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Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

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
6.9
Check Point Harmony Endpoint optimized security by reducing incidents, saving costs, improving resource allocation, and enhancing network safety.
Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers significant ROI with cost savings, seamless integration, and real-time protection against ransomware attacks.
Initially, we spent two to three days on the investigation process, but now we are able to investigate alerts in only half a day, which has really boosted our performance and shown a return on investment.
Pre Sales Consultant at Redington Group
Now, the system automatically detects and isolates endpoints within minutes.
Administrador De Redes at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
The product is affordable and provides excellent coverage and protection across multiple platforms.
Manager, Information Technology Cyber At Edeltech O & M at Ezom
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.
Consultant at ACT4SERVICES
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.
IT CONSULTANT at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
The biggest return on investment for me when using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the time saving.
Lead security engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is praised for its responsive and knowledgeable customer support, with occasional delays noted.
Sentiment score
6.4
Many users find Microsoft Defender for Endpoint reliable, but support experiences vary, with premium support offering quicker assistance.
The customer support for Check Point Harmony Endpoint deserves a rating of 10.
Enterprise Network Engineer at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
We use premium support, and it is beneficial as 24/7 support is available.
Pre Sales Consultant at Redington Group
I have opened several cases and they were handled very efficiently and quickly.
Operations Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
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.'
Security Analyst III at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
The level-one support seems disconnected from subject matter experts.
Office 365 Subject Expert at a government with 10,001+ employees
I rate Microsoft support 10 out of 10.
Team manager of it department at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Check Point Harmony Endpoint scales efficiently for any organization, but license availability and hardware needs might be challenging.
Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable and integrates well with Microsoft’s ecosystem, despite needing improvements for handling massive data.
We initially purchased only 100 licenses and as we grew, we acquired many more licenses without encountering any issues.
Pre Sales Consultant at Redington Group
The single agent works for multiple operating systems and endpoint types, providing elastic growth and reducing the overall number of components.
Cloud Engineer at Interglobalmsp
Proactive features help guard against data breaches and vulnerabilities.
Adjunct Professor, Cybersecurity at University of the People
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.
Team manager of it department at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable enough to handle various devices across environments, whether they are laptops, Android devices, or operating in hybrid environments.
Snr. Infrastructure Architect (Data Centre) at LogicEra
Compatibility is its main feature.
IT CONSULTANT at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is highly stable and reliable, maintaining security efficiently with minimal disruptions and regular updates.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is praised for its reliability and stability, with minor concerns about resource intensity and performance.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is very stable in our experience, with few crashes or disruptions in daily use.
Networking and System Consultant at Orbcom,Lda.
The stability of the tool is high, as I have not experienced any downtime.
Manager, Information Technology Cyber At Edeltech O & M at Ezom
Occasionally, there are some backend issues where the tenant is down, but apart from that, Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable and working effectively.
Pre Sales Consultant at Redington Group
I haven't seen any outages with Microsoft.
IT Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I rate Defender 10 out of 10 for stability.
Team manager of it department at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Defender for Endpoint is extremely stable.
Systems engineers at Delta Dental of Colorado
 

Room For Improvement

Check Point Harmony Endpoint needs improvements in compatibility, integration, UI, resource consumption, and user support, with better documentation and pricing.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint faces interface complexity, slow detection, high CPU usage, integration issues, and seeks improvements in multiple areas.
Principally regarding the system performance, Check Point Harmony Endpoint impacts us significantly, and addressing this issue would make a substantial difference.
Operations Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
Extending that window would help security teams conduct deeper forensic investigations and meet compliance requirements more easily.
Cloud Support at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Building a threat simulation tool and adding native capabilities to simulate phishing, malware, or ransomware scenarios will help teams validate protection and train users without relying on third-party tools.
Support at a security firm with 51-200 employees
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.
Office 365 Subject Expert at a government with 10,001+ employees
In contrast, competing products offer reduced pricing for long-term commitments, which makes it difficult for us in that environment.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
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.
Team manager of it department at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Check Point Harmony Endpoint offers flexible licensing with cost-effective packages, though pricing can be high for smaller organizations.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers flexible pricing, making it competitive and cost-effective compared to standalone security products.
It is not expensive and provides comprehensive coverage.
Manager, Information Technology Cyber At Edeltech O & M at Ezom
While the prices are higher than those of other solutions, the features justify the investment for customers.
Information Technology Engineer at ZAVASI TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD
Pricing is a bit expensive but justified by the product’s features, capabilities, and scalability.
Technical Director at Geekz Information Technology
That has been the trend we have seen with Microsoft lately—it is just getting more and more expensive.
Assistant Director, Hybrid Infrastructure & Operations at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
Given our extensive Microsoft licensing, transitioning to Defender for Endpoint did not affect licensing costs.
Team manager of it department at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
It costs $15 per VM for the P2 plan, which is seen as affordable for customers.
Snr. Infrastructure Architect (Data Centre) at LogicEra
 

Valuable Features

Check Point Harmony Endpoint excels in advanced threat prevention, ease of use, scalability, and comprehensive security features.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint excels with seamless integration, advanced threat intelligence, AI-driven protection, and continuous cloud-based security management.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint protects our company by warning us against clicking any malicious links and prevents our hosts from becoming vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
This feature is valuable for our customer because it stops threats before they reach users by scanning incoming files at the network gateway.
Cybersecurity Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The anti-ransomware and threat emulation features have significantly helped our organization as they prevent attackers from encrypting files during ransomware attacks, allowing the system to re-decrypt files and restore them to their original forms, effectively stopping ransomware attacks.
Technical Specialist at Softcell Technologies Limited
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.
Team manager of it department at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides a unified management interface allowing customers to manage their on-premises and hybrid infrastructures from a single pane.
Snr. Infrastructure Architect (Data Centre) at LogicEra
One of the best features of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is its database for identifying zero-day attacks or malware attacks.
Consultant at ACT4SERVICES
 

Categories and Ranking

Check Point Harmony Endpoint
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
4th
Ranking in Anti-Malware Tools
3rd
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
205
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
2nd
Ranking in Anti-Malware Tools
1st
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
210
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Check Point Harmony Endpoint is 2.3%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 8.2%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint8.2%
Check Point Harmony Endpoint2.3%
Other89.5%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

GR
Support at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Remote Access Security Reinforced with Real-Time Device Protection
Dashboard customization is needed for improvements. While the centralized management is strong, the dashboard could offer more flexibility. It would be helpful to tailor views for different roles, such as IT or security support. Regarding needed improvements, custom report building could be enhanced. Current reports are informative, and a drag-and-drop builder would allow teams to create tailored views for compliance, executive summaries, or operational metrics. For further improvements, enhancing threat simulation and testing would be valuable. Building a threat simulation tool and adding native capabilities to simulate phishing, malware, or ransomware scenarios will help teams validate protection and train users without relying on third-party tools.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business133
Midsize Enterprise69
Large Enterprise76
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business80
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise92
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
The platform's most valuable features are the ability to build API, which meets our business requirements, and the VPN client, which provides VPN access from a single client.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
My experience with pricing indicates that the costs have increased compared to last year. Previously, Check Point Harmony Endpoint offered competitive pricing for small user counts such as thirty-f...
What needs improvement with Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
Check Point Harmony Endpoint works well overall, but one area I would like to see improved is the reporting and dashboard experience. Sometimes the alerts are clear, but digging into historical dat...
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

Check Point Endpoint Security, Endpoint Security, Check Point SandBlast Agent, Check Point Antivirus
Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
 

Interactive Demo

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Boston Properties, Independence Care System, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), Courtagen Life Sciences, Carmel Partners
Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.