


Fortinet FortiClient and Microsoft Defender for Business are key competitors in cybersecurity solutions. Microsoft Defender for Business seems to have the upper hand due to its seamless integration with Microsoft 365 and its advanced analytics capabilities.
Features: Fortinet FortiClient is known for its robust VPN services, extensive UTP bundle providing varied security measures without additional costs, and ease of centralized management, making it ideal for IT departments. Microsoft Defender for Business integrates seamlessly with Microsoft 365 services, excels in threat detection and response, and offers advanced analytics and AI-driven insights, beneficial for businesses within the Microsoft ecosystem.
Room for Improvement: Fortinet FortiClient could enhance its management system, improve multi-factor authentication options, and address connectivity issues. Microsoft Defender for Business should work on reducing false positives in threat protection and improving its user interface intuitiveness and third-party integration.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Fortinet FortiClient offers flexibility in deployment across on-premises, private, and hybrid clouds, though support responses can be slow. Microsoft Defender for Business supports public and hybrid cloud environments with positive customer service experiences, albeit with some reports of delayed issue resolution.
Pricing and ROI: Fortinet FortiClient provides various competitive pricing options, especially when bundled with other Fortinet products, and features a free VPN client option. Microsoft Defender for Business, included with Office 365 subscriptions, offers significant value through integration with Microsoft's ecosystem but can be costly for smaller organizations. Both solutions demonstrate notable ROI by boosting staff productivity and ensuring robust security, with cost-effectiveness varying based on specific organizational needs.
They appreciate the rich telemetry data from the solution, as it provides in-depth threat identification.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks helps to reduce my total cost of ownership significantly.
In Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks, most of the remediation is automated and the accuracy is quite good.
The VPN performance has a substantial impact on our remote workforce.
Using Microsoft Defender for Business results in cost reductions as it consolidates various features under one product, saving around 20% to 30% of the budget.
The value I see in Microsoft Defender for Business is in its ability to track and respond to application usage and security threats through its CASB and automation features, which are cost-beneficial.
The technical support from Palo Alto deserves a mark of ten because they reach out within an hour whenever assistance is needed.
There is no back and forth, and they know what we are asking for and come up with the best resolution for a solution.
If any of these services are missed, it becomes a problem in terms of support tickets, follow-up, or special configuration that needs to be done in the system.
They initiate the troubleshooting process quickly and resolve issues in a timely manner.
In 99% of cases, we do not have to do configurations on our own as they are normally handled by their service providers.
They provide very good support, and an issue I had was resolved quickly over the phone.
It is rated ten out of ten for its quality and assistance.
The onboarding support is exceptional, ensuring seamless integration and implementation.
Faster support is needed for endpoint security solutions.
You can onboard 10,000 endpoints in just hours, which demonstrates the excellent scalability of this product.
Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks can be expanded anytime by purchasing another license without any issues related to scalability.
I think scalability for Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks is good.
We normally take into consideration while installing the product that it can scale up to approximately 20%, but not more than that.
Most of our clients are using the free version rather than the paid version due to the high range of maximum users available for the free version.
I hope Fortinet will start an insider developer program where professionals can provide feedback on new releases to ensure improvements.
The cloud-based nature of the solution ensures high scalability.
The scalability of Microsoft Defender for Business is rated as ten, indicating it is very scalable.
In terms of scalability, I would rate Microsoft Defender for Business a ten.
Cortex remains fast and responsive, even with increasing data and alerts.
The thresholds we've seen on our firewall boxes at some instances reached 80% to 85%, but even at that level of utilization, we don't observe any latency or any issues reported with respect to accessing the application.
Cortex XDR is stable, offering high quality and reliable performance.
Its stability level is excellent.
I normally get a call within 15-20 minutes after logging a complaint.
Fortinet FortiClient is a stable product with no glitches or latency issues.
No customer complaints about its functionality or reliability.
Although it generally works, there are occasional issues and errors that sometimes require a complete system format to rectify.
I would rate the stability of Microsoft Defender for Business with a three out of ten, where one is very bad.
Improving reporting and dashboard customization, along with the addition of real-time and exportable reports, would help SOC teams greatly.
The inclusion of this feature would allow the application of DLP policies alongside antivirus policies via a single agent and console, making it more competitive as other OEMs often offer DLP solutions as part of their antivirus products.
If the per GB data could be provided at a certain level free of cost or at the same cost which the customer is taking for the entire bundle, that would be better.
