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Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs XM Cyber comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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
4.9
Determining ROI for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is challenging due to service bundling and mixed-use of other products.
Sentiment score
6.0
XM Cyber improves efficiency, cutting vulnerability management labor, saving money, and enhancing risk management with superior risk tracking capabilities.
Organizations typically do not rely solely on Microsoft products to avoid putting all eggs in one basket, which presents a challenge for maximizing ROI.
Cloud Security Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
As a Microsoft partner, we receive significant discounts, making the solution affordable for us.
COO at Floating-Dot Technology LTD
There was a specific issue that our other security tooling did not pick up, but XM Cyber did.
Group CISO at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
It's reduced the timescale to remediate vulnerabilities that are identified as representing a high risk.
Chief Information Security Officer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Defender's support is praised for expertise but criticized for communication delays and varying service quality.
Sentiment score
6.2
XM Cyber's customer service is highly rated for responsiveness and effectiveness, with some minor improvement suggested by a user.
They are sometimes responsive, however, often issues cannot be reproduced on their end, making it challenging.
Security Specialist at Prudential Systems Japan
The support we receive from Microsoft is declining, and for example, after taking advanced support, we have not received satisfactory answers.
Microsoft Solutions Manager at Self-Employed
They are familiar with Microsoft products but are not direct Microsoft staff, which is an area needing improvement.
Cloud Security Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The customer support is fantastic; it's probably some of the best we've received across all our security vendors.
Group CISO at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
Customer support for XM Cyber is good, responsive, and it follows up on issues.
Chief Information Security Officer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender excels in scalability and integration but faces documentation and on-premise infrastructure challenges across industries.
Sentiment score
7.3
XM Cyber provides scalable, reliable solutions with easy licensing and deployment, receiving high ratings and responsive partner support.
The integration is straightforward for those who understand it, though documentation needs improvement.
Cloud Security Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
It is scalable; I evaluated the product and decided to use Defender on over 700 of our company servers.
Security Specialist at Prudential Systems Japan
Its scalability is great; it's easy to deploy and fully scalable.
IT Security manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
We have not experienced any issues with scalability or reached its limits.
Group CISO at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is highly stable and reliable, with minimal downtime, despite minor resource-related and compatibility issues.
Sentiment score
8.0
XM Cyber is highly stable, quickly addressing minor issues, ensuring reliable and consistent performance in complex environments.
There are compatibility issues occasionally arising with false positives when other security tools are not whitelisted in Microsoft Defender.
information Security and IT Manager at Discover Dollar Technologies Pvt Ltd.
It is very resource-intensive, consuming a lot of memory and CPU.
Security Specialist at Prudential Systems Japan
If Microsoft experiences downtime, this solution goes down as it is a SaaS-based solution where we have no control.
Cloud Security Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
We have quite a complex and large IT estate, and we've certainly experienced no limitations or problems arising from the ability of XM Cyber's product to scale across that estate.
Chief Information Security Officer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender needs better false positive reduction, integration, cost management, risk scoring, and documentation for small enterprises.
XM Cyber should enhance mobile access, AI integration, support, visualization, tool compatibility, vulnerability detection, pricing, and advanced analytics.
This scoring should be for specific industries as well. If I belong to the healthcare industry using Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management, it should provide me with a risk score and show how I fare against the risk score of my industry.
DGM. Technical Security at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
A vulnerability I patch within 15 minutes takes 24 additional hours for an update.
information Security and IT Manager at Discover Dollar Technologies Pvt Ltd.
The product is not stable; it often uses excessive memory and CPU, which makes it slow.
Security Specialist at Prudential Systems Japan
We push the boundaries with digital twins; I understand XM Cyber uses a similar concept of graph databases to map environments.
Group CISO at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
They could improve support because when we need to create a super case and escalate to resolve with technical support, they resolve our ticket in approximately two weeks.
Chief Information Security Officer at Prezero
The part that can be improved is the mobile exposure and the IBM i specific equipment.
IT Security manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management provides economical tiered pricing with P1 and P2 options, often included in existing bundles.
Overall, every organization wishes for cheaper options, but we look at the security side as well, so we are good for now.
Senior Cloud Security Consultant at MetLife
For non-partners, however, the cost could be seen as higher, between seven to ten.
COO at Floating-Dot Technology LTD
The pricing is reasonable, and it's included in the whole Microsoft E5 bundle, so it's all-inclusive.
Corporate Planner at MISC Berhad
We have a large, complicated estate, and in the licensing discussions, we were keen not to have the cost balloon because of the complication, the number of PCs and servers that we have.
Chief Information Security Officer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender excels in compliance, real-time assessments, risk prioritization, integration, asset discovery, and continuous monitoring for enhanced security management.
XM Cyber enhances security by simulating attacks, assessing risks, identifying vulnerabilities, and optimizing asset protection with metrics and cost savings.
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.
DGM. Technical Security at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The feature for customizing to region-specific and domain-specific requirements in healthcare is particularly beneficial.
Cloud Security Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The most valuable aspect is the kind of assessment results I get, and the recommendations provided in Microsoft products really help in taking care of the resources.
Senior Cloud Security Consultant at MetLife
Our loss exposure amount has reduced significantly, leading to two big wins: our loss exposure amount has gone down, and we have direct savings from focusing our team's time on what's important, allowing them to work on other business benefits and generate value for the company.
Group CISO at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
By far, the best feature of XM Cyber is being able to map out the way vulnerabilities can be exploited based on what they call the choke points in the network where the path that a bad actor would take comes closest to assets within our environment that are most vulnerable but also most valuable.
Chief Information Security Officer at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
XM Cyber allows us to quantify the risk, and we are able to track remediation, so we can quantify the risk at an executive level and also to a technical IT team.
IT Security manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender Vulnerab...
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (18th), Microsoft Security Suite (19th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (6th)
XM Cyber
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
27th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Continuous Controls Monitoring (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (19th), Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (4th)
 

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 XM Cyber is 1.0%, 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 (%)
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management2.3%
XM Cyber1.0%
Other96.7%
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.
Stephen Owen - PeerSpot reviewer
Group CISO at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
Has significantly improved risk visibility and optimized remediation efforts across dynamic environments
We tightly integrate with APIs, consuming feeds and open source data. We have integrated with XM Cyber, and we are elevating ourselves with AI and MCP tools as we view this as a forerunner to reducing the workload for our agents and IT staff. We're pushing all our security partners to provide AI and MCP tools. Our vision is for them to offer a chat interface where a junior IT or an experienced infrastructure engineer can ask for what needs to be patched next without using an interface. Their current interface is very usable and professional, ranking in the top tier of applications. Their reporting is good, offering custom reports, and their API integration is a new capability that serves us well. We have high expectations for the next generation, such as a chat interface to ask questions. However, everything has been very good. We push the boundaries with digital twins; I understand XM Cyber uses a similar concept of graph databases to map environments. I would like access to that and querying languages, enabling more informed business decisions. XM Cyber sees much of our estate, which is beneficial for making informed decisions, and we can harness those insights and data for business analytics. For instance, it could help us gain insights into change management—if a particular server impacts another and that server is supported by yet another server, we could glean significant insights for change management meetings.
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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
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
No data available
 

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 XM Cyber?
The platform's most valuable feature is attack simulation.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for XM Cyber?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was that we have a large, complicated estate, and in the licensing discussions, we were keen not to have the cost balloon because of the compli...
What needs improvement with XM Cyber?
There are many interesting things about XM Cyber, but the part that can be improved is the mobile exposure and the IBM i specific equipment.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Hamburg Port Authority, Plymouth Rock Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. XM Cyber and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.