Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Trend Micro Apex One comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on May 18, 2022

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Trend Micro Apex One based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Most users of both solutions report that the initial setup and deployment of both solutions is straightforward and fast.

  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their stability, security, and scalability. Defender for Endpoint users like its firewall and say it has good intelligence mechanisms. Several users mention that its central console needs improvement. Trend Micro Apex One users say it is flexible, lightweight, and has excellent data loss prevention features. A few users say its reporting tools should be improved.
  • Pricing: Most Defender for Endpoint users feel it is an expensive product, whereas Trend Micro Apex One users say it is reasonably priced.
  • Service and Support: Most users of both solutions report being satisfied with the level of the support they receive.

  • ROI: Defender for Endpoint users report seeing an ROI. Trend Micro Apex One users do not explicitly mention ROI.

Comparison Results: Trend Micro Apex One has a slight edge in this comparison due to its being the less expensive solution.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Trend Micro Apex One Report (Updated: September 2023).
735,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Fortinet FortiEDR's firewalling, rule creation, monitoring, and inspection profiles are great.""Fortinet has helped free up around 20 percent of our staff's time to help us out.""I like FortiClient EMS. FortiEDR has a lot of great features like lockdown mode, remote wipes, and encryption. I can set malware outbreak policies and controls for detecting abnormalities. You can also simulate phishing attacks.""This is stable and scalable.""Fortinet FortiEDR made our clients feel secure and more at ease, knowing that they had an EDR solution that would close the gap in their security posture.""Forensics is a valuable feature of Fortinet FortiEDR.""The most valuable feature is the analysis, because of the beta structure.""The console is easy to read. I also like the scanning part and the ability to move assets from one to the other."

More Fortinet FortiEDR Pros →

"Defender is a part of Windows; you just need to enable it. There is no need to install anything.""Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a robust platform.""Coming from an organization where the EDR wasn't strong, it has always been a case of basically searching through the information you already have and looking for something. It was basically trying to find the needle in a haystack. What the Defender platform does is that it reduces the size of the haystack, and it'll say that the needle is over here. Minutes matter, and it certainly zeros you in on the events that are concerning. It also simplifies the effort of trying to get some kind of correlation of behaviors or actions you see in the environment and confirming if something is benign or a threat.""Defender should be fine for home use. It has all the basic functionality you need. I can't speak to how well it works as an enterprise solution because I'm not in the space.""The virus scanning capability is excellent, and it feeds all the logs into the Microsoft 365 Defender portal, making them easy to search for.""The performance of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has been a valuable feature.""Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has been secure and there is zero maintenance required because it updates with Microsoft Windows.""We can run the virus scan across our entire environment."

More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Pros →

"Trend Micro Apex One most valuable features are centralized management, ease of use, and help user management. Additionally, it can detect vulnerabilities in the end-users system""The end user perspective is very good because the solution isn't complex to learn and support is readily available.""Stability-wise, it is a good product, and I rate it a ten out of ten.""It is very precise and allows more permission for different use cases.""Trend Micro Apex One is good at detecting zero-day threats. When the solution was in operation I did not notice any system performance problems. Upgrades of the solution were simple to do and there are plenty of features.""Workload security now has a feature called Activity Monitor for each endpoint.""The solution offers quick and timely updates.""One of the better features, in my opinion, is that it also makes use of a web reputation. For example, if someone accidentally clicks on a link in an email that leads to a malicious website, they will block it."

More Trend Micro Apex One Pros →

Cons
"The EDR console should have more extensive reporting. You shouldn't need to purchase FortiAnalyzer. It should be included in the EDR part. The security adviser cloud platform could be improved with more options for exclusive or intensive rules for devices.""To improve Fortinet, we need to see more features and technology areas at the endpoint level introduced.""The dashboard isn't easy to access and manage.""We find the solution to be a bit expensive.""The solution's installation from a central installation server could be improved because the engineers had a little bit of trouble getting it installed from a central location.""Once, we had an event that was locked and blocked, but information about it came to us two or three days later.""The only minor concern is occasional interference with desired programs.""FortiEDR can be improved by providing more detailed reporting."

