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Microsoft Defender XDR vs Vectra AI comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 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
7.3
Organizations achieve positive ROI with Microsoft Defender XDR by consolidating security measures, enhancing protection, and saving time and resources.
Sentiment score
7.1
Vectra AI enhances security efficiency, reduces threat response times, and offers cost-effective risk management compared to other solutions.
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.
Previously, identifying and containing threats took a long time, but now, with Microsoft Defender XDR, it takes just a few minutes.
The biggest return on investment for us is that by being on the platform, we can sunset many legacy tools.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Defender XDR support ranges in effectiveness; premium users receive better service, while standard support often involves delays and inefficiencies.
Sentiment score
8.2
Vectra AI's customer service is responsive, knowledgeable, and generally praised, though complex issues might experience occasional delays.
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.
The support is quite reliable depending on the service engineer assigned.
When I create tickets, the response is fast, and issues are solved promptly.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender XDR is scalable, integrating seamlessly across devices and departments, despite some limitations with specific requirements.
Sentiment score
7.5
Vectra AI is scalable and flexible, easily integrating with cloud platforms, but may require planning and can be costly.
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
It is suitable for enterprise-level deployment but has room for improvement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender XDR is highly stable, reliable, and effective, with minimal bugs and proactive issue resolution ensuring user confidence.
Sentiment score
8.0
Vectra AI is praised for stability, requiring minimal maintenance, with efficient updates and quick issue resolution ensuring reliable performance.
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.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender XDR requires improvements in speed, integration, cost-efficiency, support, and AI capabilities for a better user experience.
Vectra AI needs better visibility, integration, flexibility, reporting, and customization, plus improved UI, detection accuracy, and endpoint coverage.
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.
ExtraHop's ability to decrypt encrypted data is a feature that Vectra AI lacks.
You need to have a Linux server, and from the Linux server, you must perform AI tasks, and there is a lot to be handled in the back end.
Neither Vectra nor Darktrace have a function like a status health check on my log sources and traffic sources.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender XDR pricing is competitive with Microsoft 365, though standalone costs and licensing complexity impact user perception.
Vectra AI's pricing varies; it's seen as costly yet competitive for quality, with complex licensing needing simplification.
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.
Vectra is cheaper in terms of pricing and features compared to Darktrace.
It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender XDR strengthens security with integration, threat detection, centralized management, and cloud service compatibility, enhancing IT efficiency.
Vectra AI excels in threat detection, risk management, and seamless integration, enhancing security operations with AI-driven insights.
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.
It's because endpoint management is my primary focus, and this feature integrates well with my other skills.
There are extensive out-of-box detection capabilities.
The main feature of Vectra AI that I find valuable is its focus on the user interface and its approximately two hundred algorithms based on artificial intelligence and machine learning.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)
Vectra AI
Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
15th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (3rd), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (2nd), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (10th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 6.9%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vectra AI is 3.4%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Extended Detection and Response (XDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Gabor Nyerd - PeerSpot reviewer
Includes four services and four products, which can help organizations a lot
We found that sometimes integrations work, but testing them can take some time. Sometimes, configurations take much longer than expected. We have a configuration in place that needs to be synchronized with another server. However, the servers are four hours apart, so this can cause delays. In general, I believe that the time it takes to configure and test a service should be shorter. Sometimes, it can take a couple of hours to test a single configuration setting. Other times, it is only ten or fifteen minutes, which is normal. However, sometimes, even immediate actions can be triggered by configuration changes, and some settings can take up to eight hours to complete. I believe that this time can be improved. Microsoft is making a lot of improvements to its services in a short period of time. This is a good thing, as it means that the services are constantly being updated and improved. However, it can be challenging for customers to keep up with the changes. For example, a customer may read about an update, understand it, and share it with their colleagues and boss. However, it may take days or weeks to test the update and get the necessary approvals. This can be especially challenging for large customers with many users or machines. In some cases, Microsoft may change a service before the customer has had a chance to implement the previous update. This can be frustrating for customers, as it means that they have to constantly learn new things and adjust their workflows. On the one hand, it is important for Microsoft to keep updating and improving its services. This helps to ensure that the services are meeting the customers' needs and that they are staying ahead of the competition. Microsoft should also be mindful of the challenges that these changes can create for customers. One way to address this challenge is to provide customers with more time to implement changes. Microsoft could also provide more information about upcoming changes so that customers can plan ahead. Ultimately, Microsoft needs to strike a balance between keeping its services up-to-date and providing customers with a smooth transition to new features.
Mohammad Alkurdi - PeerSpot reviewer
Innovative detection features enhance monitoring
The advantages of the integration are not entirely out-of-the-box. You have to do it manually. When I'm doing tier response, an out-of-the-box solution is not available. You need to have a Linux server, and from the Linux server, you must perform AI tasks, and there is a lot to be handled in the back end. This is a major consideration about them. The recall feature, if it can be placed in some areas instead of the cloud, and charged for, would be better. Recall the storage where you watch all the traffic, and you can recall it and try to analyze it in the back end. It’s cloud-based. If they offer it on-prem, it would be better. I think they have a solution, but I have never tested it, to be honest with you.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
Licensing is somewhat confusing, particularly when presenting our pitch decks to stakeholders and leveraging key features in premium SKUs, but we managed with some assistance from Microsoft.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
There is nothing I can think of at the moment that needs improvement. I am a contractor and finishing up soon, so I haven't encountered any issues requiring enhancements.
What is the biggest difference between Corelight and Vectra AI?
The two platforms take a fundamentally different approach to NDR. Corelight is limited to use cases that require the eventual forwarding of events and parsed data logs to a security team’s SIEM or ...
What do you like most about Vectra AI?
The solution is currently used as a central threat detection and response system.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vectra AI?
It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
Vectra Networks, Vectra AI NDR
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Tribune Media Group, Barry University, Aruba Networks, Good Technology, Riverbed, Santa Clara University, Securities Exchange, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Vectra AI and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.