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Microsoft Purview DLP vs Symantec DLP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 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
6.7
Microsoft Purview DLP offers cost savings, security enhancements, and reduced onboarding time, though ROI varies among users.
Sentiment score
7.3
Symantec Data Loss Prevention boosts ROI by enhancing threat management, reducing costs, and improving data protection and response times.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.1
Microsoft Purview DLP support is inconsistent, with quick responses and clear resources but also delays and monopolistic concerns.
Sentiment score
6.2
Symantec's support is praised for expertise but criticized for slow responses, especially after Broadcom's acquisition and for non-premium users.
Once we got to the Microsoft engineers, the experience was great.
The support team changed from MTechPro to a different partner, affecting our experience.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention offers scalable, flexible cloud solutions, but needs improvements in user-friendliness and device-level scalability.
Sentiment score
7.6
Symantec Data Loss Prevention is scalable for various user levels but faces challenges in virtualization, browser integration, and service scaling.
The policy working and detection technology need enhancements.
When using native proxy solutions, scalability issues are minimized, and the solution remains stable.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is highly stable, reliable, and responsive, though minor real-time issues and internal connection challenges exist.
Sentiment score
7.7
Symantec Data Loss Prevention is stable with high reliability, minor glitches, and differing maintenance needs for Windows versus Linux.
Sometimes the solution is not stable when the internal connection is not reliable, so this aspect needs improvement.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Purview DLP needs better integration, improved UI, enhanced AI features, cost-effective licensing, and better language support.
Symantec Data Loss Prevention faces numerous challenges including integration, user-friendliness, scalability, pricing, and compatibility, especially with macOS.
Implementing a degree of severity ranking is essential.
Endpoint Data Loss Prevention needs to be improved as it is not up to expectations.
A main disadvantage of Symantec DLP is its reliance on Oracle.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Purview DLP in E5 licenses offers competitive pricing and flexible payment, valued for security features and added services.
Symantec Data Loss Prevention offers flexible pricing but can be costly, especially for small firms with under 150 users.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Purview DLP enhances data security with auto-labeling, multi-cloud support, cross-platform protection, and strong compliance features.
Symantec Data Loss Prevention excels in data monitoring, machine learning, cloud integration, and user-friendly interface, enhancing overall data protection.
The feature I find most valuable that I'm currently using is the quickness of the emails that the Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention solution sends to us, where we get notifications that say a user has potentially breached our data guideline rules, and we get those alerts continuously, allowing us to enforce them manually.
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention usually performs well, except for endpoint Data Loss Prevention, which may need improvements.
Symantec Data Loss Prevention has proprietary metadata and is well-suited for endpoint-level security.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Purview Data Loss...
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (17th)
Symantec Data Loss Prevention
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is 15.2%, down from 17.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Data Loss Prevention is 6.3%, down from 10.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
 

Q&A Highlights

VK
Mar 23, 2023
 

Featured Reviews

Roby Skariah - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation has given us consistent analytics and improved quality of insights into user activity
One of the valuable features of Purview is the ability to create a legal hold on a user's account within the compliance portal. That's pretty useful when it comes to any litigation or if you want to redeem the content within a mailbox, OneDrive, or a generic public SharePoint site. If you want to retain the user's data until the case is resolved, you can use the legal hold feature. Also, it's important that Purview can connect to iOS, Mac, and Android devices. With smartphone involvement, so many applications can now be accessed through them and it is important to apply Purview across operating systems and platforms. Purview's natively integrated compliance across Azure Dynamics and Office 365 is also significant because within Microsoft 365 there are multiple applications. Irrespective of whether it's Dynamics or Azure, it's very important that it has native support. The data connectivity should be efficient enough to support and secure their own platform's data. In addition, with varying regulations in different industries and matters, Purview lets you create rules and conditions based on industry standards around the world. That is important. Our company is in pharmaceuticals and the rules and conditions are different from other industries. It is important to be able to keep track of all these regulations and have a tool that is flexible enough to create the regulatory rules and conditions we need. And when it comes to data loss protection, Purview has features that can recognize patterns and detect any sort of data loss, where the data is being transferred from its platform to a different one. The default settings that come with it are pretty nice for identifying data transfer or data loss across the platform. It also comes with a lot of training materials, with use cases and examples, to help educate users and make them familiar with the tool.
ARAVINDAN K - PeerSpot reviewer
Strengthened security operations with endpoint-level protection but database flexibility could improve
Symantec Data Loss Prevention has proprietary metadata and is well-suited for endpoint-level security. It stands out for supporting multiple protocols like email and SMTP without needing user profile login for endpoint agents. Once policies are downloaded to the local system, they function independently of a user's login. The solution helps enhance security operations when integrated with ServiceNow and offers robust incident response capabilities.
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Answers from the Community

