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.
"The most valuable feature is the analysis, because of the beta structure."
"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."
"It is stable and scalable."
"Additionally, when it comes to EDR, there are more tools available to assist with client work."
"Fortinet is very user-friendly for customers."
"It is a scalable solution...The initial setup of Fortinet FortiEDR was straightforward."
"NGAV and EDR features are outstanding."
"The product's initial setup phase is very easy."
"Ransomware protection is embedded in the solution."
"The most valuable features are the sandbox, mail scanning, sandboxing attachments, files, and that it responds to VPN porting."
"The product is quite affordable."
"It hasn't crashed a single time, so it is stable in that sense."
"I have found the ESET Management Console very good. It gives me many features, such as managing users and installing a new version."
"Advanced level endpoint firewall, which helps to block unwanted and malicious traffic."
"ESET has regular updates, and it gives me good feedback. It's not too onerous like some of the products I've used in the past."
"This solution has a traditional antivirus, I believe that signature-based detection is most valuable."
"The threat hunting service is very useful for a security professional."
"Its real-time security is the most valuable."
"I am using it for very simple purposes. It is perfect and quite effective. I have been using it for a while, and I have never had any virus infection, data leak, or other security breaches. It works fine for standalone purposes. If you log on to OneDrive, it has ransomware protection."
"I like the process visibility. This ability to visualize how something was executed is valuable, and the fact that Defender ATP is also linked to the threat intelligence that they have is also valuable. So, even if you have something that doesn't have a conventional signature, the fact that you get this strange execution means that you can detect things that are normally not visible."
"We use Microsoft Defender for the antivirus."
"The intelligence mechanisms are good."
"The investigation aspect is the most useful. It's user friendly and has a good user interface."
"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."
"The solution's installation from a central installation server could be improved because the engineers had a little bit of trouble getting it installed from a central location."
"It takes about two business days for initial support, which is too slow in urgent situations."
"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 amount of usage, the number of details we get, or the number of options that can be tweaked is limited in comparison to that with other EDR solutions"
"They can include the automation for the realtime updates. We have a network infrastructure with remote sites. Whenever they send updates, they are not automated. We have to go into the console and push those updates. I wish it was more automated. The update file is currently around 31 MB. It could be smaller."
"I would like the solution to extend beyond endpoint protection and include other attack surfaces such as other network components."
"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 SIEM could be improved."
"The solution includes only Intrusion Detection and not IPS, which is an important feature that is missing in my version."
"The detection could be better in ESET Endpoint Security. Sometimes it takes time to detect threats and might be because it's not holding all the memory. There are some features that have to mature. More features might be available in the higher-end product."
"They can improve ransomware protection, and there should be cloud sandboxing for Mac."
"Sometimes, ESET sends alerts within my own network that cause confusion. That is, it might warn about contamination, or that the VM has crashed, but it doesn't go further than that. It just shows me the alert and sometimes I am not sure what to do about it."
"The new versions only support no operative systems in Mac and do not support operative systems."
"There are some new antivirus technologies that rely on AI, artificial intelligence. ESET does not have this technology right now."
"I'm not aware of any areas that need improvement."
"The update process can be improved, and there could be an automatic update process when a new version comes out. For system updates or program updates, there could be more automation."
"With the XDR dashboard, when you're doing an investigation and you're drilling down to obtain further details it tends to open many different tabs that take you away from your main tabs. You can end up having 10 tabs open for one investigation. This is another area for improvement because you can end up getting lost in the multiple tabs. Therefore, the central console can be improved so that it does not take you to several different pages for each investigation."
"The detection of viruses could be a little bit better."
"The initial setup can be a bit complex."
"The time it takes to implement policies has room for improvement."
"In the next release, I would like to see better management reporting."
"There is a lot of information to take in, and the portals tend to change quickly due to the fast-paced nature of the industry."
"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."
"I would like to see fewer pop messages and alerts."
More ESET Endpoint Protection Platform Pricing and Cost Advice →
More Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Pricing and Cost Advice →
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is ranked 11th in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) with 96 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 Microsoft Intune. 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.