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Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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 Vulnerab...
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
12th
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
18th
Ranking in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (19th)
The NodeZero Platform by Ho...
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
11th
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
12th
Ranking in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
5th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Penetration Testing Services (1st), Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is 2.3%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai is 1.5%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai1.5%
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management2.3%
Other96.2%
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

OB
Microsoft Solutions Manager at Self-Employed
Ensures strong threat and vulnerability management with continuous risk assessment
The major priority is identity, which is crucial; we have lots of companies in manufacturing, energy, or various sectors, and it varies from one to another. I assess Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management as very effective in continuously assessing vulnerabilities without requiring scans. We use automatic investigation and remediation features, safe attachments, safe links, and real-time reports, which are also very effective. For Active Directory, Defender has threat intelligence, and we are using that. The risk-based prioritization within Vulnerability Management affects my ability to manage vulnerabilities, particularly in relation to the Zero Trust Model utilized by our customers. The end-users often do as they please in their systems.
SH
Chief Information Officer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Has unified our IT teams by providing clear visibility into network vulnerabilities and accelerated remediation with real-world attack testing
One of the things that we've shared with Horizon is just the reporting. They've made a lot of changes over time, but when examining computers, most average normal people don't look at a computer and identify it as 114.82.117.180. They identify it as 'the printer for accounting.' When many of the reports give the very detailed technical IP address or serial number, that's really not helpful for anyone other than the person, the hands-on person that's trying to remediate it. All the managers, all the leaders, having information in that format isn't helpful. Being able to have information about what those devices are would be very helpful. There's a technical reason they can't just have an easy button because some people have really complicated networks. When examining things for the average company, the average executive, that 114 number, there's only one of those. But if examining an AT&T or a Walmart, it isn't unique. They haven't solved that problem. But for the 90% of companies, being able to have just a human readable name for all devices on your network in all of the reports all of the time would be the most beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The integration with Sentinel has been one of the most valuable features for my organization."
"A valuable feature is the ease of management and integration with Microsoft products."
"The integration with Sentinel has been one of the most valuable features for my organization."
"The product's stability is very high...The scalability of the product is amazing."
"Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is versatile and assesses vulnerabilities, providing detailed information on CVEs, their categories, and exploit statuses."
"Overall, I would rate Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management a nine out of ten."
"The main advantage of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is that it can locate and prevent most threats even when the endpoints are not connected to the corporate network, as long as the internet is available."
"The integration with SIEM is the best, specifically the native integration with Microsoft SIEM."
"Honestly, it's one of the most transformational technologies we've implemented in our company."
"The NodeZero Platform is amazing; what I love most about it is that it's automated and comparable to the manual pen testing we did with a third-party company, but with the added benefit of unlimited retesting to validate fixes."
"The NodeZero Platform's real attack capabilities help in identifying vulnerabilities on our on-prem systems because it provides actual vulnerabilities by attacking our systems."
"I rate the stability of the NodeZero Platform a ten out of ten."
"My favorite feature about The NodeZero Platform is that it's autonomous, and it truly delivers on that promise—it can be set and forgotten while it performs its tasks, and it does exactly what it claims to do."
"The NodeZero Platform's real attack capabilities help identify vulnerabilities on my on-premise systems by adding an element of validation and offensive security testing on top of known vulnerabilities. The feature that allows security teams to fix and retest vulnerabilities instantly is very useful, even though it may not happen literally 'instantly.' It's a necessary tool for any organization to understand whether vulnerabilities are genuinely exploitable by attackers. With its near-real-time testing capabilities, it's an essential part of any security portfolio."
"Overall, I'd rate NodeZero at nine to 9.5 out of ten."
"After the third party conducts the pen test, The NodeZero Platform is run, and it finds the same things they found and sometimes a few other things that they did not even identify."
 

Cons

"The general support could be improved."
"It is challenging to extract and customize reports from the system."
"The product is not stable; it is very resource-intensive, consuming a lot of memory and CPU, which makes it slow."
"When I create rules, it gave me problems and I did not know where the problem was located."
"The setup phase of the product is not that easy and needs a person to have a certain level of expertise."
"We have experienced some logging issues, including a few hours of downtime initially. Despite this, I would rate the overall stability as an eight."
"Regarding Microsoft's technical support, I would rate it a three out of ten; they could be more responsive and knowledgeable."
"It is expensive."
"The only issue we’ve encountered is that sometimes the scans take a long time to complete."
"The areas for improvement for The NodeZero Platform involve integration and automation. It would be beneficial if it could integrate directly with vulnerability management tools that would allow the platform to automatically import data, identify vulnerable systems, and test targets immediately, potentially even enabling automated feedback loops for rescanning since the process is currently manual."
"They've added a chatbot which isn't particularly useful, but when it can't answer questions, it forwards messages to human support."
"The speed of the scans takes some time, but in my opinion, it is not surprising for what it is doing."
"One of the areas where improvement is needed is in the visibility and reporting for large enterprises."
"You need to be cautious about what it scans, as it could potentially cause issues."
"I think The NodeZero Platform could improve by leveraging GPUs for password cracking, which would be pretty good."
"Sometimes even their support doesn't know why we're seeing certain issues."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing model follows a per-user per-month structure."
"The tool is a bit costly."
"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"The product’s pricing is medium."
"I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
The documentation from Microsoft needs significant improvement. The documents are disorganized, with one document linking to another, making the steps unclear and difficult to follow. Regarding upd...
What do you like most about Horizon3.ai?
Penetration testing and scans are useful features.
What needs improvement with Horizon3.ai?
I think The NodeZero Platform could improve by leveraging GPUs for password cracking, which would be pretty good.
What is your primary use case for Horizon3.ai?
We use The NodeZero Platform for control validation and we are also looking for the likelihood of vulnerabilities.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Horizon3.ai
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Government agencies, Defense Industrial Base organizations, and enterprises in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and criticalinfrastructure rely on NodeZero to meet rigorous security and compliance requirements with continuous, scheduled, and on-demand testing.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.