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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Norton Security Premium [EOL] comparison

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Executive Summary

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 for Endp...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
212
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (2nd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (4th), Anti-Malware Tools (1st), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd), Agentic Endpoint Security (1st)
Norton Security Premium [EOL]
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Arbuckle - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Analyst III at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Automatically isolates threats and integrates with logging to reduce response time
Overall, I would evaluate the Microsoft support level that I receive at probably about a seven, but that depends on the day. It has been spotty. We have had issues where the urgency level of the Microsoft support is not as high as ours, especially during a data breach or potential data breach situation. We have had issues with some of the offshore support being lackluster. One specific thing that comes to mind is we were on a support call with our CISO on the call, and the Microsoft agent, who did not actually work for Microsoft, is one of the vendors that Microsoft uses for support, said, "Just to set expectations, my lunch break is in an hour and I am going to go away then." For us, it was already ten o'clock at night and we had been working on this for a couple of hours, trying to get a security engineer on with us. For him to tell us that he was going to go away and have lunch, it was, "Okay, but go find somebody else if you need to." It was just the lackluster approach, and it seemed like he did not really care. We seem to get a lot of this when we get non-Microsoft support. I can identify areas for improvement with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, as it is kind of a convoluted mess to try to take care of false positives. Especially when they have been identified as false positives but they keep going off over and over again. It is great for my pocketbook because it generates a lot of on-call action, but I would really prefer more sleep at two o'clock in the morning than dealing with false positives. I would say that the unified portal for managing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is suitable for both teams as they are all in there. It would be great if they would stop moving things around and renaming things, which makes sense. The new XDR portal is pretty nice. Being able to have it central again inside of the regular Security Center without having to open up two windows is helpful. Overall, I think it is pretty good. There is always going to be something that could be improved, such as alerting and the ability to modify alerts would be a little bit helpful to have. Being able to add more data into the alerts and turn off alerts that are not as useful would be beneficial. It is hard to say what the quantitative impact the security exposure management feature has had on our company's security, because a lot of it is kind of subjective. I think we are sitting at around a fifty percent score still, and a lot of it is just kind of unusual circumstances that we cannot really implement without breaking the organization.
RC
Project Manager at Amdocs
User-friendly solution with good blocking
I mainly use Security Premium as an antivirus.  Security Premium's best features are blocking, notifications, and the user interface. Security Premium's cost could be lower. I've been using Security Premium for a year. Security Premium is stable - I haven't faced any issues or bugs while using…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If you have a mid-sized organization, the solution works well."
"At the moment, it is one of the best security platforms for endpoint security in the market."
"The solution comes with SIEM-ingestion-ready features for extensive visibility, automation, and integration, including advanced hunting, threats and vulnerability management, embedded simulation for end-to-end testing, ransomware prevention (Controlled Folder Access), and Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) rules."
"The threat hunting service is very useful for a security professional."
"We can run the virus scan across our entire environment."
"It's not really visible for the user - which is a benefit."
"Its threat intelligence feature is beneficial. This solution smoothly integrates with SIEM."
"The product can be used for organizations that use Microsoft as their primary security defender and need zero-day threat protection."
"We tried a few: Kaspersky, Trend Micro, we used McAfee, we used Norton; we tried them all on our entire fleet of computers, and we realized that in terms of ease of use and resource consumption, Norton is something that is acceptable to us."
"The internet security was a plus, and it's pretty good."
"The licensing fee for this solution is not expensive."
"The most valuable feature is the quick installation."
"With the heightened security around phishing, identity theft, and malware, this is a good product."
"The most valuable feature is the multifunctional protection."
"We like how it can check for issues. That includes files and web browsers."
"Norton Security Premium is good, and it's pretty simple to install."
 

Cons

"The pricing could be a bit better."
"Some integration components for Mac should be added. We use both Windows 10 desktops and Mac desktops, but presently, the Mac component is still lagging a bit behind."
"We would like more customization, actually."
"I would like the solution to be able to prevent unauthorized programs from installing and to block unauthorised URLs which is similar to web filtering product."
"Everything can be cheaper I am sure. So, it could be less expansive."
"The scanning is slow when it is working with incoming emails."
"They should bring back the feature of a dedicated proxy device for communication to the cloud. As of now, all the agents are required to send the logs directly to the cloud. There should be a solution where you can put a proxy and all the logs are consolidated, like a forwarder."
"Sometimes, there are difficulties in downloading a file considered as malicious."
"As far as improvement to the product, perhaps the price could be better."
"Security Premium's cost could be lower."
"I do not find it to be scalable."
"Occasionally when you open a ticket, there's a lack of understanding that prevents the solution from being resolved directly."
"Sometimes the program is too complex, and simplifying it might be an improvement."
"I don't like the password manager of Norton Security Premium. I really dislike it."
"They say Norton Security Premium is an all-in-one solution, but we don't know exactly what's in it, e.g. they didn't make an effort to explain the difference between a virus scan and a ransomware scan."
"The only problem with Norton Antivirus is that it consumes a lot of resources like CPU and memory in the background."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing can always be lower."
"If you don't purchase the advanced threat protection then there is no additional charge."
"You don't need to worry about the renewal and purchase of antivirus products. It is bundled with Windows 10, so you don't need to worry about separately purchasing any antiviruses."
"The solution is an open source version and was free with a paid version of Windows 10."
"Its price at the moment is very good because you get a lot of value for your money, especially with the subscriptions. If you have the E1, E3, or E5 enterprise subscription, you pay per month per user, and you get almost an infinite number of solutions. If you compare the price to the number of solutions that you get, it is a very good deal."
"I pay for it through the Windows Professional or Standard license. It is a one-time cost for me, and I use the same license."
"We have seen ROI. Most of the other competing alternatives will cost up to around $30 per user device. We average 400 devices. Therefore, the amount that we save each year is 400 times $30."
"Currently, for us, Windows Defender is free with the purchase of Windows Server. Pricing is an important point for us when we are looking at the competitors of this solution. If we choose to go with another vendor, we will have to pay some license fees."
"If they could come down in price that would be good. It's not exactly the lowest."
"The solution gives the value for the money."
"As I have been a long-time customer, I was given a fair price of $49.95 per month for the first four to six months."
"Security Premium is highly-priced."
"I don't pay for a license."
"The licensing fee for this solution is not expensive."
"We have a yearly license, and each license is around 20 or 30 Jordanian Dinars plus taxes."
"Pricing for this software is competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business82
Midsize Enterprise44
Large Enterprise97
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

How is Cortex XDR compared with Microsoft Defender?
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security solution. The tool reduces the attack surface, applies behavioral-based endpoint protection and response, and includes risk-ba...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior solution. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security s...
How does Microsoft Defender for Endpoint compare with Crowdstrike Falcon?
The CrowdStrike solution delivers a lot of information about incidents. It has a very light sensor that will never push your machine hardware to "test", you don't have the usual "scan now" feature ...
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Also Known As

Microsoft Defender ATP, Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection, MS Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Norton Internet Security
 

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Sample Customers

Petrofrac, Metro CSG, Christus Health
Temple University
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, SentinelOne, OPSWAT and others in Anti-Malware Tools. Updated: September 2026.
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