Malwarebytes vs. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Malwarebytes
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Malwarebytes is a antimalware application for home and small businesses, which blocks viruses, malware, hackers, viruses, and malicious websites.
$119.99
per year 3 devices
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
MalwarebytesMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Editions & Modules
Teams - Sole proprietor
$119.99
per year 3 devices
Teams - Boutique business
$399.99
per year 10 devices
Teams - Small office
$799.99
per year 20 devices
Academic
$2.50
per user/per month
Standalone
$5.20
per user/per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MalwarebytesMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll plans include a 60-day money back guarantee. 1st year discount available for the Small office plan.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MalwarebytesMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Considered Both Products
Malwarebytes
Chose Malwarebytes
We chose Malwarebytes for Teams which offered a significant savings compared to other scanners
Chose Malwarebytes
Proven to be one of the best in detecting malware that is otherwise undetected by other solutions. When a user gets hit by certain malware, many other tools do not even detect them as malware, while with Malwarebytes, you can rest assured that if it states that a computer is …
Chose Malwarebytes
Have also used the following malware/spyware protection/removal tools:
SuperAntiSpyware
Spybot Search & Destroy
Chose Malwarebytes
It is also a very good option to consider as an antivirus system. But, it is not effective against the rootkits; that's why I selected Malwarebytes over it. Malware bytes has a more powerful and effective scanning mechanism than Norton. If I compare the free versions of the …
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
Features
MalwarebytesMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Endpoint Security
Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Product A and Product B
Malwarebytes
-
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
MalwarebytesMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Small Businesses
AVG AntiVirus Business Edition
AVG AntiVirus Business Edition
Score 8.0 out of 10
ThreatLocker
ThreatLocker
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
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
MalwarebytesMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Likelihood to Recommend
7.7
(54 ratings)
8.9
(136 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(2 ratings)
8.4
(10 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(5 ratings)
8.7
(11 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(9 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
MalwarebytesMicrosoft Defender for Endpoint
Likelihood to Recommend
Malwarebytes
Now, I gave it that rating because it's a handy tool for diagnosing issues. Quarantining them, and most of the time, it does fix the problem. Though with rootkits, it's been hit or miss, and sometimes perfectly valid software gets flagged erroneously. However, once you've run it, it tends to run continuously, consuming far too many resources and being a real pain to uninstall, sometimes even causing issues.
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
Malwarebytes
  • Low system resources, it does not slow down the whole computer when scanning or when real-time protection is enabled
  • Quick and frequent updates, usually people hate updating, but for malware/viruses, you want to be updated as possible. It takes less than 15 seconds and usually does it automatically. They usually send a few updates a day as they find more.
  • Protection features actually work when visiting known bad websites. The page will be blocked and nothing will be downloaded. It may not be what the user wants, but it's what the user needs (as the user can't know every bad website)
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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
Malwarebytes
  • One of the main things that malwarebytes is missing as a company, is phone support for its clients. All support questions has to go thru email only. This is not acceptable for issues that needs to be resolved quickly.
  • There is an issue when installing the client on a machine, it has a set amount of time where the software can register with the management server. The issue with this is, with machines that are over a wide area network, slow connection speeds can cause the software not to register. When that happens, it never re attempts to register in the future.
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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
Malwarebytes
The last time we renewed Malwarebytes, we renewed for a 3 year renewal. That should describe the confidence we have in the product. Plus the cost savings impact year after year.
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
Read full review
Usability
Malwarebytes
Usability-wise, it's pretty good, and it gets the job done. But once that's finished, the nags, the pop-ups, and the fact that it slows older systems down recklessly really cost it rating points. It becomes a clutter, and one of the first things we check when we receive reports that a PC is slow is whether it's running malware. Once we uninstall it, the PC is usually easily 40-50% faster. That's too much in the way of resources for something that wants to always run in the background.
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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.
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Reliability and Availability
Malwarebytes
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.
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Performance
Malwarebytes
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easy on memory and resources on clients.
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Support Rating
Malwarebytes
The Malwarebytes customer support team is awesome! They really go above and beyond to help you with whatever issue you may experience. It is not that we need to contact their support team often, but the few times we did, we would speak to someone who knew what they were talking about and able to solve our problem. It is a comfort knowing that aside from a great product, you are getting a reliable support structure.
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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
Malwarebytes
No answers on this topic
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
Malwarebytes
Avast and Norton's products were part of the testing for us but the cost was very high for them and the products were not light on the machine. They took up a lot of memory and slowed the computers down. Malwarebytes although may lack some feature, is a very light software.
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.
Read full review
Scalability
Malwarebytes
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
Malwarebytes
  • Positive Impact: Have not had to remediate malware/virus infections since installed.
  • Positive impact: As far as browsing goes, we can boldly go where no man has gone before. No, really, I am confident when I am clicking on search engine results that if something get past my trained eye, Malwarebytes will pick of the slack.
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

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Screenshots

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