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Microsoft Sentinel vs Sophos Central comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Sentinel enhances ROI with automation, boosts productivity, lowers costs, and improves security through efficient integration and faster responses.
Sentiment score
6.7
Sophos Central is cost-effective, enhances resource use, excels in threat detection, and integrates well, boosting financial returns.
If a customer is already using Microsoft’s ecosystem, the ROI can be positive due to seamless integration.
senior cyber security at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Our MTTR, mean time to response, improved by forty to fifty percent. Earlier, medium-severity incidents took two to three hours to resolve. Now, after Microsoft Sentinel, it is forty to fifty-five minutes.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
We attribute our growth to Sentinel.
Chief Commercial Officer at defend
We returned our investment within the first year.
Supervisor, Infraestructura Information Technology at Refineria Dominicana de Petroleo
After adopting Sophos Central, we can easily integrate with ServiceNow, which means fewer employees, and that translates to money saved.
Senior Security Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Sentinel support is praised for quick, knowledgeable responses, with higher satisfaction in premium plans despite some documentation challenges.
Sentiment score
7.9
Sophos Central's support receives mixed reviews, varying from quick, knowledgeable assistance to delays and communication challenges across regions.
Their solutions' integration simplifies resolving issues compared to those caused by third-party products.
IT Consultant at MAN Truck & Bus SE
Microsoft invests significantly in support, which is crucial for companies.
Director de Microsoft y Transformación Digital at Compucad
Working with a Sentinel engineer helped us tune settings effectively.
Systems Emgineer at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
In my recent experience with a support ticket, the engineer was not very effective and took longer than I expected.
Senior Security Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
If I call support at any time, they will assign a new engineer according to SLA immediately or within one to three hours.
Project Incharge at IT Solution
Sophos Central integrates effectively with other products.
Supervisor, Infraestructura Information Technology at Refineria Dominicana de Petroleo
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Sentinel offers scalable, cloud-based operations with seamless Azure integration, emphasizing elasticity and cost considerations for effective data management.
Sentiment score
6.9
Sophos Central excels in scalability and ease of expansion, earning high satisfaction from enterprises of all sizes.
Office 365 and Exchange are running on it, covering about 35,000 users efficiently.
IT Consultant at MAN Truck & Bus SE
There is no need to add hardware or redesign infrastructure because it is cloud-native.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
As our organization uses Microsoft Azure and Defender, everything grows together, and we can integrate various features seamlessly.
Systems Emgineer at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
Sophos Central's scalability is excellent because I can add any licenses at any time without needing to create a new console.
Project Incharge at IT Solution
I believe Sophos Central's scalability is good compared to other EDR solutions that we have.
Senior Security Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Sentinel is reliable with 99.9% uptime, minor glitches, and minimal maintenance thanks to its managed service aspect.
Sentiment score
7.1
Sophos Central is stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and effective integration across devices despite occasional performance concerns.
So far, we have not experienced any issues, and it has been stable from the beginning.
IT Consultant at MAN Truck & Bus SE
In the past two years, our team hasn't encountered any issues with the stability of Microsoft Sentinel from an operations perspective.
Project Executive at synergyc
I need to be aware of deprecated connectors as they may disconnect, but the data continues to be sent with a need for quick adaptation.
senior cyber security at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek better integration, documentation, user-friendliness, AI, automation, and transparency in Microsoft Sentinel for improved threat management.
Sophos Central needs improvements in speed, integration, user-friendly authentication, flexible licensing, support efficiency, and enhanced app capabilities.
Log ingestion and retention costs can grow quickly, and understanding which data source is driving cost is not always straightforward.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
We have some tools, such as our off-site Meraki firewalls, that have not fully integrated with Sentinel.
Systems Emgineer at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
Currently, we are happy to have a way in the middle with not so much cost, but it would be nice to have the ability to enhance the automation of workflows based on learned incidents.
IT Consultant at MAN Truck & Bus SE
I would add that the logs in Sophos Central should be more detailed. Sometimes, when we're checking the logs, they simply state that a file is blocked, but we can't find out why that is the case.
Senior Security Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I saw how I can query history from my workstation to do threat intelligence.
Supervisor, Infraestructura Information Technology at Refineria Dominicana de Petroleo
I think Sophos Central could be improved by offering an on-premises option because some users prefer to keep their data locally rather than in the cloud.
Project Incharge at IT Solution
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Sentinel's pricing is flexible yet costly, requiring optimization and integration to maximize cost-effectiveness for data management.
Sophos Central offers competitive pricing with perceptions varying from slightly expensive to cost-effective, lacking some licensing flexibility.
It has been beneficial that Microsoft Sentinel is included as part of the Microsoft package, making it more cost-effective.
Senior System Administrator at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Microsoft Sentinel is not a low-cost SIEM.
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
