Microsoft Defender XDR vs Rapid7 InsightIDR comparison

Microsoft and Rapid7 are both solutions in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category. Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4, while Rapid7 is ranked #25 with an average rating of 8.0. Microsoft holds a 2.8% mindshare in EDR, compared to Rapid7’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Rapid7 users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Defender XDR

Read 102 Microsoft Defender XDR reviews

10,986 Views
5,932 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Rapid7 InsightIDR

Read 31 Rapid7 InsightIDR reviews

6,825 Views
1,911 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender XDR

Rapid7 InsightIDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Rapid7 InsightIDR and Microsoft Defender XDR are leading security solutions. Users prefer Rapid7 InsightIDR for pricing and support, while Microsoft Defender XDR excels in features.

Features: Users praise Rapid7 InsightIDR for its robust incident detection and response capabilities, user-friendly setup, and automated workflows. Microsoft Defender XDR is highly rated for its comprehensive threat intelligence, integration with other Microsoft products, and advanced analytics.

Room for Improvement: Rapid7 InsightIDR needs better scalability, enhanced reporting, and faster query performance. Microsoft Defender XDR could improve interoperability with non-Microsoft environments, more intuitive alert management, and better integration with third-party tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Rapid7 InsightIDR is praised for straightforward deployment and responsive customer support, with quick setup times and helpful resources. Microsoft Defender XDR has mixed reviews on customer service, with some users experiencing slower response times but is also straightforward to deploy.

Pricing and ROI: Users find Rapid7 InsightIDR's pricing competitive with a higher perceived ROI due to effective threat detection and ease of use. Microsoft Defender XDR is seen as more costly but justified by its extensive features and integrations.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR

September 2025

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Helped 872,837 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender XDR

Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

5th

Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

Microsoft Security Suite (4th)

Rapid7 InsightIDR

Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

25th

Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

17th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (14th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (5th), Threat Deception Platforms (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 2.8%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 InsightIDR is 1.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Defender XDR	2.8%
Rapid7 InsightIDR	1.2%
Other	96.0%

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Featured Reviews

MohtesanShaikh

Business Development Executive at TechnoFirrm

Experience improves security management and simplifies threat protection

I have created automated investigations, and while they work, they operate rather slowly in the Microsoft portal. If I automate something, it takes considerable time; if I do it manually, I can complete it in a quarter of the time. The automation response being slow is the main concern; when an incident occurs or if I run a remediation, it takes significant time to complete the remediation. There are some limitations regarding the scalability of Microsoft Defender XDR with specific licensing. For SMB customers, there is only Microsoft Defender for Business, and if they want more features such as XDR features and automation investigation or incident response, they need to purchase Defender for Endpoint. We are currently using the EDR.

Read full review

Asim Naeem

Principal IT Security & Compliance at IBEX Holdings Ltd

Providing comprehensive insight into alerts while working towards AI enhancement

I definitely recommend Rapid7 InsightIDR. It is becoming better, with improvements being continuously made to the product. Right now, I do not have any advice about Rapid7 for other users because every organization or user has different criteria or multiple use cases, so I refrain from commenting on that. I rate the overall solution seven out of ten.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Having a single pane of glass for all Microsoft security services makes everything much easier. A security analyst can go to a single portal and see everything in one view. The integration of everything into one portal is a huge benefit."

"The incident threat response and its ability to facilitate effective remediation against threats are the standout features."

"The 'Incidents and Alerts' tab is a valuable feature where we can find triggered alerts."

"There is also one dashboard that shows us the status of many controls at once and the details I can get... It gives a great overview of many areas, such as files, emails, chats, and links. Even with the apps, it gives you a great overview. In one place you can see where you should look into things more deeply..."

"The Email Explorer feature has proven invaluable, offering a broader perspective than automated alerts and incidents alone."

"The most valuable aspect is undoubtedly the exploration capability"

"It has great stability."

"Email protection is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender XDR."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pros

"Rapid7 is easy to use and deploy. It is a simple solution and has easy data pulling."

"I am able to run automated actions based on the output of reports, leaving me extra time to focus on more pressing matters."

"I rate Rapid7 nine out of 10 for affordability"

"I like that it's a cloud-based solution."

"Integration with threat modeling from the Metasploit and InsightIDR repositories."

"Intelligent alerting to avoid the common problem of alert fatigue associated with traditional SIEMs."

"The biggest reason why we chose Rapid7 was to gain value in a really quick time. Its deployment doesn't take months. It just takes a few days."

"Enables the use of honey pots, honey users, and honey files to monitor for suspicious patterns."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR pros

Cons

"There are still some components, such as vulnerability management within the vendor product, where improved integration would be beneficial."

"It would be highly beneficial if CoPilot could identify anomalies within the network and notify the IT team."

