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CylanceOPTICS vs Microsoft Defender XDR 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
3.2
Users saw positive ROI from CylanceOPTICS with improved threat detection, cost savings, faster responses, and a user-friendly interface.
Sentiment score
6.7
Microsoft Defender XDR provides high ROI by consolidating security tools, streamlining operations, and enhancing security, despite licensing costs.
Many customers observe a return on investment with CylanceOPTICS since it works effectively without the need for an internet connection.
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
5.2
CylanceOPTICS' customer service is mixed, with effective higher-tier support but lacking initial assistance and geographical challenges.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Defender XDR's support is timely and responsive, yet smaller organizations experience slower, less effective assistance than larger ones.
When it comes to technical support provided by BlackBerry, my experience has been somewhat slow; if a problem arises, we often have to wait for a reply.
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
4.5
CylanceOPTICS is praised for scalability but faces mixed reviews, especially with larger enterprises and virtual machine demands.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender XDR scales well for various organizations, efficiently supporting growth and flexibility despite some network deployment challenges.
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
9.2
CylanceOPTICS is praised for its stability, reliability, and compatibility, excelling over McAfee despite minor issues with SentinelOne.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender XDR is praised for high stability, reliable performance, minimal issues, frequent updates, and prompt issue resolution.
Regarding stability, I have no complaints as CylanceOPTICS has proven to be totally stable, and as of now, we have not encountered any instability.
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

CylanceOPTICS needs enhancements in threat automation, detection, and management, facing issues with false positives and scalability.
Microsoft Defender XDR requires enhancements in speed, integration, automation, AI, ease-of-use, and industry-specific threat intelligence.
Whenever a ticket is raised by one of our customers, we have to wait for responses which can take a whole day due to the time zone differences, and a local team could expedite this process.
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

CylanceOPTICS pricing is competitive and affordable, with annual costs under $100 per client, often bundled with services.
Microsoft Defender XDR pricing is seen as complex but fair, with high costs alleviated in bundled Microsoft 365 packages.
In terms of cost, I find CylanceOPTICS to be reasonable; it's not overly expensive, nor is it at the lower end of the market—it's positioned in the medium range.
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

CylanceOPTICS provides AI-driven threat detection with auto-containment, script control, and behavior analytics, offering trusted, real-time security solutions.
Microsoft Defender XDR integrates tools for comprehensive security, offering threat detection, automation, identity protection, and enhanced efficiency.
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

CylanceOPTICS
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
40th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
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 CylanceOPTICS is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 2.9%, 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 XDR2.9%
CylanceOPTICS0.3%
Other96.8%
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

Featured Reviews

GauthamVakapalli - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides reliable threat detection and response but requires better regional support
One improvement I suggest for CylanceOPTICS is more robust marketing efforts from their side. Many customers gravitate towards popular EDRs like CrowdStrike or Sophos, largely due to better marketing, despite BlackBerry Cylance being a superior product. The lack of marketing from distributors or vendors is a critical area where they are falling short. Apart from marketing, it would be beneficial for CylanceOPTICS to establish a dedicated team in GCC since I coordinate with the UK team to handle support. Whenever a ticket is raised by one of our customers, we have to wait for responses which can take a whole day due to the time zone differences, and a local team could expedite this process. In terms of scalability, CylanceOPTICS is indeed easy to scale, but one issue I face is related to visibility; while it is scalable, the security teams struggle with limited visibility as we need to gather data from multiple sources.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
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 Business7
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise37
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Blackberry Optics?
I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. I would give it a close ten as possible because, like SentinelOne, I've seen incompatibility. Whereas Cylance, I've seen none.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Blackberry Optics?
In terms of cost, I find CylanceOPTICS to be reasonable; it's not overly expensive, nor is it at the lower end of the market—it's positioned in the medium range.
What needs improvement with Blackberry Optics?
One improvement I suggest for CylanceOPTICS is more robust marketing efforts from their side. Many customers gravitate towards popular EDRs like CrowdStrike or Sophos, largely due to better marketi...
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

No data available
Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cerdant, Washoe County School District
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about CylanceOPTICS vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,760 professionals have used our research since 2012.