Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Sophos Intercept X

Sophos Intercept X

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	Score 8.7 out of 10	N/A	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (formerly Microsoft Defender ATP) is a holistic, cloud delivered endpoint security solution that includes risk-based vulnerability management and assessment, attack surface reduction, behavioral based and cloud-powered next generation protection, endpoint detection and response (EDR), automatic investigation and remediation, managed hunting services, rich APIs, and unified security management.	$2.50 per user/per month
Sophos Intercept X	Score 8.9 out of 10	N/A	Sophos Endpoint Protection (Sophos EPP) with Intercept X is an endpoint security product providing an antivirus / antimalware solution that when upgraded with Intercept X or Intercept X Advanced provides advanced threat detection and EDR capabilities.	$28 per year per user

Pricing

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Sophos Intercept X

Editions & Modules

Academic: $2.50
per user/per month
Standalone: $5.20
per user/per month

Intercept X Advanced: $28
per year per user
Intercept X Advanced with XDR: $48
per year per user
Sophos Managed Threat Response: $79
per year per user

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	Sophos Intercept X
Free Trial
Yes	No
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

—

Pricing is for a 3-year commitment. Government and Education pricing available.

More Pricing Information

Pricing Info

Community Pulse
	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	Sophos Intercept X
Considered Both Products	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint It's very convenient and very well integrated with our environment. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Majorly because our suite is Microsoft, so make totally sense to have this in the company and the price. It is Microsoft is better than CrowdStrike. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Sophos. Because of the integration with Microsoft ecosystem, we selected Defender. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint We have not used anything else other than Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. Maybe we've used other antivirus software like Sophos and things like that. They're just not all encompassing and that's why we moved to use this product. Incentivized Helpful? GG Gustavo Gonzalez Cybersecurity Senior Engineer Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint I have been working with customers that they are transitioning from Sentinel One, CrowdStrike to Defender for Endpoint, right? So I think it's because they see the value in the product and also they see how much they can save in terms of the cost for companies because they … Incentivized Helpful? PH Paolo Heuer Cybersecurity Director Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint We previously used CrowdStrike on our servers. However, the seamless integration of Microsoft Defender (MD) with XDR and the entire Microsoft ecosystem led us to choose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE). Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint What we love more about this product is the way this pro gets integrated into the other family of solutions, especially Defender for Identity or the XDR solutions. We think that the market, the customers are full of unattended consults coming out from different vendors and that … Incentivized Helpful? SD Sid Desai Managing Partner Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint The technical features, usability and the support was nice as compared to the other products. Incentivized Helpful? Joy Dutta Lead Engineer Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is more advantageous in our windows heavy infrastructure and it was unparalled in the ease of integration with windows endpoints. Security breaches, system crashes and outages with other competitors like Crowdstrike made it easier for us to go … Incentivized Helpful? GS Gaurav Sharma Sales Head Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Norton is much much more expensive and difficult to use. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easy to use and can be operated by a new joiner as well. Incentivized Helpful? SU Shital Ulagadde Senior Cyber Security Consultant Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint CrowdStrike Falcon is also a good solution for endpoint protection which offer EDR Soultion, threat hunting and AI driven threat protection. Sophos Intercept X combines next-gen antivirus with advanced EDR capabilities with its deep learning technology, exploit prevention, and … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is unique for its effortless deployment into the Microsoft ecosystem, where it taps the broadest set of threat intelligence from more than 1.5 billion endpoints. Its state-of-the-art AI-powered automated investigation and remediation minimize … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint We started onboarding macOS devices on jamf and started managing it. Because Defender for Endpoint is not working as expected for and compared to price and functionality we are switching from it. Incentivized Helpful? RL Raju Lokhande Assistant Professor Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Kaspersky Endpoint Security Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint CrowdStrike and SentinelOne. CrowdStrike, you have to deploy it, but it's the defender, it's already baked into the operating system. Same thing with SentinelOne. