Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Defender for Business comparison

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2,985 views|1,900 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Microsoft Logo
8,462 views|6,332 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender for Business and Microsoft Defender XDR based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Microsoft Security Suite solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Microsoft Defender for Business Report (Updated: May 2024).
772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The interface is quite user-friendly.""Microsoft Defender for Business is good for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers solid security flexibility and integration with tools like Microsoft Lighthouse and some other software. It takes some of the features of Defender for Endpoint EDR and provides those services for small and medium-sized business environments.""A few things are valuable. One is the alerting we see when any kind of intrusion is happening, any kind of malware is being deployed across the endpoints, or any kind of suspicious activity is going on. We have a footprint across all of North America, Canada, and Mexico, so we want to make sure that all our endpoints are protected and we are able to look for any anomalous activity.""If you're an Intune user, you can bring in certain capabilities like system-hardening policies, which further enhances the security.""It is scalable."

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"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.""It provides a single pane of glass within the 365 admin interface, streamlining our experience by consolidating information in one place and eliminating the need to navigate through multiple interfaces.""I like Defender XDR's automation capabilities. XDR isn't automated by default, but you can automate it to respond. If an attack is performed anywhere within the organization, you can isolate that instance from the network. This is what I can figure out for it. When integrated with Sentinel, you can set up playbooks to automate all the alerts gathered on Sentinel from different Microsoft solutions. Sentinel has a wider range of capabilities than XDR.""The ability to isolate and address viruses is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender XDR.""The Endpoint Manager is incredible; it has a very straightforward interface and is exceedingly easy to use. Pulling out and deploying different tags or resources is a simple task across various departments with different levels of security. The notifications are also simple and satisfying; it's great to see the bubble informing us which devices are compliant and which are waiting to update.""Microsoft 365 Defender is a stable solution.""It has great stability.""We also use Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Cloud, Defender for Identity, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. They are all integrated and it was very easy to integrate them. In my experience with the integrations, it was just a click of a button and things were integrated. It's just a button."

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Cons
"Defender's threat protection should be fine-tuned to reduce false positives. It could be more targeted, reflecting a continuous evolution in detecting. Also, it could be easier to integrate into other environments.""Defender's reporting is rather scattered, and its URL filtering mechanism doesn't really work.""We faced some issues while running some applications on Mac.""The security could always be improved.""The biggest one is that Defender needs to be more proactive to the emerging threats. There can be tighter integration with email, especially how it integrates with our email system, which is the Microsoft Outlook suite. There should be the ability to react a lot quicker to emerging threats because sometimes, it takes a few days before some of these new threats are fully identified, and we need that to be a few hours."

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"The data recovery and backup could be improved.""The Defender agent itself is more compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11. Other than these two lines, there are so many compatibility issues. Security is not only about Microsoft. The core technical aspects of it are quite good, but it would be good if they can better support non-Microsoft solutions in terms of putting the agents directly into VMware and other virtualization solutions. There should be more emphasis on RHEL and other operating systems that we use, other than Windows, in the server category.""The abundance of sub-dashboards and sub-areas within the main dashboard can be confusing, even if it all technically makes sense.""The user interface of Microsoft 365 Defender could improve. They could make it simpler.""The licensing is a nightmare and has room for improvement.""While the XDR platform offers valuable functionalities, it falls short of other solutions in its ability to deliver a cohesive identity experience.""Stability could be improved by avoiding frequent changes to the interface.""Automated playbooks and automated dashboards would be preferable to the way the data is currently being presented."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Defender for Business is included by default with an Office 365 premium subscription."
  • "It has to get more competitive because we are starting to see some of the competitors providing better pricing, and some of it, of course, is to gain market share. The Defender product pricing is probably a little higher than the competitors."
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  • "The solutions price is fair for what they offer."
  • "The price could be better. Normally, the costs depend on the country you're located in for the license. When we were in the initial stage, we went with the E5 license they call premium standard. It cost us around $5.20 per month for four users."
  • "The price of the solution is high compared to others and we have lost some customers because of it."
  • "Microsoft is not competitive with the pricing of the solution. The competitors are able to offer lower discounts. The price of the solution is higher."
  • "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."
  • "The most valuable licensing option is expensive, so pricing could be improved. Licensing options for this solution also need to be consolidated, because they frequently change."
  • "Microsoft should provide lower-level licensing options. They should do it in such a way that even an individual could purchase a license, and it should be entirely flexible."
  • "They have moved from a licensing model to pay-per-use... The question is: What happens if, for any reason, there's not enough budget to accept this model? That could be a great problem."
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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:A few things are valuable. One is the alerting we see when any kind of intrusion is happening, any kind of malware is being deployed across the endpoints, or any kind of suspicious activity is going… more »
    Top Answer:It has to get more competitive because we are starting to see some of the competitors providing better pricing, and some of it, of course, is to gain market share. The Defender product pricing is… more »
    Top Answer:The biggest one is that Defender needs to be more proactive to the emerging threats. There can be tighter integration with email, especially how it integrates with our email system, which is the… more »
    Top Answer:Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and potential indicators of compromise.
    Top Answer:Microsoft Defender XDR is expensive, especially for the full suite functionality. However, when compared to buying multiple-point solutions separately, it may be comparable in price. Overall, it is… more »
    Top Answer:Improving scalability, especially for very large tenants, could be beneficial for Microsoft Defender XDR. Additionally, enhancing the privilege access management capability would make it a better… more »
    Ranking
    20th
    Views
    2,985
    Comparisons
    1,900
    Reviews
    4
    Average Words per Review
    453
    Rating
    8.0
    1st
    Views
    8,462
    Comparisons
    6,332
    Reviews
    60
    Average Words per Review
    1,181
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Defender for Business is a new endpoint security solution that was designed especially for the small and medium-sized business (up to 300 employees). With this endpoint security solution, your company's devices are better protected from ransomware, malware, phishing, and other threats.

    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.

    Sample Customers
    Information Not Available
    Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Retailer6%
    Government6%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Government9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Financial Services Firm10%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Company Size
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise41%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise24%
    Large Enterprise36%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise56%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Microsoft Defender for Business
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Microsoft Defender for Business and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Defender for Business is ranked 20th in Microsoft Security Suite with 5 reviews while Microsoft Defender XDR is ranked 1st in Microsoft Security Suite with 80 reviews. Microsoft Defender for Business is rated 8.0, while Microsoft Defender XDR is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Microsoft Defender for Business writes "Quicker response time, improved security posture, and reduced alerts". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Defender XDR writes "Includes four services and four products, which can help organizations a lot". Microsoft Defender for Business is most compared with HP Wolf Security, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and ESET Endpoint Protection Platform, whereas Microsoft Defender XDR is most compared with CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager, Wazuh and Trend Vision One. See our Microsoft Defender XDR vs. Microsoft Defender for Business report.

    See our list of best Microsoft Security Suite vendors.

    We monitor all Microsoft Security Suite reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.