No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Norton Security Premium [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Microsoft Defender for Endp...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
212
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (5th), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)
Norton Security Premium [EOL]
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Arbuckle - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Analyst III at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Automatically isolates threats and integrates with logging to reduce response time
Overall, I would evaluate the Microsoft support level that I receive at probably about a seven, but that depends on the day. It has been spotty. We have had issues where the urgency level of the Microsoft support is not as high as ours, especially during a data breach or potential data breach situation. We have had issues with some of the offshore support being lackluster. One specific thing that comes to mind is we were on a support call with our CISO on the call, and the Microsoft agent, who did not actually work for Microsoft, is one of the vendors that Microsoft uses for support, said, "Just to set expectations, my lunch break is in an hour and I am going to go away then." For us, it was already ten o'clock at night and we had been working on this for a couple of hours, trying to get a security engineer on with us. For him to tell us that he was going to go away and have lunch, it was, "Okay, but go find somebody else if you need to." It was just the lackluster approach, and it seemed like he did not really care. We seem to get a lot of this when we get non-Microsoft support. I can identify areas for improvement with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, as it is kind of a convoluted mess to try to take care of false positives. Especially when they have been identified as false positives but they keep going off over and over again. It is great for my pocketbook because it generates a lot of on-call action, but I would really prefer more sleep at two o'clock in the morning than dealing with false positives. I would say that the unified portal for managing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is suitable for both teams as they are all in there. It would be great if they would stop moving things around and renaming things, which makes sense. The new XDR portal is pretty nice. Being able to have it central again inside of the regular Security Center without having to open up two windows is helpful. Overall, I think it is pretty good. There is always going to be something that could be improved, such as alerting and the ability to modify alerts would be a little bit helpful to have. Being able to add more data into the alerts and turn off alerts that are not as useful would be beneficial. It is hard to say what the quantitative impact the security exposure management feature has had on our company's security, because a lot of it is kind of subjective. I think we are sitting at around a fifty percent score still, and a lot of it is just kind of unusual circumstances that we cannot really implement without breaking the organization.
RC
Project Manager at Amdocs
User-friendly solution with good blocking
I mainly use Security Premium as an antivirus.  Security Premium's best features are blocking, notifications, and the user interface. Security Premium's cost could be lower. I've been using Security Premium for a year. Security Premium is stable - I haven't faced any issues or bugs while using…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the main features is the solution is very light on resources and we do not have any problems with it."
"Attack surface reduction and limiting attack surface vectors are valuable features. It's helpful to isolate specific devices and get super granular with the features they offer."
"We had absolutely no issues with the stability of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is free and part of the licensing stack of other Microsoft products."
"It's free because it comes with Windows."
"You have endpoint security to keep your devices safe. That's the feature that we're interested in."
"It depends on the licensing. Most of the customers have got at least a 365 E3 license, and they can use most of the features of Windows 10 Defender. So, anyone who has got an enterprise license can start using those features. Some of the customers have got E5 licenses, and they can use all advanced features. Customers with E5 licenses use the advanced site protection (ATP) features and web content filtering without going via a proxy, which gives the benefit of replacing the proxy. They can get the benefit of MCAS and integration with Intune and the endpoint manager. It is a kind of single platform for all 365 technologies. It helps customers in managing everything through a unified portal."
"You can query and access useful information from logs and events, which is powerful and efficient."
"The antivirus aspect of the solution is very good, and the support we receive from Norton is excellent."
"Protects me from internet vulnerability."
"We tried a few: Kaspersky, Trend Micro, we used McAfee, we used Norton; we tried them all on our entire fleet of computers, and we realized that in terms of ease of use and resource consumption, Norton is something that is acceptable to us."
"The licensing fee for this solution is not expensive."
"We like how it can check for issues. That includes files and web browsers."
"Flexible antivirus and antimalware software. It also provides protection against ransomware. It's flexible, easy to handle, scalable, and stable."
"The product is called Norton 360 all-in-one. It is a full product."
"The dashboard is good."
 

Cons

"We are having calls and calls with Microsoft for getting rid of all configuration conflicts that we have."