"The initial time spent setting up and configuring Defender XDR is a bit longer than the other solutions. If everything were on one portal, the platforms for managing policies or alerts would be simpler. We must automate and manage policies on Intune rather than the same portal."

"Microsoft Defender XDR could be improved in terms of speed, especially backend speed."

"The support team is not competent or responsive."

"The licensing process needs improvement and clarification, as it is currently difficult to understand which features are licensed to which users."

"Microsoft could improve on threat hunting and build more on threat detection and handling. The cybersecurity and cloud security posture features are a bit lesser than standard security products."

"From a performance standpoint, improvements could be made."

More Microsoft Defender XDR cons

"InsightIDR is only available in a cloud version. Some of our customers prefer an on-prem solution because they want to manage the security within their environment."

"They should add more configuration and security features to it."

"It would be useful to import threat intelligence in YARA format along with known incorrect email addresses."

"Tenable Nessus is easier to deal with. It's more efficient and accurate. InsightIDR is heavier than Tenable in terms of performance and scanning. Rapid7 would be much easier to use if it had a network connector like Tenable. Tenable's connector allows continuous monitoring over the B caps."

"The solution needs improvement in threat intelligence. Increasing the depth of intelligence to help users understand more about threats is a possibility. My suggestion is to expand access to other websites or resources."

"Rapid7 doesn't integrate well with all our security tools from various vendors, so we plan to switch. Many of our solutions work with Rapid7, but some do not. We are already searching for a replacement already."

"Rapid7 InsightIDR is not intuitive to search for logs. It should be more user-friendly and improve the dashboards. We should be able to use ready-made templates instead of having to build one."

"I would like the ability to adjust the threshold of certain existing alerts. Currently the only option is to change the notifications or create my own alert."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 Defender XDR is included in our license."

"The product is fairly priced for what we get from it."

"I would like to have more security features in the lower licenses because not every customer is able to buy E5 licenses. The bundling isn't always easy for our customers to understand. Compared to other tools, it's a good price."

"The bundling of software makes it easier to manage our setup, but Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs."

"The solutions price is fair for what they offer."

"We've managed to navigate it effectively through our enterprise agreement, and Microsoft's academic discounts have proven to be quite generous."

"We have a lot of problems in Latin America regarding the price of Microsoft 365 Defender, because the relationship between dollars and the money of the different countries, it's is a lot. Many customers that have small businesses say that they would like the solution but it is too expensive. However, large companies do not find the cost an issue."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pricing and cost advice

"It is a reasonably priced solution."

"The solution has a mid-range price point in the market"

"The pricing and licensing are competitive."

"The pricing is good, and it is not very expensive."

"Licensing is straightforward. If, for some reason, you don’t meet the minimum licensing requirements, there is a third-party managed service that can help."

"Rapid7 InsightIDR is a cheaply priced product. On a scale of one to ten, where one is very expensive, and ten is very cheap, I rate the product's price at seven or eight."

"I am sure that there are cheaper products out there, but none that meet so many of our needs whilst maintaining stability and usability."

"Rapid7 InsightIDR charges us based on the endpoints we connect to."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	37

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Defender?

The pricing for Microsoft Sentinel operates on a pay-as-you-go model based on data ingestion. I recall that Defender XDR pricing is based on the number of endpoints.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?

See all answers

What SOC product do you recommend?

For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also, rememb...

See all answers

What do you like most about Rapid7 InsightIDR?

During simulations or demonstrations, the tool generates alerts, providing details such as the specific application, its origin, and potential threats. For instance, it can identify if an applicati...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 InsightIDR?

The product pricing is very cheap.

See all answers

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Compared 4% of the time

Trend Vision One vs Microsoft Defender XDR

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Darktrace vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 7% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 6% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR

October 2025

Download Microsoft Defender XDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightIDR

October 2025

Download Rapid7 InsightIDR product report

Also Known As

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender

InsightIDR

Overview

Microsoft Defender XDR is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect against threats in the Microsoft 365 environment.

It offers robust security measures, comprehensive threat detection capabilities, and an efficient incident response system. With seamless integration with other Microsoft products and a user-friendly interface, it simplifies security management tasks.

Users have found it effective in detecting and preventing various types of attacks, such as phishing attempts, malware infections, and data breaches.

Watch the Microsoft demo video here: Microsoft Defender XDR demo video.

Microsoft

Parsing hundreds of trivial alerts. Managing a mountain of data. Manually forwarding info from your endpoints. Forget that. InsightIDR instantly arms you with the insight you need to make better decisions across the incident detection and response lifecycle, faster.

Rapid7

Sample Customers

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.

Liberty Wines, Pioneer Telephone, Visier

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR

September 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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