Cisco XDR vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

Cisco and Microsoft are both solutions in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category. Cisco is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.4, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4. Cisco holds a 1.9% mindshare in XDR, compared to Microsoft’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Cisco XDR

Read 8 Cisco XDR reviews

1,486 Views
1,397 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender XDR

Read 106 Microsoft Defender XDR reviews

10,352 Views
5,797 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Cisco XDR

Microsoft Defender XDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 22, 2024

Microsoft 365 Defender and Cisco XDR are powerful security solutions that excel in different areas. Microsoft 365 Defender is preferred for its seamless integration with other Microsoft products, while Cisco XDR stands out with comprehensive threat intelligence. Cisco XDR has an edge due to its broader scope of features.

Features: Microsoft 365 Defender offers robust threat protection, integration within the Microsoft ecosystem, and effective incident response capabilities. Cisco XDR provides extensive threat intelligence, advanced analytics, and cross-domain visibility features.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft 365 Defender could enhance threat detection accuracy, reduce false positives, and improve its non-Microsoft product compatibility. Cisco XDR needs to improve user-friendliness, provide better documentation, and streamline complex deployment processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft 365 Defender deployment is straightforward within Microsoft environments, with responsive customer service. Cisco XDR has a more complex deployment process but offers comprehensive support post-deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft 365 Defender is favored for its competitive pricing and value within Microsoft-centric organizations. Cisco XDR's cost is higher, reflecting its extensive features and threat intelligence. Microsoft 365 Defender delivers better ROI in Microsoft setups, while Cisco XDR justifies its higher cost for broader-spectrum security needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco XDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco XDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

Cisco XDR

Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

15th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Defender XDR

Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

106

Ranking in other categories

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (7th), Microsoft Security Suite (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of Cisco XDR is 1.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 4.9%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Defender XDR	4.9%
Cisco XDR	1.9%
Other	93.2%

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

Featured Reviews

Joseph Houghes

Cloud Architect at Pure Storage

flexible reporting and analytics boost data-driven security responses

The feature I appreciate the most about Cisco XDR is the flexibility for a user to be able to create their own reporting and dashboards. I would say I got to stop beta testing myself. I am testing what can be customized the most with it. Being able to ingest all the analytics and make it something that's either meaningful to them or to their own leadership is a big plus. It's not just what the product is at launch; you have the ability to customize and make it useful to your business to actually get real, purposeful information out of just a swamp of data. The features of Cisco XDR have actually benefited the organization significantly by allowing us to do the outputs of specific data and even filtered subsets of the data. We can do the same reporting but only deliver in either reports or dashboards the information about the systems that a specific team is responsible for, or the larger teams that multiple departments or IT silos roll up into. We're basically able to just modify the filters and have the same reports in the same dashboards where it's all the same; 99% of the work is the same.

Read full review

Kunle Oluwadiya

House security operator at Cypress Creek Renewables

Advanced threat hunting saves significant time in tracking and responding to incidents

Microsoft Defender XDR could be improved with a lower price. My main suggestion would essentially be what Copilot is providing, which is a single pane of glass, so I don't have to go to different windows. That's just a workflow consideration for me. It would be great to have all the information centralized into one particular data app. If I need to open up extra ones, I can, however, I would appreciate a future where everything I need is right there on one single pane of glass. Beyond that, there's really nothing else I see that I would want Microsoft to improve.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Cisco XDR offers threat intelligence and links with the Firewall."

"The feature I appreciate the most about Cisco XDR is the flexibility for a user to be able to create their own reporting and dashboards, ingest all the analytics, and make it something meaningful to their business to actually get real, purposeful information out of just a swamp of data."

"The feature I appreciate the most about Cisco XDR is the reliability."

"One of my favorite features of Cisco XDR is the automation tool, which saves a lot of time because we can craft these automations and workflows."

"The feature I appreciate the most about Cisco XDR is the reliability."

"Technical support from Cisco is good and very helpful."

"The features of Cisco XDR benefit my company since time is money. When outages happen and when a customer can't reach the internet, they get agitated. Therefore, the quicker we can mitigate an issue, our customers get happier in a quicker fashion."

