Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs. Sophos Intercept X vs. Watchguard Endpoint Security

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easy to deployed across the entire organization. Having a cloud based solution with a single pane of glass to manage all assets is a real no-brainer. Being able to receive immediate alerts when suspicious activity occurs is extremely helpful in keeping risks at a minimum. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint management is also smart enough to not send several alerts when an attack could be hitting multiple targets within a certain time frame or when it's the same attack multiple times. However, be prepared to click through multiple pages all over the site to figure out what happened when an attack occurs.

Incentivized

To be frank, this product is fairly expensive. So I would recommend this to companies that are mid-sized or larger to condone the cost of the purchase. It does save me a significant amount of time in my day - being able to glance at the dashboard and see if there are any outstanding issues that require my attention, as not much digging must be done to accomplish this. So for our company, with a short-staffed IT department, it's incredibly helpful to us. We also qualify for Educational pricing which brings the cost down - which helps tremendously

Incentivized

I would absolutely recommend Watchguard Endpoint Security to a colleague - as there's only four of us on the team in the entire district. The additional client insights have been invaluable to us. We had, historically, been doing Windows updates A. whenever a device was turned in with issues, or B. each Summer during device turn in. We can now control those updates with this software - pushing Windows patches to necessarily clients with the push of a button. This has saved us COUNTLESS hours of driving or directing staff to update themselves (and then ignoring us). We do have a remote desktop client that we have utilized in the past, but updating during the day is cumbersome for teachers. Watchguard Endpoint Security has now given us more control over our devices - as well as better protection from threats as well.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Sophos Intercept X is great at preventing malware infections and rolling back their effects. I have seen this happen hundreds of times since we installed it
• When combined with Sophos Central, you have an easy to use dashboard where you can manage all installations from a single pane of glass.
• It's easy to deploy on machines and stays updated.
• Good reporting features including alerts sent to the admin if there's ever something wrong with it.

Incentivized

• The protection is fast with unperceivable loss of network speed.
• Watchguard Endpoint Security is extremely accurate. That is, we never experienced false positives.
• Something else tht does not get mentioned enough, is we have yet to overwhelm our Firebox 390 - it has kept up with detections!

Incentivized

• It would be good to continue to minimize the amount of resources needed during a scan
• Provide more integration with Outlook to scan attachments with a notification that everything is good
• Provide a Click to Fix option when listing issues or high-risk problems on systems

Incentivized

• Sophos OOTB policies are very strict and they don't offer anything less strict without you creating new custom policies. I'm sure this is deliberate because the product starts you out in the safest way possible but it means that you will have lots of calls to your tech support desk when you first deploy it unless you do somewhat extensive testing beforehand.
• Sophos Intercept X is currently broken (at least the DLP component) by having secure boot turned on in the UEFI/BIOS. If any user wants to be able to write data to a USB drive or floppy from their PC (yes we still have a couple users who need to use floppies) we have to turn off secure boot on their PC, even if the DLP policy for that user/PC combination specifies that the user and PC are allowed to write to USB/floppy. This would be a very serious problem if it weren't for the fact that we have very few users who need to write files to USB. For us it's OK but I bet it would be a deal-breaker for others.
• I don't see a whole lot of evidence that Intercept X is any different than any other anti-virus, so maybe their admin alerts just don't clearly identify when they have identified a zero-day threat or maybe we just haven't had any zero-day threats.

Incentivized

• EndPoint has an optional feature for automatic and remote software updates on endpoints, a handy option for keeping computers up-to-date and secure. However, it is not used to install new software but only to update it. We believe that this part is instrumental, but it is somewhat incomplete.
• Another drawback is that some complementary functions to the antivirus, such as the one above, are optional and require a separate subscription.
• The implementation of EndPoint requires some planning, especially the time required to harden and learn the system. This is not critical and is typical for this type of system, but it is necessary to plan it well.

Incentivized

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

We have gotten a great product for the price. Easy to maintain and set up on new devices. Support is great and easy to work with and understand.

Incentivized

The ease of use, pricing, support, reliability, and quality of the product. Panda / WatchGuard products are highly rated, priced right and easy to maintain. All of this make it very easy to renew and purchase new licenses for us and our clients.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

The usability has never been a problem. Sophos Intercept X is a program you can install and let protect your company without much intervention. Apart from a few policies, Sophos will keep you protected better than most any product on the market. Sophos Intercept X works quite well when you are looking to "tighten your grip" on user's access to websites, programs, and add-ons.

