Microsoft Defender for Business vs. Norton 360

Microsoft Defender for Business is well suited for small and medium businesses that are running on a smaller budget, with little to no IT department and require a quick and effective setup to manage and protect their endpoints. It can be deployed and managed very quickly, and the person doing it can have little to no experience as long as they follow directions.

Incentivized

For a stand-alone business this should do the trick, but if using across multiple clients (multi-tenancy not an option). Default settings within the program will cause performance issues if not tweaked, meaning someone with networking experience may be necessary. Not ideal for MSP's unless they only have a few clients, as the manageability must be done within "the walls" of each company.

• Already integrated with Windows
• Allows for folder and executable-specific exceptions when combined with Intune.
• Incident response and analytics are fantastic.

Incentivized

• Norton works quite quickly and is efficient enough to detect threats
• It is very easy and simple to install and is without any complications and irrelevant inquiries.
• Norton is available at a very reasonable price in the market and is not heavy on pocket.

• Confusion between the different Defender products
• Ease of setup and configuration
• Reporting and Alerts

Incentivized

• Cost could be an issue. They could perform a free trial at the beginning for people to check.
• It would be good if you can do an online free check of your computer.
• While the updates are good sometimes your computer is attacked by a virus they did not expect.

So far we have found no alternative that would overall offer us more than we are getting from Microsoft Defender for Business!

Incentivized

I did renew it before because support is great and cost is great. I believe that Norton has a very long experience in what they do and they are doing a great job with all the updates they provide and the work they are doing. Moreover Norton is going in the right direction for sure.

Microsoft Defender for Business is a solid tool for smaller businesses looking to manage their endpoints and devices, while staying on budget. The setup is minimal compared to the full-blown InTune and EMS suite, and the product can be included in some Small Business SKUs that they may already have.

Incentivized

User interface is excellent. The green tickmark in the tray ensuring everything is undercontrol is so satisfying. I have turned on Auto updates so, I am not bothered about unnecessary download updates popup

Incentivized

Security software with very good features that works in the background.

Price suitable for companies of any size and easy to install and use.

Incentivized

Would like a manual or online version that is simple to understand and explains in detail what choices we have and why to make these choices.

Incentivized

Microsoft Defender for Business has better reporting and incident response. There is limited client rollout due to being integrated with Windows. Microsoft Defender for Business is much better at identifying asset risks and giving a broad security overview. Because we moved to Microsoft 365 to access the Office applications and Exchange online, Microsoft Defender for Business was essentially cost free to us. Where Microsoft Defender for Business falls short in comparison to Sophos is that it requires integration with Intune to enforce many of the physical controls that Sophos offers in their client.

Incentivized

User-friendly interface (it's not just AV and users who were interacting with the product), performance, resource usage (most of the computers were not very fresh and that factor was very critical), efficiency, it shouldn't be just sitting on a PC - it should protect it, what was perfectly done with that product.

Incentivized

• Improved cybersecurity
• Learning curve
• Resource consumption

Incentivized

• Poor performance against Spyware and other threats despite claiming to act against them (recognizes very few and eliminates less) It is limited to viruses.
• Regular blocking of incoming scripts (in front of other antivirus)
• Little or almost no compatibility with the Windows XP Firewall, but they are involved.