Cylance Smart Antivirus vs. Microsoft Defender for Business

Cylance Smart Antivirus is well suited for the typical office user. It can be very restrictive if you do not tune it properly and can cause many issues. When tuned and set up properly it is appropriate for 95% of use cases. The last 5% are ones that have the capabilities of bringing an organization down if it is not tuned properly.

Incentivized

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

• Blocking Scripts
• Stopping remote exploits
• easy to install

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• Better functionality to whitelist on the Application.
• Easier to setup Mobile Settings
• Easier to understand logs

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

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

Cylance was the first AI scanning-based AV on the market. While Webroot was competitive we found Cylance to be the better solution.

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

• Too much time to manage.
• Too many false positives.
• Too much lost productivity.

Incentivized

• Improved cybersecurity
• Learning curve
• Resource consumption

Incentivized