Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st)
Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (6th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 1.9%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 5.2%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
Unique Categories:
Email Security
13.8%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
13.5%
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
4.3%
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
11.2%
 

Featured Reviews

Nagendra Nekkala. - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 14, 2023
The automated attack disruption works well if you have a strong policy configuration
365 Defender is a critical tool for mitigating attacks and preventing threats. We use it for email filtering and blocking phishing attacks throughout the entire enterprise. We have around 1,500 users.  365 Defender has improved our security across multiple categories. It's effective against…
CD
Nov 28, 2023
Streamlined endpoint security offering comprehensive threat protection, unified identity and simplified operations within a single-pane interface
We primarily use it for endpoint security. Specifically, it serves as our solution for antivirus detection, malware detection, and related aspects focused on safeguarding individual devices.  Its single-pane interface is a time-saving feature, as it eliminates the need to check different locations…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Defender helps us prioritize threats across our organization."
"I like its investigation capabilities, as that is what is most important to me. It is fairly simple with a user-friendly interface."
"The product's scalability is good."
"The good part is that you don't have to configure it, which is very convenient."
"The deployment capability is a great feature."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the ease of use."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 helps people to work remotely. It is a secure solution. We don't need to use our company's computers or get VPN connections to the networks. I can control how they share screens and what they send to the devices. It keeps our organizations confidential and sensitive information safe."
"At the moment we are satisfied with this product. It's a stable, scalable, and resilient solution for us."
"Defender XDR has a feature called the timeline that lets you track all activities. It helps a lot with investigations."
"The integration between all the Defender products is the most valuable feature."
"Microsoft 365 Defender's most valuable feature is the ability to control the shadow IP."
"Among the most valuable features are the alert timeline, the alert story, which is pretty detailed. It gives us complete insight into what exactly happened on the endpoint. It doesn't just say, "Malware detected." It tells us what caused that malware to be detected and how it was detected. It gives us a complete timeline from beginning to end."
"All of the security components are valuable including, antiphishing, antispam, and stage three antivirus."
"Scanning, vulnerability reporting, and the dashboard are the most valuable features."
"I like that it's fully integrated with Windows, Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, and Outlook. It is better than other antivirus solutions because it's fully integrated with all Microsoft products. It's easy to integrate them and onboard all Windows devices from SCCM."
"Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and potential indicators of compromise."
 

Cons

"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"We need a separate license and we don't know how to get the license that is required."
"The XDR dashboard has room for improvement."
"The only thing they should improve is the licensing model. They should stop changing it. A year ago, the five features I mentioned were included in one product. Now, three of them are bundled into one product, and you have to pay extra for the other two. I don't mind paying extra, but I don't want them to change it every year or every six months. I need to know what I'm looking at and not worry about it next year."
"Microsoft sometimes has downtime, and we'll get several incidents coming in back to back. We have a huge backlog of notifications, many of which may be false positives. However, there might be serious alerts, so we can't risk dismissing all of them at once."
"The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should be more proactive."
"I'd like some additional features any product can give me to protect our environment in a better way."
"Microsoft Defender is slow to adapt to evolving threats."
"Microsoft tends to provide too many features, which makes the solution prone to bugs."
"Advanced attacks could use an improvement."
"Support is hit or miss. Microsoft wants you to buy premium support contracts. Though they call themselves professional support, it's almost like throwing questions into a black hole. You get an answer, but it's never helpful."
"The data recovery and backup could be improved."
"When discussing the secure score, which includes overviews and recommended actions, some of these recommended actions are not applicable to us, particularly those related to Microsoft Internet Explorer, which we do not use in any of our environments."
"The onboarding and offboarding need improvement. I work with other vendors as well, and they have an option to add a device or remove a device from the portal, whereas with Microsoft 365 Defender, we need to do that manually. However, once you do that, everything can be controlled through the portal, but getting the device onboarded and offboarded is currently manual. If we have an option to simply remove a device from the portal or get a device added from the portal, it would be more convenient. The rest of the features are similar. This is the only area where I found it different from others. I would also like to be able to simply filter with a few of the queries that are already there."
"There are other SIEM solutions that are easier to use, mainly based on the creation of rules, use cases, and groups."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft Defender is expensive. I typically recommend it only if clients have the budget. Otherwise, I would suggest an alternative."
"I was working in the government and it was too expensive for us to use our Microsoft products."
"While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 necessitates pricier E3 or E5 subscriptions, the extensive functionality offered by these licenses across various Microsoft products justifies the investment."
"The solution could be better by simplifying the business model of their licensing. It was hard to figure out how to get the licensing done for the environment, initially."
"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"The product is very expensive."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."
"365 Defender can get expensive because you pay per gigabyte of data ingested. On the other hand, much of the data available in the other Microsoft security solutions are made available relatively cheaply—sometimes at cost or for free. Integrating only a limited set of third-party solutions with Sentinel would be cost-effective. It's much more affordable if companies only have Microsoft stuff."
"The solution is affordable, and we haven't been hit with any hidden costs. The subscription model is straightforward, and it's easy to understand how much additional features cost. If we need to cancel a license or feature, we do that well in advance to avoid being charged for it, but overall, the pricing and licensing are simple and easy."
"Microsoft should provide lower-level licensing options. They should do it in such a way that even an individual could purchase a license, and it should be entirely flexible."
"Its licensing and pricing are handled by someone else. My role is limited to incidents or issues with the portal, but you get what you pay for. It is worth the cost."
"Microsoft Defender falls within a mid-tier price range compared to other security solutions."
"Microsoft Defender XDR is priced high."
"It is fairly priced because we get complete integrated services with the E5 license."
"Microsoft Defender XDR's licensing is complicated."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various email campaigns, pinpointing where they emanate from, and identifying the indi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 necessitates pricier E3 or E5 subscriptions, the extensive functionality offered by these licenses across various Microsoft products justifies the investment.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a very good solution that allows you to use a single port or tool to control everything happening with your organization's different cloud applications. Configu...
What do you like most about Microsoft 365 Defender?
Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and potential indicators of compromise.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
The solution can improve the rules and privileges it offers. They need to be more transparent with changes. Often, changes come too rapidly.
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.