"Windows Firewall is integrated with Windows Defender. Over the last few days, I have had a problem with defining a wildcard on Windows Firewall. For example, I wanted to pull out the connection of my program and install a software package with a lot of executable files. I wanted to prevent it from accessing the internet. I could not select executables by using a wildcard. I had to select a single executable with its full name."
"The only issue I would say is our mobile endpoints do not have Defender installed for part of them. An additional feature that could be included in the next release is free Copilot."
"I wish they would extend the use of the Security Central portal, even for the free option of Defender."
"I would like to see online updates for patches for this solution. I would also like to see online information about what is trending in the market in terms of spams, viruses, or trojans. It takes some time to understand how this solution works. A few things are unclear at the beginning, such as whether it actually restricts the virus or spam at the initial stage, or when there is a security update, how will we come to know and how will it get synchronized. It would be really helpful if there is some kind of knowledge base in the form of video, audio, or document that can explain in a user-friendly way the setup, features, risks, and process to mitigate the risks. Currently, I have installed endpoint security for every individual system. I could not install it like other endpoint solutions where we have a server and a client. It would be really helpful if Microsoft Windows Defender has a server-client based model so that I can save some bandwidth when it downloads or uploads features. It will be helpful if we have a LAN-based or WAN-based controlling system."
"I'm not too sure of its current capabilities, but I'm pretty sure they are doing a good job on Windows and Mac. However, I'm not sure whether they covered Linux. If I remember correctly, Microsoft Defender didn't have anything proper on Linux back then, but if they have improved it from that aspect, it would already be ticking all the boxes."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint can have more options and more AI capabilities in the future, because everything keeps changing."
"The file scanning has room for improvement. Many people use macros within their files, so there should be a mechanism that helps us to scan them for malicious payloads."
"As far as improvement to the product, perhaps the price could be better."
"The product could always be more secure."
"It would be helpful for me if this solution works on our cloud backup data."
"The solution can improve the security modules."
"The only problem with Norton Antivirus is that it consumes a lot of resources like CPU and memory in the background. Whenever it's scanning, my laptop becomes very slow, and the worst part is you cannot do anything about it. As this product is secured by my local IT team, you cannot even kill that process, and that's what I've felt about many other antivirus solutions. I'm using McAfee for personal use, and I have the same problem."
"I do not find it to be scalable."
"Occasionally when you open a ticket, there's a lack of understanding that prevents the solution from being resolved directly."
"The product is an antivirus, it should be updated automatically when needed."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'm not too familiar with costs as I'm an architect, though I know about online pricing, as I help two teams with online purchasing and procurement. Nowadays, everyone has an enterprise agreement, such as an E3 license, which we provide to our customers."
"It's included with the Windows Operating System, I don't pay for any licensing fees."
"If you don't purchase the advanced threat protection then there is no additional charge."
"The cost is high for E5 licenses, but if we go with the E3 license, most of the features are not covered."
"There is no license needed, the solution comes with Microsoft Windows."
"I got it with the Microsoft Windows license."
"Microsoft Defender is an expensive product in my country."
"The cost is competitive and reasonable because most of the expense is log analytics, storage, and data consumption and ingestion. These things can be throttled and controlled, so they are highly flexible. Defender has a lot of advantages over competing products."
"We have a yearly license, and each license is around 20 or 30 Jordanian Dinars plus taxes."
"Pricing for this software is competitive."
"If they could come down in price that would be good. It's not exactly the lowest."
"Security Premium costs around US$100 for three years, which is a little expensive."
"I don't pay for a license."
"Security Premium is highly-priced."
"The solution gives the value for the money."
"The licensing fee for this solution is not expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Anti-Malware Tools solutions are best for your needs.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business82
Midsize Enterprise45
Large Enterprise96
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior solution. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security s...
How does Microsoft Defender for Endpoint compare with Crowdstrike Falcon?
The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never push your machine hardware to "test", you don't have the usual "scan now" feature ...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Norton Internet Security
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Temple University
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, SentinelOne, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Anti-Malware Tools. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.