Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Trend Micro Deep Discovery comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 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
4.4
Microsoft Defender for Identity is cost-effective and efficient, offering incident prevention and resolution without complex hardware setups.
Sentiment score
6.7
Trend Micro Deep Discovery enhances threat visibility and detection, effectively preventing substantial losses from ransomware, spam, and phishing.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Opinions on Microsoft Defender for Identity support vary, highlighting responsiveness, but issues include delays, contact challenges, and false positives.
Sentiment score
6.6
Trend Micro Deep Discovery support is praised for responsiveness and effectiveness, with some users noting a need for quicker responses.
Generally, the support is more effective than other providers like Oracle.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
The quality of support is very good, but troubleshooting can take time due to complex setups and the need to provide many logs.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The people I normally use for support are very knowledgeable, especially when they help remote in and get to where I need to go and show me much faster and help me understand what I should be doing.
Technology Coordinator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
If I were to rate them from 0 to 10, I would give them a nine or a ten.
Senior IT Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Identity efficiently integrates and scales globally, supporting diverse organizational needs within Microsoft’s ecosystem effectively.
Sentiment score
7.4
Trend Micro Deep Discovery is scalable but may face limitations due to network design, integration costs, and organizational needs.
In a Microsoft-centric organization, especially with Azure infrastructure and Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity is scalable.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
If the appliance supports scalability, Trend Micro support will inform us, and we can implement it without replacing the hardware.
Senior IT Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly reliable, with minimal incidents, seamless operation, and consistent ratings between seven and nine.
Sentiment score
8.3
Trend Micro Deep Discovery is praised for stability and performance, with users appreciating its threat intelligence and consistent updates.
Microsoft Defender for Identity is quite robust and built on Azure hyperscale infrastructure, with a 99% availability.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We do not see any issues with the stability of Microsoft Defender for Identity.
Deputy Manager at Servion Global Solutions
Having recently started using it, reliability is affirmed, but manual investigation is often performed to verify if alerts identified by auto-remediation are accurate.
Instrumentation Engineer at Toyo Engineering Corp
The product updates and security updates are kept current, allowing us seamless integration with Trend Micro and getting daily updates and signatures without problems.
Senior IT Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Identity users seek improved cloud integration, user-friendly features, better support, and streamlined processes for enhanced threat management.
Trend Micro Deep Discovery needs better integration, user-friendliness, scalability, pricing, support, speed, and IT infrastructure compatibility.
If Microsoft could develop a feature that indicates when impossible travel is caused by VPN connections, it would prevent unnecessary password resets and session disruptions, especially for VIP users in organizations.
CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed
One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
Reducing false positives is something we've been working on with Microsoft.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We have multiple components such as Deep Discovery Email Inspector for mail gateways, Deep Discovery Analyzer for sandboxing, and Deep Discovery Inspector, which serves as an IDS detecting malicious network traffic.
Senior IT Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The solution is not scalable as it is an agent product rather than a product designed for scalability.
Owner at Darcom
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Identity is cost-effective with E5 licenses despite complex pricing and competitive against other security solutions.
Trend Micro Deep Discovery pricing varies with requirements, seen as reasonable for advanced features but higher than standard antivirus.
If they can reduce the costs, organizations will be happy, and it will compensate for using the Azure environment, which is more expensive on the infrastructure as a service side.
CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed
Ensuring a fair price according to market standards.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
From an organization perspective, using E5 licenses is value for money, especially if Azure and Office 365 are already in use.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I do not consider it an expensive tool; its price is justified based on the capabilities that we receive when compared to another mail gateway or other vendors.
Senior IT Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
The solution is very expensive.
Owner at Darcom
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Identity integrates with Azure to offer comprehensive threat detection, identity protection, and advanced real-time security insights.
Trend Micro Deep Discovery provides intuitive installation, strong threat detection, and comprehensive visibility, enhancing security across multiple platforms with responsive support.