Microsoft Sentinel offers more capabilities than Bastion, with a more intuitive experience.
Project Executive at synergyc
My thoughts on the pricing or licensing with Sophos Central are that it is very good.
Supervisor, Infraestructura Information Technology at Refineria Dominicana de Petroleo
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Sentinel excels in integration, AI, scalability, automation, and user experience, with powerful threat detection and response features.
Sophos Central is praised for centralized management, ease of use, integration, real-time detection, and affordability for small businesses.
Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources and its detection capabilities are essential.
Cost Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Sentinel has improved cost efficiency, which is one of the key areas we're able to win business against the ability to have threat intelligence.
Chief Commercial Officer at defend
Microsoft Sentinel's ability to correlate data from multiple sources enhances our threat detection capabilities beyond what is a simple data lake solution by filtering out the noise and consolidating the signal down to a meaningful level that is easier to investigate and see.
Solutions Architect at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
If it detects malware, it blocks it and then it sends it through to Sophos Central, which then sends me an email notification that one of the workstations picked up an infection or encountered an issue.
Senior IT Consultant at ICTS Group of Companies
Sophos Central has positively impacted my organization because it allows us to utilize Sophos products in a single pane of glass, and with its synchronized security, it helps to protect our environment more effectively by isolating infected devices from the internet.
Project Incharge at IT Solution
Sophos Central is very user-friendly and easy to manage.
Supervisor, Infraestructura Information Technology at Refineria Dominicana de Petroleo
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Sentinel
Ranking in AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (4th), Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (6th)
Sophos Central
Ranking in AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms
9th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms category, the mindshare of Microsoft Sentinel is 10.8%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Central is 0.8%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Sentinel10.8%
Sophos Central0.8%
Other88.4%
AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Kallamuddin Ansari - PeerSpot reviewer
Cyber Security Consultant at ProTechmanize
Centralized monitoring has improved threat response but cost control still needs refinement
Based on real operations used in our corporate IT environment, the key features include log correlation and incident view. Microsoft Sentinel's biggest strength is how it correlates multiple related alerts into a single incident. This significantly reduces alert noise and helps the SOC focus on real threats instead of isolated events. Another valuable feature is KQL-based threat hunting with Kusto Query Language. The flexibility of this language allows us to build custom hunting queries based on our environment's behavior. This is extremely useful for detecting low and slow threats or hidden threats that default rules may miss. Cloud-native scalability and stability is another important feature. Being cloud-native, Microsoft Sentinel scales well for medium to large corporate environments without infrastructure management. Stability has been solid in day-to-day production. SOAR automation using playbooks is a feature we highly recommend. Microsoft Sentinel's SOAR functionality helps automate repetitive SOC tasks like alert enrichment and notification. This saves analyst time and improves response consistency.
Fayas Ummer - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Centralized threat blocking has reduced manual monitoring but still needs better exclusions and logs
One way Sophos Central can be improved is in its exclusion capabilities. When we try to exclude legitimate files, we find that it requires a lot of effort, as we cannot simply exclude one file from every detection. Due to the layered approach, it takes time to exclude even one file, indicating that the exclusion process could definitely be enhanced. I would add that the logs in Sophos Central should be more detailed. Sometimes, when we're checking the logs, they simply state that a file is blocked, but we can't find out why that is the case. More detailed logs could significantly improve the log collecting aspect. Areas for improvement in Sophos Central are log collection, exclusion processes, and customer support. Aside from these points, I believe the overall product is great.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise45
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

Is there a common threat intelligence tool that aggregates multiple threat intelligence sources?
Yes, Azure Sentinel is a SIEM on the Cloud. Multiple data sources can be uploaded and analyzed with Azure Sentinel and its Threat Hunting functionality with AI available as templates or customized ...
What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?
It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...
Which is better - Azure Sentinel or AWS Security Hub?
We like that Azure Sentinel does not require as much maintenance as legacy SIEMs that are on-premises. Azure Sentinel is auto-scaling - you will not have to worry about performance impact, you will...
What do you like most about Sophos Central?
One of the significant advantages of Sophos is its affordability compared to other technologies like Check Point and Fortinet.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Central?
My thoughts on the pricing or licensing with Sophos Central are that it is very good.
What needs improvement with Sophos Central?
On a couple of older machines, Intercept X does tend to slow a computer down significantly, but on new, modern Windows 11 machines, I have not detected this issue yet. Intercept X tends to pick up ...
 

Also Known As

Azure Sentinel
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Sentinel is trusted by companies of all sizes including ABM, ASOS, Uniper, First West Credit Union, Avanade, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Sentinel vs. Sophos Central and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.