KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
PhishER is presented as a lightweight Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) platform to orchestrate threat response and manage the high volume of potentially malicious email messages reported by users. And, with automatic prioritization of emails, PhishER helps InfoSec and Security Operations team cut through the inbox noise and respond to the most dangerous threats more quickly.
$0.75
per month (billed annually) per seat
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Score 8.9 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
Pricing
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER PlusMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Editions & Modules
3001-5000 Monthly Pricing Per Seat
$0.75
per month (billed annually) per seat
2001-3000 Monthly Pricing Per Seat
$0.85
per month (billed annually) per seat
1001-2000 Monthly Pricing Per Seat
$1.00
per month (billed annually) per seat
501-1000 Monthly Pricing Per Seat
$1.15
per month (billed annually) per seat
101-500 Monthly Pricing Per Seat
$1.50
per month (billed annually) per seat
Academic
$2.50
per user/per month
Standalone
$5.20
per user/per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER PlusMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER PlusMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Considered Both Products
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus
Chose KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus
Microsoft's backed in email reporting tool is good but the time to resolution varies for all messages. It claims that it will help train filters to better classify messages into the tenant, but we have not seen much of that.

Barracuda offered a similar product to PhishER but …
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

No answer on this topic

Features
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER PlusMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Incident Response Platforms
Comparison of Incident Response Platforms features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus
8.0
112 Ratings
11% below category average
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
-
Ratings
Company-wide Incident Reporting7.292 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Other Security Systems7.789 Ratings00 Ratings
Centralized Dashboard8.6111 Ratings00 Ratings
Machine Learning to Prevent Incidents7.895 Ratings00 Ratings
Live Response for Rapid Remediation8.396 Ratings00 Ratings
Endpoint Security
Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Product A and Product B
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus
-
Ratings
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
8.7
77 Ratings
3% above category average
Anti-Exploit Technology00 Ratings8.874 Ratings
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)00 Ratings9.176 Ratings
Centralized Management00 Ratings8.876 Ratings
Hybrid Deployment Support00 Ratings7.210 Ratings
Infection Remediation00 Ratings9.074 Ratings
Vulnerability Management00 Ratings8.671 Ratings
Malware Detection00 Ratings9.175 Ratings
Best Alternatives
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER PlusMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Small Businesses
ThreatDown, powered by Malwarebytes
ThreatDown, powered by Malwarebytes
Score 8.7 out of 10
ThreatLocker
ThreatLocker
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon
Score 9.1 out of 10
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon
Score 9.1 out of 10
BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management
BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER PlusMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(118 ratings)
8.9
(136 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(7 ratings)
8.4
(10 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(32 ratings)
8.7
(11 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(5 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.5
(3 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Configurability
7.7
(8 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.2
(1 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER PlusMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Likelihood to Recommend
KnowBe4
PhishER comes with some good features, such as PhishML, PhishRIP, PhishFlip, etc. These features help us manage phishing email reporting incidents. From reporting emails via Phish Alert Button plug-in to collecting all reported emails in one place at the PhishER dashboard. Now, the PhishML comes into play, scanning all reported emails and tagging each as clean, spam, or threat. With the help of this machine learning-based algorithm, our investigation process becomes easier. Other features, such as PhishRip, help to search and quarantine phishing emails, and PhishFlip converts a real phishing campaign to a test phishing campaign.
Read full review
Microsoft
It is well integrated with the Microsoft Admin center providing a quick way to find everything you're looking for. However, if there is a problem that needs addressed, you may have to click through a few more pages to find the solution. It will definitely let you know what's going on in your environment.
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Pros
KnowBe4
  • One platform that integrates reported emails and using PhishFlip to educated staff.
  • Automation to remove malicious emails from mailboxes.
  • Instantly report back to users if an email is safe or malicious.
  • Easily review vital technical information to help you make a decision if an email is a threat.
