Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection comparison

Microsoft and WithSecure are both solutions in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category. Microsoft is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.3, while WithSecure is ranked #47 with an average rating of 7.3. Microsoft holds a 10.0% mindshare in EPP, compared to WithSecure’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of WithSecure users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Defender for Endp...

Read 198 Microsoft Defender for Endpoint reviews

37,815 Views
22,311 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

WithSecure Elements Endpoin...

Read 8 WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection reviews

1,468 Views
1,468 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Endp...

WithSecure Elements Endpoin...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection are robust security solutions. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint appears to have the upper hand due to its advanced security features and integration capabilities.

Features: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is praised for its integration with Windows systems, advanced threat detection capabilities, and comprehensive reporting. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection is commended for its lightweight operation, broad-spectrum malware detection, and intuitive configuration.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint could benefit from more straightforward navigation, lower resource usage, and improved usability. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection users suggest enhancements in threat response capabilities, additional customizability in policy management, and deeper integration with other security solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Users find Microsoft Defender for Endpoint relatively simple to deploy, especially in environments using Microsoft services, and it is supported by robust customer support. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection offers a straightforward deployment process valued for its ease in diverse settings, though some users feel customer service response times could be improved.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is considered cost-effective, especially for businesses leveraging Microsoft products, providing strong ROI through comprehensive features. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection, while potentially higher in initial setup cost, delivers excellent ROI through its efficient operation and targeted security features.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 867,370 peers since 2012

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...

Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

198

Ranking in other categories

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (3rd), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (4th)

WithSecure Elements Endpoin...

Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

47th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 10.0%, down from 13.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	10.0%
WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection	0.8%
Other	89.2%

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

Featured Reviews

NaySan @ Suraj Verma

Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies

Has effectively blocked sophisticated attacks and malicious activities while providing excellent support

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is very good, but one suggestion is that in some products, we may need to configure security-related settings, whereas Microsoft Defender for Endpoint works completely differently, providing automatic recommendations and actions that we may need to perform ourselves. Regarding the pricing of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, during the last three years, we set up the product and sold it, but we faced difficulties because Microsoft pricing is always the same. For example, whether I purchase Microsoft Defender for Endpoint for one year or for the next three years, the pricing remains constant with no discounts available. In contrast, competing products offer reduced pricing for long-term commitments, which makes it difficult for us in that environment. Microsoft should consider this option to remain competitive, but otherwise, everything else is fine.

Read full review

Mark Feldman

IT-Manager at MKF-Schimanski-ERGIS GmbH

Central console streamlines patch monitoring and device management effortlessly

WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection is good and easy to set up. I provide an installation file for every client through my domain controller and GPO, and it works properly. We have faced no incidents with viruses or network breaches, and it's easy to monitor patches. I can use remote desktop from the central console. The solution also saves my time because, being the only one handling it, I can monitor all devices easily.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Defender works in the background monitoring the traffic for viruses."

"Offers good protection."

"The biggest benefit to Windows Defender is that it is built-in to the operating system by Microsoft."

"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is free and part of the licensing stack of other Microsoft products."

"This solution definitely increases our security posture. When you are reviewing your existing fleet or endpoints and based on the configuration that you put out of your Defender for Endpoint, you then receive a security score from Microsoft. Depending on what rules you have configured, what policies you have deployed, and what attack surface reduction rules that you have set up and deployed, it is almost gamifying information security in the sense that you are always trying to achieve a higher score. The more hardening you perform on your endpoints, the better score you receive. This generally tends to give you a better peace of mind, but also makes you secure at the same time."

"It doesn't cause the slowness of the system, which is one of the reasons why I like it."

"Its real-time security is the most valuable."

"One of the best features of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is called Threat and Vulnerability Management, TVM, which provides real-time visibility of vulnerabilities and misconfiguration at our endpoint level and helps prioritize and remediate based on risk information."

More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint pros

"On the cloud management page, the solution scales up very highly."

"There is a layer of security to prevent a malicious agent (malware) from interrupting or stopping services, deleting or modifying registry entries or even stopping the antivirus from acting, ensuring that there will be no interruption of protection."

"We use the product for detecting network vulnerabilities and for software update purposes."

"WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection is good and easy to set up."

"Both incoming and outgoing traffic is protected."

"F-Secure is useful for keeping user machines up-to-date by pushing out security and critical updates."

"The most valuable features of WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection are the clear useful portal and overall company protection."

"The notifications and patch management features are valuable."

Cons

"There are some areas in the proactive threats that are just overwhelming the SOC, so we've had to turn those off until we can figure out how to filter out the false positives."

"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."

"It is currently more suitable for end-users rather than enterprises with lots of other processes and third-party tools. It needs improvement on that front. We had many issues while integrating it with our enterprise solutions, such as Splunk, and third-party tools. It provides everything via APIs. Other vendors provide integration with third-party tools, but Microsoft doesn't do that. It is also logging too much and is not serialized from the process aspect. It has all the data, but it is not in a proper format or not properly indexed, which doesn't make it easier for enterprises to use this data. Other vendors provide troubleshooting information that can be used to troubleshoot issues, but Microsoft doesn't provide anything like that."