More Fortinet FortiEDR Cons →

"They can improve it on the online protection front since people nowadays are moving online and working from home.""I'm not too sure of its current capabilities, but I'm pretty sure they are doing a good job on Windows and Mac. However, I'm not sure whether they covered Linux. If I remember correctly, Microsoft Defender didn't have anything proper on Linux back then, but if they have improved it from that aspect, it would already be ticking all the boxes.""Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is secure but when it comes to security all solutions could improve security.""If you have multi-cloud like Google and AWS, the native solutions are better for those particular cases.""They're in the process of pulling more things together. They can continue with the integrations and provide a better way of seeing the impact of security changes, especially on the endpoint side. Before we actually flip the switch, we should be able to see the impact of security changes on the business or business applications. It would prevent breaking any business applications.""I would like to see improvement from a management perspective. We have had to depend on Intune for certain tasks.""The time it takes to implement policies has room for improvement.""In India at least, it seems to be a bit more expensive than other options."

More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Cons →

"Trend Micro Apex One could include more in-depth endpoint protection.""Trend Micro Apex One could improve by making the user interface more user-friendly.""We had some problems with Trend Micro Apex One doing the updates and patches. Some of the other vendor's support has said that Trend Micro Apex One receives database signatures updates too late.""The only thing that I would like to see changed or improved in the next release is when it reports C&C callbacks, to make it easier to trace, to see what's doing that, whether it's a program checking for updates or a malicious program.""The product can be a bit heavy.""The solution could be more proactive by using AI to assess the production landscape and compete with other products.""The solution can be improved to utilize fewer system resources, like memory and hard disk, during scanning.""Trend Micro Apex One should have a DLP (Data loss prevention) module."

More Trend Micro Apex One Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The price is comprable to other endpoint security solutions."
  • "The pricing is typical for enterprises and fairly priced."
  • "I'm not familiar with pricing, but it looks a bit costly compared to other vendors I think."
  • "The pricing is good."
  • "I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
  • "The hardware costs about €100,000 and about €20,000 annually for access."
  • "Fortinet FortiEDR has a yearly subscription."
  • "It's not cheap, but it's not expensive either."
  • More Fortinet FortiEDR Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I don't know the standalone costs. It is my understanding that the M365 E5 is $56 a month or something close to that pricing. That would be for the full suite. Just Defender might be $8 a month. I can't say for sure."
  • "The solution comes free with Microsoft Windows 10."
  • "When customers haven't deployed the solution and don't have licenses, it can be expensive to start from scratch."
  • "I do not have to purchase antivirus solutions anymore because Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is integrated into Windows and comes free."
  • "It came with Windows."
  • "We pay a yearly license for Microsoft Defender. We also have a support contract with them."
  • "The solution is free with Windows."
  • "You do not need to pay any additional costs for antivirus and anti-malware solutions for endpoint protection."
  • More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The price of the solution is reasonable."
  • "If I compare Trend Micro Apex One with other solutions there are a few challenges for customers who have do not need more licenses. Sometimes the customers struggle because this product is totally an enterprise solution, and the price for the licenses can be expensive for individuals or small organizations."
  • "There are licenses for Apex One's individual security features, so it depends on what the customer needs. But in general, Trend Micro is cheap, and many customers require it."
  • "There is a license for this solution and it can be paid for monthly or annually."
  • "There is an annual license."
  • "If I remember correctly, the cost is approximately four and a half thousand per year."
  • "The pricing of Trend Micro Apex One was reasonable. There is a license required to use the solution and we have upgraded the solution to include some additional features, such as XDR."
  • "When compared to Symantec, Kaspersky, and others the price is higher, they are more expensive."
  • More Trend Micro Apex One Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I suggest Fortinet’s FortiEDR over FortiClient for several reasons. For starters, FortiEDR guarantees solid protection… more »
    Top Answer:Fortinet FortiEDR made our clients feel secure and more at ease, knowing that they had an EDR solution that would close… more »
    Top Answer:The price is on the higher side. It's in the upper quadrant. The hardware costs about €100,000 and about €20,000… more »
    Top Answer:Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface… more »
    Top Answer:We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior… more »
    Top Answer:The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never push… more »
    Top Answer:Trend Micro Deep Security offers a lot of features. It guarantees security for your data center, cloud, and containers -… more »
    Top Answer:Using the product as a service on the cloud has helped reduced employee workloads.
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    enSilo, FortiEDR
    Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
    OfficeScan, Trend Micro OfficeScan
    Learn More
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiEDR is a real-time endpoint protection, detection, and automated response solution. Its primary purpose is to detect advanced threats to stop breaches and ransomware damage. It is designed to do so in real time, even on an already compromised device, allowing you to respond and remediate incidents automatically so your data can remain protected.

