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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Tanium comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

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...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
1st
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
197
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (4th), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (5th)
Tanium
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
36th
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
31st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (7th), Vulnerability Management (24th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is 10.2%, down from 13.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tanium is 2.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Q&A Highlights

 

Featured Reviews

John Rallo - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers excellent visibility into vulnerabilities and the attack surface itself
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. The visibility into the attack surface is good. It gets highly granular. I don't work on that side, but the people who do tell me they get more visibility.
NitinKushwaha - PeerSpot reviewer
Stable product with an ability to build complex roles
We use Tanium as an EDR solution for managing end-user devices and servers The product is granular and can build complex roles compared to other EDR vendors. Tanium's dashboard UI could be similar to CrowdStrike. We have been using Tanium for two and a half years. The product is stable. I rate…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the real-time protection features. Windows Defender will detect if there's a threat like a Trojan or something like that but Kaspersky lets it run normally."
"The performance of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has been a valuable feature."
"Stable endpoint manager, antivirus, and antimalware, with fast technical support and a straightforward setup."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint has helped reduce our mean time to remediation significantly."
"It's effective against most types of infection, and the firewall is perfect for protection."
"Defender has very little impact on the end-user and the agent works quite well with a minimal impact on the client and server."
"The patch management is very easy, as it can be done automatically or added to a schedule."
"Endpoint's most valuable feature is deep analysis."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the consolidation of all historical data on device endpoints, security drivers, firmware, and Software version gaps."
"The interrogation piece was the most valuable feature because it was very detailed."
"I would say Tanium is the best tool for vulnerability management."
"Tanium's most valuable feature is its instant discovery aspect."
"I find the inventory and compliance features of Tanium to be the most impressive."
"The solution is scalable and helps to understand how infrastructure works. It helps to improve the health of the organization."
"I like the fact that you can create patching campaigns depending on the area of your network that you want to address first. I like the ability it has to make several campaigns that work in parallel."
"Tanium has made the process of detecting threats more proactive with its detection. So, the process is easier and more efficient."
 

Cons

"The system can always be simplified and have a better integration check. More detailed reports would be good. When it does the integrated check, it just shows if the system is okay but I want to know what happened."
"Microsoft Defender in the basic form is not very useful for managing the security environment. The free version is not capable of covering the needs of centralized management, EDR, and behavioral analysis. If you don't have the commercial version, you can't have centralized management and set up the policies and other things. Each client is a standalone installation, which is not useful for security in an enterprise model."
"There is a need for improvement in reducing false positives."
"It is using a large space in your memory all the time. While an antivirus will use some of your memory, if they could reduce the load of the antivirus to some extent that would be good."
"It can be more secure."
"The application control feature requires improvement."
"I would like to see fewer pop messages and alerts."
"The solution could improve by providing more integration."
"Any movement into a SaaS solution has challenges since the processes and data flows are not well defined. Hence, you need to build it at the same time."
"Tanium's limitations should be improved because although it is a great tool, it is limited to only a few classes during a session."
"Tanium’s scalability could be improved."
"We had some issues with the solution's OS upgrade."
"The main issues are the network connection because different customers have issues with their networks. It's difficult implementing this type of solution because the network is the main feature in the architecture for these types of solutions. Tanium could improve by creating some network optimization."
"When working with Tanium, there are some older devices that haven't been patched for a long time, and certain patches are not included in Tanium. I have to search outside to download patches, create bundles, and then perform the task."
"The solution needs to improve the reporting and tracking capabilities."
"Most of the time, agent-relative issues have to be more equipped with self-healing features. At times, the agent is there, but for some reason, it doesn't report a status. It gives certain problems that are obviously agent-based."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Even if you are not registered as a not-for-profit, the offering that they have is definitely worth consideration. This is in the sense that the E5 stack just gives you so many benefits. You get your entire productivity suite through Microsoft 365 apps. You get all your security and identity protection. You get the Defender for Endpoint and Defender for Identity. You get the cloud access security broker as well. You get Azure Active Directory Premium P2, which gives you so many good things that you can configure and deploy. You don't have to configure them on day one, but you have access to so many different tools that will protect your data, security, endpoints, and identities that you could build out a security strategy 18 months long, and slowly work your way through it, based on what you have available to you through your license."
"For most people, the price of the license is not something that they have to worry about."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is more affordable compared to some other endpoint solutions."
"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."
"Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is included with a Microsoft E5 license."
"It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable and fair."
"I recently switched from education to private business, and all I can say is that private business licensing from Microsoft is not cheap until you hit certain quantities or scale. That does not mean that it is not comparable to other industries. It is similar pricing, but it is still crazy to me how much you pay for a client. I feel it is high, but it is in line with other vendors."
"We are using the free version."
"The product's pricing differs from region to region depending on negotiations and the number of endpoints."
"It is higher than some competitors in the market."
"Tanium is a more expensive solution in Latin America than some of the competitors, such as BigFix."
"It's an expensive solution. It would be nice if the cost were lower."
"The solution offers value for money."
"The solution is expensive but it's a good investment."
"There is an annual license required to use this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 ...
What do you like most about Tanium?
Tanium’s linear-chain architecture is valuable.
What needs improvement with Tanium?
While there is always room for improvement, I am pleased with Tanium.
What is your primary use case for Tanium?
The primary use case for Tanium ( /products/tanium-reviews ) is compliance, patching, and inventory as part of the core functions.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
JPMorgan Chase, eBay, Amazon, US Bank, MetLife, pwc, Cerner, Delphi, MGM Grand, New York Life
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Tanium and other solutions. Updated: August 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.