"My advice for other organizations considering Cisco XDR is that it offers proactive security measures that are really very helpful."

More Cisco XDR pros

"The most valuable feature is the network security."

"The most valuable feature is probably the aggregation and correlation of the different telemetry points with Defender for Identity, Defender for Endpoint, and Defender for Cloud Apps. All of these various things are part of that portal. We've wanted that single pane of glass for years."

"The attack simulation is excellent; initially, this feature wasn't very robust, but Microsoft improved what we could achieve with it. We can now customize our practice phishing emails and include our company logo, for example. Attack simulation also helps integrate with third-party solutions where applicable and provides an overview of our security architecture through testing. The summary includes areas for improvement in our protection and what steps we need to take to get there."

"We also use Microsoft Sentinel, Defender for Cloud, Defender for Identity, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. They are all integrated and it was very easy to integrate them. In my experience with the integrations, it was just a click of a button and things were integrated. It's just a button."

"Microsoft Defender XDR is a complete package of different Defender solutions, including Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, Defender for Cloud, and Sentinel SIEM, among others."

"Many people don't realize that Microsoft Azure, Exchange Online, and the security and compliance portal all sync together. For instance, within the Azure portal you can set security restrictions and policies to help secure your tenants... The good part of it is that these products have already been integrated. When you sign on as an admin you have global admin rights and that gives you access to all these features."

"Defender is easy to use. It has a nice console, and everything is all in one place."

"Microsoft Defender XDR's capability to automatically disrupt advanced cyber attacks is very effective."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pros

Cons

"They need to provide better pricing and bundle XDR licenses with products like Meraki solutions or Firepower Threat Defense."

"When we first started with Cisco XDR in August, everybody was having issues. There were three people in our organization, including me, who couldn't even log in to Cisco XDR."

"The licensing of Cisco XDR is a bit complicated. The cost can depend on what it is, and the process can be a little complicated."

"Improvements in Cisco XDR revolve around performance."

"If we have a list of domains we need to block, such as 4,000 domains, I can only block 100 domains at a time because if I put in more than 100 domains, I hit that 2,000 character max and can't continue with an investigation. Being able to put in all 4,000 domains, without a character limit or observable limit, would make doing those case books a whole lot easier and blocking those domains a whole lot easier too."

"Cisco XDR can be improved by addressing the upfront cost. Everything matters for us since we're small, mom and pop, so every dollar counts."

"Regarding the pricing aspect of Cisco XDR, I think the price is a bit expensive."

"Cisco XDR can be improved by addressing the upfront cost."

More Cisco XDR cons

"Some of our older hardware experienced a slight bump in CPU and memory usage. Although I don't have empirical data to back that up, I would suggest possibly more streamlining in the software."

"The automation response being slow is the main concern; when an incident occurs or if I run a remediation, it takes significant time to complete the remediation."

"The user interface of Microsoft 365 Defender could improve. They could make it simpler."

"The customer support aspect can be better because it's the biggest complaint I hear about Microsoft. They can improve the ease of support and licensing processes."

"We struggle sometimes with tier one support agents who give canned responses."

"From a performance standpoint, improvements could be made."

"Every now and then, Microsoft Defender XDR seems to go through and aggregates almost a week's worth of incidents and wraps them up, indicating a huge problem."

"Microsoft Defender XDR can be improved as a solution because it's still quite costly; it's part of E5, E5 security, so the cost is still quite high, especially considering SME and C customers, or SMB customers."

More Microsoft Defender XDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing of Cisco XDR is a bit complicated. The cost can depend on what it is, and the process can be a little complicated."

"We've managed to navigate it effectively through our enterprise agreement, and Microsoft's academic discounts have proven to be quite generous."

"The licensing fee for Microsoft 365 Defender is fair."

"We have a lot of problems in Latin America regarding the price of Microsoft 365 Defender, because the relationship between dollars and the money of the different countries, it's is a lot. Many customers that have small businesses say that they would like the solution but it is too expensive. However, large companies do not find the cost an issue."

"The functionality is fantastic, but for medium and small-sized companies it's overpriced. It would be better if it were a little bit cheaper."

