FortiXDR vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

Fortinet and Microsoft are both solutions in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category. Fortinet is ranked #30 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.4. Fortinet holds a 0.8% mindshare in XDR, compared to Microsoft’s 6.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

FortiXDR

Read 4 FortiXDR reviews

869 Views
156 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender XDR

Read 101 Microsoft Defender XDR reviews

7,287 Views
3,790 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

FortiXDR

Microsoft Defender XDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between FortiXDR and Microsoft Defender XDR based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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

Buyer's Guide

FortiXDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

June 2025

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Helped 860,592 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

FortiXDR

Ranking in Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

30th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

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

101

Ranking in other categories

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) category, the mindshare of FortiXDR is 0.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 6.2%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

Featured Reviews

Abdulrahman Mashabi

Sales Director at Virtual Vision (V2)

Affordable pricing improves access to solutions with scalable and efficient protection

We are a system integrator and cloud service provider. Although I am in sales and not technical, I am involved with these products to sell them to our customers We are using FortiGate and FortiWeb mostly. Additionally, we are engaged with FortiXDR and FortiEDR. They could change their licensing…

Read full review

Gabor Nyerd

Enterprise mobility and security evangelist at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Includes four services and four products, which can help organizations a lot

We found that sometimes integrations work, but testing them can take some time. Sometimes, configurations take much longer than expected. We have a configuration in place that needs to be synchronized with another server. However, the servers are four hours apart, so this can cause delays. In general, I believe that the time it takes to configure and test a service should be shorter. Sometimes, it can take a couple of hours to test a single configuration setting. Other times, it is only ten or fifteen minutes, which is normal. However, sometimes, even immediate actions can be triggered by configuration changes, and some settings can take up to eight hours to complete. I believe that this time can be improved. Microsoft is making a lot of improvements to its services in a short period of time. This is a good thing, as it means that the services are constantly being updated and improved. However, it can be challenging for customers to keep up with the changes. For example, a customer may read about an update, understand it, and share it with their colleagues and boss. However, it may take days or weeks to test the update and get the necessary approvals. This can be especially challenging for large customers with many users or machines. In some cases, Microsoft may change a service before the customer has had a chance to implement the previous update. This can be frustrating for customers, as it means that they have to constantly learn new things and adjust their workflows. On the one hand, it is important for Microsoft to keep updating and improving its services. This helps to ensure that the services are meeting the customers' needs and that they are staying ahead of the competition. Microsoft should also be mindful of the challenges that these changes can create for customers. One way to address this challenge is to provide customers with more time to implement changes. Microsoft could also provide more information about upcoming changes so that customers can plan ahead. Ultimately, Microsoft needs to strike a balance between keeping its services up-to-date and providing customers with a smooth transition to new features.

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

"FortiXDR is valuable for its integration capabilities with one hundred percent compatibility with other vendors in cloud environments like Google, Oracle, and Microsoft."

"The most valuable feature of FortiXDR is it integrates well with other Fortinet solutions, such as Fortinet firewall, FortiMail, FortiSandbox, Forti Fabric, switches, and access points. Whatever the flow of the traffic comes in or goes out, the entire traffic can be managed and monitored properly."

"Our customers are satisfied with FortiXDR."

"The most valuable feature of FortiXDR is its ability to block clients, providing comprehensive endpoint protection."

"The product is stable enough."

"The most valuable feature of FortiXDR is its ability to block clients, providing comprehensive endpoint protection."

"It's a great threat intelligence source for us, providing alerts for things it detects on the network and on the machines. We've used it often when there is a potential incident to see what was done on a computer. That works quite nicely because you can see everything that the user has done..."

"You can configure the product very easily."

"For technical support, I would definitely give a rating of nine out of ten."

"The summarization of emails is a valuable feature."

"The ability to integrate and observe a more cohesive narrative across the products is crucial."

"My clients like Defender's file integrity monitoring. They're monitoring Windows and Linux system files."

"Microsoft Defender XDR is scalable."

"Email protection is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender XDR."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pros

Cons

"They could change their licensing costs to make it more affordable for smaller businesses."

"The pricing of FortiXDR should be improved."

