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Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Trend Micro Email Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.9
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers strong ROI through security enhancements, cost savings, and improved company productivity despite measurement challenges.
Sentiment score
5.9
Trend Micro Email Security offers 800% ROI and cost savings, outperforming competitors with enhanced protection, especially in sensitive industries.
It has also decreased our time to detection and response by about 15 to 20 percent.
Technology support manager at Alfred State College
Overall, cost of owning and operating our system goes down.
Designation Chief Consultant at Avtow
It's hard to quantify the return on investment we've seen from Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Since Trend Micro launched in the Pakistani market, it has offered a great return on investment with competitive financial costing.
SOC Team Lead at a security firm with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.8
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 users rate support highly, praising its responsiveness and 24/7 availability, despite occasional documentation and communication issues.
Sentiment score
7.0
Trend Micro Email Security is praised for effective, responsive support, though some users note delays in less critical cases.
Over the past two years, there have been no critical problems.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
we opened tickets, and they typically resolve them quickly.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
With a subscription for Microsoft Defender for Office 365, it is an eight. Without it, it is a six.
Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
We have local support here as well, with local Trend Micro engineers that visit the site whenever there is a high escalation case, arriving within hours if there is a geolocation difference, or within five to six hours.
SOC Team Lead at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Clients are generally very satisfied with the various types of support available.
CEO at Haniya Technologies
The area of support that requires improvement would be the response time.
Senior Engineering Director at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 offers scalable, efficient protection for large enterprises, ensuring seamless growth across diverse industries.
Sentiment score
7.7
Trend Micro Email Security is scalable with flexible licensing, suitable for enterprises handling large volumes of emails efficiently.
We have never faced scalability problems, and Microsoft manages it effectively.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales transparently for us, as we grew from 1,000 users to 3,000 users, and we didn't notice much difference.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales with the growing needs of my company well.
Senior Client Director and Advisory Service Leader at Crossfuze
All of the SaaS modules I've worked with are highly scalable, and I do not face any reliability or availability issues while scaling.
SOC Team Lead at a security firm with 51-200 employees
We have a company that sends almost 2,000 to 3,000 emails per hour or more.
Cybersecurity Engineer with 11-50 employees
If you purchase credits in bulk, you can use them for any kind of solution.
Deputy General Manager at Tata Communications Ltd
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 provides 99.9% uptime with minor issues, ensuring reliable performance and seamless cloud integration.
Sentiment score
8.0
Trend Micro Email Security is praised for stability and reliability, highly rated despite minor integration and occasional glitches.
I would rate the stability of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 as 10 over 10 because it's highly available, it works, and it does the job it is meant to do.
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues because of Defender.
Technology Associate at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
The solution is stable, as we have been using it for the past two years.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
Once your MX record and all configurations are in place, you don't experience downtime.
SOC Team Lead at a security firm with 51-200 employees
I have never experienced downtime with this platform.
Cybersecurity Engineer with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users call for enhanced virus detection, cross-platform support, and pricing transparency in Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
Trend Micro Email Security needs better phishing detection, user-friendly interface, and improved scalability, support, and integration capabilities.
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process.
Infrastructure and Security Lead at Vedanta
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
There is a different console for different things; I just want one consolidated console.
Senior Director, Security Architecture & Engineering at a leisure / travel company with 10,001+ employees
If there is a product that can provide a centralized view Trend Vision One does, it really grabs the customer's interest because customers usually don't have to buy separate EDR, XDR, or SIEM solutions or a console for their SOC analyst or email security team.
SOC Team Lead at a security firm with 51-200 employees
I would apply different policies to classify or categorize emails such as spam or not spam and inspect the content of the email and attachments to check for viruses or malware.
Network And Security Architect Consultant at AssurOne Group SA
The company also needs to work on pricing because it is quite costly compared to other products.
CEO at Haniya Technologies
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 pricing is seen as flexible but potentially expensive, offering value in comprehensive security features.
Trend Micro Email Security costs about $6,000 annually for 300 users, valued for its flexibility, support, and security.
We've likely saved 30% of costs.
Designation Chief Consultant at Avtow
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 suite, making it slightly more expensive compared to Trend Micro.
Infrastructure and Security Lead at Vedanta
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
Prices range from 11 to 12 dollars for licenses and can fluctuate up and down.
