Microsoft Defender for Office 365 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee.

How Software Advice ensures transparency

Software Advice lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Users can talk to our advisors for free to receive software recommendations matching their needs. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to reach users interested in their products.

How Software Advice verifies reviews

Software Advice carefully verified over 2 million reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI.

Independent research methodology

Researchers at Software Advice use a mix of verified reviews, independent research, and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or talk to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology.

On this page

Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
User Reviews

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

4.6

(233)

Pricing

Pricing available upon request

About Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a cloud-based solution that provides businesses with tools to identify, investigate and remediate potential email threats. Professionals can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology to verify the authenticity of internal or external emails, perform spoof checks and automatically scan attachments for malicious content.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 allows organizations to configure security policies and receive automated alerts about malware campaigns, malicious URL clicks or unusual email activities. Managers can review quarantined messages and generate detailed reports to gain insights into incidents, risk trends and more. Additionally, it lets users create custom queries and filter metadata based on system overrides, detection technology or inbound connector.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 enables businesses to self-report malicious emails and maintain a record of incidents. Pricing is available on request and support is extended via documentation and other online measures.

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Screenshots

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pricing and Plans

Starting price: Pricing available upon request

Free Trial

Free Version

Basic

Pricing available upon request

No plan information available

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Features

Popular features found in Email Security
Email Attachment Protection
Encryption
Spam Blocker
Spam Quarantine
Whitelisting/Blacklisting
More features of Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Access Controls/Permissions
Alerts/Escalation
Allow/Block List
Anti Spam
Data Loss Prevention
Email Filtering
Email Routing
Greylisting
Microsoft Outlook Integration
Phishing Protection
Policy Management
Real-Time Monitoring
Reporting/Analytics
Spam Detection
SURLB/URIBL Filtering
Threat Protection
Threat Response

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.6

Ratings Breakdown

64%

30%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.5

Value for money

4.5

Customer support

4.3

Functionality

4.5

Charles Boampong K.

Verified reviewer

Computer Software

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed March 2022

Excellent Protection For Enterprise Emails and Cloud-based Activities

It provides many great features that help to keep your data fully secured. I, therefore, recommend for any organization that's looking for an effective cloud data protection.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

It gives you much protection against phishing and spamming. This helps the organization to concentrate on production, rather than investing more time and resources for data protection.

Cons:

It's works well so far for us, so I can't think of any disadvantages for now. Maybe as time time progresses and our activities get quite complex, we may be able to detect the downside of it.

Reasons for choosing Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Someone recommended it for us.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Defender for Office 365

We started experiencing a couple of problems.

Abrar K.

Verified reviewer

Market Research

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed July 2021

Go for this anti-virus, as it is the best one around.

Overall I like the product as it comes in a package with other Microsoft tools. Also it provides a great deal of protection against malwares and viruses. It can do scheduled scan from time to time once specified. It does not cost you anything except for the deployment which is very impressive.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

It is free and easy to setup. It is great for detecting threats across the networks, detecting spam and other major malicious activities. The reports generated are very detailed and lets you analyze the threat level making it very useful for protection.

Cons:

This rate of detection of this toll is less when compared to other competitors. Deployment is expensive and we face issues sometimes while deploying. The notification pop-ups are too many and it gives discomfort to the users.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Defender for Office 365

It consumes a lot of memory and when it is used all the other processes on my computer slows down which made me switch to Microsoft Defender for Office 365.

Juan Ramón F.

Verified reviewer

Information Services

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed May 2021

I think it's the worst

It doesn't solve any problems, it just causes more. The only reason I have it is because it comes pre-installed

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

The only thing I like about Defender is that it is very simple to disable. It only represents an obstacle to install programs.

Cons:

Its virus scans are the worst, it consumes a lot of RAM and gives very low results

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Because I need an antivirus that does work

Siyanda N.

Verified reviewer

Accounting

1001-5000 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed February 2022

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (MDO) Reviews & Product Details

It has assisted us in working on our security with acting. It recognizes any sort of assault or strange conduct in getting to the framework and sends a caution to the chairman who can check, comprehend, and audit on schedule to guarantee that movements of every kind are genuine. It impedes all known dangers right away and sends cautions to follow up. It isn't utilized on all gadgets. On the gadgets on which it is being utilized, it has worked on the security by 80%. It has further developed our security mindfulness. It helped us in understanding the shortcomings in our setup that should have been fixed to stay away from any sort of break. It has expanded our security level and relieved the gamble of being compromised.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The arrangement is extremely simple to utilize. You should simply to relegate the permit to the end-client and it's finished. The client will just have the component enacted, and the arrangement will screen the messages to decide whether they are a danger or not. Safe connections, approaches, and the capacity to shield from zero-day dangers are the most important highlights.

