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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Microsoft Exchange vs. Proofpoint Email Protection

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft 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

    Microsoft Exchange

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Exchange is a secure email / messaging gateway with file archiving and encryption / data loss capability, available as a hosted service (Exchange Online) or installed (Exchange Server).N/A

    Proofpoint Email Protection

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/AProofpoint Email Protection is available as an on-premise or cloud based solution and blocks unwanted, malicious and impostor emails with granular search capabilities and visibility into all messages. Outbound controls include encryption and data loss prevention, while continuity capabilities ensure business communications can continue as normal in the event of an email outage. With Proofpoint's Email Protection, you can protect your people, data, and brand from today’s threats…N/A
    Pricing
    Microsoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
    Editions & Modules
    Academic
    $2.50
    per user/per month
    Standalone
    $5.20
    per user/per month
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
    Free Trial
    YesNoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details———
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
    Considered Multiple Products
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
    Mostly it runs smoothly on host without impacting performance as other AVs like Symantec's impacts performance issue of host. Also because it's still a good product overall price range. Can upgrade to EDR solution with not much difficulty & onboarding on tool is not that …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Microsoft Exchange is the go-to software if you are going with the Microsoft stack as your main infrastructure provider. It made the most sense going with Microsoft to use Outlook with Exchange, as it would provide the most seamless experience when paired with Defender or most …
    Incentivized
    Chose Microsoft Exchange
    Office 365 has hosted Microsoft email that is powered by Exchange but which is run completely in the Microsoft cloud and paid for by monthly subscription. Microsoft Exchange, on the other hand, is hosted on-premise and inside your own network. They both work the same way and do …
    Incentivized
    Proofpoint
    Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
    We currently have Microsoft ATP turned on behind Proofpoint and Proofpoint's TAP. ATP almost never alerts us to any issues due to the filtering by Proofpoint.
    Incentivized
    Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
    Proofpoint is the leader of the pack when it comes to email security services. I have used a range of other providers in the space and Proofpoint is the best. It's ability to identify and block malicious email and threats sets it above all other competitors.
    Incentivized
    Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
    We have used EOP (Exchange Online Protection) in the past and we also had a POC with Proofpoint which we were excited to use and the results were positive.

