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Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 23, 2025

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
8.1
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Platform enhances security, improves efficiency, saves costs, increases revenue, and supports business growth by reducing threats.
As a Microsoft partner, we receive significant discounts, making the solution affordable for us.
If something were to happen without ThreatLocker, the cost would be huge, and thus, having it is definitely worth it.
The main return on investment is peace of mind, knowing that with ThreatLocker on any endpoint, it will almost always block all malicious code or exploits, even zero-day exploits.
It keeps malware, Trojans, and ransomware at bay.
 

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
8.8
ThreatLocker Zero Trust's responsive customer service, highlighted by the Cyber Hero program, is praised for speed, professionalism, and effectiveness.
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.
They have been very responsive, helpful, and knowledgeable.
I would rate their customer support a ten out of ten.
Their support is world-class.
 

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
8.2
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Platform offers seamless scalability and adaptability, efficiently managing diverse environments and dynamic growth across endpoints.
It is scalable; I evaluated the product and decided to use Defender on over 700 of our company servers.
I started off with just the servers, and within a month and a half, I set up the entire company with ThreatLocker.
It seems to primarily operate on the endpoints rather than at a central location pushing out policies.
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
 

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
7.5
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Platform is praised for stability and reliability, with minor issues swiftly addressed by support.
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.
For five years, we have not had a problem.
Once deployed, it downloads the policies locally, so even if the computer doesn't have internet, it doesn't matter.
It has been very stable, reliable, and accessible.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender needs improvements in accuracy, customization, integration, resource efficiency, macOS support, user-friendliness, and affordability.
ThreatLocker needs UI improvements, better integrations, expanded training, enhanced analytics, restricted Learning Mode, and faster support.
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.
Controlling the cloud environment, not just endpoints, is crucial.
This is problematic when immediate attention is needed.
Comprehensive 24-hour log monitoring is a valuable enhancement for both business and enterprise-level users.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender offers varying pricing; complex licensing may incur additional costs, but security benefits can justify the investment.
Enterprise buyers find ThreatLocker's pricing competitive and flexible, valuing its affordability, transparency, and accessible setup costs.
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.
After conversations with other partners, it became clear we underpriced it initially, which caused most of our issues.
We are moving towards the Unified solution, where they basically bundle everything together, providing us better stability with the ability to bring in new product offerings without having to go back to the customer and say, 'This is going to cost you.'
I had a really good deal at the time, and it continues to be cost-effective.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management excels in integration, compliance, risk prioritization, and real-time assessments, enhancing security across diverse environments.
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Platform enhances security with features like application control, selective elevation, and robust network access controls.
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.
ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform's ability to block access to unauthorized applications has been excellent.
It protects our customers.
The major benefit is fewer breaches overall, as nothing can be run without prior approval. This helps my company protect its data and secure itself effectively.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender Vulnerab...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (12th), Microsoft Security Suite (21st), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (5th)
ThreatLocker Zero Trust End...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
6th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (5th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (7th), Application Control (1st), ZTNA (4th), Ransomware Protection (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform is 2.8%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

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.
Johnathan Bodily - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures ransomware protection and reduces phishing chaos
The application control has been great so far, and while I am still exploring the network access controls, I unfortunately don't have access to one module I would love to have due to licensing restrictions. It's easy to use in regard to reducing attack surfaces. For me, it's a piece of cake. We can have something approved within 30 seconds, thanks to the mobile app. We haven't eliminated security solutions. We just add to it, and ThreatLocker has been a great addition. We also have Kaseya and ThreatLocker as a supplement to that. It's useful. They have overlap, and we look at the overlap as a good thing. It's helped your organization save on operational costs or expenses by ensuring that many fewer hours are spent dealing with ransomware nonsense. I cannot count the amount of hours that I personally have not had to put in to recovering an environment from a ransomware event. The last big one took us about three weeks to completely recover from. Since we've grouped ThreatLocker in, the management of that whole setup has gone down to just daily help desk tasks and general server maintenance instead of having the whole system on fire. There are probably thousands of hours of saved time between our teams. It's been great so far. ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform's ability to block access to unauthorized applications is great. It's my biggest protection, the blocked applications. In a lot of cases, you go to install something yourself that you need for management, and it comes in and says, nope. And then I have to log into the portal and approve it. I get our other guys saying, hey, why are you trying to approve something? Any of the tools that I'm using on a day-to-day basis that haven't been in the environment during the whole learning mode initially, I could go through and set extensions and all that. So, while it's a headache on that end, the amount of saved time I can't even count. It is a little frustrating on my end since I like to go as quickly as I possibly can, and it slows me down. However, that's a really good thing. Depending on the site, it can save a lot of time and cut down headaches. It's likely saved a week's worth of time. It's cut down the amount of sever help desk tickets. Those have become minimal.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
35%
Retailer
8%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
5%
 

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 ThreatLocker Allowlisting?
The interface is clean and well-organized, making it simple to navigate and find what we need.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ThreatLocker Allowlisting?
Pricing, setup costs, and licensing have been pretty accessible and manageable. It was not too expensive to get started, especially at a small scale for a smaller MSP. It is very accessible, easy t...
What needs improvement with ThreatLocker Allowlisting?
For the space that it's in, it's already there. I don't know of another product that compares to its level. Even recently, with the addition of the detect module is a very nice add-on to the packet...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Protect, Allowlisting, Network Control, Ringfencing
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.