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Easier to integrate, less hidden fees, easier to maintain, and easier to update. Support is much better on the Microsoft side than CrowdStrike. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint I don't think, it's not really something that we were just using Microsoft and it was just an easy thing to do. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint I'm not familiar. It's just been one year plus that I started using, so I've just started using Defender, so I really don't know how to compare it with others. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint I would say at the end all they are doing the same, but with the benefit that we don't need to install anything. So it's just kind of enabling and then the functionality is available, so other products need to be installed, which is not necessary with the defend Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint We use Defender in the cloud. We are currently using Defender in the cloud and also evaluating the XDR solution for programmatic. It's just arguments, the defense in depth. You have Defender Endpoint and then you have what you have in the cloud as well, so it's just augmenting … Incentivized Helpful? AM Akshay Mahajan Application Evaluator Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Before using Defender for Endpoint, we basically had the starter version of the Microsoft product, which comes prebuilt into the system. We had them using in the initial run, but then what usually happened was the employees started disabling it, and that usually made, we guys … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint I am a big fan of Tanium actually, so I think it is good. Tanium seemed like it was maybe a little bit easier, but maybe the capability was lacking. Maybe that's the reason why it seems like Defender for Endpoint might be a little harder to understand. There might just be more … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint CrowdStrike Falcon, and Sentinel One are other big ones that we use a bit. Cisco Secure Endpoint we've evaluated as well. Cisco Secure endpoint capability-wise doesn't match up to Defender, SentinelOne, and CrowdStrike both do, but the cost profiles are a bit higher. So most of … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint I would say not to name specific company names, because I'm a partner with one of them and that's the account that I work with. But I use some competing solutions that I would say are pretty heavy from an overhead perspective with the agent that has to be installed in the … Incentivized Helpful? JN Jamil Niazi CIO Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Because this product is easier to use and has a lot of development and Microsoft's behind it. Incentivized Helpful?	Sophos Intercept X Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Intercept X Bitdefender was garbage, and it did not work well for non-persistent VDI desktops. Even though we bought it we dumped it after a month and bought Sophos instead. The difference was like night and day. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos Intercept X is one of the industry leaders for a reason. Apart from integration issues, Sophos Intercept X stands above the rest when it comes to protection and usability. I have used at least 30 different antiviruses, antimalware, and antiransomeware programs and none … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Intercept X They have almost the same features but we ended up with a better offer for Sophos. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos Intercept X offers a far more comprehensive and stable product when pitted up against Comodo Advanced Endpoint Protection and Watchguard Endpoint Security - both of which we offer as low cost alternatives for customers who are adamant about not paying for Sophos … Incentivized Helpful? IR Ian Reger IT Specialist Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos Intercept X is easy to manage and deploy under your business. I think it is comparable to BitDefend with the ability to send out deployment via email or directly add it to the computer. I have noticed that Bitdefender seems to eat a lot of resources during its scans … Incentivized Helpful? William Scott Coates IT Support Specialist Chose Sophos Intercept X Webroot endpoint protection is not even in the same league as Sophos Intercept-X. I have tested and compared both sides by side, run simulations and it's not even close. Plus the Sophos central management is so much better. Easier to view user activities and apply policies and … Incentivized Helpful? AP Ash Patel Director of IT and Facilities Chose Sophos Intercept X I personally found Sophos Intercept X GUI to be easy to use. The agent is easy to deploy on client machines and runs in the background silently. It has a very good virus, malware scan engine that picks out a high percentage of malicious software. The price was also very … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos