We compared Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Avanan across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Features: Microsoft Defender for Office 365 stands out for its thorough email scanning, ease of use, and anti-phishing capabilities. Avanan is highly praised for its customizability as well as its consistent advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Room for Improvement: Microsoft Defender for Office 365 can improve integration with non-Microsoft solutions and offer better documentation for its advanced security features. Avanan can enhance its alert clearance speed, decrease false positives, and improve scanning and backup options.
Service and Support: Microsoft customer service has received mixed feedback. While some customers find it responsive and prompt, others believe it could be more advanced and attentive. Avanan's customer service is consistently commended for its exceptional quality, efficiency, and expertise.
Ease of Deployment: The setup for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is generally considered effortless. Users appreciate its seamless integration with Office 365 and the minimal maintenance it requires. Users like Avanan's trouble-free setup and easy updates.
Pricing: Some reviewers found Microsoft Defender for Office 365 to be reasonably priced, and others consider it expensive. Defender is typically sold in a bundle, so it’s challenging to compare the cost to other solutions. Avanan offers affordable, transparent SaaS-based pricing. Users find it cost-effective, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.
ROI: Microsoft Defender for Office 365 helps users prevent ransomware and malware while enhancing email security and providing cost savings through its subscription-based service. Avanan has consistently provided positive results by enhancing email network security and contributing to revenue growth.
Comparison Results: Defender is praised for its thorough email scanning and integration into a single console. Defender users desire a more centralized interface and improved spam and malware detection. Avanan is praised for its ease of implementation, adaptability, and cost-effectiveness. Users say Avanan could improve by reducing false positives and providing better documentation.
"Spam protection is the most valuable feature."
"Email encryption enhances end to end security of any data before it passes through the networking system."
"The most valuable feature of Avanan is its effectiveness. When scanning incoming emails for threats it can in an automated fashion, quarantine suspicious attachments."
"The ease of installation and the AI capacity of the product are valuable."
"The customizable rules allow you to change aspects."
"I highly recommend this solution to any prospective buyer."
"Easy to use for non-technical users."
"When we don't understand some functionalities, the customer support staff responds fast to our calls and provides immediate action."
"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."
"There are several features that I consider valuable."
"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."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable features are safe attachments and safe links."
"The solution is very easy to use. All you have to do is to assign the license to the end-user and it's done. The customer will only have the feature activated, and the solution will monitor the emails to determine if they are a threat or not."
"It gives us visibility into threats and, for endpoints, it helps us to prioritize threats. We used to have a lack of visibility, but now our time to detect and respond has decreased."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution."
"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."
"In Avanan, the email channel is one of the channels where data leakage happens, and they need to consider it from a DLP perspective."
"The system response in a slow computing device affects performance when sending and receiving emails."
"They should come up with a mobile application so that it can be more flexible."
"When sending bulky emails, the system slows down and takes a long time before it responds effectively to our requests."
"Being cloud first and because we are in the movie business, we use a lot of Macintoshes. So, there is absolutely no reason for us to have Active Directory whatsoever. However, if you are using Office 365, you must have Active Directory in order to reset passwords. Even though we have a single sign-on provider, we must have Azure Active Directory for Office 365, which is really stupid. As a cloud application, you would think that I don't need Active Directory, which I don't need for anything else except Office 365. We have one server inside that space to help us manage Active Directory just for Office 365. This is a very sore point, but it is what it is."
"Familiarization with performance for new teams may take a long time."
"The customer service team could come up with clear tutorials on how to use this platform to help new teams."
"It should also offer a quick backup in case any email is wrongly quarantined or deleted to ensure no data loss."
"The pre-sales cost calculations could be more transparent."
"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."
"The certification training for Defender for 365 needs to be deeper and incorporate Sentinel. I took all the security courses except one, and Sentinel isn't included."
"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."
"This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products."
"You should be able to deploy Defender for every subscription without the need to add servers."
"They can improve their security in a way where a customer can know if all their attachments are safe or not to open through a report. The solution does its job perfectly, but it never reports to the customer whether those attachments have been stopped before or not."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 should improve the troubleshooting tools. It's unclear whether the device is blocked at the firewall level or at the device itself. The granularity needed for troubleshooting is currently lacking. From my perspective, Microsoft should address this issue to benefit many users who likely share the same sentiment."
More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pricing and Cost Advice →
Avanan is ranked 6th in Email Security with 21 reviews while Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is ranked 1st in Email Security with 41 reviews. Avanan is rated 9.2, while Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Avanan writes "We've noticed a significant decline from people accidentally or intentionally clicking on things". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 writes "Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support". Avanan is most compared with Check Point Harmony Email & Collaboration, IRONSCALES, Perception Point Advanced Email Security, Abnormal Security and Mimecast Email Security, whereas Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is most compared with Proofpoint Email Protection, Mimecast Email Security, Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Cisco Secure Email and Hornetsecurity 365 Total Protection. See our Avanan vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 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.
