BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity vs Microsoft Defender for Business comparison

BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity vs. Microsoft Defender for Business

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Net...

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is 3.8%, up from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity is 1.8%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Business is 1.3%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks	3.8%
Microsoft Defender for Business	1.3%
BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity	1.8%
Other	93.1%

Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)

Featured Reviews

ABHISHEK_SINGH

Senior Process Expert at A.P. Moller - Maersk

Gained full visibility and streamlined threat detection through behavior-based insights and AI integration

Initially, we got to have a lot of false positives when we onboarded, but nowadays it's quite smooth. We have fine-tuned our security policies and allowed different levels of policies to get rid of those false positives. Currently, we are getting a fairly good amount of incidents that are not false positives or benign, but actionable items. The process is streamlined. In the initial days, the operations used to get involved in a lot of benign and other activities, but now the process is streamlined. We are leveraging the auto-detection and remediation plans. The operations teams are now more involved in other business roles as well, not just looking into the logs and fetching out what's happening there. They have fixed a lot of things. Initially, they didn't have IAC code drift detection, cloud posture management, or security posture management, but they have those now. They purchased different vendors and did a merger with that. They have now Prisma Cloud that gets integrated and now they are working with Cortex Cloud. Everything that was negative has now been addressed, and the product altogether looks to be in a very better and mature shape now. Currently, it's more or less detecting the workloads with AI-based best practices. Since most organizations are consuming AI agents and other things, we are looking forward to seeing what other feature enhancements Palo Alto can support in that.

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Sooraj Makkancherrry

Security Operations Manager at Philips

Doesn't have daily updates, which is important for healthcare IT

I face challenges with the exclusion policy - it still scans folders we told it not to, causing issues. When we contact support, they tell us to update the latest agent, but we can't do that immediately due to medical device protocols and validation testing. I wish support would try to understand our issues better instead of giving this standard response. The machine learning feature they use often tells us to upgrade the agent or add things to the exclusion list, which isn't unacceptable. It's a very good and new technology as a tool and antivirus. But sometimes, it doesn't work properly with our medical devices and products, quarantining files it shouldn't even after we add them to exclusions. This is tricky for us.

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YusufBuhari

Head Of IT Security at Dangote Industries Limited

Unified defenses have strengthened threat hunting and automated incident disruption

I see room for improvement in Microsoft Defender for Business, particularly regarding the consolidation of all security solutions in one place and the integration of AI and data security into the same platform. I want to see more organized asset inventory, including identities, cloud resources, and various network devices. While there has been innovation from Microsoft, I am concerned about the lack of risk quantification across all major security solutions, including Microsoft's. Risk quantification is essential for CISOs to assess, communicate, and translate security risks into financial impacts, which is a challenge for many security leaders today. I would like to see a clear path for prioritization of risks within Microsoft Defender for Business, especially around vulnerability management. Even though there are features to prioritize remediation of risks based on exploitability, it could be more organized. A clearer structure for prioritizing remediation of risks would help manage them more effectively, as it is impractical to address all risks simultaneously.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"If you are looking for security, mainly for advanced threat prevention from ransomware and malware attacks, I would recommend Cortex."

"The biggest positive impact I see from Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is a significant reduction in the number of people required to manage it."

"The stability is pretty good except for one or two cases, and based on the performance, it's been okay with pretty high performance, no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze."

"It has pretty much everything we need and works well within the Palo Alto ecosystem."

"Cortex XDR can integrate the firewalls and determine the tendencies of the attacks. It's a new generation antivirus, with protection endpoints and detection response. It is very easy to use and everybody can operate the solution."

"The tool is designed to scale for large enterprises and handle large volumes of data."

"It has a higher cost than other solutions, like CrowdStrike or Microsoft’s EDR tools, but it reduces the cost of our operations because it’s a new generation antivirus tool."

"The interface is easy to use and it is more up to date than our previous solution."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pros

"A user can continue to add endpoints and the solution will continue to perform well."