is much more user friendly and scalable for partners who wish to [centralize] all security across the IT industry, from email security, server security, phish threat management and more. Incentivized Helpful? Beau Sorensen COO Chose Sophos Intercept X We have used Avast, AVG, Panda, Sophos' original antivirus product, and Symantec before and it is better than each of them. The cloud console is the star of the show and it dramatically reduces the cost and effort needed to install the product. Other products were only … Incentivized Helpful? Reginald Johnson Managing Consultant - DevOps Chose Sophos Intercept X It is one of the only products that will scan all code in memory and arbitrary data for malicious behaviors. Incentivized Helpful? Shawn Umansky Network Engineer Chose Sophos Intercept X We have been using this product for a number of years, which shows that it has worked well for us. I don't recall the other products we reviewed. Incentivized Helpful? Ramon Vazquez IT Director Chose Sophos Intercept X It provides more features for the same price. These added features differentiate Sophos from the rest of the pack, making it a better solution. Also, the ability to integrate with your Sophos firewall if you have one adds another level of integration and protection. This … Incentivized Helpful? Sarah Urbani IT Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos Intercept X is just easier to implement and manage. Incentivized Helpful? Steven Hiersche, Jr. Director Of Information Technology Chose Sophos Intercept X We didn’t evaluate any other products. I used Sophos at a previous company and when I started here, they were using the on-prem version. We immediately migrated to central and haven’t looked back. I am aware of the competitors, but once you are comfortable with a quality … Incentivized Helpful? BC Ben Coppard IT Manager Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos offered better value for money whilst beating the above products on detection and prevention. The GUI is fantastic and easy to use and works seamlessly on top of other features like DLP, application control and web monitoring. I would recommend getting the XG firewall as … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos Intercept-X gave us a more well-rounded solution. Incentivized Helpful? Jane Updegraff Senior Systems Administrator Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos Intercept X is a little less expensive than the comparable package from Trend Micro and a little more expensive than a comparable package from Symantec, but in my opinion, it's easier to operate and it's got better centralized controls than both of the others. But the … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Intercept X Trend Micro offered similar protection, however at the time did not offer EDR as a solution. The big benefit to Trend Micro was the capability to push out the installation of the agent to assets within the Trend Micro console, eliminating the need for a GPO or deployment … Incentivized Helpful? Thayer Ramahi Director, IMIT Chose Sophos Intercept X We found Sophos is a full suit in one, easy to deploy, manage and very effective. Incentivized Helpful? Neil Taylor Trade Floor Infrastructure Manager Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos is by far the simplest of the products to setup and going in a very short period of time at a very similar price point. Trend is overly complex and relied on an appliance for each ESX node meaning you lose one appliance and then you lose protection across multiple … Incentivized Helpful? Eric V. Zarghami Deputy CIO Chose Sophos Intercept X Besides legacy malware protection, Sophos is doing a good job in protecting against ransomware, thanks to their Intercept X and its behavioral analytics that would stop ransomware that was never seen in wild. Incentivized Helpful? Alex Farling Managing Partner Chose Sophos Intercept X Best in class... PERIOD... Bit Defender is a good AV product by itself, but it lacks in Next Gen Heuristic detection. It has allowed malware to get past it in our client environments, even with Admin permissions restricted. Sophos is hands down a superior product when paired … Incentivized Helpful? Ryhlen Schoeberl Server Administrator Chose Sophos Intercept X Sophos I feel is a better product upon installation we had a few systems that reported threats that ESET did not catch. Sophos also has multiple other products that we were able to bundle together and still have one interface to do. Intercept X, Endpoint Protection, and … Incentivized Helpful? Jon Shurtliff Vice President of Information Technology Chose Sophos Intercept X In our analysis we discovered that for the price and feature set, Sophos was able to rise above the rest. Pricing is always a large consideration, however it isn't the only consideration - the feature set that Sophos Endpoint Protection provided over its competitors made the … Incentivized Helpful? Matt Rogers Information Technology and Web Support Specialist Chose Sophos Intercept X We used to use Symantec Endpoint Protection. At the time we were using it (it may very well be different by now), it required a bit more maintenance and we were constantly having issues with definitions not being downloaded as well as issues updating the software itself. We … Incentivized Helpful?

