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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs Microsoft Defender for Office 365 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
6.5
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is praised for cost-effectiveness, enhanced security, and significant yet hard-to-quantify financial impact.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 enhances email protection, reduces costs, and increases productivity, offering invaluable data security.
It has also decreased our time to detection and response by about 15 to 20 percent.
Overall, cost of owning and operating our system goes down.
It's hard to quantify the return on investment we've seen from Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
ESET Endpoint Protection is praised for efficient, professional support despite regional inconsistencies, with users generally satisfied.
Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers reliable support, praised for responsiveness, despite some challenges with clarity and third-party resolutions.
Normally, I cannot give a ten for support of all brands, as it is not always possible to get full support from companies.
Over the past two years, there have been no critical problems.
we opened tickets, and they typically resolve them quickly.
Customer service and support have been fantastic.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform offers scalable, flexible, and easy management, ideal for small to large organizations with effective performance.
Sentiment score
8.2
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales seamlessly across configurations, supporting thousands of users with effortless integration and optimal performance.
In terms of scalability, I can rate it eight or nine out of ten.
We have never faced scalability problems, and Microsoft manages it effectively.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales transparently for us, as we grew from 1,000 users to 3,000 users, and we didn't notice much difference.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
ESET Endpoint Protection is highly stable with minimal issues, occasional upgrade challenges, and consistently high user ratings for reliability.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is highly reliable, offering stable performance, quick issue resolution, and high user satisfaction ratings.
In terms of stability, I can rate it at nine out of ten.
The solution is stable, as we have been using it for the past two years.
I would assess the stability and reliability of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 as very stable, with barely any issues.
Overall, the stability and reliability of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 are good.
 

Room For Improvement

ESET faces challenges with licensing, installation, performance, support, and user interface, needing improvements in malware detection and AI integration.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 needs enhanced virus protection, compatibility, UI, integration, reporting, and cost transparency to improve user experience.
A lightweight version of ESET might be beneficial as many of our clients have older CPUs and RAM.
When we were using CrowdStrike, it used to detect and block pirated software, but ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is not doing that.
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process.
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published.
There is a different console for different things; I just want one consolidated console.
 

Setup Cost

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform provides flexible, moderately priced licenses with discounts available, valued for cost-effectiveness and performance despite complex setup.
Enterprise users find Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pricing complex but valuable due to integration with Office 365 features.
The pricing of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is a bit high compared to other competitors.
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.
We've likely saved 30% of costs.
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 suite, making it slightly more expensive compared to Trend Micro.
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
 

Valuable Features

ESET Endpoint Protection offers strong threat detection, minimal resource impact, user-friendly management, and comprehensive security features for organizations.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers comprehensive security with real-time updates and automated threat response, enhancing multi-platform enterprise safety.
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.
The primary purpose is to protect computers from viruses and ransomware.
It ranks the threats and allows us to prioritize those hitting us the hardest, such as email threats.
It provides end-to-end visibility on email threats such as phishing, extending beyond Exchange Online Protection.
The value of the DLP feature is significant to us because we have internal data, sometimes sensitive, and the users may not always be aware of security and privacy, which might lead them to send out information mistakenly to external parties.
 

Categories and Ranking

ESET Endpoint Protection Pl...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
101
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (18th), Anti-Malware Tools (6th)
Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (1st), Email Security (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (11th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is 3.9%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 8.8%, down from 14.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

ManojNair2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to set up with good security and rapidly improving capabilities
In terms of stability, the performance parameters do come into play. It's good on the regular office front, however, on the development side, if somebody is using it in a development environment, they need to make some configuration changes in terms of what directories should be excluded from the real-time scanning. I had to do that kind of stuff. I don't do that with the Microsoft product, for example. It runs, and it scans the entire system with no issues. The solution is stable. Regular updates were available in the product versions. They were updated, and they gave regular signature updates also so that the product checked all the boxes.
Tolu Omolaja - PeerSpot reviewer
Great URL scanning and attachment scanning, but I would like more proactive threat analysis
The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning. URL scanning involves an automatic scan of links and emails. When a user clicks on a link within an email, the system promptly checks the link's safety. If the link is deemed safe, access is granted automatically. However, if it is flagged as unsafe, we receive feedback and notification to caution us about the potentially harmful link. At this point, we are presented with the option to proceed or return. I have personally witnessed the system identify a few unsafe links, making this the primary advantage of using the solution. The second crucial aspect is the scanning of attachments. When an email containing an attachment arrives, we receive a notification of the new email, along with information that the attachment is being scanned for threats. This additional layer of security provides peace of mind for our organization. While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers numerous features, these two stand out as particularly impressive and valuable to us.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ESET Endpoint Security?
ESET Endpoint Security’s most valuable feature is the management console.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ESET Endpoint Security?
I rate the product’s pricing a three out of ten. It is neither cheap nor expensive for our clients. We use the free version, and there are no additional costs involved.
What needs improvement with ESET Endpoint Security?
The product’s AI implementation feature could be better for learning user behavior. There could be a feature to detect unsecured devices in the network similar to its older version. We need additio...
What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of various email campaigns, pinpointing where they emanate from, and identifying the indi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published. It's essential to enhan...
 

Also Known As

Smart Security, ESET PROTECT Advanced, ESET LiveGuard Advanced, ESET PROTECT Platform
MS Defender for Office 365
 

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 Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
Find out what your peers are saying about ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,491 professionals have used our research since 2012.