"The product is fairly priced for what we get from it."

"The price could be better. Normally, the costs depend on the country you're located in for the license. When we were in the initial stage, we went with the E5 license they call premium standard. It cost us around $5.20 per month for four users."

"Microsoft Defender XDR is priced high."

"It has consistently offered highly appealing academic pricing, with distinct rates for higher education and general educational purposes."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

University

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	38

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco XDR?

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been intriguing. I used to work for a Cisco partner, and I still have friends there with whom I discuss comparisons regarding some hardwar...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco XDR?

Improvements in Cisco XDR revolve around performance. The less performance it utilizes to run at high configuration levels, the better it becomes, so all vendors need to continue working on keeping...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco XDR?

As a security consultant, I use multiple SIEM and XDR solutions, so cumulatively, I can say I have used Cisco XDR for around one year.

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft 365 Defender?

Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and potential indicators of compromise.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Defender?

My experience with pricing, setup, costs, and licensing of Microsoft Defender XDR is tied to our E5 subscription, which is very straightforward for us. We also purchase the uplift for our mobile us...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?

I am not aware of a mobile app that would be available for my team. With a single analyst, if she is ever away, it would be beneficial to have easier access. While she can use the web portal, the e...

See all answers

Comparisons

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Cisco XDR

Compared 20% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Cisco XDR

Compared 11% of the time

Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks vs Cisco XDR

Compared 11% of the time

Darktrace vs Cisco XDR

Compared 10% of the time

IBM Security QRadar vs Cisco XDR

Compared 4% of the time

More Cisco XDR Competitors

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 12% of the time

Wazuh vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 4% of the time

Huntress Managed EDR vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Defender XDR Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco XDR

January 2026

Download Cisco XDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR

January 2026

Download Microsoft Defender XDR product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender

Interactive Demo

Cisco

Demo not available

Microsoft

Overview

Cisco XDR delivers an advanced threat detection and response experience through integration with Cisco's security suite, offering enhanced visibility, intelligence, and automation for network protection and system evaluations.

Cisco XDR integrates with Cisco Meraki and Splunk, excelling in threat intelligence and zero-day attack detection. Its automated response features provide crucial support in managing extensive networks, while the comprehensive log management facilitates detailed troubleshooting. Dashboards assist in system evaluation for effective gap mitigation. Despite its licensing complexity and upfront costs, it remains a key tool for Security Operations Center analysts and internet service providers, helping isolate threats and ensuring consistent security monitoring.

What features make Cisco XDR stand out?

Threat Intelligence: Offers robust insights to identify and manage threats.
Integration: Seamlessly works with Cisco Meraki and Splunk.
Zero-Day Detection: Protects against unknown threats with innovative technology.
Automated Response: Automates tasks such as phishing email handling.
Comprehensive Log Management: Supports detailed troubleshooting and network visibility.

Which benefits should users look for?

Enhanced Network Visibility: Allows for better monitoring and protection.
Reduced Downtime: Reliable performance ensures minimal interruptions.
Ease of Training: Intuitive tools facilitate rapid adoption.
Gap Mitigation: Dashboards provide insights to strengthen system security.

Cisco XDR is widely implemented in sectors requiring robust network management and monitoring. Organizations use it alongside Cisco Firepower Threat Defense and Meraki for comprehensive security measures, benefiting global customers and internet service providers for traffic and routing insights across devices and data centers.

Cisco

Microsoft Defender XDR is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect against threats in the Microsoft 365 environment.

It offers robust security measures, comprehensive threat detection capabilities, and an efficient incident response system. With seamless integration with other Microsoft products and a user-friendly interface, it simplifies security management tasks.

Users have found it effective in detecting and preventing various types of attacks, such as phishing attempts, malware infections, and data breaches.

Watch the Microsoft demo video here: Microsoft Defender XDR demo video.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.

Buyer's Guide

Cisco XDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

December 2025

Free Report: Cisco XDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco XDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco XDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR report.

See our list of best Extended Detection and Response (XDR) vendors.

We monitor all Extended Detection and Response (XDR) 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.