Features

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Sophos Intercept X

Endpoint Security

Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Product A and Product B
	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint 8.4 Ratings 2% below category average	Sophos Intercept X 8.9 Ratings 4% above category average
Anti-Exploit Technology	7.80 Ratings	7.10 Ratings
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)	9.10 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Centralized Management	8.90 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Hybrid Deployment Support	7.10 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Infection Remediation	9.30 Ratings	10.00 Ratings
Vulnerability Management	7.40 Ratings	8.40 Ratings
Malware Detection	8.80 Ratings	10.00 Ratings

Best Alternatives
	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	Sophos Intercept X
Small Businesses	ThreatLocker Score 9.5 out of 10	ThreatLocker Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT) Score 9.1 out of 10	BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT) Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises	BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management Score 9.8 out of 10	BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management Score 9.8 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	Sophos Intercept X
Likelihood to Recommend	8.4 (0 ratings)	9.0 (0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	8.4 (0 ratings)	10.0 (0 ratings)
Usability	- (0 ratings)	9.0 (0 ratings)
Support Rating	9.0 (0 ratings)	8.1 (0 ratings)
Implementation Rating	- (0 ratings)	9.0 (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint	Sophos Intercept X
Likelihood to Recommend	Because of its integration with Windows, it is very easy to deploy and manage. Any IT department should be able to leverage the software and interface. The admin portal provides weighted recommendations that comprise the Secure Store, offering admins, security teams, and business owners valuable insights into their security footprint without requiring a strong security background. The software would be ideal for small and mid-sized businesses that cannot dedicate resources to security. Larger enterprises would also benefit, but may require the enhanced license. Incentivized MM Michael Miller IT Engineer Read full review	Sophos Intercept-X is well suited for any environment big or small. There is even a home version that is free that I highly recommend for anyone at home. If you are looking for endpoint protection that is centrally managed, catches everything, and has many features this is the product for you. Incentivized William Scott Coates IT Support Specialist Read full review
Pros	One, it's crazy lightweight, so compared to some of the competitors that we also have used with our security services, it's really lightweight and so I don't have a lot of overhead on the system that it's running on. It does really fantastic PowerShell integration. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Sophos is a little too good at DLP. But it is indeed very good at not allowing our data to leave our endpoints without strict adherence to policy. Sophos is very good at protecting endpoints against viruses and other malware. Sopho is really good at informing us of what is happening on our endpoints. OOTB reporting is way better than expected. Incentivized Jane Updegraff Senior Systems Administrator Read full review
Cons	So the fact that Defender for Endpoint still works with signatures is actually, I don't know, a little difficult for us because, I mean, since Microsoft trusts those signatures, you can easily inject code. And we've done it many times. To show that you can inject code through vulnerabilities like CV 2013, 99, and 33 but still keep the signature. So because of the trust of those signatures, the malware just kind of slides into the environment without Defender knowing. That's the first part. The second part is that the behavioral analysis is not precisely its Prime. It's not Defender's best capability for endpoints. So, Defender does not identify all behaviors considered by other EDRs in the market. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	The migration from on-prem sophos to cloud sophos, could have been a little more seamless Would love to get more insight on what was blocked or flagged and what it was trying to do Better and more granular feature management from group policies Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Likelihood to Renew	Microsoft Defender is closely catching -up in market with existing competitors they have added DLP endpoint & DLP Network and Cloud DLP solution last year with OCR capabilities. I would say Microsoft Defender is not legacy Vendor in end point security, the need to learn from other vendors in market and focus on new XDR technologies, which is going to be new battle for all vendors Incentivized Bhuwan Chandra Business Development Manager Read full review	We have gotten a great product for the price. Easy to maintain and set up on new devices. Support is great and easy to work with and understand. Incentivized Ryhlen Schoeberl Server Administrator Read full review
Usability	Because in terms of the usability is easy to understand, it's easy to manage, obviously you need to have specific skills to do that, but I would say that even the console and the product is walking through the flow that you are looking for on this console. Incentivized GG Gustavo Gonzalez Cybersecurity Senior Engineer Read full review	The usability has never been a problem. Sophos Intercept X is a program you can install and let protect your company without much intervention. Apart from a few policies, Sophos will keep you protected better than most any product on the market. Sophos Intercept X works quite well when you are looking to "tighten your grip" on user's access to websites, programs, and add-ons. Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Reliability and Availability	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint chugs along just fine no matter what we throw at it and what systems it's running on. It doesn't take up a lot of resources either, so that's welcomed. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	No answers on this topic
Performance	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easy on memory and resources on clients. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	No answers on this topic
Support Rating	Overall support is really good for this product. Since it's a Microsoft product, you will get good support from a number of different resources, including knowledgebase articles on the web, support from Microsoft technicians, and documentation (which tends to very thorough). Also, there is a vast user support community for this product, so user support forums would also be another valuable channel to get help if needed. I don't envision too many people will have issues/problems with the product, as it tends to run good overall. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Most of the support reps are fantastic. There have been a few though that have had to be escalated via Account Manager when they haven't followed up but this is a rare instance, and often followed up by the Support Manager for APAC. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Implementation Rating	Deployment was handled by our team here and everything went pretty smoothly. We did have a few hiccups in our test group, but that only took a bit to get ironed out. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Best thing was the help pushing out via group policy and was able to get instructions for that on sophos site Incentivized Ryhlen Schoeberl Server Administrator Read full review
Alternatives Considered	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint offers strong integration with Microsoft 365 and Azure services, which provide a unified security experience. While McAfee Trellix is known for solid antivirus, Microsoft Defender excels in integration in the ecosystem. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	I don't feel it's fair to compare Sophos Intercept X with the versions of Symantec and AVG that I have used in the past - as that was such a long time ago. I'm sure those other companies have released far more features than I used all those years ago Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Scalability	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easily scaled from small orgs to giant enterprises. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review	No answers on this topic
Return on Investment	Reduced incidents of security breaches lead to lower remediation costs and avoid potential financial losses and reputational damage. Reduces the need for additional third-party security solutions and training, thereby lowering overall security management costs. Increased efficiency and productivity of IT staff lead to better allocation of resources and cost savings. Reduces the risk of fines and sanctions associated with non-compliance, ensuring business continuity and protecting revenue. Incentivized CF Carlos Eduardo Faquinello IT Solutions Architect Read full review	Before we had Intercept X, we had several infections of ransomware. Since that time it has stopped at least 10 attempts, saving us thousands of man-hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars. By decreasing the time needed for malware remediation, it has saved us the cost of .25 FTE in the IT department. Initial setup was cumbersome and cost us .1 FTE in additional costs the first year. Incentivized Beau Sorensen COO Read full review
ScreenShots	Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Screenshots	Sophos Intercept X Screenshots