We compared Check Point Antivirus and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint based on users' reviews in six categories. We reviewed all of the data and you can find the conclusion below.
Features: Check Point Antivirus impressed users with its diverse set of valuable features like sandboxing, real-time detection, and integration with analytics solutions and the cloud. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint excels in file protection, encryption, and ransomware defense. It integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft security products. Users appreciate its user-friendly interface and scalability.
Room for Improvement: Check Point Antivirus requires quicker customer assistance, better performance of the graphical user interface, enhanced defense against zero-day attacks, and more budget-friendly pricing options. Users say Microsoft Defender for Endpoint should improve its central console and auto-recovery feature. Users also requested better reporting capabilities and integration with third-party platforms.
Ease of Deployment: Some users found Check Point’s setup process to be uncomplicated and fast, while others noted that it required several engineers and took around a week to finish. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's setup is straightforward, especially when it’s preloaded on Windows 10. While it can be more complex for larger organizations, it is generally considered simple, particularly for smaller companies or those familiar with Microsoft environments.
Pricing: The price of Check Point Antivirus may vary depending on partnerships and negotiations. Some users consider Check Point's pricing to be expensive but say it is cost-effective. However, it may not be affordable for small or medium-sized companies unless they have sufficient capital. Reviewers say Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is fairly priced, noting that it is typically included for free with Windows or Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions. However, some users believe that Microsoft's pricing could be more affordable, and others noted that their licensing models can be complex.
ROI: Check Point Antivirus provides added features like a sandbox and VPN licenses, enhancing its value. Users have experienced improved protection and promising growth with Check Point Antivirus, delivering a better ROI than other security options.
Service and Support: User reviews have provided no information about the customer service of Check Point Antivirus so far. Microsoft customer service garnered mixed feedback. Some praised the fast response times and expertise of the support engineers, while others were dissatisfied with slow replies and a lack of coordination among the support teams.
Comparison Results: Check Point Antivirus offers advanced features like sandboxing, real-time detection, and scalability. At the same time, some users say Check Point could be more affordable and improve its GUI performance. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides sophisticated protection against ransomware, easy deployment, and smooth integration with Microsoft solutions. However, Microsoft’s customer support has received middling reviews, and users would like better compatibility with third-party solutions.
"They have a better endpoint catchment rate due to their reliability."
"It has zero-day attack protection."
"The application runs very fast and does not affect the performance speed of the device where it is installed."
"The initial setup is easy."
"It offers a centralized administration which allows us to be much more productive."
"It generates enough visibility in terms of what happens on our equipment."
"We like the sandbox feature."
"The simplicity of management and remote assistance for the users make it a smooth experience, and administrators can easily handle tasks remotely."
"The most valuable feature is that it comes with the package, so there is no additional installation of third-party software. It's also easy to use."
"It's great for investigating what's happening on a machine. They show a whole bunch of machine timeline events that are related to a security incident. They have quite good details on the things related to threat and vulnerability management, such as any weakness that has been disclosed publicly, assets that are exposed, and if there is an exploit active in the wild for that vulnerability. It can provide you with all such information, which is cool."
"It captures data through machine learning, which is built-in on the back-end. It also provides built-in analytics and a threat intelligence feature. It is a one-stop solution that doesn't require an antivirus because it comes prebuilt into Windows 10."
"It's free. There is no additional cost. It's part of Windows."
"It is easy to use because it is already pre-installed in Windows 10. We don't have to do anything to configure it. You can also configure the firewall by using a group policy so that it can be easily adopted in an environment."
"Ensures that I'm working with a product that gets updated regularly without me having to remember to do it. Since it's a Microsoft product, I'm confident that it requires a low use of system resources. The benefit of that being that my computer isn't constantly being drained."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is free and part of the licensing stack of other Microsoft products."
"The solution can scale as needed."
"One aspect that could see enhancement is the user interface."
"I would prefer it if this solution was cheaper for everybody to buy it and enjoy these wonderful and distinguished characteristics."
"The product should improve its pricing."
"We'd like the solution to kindly start this service offering on SaaS and PaaS models also."
"The technical support could be improved."
"The cases of false positives should substantially be reduced to the greatest extent to keep the efficiency excellent."
"More posting of user feedback is requested across all websites and Google so that more traction can be attained. Seeing reviews helps create more confidence with clients and partners."
"I'm not very happy with the support, even in terms of the website. They don't offer much."
"My main issue with the tool is that there are too many menus. This causes a steep learning curve for those without training or unfamiliar with Defender for Endpoint. From an end-user perspective, the solution is there on the machine and does its job; it works seamlessly. However, as a security professional dealing with it behind the scenes, the learning curve can be steep, but not too steep. Still, it has taken some of my analysts up to a month to get familiar with the product."
"The biggest issue I had with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint was the antivirus and ransomware. I wanted central visibility over all the machines that we operate."
"I would like to be able to set up any kind of protection I want in the firewall, any IP address or any number."
"The second major area for improvement involves enhanced capabilities for different operating systems or platforms. That is, even though we have coverage for different operating systems or platforms such as Linux, we don't get all of the controls and enhanced capabilities that are available with Windows devices."
"With the XDR dashboard, when you're doing an investigation and you're drilling down to obtain further details it tends to open many different tabs that take you away from your main tabs. You can end up having 10 tabs open for one investigation. This is another area for improvement because you can end up getting lost in the multiple tabs. Therefore, the central console can be improved so that it does not take you to several different pages for each investigation."
"A challenge is that it is not a multi-tenant solution. Microsoft's tenant is a licensed tenant. I'm an MSSP. So, I have multiple customers. In Microsoft's world, that means that I can't just buy an E5 license and give that out to all my customers. That won't work because all of the customer data resides within a single tenant in Microsoft's world. Other products—such as SentinelOne, Palo Alto Cortex, CrowdStrike, et cetera—are multi-tenant. So, I can have it at the top of the pyramid for my analyst to look into it and see all the customers, but each customer's data is separate. If the customer wants to look at what we see, they would only see their data, whereas in the Microsoft world, if I've got multiple customers connected to the same Microsoft tenant, they would see everybody else's data, which is a privacy problem in Europe. It is not possible to share the data, and it is a breach of privacy."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint could improve by adding more security features."
"The onboarding and deployment could be more user-friendly, and there is room to grow in some of the reports. I don't want them to be oversimplified or overly complex, but there is room for improvement in the reporting it can do. It's relatively minor."
More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Pricing and Cost Advice →
Check Point Antivirus is ranked 6th in Anti-Malware Tools with 49 reviews while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is ranked 1st in Anti-Malware Tools with 182 reviews. Check Point Antivirus is rated 8.6, while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Check Point Antivirus writes "Compatible, cost-effective, and highly customizable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint writes "Eliminates the need to look at multiple dashboards by automatically providing one XDR dashboard to show the security score of each subscription". Check Point Antivirus is most compared with CrowdStrike Falcon, ESET Endpoint Protection Platform, VirusTotal and Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), whereas Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is most compared with Symantec Endpoint Security, Intercept X Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Complete, CrowdStrike Falcon and Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks. See our Check Point Antivirus vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint report.
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