BigFix vs Microsoft Defender for Endpoint comparison

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Fortinet Logo
9,848 views|7,301 comparisons
80% willing to recommend
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4,244 views|2,454 comparisons
97% willing to recommend
Microsoft Logo
56,756 views|44,499 comparisons
94% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

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

Find out in this report how the two Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed BigFix vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Report (Updated: May 2024).
772,679 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 product detects and blocks threats and is more proactive than firewalls.""The product's initial setup phase is very easy.""The stability is very good.""The ease of deployment and configuration is valuable. It's very easy compared to other vendors like Sophos. Sophos' configuration is complex. Fortinet is a lot easier to understand. You don't need a lot of admin knowledge to do the configuration.""It is a scalable solution...The initial setup of Fortinet FortiEDR was straightforward.""he solution is an anti-malware product that integrates well with other vendor products such as firewalls, SIEM, etc. It captures threat intelligence and gives you better visibility. The product also has sandboxing features.""The most valuable feature is the analysis, because of the beta structure.""Fortinet has helped free up around 20 percent of our staff's time to help us out."

More Fortinet FortiEDR Pros →

"My company provides support services to a lot of customers and companies. We have reduced a huge amount of man-effort. Along with the man-effort, we have reduced the timeline to fix the compliance and security gaps. We have an unbroken record. The documentation clearly says that we have done the patching of newly released patches, including Microsoft and third-party patches, in up to 80% of the computers, within 72 hours of the release of the production. That was a very massive benefit that we have seen. When I talk about the 80% endpoints, it is 100 or 200. I am talking about 25,000 endpoints.""BigFix is easy to use.""The most valuable feature is patch management, a must have, even for Linux and iOS.""Almost every feature is wonderful in BigFix. It is very stable, and we can rely on it. It is an awesome tool.""The older version of the tools that I use also included the connectivity aspect, and the fact that the tool now has it separate from the collection of usage data makes the deployment of these tools much easier.""The most valuable features are patch management, software installation, and asset management.""BigFix can manage lost devices, so you can wipe them remotely to ensure the IP doesn't get out in public. Unified endpoint security is a new perspective. I know that HCL is also collaborating with IBM, but I'm not sure if there is any cooperation between them and MaaS360 or other endpoint components.""I would advise someone considering this product to go for it. It's easy to use, cheaper than the value, and there is tons and tons of support from the BigFix community. With almost every challenge we have someone who has encountered it, and you will have a solution right away."

More BigFix Pros →

"It's a very complete application. I have all the controls in one site. I can track emails, attacks, and threats, and I can research information. I really like this configuration because I have all the information in place.""The whole bundle of the product, which is similar to other Microsoft products, is valuable. Ten years ago, you had third-party stuff for different things. You had one solution for email archiving and another third-party one for something else. Nowadays, Microsoft Office covers all the stuff that was formerly covered by third-party solutions. It is the same with antivirus. The functionality is just basic. You have the scanning, and then you also have a kind of cloud-based protection and reporting about your environment. With Microsoft Security Center, you have a complete overview of your environment. You know the software inventory, and you have security recommendations. You can not only see that the antivirus is up to date; you can also see where are the vulnerabilities in your system. Microsoft Security Center tells you where you have old, deprecated software and what kind of CVEs are addressed. It's really cool stuff.""The folders and files protection are its most valuable features. These have been valuable because of the increase in ransomware attacks. With these two features, I can ensure that no changes have been made to our system or endpoint folders and files without the user being aware.""The primary advantage is that you don't need to install it. It's included in the Windows 10 delivery.""The EDR feature is most valuable.""This product is flexible, and it is very easy to get updates from the Microsoft website.""The biggest benefit to Windows Defender is that it is built-in to the operating system by Microsoft.""The most valuable features are the Windows Firewall and the regular virus definition updates. These features are very helpful and have helped to improve our security."

More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Pros →

Cons
"We've had a lot of false positives; things incorrectly flagged that require manual configuration to allow. Even worse, after we allow a legitimate program, it sometimes gets flagged again after an update. This has caused a lot of extra work for my team.""FortiEDR could add a separate scanning dashboard. In incident management, we prefer to remove the endpoint system from the environment and scan the system. We typically use Symantec for that, but if we want to use FortiEDR for that, then we need a scanning tab to clarify things.""The support needs improvement.""The dashboard isn't easy to access and manage.""The security should be strong for the cloud. Some applications are on-prem and some are on the cloud. Fortinet should also have strong security for the cloud. There should be more security for the cloud.""It takes about two business days for initial support, which is too slow in urgent situations.""The only minor concern is occasional interference with desired programs.""Once, we had an event that was locked and blocked, but information about it came to us two or three days later."