Cons:

They can work on their security in a manner where a client can know whether every one of their connections are protected or not to open through a report. The arrangement takes care of its business impeccably, however it never reports to the client whether or not those connections have been halted previously. This item's viability could be improved, as far as identifying undesirable spam or even malware between the messages, contrasted with different items.

Reasons for choosing Microsoft Defender for Office 365

We use it for identifying any sort of break or interruption. It isn't empowered for everybody since we have our own antivirus. We are utilizing Defender to safeguard various types of connections, messages, and safe connections, and things like that.

Alhassan A.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

11-50 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed July 2021

provides adequate protection against the most common threats

Considering it comes for free with the Windows Operating System, it has high compatibility with the microsoft tools we commonly use. And that saves us time spent downloading .apk files and installing them. Also, updates and upgrades are mostly automated and do not require any additional time spent to carry them out. These are all great benefits Defender provides at zero cost to us, so I can't not love it regardless of its few flaws.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

the best thing about Defender is that it comes at zero additional costs for full protection and product functionality. The spam detection and filtering mechanism allows for manual readjustments to permanently address cases of mislabeling and false alarms. The advanced parental control guidance it provides is also quite effective in it's range of custom adjustments to suit each potential user.

Cons:

Scanning local drives can be painfully slow especially for huge file counts, even if the size of the scanned documents are tiny. They also fail to recognize certain low level threats that are easily detected by others.

Reasons for choosing Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Defender was the cheaper option.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Defender for Office 365

The persistent product license mishaps and accompanying stubborn notifications that never go away no matter how many times you disable them made using it very annoying.

Cindy O.

Verified reviewer

Hospital & Health Care

Self-Employed

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2022

Security AntiVirus Protection you must have for your business or home computer

I have tried other AntiVirus Security software and have to say Microsoft Defender is simply the best. It is far superior to the others in that it does it's job quietly, in the background, your work does not get interrupted all the time and you know you are protected 24/7. When your business depends on the protection of your data you need Microsoft Defender.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Functionality

Pros:

I love that Microsoft Defender runs in the background, it does it's job without a lot of fuss. You don't have to see or know it's running all the time but you trust it is doing it's job all the time.

Cons:

I wish there was more reports available for the results of the scans and the quarantined emails. To there advantage there might be and I have not found them yet.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Rating, ease of use, cost effective and superior product

Yvonne K.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed July 2021

Staying safe with Microsoft Defender

It has shown me that It works, I have not had any issues that were not handled and I only use Microsoft Defender on my computer.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I like most about this software is that it came with Microsoft. I didn't have to purchase it or research to make sure it would work with Microsoft products. It is a Microsoft product, so I am confident that it will and can protect my computer.

Cons:

I have not found anything that I don't like about it. If there is something more I need besides defender, my computer has not told me.

Reasons for choosing Microsoft Defender for Office 365

It was on my computer.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Defender for Office 365

I switched when I bought a computer and Defender was already on the computer and I didn't have to purchase a third party product.

Alexis C.

Verified reviewer

Marketing and Advertising

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2021

Takes a lot of work and stress off of my shoulders.

Other than my initial compatibility issue that has been resolved, I have no complaints.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I love how it has multiple features that I used to use several different software for. It comes with everything that I need and I haven't had a virus since I started with it. My devices actually run more swift and the security settings are amazing.

Cons:

I would say that when I first started with it, it wasn't compatible with everything but there are always updates and I haven't had a compatibility issue in over a year. It is constantly being updated and modernized with daily technology and software and I hope it is around for many more years, I don't know if my business would continue smoothly without it.

Reasons for switching to Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Each other software had things that the other didn't, Microsoft Defender comes with everything.

zzimbe a.

Verified reviewer

Accounting

501-1000 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed July 2022

Microsoft Defender holds up to the attempt to sell something and that's only the tip of the iceberg

My organization uses Defender for office 365 across all gadgets, including Windows and Linux servers. For my purposes, Defender's capacities are over some other AV apparatus I recently utilized. A portion of the primary advantages for us are: Cloud Console Cloud based refreshes Live insurance

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Works really hard isolating sketchy messages that might have dubious connections.

Cons:

To utilize this item to its full capacities, Intune will be required

Reasons for choosing Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Our utilization case is for monetary gatherings and we use it to control malware, as well concerning antivirus. Our attention is on involving it as an endpoint arrangement, however we cover the more established servers as well.

David B.

Verified reviewer

Hospitality

2-10 employees

Used weekly for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed November 2023

Great product for the price.