CEO at Haniya Technologies
A great benefit is that if you buy a license for 100 servers and 100 mailboxes, and if your mailboxes increase to 120 while your servers decrease to 80, you can reallocate credits from unused email security to your mailboxes.
SOC Team Lead at a security firm with 51-200 employees
This is the biggest consideration companies think about when deciding to implement Trend Micro Email Security.
Cybersecurity Engineer with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 enhances email security with anti-phishing, anti-malware, threat intelligence, and seamless integration for efficient management.
Trend Micro Email Security ensures strong protection against spam and phishing with seamless management, scalability, and advanced features.
It ranks the threats and allows us to prioritize those hitting us the hardest, such as email threats.
Technology support manager at Alfred State College
It provides end-to-end visibility on email threats such as phishing, extending beyond Exchange Online Protection.
Solution Consultant at BIM Group of Companies
The value of the DLP feature is significant to us because we have internal data, sometimes sensitive, and the users may not always be aware of security and privacy, which might lead them to send out information mistakenly to external parties.
Chief Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
It does provide me with centralized visibility and management across protection layers. It can integrate all of the separate EDR, XDR, or SIEM solutions, and if you have cloud security applications, all can be integrated and viewed in a single console.
SOC Team Lead at a security firm with 51-200 employees
When we implemented Trend Micro Email Security, we found that about 80% of emails were blocked because they are phishing and spam.
Cybersecurity Engineer with 11-50 employees
The product is quite strong, and that is one reason most clients are replacing their existing email security solutions with it.
CEO at Haniya Technologies
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Email Archiving (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (10th), Secure Email Gateway (SEG) (1st)
Trend Micro Email Security
Ranking in Email Security
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 9.6%, down from 13.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trend Micro Email Security is 1.8%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Office 3659.6%
Trend Micro Email Security1.8%
Other88.6%
Email Security
 

Featured Reviews

Emeka Ndulu - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Improves threat visibility and response while reducing manual tasks and training users against phishing
I appreciate the attack simulation feature whereby I get to train users and educate them on how to identify phishing emails and spam emails, as well as the anti-spam protection. It gives me visibility into my threat environment and threat landscape to ensure that I am one step ahead of any likelihood of threats within my environment. I get to detect it and respond, so the threat intelligence is very effective. Microsoft security solutions save my time. It saves money because once I protect my environment, I don't lose money. It has decreased my detection time and my time to respond.
AsadAli - PeerSpot reviewer
SOC Team Lead at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Centralized protection has transformed email security and incident investigations by reducing false positives and improving behavioral threat detection
The challenges include the challenge of finalizing a product that has all the security features or capabilities that are usually required. For example, if there is an EDR platform that's just monitoring IDS signatures, it won't be as beneficial as one with behavioral monitoring and other critical aspects required according to the best practices of the industry. Additionally, if there is a product that can provide a centralized view Trend Vision One does, it really grabs the customer's interest because customers usually don't have to buy separate EDR, XDR, or SIEM solutions or a console for their SOC analyst or email security team. These challenges consist of managing multiple teams and products. Trend Micro Email Security comes in and solves these problems.Trend Micro Email Security is generally a bit more difficult to implement compared to the rest of the solutions such as network security modules or EDR modules, which are much easier. Trend Micro Email Security has some complexities in implementation, but there aren't any significant shortcomings that require Trend Micro to improve.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise31
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The inbuilt analysis of false positives can be faster. It's not slow, but it can be faster.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
My use case for Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is for email protection, safe links, protection of links, documents, protecting my documents, and protecting attachments. I also use it to conduct ...
What do you like most about Trend Micro Email Security?
The tool provides a strong defense against attacks. It is also easy to use. Trend Micro Email Security's integration capabilities are great.
What needs improvement with Trend Micro Email Security?
Trend Micro Email Security reduces noise from false positives by deploying the solution in staging mode or learning mode to learn all traffic and compare it with signatures in the database. Sometim...
What advice do you have for others considering Trend Micro Email Security?
I am using Trend Vision One sensors. I am using the cyber risk exposure management, CREM capability. CREM is a solution called Splunk, which I use with XDR, Trend Micro, along with different securi...
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Air21, Azra Solutions, CBOSS, De Montfort University, Depaeuw, DHR Health, Fukui University Hospital
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs. Trend Micro Email Security and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.