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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Symantec Endpoint Security vs ZoneAlarm 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
Anti-Malware Tools
 

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.
Kumbesh Rajagopal - PeerSpot reviewer
Management becomes easier with minimal complications, but improvement in support tools needed
Regarding areas of improvement for Symantec Endpoint Security, there are many changes, and the support portal tool is complicated compared to other tools. When trying to get service from Symantec, the process is complex. I'm not sure whether it's because of my project or something else. Though it is easy to manage, easy to get, easy to install, and works efficiently for managing policies, we faced a significant disadvantage. We wanted to add multiple hashes because of numerous new alerts coming, but we could only add them one by one, which is a considerable disadvantage in Symantec.
Bala_Krishna - PeerSpot reviewer
Security suite has protected individual devices from threats, while installation and network features require improvements
BIG-IP is actually the LTM, Link Load Balancer, which comes with ASM, meaning Application Security Module. It consists of multiple modules, such as ASM, SWG, and a domain DNS manager. ZoneAlarm allows defining trusted and public networks, which helps maintain security in public Wi-Fi environments. It offers comprehensive protection, securing PCs against threats. Users do not experience any system slowdowns while scanning. Harmony Browser protects all your browsing activity and is bundled with Harmony Endpoint and Harmony Connect. It provides a small but effective security layer and sometimes comes packaged with the larger Harmony suite.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like Defender's reporting and logging features. The email alerts are also helpful. It's hard sometimes to sift through the email, especially if you're an IT firm managing hundreds if not thousands of endpoints, but we find email reporting useful. For example, last Tuesday, we learned of new vulnerabilities that were discovered as a result of the previous patches. The endpoints without those patches triggered alerts in Defender."
"The solution's threat protection is mostly AI and machine-learning based. That is the most important feature of the product. It also offers centralized management so I can remotely manage devices."
"The solution integrates very well with Windows applications and Microsoft endpoint products."
"It's absolutely free to use."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's most valuable feature is its ease of use."
"Real-time detection and cloud-based delivery of detections are highly efficient."
"It's effective against most types of infection, and the firewall is perfect for protection."
"It can reach our applications and PC activities in the cloud."
"The single-pane management is the solution's most valuable feature. It makes administrative control very easy."
"The feature I find most useful is the console for reporting."
"Symantec has cloud-based endpoint protection, so whether a user is off the network or on the network, the endpoint will be protected by the cloud."
"No maintenance is required after a successful installation phase."
"Can detect and prevent attacks that are exploring common software vulnerabilities."
"The initial setup is very simple and straightforward."
"Symantec End-User Endpoint Security is a stable solution."
"I have found the central control console the most valuable feature."
"This antivirus is regularly updated, and the updates can be scheduled."
"The phone access scan stands out as the most valuable feature for me."
"The solution maintains reasonable scalability."
"ZoneAlarm protects all computers from viruses, spyware, and hackers."
"Personally, I find the Game Mode of the Firewall very useful."
"The solution really focused on giving more security than an antivirus."
"It gives us security for the users' mobiles and ends up protecting us in a significant way."
"It is quick and easy to configure."
 

