Microsoft Defender XDR vs N-able EDR comparison

Microsoft and N-able are both solutions in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category. Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.4, while N-able is ranked #46 with an average rating of 7.5. Microsoft holds a 2.6% mindshare in EDR, compared to N-able’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of N-able users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Defender XDR

Read 106 Microsoft Defender XDR reviews

10,352 Views
5,487 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

N-able EDR

Read 4 N-able EDR reviews

793 Views
777 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender XDR

N-able EDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Microsoft Defender XDR and N-able EDR are comprehensive security solutions competing in the cybersecurity category. Users prefer Microsoft Defender XDR for its pricing and support, while N-able EDR is favored for its advanced features and perceived value.

Features Microsoft Defender XDR integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products, offers robust threat detection, and provides a unified security management experience. N-able EDR offers detailed endpoint visibility, sophisticated machine learning algorithms, and high customization and granular control.

Room for Improvement Microsoft Defender XDR needs better multi-platform support, enhanced reporting capabilities, and improved cross-platform consistency. N-able EDR users seek an easier configuration process, a more intuitive management experience, and simpler initial setup.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service Microsoft Defender XDR's deployment is smoother within a Microsoft ecosystem, combined with strong customer service. N-able EDR deployment is seen as more complex but is supported by extensive documentation and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI Microsoft Defender XDR offers competitive pricing for existing Microsoft clients and substantial ROI through integration efficiencies. N-able EDR has higher initial costs but delivers significant ROI due to its robust feature set and capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender XDR vs. N-able EDR Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR vs. N-able EDR

December 2025

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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 XDR

Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

106

Ranking in other categories

Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (5th)

N-able EDR

Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

46th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 2.6%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of N-able EDR is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Defender XDR	2.6%
N-able EDR	0.6%
Other	96.8%

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

Featured Reviews

Kunle Oluwadiya

House security operator at Cypress Creek Renewables

Advanced threat hunting saves significant time in tracking and responding to incidents

Microsoft Defender XDR could be improved with a lower price. My main suggestion would essentially be what Copilot is providing, which is a single pane of glass, so I don't have to go to different windows. That's just a workflow consideration for me. It would be great to have all the information centralized into one particular data app. If I need to open up extra ones, I can, however, I would appreciate a future where everything I need is right there on one single pane of glass. Beyond that, there's really nothing else I see that I would want Microsoft to improve.

Read full review

Nyiko Malapane

Senior Operations Specialist at Tagit cc

Reporting effectiveness and advanced AI capabilities improve threat awareness while needing pricing simplification and licensing self-service

With pricing, they can improve by bundling their pricing because sometimes billing comes in a very long process. If they could bundle it as one solution and show the capabilities or features, they would be able to sell it more effectively, and as resellers, we could sell it to customers more easily. The technical support is responsive, but sometimes we experience limitations regarding the ability to add licensing. They could implement a self-service platform for assigning new licenses or ordering more. Currently, we depend on contacting someone who sends a new contract to sign through the process. They could change their licensing model, though I am not the right person to comment on functionality. On the reporting side, everything is covered.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It gives a lot of flexibility in terms of configuration and customization as per the business requirements."

"The stability has been great."

"The ability to hunt that IM data set or the identity data set at the same time is valuable. As incident response professionals, we are very used to EDRs and having device process registry telemetry, but a lot of times, we do not have that identity data right there with us, so we have to go search for it in some other silo. Being able to cross-correlate via both datasets at the same time is something that we can only do in Def"

"The feature of Microsoft Defender XDR that I preferred the most traditionally was its focus on endpoint protection, but now identity is right up there with endpoint security. Identity is important because different compromises start at the identity level. This allows us to understand what actions are being taken, who is doing them, and whether it is actually them."

"The integration between all the Defender products is the most valuable feature."

"For me, the advanced hunting capabilities have been really great. It allowed querying the dataset with their own language, which is KQL or Kusto Query Language. That has allowed me to get much more insight into the events that have occurred. The whole power of 365 Defender is that you can get the whole story. It allows you to query an email-based activity and then correlate it with an endpoint-based activity."