  • Allow comments to be left from staff and IT.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • 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.
Read full review
Cons
KnowBe4
  • Issues with Global Blocklist
  • Email Template Modification - Simplification
  • Target Specific Users vs. Groups
  • PhishRIP info tabs (i.e. if improperly check ripped emails are turned into tests. This has caused issues.) Info tabs or markers allow user to hover and get more information about what action a check box or slider provides.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • 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.
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Likelihood to Renew
KnowBe4
When we first discovered that KnowBe4 released something like this, we saw a demo of it and were floored at what it could do and how it could help us from a security standpoint. Gone are the days of us in IT sending out a mass email saying please don't click on anything in the email from sender "X", and it allows us to quietly and easily ensure that people don't take any action on malicious emails.
Read full review
Microsoft
Cost add-ons for Security features is nickel and diming the process to keep pace with cybercrime. Limited Education budgets require us to be more pro-active in finding cost-effective measures to protect our devices, staff and students. Defender is a strong, well-featured product that is pricing itself out of the education market
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Usability
KnowBe4
I give it an eight for the feature set. While I only give it an eight because the complexity and interconnectedness of the tools mean that there needs to be quite a bit of RTFM to get the most out of the products.
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Microsoft
It offers multiple security features and integrates well with Microsoft ecosystems. A workflow for threat detection, investigation, automated remediation, and a centralized dashboard is an added advantage. This application is mainly designed for experienced users; new users may feel challenged.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
KnowBe4
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
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.
Read full review
Performance
KnowBe4
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easy on memory and resources on clients.
Read full review
Support Rating
KnowBe4
I haven't needed to reach out to support very often, but when I have the responses have been timely and have provided the solutions I have needed. The support has been friendly and have always been able to resolve any issues that have come up.
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Microsoft
The first time I tried to onboard my macOS endpoints to MDE I struggled for quite a bit. I had to reach out to Microsoft's MDE support team. The tech was very helpful in walking me through the steps during a screen share session
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Implementation Rating
KnowBe4
It was very simple to implement - with just a few settings needed to connect it to our O365 environment
Read full review
Microsoft
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.
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Alternatives Considered
KnowBe4
Harmony does not provide security awareness training or simulated phishing emails like KnowB4. However, it does provide a phish alert button & workflow similar to PhishER & we may stop using PhishER because the Phish Alert reports from PhishER don't feed into Harmony to help train it from phishing emails that go through. We got Harmony after KnowB4 because we needed a tool to PREVENT phishing emails from getting to people's inboxes in the first place, which KnowB4 has very little capability for other than PhishER+ blacklists. It is a shame KnowB4 does not have the anti threat phishing prevention like Harmony considering all the email data it has & its existing AI analytic capabilities.
Read full review
Microsoft
Defender is far easier to deploy and manage than Sophos and tends to work without as many issues. The threat assessment portal provides an in-depth view of the organization's security posture, whereas Sophos only shows the patching status of the PCs. We did need Intune to get many of the control features (disabling USB drives) that Sophos offered out of the box.
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Scalability
KnowBe4
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easily scaled from small orgs to giant enterprises.
Read full review
Return on Investment
KnowBe4
  • Phish/ER & PAD: Identifying email threats more quickly allowed us to send alert to the users' community in a timely manner based on the pattern of the threat.
  • KnowBe4 Training Campaigns have proven to noticeably increase users' awareness.
  • KnowBe4 Phishing Campaigns made users realize how dangerous and deceiving hacker can be.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • 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.
Read full review
ScreenShots

KnowBe4 PhishER/PhishER Plus Screenshots

Screenshot of how PhishER Plus enables a critical workstream to help IR teams work together to mitigate the phishing threat and is suited for any organization that wants to automatically prioritize and manage potentially malicious messages.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Screenshots

Screenshot of blocked activitiesScreenshot of Detects & respondsScreenshot of discovers vulnerabilityScreenshot of Eliminates blind spotsScreenshot of Risk management