    Before Proofpoint, we had many issues with imposters and TAP issues with EOP, which have been improved with Proofpoint. We …
    Incentivized
    Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
    I have used Symantec Brightmail, Cisco Ironport, and Trend Micro Email Security.
    We selected Trend's product due to the price, but it failed miserably at clustering and overall email delivery. Proofpoint came in second as it checked off a lot of the boxes that we required in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
    EOP (Exchange online protection)
    Incentivized
    Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
    I have not evaluated any others since I have been in this position. But in a previous position I evaluated Mimecast. It's similar and may have a nicer GUI but I don't think it has the same depth as far as bulk of historical detection data.
    Incentivized
    Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
    We have been using Proofpoint Email Protection so long that I can't actually remember what we used before. It is highly rated on the Gartner scale and we have not evaluated other products because Proofpoint Email Protection does what it is supposed to.
    Incentivized
    Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
    We have not used any other product so far apart from Proofpoint.
    Incentivized
    Chose Proofpoint Email Protection
    This is the only product we have used.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    157 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    65 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    10 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    146 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    63 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    155 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    68 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    10 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    130 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    46 Answers
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    140 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    52 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
    Endpoint Security
    Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Exchange and Proofpoint Email Protection
    Feature
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
    8.7
    79 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Microsoft Exchange
    -
    Ratings
    Proofpoint Email Protection
    -
    Ratings
    Anti-Exploit Technology9.075 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)9.179 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Centralized Management8.679 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Hybrid Deployment Support7.110 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Infection Remediation9.077 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Vulnerability Management8.774 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Malware Detection9.278 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Secure Email Gateway
    Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft Exchange and Proofpoint Email Protection
    Feature
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Exchange
    7.3
    84 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Proofpoint Email Protection
    8.0
    79 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Anti-malware00 Ratings6.567 Ratings10.077 Ratings
    Customizability00 Ratings8.079 Ratings7.076 Ratings
    Data Loss Protection00 Ratings8.368 Ratings6.049 Ratings
    Threat Detection00 Ratings6.566 Ratings8.076 Ratings
    Sandboxing00 Ratings7.444 Ratings7.058 Ratings
    End-to-End Encryption00 Ratings6.767 Ratings10.059 Ratings
    Management Tools00 Ratings8.080 Ratings8.075 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
    Small Businesses
    SentinelOne Singularity
    Score9 out of 10
    Sophos Email
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Sophos Email
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
    Score6.2 out of 10
    Barracuda ESG (discontinued)
    Score6.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    ESET PROTECT
    Score8.8 out of 10
    OpenText Core Email Threat Protection
    Score7.5 out of 10
    Microsoft Exchange
    Score8.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (169 ratings)
    9.0
    (102 ratings)
    10.0
    (96 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.4
    (10 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.6
    (40 ratings)
    8.5
    (6 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    9.9
    (12 ratings)
    8.3
    (5 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft Defender for EndpointMicrosoft ExchangeProofpoint Email Protection
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    If you have multiple endpoints in your environment, if you're looking to understand what your environment looks like, if you're trying to identify the health of your environment, or identify any risks or vulnerabilities in your environment pertaining to your endpoints and devices.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Creating and receiving emails is simple. Managing contacts is a nice feature, especially connecting to Active Directory. Calendar management is also helpful and sharing access to others' calendars for scheduling meetings is useful. And reserving resources such as rooms or equipment is also useful. Personal and shared mailboxes are good features, as well. Tasks are a little lacking, but other than that, the features are thorough.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    Well suited: Proofpoint does a pretty good job at protecting us from spam emails. I was able to block a lot of emails coming from SendGrid by blocking SendGrid emails with a custom spam filter. However, SendGrid has a lot of legit emails too so I was able to create another rule to allow those emails from certain people, then block the rest. That way business need was met but spam emails are blocked. Less Appropriate If you are trying to monitor internal to internal emails Proofpoint is probably a little over featured for that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Microsoft
    • The big thing for us is on endpoint, it kind of integrates with everything else that we already have because we use Microsoft completely. And so that helps us with being able to integrate, and send things over to Azure Sentinel as we need to as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • As we have a large user base of 11,000 users we use MailTips to avoid people getting confused with people with similar names in the organization.
    • The integration between Teams Meeting and Resource booking is generally very good. The Scheduling Assistance makes it easy to scan calendars and find free periods to provisionally scheduled events.
    • Marking yourself as Out of the Office and busy is easy, as is sharing your calendar within the team/organization or individuals.
    • Voicemail integration and the ability to receive missed chats in your inbox are highly used and useful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    • Spam - catches these emails before hitting the inbox.
    • Daily digest - provides users with a list of the emails that were blocked and allows them to choose to release them if they are legitimate emails.
    • Ensures that emails coming into our organization is safe for our users and verifies the email is coming from stated senders email server.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • I'd say building out summaries and log reviews for analysts reviewing incidents. So, pivoting from the alerts themselves to actually getting the detail underneath. Trying to understand what caused an alert, where they went from there, et cetera, et cetera. And then trying to get into deeper log review to take that investigation further can be a pain point.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • The two main factors for the better reliability & Uptime of internally hosted Exchange Server depends on Exchange Server configuration and the level of investment the organization is willing to provide for hosting the Exchange Server On-Premise Environment. As the data is stored in the organization’s hardware, any disaster may lead to the loss of email and servers.