"The proactive remediation aspects and the surfacing of suspicious activity for investigation and escalation are the key aspects we appreciate most."

"It has been great for us. Previously, we didn't have a solution to protect us, especially from malware, whereas now, we are getting protection up front, especially from the malware attacks coming through emails or endpoints."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pros

"The most valuable features are the rollback feature, it's important for us. The AI models and are good."

"It provides visibility and a storyline to track the virus or malware's activities, showing infected processes and changes made."

"The most valuable feature, which I can describe as the '360 vision' of the inventory device, provides a complete view of all the devices."

"We have been using this solution for quite some time, and the AI functionality is quite advanced; we are able to provide insights on different aspects and read the reports easily."

Cons

"The onboarding and offboarding need improvement. I work with other vendors as well, and they have an option to add a device or remove a device from the portal, whereas with Microsoft 365 Defender, we need to do that manually. However, once you do that, everything can be controlled through the portal, but getting the device onboarded and offboarded is currently manual. If we have an option to simply remove a device from the portal or get a device added from the portal, it would be more convenient. The rest of the features are similar. This is the only area where I found it different from others. I would also like to be able to simply filter with a few of the queries that are already there."

"There are a few technical issues with Defender XDR that can be improved. Sometimes, the endpoint devices are not reporting properly to the Defender 365 portal. When you're getting all the information from the Microsoft portal, the devices are sometimes not in sync. We have hundreds of endpoint devices, some needing to be onboarded again."

"Microsoft Defender XDR could be improved with a lower price."

"Since all of our databases are updated and located in the cloud, I would like additional support for this."

"There should be better information for experts on features in the solution. What I see when reading about features in Microsoft 365 Defender is that it is always general information. If Microsoft could go deeper into details for the experts about how to use the tools, usage of it would be more familiar and it would be easier to use."

"Customers say they want absolutely seamless integration between other Microsoft solutions and Defender XDR, including the ability to change device settings within the Defender portal. They need to contact the IT team responsible for the device management tools to change some settings. They would prefer that those changes be initiated directly from the Defender portal or applied from Intune without involving the IT operations team."

"For some scenarios, it provides good visibility into threats, and for some scenarios, it doesn't. For example, sometimes the URLs within the emails have destinations, and you do get a screenshot and all further details, but it's not always the case. It would be good if they did a better job of enabling that for all the emails that they identified as malicious. When you get an email threat, you can go into the email and see more details, but the URL destination feature doesn't always show you a screenshot of the URL in that email. It also doesn't always give you the characteristics relating to that URL. It would be quite good if the information is complete where it says that we identified this URL, and this is what it looks like. There should be some threat intel about it. It should give you more details."

"My client would like the solution to be more customizable without using code. You can only build on the default console, but we're not allowed to change it."

More Microsoft Defender XDR cons

"Concerning the license, if I add one more device without a license, it will automatically subscribe to a license. I do not appreciate that."

"I would like to see them add support for both Android and iOS smartphones."

"With pricing, they can improve by bundling their pricing because sometimes billing comes in a very long process."

"We have a lot of false positives we see in the dashboard. I think this is the only problem we are facing."

"I would rate the scalability as seven out of ten. The capability is useful. Concerning the license, if I add one more device without a license, it will automatically subscribe to a license. I do not appreciate that."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Microsoft should provide lower-level licensing options. They should do it in such a way that even an individual could purchase a license, and it should be entirely flexible."

"For Defender, they have Endpoint Plan 1 and Endpoint Plan 2, but I don't know on what basis they have classified Endpoint Plan 1 and Plan 2, but it has given me enough pain to pick and design Endpoint Plan 1 or Endpoint Plan 2 for my organization. In fact, we are still struggling with it. Too many SKUs are confusing. There should not be too many SKUs, and they shouldn't charge for every new feature."

"Understanding the subscription model has been a bit challenging, as every feature or requirement comes with an additional cost."

"The licensing fee for Microsoft 365 Defender is fair."

"Purchasing Microsoft Defender XDR as part of a Microsoft 365 bundle can be cost-effective, but acquiring it as a standalone product may be more expensive."