More Fortinet FortiEDR Cons →

"I would like to see more emphasis on using the web console, to have the same power as the full fat client console that they do they now. It's a lighter way to log in and it would be faster for our operators to do their work. The console tends to take a long time for a large number of clients.""BigFix should improve its compatibility with other platforms, such as Linux.""There is no support for patch management on SLES on IBM pSeries (only the Intel platform is supported).""The solution’s pricing could be improved.""I would like to see the Self Service section made more user-friendly.""I'm looking for them to make big web UI improvements.""Around the scalability concern, I would like to see the ability to run teamed, clustered, or hierarchical root servers, in order to provide a more robust, high availability system. The single monolithic root server model does somewhat bother me.""I self-taught for this online, so the initial setup was a little difficult to pick up at first. I had to create a couple of testing environments and destroy them in order to learn how to use it. There was a lot of trial and error, a lot of reading of the manuals."

More BigFix Cons →

"The solution could improve by providing more integration.""If the solution could be integrated more with Defender for Cloud, to be more unified, that would help. It is good now, but even more integration could be done with Defender for Cloud. We see two different portals. If Defender for Endpoint could be ported to the CSPM, Defender for Cloud, that would make things even easier for us.""We encountered some misbehavior between Microsoft Office Suite and Defender. We had issues of old macros being blocked and some stuff going around the usage of Win32 APIs. There is some improvement between the Office products and Defender, and there is a bunch of stuff that you can configure in your antivirus solutions, but you have several baselines, such as security baselines for Edge, security baselines for Defender, and security baselines for MDM. You have configuration profiles as well. So, there a lot of parts where we can configure our antivirus solution, and we're getting conflicting configurations. This is the major part with which we're struggling in this solution. We are having calls and calls with Microsoft for getting rid of all configuration conflicts that we have. That's really the part that needs to be improved.""The time it takes to implement policies has room for improvement.""I would like to have a dashboard that shows an overview of the results for the enterprise.""Lowering the price would be an improvement.""There are some areas in the proactive threats that are just overwhelming the SOC, so we've had to turn those off until we can figure out how to filter out the false positives.""The reporting in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint should improve. The solution has limited features."

More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "I know it is tough to get big budget additions up front, but I highly recommend deploying environment wide and adding the forensic service."
  • "There are no issues with the pricing."
  • "The price is comprable to other endpoint security solutions."
  • "The pricing is typical for enterprises and fairly priced."
  • "I'm not familiar with pricing, but it looks a bit costly compared to other vendors I think."
  • "The pricing is good."
  • "I would rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
  • "The hardware costs about €100,000 and about €20,000 annually for access."
  • More Fortinet FortiEDR Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I can estimate the reduced cost of servers maintenance to approximatively $500,000."
  • "When purchasing, buying with other IBM tools provided us with a very good discount in pricing."
  • "I would stay with the Managed Virtual Server license model, which is a 1-to-1 license per OS whether it is virtual or physical."
  • "The product is less costly when compared to other solutions, and this is a good solid solution for what we have paid."
  • "Compliance, inventory, and licensing are really pricey. They should lower the price. It discourages users from getting onboard."
  • "You get what we call the Platform Edition, which you get for free. The patch service is maybe $0.50 per workstation per month. Then there's the basic server cost, which is about $1.50 per server per month. You also get into Lifecycle which does power management, OSD remote control, and those types of things, and that might be about 10 times the price - which works out to about $13 per server and, maybe $5 per workstation per month."
  • "The price is very fair."
  • "The price is reasonable, but our customers find it expensive."
  • More BigFix Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The product is free of charge and comes integrated into Windows."
  • "The solution is free."
  • "This product is included in the pricing for Windows."
  • "If you don't purchase the advanced threat protection then there is no additional charge."
  • "It is affordable and comes in the Office 365 bundle."
  • "Microsoft Defender ATP is expensive."
  • "I pay for it through the Windows Professional or Standard license. It is a one-time cost for me, and I use the same license."
  • "When compared with other vendors, the pricing is very high."
  • More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:I suggest Fortinet’s FortiEDR over FortiClient for several reasons. For starters, FortiEDR guarantees solid protection… more »
    Top Answer:We have FortiEDR installed on all our systems. This protects them from any threats.
    Top Answer:We license it per employee, so as long as the employee count remains the same, the licensing won't change. We have it… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable features of the solution are Windows patching and the hardware and software inventory.
    Top Answer:On a scale from one to ten, where one is expensive and ten is cheap, I rate the solution's pricing one out of ten.
    Top Answer:The solution’s pricing could be improved.
    Top Answer:Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface… more »
    Top Answer:We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior… more »
    Top Answer:The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never push… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    enSilo, FortiEDR
    Tivoli Endpoint Manager
    Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
    Learn More
    Interactive Demo
    Fortinet
    Demo Not Available
    HCLTech
    Demo Not Available
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiEDR is a real-time endpoint protection, detection, and automated response solution. Its primary purpose is to detect advanced threats to stop breaches and ransomware damage. It is designed to do so in real time, even on an already compromised device, allowing you to respond and remediate incidents automatically so your data can remain protected.

