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Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection 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 Informati...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (7th), Data Privacy Management Software (3rd)
 

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 Information Protection is 2.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Purview Information Protection2.4%
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management1.3%
Other96.3%
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…
Abhi T - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

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."
"Microsoft Purview Information Protection supports data classification, sensitivity labels, and data loss prevention."
"My advice to other organizations considering this product is that it is best in the business if you are a heavy Microsoft shop."
"My favorite feature about Microsoft Purview Information Protection is that it generally applies to everything, so I don't have to go in and do it manually; I set a policy and then it applies."
"It ensures that sensitive data is automatically safeguarded, even for email attachments, regardless of the user or device."
"We use the solution for our customers' services. It helps identify and protect sensitive data in documents, PDFs, emails, and Teams chats to prevent data leakage. It can detect and block emails containing credit card information sent outside the organization."
"It is one of the advantages of the Microsoft solution that it provides a holistic way to manage the platforms and tools, so I do not have to use multiple information protection solutions."
"The simplicity of the way we can configure the DLP rules in Microsoft Purview Information Protection is good."
"Before using it, we had a lot of unlabeled data, and the tool helped us quickly and accurately label a large number of documents."
 

Cons

"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."
"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."
"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."
"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."
"In my opinion, Microsoft Purview Information Protection can be improved by having a more seamless user experience and ease of use in protecting both structured and unstructured data."
"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."
"Microsoft Purview Information Protection can improve in terms of scan concurrency and scan processing time."
"I have not had much luck or much experience with the comprehensiveness of the data classification abilities in Microsoft Purview Information Protection, including identifying categories and sensitive information."
"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."
"I wouldn't recommend Microsoft Purview Information Protection for petabytes of documents as performance might be affected."
"We don't trust Microsoft Purview Information Protection yet."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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 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."
"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."
"The tool's pricing is fairly low, less than 100,000 for a year."
"The price is determined by the enterprise licensing, either the E3 or E5 licensing or the EMS plus security and other feature licensing."
"The pricing and setup costs are transferred to my clients, who find it affordable and are satisfied with what they receive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise15
 

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 Information Protection?
It is reasonable from what I can say right now because we are using most of the Microsoft tools right now. We are using the managed SQL server of Microsoft. We are using Microsoft Purview Informati...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Information Protection?
In my opinion, Microsoft Purview Information Protection can be improved by having a more seamless user experience and ease of use in protecting both structured and unstructured data.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Information Protection?
My main use case for using Microsoft Purview Information Protection is protecting our unstructured files.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Information Protection
 

Overview

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