"All I can say again is the E5 gives you all the capabilities that it offers. It also gives Office 365 and one terabyte of storage. All in all, the E5 license model makes sense. There are some people who say it's quite costly, but rather than paying different vendors, it makes sense to go all in with Microsoft if you've got that licensing. From that perspective, it's cost-effective, but I can't comment much on that."

"On average, we pay around 55 euros per user for the services and features we receive."

"There are no issues with pricing, but sometimes, the clarity in licensing is a concern."

More Microsoft Defender XDR pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is average."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

18%

Comms Service Provider

14%

Healthcare Company

10%

Non Profit

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	38

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft 365 Defender?

Microsoft Defender XDR provides strong identity protection with comprehensive insights into risky user behavior and potential indicators of compromise.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Defender?

My experience with pricing, setup, costs, and licensing of Microsoft Defender XDR is tied to our E5 subscription, which is very straightforward for us. We also purchase the uplift for our mobile us...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?

I am not aware of a mobile app that would be available for my team. With a single analyst, if she is ever away, it would be beneficial to have easier access. While she can use the web portal, the e...

See all answers

What needs improvement with N-able EDR?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for N-able EDR?

We are using N-able EDR, but I think Sophos makes sense because of the environment we operate in. The localization and different elements were important factors we were looking at. They have their ...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering N-able EDR?

I am more focused on operations and procurement. The decision to use this solution was made before I joined the company. It started with patch management systems and progressed into EDR, backup mon...

See all answers

Comparisons

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 12% of the time

Wazuh vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs Microsoft Defender XDR

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender XDR Competitors

SentinelOne Singularity Complete vs N-able EDR

Compared 13% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs N-able EDR

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs N-able EDR

Compared 9% of the time

Elastic Security vs N-able EDR

Compared 8% of the time

WatchGuard EPDR vs N-able EDR

Compared 6% of the time

More N-able EDR Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR

January 2026

Download Microsoft Defender XDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)

December 2025

Download N-able EDR product report

Also Known As

Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender

No data available

Overview

Microsoft Defender XDR is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect against threats in the Microsoft 365 environment.

It offers robust security measures, comprehensive threat detection capabilities, and an efficient incident response system. With seamless integration with other Microsoft products and a user-friendly interface, it simplifies security management tasks.

Users have found it effective in detecting and preventing various types of attacks, such as phishing attempts, malware infections, and data breaches.

Watch the Microsoft demo video here: Microsoft Defender XDR demo video.

Microsoft

N-able EDR effectively safeguards against cybersecurity threats like malware and ransomware. With AI-driven capabilities and seamless integration with remote monitoring tools, it offers advanced protection and management for servers and workstations.

N-able EDR, known for its advanced defense mechanisms, utilizes AI and machine learning to enhance threat detection beyond traditional antivirus capabilities. It provides comprehensive visibility with its '360 vision,' integrating smoothly with remote management for unified performance monitoring. While it excels in protecting Windows environments, users seek improvements in mobile support and billing practices. A focus on enhancing licensing efficiency and reducing false positives could further enhance its usability. Ranked highly by Gartner and MITRE ATT&CK, N-able EDR remains a favored choice among users for its effective threat management and detailed reporting functionalities.

What are the key features of N-able EDR?

Rollback feature: Helps revert devices to previous states after an attack.
AI models: Improve threat detection using sophisticated algorithms.
Exceptional detection and protection: Offers robust defense against multiple threat vectors.
Auto-response capability: Uses machine learning for efficient incident management.
'360 vision': Provides complete visibility of device inventories.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Comprehensive security: Enhanced detection surpassing traditional antivirus.
Efficient monitoring: Unified device management through RMM integration.
Insightful reporting: Advanced reports provide critical security insights.
Inventory management: Full device oversight with '360 vision'.

In sectors reliant on Windows-based systems, N-able EDR is deployed as a primary antivirus solution. Its advanced AI and reporting features allow businesses to efficiently manage threat landscapes. However, while it secures servers and workstations, industries requiring mobile device support may find its current capabilities insufficient, prompting requests for broader platform integration.

N-able

Sample Customers

Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender XDR vs. N-able EDR

December 2025

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