We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Microsoft Exchange Online Protection based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: The main difference between the two solutions is that Microsoft Defender for Office 365 lacks protection against threats. Regarding all other categories, users share similar opinions.
"Defender for Office 365 has helped eliminate having to look at multiple dashboards and that is the aspect I like most about it. It is simpler, effective, and convenient. The users like the process efficiency."
"The product is not resource-intensive."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has improved my organization's security. It makes it easier to manage the infrastructure without the help of third-party applications."
"It also gives the vulnerability status according to the versions you have selected. Let's say you have Google Chrome. It mentions the versions it has, and it updates. Within two hours of an update, it is reflected in the dashboard. That's really nice to have."
"The initial setup was easy."
"There are several features that I consider valuable."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable feature is its performance."
"Defender is a SaaS platform, so it offers more flexibility. Managing the permissions is easier. The solution's automated detection and response features are scalable."
"The product's most valuable feature is third-party integrations."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of administration. Other solutions require complex administration, but Microsoft Exchange Online Protection is easier."
"Microsoft EOP's most valuable feature is a shared mailbox."
"We use the solution to receive emails. We do not use the calendar function as our clients are slow adaptors to the latest features."
"It has a really nice web-based administration console."
"You can use the product to create special accounts."
"It's all running in the backend, so it doesn't affect the app functionality."
"The initial setup of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection was easy."
"The custom alerts have to improve a lot."
"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"Microsoft sometimes has downtime, and we'll get several incidents coming in back to back. We have a huge backlog of notifications, many of which may be false positives. However, there might be serious alerts, so we can't risk dismissing all of them at once."
"The UI needs to be more user-friendly."
"There's room for improvement regarding the time frame for retrieving emails."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should improve the troubleshooting tools. It's unclear whether the device is blocked at the firewall level or at the device itself. The granularity needed for troubleshooting is currently lacking. From my perspective, Microsoft should address this issue to benefit many users who likely share the same sentiment."
"They can improve their security in a way where a customer can know if all their attachments are safe or not to open through a report. The solution does its job perfectly, but it never reports to the customer whether those attachments have been stopped before or not."
"We need a separate license and we don't know how to get the license that is required."
"I would like to get reports about vulnerable connections from our clients with information about domains, public IPs, etc. That would be highly useful."
"It doesn't protect against everything. We do need protection for, for example, endpoints."
"The management interface of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) could be intuitive."
"The security features could be better."
"Microsoft 365 Defender and EOP policies are stable with the proper license. However, with the basic policy, it's hard to say it's stable due to configuration limitations."
"The solution needs to improve its backup."
"When you're using a Microsoft product solution, you can scale it, but if you're not, there are limitations."
"It wasn't easy or intuitive enough for me to start using it. So, the reason was that the solution changed."
More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pricing and Cost Advice →
More Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) Pricing and Cost Advice →
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is ranked 1st in Email Security with 41 reviews while Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is ranked 3rd in Email Security with 34 reviews. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is rated 8.4, while Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 writes "Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) writes "An effective email security solution that provides DLP, Safe Attachment, and Safe Links". Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is most compared with Proofpoint Email Protection, Mimecast Email Security, Cisco Secure Email, Barracuda Email Security Gateway and Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, whereas Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is most compared with Proofpoint Email Protection, Cisco Secure Email, Fortinet FortiMail, Mimecast Email Security and Barracuda Email Security Gateway. See our Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs. Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) report.
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We monitor all Email Security 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.