Easy and intuitive MSP management portal to manage all of your clients from a single pane of glass. Policies can be pushed down globally or individually based on needs. The client portal allows access to their tenant information and installs only which is nice if you are working with clients who might have an internal person or an IT team that also wants access to things to manage themself.

Incentivized

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

The software is 100% managed on a cloud platform that can be managed via an account even if they are not present within the company network where the software is installed, I even always opened the control panel on the browser of my smartphone to monitor the situation.I have never experienced any abnormal software crashes

Incentivized

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easy on memory and resources on clients.

Incentivized

The only annoyance I complain, if we want to be picky, is the fact of the constant disconnections from the control panel.Every about 4 hours the account logs out even if I set the "remember this device" flag; having said that I have not noticed neither slowdowns nor conflicts with other software

Incentivized

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

Most of the support reps are fantastic. There have been a few though that have had to be escalated via Account Manager when they haven't followed up but this is a rare instance, and often followed up by the Support Manager for APAC.

Incentivized

I gave it a 10 because I compare it to air conditioning. I need it to work every day, 24/7. I need it to be reliable and not something that requires a ton of interaction from staff to make sure it works every day. In addition, I should be able to run other things at my house when the AC is on. Panda fits that description.

Trainer was excellent, knew this product in-depth.

Incentivized

The training was very helpful. It demonstrated how to configure the service for initial install, items to monitor, and how to set up for ongoing protection. Hands on training is more helpful but this is a good starting point

Incentivized

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

Best thing was the help pushing out via group policy and was able to get instructions for that on sophos site

Incentivized

Implementation shouldn't present any problems in standard office environments. In environments with development teams, however, caution is needed. If zero trust is enabled, mechanisms must be in place to ensure that internal software isn't classified as a false positive (software certificate, exception folder, etc.)

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

Webroot Endpoint Protection is not even in the same league as Sophos Intercept-X. I have tested and compared both sides by side, run simulations and it's not even close. Plus the Sophos central management is so much better. Easier to view user activities and apply policies and remediate threats. Sophos is the clear winner between these two products.

Incentivized

We prefer to maintain loyalty with a brand that really delivers what it promises. Our focus is to bring customers who have other solutions to Watchguard's base, however some companies have their own IT department and already work with other tools. Preferimos Fidelizar com uma marca que realmente entreg o que promente. Nosso foco é trazer os clientes que possuem outras soluções para base da Watchguard, contudo algumas empresas possuem departamento de TI próprio e já atuam com outras ferramentas.

Incentivized

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is easily scaled from small orgs to giant enterprises.

Incentivized

With the implementation of watchguard (at the beginning Panda Endpoint, but it is the same) I was able to insert in the control panel all the unauthorized software previously installed by colleagues without any authorization from the various department heads.Now any licensed software goes into lockdown and can be unlocked from the control panel

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Once our technical and commercial areas got certified, the ROI over the time spent, is great. Actual customers, and/or new ones with other tools, feel safe and advised, once they get in touch with us.
• When Sophos EndPoint is being compared against Web Management Tools (competitors), we have failed to deliver, nevertheless, there is a version of Sophos Central (Cloud) which achieves this requirement at 100% and more, since is Cloud Based (on AWS).
• We are grateful to be on Sophos "Radar" as a Platinum Partner, and "The Americas" valued partner, we have seen our business grow, thanks to this kind of technology, throughout the years.

Incentivized

• By committing to go all in on Watchguard Advanced EPDR across our whole client base, we maximized our price position - enabling us to offer the best endpoint security at a price better than what lesser competitive products cost.
• Leveraging Watchguard Endpoint Security as part of our unified platform strategy provides better integrated security, managed through Watchguard's cloud architecture. This significantly reduces our cost to deploy, manage, and support our client's. Our improved security offering, better delivery, and stronger price position has helped us achieve 56% growth in our managed services business over the past 18-months.
• Organizations that have disparate cyber security products often require specialists for each solution in their stack. Watchguard provides outstanding training resources that equip our entire technical staff - significantly improving our service delivery while lowering our overall cost of business.

Incentivized