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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Norton Security Premium [EOL] comparison

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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 for Endp...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
212
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (6th), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd), Agentic Endpoint Security (3rd)
Norton Security Premium [EOL]
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Arbuckle - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Analyst III at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Automatically isolates threats and integrates with logging to reduce response time
Overall, I would evaluate the Microsoft support level that I receive at probably about a seven, but that depends on the day. It has been spotty. We have had issues where the urgency level of the Microsoft support is not as high as ours, especially during a data breach or potential data breach situation. We have had issues with some of the offshore support being lackluster. One specific thing that comes to mind is we were on a support call with our CISO on the call, and the Microsoft agent, who did not actually work for Microsoft, is one of the vendors that Microsoft uses for support, said, "Just to set expectations, my lunch break is in an hour and I am going to go away then." For us, it was already ten o'clock at night and we had been working on this for a couple of hours, trying to get a security engineer on with us. For him to tell us that he was going to go away and have lunch, it was, "Okay, but go find somebody else if you need to." It was just the lackluster approach, and it seemed like he did not really care. We seem to get a lot of this when we get non-Microsoft support. I can identify areas for improvement with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, as it is kind of a convoluted mess to try to take care of false positives. Especially when they have been identified as false positives but they keep going off over and over again. It is great for my pocketbook because it generates a lot of on-call action, but I would really prefer more sleep at two o'clock in the morning than dealing with false positives. I would say that the unified portal for managing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is suitable for both teams as they are all in there. It would be great if they would stop moving things around and renaming things, which makes sense. The new XDR portal is pretty nice. Being able to have it central again inside of the regular Security Center without having to open up two windows is helpful. Overall, I think it is pretty good. There is always going to be something that could be improved, such as alerting and the ability to modify alerts would be a little bit helpful to have. Being able to add more data into the alerts and turn off alerts that are not as useful would be beneficial. It is hard to say what the quantitative impact the security exposure management feature has had on our company's security, because a lot of it is kind of subjective. I think we are sitting at around a fifty percent score still, and a lot of it is just kind of unusual circumstances that we cannot really implement without breaking the organization.
RC
Project Manager at Amdocs
User-friendly solution with good blocking
I mainly use Security Premium as an antivirus.  Security Premium's best features are blocking, notifications, and the user interface. Security Premium's cost could be lower. I've been using Security Premium for a year. Security Premium is stable - I haven't faced any issues or bugs while using…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Endpoint saved us from a lot of potential problems."
"I like that Defender is integrated and doesn't have a third-party payload trying to advertise subscription renewal."
"Web filtering is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint because it effectively maintains security for website access."
"Since we started using this product, we have not had any breaches."
"It comes included with the Windows license."
"The most likable feature of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the sheer number of features and data it provides."
"In my opinion, the most valuable aspects are the reporting analytics and integration with Sentinel. Defender does an excellent job of correlating the different entities that comprise threat analysis, analytics data, and log analytics. It helps to piece together investigations into any exploit or malicious activity within a specific tenant. AI and analytics tools are probably the most valuable components."
"I would recommend using this solution, as I haven't had any issues and it's been working fine for me."
"In general, technical support has been helpful."
"The product is called Norton 360 all-in-one. It is a full product."
"The antivirus aspect of the solution is very good, and the support we receive from Norton is excellent."
"The most valuable feature is the quick installation."
"We like how it can check for issues. That includes files and web browsers."
"I'm convinced that Symantec and Norton are the leaders, they know what they are doing, they cover all functionalities of spam, virus, and malware protection, etc."
"The dashboard is good."
"It does not take many resources during scanning."
 

Cons

"They should come up with pre-built inner workflows."
"The only issue I would say is our mobile endpoints do not have Defender installed for part of them. An additional feature that could be included in the next release is free Copilot."
"There is complexity in accessing the dashboard."
"When compared with other vendors, the pricing is very high."
"The major area for improvement is the integration with a managed service provider."
"It should support non-Windows products better. Microsoft is now one of the leading vendors in the security area. So, they should be product-independent."
"With regards to the interface, a challenge I found was that there was not enough documentation on how to tune it. I had to read multiple sources on the internet to learn how to configure the tool appropriately."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a basic endpoint protection solution. If you do not combine it with another solution then you will leave yourself open to vulnerabilities."
"Occasionally when you open a ticket, there's a lack of understanding that prevents the solution from being resolved directly."
"Having a dashboard that shows the different functions of Norton Security Premium can convince end users that the software is more than just an antivirus solution. This product offers several features, but end users think that it's just one out of the box solution, because the different functions are not explained in detail."
"They say Norton Security Premium is an all-in-one solution, but we don't know exactly what's in it, e.g. they didn't make an effort to explain the difference between a virus scan and a ransomware scan."
"The only problem with Norton Antivirus is that it consumes a lot of resources like CPU and memory in the background. Whenever it's scanning, my laptop becomes very slow, and the worst part is you cannot do anything about it. As this product is secured by my local IT team, you cannot even kill that process, and that's what I've felt about many other antivirus solutions. I'm using McAfee for personal use, and I have the same problem."
"I do not find it to be scalable."
"Sometimes the program is too complex, and simplifying it might be an improvement."
"The only problem with Norton Antivirus is that it consumes a lot of resources like CPU and memory in the background."
"The product is an antivirus, it should be updated automatically when needed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's all pretty easy. For some clients, it's an easier sell because it's just an add-on to their existing Microsoft licensing and Office 365 licensing."
"It is built into Windows 10. If our clients are using Microsoft Defender, the cost goes away for them."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is included with a Microsoft E5 license."
"You do not need to pay any additional costs for antivirus and anti-malware solutions for endpoint protection."
"The solution is free."
"There is no license needed, the solution comes with Microsoft Windows."
"It is so expensive. It isn't cheaper than McAfee or other solutions."
"The solution comes free with Microsoft Windows 10."
"I don't pay for a license."
"Security Premium is highly-priced."
"We have a yearly license, and each license is around 20 or 30 Jordanian Dinars plus taxes."
"The solution gives the value for the money."
"Pricing for this software is competitive."
"If they could come down in price that would be good. It's not exactly the lowest."
"Security Premium costs around US$100 for three years, which is a little expensive."
"The licensing fee for this solution is not expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business82
Midsize Enterprise44
Large Enterprise97
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior solution. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security s...
How does Microsoft Defender for Endpoint compare with Crowdstrike Falcon?
The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never push your machine hardware to "test", you don't have the usual "scan now" feature ...
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Also Known As

Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Norton Internet Security
 

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Sample Customers

Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Temple University
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, SentinelOne, OPSWAT and others in Anti-Malware Tools. Updated: October 2026.
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