We performed a comparison between ESET Endpoint Security and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: ESET Endpoint Security ultimately won out in this comparison. Our reviewers agree that ESET Endpoint Security is easy to install and easy to use. In addition, it has excellent customer support.
"Fortinet has helped free up around 20 percent of our staff's time to help us out."
"Forensics is a valuable feature of Fortinet FortiEDR."
"NGAV and EDR features are outstanding."
"This is stable and scalable."
"Fortinet FortiEDR made our clients feel secure and more at ease, knowing that they had an EDR solution that would close the gap in their security posture."
"We have FortiEDR installed on all our systems. This protects them from any threats."
"The stability is very good."
"Fortinet FortiEDR's firewalling, rule creation, monitoring, and inspection profiles are great."
"It's scalable."
"The most valuable features of ESET Endpoint Antivirus are the search engine, easy firewall setup, and ransomware scans."
"Ransomware protection is embedded in the solution."
"I rate ESET Endpoint Security eight out of 10 for ease of setup. Setting up ESET can be straightforward or complicated depending on the customer's environment. The deployment time varies, but it's typically around five days. We have a team of four or five people involved in the deployment. Only one person is needed for maintenance. The only maintenance is adjusting the configuration of the dashboard."
"The most valuable feature of ESET Endpoint Security performance."
"Technical support has been very good. They're quick to respond to any problems."
"I have found ESET Endpoint Antivirus is light on system resources compared with other antivirus solutions that tend to be very heavy on the computers system resources. Additionally, the solution is very secure."
"There are some great features in ESET Endpoint Antivirus when you are browsing on the internet. For example, they have a notification if within your LAN network something is suspected to be a threat. Additionally, the malware features are very good."
"The most valuable feature is ransomware protection, which can detect malicious activity from IPs or a malicious payload in DLLs, or other things that can corrupt the system."
"Defender is a part of Windows; you just need to enable it. There is no need to install anything."
"It's free. There is no additional cost. It's part of Windows."
"Defender should be fine for home use. It has all the basic functionality you need. I can't speak to how well it works as an enterprise solution because I'm not in the space."
"We can run the virus scan across our entire environment."
"Within its class I think, it has a high and decent detection rate."
"It is a very advanced system based on AI. It has a very large database of places or sites on the internet where you should not go. It is continuously online."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's WCS function, a content filtering solution, has proven to be the most useful, stable, and reliable option for our current needs."
"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."
"The dashboard isn't easy to access and manage."
"I would like the solution to extend beyond endpoint protection and include other attack surfaces such as other network components."
"There's room for improvement in the quick response time and technical support for integration issues, especially when dealing with multiple vendors."
"I haven't seen the use of AI in the solution."
"ZTNA can improve latency."
"The solution should address emerging threats like SQL injection."
"It takes about two business days for initial support, which is too slow in urgent situations."
"We are looking to move towards an EDR solution rather than EPP. EDR is a solution that can dynamically detect threats based on the process behavior. It would be better if this solution was an EDR and an EPP solution, this would increase security protection."
"The solution includes only Intrusion Detection and not IPS, which is an important feature that is missing in my version."
"While the pricing is good, they could always lower it a bit."
"It's hard to get support for ESET in Hong Kong and China. There's a number to call that goes nowhere. You can upgrade to the premium service, but there are a few restrictions."
"There are some new antivirus technologies that rely on AI, artificial intelligence. ESET does not have this technology right now."
"The scalability could be better."
"The product could have better integration with third-party products that would help extend functionality."
"It's not scalable in that you cannot use a license for multiple devices."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's licensing is confusing. It has conflicting information on the website. We also faced integration issues with other systems. It makes laptops slower than traditional antivirus systems."
"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."
"We need better support to learn about the product. Documentation is available, but we need some kind of training program so that we can get a better understanding of the product."
"Other vendors provide a lot of customization when it comes to integration, which every big organization requires. No big organization depends on one particular tool. Defender lacks that at this point."
"I would like to see better integration with their other security products to give better visibility from a higher level."
"I would like the solution to be able to prevent unauthorized programs from installing and to block unauthorised URLs which is similar to web filtering product."
"It can be more secure."
"The solution could use improvement on the interface."
More ESET Endpoint Protection Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →
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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is ranked 11th in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 97 reviews while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is ranked 1st in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 182 reviews. ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is rated 8.2, while Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform writes "Easy to set up with good security and rapidly improving capabilities". 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". ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is most compared with Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business, CrowdStrike Falcon, SentinelOne Singularity Complete, Check Point Harmony Endpoint and Fortinet FortiClient, whereas Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is most compared with Symantec Endpoint Security, Intercept X Endpoint, SentinelOne Singularity Complete, CrowdStrike Falcon and Fortinet FortiClient. See our ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint report.
See our list of best Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) vendors, best Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) vendors, and best Anti-Malware Tools 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.