"I find the actual overall endpoint malware protection the most valuable feature of CylancePROTECT."

"It handles situations that the other threat management tools wouldn't find. It has worked well covering the weaker sides of the other products that we're integrating."

"We chose the solution because it doesn't have daily updates, which is important for us in healthcare IT, where network usage and connectivity to hospitals matter."

"It actively monitors the behavior and activity of processes and will, without hesitation, terminate at root anything it determines to be suspect."

"One of the best features of the solution is that it's easy to deploy."

"Centralized dashboard online which can be used for managing a huge product."

"It does a good job of protecting us."

More BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity pros

"Everything is stable. There have been no technical errors or stability issues."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its central console."

"Microsoft Defender for Business stands out due to its ease of use, particularly due to the fact that many of my customers already use Microsoft and Azure."

"I recommend Microsoft Defender for Business to startup organizations looking for a plug-and-play solution."

"The best features of Microsoft Defender for Business include it coming as an XDR solution which provides automated investigations, remediations, and endpoint detection and response."

"Microsoft Defender for Business is good for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers solid security flexibility and integration with tools like Microsoft Lighthouse and some other software. It takes some of the features of Defender for Endpoint EDR and provides those services for small and medium-sized business environments."

"Defender is top class in terms of functional security."

"If you're an Intune user, you can bring in certain capabilities like system-hardening policies, which further enhances the security."

More Microsoft Defender for Business pros

Cons

"It would be good to have a better way to search for a file within the UI."

"Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR does not detect malicious activity like in other anti-virus solutions like Trend Micro and Windows with Cisco."

"Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is a very good product, but financially, it is very expensive, so the company should look into that area."

"I have seen lagging with Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks. There was one time when we faced a threat actor trying to gain access to our system. When our team utilized the tool, we were all on the same dashboard and we faced a lag issue at that time of around five minutes, which was quite significant."

"I am facing issues with customer support for Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, so I am not satisfied with customer support."

"The solution lags to the real-time scenarios here and there."

"The technical support is not very good. I find the process difficult."

"They have the worst support, as a company, that I have ever worked with, as they are difficult to get a hold of and keep on the phone. They don't know what they are talking about when you get them on the phone. They don't like to respond to messages when you send them to them. They like to "research problems" for weeks on end, then pass you off to somebody else."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks cons

"Enhancing the product's detection rates and streamlining the user interface for easier management in daily operations would be beneficial improvements."

"While you are working, you are finding these things that were supposed to be waived have come back to being blocked. That's frustrating."

"The solution’s user interface could be improved."

"I'd like them to do software distribution too, but they said that that's architecturally not at the product line."

"I find the price for Blackberry Protect expensive, so that's an area for improvement."

"It just doesn't make you feel like you're getting covered or have the best protection, which you should have."

"The initial deployment was quite complicated."

"It's a good solution but some features just need to be updated."

More BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity cons

"The areas where Microsoft Defender for Business could improve include the support, installation process, and wiki. I should be able to find solutions to issues quickly without having to delve too deep."

"I have an open case for close to two months with no responses or updates, except for an email response, and I've made four or five phone calls regarding the Microsoft Interconnect for AD and cloud tenant."

"Talking with the tool's technician about any problem is very complicated."

"The security could always be improved."

"The solution's AI is notorious for false positives, and the time you have to spend training it is ridiculous."

"Additionally, the pricing policy poses a challenge, particularly in multi-year contracts, where other solutions like Trend Micro offer more affordable options."

"I am not satisfied with Microsoft's technical support. There are challenges with the knowledge and experience of the support staff, frequent redirection between departments, and slow response times."

"We face a licensing issue with Windows 11 Enterprise not reflecting in our portal, which affects activation. Microsoft's support did not resolve this issue, even after sharing remote desktop and screen details."

More Microsoft Defender for Business cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't recall what the cost was, but it wasn't really that expensive."

"The tool's price is moderate."

