resolution ensuring user confidence.
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 improvements in speed, integration, cost-efficiency, support, and AI capabilities for a better user experience.
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 competitive with Microsoft 365, though standalone costs and licensing complexity impact user perception.
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 strengthens security with integration, threat detection, centralized management, and cloud service compatibility, enhancing IT 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 (24th), Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) (6th)
Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Bastion is 1.4%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 6.0%, down from 7.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
The price is not necessarily cheaper, but it is acceptable. We are satisfied with the licensing on a yearly basis.
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?
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?
There is nothing I can think of at the moment that needs improvement. I am a contractor and finishing up soon, so I haven't encountered any issues requiring enhancements.
 

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: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.