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Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery comparison

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management and Microsoft Purview eDiscovery are both solutions in the Microsoft Security Suite category. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is ranked #33 with an average rating of 7.5, while Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is ranked #22 with an average rating of 7.8. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management holds a 0.8% mindshare in Microsoft Security Suite, compared to Microsoft Purview eDiscovery’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Defender External...
Read 2 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management reviews
  • 1,123 Views
  • 225 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Read 8 Microsoft Purview eDiscovery reviews
  • 2,518 Views
  • 428 Comparison Views
87% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management and Microsoft Purview eDiscovery based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Microsoft Security Suite solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Report (Updated: December 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
December 2025
Download the complete report
Helped 881,114 peers since 2012

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 eDiscovery
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
22nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
eDiscovery (1st)
 

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 eDiscovery is 1.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery1.5%
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management0.8%
Other97.7%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

AndyChan3 - PeerSpot reviewer
AndyChan3
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…
Read full review
reviewer2595618 - PeerSpot reviewer
reviewer2595618
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Has made it significantly easier to handle rare litigation requests
The speed of it is valuable. I am able to search even 10,000 mailboxes for specific content. It helps search and accommodate the often limited information provided by users regarding what they need. It provides a solid starting point, and then we are able to refine the data from there. That has been very helpful because we do not always get enough information from our users to know what to look for. For example, a user is missing an email from x date but does not know anything else. In such a case, I give them a list of emails to look at so that they can tell me what they are missing. It is not a lack of the tool. It is more of a lack of the user providing info.
Read full review

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."
"Our legal team benefits from using Microsoft Purview eDiscovery."
"The return on investment is saving the equivalent of one or two full-time IT department employees and a few hours per week for legal staff."
"The most valuable features are automatic content logging tagging. Performing these tasks manually would be impossible. Since most of our data is already in Microsoft, it's convenient to run it through this tool."
"Purview eDiscovery has made it significantly easier to handle rare litigation requests."
"Microsoft Purview eDiscovery has saved me personally a lot of time because I can query it, and it touches everything we have as a full Microsoft shop."
"Tasks that took an entire day before we implemented Purview now take just 30 minutes."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is its ability to search across various platforms, including Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive. It enables a streamlined, unified process for searching across these platforms."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is the content search. We can use it to find the data we need by searching for keywords, phrases, or the sender or recipient. It helps us gather information from current employees or ones who have left the company."
More Microsoft Purview eDiscovery pros
 

Cons

"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."
"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."
"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."
"The query language can be time-consuming to figure out if you don't know it initially. While there are options with dropdowns to select criteria, having a natural language feature would be beneficial. Copilot is expected to add such functionality in the future."
"We find that many critical functions are available only to E5 license holders. It would be beneficial to have more options available for E3 customers. Enhanced Teams functionalities and better capture of text message data, both SMS and MMS, would also be improvements."
"I see two significant challenges with many of my clients. One is that there are some functionality gaps compared to specialized tools in the legal industry, like a legal hold tool or a document review tool. They have features that Purview eDiscovery lacks. Those gaps create a situation where I almost have to do things twice. I need to collect all my data in eDiscovery and ship it to another platform to complete the review."
"The sorting and filtering of the result data need improvement, and the interface for writing queries is not user-friendly for business users. We still need all the backend stuff. We have to use Graph API to interface with everything and create custom interfaces on the front end to make it easier for the end users, which is costly. The reporting, sorting, and filtering capabilities that other products have aren't available natively in Purview."
"Purview eDiscovery works, but it's not entirely perfect. There were times when search results would get hung up or error codes would be presented and we'd have to contact Microsoft to get that sorted out."
"The sorting and filtering of the result data need improvement, and the interface for writing queries is not user-friendly for business users."
"I would suggest adding more platforms. Currently, it's compatible with OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint, and Exchange. Adding more features, as Microsoft continues to expand their cloud offerings, would be beneficial. Exploring options like Azure Files might be an avenue for improvement."
"Microsoft Purview eDiscovery should be cheaper."
More Microsoft Purview eDiscovery cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"With the full bundle, pricing is not a significant concern. As an M3, I find the Purview pricing of 1250 per user worthwhile."
"The costs associated with E5 licensing are currently expensive for us, so we use the E3 license, which comes with fewer features and functionalities."
"The pricing and licensing with Microsoft can be complex, and licensing is known to be a challenge because it changes frequently. While the licensing for Purview is not as tricky as other Microsoft products, navigating licenses since the shift to E3 and E5 plans has been a task, as individual licenses must now be purchased separately."
"In the positions that I've had through contracting over the years, I've heard talk of it being overpriced and underperforming compared to its competitors."
"Microsoft Purview eDiscovery comes as part of Microsoft 365 licenses."
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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%
Government
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?
I rate the pricing of the solution as eight out of ten.
See all answers
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...
See all answers
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 ...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?
The setup process was very straightforward. We acquired pricing through our reseller in NASDAQ, eliminating the need to search for prices ourselves.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?
The query language can be time-consuming to figure out if you don't know it initially. While there are options with dropdowns to select criteria, having a natural language feature would be benefici...
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?
I sometimes use it for legal holds or to find lost items, and to determine what is going on. However, most of the time, my use case is legal-related.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

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Compared 9% of the time
Darktrace vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management Logo
Darktrace vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
Compared 8% of the time
Bitsight vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management Logo
Bitsight vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
Compared 8% of the time
Mandiant Advantage vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management Logo
Mandiant Advantage vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management
Compared 8% of the time
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Google Vault vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Logo
Google Vault vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Compared 27% of the time
Relativity vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Logo
Relativity vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Compared 9% of the time
Varonis Platform vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Logo
Varonis Platform vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Compared 7% of the time
Exterro vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Logo
Exterro vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Compared 6% of the time
Microsoft Purview Audit vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Logo
Microsoft Purview Audit vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Compared 4% of the time
More Microsoft Purview eDiscovery Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Attack Surface Management (ASM)
January 2026
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management reportDownload Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management product report
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
January 2026
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery reportDownload Microsoft Purview eDiscovery product report
 

Overview

In this era of hybrid work, shadow IT creates an increasingly serious security risk. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management helps cloud security teams see unknown and unmanaged resources outside the firewall.

Microsoft

Efficiently respond to legal matters or internal investigations with intelligent capabilities that reduce data to only what’s relevant. Discover data where it lives. Discover and collect data in place, within your Microsoft Purview boundary. Manage workflows efficiently. Streamline your eDiscovery process with an end-to-end workflow from one platform. Accelerate your process. Get insights quickly with built-in capabilities, reducing review time and costs.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
December 2025
Free Report: Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
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