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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs Microsoft Defender for Identity comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.3
ESET Endpoint Protection offers cost-effective, lightweight security, reducing recovery costs and enhancing protection despite unclear ROI measurement.
Sentiment score
4.4
Microsoft Defender for Identity is cost-effective and efficient, offering incident prevention and resolution without complex hardware setups.
I saw the return on investment with ESET Endpoint Protection Platform within months.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
ESET's customer service is mostly praised for professionalism and support, with some regional areas needing improvement.
Sentiment score
6.9
Opinions on Microsoft Defender for Identity support vary, highlighting responsiveness, but issues include delays, contact challenges, and false positives.
They have great technical support.
Owner at Online IT
Normally, I cannot give a ten for support of all brands, as it is not always possible to get full support from companies.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
Generally, the support is more effective than other providers like Oracle.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
The quality of support is very good, but troubleshooting can take time due to complex setups and the need to provide many logs.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The people I normally use for support are very knowledgeable, especially when they help remote in and get to where I need to go and show me much faster and help me understand what I should be doing.
Technology Coordinator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
ESET Endpoint Protection is praised for scalability, though performance may vary in large setups and depends on hardware.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Identity efficiently integrates and scales globally, supporting diverse organizational needs within Microsoft’s ecosystem effectively.
In terms of scalability, I can rate it eight or nine out of ten.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
Their support is phenomenal, offering quick assistance.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
Minimal system performance impact is very important when choosing endpoint protection solutions, and I believe ESET uses minimum hardware of the PC.
Owner at Online IT
In a Microsoft-centric organization, especially with Azure infrastructure and Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity is scalable.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is stable and reliable, with high ratings, despite minor upgrade issues and occasional portal non-responsiveness.
Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly reliable, with minimal incidents, seamless operation, and consistent ratings between seven and nine.
In terms of stability, I can rate it at nine out of ten.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
Our experience with ESET Endpoint Protection Platform's centralized management console is mostly fine for managing security policies across endpoints.
Owner at Online IT
Microsoft Defender for Identity is quite robust and built on Azure hyperscale infrastructure, with a 99% availability.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We do not see any issues with the stability of Microsoft Defender for Identity.
Deputy Manager at Servion Global Solutions
Having recently started using it, reliability is affirmed, but manual investigation is often performed to verify if alerts identified by auto-remediation are accurate.
Instrumentation Engineer at Toyo Engineering Corp
 

Room For Improvement

ESET Endpoint Protection needs improvements in deployment, performance, support, automation, integration, pricing, and advanced threat and ransomware protection.
Microsoft Defender for Identity users seek improved cloud integration, user-friendly features, better support, and streamlined processes for enhanced threat management.
A lightweight version of ESET might be beneficial as many of our clients have older CPUs and RAM.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
When we were using CrowdStrike, it used to detect and block pirated software, but ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is not doing that.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Extensive APIs to easily integrate our own systems with the platform for user configuration via their company portal.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
If Microsoft could develop a feature that indicates when impossible travel is caused by VPN connections, it would prevent unnecessary password resets and session disruptions, especially for VIP users in organizations.
CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed
One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
Reducing false positives is something we've been working on with Microsoft.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

ESET Endpoint Protection is cost-effective for SMBs, though setup costs can be high; enterprise users pay $20-$30 annually per user.
Microsoft Defender for Identity is cost-effective with E5 licenses despite complex pricing and competitive against other security solutions.
The pricing of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is a bit high compared to other competitors.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
I would rate ESET Endpoint Protection Platform a five for pricing on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is cheap and 10 is expensive.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
If they can reduce the costs, organizations will be happy, and it will compensate for using the Azure environment, which is more expensive on the infrastructure as a service side.
CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed
Ensuring a fair price according to market standards.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
From an organization perspective, using E5 licenses is value for money, especially if Azure and Office 365 are already in use.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

ESET Endpoint Protection ensures efficient, lightweight security with advanced tech, seamless integration, low performance impact, and reasonable pricing.
Microsoft Defender for Identity integrates with Azure to offer comprehensive threat detection, identity protection, and advanced real-time security insights.
The best feature of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is that I get all the details about which user is using it, how much time they spend on websites, and all related information.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Machine learning, especially through live detection, detects threats that are blocked based on reputation or sandbox detection.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
The most valuable feature is the cloud administration.
Owner at Online IT
We receive an advance report of risky users, allowing us to take preemptive action before an attack causes damage to organization details.
Instrumentation Engineer at Toyo Engineering Corp
The most valuable feature is its hybrid artificial intelligence, which gathers forensic data to track and counteract security threats, much like the CSI series in effect.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
The advanced threat protection is one of the strengths of Microsoft Defender for Identity, as it utilizes user and entity analytics and can detect indicative attacks.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

ESET Endpoint Protection Pl...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
19th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (16th), Anti-Malware Tools (8th)
Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (4th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is 2.3%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 4.5%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity4.5%
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform2.3%
Other93.2%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Owner at Online IT
Cloud-based protection has simplified daily client support and keeps threats under control
The problems that we are facing with policy adoption include slow adoption, as it takes more than five minutes to adopt policy on client computers. ESET Network Attack Protection sometimes helps in reducing network-level intrusions, but sometimes it prevents local devices on the network, which are well-known and good devices, from being recognized, treating them as a threat. So it requires more administration than usual. ESET could implement a good solution for remote support in ESET Endpoint Protection Platform for improvement in the future. Since you have the cloud console, ESET could have something similar to AnyDesk or TeamViewer, but from ESET.
RK
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Protect on-premises and hybrid environments with advanced threat detection and seamless integration
Our Active Directory implementation is a hybrid one. The advanced threat protection is one of the strengths of Microsoft Defender for Identity, as it utilizes user and entity analytics and can detect indicative attacks. It identifies lateral movements, privilege escalations, and alerts on potential attacks. The tool is also used for security posture assessment. The seamless integration with other Microsoft solutions within our Microsoft-centric environment is also a major advantage.
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881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business68
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
I would rate ESET Endpoint Protection Platform a five for pricing on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is cheap and 10 is expensive.
What needs improvement with ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
The problems that we are facing with policy adoption include slow adoption, as it takes more than five minutes to adopt policy on client computers. ESET Network Attack Protection sometimes helps in...
What is your primary use case for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
We are a company that provides IT support to clients, so we use ESET Endpoint Protection Platform every day. Currently, we are not partners because we have great local support from the company that...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Identity?
I really would have to sit down to think about how Microsoft Defender for Identity can be improved. I didn't take stock in what needs to be improved because I appreciated having the tools right the...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?
My main use cases for Microsoft Defender for Identity include Conditional Access, checking risky users, remediating risky users, and user sign-ins. I can easily remediate or determine what the user...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Defender for Identity?
I don't really use Microsoft Defender for Identity a lot because my new role doesn't allow me to take time to do so. I don't really use the threat intelligence feature of Microsoft Defender for Ide...
 

Also Known As

Smart Security, ESET PROTECT Advanced, ESET LiveGuard Advanced, ESET PROTECT Platform
Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ERSTE Group Bank, Miller Solutions, Wesleyan University, The Hospital Center of Luxembourg, Deer Valley USD, SPAR, Industrial Federal Credit Union, Honda, City Hall of Palmela, Hays CISD, Lester B Pearson School Board
Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs. Microsoft Defender for Identity and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.