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Check Point Harmony Endpoint 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.3
Organizations praise Check Point Harmony Endpoint for enhanced security, cost savings, improved performance, reduced alerts, and quick ROI.
Sentiment score
7.3
Organizations achieve financial gains and efficiency by using Microsoft Defender, eliminating third-party solutions, and enhancing security management.
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.
The product is affordable and provides excellent coverage and protection across multiple platforms.
I have seen a return on investment with Check Point Harmony Endpoint, as it has saved money and time due to the minimum disruption of production hours, which allows users to focus on their main tasks and desired targets, avoiding downtime and contributing to business growth.
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.
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.
The biggest return on investment for me when using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the time saving.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Check Point Harmony Endpoint's support is knowledgeable and flexible but needs quicker response times and improved training.
Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft's Defender for Endpoint support is generally effective but experiences vary; premium options offer swift, knowledgeable assistance.
We use premium support, and it is beneficial as 24/7 support is available.
While they handle simple issues quickly, resolution for more complex problems can take four to six months.
Only email support is available, leading to delays in getting assistance.
The level-one support seems disconnected from subject matter experts.
I rate Microsoft support 10 out of 10.
Due to our size, we don't have access to direct technical support, but the knowledge base, Microsoft Learn, and the articles available are really good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.7
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is scalable and adaptable, efficiently managing thousands of endpoints with a flexible, central management console.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint efficiently scales with diverse enterprises, integrates seamlessly with Microsoft products, supporting growth effectively.
We initially purchased only 100 licenses and as we grew, we acquired many more licenses without encountering any issues.
Allowing us to add more users or endpoints for protection as our organization grows without any issues.
The scalability of Check Point Harmony Endpoint is effective, as it manages behaviors, process trees, and analysis in a centralized way.
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.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable enough to handle various devices across environments, whether they are laptops, Android devices, or operating in hybrid environments.
Compatibility is its main feature.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is highly stable, reliable, and efficient, with minor backend issues and supports large-scale environments.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is praised for stability, efficiency, and low resource impact, despite minor occasional bugs.
The stability of the tool is high, as I have not experienced any downtime.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable for our organization size of 1,000 to 10,000 members.
Occasionally, there are some backend issues where the tenant is down, but apart from that, Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable and working effectively.
I haven't seen any outages with Microsoft.
I rate Defender 10 out of 10 for stability.
Defender for Endpoint is extremely stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Check Point Harmony Endpoint needs compatibility improvements, streamlined deployment, better support, and optimized performance, especially for older systems.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint struggles with support, integration, UI, performance issues, and lacks essential features and platform support.
Better technical support would enhance the product's competitiveness.
High resource consumption, requiring high-performance PCs on our endpoint site.
The Endpoint Agent can be more lightweight so that older machines and laptops can easily handle its consumption.
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.
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.
Providing more detailed information on how Microsoft Defender for Endpoint detects vulnerabilities.
 

Setup Cost

Check Point Harmony Endpoint is valued for robust security and flexible licensing, though perceived as costly by some users.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers cost-effective, flexible pricing options integrated with Microsoft services, including discounts for education and volume.
It is not expensive and provides comprehensive coverage.
Pricing is a bit expensive but justified by the product’s features, capabilities, and scalability.
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing reveals that while it is a bit higher than previous SMB devices, the pricing is worth it for what we are getting in terms of protection and features.
Given our extensive Microsoft licensing, transitioning to Defender for Endpoint did not affect licensing costs.
It costs $15 per VM for the P2 plan, which is seen as affordable for customers.
The pricing, setup, and licensing were very easy and simple.
 

Valuable Features

Check Point Harmony Endpoint offers centralized management, enhancing security and efficiency with robust protection, integration, and scalability features.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers seamless integration, real-time protection, and automated response, ensuring robust security with minimal impact.
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.
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.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint offers top tier security, AI-powered threat prevention, and strong scalability, which stand out as the best features.
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.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides a unified management interface allowing customers to manage their on-premises and hybrid infrastructures from a single pane.
One of the best features of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is its database for identifying zero-day attacks or malware attacks.
 

Categories and Ranking

Check Point Harmony Endpoint
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
6th
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
119
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
1st
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
197
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (4th), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Check Point Harmony Endpoint is 2.2%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 10.6%, down from 14.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Nasseer Qureshi - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive defensive features boost daily protection and efficiency
I see a need for improvement especially in policy management and policy customization with Check Point Harmony Endpoint. As a new user, I find it somewhat difficult to customize and apply policies due to the various options available. I would appreciate improvement in fine-tuning those policies and integrating with other tools, such as being able to send logs from Check Point to our SIM or syslog solution. The user interface is good, and I really appreciate it, but improvements are needed in policy customization and integration with third-party products. Additionally, I would prefer to see a mechanism to send agents directly from the console to an endpoint during installation.
Sudhen Swami - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to update with good protection and a useful cloud portal
We've mainly used it for endpoints. However, we've also used it for DLP as well. We're also in the process of implementing it for cloud and identity as well. However, it's very good for endpoints, and that's our main focus. The malware protection is good. The visibility it provides is very useful. We can combine visibility with wider security features and alerts around malware, misconfiguration, or any other kinds of threats. The cloud portal is quite good. From there, we are able to see alerts and have colleagues review issues and monitor to see if any patterns arise. It's serving us quite well overall. It allows us to look at other items, like application and browser control. It helps us prioritize threats. We have a process in place now where we can review issues and remediate them effectively. We have been able to integrate a variety of Microsoft security products together. We use Azure AD, for example, and we've begun to implement DLP, among other items. We're looking at labeling and tagging and will expand into that soon. Defender has more stringent system requirements than, for example, Check Point. So when we implemented the Check Point Endpoint agent, that solution didn't mind what version of Windows you were using. When we moved to Defender, Defender had certain system prerequisites that had to be met. So we had to make sure that we're on a minimum version of Windows when we're utilizing Office, and Office has to be a particular version as well. It has more stringent system requirements that have to be met before you can implement it. It works natively together with other Microsoft solutions. Once you get more and more of those different components across the environment, then you start to get better visibility. So, rather than having lots of different solutions, you have fewer solutions and a single vendor solution. That way, you start getting into a position where you get better visibility and integration as well. The standardization is good. It's important. It's helping me with monitoring and learning. Updates and upgrades are quite smooth and seamless. Defender helps us automate routine tasks. Quite a lot of Microsoft is straightforward for us now. Previously, we didn't have enough resources and were unable to look at the alerts. Having this in place makes things a lot more straightforward for us. We have both the technology and the people in place now, alongside the process. We do see the benefits in that, and that's why we're continuing our adoption across the estate in terms of client and server as well. It's helping us avoid looking at multiple dashboards and centralized monitoring. We're not fully there yet. We're getting there. While we haven't witnessed time saving yet, once it's fully deployed, it will. By then, we'll have standardized processes across a single solution. We have saved money, however, as we continue to reduce non-Mircosft systems. Since we won't be using various competing technologies, we can save on licensing costs. We've likely so far saved 15%. While it's hard to estimate exactly how much, the solution has helped us decrease time to detection and time to respond.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Educational Organization
19%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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, setup costs, and licensing reveals that while it is a bit higher than previous SMB devices, the pricing is worth it for what we are getting in terms of protection and fe...
What needs improvement with Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
Regarding improvements for Check Point Harmony Endpoint, I note that I am using the 1600 versions of the Quantum Spark, and certain options are not available in the dashboard; thus, I selected this...
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
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: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.