"The cost of Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is $55 to $90 USD per endpoint per month."

"This is an expensive solution."

"If one wishes to work with another team or large number of users at a future point, he must purchase a license for them."

"It has a yearly renewal."

"The return on investment is from the user side because we have seen the performance of it increase the delivery time of the product if we are using too many web-based and on-premise applications. In indirect ways, we saw the return of investment in terms of performance and user satisfaction increase."

"The price of the solution is high for the license and in general."

More Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"My company is on a yearly CylancePROTECT subscription. Price-wise, the solution is slightly expensive, so I'd rate it as eight out of ten."

"The monthly fee is $55 USD per user."

"We pay our license on a yearly basis and have just renewed for two years."

"It is expensive, but not unreasonable."

"The price is reasonable for us at the moment. I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten."

"The license price for this solution could be better. It's on the expensive side."

"We would just add more if there are new users, but right now you just need one license for per user."

"CylancePROTECT's pricing is reasonable, at about €18 per user, per year."

More BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity pricing and cost advice

"The tool's cost has been a little high, but I do not think it was terrible."

"The tool is cheap, while some other solutions are more expensive. I remember the tool cost about five euros for a workstation or for a user on a monthly basis."

"Defender for Business is included by default with an Office 365 premium subscription."

"Since we're a nonprofit, we get pretty good discounts on the tool."

"It has to get more competitive because we are starting to see some of the competitors providing better pricing, and some of it, of course, is to gain market share. The Defender product pricing is probably a little higher than the competitors."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

14%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Construction Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Construction Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	50
Midsize Enterprise	21
Large Enterprise	57

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. Sentinel One

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. SentinelOne SentinelOne offers very detailed specifics with regard to risks or attacks. ...

Comparing CrowdStrike Falcon to Cortex XDR (Palo Alto)

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Both Cortex XDR and Crowd Strike Falcon offer cloud-based solutions th...

How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface,...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Business?

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Our thoughts on the pricing for Microsoft Defender for Business are that we wish it could be better. If the pricing w...

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Business?

I see room for improvement in Microsoft Defender for Business, particularly regarding the consolidation of all securi...

What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Defender for Business?

I would rate this product an eight out of ten.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Comparisons

Compared 16% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 5% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

Cortex XSIAM vs Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 3% of the time

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Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity

Compared 8% of the time

VMware Carbon Black Endpoint vs BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity

Compared 8% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security vs BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity

Compared 7% of the time

Intercept X Endpoint vs BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity

Compared 7% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity

Compared 5% of the time

More BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity Competitors

HP Wolf Security vs Microsoft Defender for Business

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Microsoft Defender for Business

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender for Business

Compared 5% of the time

Symantec Endpoint Security Complete vs Microsoft Defender for Business

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Business Competitors

Product Reports

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks

Download Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks product report

BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity

Download BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity product report

Microsoft Defender for Business

October 2026

Download Microsoft Defender for Business product report

Also Known As

Cyvera, Cortex XDR, Palo Alto Networks Traps

Blackberry Protect

No data available

Overview

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks provides advanced threat detection with AI-driven endpoint protection and seamless integration, ensuring multi-layered security and automatic threat response.

Cortex XDR is designed to safeguard endpoints against malware and suspicious activities. It offers advanced threat detection and response capabilities using behavioral analysis, AI, and machine learning. It seamlessly integrates with security infrastructures, providing endpoint security, firewall integration, and enhanced visibility in both cloud-based and on-premises environments.

What are the key features of Cortex XDR?

Advanced Threat Detection: Uses AI and machine learning for proactive threat identification.
Multi-layered Security: Combines various security measures for comprehensive protection.
Endpoint Protection: Safeguards against malware and exploits.
Behavioral Analysis: Monitors suspicious activity for early detection.
Automatic Threat Response: Automates responses to neutralize threats.

What benefits should users expect?

