Compare Microsoft endpoint security plans

Article
01/12/2023
3 minutes to read

Microsoft endpoint security plans, such as Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and Microsoft 365 Defender, were designed to help enterprise organizations prevent, detect, investigate, and respond to advanced threats. Microsoft Defender for Business and Microsoft 365 Business Premium provide similar capabilities, optimized for small and medium-sized businesses. These plans provide advanced threat protection with antivirus and antimalware protection, ransomware mitigation, and more, together with centralized management and reporting.

This article helps clarify what’s included in the following plans:

Important

This article provides a summary of threat protection capabilities in Microsoft endpoint security plans; however, it’s not intended to be a service description or licensing contract document. For more detailed information, see the following resources:

Compare Microsoft endpoint security plans

The following table summarizes what’s included in Microsoft endpoint security plans.

Plan	What’s included
Defender for Endpoint Plan 1
Defender for Endpoint Plan 2	All of the Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 capabilities, plus:
Defender Vulnerability Management add-on	More Defender Vulnerability Management capabilities for Defender for Endpoint Plan 2:
Defender for Business [1]	Services optimized for small and medium-sized businesses include: Email protection Antispam protection Antimalware protection Next-generation protection Attack surface reduction Endpoint detection and response Automated investigation and response Vulnerability management Centralized reporting APIs (for integration with custom apps or reporting solutions) Integration with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse

(1) Microsoft Defender for Business is available as a standalone subscription for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s also included as part of Microsoft 365 Business Premium. These plans feature advanced security capabilities with a simplified setup and configuration experience. See Compare Microsoft Defender for Business to Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

Tip

For more detailed information, see the following resources:

Options for onboarding servers

Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 and 2 (standalone), Defender for Business (standalone), and Microsoft 365 Business Premium don’t include server licenses. To onboard servers, choose from the following options:

Mixed licensing scenarios

Suppose that your organization is using a mix of Microsoft endpoint security subscriptions, such as Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 and Defender for Endpoint Plan 2. Currently, the highest functional Microsoft endpoint security subscription sets the experience for your tenant. In this example, your tenant experience would be Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 for all users.

However, you can contact support and request an override for your tenant experience. That is, you could request an override to keep the Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 experience for all users.