We receive an advance report of risky users, allowing us to take preemptive action before an attack causes damage to organization details.
Instrumentation Engineer at Toyo Engineering Corp
The most valuable feature is its hybrid artificial intelligence, which gathers forensic data to track and counteract security threats, much like the CSI series in effect.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
The advanced threat protection is one of the strengths of Microsoft Defender for Identity, as it utilizes user and entity analytics and can detect indicative attacks.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable capabilities of Trend Micro Deep Discovery Email Inspector include its ability to perform mail detection and mail filtration against various email attacks such as phishing and spam, serving as an email gateway for both inbound and outbound traffic.
Senior IT Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
This solution allows us to see anomalies, network traffic in our network, and zero-day threats.
Owner at Darcom
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (4th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)
Trend Micro Deep Discovery
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
17th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (7th), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 5.7%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trend Micro Deep Discovery is 2.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity5.7%
Trend Micro Deep Discovery2.4%
Other91.9%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

RK
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Protect on-premises and hybrid environments with advanced threat detection and seamless integration
Our Active Directory implementation is a hybrid one. The advanced threat protection is one of the strengths of Microsoft Defender for Identity, as it utilizes user and entity analytics and can detect indicative attacks. It identifies lateral movements, privilege escalations, and alerts on potential attacks. The tool is also used for security posture assessment. The seamless integration with other Microsoft solutions within our Microsoft-centric environment is also a major advantage.
reviewer2266119 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Security Engineer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Has improved email security through advanced filtration and timely threat detection
I work with Trend Micro Apex One. I have used the Deep Discovery's Sandbox analysis feature, and we utilize another appliance known as Deep Discovery Analyzer, abbreviated as DDA. This tool makes analysis for URLs and attachments contained in inbound emails, so whenever we receive an email with a URL or attachment, it will be analyzed by Trend Micro Deep Discovery Analyzer. In evaluating Deep Discovery's real-time visibility on network traffic, it is important to note that we applied our Deep Discovery Analyzer for Trend Micro to conduct sandboxing specifically for email channels only, and we do not utilize it for network channels. For network channel sandboxing, we use a solution called FortiAnalyzer, which belongs to another team called network security. I assess Deep Discovery's effectiveness in identifying sophisticated attack patterns by looking at how it handles high traffic loads, and how effectively it can use its instances and images to analyze numerous URLs and attachments simultaneously. Additionally, I evaluate its ability to maintain round-robin or load balancing across different analyses without leaving samples queued for analysis. The performance is critical when the product updates for signatures are up-to-date, as this aids in the detection and classification of URLs and attachments without delay in the analysis process. On a scale of one to ten, I rate Trend Micro Deep Discovery a nine.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) solutions are best for your needs.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise9
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Identity?
Microsoft Defender for Identity provides excellent visibility into threats by leveraging real-time analytics and data intelligence.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Identity?
I really would have to sit down to think about how Microsoft Defender for Identity can be improved. I didn't take stock in what needs to be improved because I appreciated having the tools right the...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?
My main use cases for Microsoft Defender for Identity include Conditional Access, checking risky users, remediating risky users, and user sign-ins. I can easily remediate or determine what the user...
What do you like most about Trend Micro Deep Discovery?
The tool's most valuable feature is its collaboration with other products. Integrating with other security products was simple and easy.
What needs improvement with Trend Micro Deep Discovery?
Server Protect is not commonly used. When considering the Sandbox feature, it only inspects small files, and not all types of files are supported. The solution is very expensive. The solution is no...
 

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
Trend Micro Deep Discovery Inspector, Trend Micro Deep Discovery Analyzer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Allied Telesis, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia, Babou, Blekinge County Council, Delacour, Hiroshima Prefectural Government, Live Nation Entertainment Inc., Mazda Motor Logistics Europe, McGill University Health Centre, Mikuni Corporation, OKWAVE, Sinar Mas Land, SWICA, UTOC Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Trend Micro Deep Discovery and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.