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Fortinet FortiGuard vs Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence [EOL] comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 16, 2025

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

Fortinet FortiGuard
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (12th)
Microsoft Defender Threat I...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Muhammad Kamran Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief information security officer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Improves email filtering and network protection but has limited accessible support and feature discovery
When going for support and asking for support for features, the support team asks to go for professional services, which are not covered in the support agreement. This is the reason exploration of the product features has been limited. To learn or explore something about the product, professional services need to be taken. When creating a ticket for support with configuration features, the support is reluctant to provide that support. This is the reason every feature of Fortinet FortiGuard cannot be explored. Currently Fortinet FortiGuard is working fine with no issues, but newsletters or communications about new features in the product are not being received from Fortinet. This limits knowledge of what new features are available in the product. There is no knowledge about the behavior analytics feature in Fortinet FortiGuard.
Charles Mokoena - PeerSpot reviewer
Mobility & IT Project Manager at Voicevine Pty Ltd
Has strengthened our ability to detect threats in real time and improved internal security decision-making
The features that I find most valuable in Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence include the Sentinel part of it. There are several features we've looked at, including Sentinel as well as extended Defender, which is XDR. I've used those two, and that's what I've found quite useful for us, especially in the hardening and analysis part of the whole threat analysis. We use the real-time threat detection features in Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence. If it wasn't for that real-time threat detection on the vulnerability, I think we would not have survived the attack. The integration capabilities of Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence with other Microsoft security tools have benefited our organization's threat management process by initially being quite a challenge, especially coming from other security tools such as Fortinet and Check Point. However, once you've gotten used to it, it's quite easy and user-friendly. The dashboard, especially the threat analysis dashboard, is quite detailed in terms of providing a view of which areas in our environment need attention, making it quite useful.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The benefits I gain from using Fortinet FortiGuard include peace of mind; it has contributed to ensuring that we are always available and can meet our availability targets, which means that productivity is maintained and revenues will rake in as planned."
"The best features in Fortinet FortiGuard that I appreciate are the nice interface, ease of use, and straightforward administration and setup."
"The main benefits Fortinet FortiGuard provides are that it secures the network from external threats, it provides security, and it has a very perfect graphical user interface that is very easy to use."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its ease of use and efficiency."
"The content filtering feature helps protect data by filtering potentially dangerous websites and brings significant benefit to the organization."
"I rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten."
"Defender exceeds expectations, especially for someone who's flipping from CrowdStrike or Falcon XR; this is night and day."
"I value how Threat Intelligence integrates with the different platforms in Microsoft."
"Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence assesses machines for vulnerabilities and gives remediations."
"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward."
"The tool is managed from the cloud, because of which the maintenance is very low."
"The product provides efficient email security for sending links and file attachments."
"They seem to be pretty up to date with the latest threats in the world."
 

Cons

"If the tool can be cheaper or less expensive, it can be good for users."
"The dashboard is an important and integral part of the product that could be improved."
"Currently, for our usage, the areas that have room for improvement are pricing and customization."
"I think that automated response could be improved if they can add automated response features into Fortinet FortiGuard."
"When creating a ticket for support with configuration features, the support is reluctant to provide that support."
"The solution could be more stable and precise because, at times, the threats detected are not legitimate."
"The software is expensive."
"It would be beneficial to enhance the pricing structure and make it more affordable."
"One area where Microsoft Defender could be improved is in its support for non-Microsoft products, particularly for systems running Linux or other open-source platforms across ecosystems."
"Microsoft itself is a major target for attacks and threats due to its size and popularity. That could be considered Microsoft's Achilles heel."
"I would like for there to be extra confirmation that there aren't viruses. Even if the virus detection software is always running there could be hidden applications that are using the computer."
"I would like to see more integration with other solutions. For example, integration well with Microsoft but not with other solutions."
"The price could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as a six to seven."
"The product has multiple subscription models."
"The product is a part of my Microsoft 365 subscription, so there is no additional cost. It is cost-effective."
"Considering Microsoft is constantly changing licensing, I would give it a seven out of ten. It can be difficult to get your head around it, especially for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)."
"I use the product's default version, which is a free one and not the licensed version."
"The pricing of the solution is good."
"The solution can be licensed, but most users would already have it in their Office 365 license."
"The tool is expensive as a stand-alone solution. However, it is not cheap when you purchase it as a bundle."
"The product’s pricing is worth it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
10%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGuard?
Regarding pricing, I must say it is quite pricey, but if you look at the value it gives you, I think the value justifies the cost.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGuard?
When going for support and asking for support for features, the support team asks to go for professional services, which are not covered in the support agreement. This is the reason exploration of ...
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiGuard?
Fortinet FortiGuard is used to filter emails coming to the email server. Fortinet FortiGuard threat intelligence is utilized, but not dedicatedly or specifically for threat intelligence purposes. F...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
From the telemetry data standpoint, I would prefer Defender data to be more open in future updates.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
We have tried Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence. I have expertise with Microsoft Defender products. I am not familiar with Microsoft Defender for IoT because we did not use that in our environ...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence?
I will recommend Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence because it is a complete automation solution for threat production detection and an end-to-end solution for client security. Unfortunately, s...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Recorded Future, SOCRadar, Anomali and others in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP). Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.