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Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender XDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 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
8.3
Organizations praise Check Point Harmony Endpoint for enhanced security, cost savings, improved performance, reduced alerts, and quick ROI.
Sentiment score
7.3
Microsoft Defender XDR delivers substantial ROI by streamlining operations, reducing costs, and enhancing security with consolidated functionalities.
Initially, we spent two to three days on the investigation process, but now we are able to investigate alerts in only half a day, which has really boosted our performance and shown a return on investment.
The product is affordable and provides excellent coverage and protection across multiple platforms.
I have seen a return on investment with Check Point Harmony Endpoint, as it has saved money and time due to the minimum disruption of production hours, which allows users to focus on their main tasks and desired targets, avoiding downtime and contributing to business growth.
We can quarantine and isolate a device within minutes.
Microsoft Defender XDR has saved me at least 50% of my time.
Ever since we turned on the M5 feature set back in June, we have seen a reduced number of potentially malicious clicks and faster alerting when incidents occur.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
Check Point Harmony Endpoint's support is knowledgeable and flexible but needs quicker response times and improved training.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Defender XDR support is responsive but varies; premium users receive faster resolutions than smaller organizations or basic plans.
We use premium support, and it is beneficial as 24/7 support is available.
While they handle simple issues quickly, resolution for more complex problems can take four to six months.
Only email support is available, leading to delays in getting assistance.
You get stuck in low-level support for way longer than you should, instead of them escalating the issue up the chain.
It's critical to escalate SEV B issues immediately to a domestic engineer.
Once issues are escalated to the second or third layer, the support is much better.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.7
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is scalable and adaptable, efficiently managing thousands of endpoints with a flexible, central management console.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender XDR offers scalable adaptability for large enterprises, accommodating diverse needs by leveraging flexible cloud infrastructure and licensing.
We initially purchased only 100 licenses and as we grew, we acquired many more licenses without encountering any issues.
Allowing us to add more users or endpoints for protection as our organization grows without any issues.
The scalability of Check Point Harmony Endpoint is effective, as it manages behaviors, process trees, and analysis in a centralized way.
Microsoft Defender XDR shows tremendous scalability, much more so than on-premises solutions.
Microsoft Defender XDR scales pretty well.
It is suitable for enterprise-level deployment but has room for improvement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is highly stable, reliable, and efficient, with minor backend issues and supports large-scale environments.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender XDR is highly reliable but has occasional performance issues on macOS/Linux and alert misclassifications.
The stability of the tool is high, as I have not experienced any downtime.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable for our organization size of 1,000 to 10,000 members.
Occasionally, there are some backend issues where the tenant is down, but apart from that, Check Point Harmony Endpoint is stable and working effectively.
The service has remained consistently online, with any issues isolated to specific components, suggesting a well-designed and modular architecture.
The services within our ecosystem have been reliable, meeting their SLAs.
It provides high-fidelity signals.
 

Room For Improvement

Check Point Harmony Endpoint needs compatibility improvements, streamlined deployment, better support, and optimized performance, especially for older systems.
Microsoft Defender XDR requires improved UI, integration, clarity, support, AI, and threat detection for better user experience.
Better technical support would enhance the product's competitiveness.
High resource consumption, requiring high-performance PCs on our endpoint site.
The Endpoint Agent can be more lightweight so that older machines and laptops can easily handle its consumption.
The licensing process needs improvement and clarification.
Improvements are needed in automated response capabilities.
Some inconsistencies exist between blades, which could be improved for a more seamless user and UI experience.
 

Setup Cost

Check Point Harmony Endpoint is valued for robust security and flexible licensing, though perceived as costly by some users.
Microsoft Defender XDR pricing varies; it's cost-effective with Microsoft 365, but potentially expensive standalone for smaller businesses.
It is not expensive and provides comprehensive coverage.
Pricing is a bit expensive but justified by the product’s features, capabilities, and scalability.
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing reveals that while it is a bit higher than previous SMB devices, the pricing is worth it for what we are getting in terms of protection and features.
There are certainly savings when using Microsoft Defender XDR, which can range from 30%, 40%, and even up to 50%.
I would rate the pricing as eight out of ten, indicating it is a reasonable cost for the product.
Microsoft purposefully obfuscates this through marketing ploys to hide costs.
 

