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Huntress Managed ITDR vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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
5.0
Huntress Managed ITDR boosts efficiency and security with self-reliance, offering a 20% return and commercial growth benefits.
Sentiment score
6.9
Organizations report financial and operational benefits from Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, including improved security, automation, and cost reduction.
I really value how Huntress does most of the heavy lifting and monitoring for the identities.
President / Cybersecurity Consultant at a tech company with 1-10 employees
You will not be able to beat Huntress Managed ITDR on pricing, and that is considering the capabilities Huntress Managed ITDR provides at their price level.
SOC Analyst L2 at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
I think for the general price of however much it is per user, in comparison to the cost of a breach, the ROI is pretty well guaranteed the minute you set it up.
Senior Security Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
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
8.4
Huntress Managed ITDR provides responsive, knowledgeable support, ensuring quick resolutions and positive, professional interactions rated highly by customers.
Sentiment score
6.3
Microsoft support is praised for responsiveness and knowledge, but varies in quality; documentation and complex issue resolution need improvement.
They are quick to respond and help us explain why Huntress marked an identity in a certain way.
Cybersecurity Admin at a pharma/biotech company with 201-500 employees
I chose a rating of 10 for Huntress Managed ITDR because of the ease with which I can reach support.
Owner And Founder at Toucan Technology Group
I would rate the customer support a 10 out of 10.
IT Technician at a consultancy with 11-50 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
Huntress Managed ITDR offers seamless scalability and integration, efficiently supporting diverse user needs while preventing performance issues.
Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable, seamlessly accommodating large environments with flexible deployment and integration with Microsoft's ecosystem.
I've never had limitations on scaling or performance issues.
CTO at Accent Consulting
Huntress Managed ITDR is protecting about 120 users. In terms of the people that log into it, it's two or three IT admins, but we've got 120 licenses, so it's protecting 120 Microsoft accounts.
Head of IT at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Whether there are ten users or three hundred, it attaches to the Microsoft tenant, making it effortless to scale.
Business Owner at Royal IT
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
9.2
Huntress Managed ITDR offers dependable, seamless performance with high stability, rare downtime, easy deployment, and automatic updates.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is reliable and efficient, with minor update issues, praised for integration and performance.
I would rate the stability of Huntress Managed ITDR as a ten, as I have not really experienced any downtime, bugs, or glitches.
Security Administrator at Charles IT
In terms of stability, the solution is very stable, and the cloud platform itself is reliable.
President / Cybersecurity Consultant at a tech company with 1-10 employees
Once it is deployed, it updates automatically and takes care of itself.
SOC Analyst L2 at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
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

Huntress Managed ITDR needs better detection customization, UI improvements, advanced reporting, seamless integration, and performance enhancements.
Microsoft Defender users seek better AI integration, customer support, UI, security, customization, visibility, threat response, and simpler pricing.
Their support has been excellent, often providing clear solutions and accessible knowledge base articles.
Owner And Founder at Toucan Technology Group
There's a confusing aspect with the escalation options; applying conditions to a specific identity is not immediately visible and requires using a three-dot menu.
Business Owner at Royal IT
It's a very simple and easy-to-use interface in terms of recommendations and feedback.
Head of IT at a tech services company 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

Huntress Managed ITDR offers competitive and fair pricing, appreciated for affordability and no setup costs, despite some expense concerns.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers flexible licensing, integrating with Microsoft 365, providing cost-effective, feature-rich enterprise security solutions.
Compared to other companies, Huntress keeps costs reasonable, offering 24/7 vigilance without price gouging.
Business Owner at Royal IT
I think it was two or three dollars a user a month.
Head of IT at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The licensing cost, again, is a good price point that allows me to add it on to clients and it becomes a no-brainer for them to add it because the price of the service makes sense.
Director at Cloud4 Technology Limited
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

Huntress Managed ITDR provides rapid deployment, real-time threat detection, and scalable security, enhancing client protection and SOC support.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers seamless integration and advanced threat protection with centralized management and low resource usage for enterprises.
It provides protection against M365 identity compromises, like admin account breaches.
Business Owner at Royal IT
The best features of the solution are the fact that there are real people behind it who watch the alerts and then escalate as required, and the fact that there is an immediate support team or SOC team behind it if we have any questions.
Head of IT at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The best feature is the lack of false positives; when we receive an alert from Huntress Managed ITDR, the majority of the time they are true positives that are actionable, unlike some other tools which generate a lot of noise.
Security Administrator at Charles IT
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

Huntress Managed ITDR
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (4th)
Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
212
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (5th), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Huntress Managed ITDR is designed for Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) and holds a mindshare of 6.3%, up 2.4% compared to last year.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, on the other hand, focuses on Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP), holds 6.8% mindshare, down 10.7% since last year.
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Huntress Managed ITDR6.3%
CrowdStrike Falcon12.2%
Microsoft Defender for Identity8.9%
Other72.6%
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint6.8%
CrowdStrike Falcon6.0%
SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint4.6%
Other82.6%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Jeremy Harlan - PeerSpot reviewer
SOC Analyst L2 at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Managed detection has stopped account takeovers and has strengthened our incident response playbooks
Their threat analytics and process insights are exceptional. When Huntress Managed ITDR finds malware, a virus, or a phishing email, their analytics have improved significantly over time. I remember when they were not very detailed, but now they provide comprehensive information down to the specific type of dependency affected on a host machine. They show us exactly where all the infected files are located on the computer, which makes cleanup straightforward and invaluable. I know they partner with Microsoft, and if you have Huntress Managed ITDR and Microsoft Defender, it is truly near real-time as stated. That is a very accurate claim.
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
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business82
Midsize Enterprise45
Large Enterprise96
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Huntress Managed ITDR?
We've only had it a few months officially billed with an actual build of it. If I had to say a dislike would be I wish there was a little bit more customization. Right now, it's just out of the box...
What is your primary use case for Huntress Managed ITDR?
For us, it's more for managing and giving us visibility outside of the normal 8-to-5 or 9-to-5 business hours. For us, it's managing all the user identities and making sure that they're secure, eve...
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

No data available
Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
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