"Sometimes, there are difficulties in downloading a file considered as malicious."

"A challenge is that it is not a multi-tenant solution. Microsoft's tenant is a licensed tenant. I'm an MSSP. So, I have multiple customers. In Microsoft's world, that means that I can't just buy an E5 license and give that out to all my customers. That won't work because all of the customer data resides within a single tenant in Microsoft's world. Other products—such as SentinelOne, Palo Alto Cortex, CrowdStrike, et cetera—are multi-tenant. So, I can have it at the top of the pyramid for my analyst to look into it and see all the customers, but each customer's data is separate. If the customer wants to look at what we see, they would only see their data, whereas in the Microsoft world, if I've got multiple customers connected to the same Microsoft tenant, they would see everybody else's data, which is a privacy problem in Europe. It is not possible to share the data, and it is a breach of privacy."

"The solution could improve by providing more integration."

"Windows Firewall is integrated with Windows Defender. Over the last few days, I have had a problem with defining a wildcard on Windows Firewall. For example, I wanted to pull out the connection of my program and install a software package with a lot of executable files. I wanted to prevent it from accessing the internet. I could not select executables by using a wildcard. I had to select a single executable with its full name."

"The log searches for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are pretty difficult to navigate. It needs a better UI or more intuitive search and filter mechanisms to make it easy to get through and filter through all the data logs."

More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint cons

"I would like the part of Hash Analysis by external sources to be improved."

"There is no technical support available in the Middle East."

"There could be a dedicated security partner with essential knowledge."

"But the biggest one for us is patch management because this has been our top priority when looking at alternatives. Every solution needs to have patch management, if that's possible. It would cut costs on our side if that feature were included, so we don't need to pay for two separate pieces of software."

"The solution could improve by having more real-time responses. For example, when a license gets removed from a computer it does not update the records of the change. Additionally, when I installed Microsoft Windows Defender I was not able to send licenses through email to our tenants. The integration with other solutions could improve."

"One problem is that the solution takes too much RAM from the client."

"The program and cloud service management is in English. It's not a problem for me, however, it might be for users who don't speak English or use it regularly."

"Resource consumption is suboptimal and could be improved."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have been using the free version."

"I'm not too familiar with costs as I'm an architect, though I know about online pricing, as I help two teams with online purchasing and procurement. Nowadays, everyone has an enterprise agreement, such as an E3 license, which we provide to our customers."

"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 is more affordable compared to some other endpoint solutions."

"The solutions price could be cheaper."

"Licensing models of Microsoft are renowned for being complex. We just purchased the whole E5 stack. With E5 licenses for users, we get access to a bunch of features that are not just related to security. I would rate them a three out of five in terms of pricing."

"This solution is part of Windows and comes included with it."

"Microsoft Defender is an expensive product in my country."

More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint pricing and cost advice

"The cost of the solution depends on the size of the company and where the licenses are being ordered from."

"We pay a yearly licensing fee of about €20 per computer."

"The product has average pricing."

"The price is comparable."

"If you purchase licenses in bulk the price of the licenses can decrease."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

20%

Computer Software Company

17%

University

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	79
Midsize Enterprise	34
Large Enterprise	87

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	1

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What do you like most about F-Secure Protection Service for Business?

The notifications and patch management features are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for F-Secure Protection Service for Business?

The pricing is scalable. We can purchase more licenses if needed. It's a more cost-effective solution compared to Darktrace, which requires a special device purchase.

See all answers

What needs improvement with F-Secure Protection Service for Business?

One problem is that the solution takes too much RAM from the client. It would help if it used less RAM in future versions.

See all answers

Comparisons

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Compared 5% of the time

HP Wolf Security vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Compared 5% of the time

F-Secure Total vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Compared 4% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Compared 4% of the time

Trellix Endpoint Security Platform vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Competitors

Sophos EPP Suite vs WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection

Compared 13% of the time

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection

Compared 10% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection

Compared 9% of the time

Bitdefender Total Security vs WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection

Compared 8% of the time

Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection

Compared 7% of the time

More WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

August 2025

Download Microsoft Defender for Endpoint product report

Buyer's Guide

WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection

August 2025

WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection report

Download WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection product report

Also Known As

Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus

F-Secure Elements Endpoint Protection, F-Secure Protection Service for Business

Interactive Demo

Microsoft

Demo not available

WithSecure

Overview

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 Defender XDR, 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.

Microsoft

WithSecure (formerly F-Secure) Elements Endpoint Protection is cloud-native, AI-powered endpoint protection that you can deploy instantly from your browser and manage easily from a single console. It integrates across all your endpoints, keeping your organization fenced in from attacks. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection is a module of the Elements cyber security platform. The cloud-based platform provides effective protection against ransomware and advanced attacks. Elements brings together vulnerability management, automated patch management, dynamic threat intelligence and continuous behavioral analytics. Use individual solutions for specific needs or combine them all seamlessly for maximum defense.

WithSecure

Sample Customers

Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection

September 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

867,370 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. WithSecure Elements Endpoint Protection report.

See our list of best Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) vendors.

We monitor all Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) 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.