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Microsoft Defender XDR vs Red Canary comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

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
6.7
Microsoft Defender XDR provides high ROI by consolidating security tools, streamlining operations, and enhancing security, despite licensing costs.
Sentiment score
8.5
Red Canary improved security ROI by efficiently detecting threats, reducing incident response times, and offering detailed alerts and cost savings.
We can quarantine and isolate a device within minutes.
Microsoft Defender XDR has saved me at least 50% of my time.
Ever since we turned on the M5 feature set back in June, we have seen a reduced number of potentially malicious clicks and faster alerting when incidents occur.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Defender XDR's support is timely and responsive, yet smaller organizations experience slower, less effective assistance than larger ones.
Sentiment score
8.5
Red Canary's customer service is excellent, offering swift support with on-call availability and monthly alert discussions.
You get stuck in low-level support for way longer than you should, instead of them escalating the issue up the chain.
It's critical to escalate SEV B issues immediately to a domestic engineer.
Once issues are escalated to the second or third layer, the support is much better.
In emergencies, there is an on-call person available to resolve issues immediately.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender XDR scales well for various organizations, efficiently supporting growth and flexibility despite some network deployment challenges.
Sentiment score
6.4
Red Canary excels in scalability, seamlessly managing large data sets, integrating with systems, and maintaining performance in growing operations.
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
Microsoft Defender XDR scales pretty well.
It is suitable for enterprise-level deployment but has room for improvement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender XDR is praised for high stability, reliable performance, minimal issues, frequent updates, and prompt issue resolution.
Sentiment score
8.2
Red Canary is praised for robust reliability and consistent performance, with users reporting smooth, glitch-free operation.
The service has remained consistently online, with any issues isolated to specific components, suggesting a well-designed and modular architecture.
The services within our ecosystem have been reliable, meeting their SLAs.
It provides high-fidelity signals.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender XDR requires enhancements in speed, integration, automation, AI, ease-of-use, and industry-specific threat intelligence.
Red Canary can improve by offering on-premise options, expanding language support, enhancing firewall integration, and addressing pricing concerns.
The licensing process needs improvement and clarification.
Improvements are needed in automated response capabilities.
Some inconsistencies exist between blades, which could be improved for a more seamless user and UI experience.
Red Canary's pricing spectrum may not be ideal for smaller financial institutions.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender XDR pricing is seen as complex but fair, with high costs alleviated in bundled Microsoft 365 packages.
Red Canary's pricing, at $100 per device, is seen as fair but users desire lower costs, ideally $50.
There are certainly savings when using Microsoft Defender XDR, which can range from 30%, 40%, and even up to 50%.
I would rate the pricing as eight out of ten, indicating it is a reasonable cost for the product.
Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs.
The services are higher priced.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender XDR integrates tools for comprehensive security, offering threat detection, automation, identity protection, and enhanced efficiency.
Red Canary offers seamless EDR integration, fast alerts, automation, threat detection, and supports compliance with key standards.
With Microsoft threat intelligence information, it detects various types of threats, including insider attacks, malicious content, and data exfiltration.
This allows us to secure our systems in advance and proactively improve security, rather than waiting for incidents to occur.
Once we have it on the security dashboard, we can see a real-time storyline.
Red Canary detects threats and attack patterns, allowing us to assess any significant damage caused to the banking environment, particularly if protected data has been damaged or corrupted.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
102
Ranking in other categories
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (4th)
Red Canary
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
38th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (24th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (14th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 2.9%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Canary is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender XDR2.9%
Red Canary0.3%
Other96.8%
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

Featured Reviews

MohtesanShaikh - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Sagar Shekhar - PeerSpot reviewer
An open-source tool that offers great automation capabilities
Red Canary MDR generates a lot of output, so it would be good if, in the end, it generates a summary of all the previous attacks and what was the outcome of a single attack, especially so that it becomes easy for the user to see the summary and analyze the whole thing. In general, the solution currently fails to provide a summary to its users.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise37
No data available
 

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.
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.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
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 com...
What needs improvement with Red Canary MDR?
Red Canary's pricing spectrum may not be ideal for smaller financial institutions.
What is your primary use case for Red Canary MDR?
We use Red Canary ( /products/red-canary-reviews ) to monitor incoming and outgoing traffic. For example, when we receive an alert that data from our internal IP address to an external IP address h...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
Red Canary Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
DuPont, Quanta Services, Microchip Technology, Hopkins Public Schools, Henny Penny, Schumacher Homes
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Red Canary and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,566 professionals have used our research since 2012.