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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) (14th)
Microsoft Purview Complianc...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 0.8%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager1.6%
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management0.8%
Other97.6%
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…
AO
System Administrator at Templars
Opportunities for improvement overshadow benefits
Microsoft support is great overall. However, their business model of outsourcing to third-party partners, especially in Nigeria with tech experts and other partners, needs improvement. I have raised tickets and worked with these support teams. Microsoft needs to address how partners treat their technical support staff. The quality of support is affected because most support staff seem focused on obtaining five-star ratings rather than resolving problems thoroughly. This appears to be due to the pressure from partners and Microsoft's feedback metrics system. They often rush to close tickets without deeply investigating complaints. From the level of support received, I usually try to resolve issues independently. I rate the engineers favorably understanding their pressures, even when issues remain unresolved. Overall, I would rate Microsoft Support five out of 10.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It seems to be better at protecting from cyberattacks."
"Microsoft External Attack Surface Management helps improve the visibility of my exposed vulnerabilities and provides an overview of my security posture across the globe."
"Microsoft External Attack Surface Management helps improve the visibility of my exposed vulnerabilities and provides an overview of my security posture across the globe."
"We move data between clouds and also from on-premises to the cloud. There is no other mechanism to check if this data is moving according to industry standards for such things as security, bandwidth, and SSL encryption mechanism. We would not be able to see these metrics without Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager."
"The stability is a ten out of ten."
"The setup complexity depends on what features you want to implement in Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager."
"Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is tightly integrated with email solutions like Office 365."
"Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is necessary when using Outlook."
"The most valuable feature is its ability to apply regulations and ensure compliance with various policies. It also provides tools for investigation, risk assessment, and security score evaluations."
"Purview delivers data protection across multi-cloud and multi-platform environments."
"Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's eDiscovery is essential for organizations using Outlook as their email service."
 

Cons

"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."
"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."
"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."
"There could be improved automation for handling tasks in bulk or in an automated way."
"We've had issues with data connectors for Teams."
"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."
"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."
"Policy configuration, particularly for web interfaces and OCR scanning, presents challenges."
"The speed and accessibility, particularly in the user interface, require significant work."
"The speed and accessibility, particularly in the user interface, require significant work."
 

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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
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?
While not cheap, Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors. Additional costs may involve OCR page scanning.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
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 o...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
I have limited experience with the templates in Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager. Our organization hasn't fully utilized the solution beyond checking compliance scores and adjusting basic setti...
 

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: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.