"Many of the solutions, such as CrowdStrike have an MDR solution where remediation can be provided by the vendor. For example, if there is any zero data threat found, a new threat that the customer is not able to recognize, fix, or understand what needs to be done this feature has to be added in FortiXDR so that the customer feels comfortable."

"Improvement is needed in the intuitiveness and integration measures of FortiXDR, especially in terms of compatibility."

"The pricing of FortiXDR should be improved. It's a point of concern for us."

"Improvement is needed in the intuitiveness and integration measures of FortiXDR, especially in terms of compatibility."

"They could change their licensing costs to make it more affordable for smaller businesses."

"This solution could be improved if it included features such as those offered by Malwarebytes."

"There are a few technical issues with Defender XDR that can be improved. Sometimes, the endpoint devices are not reporting properly to the Defender 365 portal. When you're getting all the information from the Microsoft portal, the devices are sometimes not in sync. We have hundreds of endpoint devices, some needing to be onboarded again."

"Defender also lacks automated detection and response. You need to resolve issues manually. You can manage multiple Microsoft security products from a single portal, and all your security recommendations are in one place. It's easy to understand and manage. However, I wouldn't say Defender is a single pane of glass. You still need to switch between all of the available Microsoft tools. You can see all the alerts in one panel, but you can't automate remediation."

"At times, there may be delays in the execution of certain actions and their effects."

"The licensing is a nightmare and has room for improvement."

"There should be better information for experts on features in the solution. What I see when reading about features in Microsoft 365 Defender is that it is always general information. If Microsoft could go deeper into details for the experts about how to use the tools, usage of it would be more familiar and it would be easier to use."

"The support could be more knowledgable to improve their offering."

"There is no common area where we can manage all the policies for the EDR, third-party solutions, devices, servers, Windows, Mac, etc., but it's on the road map, and we ware waiting for that feature."

More Microsoft Defender XDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an expensive solution compared to other vendors, such as Check Point."

"I believe the pricing is fair and acceptable. I consider it to be reasonable and satisfactory."

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

"The price of the solution is high compared to others and we have lost some customers because of it."

"The pricing of Microsoft 365 Defender is definitely on the costly side, but with the features and services that Microsoft provides, such as the seamless integration of all the Defender tools, while the price is on the higher side, there is no alternative."

"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."

"365 Defender can get expensive because you pay per gigabyte of data ingested. On the other hand, much of the data available in the other Microsoft security solutions are made available relatively cheaply—sometimes at cost or for free. Integrating only a limited set of third-party solutions with Sentinel would be cost-effective. It's much more affordable if companies only have Microsoft stuff."

"Microsoft purposely makes its license combinations complex and includes combinations like Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E5, and Office 365 E1, so you get confused. Microsoft tries to sell you a bundle of a lot of things together."

"Microsoft should provide lower-level licensing options. They should do it in such a way that even an individual could purchase a license, and it should be entirely flexible."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiXDR?

Comparing to the enterprise level, the pricing is reasonable. However, for some companies, it might be a little high.

See all answers

What needs improvement with FortiXDR?

They could change their licensing costs to make it more affordable for smaller businesses.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for FortiXDR?

We are a system integrator and cloud service provider. Although I am in sales and not technical, I am involved with these products to sell them to our customers.

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?

The pricing for Microsoft Sentinel operates on a pay-as-you-go model based on data ingestion. I recall that Defender XDR pricing is based on the number of endpoints.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?

For Microsoft Defender XDR ( /categories/extended-detection-and-response-xdr ), there is currently no ability to reset passwords for on-premises accounts, which is a key challenge. Incident managem...

See all answers

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Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 10% of the time

Wazuh vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 10% of the time

Trend Vision One vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Extended Detection and Response (XDR)

June 2025

Download FortiXDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR

June 2025

Download Microsoft Defender XDR product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender

Overview

XDR Defined and Explained
Extended detection and response (XDR) is a natural extension of the endpoint detection and response (EDR) concept, in which behaviors that occur after threat prevention controls act are further inspected for potentially malicious, suspicious, or risky activity that warrant mitigation. The difference is simply the location (endpoint or beyond) where the behaviors occur.

Fortinet

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

FortiXDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

June 2025

Free Report: FortiXDR vs. Microsoft Defender XDR

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