Cons

"The solution could always be more secure."
"A concern is ransomware, whether people can penetrate and encrypt my data or steal my credit card/banking information."
"In India at least, it seems to be a bit more expensive than other options."
"The central management console should be improved because it provides limited options to configure Windows Defender."
"Its detection is not as quick. There should also be more frequent updates."
"There could be an increase in security for the solution."
"My main issue with the tool is that there are too many menus. This causes a steep learning curve for those without training or unfamiliar with Defender for Endpoint. From an end-user perspective, the solution is there on the machine and does its job; it works seamlessly. However, as a security professional dealing with it behind the scenes, the learning curve can be steep, but not too steep. Still, it has taken some of my analysts up to a month to get familiar with the product."
"Features like device inventory continue to lack essential workstation drill-downs showing the entire device information with the least effort."
"Must push to EXE files to the endpoints."
"Symantec has not properly promoted Symantec Endpoint Security in the market. In my opinion, the product should be properly promoted."
"There are a few negative points. They should separate the feature for each separate solution for mobile devices. The second one is about the price, it's expensive. Finally, the third would be the complexity of implementation."
"This solution is resource-heavy."
"We wanted to add multiple hashes because of numerous new alerts coming, but we could only add them one by one, which is a considerable disadvantage in Symantec."
"It could use more feature parity between what is offered with their on-prem console as well as their hosted console."
"It needs to die. In my opinion, Symantec was a really great security company, 10, 15 years ago. They went out, they bought all the great tools and then they never did anything with them. So they've just fallen behind and there's nothing that's going to work now to bring them back up the date that's going to regain user confidence."
"The solution could be more secure and scalable."
"Currently, the client is only available for the Windows Operating System but it would be good if it were released for Mac OS as well."
"Perhaps the primary area for potential enhancement is to make it faster, ensuring a more seamless experience while maintaining robust security features."
"They need to update and improve the features available for Mac."
"The support is not always so effective."
"We'd like better performance of the network equipment. There are high-speed environments where an immediate response is required."
"ZoneAlarm should be a light application that does not take too much memory in mobile phones."
"Some of our users say that the interface is a little bit outdated for 2020, and want it to be more modern and cozy."
"They should release a single update with all the necessary characteristics to avoid being in a cycle of consecutive updates."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution comes as a part of Windows 10 and it is covered under its license."
"It is built into Windows 10. If our clients are using Microsoft Defender, the cost goes away for them."
"Given our extensive Microsoft licensing, transitioning to Defender for Endpoint did not affect licensing costs."
"Buying individual point products would've cost us a lot more money than one integrated solution that also capitalizes on Teams Voice and things of that nature. Given our size, buying individual products would have easily cost us a million dollars."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint can be costly as a standalone solution."
"We have been using the free version."
"You just pay Windows 10 prices, then you have antivirus software. As a price comparison, Defender's costs are very low."
"There are different licenses, such as E3 and E5."
"I rate the product's pricing a six out of ten."
"Licensing is based on a yearly subscription."
"Pricing and licensing for our country is very good. It's not that expensive and the endpoint security is very good. It's not as cheap as some others, but they are not as good."
"Pricing and licensing are important to us when choosing a product."
"Regarding the licensing, it was important negotiate a long contract to get a more attractive price, including advanced support in case of crisis."
"Each annual client license is around 1200 or 1600 INR."
"The price of the product is competitive if compared to its competitors in the market."
"There is a yearly license."
"This is a freeware product and I recommend using it."
"The pricing is reasonable, with a yearly renewal license costing seventy dollars."
"We have to pay a yearly licensing fee for ZoneAlarm, which is cheap."
"We use the free version of the software, but it can be upgraded to the paid Extreme Security edition."
"I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Hospitality Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

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,...
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 sol...
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 pu...
Which is better - Cortex XDR or Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valu...
What do you like most about Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Symantec Endpoint Security's pricing is better than most offerings based on my research. It seems to be half the cost...
What do you like most about ZoneAlarm?
ZoneAlarm protects all computers from viruses, spyware, and hackers.
What needs improvement with ZoneAlarm?
As for improvements, ZoneAlarm enhances Check Point’s solution by having a very efficient engine. The engine checks a...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Symantec EPP, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Audio Visual Dynamics, Red Deer Advocate, Asia Pacific Telecom Co. Ltd., Kibbutz Ein Gedi, and AMETEK, Inc.
Terma, Optix, Samsung Research Amercia, SF Police Credit Union, Independence Care System, Mattias Thomsen, Carmel Partners, Desert Research Institute, CRIF, FXCM Inc, US State Agency
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: August 2025.
865,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.