    • Losing data might affect business continuity and rebuilding it can be costly.
    • Security remains a major concern.
    • Security of data loss is main concern. To ensure that, organization needs to configure networks, systems and Exchange platform against possible threats.
    • Hardware and license costs are high.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    • Proofpoint could offer more frequent training opportunities to customers at all levels of expertise.
    • Proofpoint can always continue to strive to keep its product a leader in the industry.
    • Proofpoint's support site could be overhauled to provide a more logical flow.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Email and calendars in a business setting are requirements. And Microsoft continues to be the standard of business applications. Microsoft 365 makes Microsoft Exchange easy to use. Everything is in the cloud. Let Microsoft take care of the hardware, the software, and the security. You just enable your business users with the functionality they need.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Microsoft
    Because it's hard to find things sometimes. I can find things now because I know where they are. But you have to work with it a little while to figure out how. I'd basically say it was a security tool designed by developers. So you have to get that mindset to find things. So a new hire, a new person in the SOC would have a difficult time. I know that's sitting in here, or that screen is in here somewhere. So it's gotten better.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Exchange has come a long way over the years and has nowhere near the technical overhead required for support as it did back in 2003/2007 and prior. The integrations with Teams, Defender, Sharepoint, Copilot and many other products make it a solid and well-rounded tool used for many day-to-day tasks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    Very robust and solid product in protecting our emails. The engineers who assisted with our implementation was very knowledgable and great to work with. Easy to use by end-users. Administration and management are also easy for IT. Great dashboard and reporting tools for business reviews.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Exchange is setup with multiple servers behind load balancers to provide high availability.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    There were no appliance errors or unplanned outages during five years of operation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easy on memory and resources on clients.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I would say it's the best email product I've experienced.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    Most important thing is the performance of processing mails. Even in a complex environment the system keeps performing on a very high Level.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    We have a good enterprise agreement with Microsoft which affords us quick phone support. I have found the support staff knowledgeable and prompt with a solution when required. At times it may be difficult to schedule a call back, this is mainly due to our need for calls early in the morning which happens to be during a shift change at Microsoft support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    We use ProofPoint support quite often to fix issues and assist with setting up features and rules. Each time we have created a ticket, they have been very helpful and respectful. Each ticket has been treated with the appropriate SLA time and attention. We also enjoy the regular check-ins from the engineers when tickets are open but we get busy with other tasks.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Implementation/conversion can be quite complex and, unless you have certified Exchange administrators in-house, you should strongly consider a 3rd party consultant for this implementation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    Particularly, we're evaluating Symantec Endpoint Protection, the commercial version. We've looked at eSet, a couple of the others, and it's much too heavy or difficult to manage, things like that. Ease of use, ease of integration. It's already there. It's super easy to update it with the regular OS updates and everything. So we can manage it whether we're using SCCM or Intune or Dato, it's very easy to deploy updates and manage things.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Exchange Product The best cloud-based enterprise-grade archiving platform with a host of features that enable files to be securely archived and retrieved with advanced search options. This tool is very easy to use and has a User-friendly interface. It is a highly reliable platform that allows all employees to automatically store their data without any limitations. It offers a cost-effective solution with customized policy management. We are happy that the customer support team is always fast and concerned, and the product's uninterrupted service experience. It is very good that it stores data in real-time without losing it, even in the event of a disaster. The cost-effective solution and integration with other tools are seamless.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    We previously used halon anti-spam, which lasted us well until our organization really started to grow and it was not able to keep up with the amount of mail we were receiving. The support is also nothing compared to Proofpoint's professional services offering. Halon was also not able to have the complex rules that Proofpoint can offer.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Microsoft
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easily scaled from small orgs to giant enterprises.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The only time Exchange has failed us is when we did something to cause the failure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    You can add a lot of agents to your environment if you need them. And you can operate hardware appliances and virtual appliances in the same cluster.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • I think the positive impact overall is that we do a lot of sitting in front of assessors- federal assessors, government assessors. And it really comes down to when the assessor has to think about another product that you're bringing in that's not Microsoft, it creates a lot of confusion, more paperwork, more explanation. But the positive impact is that they know it, everybody kind of knows Microsoft. And so when you tell them you have this endpoint for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, they're like, okay. The questions go away, and it makes the overhead a lot less during an assessment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • It has been an important factor in allowing seamless communication with clients and scheduling business meetings, which in turn works in the company's favor.
    • Haven't noticed any negative impact Exchange has had on our ROI. The support team is also responsive and helpful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Proofpoint
    • Having easy-to-reach backups of all employee emails has made Proofpoint worth it by itself. That plus the countless times that spam/malicious emails did not make it through to the intended person that could have potentially cost the organization a lot of money.
    Incentivized
    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