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Bitdefender GravityZone Extended Detection and Response (XDR) vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 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

Bitdefender GravityZone Ext...
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
39th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Network Detection and Response (NDR) (19th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (26th)
Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
210
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (3rd), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Bitdefender GravityZone Extended Detection and Response (XDR) is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 8.7%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint8.7%
Bitdefender GravityZone Extended Detection and Response (XDR)0.5%
Other90.8%
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

Featured Reviews

SB
Technical Director at CINETIC IT
Integration with security operations centers improves risk analytics but technical support could use enhancement
Detection and response is a disadvantage that could be improved. It could be improved by the technical teams of Bitdefender GravityZone Extended Detection and Response (XDR). I think the detection and response could be better because the technical team operates detection and response, which is automatic and included in the price. Cloud console could be added as a feature. There is currently no cloud console. They could add this on-premise console to Bitdefender GravityZone Extended Detection and Response (XDR).
Robert Arbuckle - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Analyst III at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Automatically isolates threats and integrates with logging to reduce response time
Overall, I would evaluate the Microsoft support level that I receive at probably about a seven, but that depends on the day. It has been spotty. We have had issues where the urgency level of the Microsoft support is not as high as ours, especially during a data breach or potential data breach situation. We have had issues with some of the offshore support being lackluster. One specific thing that comes to mind is we were on a support call with our CISO on the call, and 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." For us, it was already ten o'clock at night and we had been working on this for a couple of hours, trying to get a security engineer on with us. For him to tell us that he was going to go away and have lunch, it was, "Okay, but go find somebody else if you need to." It was just the lackluster approach, and it seemed like he did not really care. We seem to get a lot of this when we get non-Microsoft support. I can identify areas for improvement with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, as it is kind of a convoluted mess to try to take care of false positives. Especially when they have been identified as false positives but they keep going off over and over again. It is great for my pocketbook because it generates a lot of on-call action, but I would really prefer more sleep at two o'clock in the morning than dealing with false positives. I would say that the unified portal for managing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is suitable for both teams as they are all in there. It would be great if they would stop moving things around and renaming things, which makes sense. The new XDR portal is pretty nice. Being able to have it central again inside of the regular Security Center without having to open up two windows is helpful. Overall, I think it is pretty good. There is always going to be something that could be improved, such as alerting and the ability to modify alerts would be a little bit helpful to have. Being able to add more data into the alerts and turn off alerts that are not as useful would be beneficial. It is hard to say what the quantitative impact the security exposure management feature has had on our company's security, because a lot of it is kind of subjective. I think we are sitting at around a fifty percent score still, and a lot of it is just kind of unusual circumstances that we cannot really implement without breaking the organization.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Bitdefender GravityZone Ultra Plus is highly stable."
"The solution has best-in-breed technology and scores very highly on efficacy rates."
"The best thing about Bitdefender is that it has got top-notch features and it is not tied to specific countries like some other antivirus tools."
"The threat detection rates are exceptionally good, better than most of the competition."
"The quarantine computer functionality is very good for me."
"The product is easy to use."
"The best features in the product, as a reseller, are the integrated SOC; integration with a SOC is one of the advantages."
"I find Bitdefender GravityZone Ultra Plus to be a pretty good solution for the mid-level market, specifically for organizations with up to two hundred fifty users. I like that it is an averagely priced solution. It also has a straightforward installation that can be completed within three to five minutes. Its technical support is also good enough."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has helped free up my SOC team to work on other projects and tasks, and the automated reporting and dashboarding has saved them a lot of time, amounting to several man-hours."
"The stability is great. I haven't seen any outages with Microsoft."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easy to load and it runs quietly in the background, unlike other solutions."
"The threat hunting service is very useful for a security professional."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is that it is embedded into the Windows system. Additionally, the performance is good and simple to maintain."
"We apply the DLP policies across a range of endpoints and it is very accurate when reporting vulnerabilities, including those in email attachments."
"It has Kusto Query Language (KQL), so we can use our own queries to find anything."
"We have liked the fact that it comes with Microsoft Windows 10 and it is constantly updated with all new virus definitions. It is also updated with new security features on a regular basis."
 

