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Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 17, 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
6.7
Users experience increased ROI with Check Point Harmony Endpoint through reduced incidents, improved visibility, and significant cost savings.
Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Defender XDR provides high ROI by consolidating security tools, streamlining operations, and enhancing security, despite licensing costs.
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.
We can quarantine and isolate a device within minutes.
Microsoft Defender XDR has saved me at least 50% of my time.
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.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Check Point Harmony Endpoint support is responsive and helpful, though some users desire quicker response times and increased expertise.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Defender XDR's support is timely and responsive, yet smaller organizations experience slower, less effective assistance than larger ones.
The customer support for Check Point Harmony Endpoint deserves a rating of 10.
We use premium support, and it is beneficial as 24/7 support is available.
I have opened several cases and they were handled very efficiently and quickly.
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
7.8
Check Point Harmony Endpoint excels in scalability, offering seamless deployment and management for organizations of all sizes with ease.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender XDR scales well for various organizations, efficiently supporting growth and flexibility despite some network deployment challenges.
We initially purchased only 100 licenses and as we grew, we acquired many more licenses without encountering any issues.
Proactive features help guard against data breaches and vulnerabilities.
Allowing us to add more users or endpoints for protection as our organization grows without any issues.
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
7.7
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is highly stable, providing reliable protection with minimal issues, efficiently managing security without impacting performance.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender XDR is praised for high stability, reliable performance, minimal issues, frequent updates, and prompt issue resolution.
The stability of the tool is high, as I have not experienced any downtime.
Occasionally, there are some backend issues where the tenant is down, but apart from that, Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable and working effectively.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable and we can improve our scalability significantly with it.
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

Check Point Harmony Endpoint needs improvements in compatibility, resource use, user interface, support, and pricing for better user experience.
Microsoft Defender XDR requires enhancements in speed, integration, automation, AI, ease-of-use, and industry-specific threat intelligence.
Principally regarding the system performance, Check Point Harmony Endpoint impacts us significantly, and addressing this issue would make a substantial difference.
Extending that window would help security teams conduct deeper forensic investigations and meet compliance requirements more easily.
Better technical support would enhance the product's competitiveness.
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

Check Point Harmony Endpoint offers flexible, competitively priced licenses, with options for negotiated rates and potential additional costs for premium features.
Microsoft Defender XDR pricing is seen as complex but fair, with high costs alleviated in bundled Microsoft 365 packages.
It is not expensive and provides comprehensive coverage.
Pricing is a bit expensive but justified by the product’s features, capabilities, and scalability.
The pricing for Check Point Antivirus is a bit higher compared to other vendors or standalone antivirus options.
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

Check Point Harmony Endpoint delivers comprehensive security with features like anti-ransomware, threat emulation, and centralized management for improved protection.
Microsoft Defender XDR integrates tools for comprehensive security, offering threat detection, automation, identity protection, and enhanced efficiency.
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.
This feature is valuable for our customer because it stops threats before they reach users by scanning incoming files at the network gateway.
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.
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

Check Point Harmony Endpoint
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
190
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (4th), Anti-Malware Tools (4th)
Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Check Point Harmony Endpoint is 2.8%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 2.8%, down from 3.7% 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 XDR2.8%
Check Point Harmony Endpoint2.8%
Other94.4%
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

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.
MohtesanShaikh - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience improves security management and simplifies threat protection
I have created automated investigations, and while they work, they operate rather slowly in the Microsoft portal. If I automate something, it takes considerable time; if I do it manually, I can complete it in a quarter of the time. The automation response being slow is the main concern; when an incident occurs or if I run a remediation, it takes significant time to complete the remediation. There are some limitations regarding the scalability of Microsoft Defender XDR with specific licensing. For SMB customers, there is only Microsoft Defender for Business, and if they want more features such as XDR features and automation investigation or incident response, they need to purchase Defender for Endpoint. We are currently using the EDR.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions are best for your needs.
872,778 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business120
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise76
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise37
 

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?
The pricing and the license for Check Point Harmony Endpoint are reasonable and competitive.
What needs improvement with Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
There are areas where Check Point Harmony Endpoint could improve to enhance our experience, such as performance optimization. Some users have reported high resource consumption, leading to performa...
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?
The pricing for Microsoft Sentinel operates on a pay-as-you-go model based on data ingestion. I recall that Defender XDR pricing is based on the number of endpoints.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
I have created automated investigations, and while they work, they operate rather slowly in the Microsoft portal. If I automate something, it takes considerable time; if I do it manually, I can com...
 

Also Known As

Check Point Endpoint Security, Endpoint Security, Check Point SandBlast Agent, Check Point Antivirus
Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Boston Properties, Independence Care System, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), Courtagen Life Sciences, Carmel Partners
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,778 professionals have used our research since 2012.