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Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender External...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
33rd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Attack Surface Management (ASM) (15th)
Microsoft Purview Complianc...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
24th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (21st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 1.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager1.6%
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management1.3%
Other97.1%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

AndyChan3 - PeerSpot reviewer
General manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Enhanced visibility and exposes vulnerabilities but needs more integration
I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will move to full-scale production in another year, maybe Microsoft External Attack Surface Management…
reviewer2797275 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer at a leisure / travel company with 201-500 employees
Compliance reporting has provided governance insights and now needs faster expert support access
I would rate Microsoft Support a six or seven on a scale of one to ten, depending on who you get. Microsoft could potentially improve by being able to reach the right people immediately instead of having to deal with lower-level support staff. As an enterprise customer, having that enterprise liaison is beneficial. I have a single point of contact for issues. Previously, when this was first set up without that liaison, calling support meant getting level one support who could not help, then level two support who also could not help, and finally reaching someone who could actually assist. Having a designated Microsoft representative or support person is definitely key.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Microsoft External Attack Surface Management helps improve the visibility of my exposed vulnerabilities and provides an overview of my security posture across the globe."
"It seems to be better at protecting from cyberattacks."
"We have more visibility of data and how it is being shared."
"The setup complexity depends on what features you want to implement in Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager."
"Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's eDiscovery is essential for organizations using Outlook as their email service."
"The best aspect is that it requires little to no time for implementation if I am using all of Microsoft's tools."
"Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is tightly integrated with email solutions like Office 365."
"The data classification reporting is helping us figure out what and where our people are storing files and why."
"One of the valuable features of the tool is that it works effectively."
"Purview delivers data protection across multi-cloud and multi-platform environments."
 

Cons

"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."
"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."
"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."
"Integrating add-on licenses, which currently offer additional features at a cost, into the base product would be beneficial, especially for a charity organization to avoid incurring extra costs."
"Microsoft Purview has moved its portal from classic to premium with some display improvements, yet not much in options and functionalities."
"When I tried to set up Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager for my organization to ensure people are not sending PII documents, especially payment cards, using keywords for flagging, it disrupted our services, so we had to deactivate it."
"We'd like to see the solution expanded to include firewalls and endpoints."
"One area for improvement is the technical support for Purview. With all the other solutions from Microsoft we get really good technical support, but with Purview we had a compliance error and we couldn't find the solution. Purview would not point us to the correct solution, it just indicated the error. We had to troubleshoot it and find out what led to this error. We contacted technical support but it took them one week to identify the root cause of the error."
"We've had issues with data connectors for Teams."
"There could be improved automation for handling tasks in bulk or in an automated way."
"Policy configuration, particularly for web interfaces and OCR scanning, presents challenges."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The pricing and licensing are moderate because we have other licenses for Microsoft services. The pricing is in line with that."
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909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?
Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement. Introduction of more AI automation into the products would also be beneficial. The integration is not as seamless co...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?
I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
The pricing and setup cost is comparable to everything else that would be available regarding licensing. It was not excessively expensive. It is another expense to manage, but paying for the soluti...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is used for governance and checking to ensure that what is being put out there is correct and is not violating any corporate policies. We use it for data classi...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
I have experience with IronScales by chance or other similar products. It was not purchased through AWS Marketplace but was purchased through a vendor. We do deal with Intune with Microsoft. I have...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Compliance Manager
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.