Cons

"Some customers would like additional features that aren't available through the current GravityZone platform. Some feedback has been about the deletion of other software not going smoothly during the installation of Bitdefender, particularly the removal of previous software like Sophos."
"The solution seems to be pretty amateur for an EDR solution, and it should be more in sync in terms of features, with solutions such as FireEye and SentinelOne."
"The solution must improve its management features."
"Adding a feature like Data Loss Prevention would be beneficial."
"Detection and response is a disadvantage that could be improved."
"Some customers would like additional features that aren't available through the current GravityZone platform."
"I would like automatic issue fixing for users without needing to physically open the PC. I'd prefer updates and fixes from the cloud to avoid headaches and save time."
"The file scanning has room for improvement. Many people use macros within their files, so there should be a mechanism that helps us to scan them for malicious payloads."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's licensing is confusing. It has conflicting information on the website. We also faced integration issues with other systems. It makes laptops slower than traditional antivirus systems."
"Lacks some additional integration."
"I would like to see online updates for patches for this solution. I would also like to see online information about what is trending in the market in terms of spams, viruses, or trojans. It takes some time to understand how this solution works. A few things are unclear at the beginning, such as whether it actually restricts the virus or spam at the initial stage, or when there is a security update, how will we come to know and how will it get synchronized. It would be really helpful if there is some kind of knowledge base in the form of video, audio, or document that can explain in a user-friendly way the setup, features, risks, and process to mitigate the risks. Currently, I have installed endpoint security for every individual system. I could not install it like other endpoint solutions where we have a server and a client. It would be really helpful if Microsoft Windows Defender has a server-client based model so that I can save some bandwidth when it downloads or uploads features. It will be helpful if we have a LAN-based or WAN-based controlling system."
"This solution is not secure, which is why I have moved to Linux."
"Where we stand right now, compared to other products that are there in the market, they still have to work on their threat intelligence and the overall maturity of detecting the malware."
"The time to generate certain alerts on our dashboard can take between 45 minutes to an hour, and I am unsure of the factors that influence this duration."
"Windows Firewall is integrated with Windows Defender. Over the last few days, I have had a problem with defining a wildcard on Windows Firewall. For example, I wanted to pull out the connection of my program and install a software package with a lot of executable files. I wanted to prevent it from accessing the internet. I could not select executables by using a wildcard. I had to select a single executable with its full name."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Bitdefender GravityZone Ultra Plus is pretty average, meaning it's not cheaper, but it's pretty good. It has average pricing."
"We have purchased licenses for the use of Bitdefender GravityZone Ultra Plus. The price of the solution is reasonable but could be better."
"The price was a problem for me three years ago, but they improved their E3, E5, and a la carte licensing. In other words, you have to get all of E5. That used to be a problem because you had E3, Defender, and guardrails, but you needed an E5 license to get the management suite and the analytics. It's more flexible now. You can switch from a la carte to the entire suite when it starts to make sense. It's becoming more economically competitive to go that route."
"The cost is high for E5 licenses, but if we go with the E3 license, most of the features are not covered."
"We mostly use Microsoft products. We use Office 365, and we use Azure. We're also a Microsoft partner. So, the licensing was much cheaper for us, and at the same time, a lot of the features that we were looking for were included in Defender."
"It came with Windows."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comes with Windows 10, and it's free. But for you to be able to manage it in the cloud and use the console, you need to have either an Office 365 E5 subscription or a Microsoft M365 subscription. You need to buy an extra license."
"This solution is part of Windows and comes included with it."
"Microsoft has different plans for buying this product. The price depends on the configuration of the full set of products that you buy and on the licensing program in your contract."
"When compared with other vendors, the pricing is very high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Educational Organization
7%
Performing Arts
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business80
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise92
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Bitdefender GravityZone Ultra Plus?
Detection and response is a disadvantage that could be improved. It could be improved by the technical teams of Bitdefender GravityZone Extended Detection and Response (XDR). I think the detection ...
What is your primary use case for Bitdefender GravityZone Ultra Plus?
I work as a reseller for Bitdefender GravityZone Extended Detection and Response (XDR). My clients are using the Endpoint Risk Analytics feature. I use Bitdefender GravityZone Extended Detection an...
How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior solution. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security s...
How does Microsoft Defender for Endpoint compare with Crowdstrike Falcon?
The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never push your machine hardware to "test", you don't have the usual "scan now" feature ...
 

Also Known As

GravityZone Ultra Plus
Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Archdiocese, Northstar, SeSa, W&W Informatik, Yamaha Motor Europe
Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Find out what your peers are saying about Bitdefender GravityZone Extended Detection and Response (XDR) vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.