Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection comparison

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management and Microsoft Purview Information Protection 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 Information Protection is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management holds a 0.3% mindshare in Microsoft Security Suite, compared to Microsoft Purview Information Protection’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of Microsoft Purview Information Protection users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Defender External...

Read 2 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management reviews

905 Views
136 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Purview Informati...

Read 14 Microsoft Purview Information Protection reviews

1,954 Views
782 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender External...

Microsoft Purview Informati...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management and Microsoft Purview Information Protection 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.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection

July 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 865,384 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

Ranking in other categories

Attack Surface Management (ASM) (13th)

Microsoft Purview Informati...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Governance (5th), Data Privacy Management Software (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Information Protection is 1.3%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

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

Abhi T

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Achieve comprehensive data protection with reliable performance and room for enhanced discovery accuracy

The product is still in a growing phase. I could see that many use cases in their product are not capable enough in terms of detecting or protecting. Compared to other products, they are in the middle of bringing their solution up to the mark, so it is not a full-grown solution. They have to get more accurate results in terms of data discovery and classification. The second thing is their support; support from Microsoft takes a lot of time to get a response from their support team. The third thing is their OCR capability is not that great in terms of identifying the documents. We would love to see response times of less than 24 hours. Additionally, there is no way to check the policy's current status in terms of whether it got synced or not. You have to wait and test the use cases after 24 hours or after 48 hours, and once it starts working, then it appears the policy got implemented.

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

"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."

"The reporting capabilities of Microsoft Purview are crucial. They provide insights into potentially non-compliant situations and suggest ways to rectify them. The solution helps to automate many tasks, allowing human operators to focus on areas where they offer the most value."

"The UI is user-friendly, and I have observed that it improves further each year."

"Microsoft Purview Information Protection supports data classification, sensitivity labels, and data loss prevention."

"I created training materials for end users on applying different labels, explaining their purposes, and providing examples. This was crucial since end users would apply the labels in different protection scenarios. The implementation helped the organization in several ways."

"The simplicity of the way we can configure the DLP rules in Microsoft Purview Information Protection is good."

"The scalability of Microsoft Purview Information Protection is excellent."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Purview Information Protection is its ability to respond to sensitive data shared on Teams chat by deleting the message, not just monitoring or logging."

"The user interface is nice and it's very user-friendly on that front."

More Microsoft Purview Information Protection pros

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."

"I am concerned about its accuracy levels. Sometimes it throws a lot of false positives."

"Microsoft can improve the affordability of Purview Information Protection by offering it at a lower cost."

"Purview could better integrate with third-party tools, but I don't have a specific use case for that because It's currently integrated into the managed services we offer to Microsoft customers using E5 licenses."

"There should be more training and communication regarding new features. I may be missing those communications, but it often seems like changes happen in the Purview portal without notice. Having a roadmap or updates about new releases would be helpful for demonstrating to clients. If things are constantly changing, I sometimes look silly when I log in, and things have moved or changed."

"I rate Microsoft support six out of 10. Response times are a challenge. It's hard to be an ambassador for a product when you know it will be hard to get support."

"Microsoft customer service is hit or miss. Sometimes, I get a fast and knowledgeable response, while other times, I've experienced delays and received no resolution."

"There is room for improvement with the policy tips feature."

"I wouldn't recommend Microsoft Purview Information Protection for petabytes of documents as performance might be affected."

More Microsoft Purview Information Protection cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The product is affordable, and our clients agree. Sensitivity labels come with the MIP license at an additional $2 a month per user, an excellent deal for auto-labeling capabilities."

"The pricing and setup costs are transferred to my clients, who find it affordable and are satisfied with what they receive."

"The tool's pricing is not a problem for customers because they often purchase it as part of a bundle. With an E5 license, for example, users get access to the entire functionality. This is one of the main reasons why many customers are choosing Microsoft."

"The price is determined by the enterprise licensing, either the E3 or E5 licensing or the EMS plus security and other feature licensing."

"The tool's pricing is fairly low, less than 100,000 for a year."

"Initially, Purview's cost seemed quite high because it was for personal use. I was scanning a tiny tenant and thinking, "If I extrapolate this to an enterprise-scale tenant, it will be quite costly." However, I talked to people who had compared it to other products on the market, and they're spending five figures to get started. At least, Purview has a free trial, so you can try some of the features early on."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Microsoft Security Suite solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

13%

Retailer

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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?

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

It ensures that sensitive data is automatically safeguarded, even for email attachments, regardless of the user or device.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

Pricing is good because if somebody is looking for an overall cybersecurity solution, Microsoft has one license with many solutions bundled with that license. The E5 license covers most of the solu...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

See all answers

Comparisons

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 18% of the time

Bitsight vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 14% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 13% of the time

Tenable Attack Surface Management vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 12% of the time

Darktrace vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 11% of the time

More Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management Competitors

Varonis Platform vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 17% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 8% of the time

Securiti vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 8% of the time

More Microsoft Purview Information Protection Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Attack Surface Management (ASM)

August 2025

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management report

Download Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Purview Information Protection

August 2025

Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Download Microsoft Purview Information Protection product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Information Protection

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

Implement Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) to help you discover, classify, and protect sensitive information wherever it lives or travels.

MIP capabilities are included with Microsoft 365 Compliance and give you the tools to know your data, protect your data, and prevent data loss.

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 Information Protection

July 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection report.

See our list of best Microsoft Security Suite vendors.

We monitor all Microsoft Security Suite reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.