    Fortinet FortiEDR Features

    Fortinet FortiEDR has many valuable key features, including:

    • Easily customizable
    • Real-time proactive risk mitigation & IoT security
    • Pre-infection protection
    • Post-infection protection
    • Track applications and ratings
    • Reduce the attack surface with risk-based proactive policies
    • Achieve analysis of entire log history
    • Optional managed detection and response (MDR) service

    Fortinet FortiEDR Benefits

    Some of the key benefits of using Fortinet FortiEDR include:

    • Protection: Fortinet FortiEDR provides proactive, real-time, automated endpoint protection with the orchestrated incident response across platforms. It stops the breach with real-time postinfection blocking to protect data from exfiltration and ransomware encryption.

    • Single unified console: Fortinet FortiEDR has a single unified console with an intuitive interface, which makes management easier. The solution automates mundane endpoint security tasks so your employees don’t need to do it.

    • Cost savings: With Fortinet FortiEDR you can eliminate post-breach operational expenses and breach damage costs.

    • Flexibility: Fortinet FortiEDR can be deployed on premises or on a secure cloud instance. With Fortinet FortiEDR, endpoints are protected both on- and off-line.

    • Scalability: Because Fortinet can be deployed quickly and has a small footprint, it is easy to scale up to protect hundreds of thousand endpoints.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Fortinet FortiEDR users.

    An Owner at a security firm says, "The features that I have found most valuable are the ability to customize it and to reduce its size. It lets you run in a very small window in terms of memory and resources on legacy cash registers. The customer has literally about 800 cash registers. That was the use case for Fortinet FortiEDR - to get that down into a tiny space. The only way to do that was to use this product because it had that ability to unbundle services that were a surplus.”

    Chandan M., Chief Technical Officer at Provision Technologies LLP, mentions, “The ease of deployment and configuration is valuable. It's very easy compared to other vendors like Sophos. Sophos' configuration is complex. Fortinet is a lot easier to understand. You don't need a lot of admin knowledge to do the configuration.” He also adds, “The security is also very good and the firewall response is good.”

    Harpreet S., Information Technology Support Specialist at Chemtrade Logistics, explains, "It notifies us if there's any suspicious file on any PC. If any execution or similar kind of thing is happening, it just alerts us. It doesn't only alert. It also blocks the execution until we allow it. We check whether the execution is legitimate or not, and then approve it or keep it blocked. This gives us a little bit of control over this mechanism. Fortinet FortiEDR is also very straightforward and easy to maintain."

    DeAndre V., Senior Network Administrator at a financial services firm, states, “The dashboard is easy to follow and use. The deployment and uninstalling were easy. I like the detailed information about the path of a file that might be suspicious. Being able to check that out was easy to follow. Exceptions are easy to create and the interface is easy to follow with a nice appearance.

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for organizations. It offers real-time protection against various types of cyber threats, including malware, viruses, ransomware, and phishing attacks.

    With its powerful machine-learning capabilities, it can detect and block sophisticated attacks before they can cause any harm. The solution also includes endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities, allowing organizations to quickly investigate and respond to security incidents. It provides detailed insights into the attack timeline, enabling security teams to understand the scope and impact of an incident.

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint also offers proactive threat hunting, allowing organizations to proactively search for and identify potential threats within their network. It integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft security solutions, such as Microsoft 365 Defender, to provide a unified and holistic security approach. With its centralized management console, organizations can easily deploy, configure, and monitor the security solution across their entire network.

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a robust and scalable security solution that helps organizations protect their endpoints and data from evolving cyber threats.