Valuable Features

Check Point Harmony Endpoint offers centralized management, enhancing security and efficiency with robust protection, integration, and scalability features.
Microsoft Defender XDR offers seamless integration, advanced threat management, and automation, enhancing security efficiency while reducing costs and tool complexity.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint protects our company by warning us against clicking any malicious links and prevents our hosts from becoming vulnerable to cyber attacks.
The anti-ransomware and threat emulation features have significantly helped our organization as they prevent attackers from encrypting files during ransomware attacks, allowing the system to re-decrypt files and restore them to their original forms, effectively stopping ransomware attacks.
Check Point Harmony Endpoint offers top tier security, AI-powered threat prevention, and strong scalability, which stand out as the best features.
With Microsoft threat intelligence information, it detects various types of threats, including insider attacks, malicious content, and data exfiltration.
This allows us to secure our systems in advance and proactively improve security, rather than waiting for incidents to occur.
Once we have it on the security dashboard, we can see a real-time storyline.
 

Categories and Ranking

Check Point Harmony Endpoint
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
119
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (6th)
Microsoft Defender XDR
Ranking in Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
101
Ranking in other categories
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) category, the mindshare of Check Point Harmony Endpoint is 2.4%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender XDR is 3.0%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
 

Featured Reviews

Nasseer Qureshi - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive defensive features boost daily protection and efficiency
I see a need for improvement especially in policy management and policy customization with Check Point Harmony Endpoint. As a new user, I find it somewhat difficult to customize and apply policies due to the various options available. I would appreciate improvement in fine-tuning those policies and integrating with other tools, such as being able to send logs from Check Point to our SIM or syslog solution. The user interface is good, and I really appreciate it, but improvements are needed in policy customization and integration with third-party products. Additionally, I would prefer to see a mechanism to send agents directly from the console to an endpoint during installation.
Gabor Nyerd - PeerSpot reviewer
Includes four services and four products, which can help organizations a lot
We found that sometimes integrations work, but testing them can take some time. Sometimes, configurations take much longer than expected. We have a configuration in place that needs to be synchronized with another server. However, the servers are four hours apart, so this can cause delays. In general, I believe that the time it takes to configure and test a service should be shorter. Sometimes, it can take a couple of hours to test a single configuration setting. Other times, it is only ten or fifteen minutes, which is normal. However, sometimes, even immediate actions can be triggered by configuration changes, and some settings can take up to eight hours to complete. I believe that this time can be improved. Microsoft is making a lot of improvements to its services in a short period of time. This is a good thing, as it means that the services are constantly being updated and improved. However, it can be challenging for customers to keep up with the changes. For example, a customer may read about an update, understand it, and share it with their colleagues and boss. However, it may take days or weeks to test the update and get the necessary approvals. This can be especially challenging for large customers with many users or machines. In some cases, Microsoft may change a service before the customer has had a chance to implement the previous update. This can be frustrating for customers, as it means that they have to constantly learn new things and adjust their workflows. On the one hand, it is important for Microsoft to keep updating and improving its services. This helps to ensure that the services are meeting the customers' needs and that they are staying ahead of the competition. Microsoft should also be mindful of the challenges that these changes can create for customers. One way to address this challenge is to provide customers with more time to implement changes. Microsoft could also provide more information about upcoming changes so that customers can plan ahead. Ultimately, Microsoft needs to strike a balance between keeping its services up-to-date and providing customers with a smooth transition to new features.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
The platform's most valuable features are the ability to build API, which meets our business requirements, and the VPN client, which provides VPN access from a single client.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing reveals that while it is a bit higher than previous SMB devices, the pricing is worth it for what we are getting in terms of protection and fe...
What needs improvement with Check Point Harmony Endpoint?
Regarding improvements for Check Point Harmony Endpoint, I note that I am using the 1600 versions of the Quantum Spark, and certain options are not available in the dashboard; thus, I selected this...
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft 365 Defender?
The pricing for Microsoft Sentinel operates on a pay-as-you-go model based on data ingestion. I recall that Defender XDR pricing is based on the number of endpoints.
What needs improvement with Microsoft 365 Defender?
For Microsoft Defender XDR ( /categories/extended-detection-and-response-xdr ), there is currently no ability to reset passwords for on-premises accounts, which is a key challenge. Incident managem...
 

Also Known As

Check Point Endpoint Security, Endpoint Security, Check Point SandBlast Agent
Microsoft 365 Defender, Microsoft Threat Protection, MS 365 Defender
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Boston Properties, Independence Care System, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC), Courtagen Life Sciences, Carmel Partners
Accenture, Deloitte, ExxonMobil, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Harmony Endpoint vs. Microsoft Defender XDR and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
856,874 professionals have used our research since 2012.
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