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Digital Guardian vs Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 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
7.5
Digital Guardian improved data protection, reduced breach risks, ensured compliance, saved money, and enhanced security and operational efficiency.
Sentiment score
5.6
Determining ROI from Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is challenging due to package inclusion and unclear financial benefits.
As a Microsoft partner, we receive significant discounts, making the solution affordable for us.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Digital Guardian offers 24/7 global customer support with quick issue resolution, though some users face delays and varying service quality.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender's customer service receives mixed reviews, highlighting inconsistent support and varying effectiveness in technical assistance.
They are sometimes responsive, however, often issues cannot be reproduced on their end, making it challenging.
The support we receive from Microsoft is declining, and for example, after taking advanced support, we have not received satisfactory answers.
My team raised multiple support tickets for the product, and we were able to get responses from Microsoft support team.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Digital Guardian is scalable, handling hundreds to thousands of users efficiently, with unified server management and straightforward licensing.
Sentiment score
8.4
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is praised for its high scalability and seamless integration, receiving consistently high user ratings.
It is scalable; I evaluated the product and decided to use Defender on over 700 of our company servers.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Digital Guardian is reliable and performs well, though some users face challenges with agent stability requiring regular updates and support.
Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Defender is rated highly stable with 99% availability, despite minor portal, compatibility, logging, and memory issues.
There are compatibility issues occasionally arising with false positives when other security tools are not whitelisted in Microsoft Defender.
It is very resource-intensive, consuming a lot of memory and CPU.
I would rate the overall stability as an eight.
 

Room For Improvement

Digital Guardian needs better Linux/Mac support, stability, compatibility updates, multilingual dictionaries, pre-sales support, partner program, and technical support.
Microsoft Defender needs improvements in accuracy, customization, integration, resource efficiency, macOS support, user-friendliness, and affordability.
This scoring should be for specific industries as well. If I belong to the healthcare industry using Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management, it should provide me with a risk score and show how I fare against the risk score of my industry.
Sometimes, it takes one week, when it should ideally take only one to two hours.
The product is not stable; it often uses excessive memory and CPU, which makes it slow.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender offers varying pricing; complex licensing may incur additional costs, but security benefits can justify the investment.
For non-partners, however, the cost could be seen as higher, between seven to ten.
Overall, every organization wishes for cheaper options, but we look at the security side as well, so we are good for now.
The pricing is reasonable, and it's included in the whole Microsoft E5 bundle, so it's all-inclusive.
 

Valuable Features

Digital Guardian excels in data protection, boasting extensive features, stability, scalability, ease of setup, and high user satisfaction.
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management excels in integration, compliance, risk prioritization, and real-time assessments, enhancing security across diverse environments.
The main advantage of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is that it can locate and prevent most threats even when the endpoints are not connected to the corporate network, as long as the internet is available.
A valuable feature is the ease of management and integration with Microsoft products.
It shows us the recommended plan, along with vulnerabilities and remediation options, which is one of my favorite parts.
 

Categories and Ranking

Digital Guardian
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
24th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (13th), Endpoint Encryption (8th), Mobile Data Protection (6th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (41st)
Microsoft Defender Vulnerab...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (12th), Microsoft Security Suite (21st), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Digital Guardian is 1.1%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

Sandeep Jopat - PeerSpot reviewer
Highly customizable, helpful support, and multiple modules available
Digital Guardian is generally considered stable, with its robust data loss prevention capabilities being highly valued by organizations. However, as with any complex software solution, there may be occasional challenges in terms of compatibility with certain operating systems or applications. In such cases, it may be necessary to modify settings or entries within Digital Guardian to ensure optimal performance. Overall, Digital Guardian is a stable solution that can be highly customized to meet the specific needs and requirements of organizations. As with any software solution, regular maintenance and support from a team of experts is necessary to ensure optimal performance and stability.
NaySan @ Suraj Verma - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides actionable vulnerability insights and recommendations with notable efficiency
They may need to improve the portal refresh rate for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management because it takes time for recommendations to disappear after mitigation; sometimes, it takes one week, when it should ideally take only one to two hours. Overall, everything is good with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management, but the portal refresh rate can take up to seven days in some cases and three or four days in others to reflect changes.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Digital Guardian?
I like the solution's adaptive inspection and container inspection.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Digital Guardian?
Technical support is included in the subscription package. But if, during the subscription, our clients want to include the professional services of a Digital Guardian engineer, the price changes. ...
What needs improvement with Digital Guardian?
If the client uses Windows 10 or 11 and Microsoft updates the operating system's version, Digital Guardian must update their product to match compatibility.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
I would rate the price as a three for us due to the partnership discounts. For non-partners, however, the cost could be seen as higher, between seven to ten.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
I have not thought about improvements for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management as of now, but this is typically an operational maintenance process. The operational maintenance process refers...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The Fifth Avenue Theatre, Jabil Circuit
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Digital Guardian vs. Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.