Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. NinjaOne

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is particularly well-suited for discovering, inventorying, and continuously monitoring the external attack surface, especially in environments with heavy Microsoft adoption. It is less suitable as a standalone solution for internal scanning, real-time attack detection, automated remediation, or advanced application testing. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management es especialmente adecuado para descubrir, inventariar y monitorear continuamente la superficie de ataque externa, sobre todo en entornos con fuerte adopción de Microsoft. Es menos adecuado como solución única para escaneo interno, detección de ataques en tiempo real, remediación automática o pruebas avanzadas de aplicaciones. Parts of this review were originally written in Spanish and have been translated into English using a third-party translation tool. While we strive for accuracy, some nuances or meanings may not be perfectly captured.

Incentivized

NinjaOne is great for a comprehensive inventory management as well as a supurb RMM; it's far and away a much greater platform than ones that I"ve used in the past (I've been working for years in MSP organizations). Patch management is the second of the "one, two punch" that NinjaOne provides for our organization. It is outstanding at tracking and enforcing patch mangement, which is great for our security footprint as well as for our compliance goals.

Incentivized

• Lack of visibility of external assets
• Reduction of the risk of external attacks
• Falta de visibilidad de activos externos
• Reducción del riesgo de ataques externos

Incentivized

• Remote connections: the NinjaRemote client is spectacular and very easy to use and navigate. It quickly connects to customer systems so my engineers are able to work. As a bonus, they also offer a really good mobile app to connect to client systems.
• Antivirus: Bitdefender Endpoint Protection is built directly into the NinjaOne portal. This makes deploying and maintaining AV very easy.
• OS Patching: NinjaOne makes it very easy to handle patching across multiple clients and locations. It is very easy to use and doesn't take long to set up.
• Support: NinjaOne support is always very prompt and helpful.
• Documentation: the NinjaOne Dojo is a one-stop shop for all of your FAQs, guides, and forum needs. You can find almost anything here to help you deploy and maintain NinjaOne.
• Automation Library: NinjaOne comes preloaded with a large number of ready-to-go automations. They also provide you with a scripting module to create your own.

Incentivized

• Asset Attribution and Ownership Clarity
• Risk Prioritization and Business Context
• Noise and False Positives

Incentivized

• NinjaOne does support Mac, however I would like to have more options for automation and scheduled task on Mac devices.
• I would like it if NinjaOne also provided an MDM solution.
• It would be nice is NinjaOne could integrate a PAM solution as well.

Incentivized

I have not had any real issues with NinjaOne and as long as it keeps doing what it is meant to do, I do not plan on looking elsewhere. I need software to be stable and NinjaOne is stable.

Incentivized

We rate Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management’s overall usability as 10 out of 10 because it delivers a strong balance between depth of capability and ease of use, particularly within organizations already operating in the Microsoft security ecosystem.

Incentivized

Ninja's interface is clean and simple. Overall usability from an interface perspective is good. Some items, policies and scripting for instance, are a bit cumbersome and it's really not clear how to implement with a best practice mind-site. Ninja RMM got the job done for us but as we pushed our needs more into automation and efficiency we felt it wasn't keeping up with our speed of growth. There is definitely usability in the product, and it will get the job done, but there are other RMM's out there that fit better in our business.

Incentivized

Availability is very good

Incentivized

The software loads quickly for the most part

Incentivized

Support has been very responsive and my account rep Brian K. has communicated with me continuously making sure we had everything we need. Not like other MDMs where they sign you up and that's the last you hear from them. NinjaOne makes sure you use the product to its best application and you are successful and continue as the product features grow.

Incentivized

Easy to learn and all of the functions and features were easy to learn. Once I started learning all of the features and functions, it made my everyday tasks much easier and more productive. The user interface is very easy to use. If I did have any questions, the Ninja Dojo was a big help.

Incentivized

It was nice and self paced learning. The sections were easy to understand and the functionality was very worthwhile. The online training was very easy to learn and intuitive. I did not feel the need to ask for any clarification or assistance with any of the sections. I am still learning a lot of the functions but fined it very easy to use.

Incentivized

Use of Organizations and locations

Incentivized

Because Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is part of the broader Microsoft Defender family (including Defender XDR, Entra ID, Azure Security, Sentinel, etc.), it:
Shares identity, endpoint, and threat context across tools
Reduces the need for custom integrations or connectors
Works in a “single pane of glass” experience for SOC analysts
Why it matters:
Organizations already invested in Microsoft security tools gain greater contextual insight and lower operational overhead.

Incentivized

We found NinjaOne far more user friendly and less resource heavy than VSA. Our overall experience was greatly improved from VSA as we experienced many recurring issues with the agents. Additionally, NinjaOne was far more cost effective per endpoint and provided similar, or greater features than VSA. Atera was briefly considered, but it seemed to be more of a 'jack of all trades' app that didn't suit our specific use cases.

Incentivized

Overall the software is very reliable

Incentivized

• Reduced Business Risk from Unknown External Assets
• Operational Efficiency and Cost Avoidance
• Faster Risk Identification During Change Events

Incentivized

• Allowed us to use our full IT staff in remote offices to troubleshoot
• The quick site response times helps reduce the time spent trying to find, connect, and fix systems
• The ease of use creates confidence from our users that we can quickly fix their problems from anywhere in the world.

Incentivized