    Fortinet FortiEDR Features

    Fortinet FortiEDR has many valuable key features, including:

    • Easily customizable
    • Real-time proactive risk mitigation & IoT security
    • Pre-infection protection
    • Post-infection protection
    • Track applications and ratings
    • Reduce the attack surface with risk-based proactive policies
    • Achieve analysis of entire log history
    • Optional managed detection and response (MDR) service

    Fortinet FortiEDR Benefits

    Some of the key benefits of using Fortinet FortiEDR include:

    • Protection: Fortinet FortiEDR provides proactive, real-time, automated endpoint protection with the orchestrated incident response across platforms. It stops the breach with real-time postinfection blocking to protect data from exfiltration and ransomware encryption.

    • Single unified console: Fortinet FortiEDR has a single unified console with an intuitive interface, which makes management easier. The solution automates mundane endpoint security tasks so your employees don’t need to do it.

    • Cost savings: With Fortinet FortiEDR you can eliminate post-breach operational expenses and breach damage costs.

    • Flexibility: Fortinet FortiEDR can be deployed on premises or on a secure cloud instance. With Fortinet FortiEDR, endpoints are protected both on- and off-line.

    • Scalability: Because Fortinet can be deployed quickly and has a small footprint, it is easy to scale up to protect hundreds of thousand endpoints.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Fortinet FortiEDR users.

    An Owner at a security firm says, "The features that I have found most valuable are the ability to customize it and to reduce its size. It lets you run in a very small window in terms of memory and resources on legacy cash registers. The customer has literally about 800 cash registers. That was the use case for Fortinet FortiEDR - to get that down into a tiny space. The only way to do that was to use this product because it had that ability to unbundle services that were a surplus.”

    Chandan M., Chief Technical Officer at Provision Technologies LLP, mentions, “The ease of deployment and configuration is valuable. It's very easy compared to other vendors like Sophos. Sophos' configuration is complex. Fortinet is a lot easier to understand. You don't need a lot of admin knowledge to do the configuration.” He also adds, “The security is also very good and the firewall response is good.”

    Harpreet S., Information Technology Support Specialist at Chemtrade Logistics, explains, "It notifies us if there's any suspicious file on any PC. If any execution or similar kind of thing is happening, it just alerts us. It doesn't only alert. It also blocks the execution until we allow it. We check whether the execution is legitimate or not, and then approve it or keep it blocked. This gives us a little bit of control over this mechanism. Fortinet FortiEDR is also very straightforward and easy to maintain."

    DeAndre V., Senior Network Administrator at a financial services firm, states, “The dashboard is easy to follow and use. The deployment and uninstalling were easy. I like the detailed information about the path of a file that might be suspicious. Being able to check that out was easy to follow. Exceptions are easy to create and the interface is easy to follow with a nice appearance.

    HCL BigFix is a powerful patch management tool that enables organizations to simply control their patch management operations. It is designed so that IT security and operations teams can collaborate in the most effective way possible. Users that employ BigFix can find and fix issues with their endpoints faster than those that employ its competitors. It comes with thousands of security checks that can be deployed quickly and easily. These enable users to safeguard themselves from a wide variety of digital threats.

    HCL BigFix Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy HCL BigFix include:

    • Total visibility and simplified control. BigFix provides users with total system visibility while simultaneously enabling administrators to easily manage their networks. It enables organizations to run all of their patch management operations from a single user interface. This UI contains all of BigFix’s system controls. It also contains all of an organization’s network data. Users will never have to search for the features or information that they need as everything is centrally located.
    • Maximum benefit for reduced overhead. BigFix enables businesses to integrate with more than 100 different operating systems. Users can utilize the operating system of their choice without multiplying their overhead costs. They can keep costs down while still achieving their goals. 
    • Flexibility. BigFix is highly flexible. Users can integrate it with the top vulnerability management solutions on the market. This enables users to maximize their protective coverage and minimize the amount of time that they have to spend resolving issues. 

