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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
Organizations achieve financial gains and efficiency by using Microsoft Defender, eliminating third-party solutions, and enhancing security management.
Sentiment score
5.7
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise offers significant ROI, reducing manual tasks, aiding compliance, and securing data against cybercrime threats.
Without detection and protection measures, organizations would face substantial payments and reputational damage, including the necessity to inform customers about data breaches, potentially leading to loss of business.
We have seen a return on investment when using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, as it saves labor by reducing the need for staff to focus on it.
The biggest return on investment for me when using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is the time saving.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft's Defender for Endpoint support is generally effective but experiences vary; premium options offer swift, knowledgeable assistance.
Sentiment score
6.5
Symantec Endpoint Security support is responsive but inconsistent post-acquisition, with European and African customers facing significant challenges.
The level-one support seems disconnected from subject matter experts.
I rate Microsoft support 10 out of 10.
Due to our size, we don't have access to direct technical support, but the knowledge base, Microsoft Learn, and the articles available are really good.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint efficiently scales with diverse enterprises, integrates seamlessly with Microsoft products, supporting growth effectively.
Sentiment score
6.5
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is highly scalable, adaptable for various business sizes, but challenges include licensing cost and extension compatibility.
We managed to scale it out in a short amount of time, with two months of planning and three months of implementation on 10,000 computers.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is scalable enough to handle various devices across environments, whether they are laptops, Android devices, or operating in hybrid environments.
Compatibility is its main feature.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is praised for stability, efficiency, and low resource impact, despite minor occasional bugs.
Sentiment score
8.5
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is stable and reliable, despite occasional performance issues with Windows updates and full scans.
I haven't seen any outages with Microsoft.
I rate Defender 10 out of 10 for stability.
Defender for Endpoint is extremely stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint struggles with support, integration, UI, performance issues, and lacks essential features and platform support.
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise needs enhanced features, user-friendliness, performance improvements, better support, and more comprehensive threat coverage at a competitive price.
Repeated interactions are necessary due to Level One's lack of tools and knowledge, hindering efficient problem-solving and negatively impacting our experience with Microsoft support.
We use Microsoft partners to help govern the platform, and as part of an alliance, we want to gather data from each tenant and combine them for a complete view.
Providing more detailed information on how Microsoft Defender for Endpoint detects vulnerabilities.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers cost-effective, flexible pricing options integrated with Microsoft services, including discounts for education and volume.
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise offers a 60-day trial, with annual costs from $70-$100 per user, varying by features.
Given our extensive Microsoft licensing, transitioning to Defender for Endpoint did not affect licensing costs.
It costs $15 per VM for the P2 plan, which is seen as affordable for customers.
The pricing, setup, and licensing were very easy and simple.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers seamless integration, real-time protection, and automated response, ensuring robust security with minimal impact.
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise provides advanced threat protection, scalability, AI integration, and user-friendly management for comprehensive and efficient security.
Defender for Endpoint's coverage across different platforms in our environment is pretty good. We have devices running Linux, Mac OS, Windows, iOS, and Android. It covers all of them.
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides a unified management interface allowing customers to manage their on-premises and hybrid infrastructures from a single pane.
One of the best features of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is its database for identifying zero-day attacks or malware attacks.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
197
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (4th), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (5th)
Symantec Endpoint Security ...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 10.2%, down from 13.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

John Rallo - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers excellent visibility into vulnerabilities and the attack surface itself
Attack surface reduction and limiting attack surface vectors are valuable features. It's helpful to isolate specific devices and get super granular with the features they offer. The visibility into the attack surface is good. It gets highly granular. I don't work on that side, but the people who do tell me they get more visibility.
Intekhab Ahmad. - PeerSpot reviewer
A product that offers good threat detection capabilities to its users
The product has improved my company through its area of threat detection. The other applications use the same engine as Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise. Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise does not have a set of 100 percent useful things in the tool. Sometimes, a user may know that a file system does not contain any viruses, but it is labeled as a virus by Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise, making it an issue for users. The aforementioned problem prompts me to contact the product support team via email so that my company can get some help dealing with such problems. I would say that my experience with deploying the product across multiple devices in my company is not tough and can be easy, especially if you have domain environments. The feature of the product that is the most effective for threat prevention stems from the fact that the tool provides updates. The main problem with the solution is that a user has to do the updates manually, so at times, the product is not useful, especially when the machine has to be shut down for updates when new viruses are introduced on the market. I rate the solution's ease of use and administration a seven and a half out of ten. I suggest that those who plan to buy the solution periodically update the product, especially in the area of the virus engine. I rate the tool an eight out of ten.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) solutions are best for your needs.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 ...
What do you like most about Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise?
The tool is a secure and stable workstation for checking antivirus. The alerting feature helps us see alerts and is easy to control. The main benefit we derive from using Symantec Endpoint Security...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.