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Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery 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
6.9
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers strong ROI through security enhancements, cost savings, and improved company productivity despite measurement challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery boosts ROI by improving data efficiency, compliance, risk management, and reducing legal and IT workloads.
It has also decreased our time to detection and response by about 15 to 20 percent.
Technology support manager at Alfred State College
Overall, cost of owning and operating our system goes down.
Designation Chief Consultant at Avtow
It's hard to quantify the return on investment we've seen from Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
We have seen a 100% return on investment.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The ease of accessing necessary information promptly is the biggest return on investment.
Manager, Information Technology Operations & Security at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
It's hard to quantify the ROI in a dollar amount, but we realize value by doing more tasks in less time than we did before.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.8
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 users rate support highly, praising its responsiveness and 24/7 availability, despite occasional documentation and communication issues.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is praised for responsive support, despite some mixed experiences with wait times and outcomes.
Over the past two years, there have been no critical problems.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
we opened tickets, and they typically resolve them quickly.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
With a subscription for Microsoft Defender for Office 365, it is an eight. Without it, it is a six.
Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate Microsoft Purview eDiscovery's customer service and technical support a ten.
Is admin at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers scalable, efficient protection for large enterprises, ensuring seamless growth across diverse industries.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is scalable and efficient, seamlessly integrating with cloud infrastructures but lacks some search functions.
We have never faced scalability problems, and Microsoft manages it effectively.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales transparently for us, as we grew from 1,000 users to 3,000 users, and we didn't notice much difference.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales with the growing needs of my company well.
Senior Client Director and Advisory Service Leader at Crossfuze
It scales with us seamlessly.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
With the E3 licensing, I would rate the scalability of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery as a six because it lacks certain critical search functionalities.
Is admin at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 provides 99.9% uptime with minor issues, ensuring reliable performance and seamless cloud integration.
Sentiment score
8.6
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is generally stable, with minor slowdowns, but users seek more transparency on performance issues.
I would rate the stability of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 as 10 over 10 because it's highly available, it works, and it does the job it is meant to do.
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues because of Defender.
Technology Associate at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The solution is stable, as we have been using it for the past two years.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
For us, it has been one hundred percent reliable.
Manager, Information Technology Operations & Security at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is highly reliable.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users call for enhanced virus detection, cross-platform support, and pricing transparency in Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery needs faster, more efficient features, better integration, NLP for queries, and affordable pricing for users.
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process.
Infrastructure and Security Lead at Vedanta
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
There is a different console for different things; I just want one consolidated console.
Senior Director, Security Architecture & Engineering at a leisure / travel company with 10,001+ employees
Adding more features, as Microsoft continues to expand their cloud offerings, would be beneficial.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
Defining what constitutes a credit card because that is where I get the most false positives.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We find that many critical functions are available only to E5 license holders.
Is admin at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pricing is seen as flexible but potentially expensive, offering value in comprehensive security features.
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery pricing is complex, with E5 costly yet beneficial, while E3 is cheaper but limited.
We've likely saved 30% of costs.
Designation Chief Consultant at Avtow
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 suite, making it slightly more expensive compared to Trend Micro.
Infrastructure and Security Lead at Vedanta
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
With CSP or MCE-style agreements with Microsoft, the process is streamlined since we have reps from both Microsoft and CDW working together.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
As an M3, I find the Purview pricing of 1250 per user worthwhile.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The pricing and licensing with Microsoft can be complex, and licensing is known to be a challenge because it changes frequently.
Enterprise Content Mamagement Lead Developer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 enhances email security with anti-phishing, anti-malware, threat intelligence, and seamless integration for efficient management.
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery ensures efficient data retrieval with multi-platform integration, automation, compliance visibility, and adherence to global data privacy laws.
It ranks the threats and allows us to prioritize those hitting us the hardest, such as email threats.
Technology support manager at Alfred State College
It provides end-to-end visibility on email threats such as phishing, extending beyond Exchange Online Protection.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
The value of the DLP feature is significant to us because we have internal data, sometimes sensitive, and the users may not always be aware of security and privacy, which might lead them to send out information mistakenly to external parties.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is its ability to search across various platforms, including Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
Purview can connect to iOS, Mac, Android, and SaaS apps, which is critical for capturing SMS and MMS text message data.
Is admin at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Purview's inclusion of global regulations is critical because we're heavily regulated by FERC, Sarbanes-Oxley, and the SEC.
Enterprise Content Mamagement Lead Developer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (1st), Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
22nd
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
eDiscovery (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 3.6%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is 1.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Office 3653.6%
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery1.5%
Other94.9%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Emeka Ndulu - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Improves threat visibility and response while reducing manual tasks and training users against phishing
I appreciate the attack simulation feature whereby I get to train users and educate them on how to identify phishing emails and spam emails, as well as the anti-spam protection. It gives me visibility into my threat environment and threat landscape to ensure that I am one step ahead of any likelihood of threats within my environment. I get to detect it and respond, so the threat intelligence is very effective. Microsoft security solutions save my time. It saves money because once I protect my environment, I don't lose money. It has decreased my detection time and my time to respond.
reviewer2595618 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Has made it significantly easier to handle rare litigation requests
The speed of it is valuable. I am able to search even 10,000 mailboxes for specific content. It helps search and accommodate the often limited information provided by users regarding what they need. It provides a solid starting point, and then we are able to refine the data from there. That has been very helpful because we do not always get enough information from our users to know what to look for. For example, a user is missing an email from x date but does not know anything else. In such a case, I give them a list of emails to look at so that they can tell me what they are missing. It is not a lack of the tool. It is more of a lack of the user providing info.
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881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Government
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise31
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The inbuilt analysis of false positives can be faster. It's not slow, but it can be faster.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is for email protection, safe links, protection of links, documents, protecting my documents, and protecting attachments. I also use it to conduct ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?
The setup process was very straightforward. We acquired pricing through our reseller in NASDAQ, eliminating the need to search for prices ourselves.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?
The query language can be time-consuming to figure out if you don't know it initially. While there are options with dropdowns to select criteria, having a natural language feature would be benefici...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?
I sometimes use it for legal holds or to find lost items, and to determine what is going on. However, most of the time, my use case is legal-related.
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.