FortiClient needs improvement in restricting user information and ensuring more secure customer data to better protect source code and reduce the risk of security breaches.
There are advanced features like Zero Trust that I currently do not use but could be beneficial for security.
Fortinet frequently releases updates without thorough testing.
Microsoft should provide batch management solutions with the application, integrating pass management with roles.
Features related to Advanced Persistent Threat detection vectors and cyber kill chain integrations are not available out-of-the-box.
There can be improvements in the user interface to make it more intuitive.
The pricing on SentinelOne is far more reasonable and cheaper than Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks.
I would say it is definitely not a cheap product, considering how mature it is and how scalable all Palo Alto products are together.
Cortex XDR is perceived as expensive by some customers, yet offers dynamic pricing.
FortiClient is a value-for-money product and is not considered expensive compared to similar products on the market.
Justifying the price to clients can be difficult.
FortiClient is included in a package with the UTM features, so there is no separate cost for it.
Single-year pricing remains good.
The pricing is quite affordable at the enterprise level with no extra expenses noted.
Although the cost can be slightly higher, it expedites deployment, which is beneficial, especially for startups.
It incorporates AI for normal behavior detection, distinguishing unusual operations.
The product provides automation responses in case of a threat attack, severity assessments, centralized manageability, and comprehensive compliance features, resulting in reduced costs.
It includes machine learning to easily analyze data and detect complex threats across endpoints, networks, or clouds.
The most valuable feature of FortiClient is its high security level.
We appreciate its VPN capabilities and the features that offer extra security functionalities like antivirus and malware scanning.
I strongly recommend this solution, especially for Fortinet customers who use FortiGate or other Fortinet products, as they can easily integrate these features and exchange information seamlessly.
The threat detection capabilities are robust, with a dedicated research team and a continuously updated threat feed.
Its vulnerability management is regarded as one of the best in the industry.
The most effective features of Microsoft Defender for Business include its threat detection and response capabilities in managing vulnerabilities and ransomware attacks.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Cortex XDR by Palo Alto Networks | 3.5% |
| Fortinet FortiClient | 1.8% |
| Microsoft Defender for Business | 1.9% |
| Other | 92.8% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 44 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 20 |
| Large Enterprise | 47 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 59 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 23 |
| Large Enterprise | 25 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 15 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 2 |
| Large Enterprise | 4 |
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?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.
FortiClient is a fabric agent that delivers endpoint protection, endpoint compliance, and secure access in a single, lightweight, lightweight client, providing visibility, information, and control to your endpoints. In addition, it enables secure, remote connectivity to the security fabric. It also integrates network and endpoint with segmentation and automation. FortiClient enables unified endpoint awareness by sharing endpoint telemetry with the security fabric. It is compatible with third-party EDR (endpoint detection and response and anti-malware solutions.
The FortiClient fabric agent can:
• Report on the status of a device, including firmware version and applications running.
• Send all suspicious files to a fabric sandbox.
• Enforce USB control, application control, URL filtering, and firmware upgrade policies.
• Provide application firewall service and malware protection.
• Enable devices to connect securely to the security fabric over either ZTNA tunnels or VPN (IPsec or SSL), both encrypted. The connection to the security fabric can be either a SASE service or a FortiGate next-generation firewall.
You can purchase FortiClient with one of three levels of capability:
Zero Trust security - The ZTNA edition enables both VPN and ZTNA encrypted tunnels, as well as USB device control and URL filtering.
Endpoint security - The EPP/APT edition adds AI-based NGAV (next-generation antivirus), application firewall, endpoint quarantine, and support for cloud sandbox.
Cloud-based endpoint security
Benefits and Features
• Fabric agent leverages integrations and provides telemetry information to the rest of the Fortinet security fabric.
• SAAS control and web/content filtering
• Dynamic access control helps with automation and simplifies compliance.
• Software inventory management enables visibility as well as management of licenses.
• Automated response detects and isolates any endpoints that may be compromised.
• ZTNA delivers better remote access and consistent application access policies
• Managed endpoint security services remotely assist with setup, configuration, deployment, vulnerability monitoring, and overall monitoring of endpoint security.
Reviews from Real Users:
PeerSpot users like that FortiClient is easy to use and integrates well with other solutions. They also appreciate the richness of its features and find it to be inexpensive in comparison to other products that require separate purchases for separate features.
Microsoft Defender for Business is a new endpoint security solution that was designed especially for the small and medium-sized business (up to 300 employees). With this endpoint security solution, your company's devices are better protected from ransomware, malware, phishing, and other threats.
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