Ease of Use: Simplifies security management with intuitive design.
Resource Efficiency: Minimizes impact on system resources.
Integration Capabilities: Works well with existing security setups.
Reduced Analyst Workload: Automates processes to decrease manual intervention.

Organizations in diverse sectors deploy Cortex XDR to protect against malware, leveraging its advanced threat detection capabilities. Its integration with existing security infrastructures appeals to those seeking comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments, providing enhanced visibility and threat intelligence.

Palo Alto Networks

BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity, renowned for its AI-driven approach, provides comprehensive endpoint protection against sophisticated threats, including ransomware and zero-day attacks, ensuring security without frequent updates.

Known for its lightweight design, BlackBerry Cylance integrates artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver a powerful cybersecurity platform. Businesses benefit from its low CPU usage and advanced threat detection, utilizing a centralized dashboard for seamless management. Cylance's predictive intelligence and ability to block unauthorized applications make it invaluable in safeguarding both internal networks and endpoints. Despite its high pricing, users seek improvements in information display, post-incident details, and reporting features, alongside better script whitelisting and modernized interface.

What are its most important features?

Lightweight Design: Ensures minimal impact on system resources.
AI and Machine Learning: Enhances threat detection capabilities without relying on constant updates.
Endpoint Protection: Provides robust security for desktops, servers, and virtual machines.
Script Blocking: Prevents unauthorized scripts from running.
Centralized Dashboard: Simplifies management and monitoring tasks.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Predictive Intelligence: Offers proactive threat prevention, reducing risks of zero-day attacks.
Ease of Deployment: Facilitates faster, streamlined implementation across global systems.
Low CPU Usage: Maintains system performance while providing security.
Comprehensive Threat Analytics: Delivers actionable insights for enhanced security planning.

Organizations in sectors such as finance and healthcare deploy BlackBerry Cylance for its sophisticated security measures, enhanced threat analytics, and device control capabilities, ensuring operations remain secure even within closed network environments.

BlackBerry

Microsoft Defender for Business offers comprehensive endpoint protection with features like AI-driven predictive analysis and integration with Microsoft services. It caters to businesses in the Microsoft and Azure ecosystems, enhancing cybersecurity strategies with real-time alerts and automated threat hunting.

Targeting enterprise environments, Microsoft Defender for Business provides extensive security measures for desktops, laptops, and virtual desktop infrastructure. Its seamless integration with Microsoft Sentinel allows for enhanced insight and threat mitigation. The central console aids in configuration and management, but areas such as URL filtering, reporting, and integration with non-Microsoft systems require improvement. Users often demand advanced threat detection and a quicker response to emerging threats, as managing security across platforms can present challenges.

What are the key features of Microsoft Defender for Business?

Vulnerability Management: Offers extensive analysis of potential vulnerabilities.
Predictive Analysis: Utilizes AI to anticipate threats before they materialize.
Seamless Integration: Works well with Microsoft services for enhanced protection.
Threat Detection & Response: Provides real-time alerts and quick responses to threats.
Endpoint Security: Comprehensive security for all endpoints in an organization.
Data Loss Prevention: Protects sensitive data from unauthorized access and leaks.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Enhanced Security: Real-time alerts and automated threat hunting improve protection.
Ease of Use: Central console facilitates configuration and management.
Integration Capabilities: Works well with existing security frameworks and Microsoft systems.
Comprehensive Protection: Extends security to identity, email, and cloud environments.

In sectors like finance and healthcare, Microsoft Defender for Business is implemented to secure sensitive data and maintain compliance. Managed service providers and resellers leverage its capabilities to offer robust security frameworks for clients, ensuring protection of digital assets and reducing risks associated with cyber threats.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

CBI Health Group, University Honda, VakifBank

Panasonic, Noble Energy, Apria Healthcare Group Inc., Charles River Laboratories, Rovi Corporation, Toyota, Kiewit

Information Not Available

BlackBerry Cylance Cybersecurity vs. Microsoft Defender for Business