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.
"Does a thorough job of examining email and URLs for malicious content."
"Safe attachments, safe links, policies, and the ability to protect from zero-day threats are the most valuable features."
"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."
"Threat Explorer is one of the features that I very much like because it is a real-time report that allows you to identify, analyze, and trace security attacks."
"I would say that 90% of the spam and phishing attack emails get blocked right off the bat."
"Our customers are satisfied with Defender for 365 because Microsoft products are easy to use and customize to meet the client's needs. Everything is in one place, so we can adjust policies as needed for phishing, DLP, ATP, or any other security features that our clients want to apply."
"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."
"Defender enables us to secure all 365-related activity from a single place. It gives us visibility into everything happening in Outlook, protecting us against phishing and other email-based threats. Defender helps us detect any suspicious behaviors."
"It has a really nice web-based administration console."
"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 is easy to configure, easy to use, easy to add exclusions, easy to track, and easy to add anything else if you want."
"With Microsoft Exchange Online Protection, if malware is attached to a mailer, it's very easy to go into the incident alert and find out what's happening with that identity and the mail."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection are the EOP, ATP, safe links, fishing, and antispam."
"It provides security to both on-premises and Azure infrastructures."
"In general, my company is happy with Microsoft support...My company hasn't faced any stability issues with the solution."
"It is an easy solution."
"The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement."
"Microsoft security solutions work as expected. They are constantly updating the solutions to make them better. At the same time, the changes can impact a customer's environment, and we need to adjust settings. Sometimes we aren't aware of the changes, and nothing is pushed from the backend automatically."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should be more proactive."
"You should be able to deploy Defender for every subscription without the need to add servers."
"In one of the reports I can get the exact place where a vulnerable file resides. But for that, I need to explicitly go into the device and check. If they could include that file part in the report, without my having to go to the device itself, that would help."
"The only thing they should improve is the licensing model. They should stop changing it. A year ago, the five features I mentioned were included in one product. Now, three of them are bundled into one product, and you have to pay extra for the other two. I don't mind paying extra, but I don't want them to change it every year or every six months. I need to know what I'm looking at and not worry about it next year."
"This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products."
"There is room for improvement with the UI."
"The solution can be complex at times. It would be nice to have the on-server version. It needs to improve the stability as well."
"The security compliance features need to be improved. Sometimes, a client's mailbox becomes full because of retained information and not because of mail. I would like to see improvement in block rules as well."
"When you're using a Microsoft product solution, you can scale it, but if you're not, there are limitations."
"The solution needs to improve its backup."
"I think the implementation could be more streamlined."
"Having orchestration features added to Microsoft Exchange Online Protection, particularly automation and remediation, would be quite useful."
"The product could be more stable. Microsoft products could be more stable because sometimes, even though they are updating some things, we cannot find those updates."
"The tool's classification for bulk email is cumbersome."
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.