VK
Mar 23, 2023
Mar 23, 2023
Data loss prevention (DLP) is an important security technology that can help organizations protect their data from unauthorized access, misuse, and data loss. DLP solutions are designed to detect data breaches and alert companies about the possible security risks associated with data storage. They can be used to block data transfers or restrict access to data stored in cloud-based data stores. ...
See 2 answers
Muhammad Ejaz ul Hassan - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 13, 2023
Go with Symantec DLP. If you have any questions let me know @ Ejaz.hassan@risetechno.com. 
Remy Ma - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 23, 2023
Data loss prevention (DLP) is an important security technology that can help organizations protect their data from unauthorized access, misuse, and data loss. DLP solutions are designed to detect data breaches and alert companies about the possible security risks associated with data storage. They can be used to block data transfers or restrict access to data stored in cloud-based data stores. In addition, DLP solutions can be used to monitor data usage and detect malicious behavior such as data theft or data leakage. By implementing data loss prevention technology, companies can protect their data from external threats and unauthorized access. When it comes to Email Cloud Security, Symantec DLP, Proofpoint DLP, and Microsoft Purview DLP are all strong contenders. But which solution is the right one for you? Well, that depends on your specific needs. If you prioritize ease of use and scalability in your Email Cloud Security solutions, then Symantec DLP is the right choice. If, on the other hand, you value data privacy and protection then Proofpoint DLP is a better option. Finally, Microsoft Purview DLP stands out for its comprehensive analytics tools that give users greater insight into their Email Cloud Security performance. So which Email Cloud Security solution do you pick? Choose wisely! It could make all the difference.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?
The most valuable features are identifying sensitive data and issuing alerts.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?
My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing is not something I manage directly since I'm the owner operator; my colleagues might be more involved with that aspect as we have other te...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?
Improving Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention would involve recognizing that the whole AI path we are all on is going to help, given the massive amount of data we handle; even if there are true ...
What do you like most about Symantec Data Loss Prevention?
It can prevent copying and encoding of HTTP data to various sites like Google, and Webex.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Data Loss Prevention?
I do not have an idea about pricing, as it is handled by another team responsible for procurements.
What needs improvement with Symantec Data Loss Prevention?
A main disadvantage of Symantec DLP is its reliance on Oracle, especially compared to other products like Forcepoint, which offer MSSQL database options that are more convenient.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention, MS Endpoint DLP, Microsoft Endpoint DLP
Symantec DLP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Hadassah University Hospital, Her Majestys Government (HMG), United Kingdom, Hitachi Consulting Software Services India Pvt Ltd., Hua Nan Bank, Hyundai Department Store Group,JW Marriott Hotel Seoul, Lake Health, McCann Erickson Israel, Molina Healthcare Inc., PGi, Quilvest Switzerland Limited, State of Nevada Public Employees Benefits Program, Symantec Corporation (Enterprise Security), The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust (DLP), The Saudi Industrial Property Authority, TSO cloud, Visa, Yunnan Power Grid Company
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention vs. Symantec Data Loss Prevention and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.