Azure Front Door vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management comparison

Azure Front Door vs. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Download the complete report

Helped 860,592 peers since 2012

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

Azure Front Door

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

18th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CDN (2nd), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (13th)

Microsoft Defender External...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

33rd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Attack Surface Management (ASM) (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Front Door is 2.5%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

SayedAbdelrhman

Cloud Solution Architect at MentorMate

Provide bot protection and has proficient documentation

During our discussion with the internal Microsoft team about assessing our environment, they confirmed that we have sufficient security measures, especially regarding edge protection. Internally, we believe we are now certified. In the future, we could consider adding layer four protection from the firewall. Front Door combines CDN and WAF protection, so further enhancing its features could benefit both the customer and us. We monitor the number of users attempting to access our IP or DNS servers. When designing the system, we initially needed to ensure our environment was protected with a WAF. However, WAF is currently too costly for us, so we created private links and connected them to Front Door. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Read full review

AndyChan3

General manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Enhanced visibility and exposes vulnerabilities but needs more integration

I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will move to full-scale production in another year, maybe Microsoft External Attack Surface Management…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Rules Engine is a valuable feature."

"The tool is easy to use for beginners."

"You can assign as many web application firewall policies as you want to the same instance of Front Door."

"The most valuable feature is that you can implement resources globally. It does not depend on location and ability or something like that. This is to connect clients around the world."

"The web application firewall is a great feature."

"Azure Front Door provides DDoS protection and features related to WAF."

"The most valuable feature is that I can have CDN and load-balancing capabilities in a single service instead of managing two separate tools."

More Azure Front Door pros

"Microsoft External Attack Surface Management helps improve the visibility of my exposed vulnerabilities and provides an overview of my security posture across the globe."

"It seems to be better at protecting from cyberattacks."

Cons

"In the tool, there needs to be a good amount of monitoring in the area of health probes to capture in front of what is happening."

"There's a limitation on the amount of global rules we can add."

"There could be improvements regarding its pricing for large-scale projects."

"This is a relatively expensive solution."

"The product needs to improve its latency."

"We should be able to use Front Door defenders with multiple cloud vendors. Currently, they can be used only with the Azure cloud. Azure Front Door should also be able to do global load balancing and provide internal front door services. Microsoft should clearly define what Traffic Manager, Application Gateway, and Azure Front Door products do. These are similar products, and people get confused between these products."

"I'm responsible for the governance and cost control of Azure. I'm not a specialist in any products and therefore I couldn't really speak effectively to features that are lacking or missing."

"The user interface needs improvement as it is difficult to create the mapping to link the problem with your private address sources."

More Azure Front Door cons

"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."

"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."

"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Considering the standard licensing of the tool, even though we have not checked the billing as of now, it might not be very costly."

"The transition to the premium tier has led to increased costs, making it more expensive than the classic tier."

"The product is expensive."

"The pricing of the solution is good."

"It is on a pay-as-you-go basis."

"The solution is a bit expensive."

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Microsoft Security Suite solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What's the difference between Azure Front Door and Application Gateway?

We found Azure Front Door to be easily scaled and very stable. The implementation is very fast and Microsoft provides excellent support. Azure Front Door can quickly detect abnormalities before the...

What do you like most about Azure Front Door?

Rules Engine is a valuable feature.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Front Door?

I am not sure about the pricing but believe Azure Front Door might require a higher cost due to its entry point nature.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?

I rate the pricing of the solution as eight out of ten.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?

Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement. Introduction of more AI automation into the products would also be beneficial. The integration is not as seamless co...

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?

Cloudflare vs Azure Front Door

Comparisons

Compared 17% of the time

Amazon CloudFront vs Azure Front Door

Compared 15% of the time

Akamai vs Azure Front Door

Compared 12% of the time

AWS Global Accelerator vs Azure Front Door

Compared 10% of the time

Imperva Web Application Firewall vs Azure Front Door

Compared 4% of the time

More Azure Front Door Competitors

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 20% of the time

Tenable Attack Surface Management vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 15% of the time

Bitsight vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 14% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 14% of the time

Darktrace vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 12% of the time

More Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management Competitors

Product Reports

Azure Front Door

Download Azure Front Door product report

Attack Surface Management (ASM)

Download Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management product report

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management report

Also Known As

Azure Front-Door

No data available

Overview

Azure Front Door is employed for securing external traffic, global load balancing, integrating web application firewalls, enabling disaster recovery, and enhancing application accessibility.

Organizations leverage Azure Front Door to support data publishing, act as a CDN, and ensure low latency for global users. Clients use it to protect numerous internet-accessible applications, integrate with DNS, and implement custom routes. Favored for caching web content and securely, efficiently distributing traffic to backend services, Azure Front Door offers SSL offloading, traffic inspection, and global scalability. Users value its affordability, ease of implementation, and web application firewall. Azure Front Door provides rich security features, traffic management, and URL rewriting. Load-balancing capabilities enhance performance with additional content security policies and bot protection. Integrations, including with GitOps, along with combined CDN and load-balancing, are also highlighted.

What are the most important features?

SSL Offloading: Reduces the burden on backend services
Traffic Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting incoming traffic
Global Scalability: Ensures performance for users worldwide
Web Application Firewall: Provides in-depth security features
Load Balancing: Distributes traffic to improve performance
URL Rewriting: Customizes URL paths for better navigation
Bot Protection: Shields applications from automated threats
Integrations: Supports technologies like GitOps
Combined CDN and Load-Balancing: Streamlines content delivery and traffic management

What are the benefits or ROI of using this service?

Affordability: Provides cost-effective solutions for web traffic management
Ease of Implementation: Streamlines setup processes for quick deployment
Enhanced Security: Offers robust protection for web applications
Improved Performance: Optimizes traffic distribution and latency
Scalability: Supports growing application demands with global reach

Azure Front Door finds usage across multiple industries due to its versatile applications. E-commerce companies benefit from improved global accessibility and speed, while financial institutions leverage its security features for protecting sensitive data. Media and entertainment sectors use its CDN capabilities for seamless content delivery, and healthcare providers rely on its compliance and protection standards for patient data security.

Microsoft

In this era of hybrid work, shadow IT creates an increasingly serious security risk. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management helps cloud security teams see unknown and unmanaged resources outside the firewall.

Microsoft

Azure Front Door vs. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management