    Powered by the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™, Trend Micro Apex One™ is a highly-regarded, popular, locally-managed anti-malware solution that keeps endpoints secure from a diverse assortment of internet threats. Trend Micro Apex One™ is an integrated solution consisting of the Security Agent that resides at the endpoint and the Apex One server that manages all Security Agents.

    The Security Agents respond directly to the server to which they were installed. They report event data such as threat detection, Security Agent activity (startup and shutdown), when a scan begins, when a scan ends, and update progress to the server in real time.

    An organization’s designated IT administrators can control Security Agent settings from the server and are empowered to grant users the privilege to configure specific settings.

    Trend Micro Apex One™ uses a host-based prevention system (HIPS). HIPS will create a virtual patch for unknown and known threats prior to the time when the appropriate patch is available or deployable. This will expand protection to important platforms and virtual or physical devices while minimizing the time needed for an emergency patch event and preventing downtime. UsingTrend Micro Apex One™, users receive next-gen XDR robust features to improve detection, response, and investigation proficiencies. Users are able to expand features over numerous security layers for improved comprehensive visibility and faster response to threats impacting their entire enterprise.

    “Automated, Insightful, All-in-one Protection”

    Automation: The Trend Micro Apex One™ solution provides the latest advanced automated threat awareness and precise defense against the continual barrage of the latest threats, including fileless and ransomware. The multi-generational amalgamation of up-to-date processes ensures thorough and precise endpoint protection that optimizes production, productivity, and profitability.

    Insightful: With Trend Micro Apex One™, users get useful, intuitive insights, increased investigative competencies, and improved visibility by utilizing an open API set, a next-gen EDR toolset, and powerful, robust SIEM integration. Users can choose to execute intensive threat analyses that go past the endpoints and provide additional support to the organization's security teams with a guided detection and remediation service.

    All-in-one: In today’s aggressive, dynamic marketplace, organizations require threat protection that goes beyond basic antivirus. Trend Micro Apex One™ provides robust threat detection, immediate response, and thorough follow-up all within a single solution. Users can now do without numerous solutions and unnecessary devices and attain elasticity of deployment using both SaaS and on-premises deployment options.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Pawel B., Head of IT Department at a maritime company, tells us that "Trend Micro Apex One is good at detecting zero-day threats. When the solution was in operation I did not notice any system performance problems. Upgrades of the solution were simple to do and there are plenty of features."

    An IT Administrator at a manufacturing company says, "One of the better features, in my opinion, is that it also makes use of a web reputation. For example, if someone accidentally clicks on a link in an email that leads to a malicious website, they will block it."

    A Network Specialist at a computer software company concludes that Trend Micro Apex One is “Quick to install and stable threat protection software.”

    Offer
    Learn more about Fortinet FortiEDR
    Learn more about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
    Learn more about Trend Micro Apex One
    Sample Customers
    Financial, Healthcare, Legal, Technology, Enterprise, Manufacturing ... 
    Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
    Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia, A&W Food Services of Canada, Babou, Beth Israel Deaconess Care Organization (BO), DCI Donor Services, Evalueserve, Gulftainer, Hiroshima Prefectural Government, MEDHOST
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm24%
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Educational Organization6%
    Media Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Energy/Utilities Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization20%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization40%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Government5%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business37%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise41%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise50%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise31%
    Large Enterprise47%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business34%
    Midsize Enterprise29%
    Large Enterprise37%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise48%
    Large Enterprise35%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Trend Micro Apex One
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Trend Micro Apex One and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
    735,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is ranked 1st in EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) with 96 reviews while Trend Micro Apex One is ranked 9th in EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) with 47 reviews. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is rated 8.2, while Trend Micro Apex One is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint writes "You can access all your security data and telemetry from a single pane of glass". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Trend Micro Apex One writes "Provides a single dashboard, integrates well, and has predictive machine learning". Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is most compared with Intercept X Endpoint, Symantec Endpoint Security, CrowdStrike Falcon and SentinelOne Singularity Complete, whereas Trend Micro Apex One is most compared with Trend Micro Deep Security, Trend Micro Smart Protection, Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, Intercept X Endpoint and CrowdStrike Falcon. See our Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Trend Micro Apex One report.

    See our list of best EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) vendors and best EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) vendors.

    We monitor all EPP (Endpoint Protection for Business) 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.