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 helps us prioritize threats across our organization."
"Does a thorough job of examining email and URLs for malicious content."
"I like its investigation capabilities, as that is what is most important to me. It is fairly simple with a user-friendly interface."
"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."
"It also gives me good visibility because, with Defender, I'm using a Microsoft product to defend Microsoft products. The integration was really seamless and I have wide visibility because it picks up almost everything. Literally, I can see almost every activity that happens, from the e-mail to the workstation itself."
"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."
"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."
"The most valuable feature is protection against malicious links, fishing, and impersonation. You can train people to be aware of these threats, but they're not always careful. When they're using their phones between meetings, they click on a link, and it's game over."
"It's definitely scalable."
"The pre-set policies and configuration analyzer are the most valuable features."
"It has a really nice web-based administration console."
"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."
"We use the solution in all our environments. We use it for remedy tickets and give them updates. It was our main communication point."
"You can use the product to create special accounts."
"Online Protection's most valuable feature is its admin interface."
"It is scalable."
"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"It would be better if it were more scalable. It depends on the architecture, but we would like to make it more scalable for both data centers."
"The UI needs to be more user-friendly."
"The GUI is sometimes slow to fetch the device report and could be improved."
"Microsoft wants its well-paying customers to finish testing some of its half-baked products, find bugs, and report bugs back to Microsoft's team, which is a little frustrating for those who have to manage it and roll it up to thousands of people across the organization."
"We need to be able to whitelist data at the backend."
"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."
"There is room for improvement with the UI."
"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."
"We have experienced issues while migrating from on-prem to the cloud. The tool needs to improve its stability."
"It doesn't protect against everything. We do need protection for, for example, endpoints."
"The licensing can be on the expensive side, especially in the cloud space."
"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."
"We would like the solution to have more in-built intelligence in the way that it reviews potential security risks, rather than our team constantly having to update the policies."
"The solution lacks to elaborate on its spam policies."
"The management interface of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) could be intuitive."
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, Barracuda Email Security Gateway, Cisco Secure Email and Microsoft Defender for Business, whereas Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is most compared with Proofpoint Email Protection, Cisco Secure Email, Mimecast Email Security, Fortinet FortiMail 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.