    BigFix Features

    • BigFix Insights. The BigFix insights feature gives users access to a powerful deep analysis tool. This tool enables organizations to gather data from all of their endpoints and compile them into reports that can aid administrators in their work. It can centralize an organization’s data and also enable it to import data from other sources so that it can make more informed decisions.
    • Task automation. BigFix has the ability to automate rudimentary tasks so that users can focus on tasks that require a greater level of attention. This can include tasks such as event remediation and data collection. This feature enables users to focus their attention on other more critical tasks.
    • Data loss prevention tool. This tool enables users to prevent critical data from being leaked or leaking accidentally. It creates policies that limit or prevent sensitive data from being transmitted. It also enforces the privacy protocols that are already in place. Organizations can leverage this tool to bolster the security protecting their data from malicious actors.
    • Web reputation tool. This tool proactively protects networks from malicious websites. It scans for potentially dangerous websites and opens a blocking page when one is detected. Users are also given the ability to set proxy server credentials for the system to recognize and authenticate. Users can use this to ensure that suspicious websites are unable to infect their networks.
    • Centralized UI. BigFix comes with a built-in UI that centralizes all of the solution’s features so that they can be accessed from a single location. It enables administrators to target specific portions of the network when issues arise without requiring them to take actions that will affect the entire network.

    Reviews from Real Users

    HCL BigFix is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to most of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its auto-patching capability and its user-friendly tools.

    Santhosh K., the chief executive officer of Catnip Infotech Private Limited, writes, “The second valuable feature is, BigFix also has an auto patch updating feature, where the latest patches, and what is required for my system are automatically downloaded and kept ready for me. The solution applies the patch and notifies me after applying the patch. BigFix also gives me a ping saying that I should reset my system within a certain period of time, while the patch is being applied. Let's say, the patch is being applied and if there's an issue, the solution can revoke the applied patch, and revert back to the old state.”


    Benedikt S., an application administrator, says, “It's very straightforward. The usability is very close to everyday technical tools that you use as a systems administrator. So it's quite user-friendly.”

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for organizations. It offers real-time protection against various types of cyber threats, including malware, viruses, ransomware, and phishing attacks.

    With its powerful machine-learning capabilities, it can detect and block sophisticated attacks before they can cause any harm. The solution also includes endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities, allowing organizations to quickly investigate and respond to security incidents. It provides detailed insights into the attack timeline, enabling security teams to understand the scope and impact of an incident.

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint also offers proactive threat hunting, allowing organizations to proactively search for and identify potential threats within their network. It integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft security solutions, such as Microsoft Defender XDR, to provide a unified and holistic security approach. With its centralized management console, organizations can easily deploy, configure, and monitor the security solution across their entire network.

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a robust and scalable security solution that helps organizations protect their endpoints and data from evolving cyber threats.

    Sample Customers
    Financial, Healthcare, Legal, Technology, Enterprise, Manufacturing ... 
    US Foods, Penn State, St Vincent's Health US Foods, Sabadell Bank, SunTrust, Australia Sydney, Stemac, Capgemini, WNS Global Services, Jebsen & Jessen, CenterBeam, Strauss, Christian Hospital Centre, Brit Insurance, Career Education Corporation
    Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm21%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Hospitality Company5%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Retailer12%
    Healthcare Company10%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization45%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Computer Software Company7%
    Government7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Energy/Utilities Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization22%
    Computer Software Company13%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business53%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise50%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise64%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise50%
    Large Enterprise39%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise45%
    Buyer's Guide
    BigFix vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about BigFix vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    BigFix is ranked 15th in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 91 reviews while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is ranked 1st in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 182 reviews. BigFix is rated 8.6, while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of BigFix writes "Very stable and easy to deploy with excellent patch compliance". 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". BigFix is most compared with Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Microsoft Windows Server Update Services, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Automox, whereas Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is most compared with Symantec Endpoint Security, Intercept X Endpoint, Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, Trellix Endpoint Security and Fortinet FortiClient. See our BigFix vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint report.

    See our list of best Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) vendors.

    We monitor all Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) 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.