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Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager 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
5.6
Determining ROI from Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is challenging due to package inclusion and unclear financial benefits.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager reduces costs by 50%, streamlines tasks, and is included in Office 365 E5 licensing.
As a Microsoft partner, we receive significant discounts, making the solution affordable for us.
The process is reduced from weeks to a day, showcasing a solid nine for return on investment.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender's customer service receives mixed reviews, highlighting inconsistent support and varying effectiveness in technical assistance.
Sentiment score
4.7
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager support faces mixed reviews, citing long resolution times and outsourced staff inefficiencies.
They are sometimes responsive, however, often issues cannot be reproduced on their end, making it challenging.
The support we receive from Microsoft is declining, and for example, after taking advanced support, we have not received satisfactory answers.
My team raised multiple support tickets for the product, and we were able to get responses from Microsoft support team.
Since I approach them with more complicated issues, it takes quite a bit of time to get through those two support tiers.
The support staff, who are often outsourced, seem not adequately equipped to handle issues quickly and efficiently.
The quality of support is affected because most support staff seem focused on obtaining five-star ratings rather than resolving problems thoroughly.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is praised for its high scalability and seamless integration, receiving consistently high user ratings.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager excels in scalable deployment across environments but faces constraints in crafting detailed policies.
It is scalable; I evaluated the product and decided to use Defender on over 700 of our company servers.
As services increase, eDiscovery capabilities also increase, allowing easy deployment.
It is straightforward since it scans everything, covering all aspects needed in our operations.
While the solution is scalable in terms of user numbers, there are limitations when creating more granular level policies.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Defender is rated highly stable with 99% availability, despite minor portal, compatibility, logging, and memory issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is reliable but needs improved eDiscovery and search functionality despite regular updates and changes.
There are compatibility issues occasionally arising with false positives when other security tools are not whitelisted in Microsoft Defender.
It is very resource-intensive, consuming a lot of memory and CPU.
I would rate the overall stability as an eight.
Despite stability, it needs to be more user-friendly and competitive compared to other eDiscovery tools.
It is reliable and I can depend on it.
In terms of latency, stability is not an issue.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender needs improvements in accuracy, customization, integration, resource efficiency, macOS support, user-friendliness, and affordability.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager needs integration, UI improvements, cost reduction, and enhanced policy and monitoring features for better usability.
This scoring should be for specific industries as well. If I belong to the healthcare industry using Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management, it should provide me with a risk score and show how I fare against the risk score of my industry.
A vulnerability I patch within 15 minutes takes 24 additional hours for an update.
The product is not stable; it often uses excessive memory and CPU, which makes it slow.
Microsoft Copilot Security converts human language to search queries using its AdLM language model.
The speed and accessibility, particularly in the user interface, require significant work.
The Purview Compliance Portal's log management could be more user-friendly, making data retrieval, like email logs, challenging.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender offers varying pricing; complex licensing may incur additional costs, but security benefits can justify the investment.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager offers cost-efficient pricing, especially for existing Microsoft users, and is notably cheaper than competitors.
Overall, every organization wishes for cheaper options, but we look at the security side as well, so we are good for now.
For non-partners, however, the cost could be seen as higher, between seven to ten.
The pricing is reasonable, and it's included in the whole Microsoft E5 bundle, so it's all-inclusive.
I rate the pricing as a one since it is included in what I am already paying for, as part of the Microsoft 365 E5 licensing.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management excels in integration, compliance, risk prioritization, and real-time assessments, enhancing security across diverse environments.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager streamlines multi-cloud data protection and compliance, enhancing visibility and integrating seamlessly with Microsoft 365.
The main advantage of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is that it can locate and prevent most threats even when the endpoints are not connected to the corporate network, as long as the internet is available.
The most valuable aspect is the kind of assessment results I get, and the recommendations provided in Microsoft products really help in taking care of the resources.
The integration with Sentinel has been one of the most valuable features for my organization.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's eDiscovery is essential for organizations using Outlook as their email service.
The most valuable feature is data classification retention since I deal with terabytes of data, and managing and monitoring it simplifies the process.
The best aspect is that it requires little to no time for implementation if I am using all of Microsoft's tools.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender Vulnerab...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (12th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (16th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (5th)
Microsoft Purview Complianc...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
25th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (14th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is 1.4%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

NaySan @ Suraj Verma - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides actionable vulnerability insights and recommendations with notable efficiency
They may need to improve the portal refresh rate for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management because it takes time for recommendations to disappear after mitigation; sometimes, it takes one week, when it should ideally take only one to two hours. Overall, everything is good with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management, but the portal refresh rate can take up to seven days in some cases and three or four days in others to reflect changes.
Peter-Murphy - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined data management and improved compliance with efficient document classification
The most valuable feature is data classification retention since I deal with terabytes of data, and managing and monitoring it simplifies the process. Additionally, the system provides a dashboard showing our compliance status, which aids in managing compliance tasks. The compliance score feature allows me to assess and compare our compliance across organizations. I've also noticed efficiency gains, especially in handling subject access requests. Previously, these tasks were manual and time-consuming, but now they are streamlined, reducing the process from weeks to just a day.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Healthcare Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
I would rate the price as a three for us due to the partnership discounts. For non-partners, however, the cost could be seen as higher, between seven to ten.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
I have not thought about improvements for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management as of now, but this is typically an operational maintenance process. The operational maintenance process refers...
What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
We have more visibility of data and how it is being shared.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
While not cheap, Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors. Additional costs may involve OCR page scanning.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
When I tried to set up Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager for my organization to ensure people are not sending PII documents, especially payment cards, using keywords for flagging, it disrupted o...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Compliance Manager
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.