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Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Microsoft Intune 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.4
Organizations saw increased productivity, cost savings, and enhanced security with Microsoft Defender for Office 365's advanced features.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Intune reduces costs and boosts productivity by streamlining device management, enhancing security, and ensuring high return on investment.
It has also decreased our time to detection and response by about 15 to 20 percent.
Everything we've gained from it makes my job easier day after day, and I see value in it as an engineer.
Importantly, when someone leaves the company, it helps protect document access on their devices.
Applications are deployed through Intune, and we see fewer tickets for common issues because we can resolve them through the solution.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 support is praised for responsiveness but has inconsistencies, especially in first-level assistance.
Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Intune support receives mixed reviews; premium support is faster, while basic support often lacks effectiveness, needing improvement.
Over the past two years, there have been no critical problems.
Customer service and support have been fantastic.
When a support ticket is submitted, it directly reaches someone with Intune support expertise.
When I contacted Microsoft, they had the same expertise, if not more, which is phenomenal because I felt heard and my problem was solved.
Sometimes, the support provided is excellent, and the representative is knowledgeable, while other times, the service needs improvement.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales effectively, seamlessly expanding capacity with minimal maintenance, suitable for large and growing organizations.
Sentiment score
8.3
Microsoft Intune offers seamless scalability, supporting thousands of users and devices with strong endpoint support and flexible licensing.
We have never faced scalability problems, and Microsoft manages it effectively.
The scalability of Microsoft Intune is ten out of ten.
Ideally, we want to automatically segregate devices based on user properties like primary use, but currently, dynamic groups seem limited to device properties.
It supports organizations with 200 endpoints and those with more than 15,000 endpoints.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is reliable, with 99.9% availability and efficient bug fixes, offering seamless performance and stability.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Intune is praised for its stability and performance, despite minor bugs and occasional Azure integration issues.
The solution is stable, as we have been using it for the past two years.
We have not experienced downtime, bugs, or glitches.
Microsoft Intune has been very stable.
A couple of years ago, the performance was not as good as it is now, but there are noticeable backend improvements.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 needs enhanced threat detection, integration, support, usability, documentation, and transparent pricing to address customer concerns.
Microsoft Intune needs enhanced application deployment, reporting, and better support for non-Microsoft systems to improve user experience and efficiency.
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process.
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published.
I would reduce the cost.
Features like unlocking devices sometimes fail, and the support offered for other operating systems is insufficient.
There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now.
Many third-party companies offer single-pane-of-glass reporting that shows you what your update environment looks like, how your patch is doing, application status, etc., but Intune's reporting is not intuitive.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Office 365, often pricey for SMEs, offers extensive security features with complex user-based licensing.
Microsoft Intune is cost-effective due to integration with Office 365 and competitive bundling in Microsoft 365 E3 and E5.
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 suite, making it slightly more expensive compared to Trend Micro.
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
Introductory professional services, like a fast-track service, were included with our E5 membership, and there have been no additional costs.
The Intune suite and add-ons, such as batch management and remote help, are costly.
It costs approximately forty euros per user per month.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers integrated protection with features like anti-malware and threat detection, enhancing security through AI.
Microsoft Intune offers seamless integration, robust security, and efficient endpoint management with a centralized console for enhanced productivity.
It ranks the threats and allows us to prioritize those hitting us the hardest, such as email threats.
It provides end-to-end visibility on email threats such as phishing, extending beyond Exchange Online Protection.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is now part of a centralized tenant for my entire group.
Intune excels in configuration and compliance management for Windows 10, ensuring devices receive timely updates and adhere to organizational standards.
Dynamic groups allow us to set conditions for automatic membership, eliminating the need for user intervention or manual review and ensuring a seamless workflow.
Windows Autopatch is the most valuable because it removes the burden of patch management.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st)
Microsoft Intune
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
255
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (2nd), Remote Access (1st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (1st), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 2.4%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Intune is 14.7%, up from 10.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Tolu Omolaja - PeerSpot reviewer
Great URL scanning and attachment scanning, but I would like more proactive threat analysis
The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning. URL scanning involves an automatic scan of links and emails. When a user clicks on a link within an email, the system promptly checks the link's safety. If the link is deemed safe, access is granted automatically. However, if it is flagged as unsafe, we receive feedback and notification to caution us about the potentially harmful link. At this point, we are presented with the option to proceed or return. I have personally witnessed the system identify a few unsafe links, making this the primary advantage of using the solution. The second crucial aspect is the scanning of attachments. When an email containing an attachment arrives, we receive a notification of the new email, along with information that the attachment is being scanned for threats. This additional layer of security provides peace of mind for our organization. While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers numerous features, these two stand out as particularly impressive and valuable to us.
Joseph Merusi - PeerSpot reviewer
Everything has worked better since we started using it
Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update. There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
20%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

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?
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 ( /products/office-365-reviews ) suite, making it slightly more expensive compared to Trend Micro. Although Defender is free, you have to pay separately f...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process. There are many conditions to be met, making it challenging to ensure every system is protected. Troubleshooting ...
How does Microsoft Intune compare with VMware Workspace One?
Microsoft Intune is a great tool for managing a mobile device fleet while keeping access control. The solution makes it easy to control security and manage the usage of mobile apps when you have a ...
What are the pros and cons of Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a great configuration management tool and has a lot of good things going for it. Here are some of the things I like about it: Pros: Protected productivity: Intune gives you th...
How does Google Cloud Identity compare with Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune offers not only an easy-to-deploy data protection and productivity management solution, but also access to both Microsoft’s user community as well as around-the-clock customer s...
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
Intune, MS Intune, Microsoft Endpoint Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Mitchells and Buzzers, Callaway
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs. Microsoft Intune and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.