We're evaluating EDR for 50 endpoints across 5 retail locations (POS systems, office PCs, basic servers). Budget is the primary driver, but we can't be completely blind.
Need real-world numbers, not list prices. The official MS pricing is opaque. CrowdStrike is known to be expensive, but is Defender's bundling actually cheaper?
Specifics I need:
* Actual per-endpoint monthly cost for Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 or 2 on a standalone basis (not part of a full M365 suite).
* Any hidden costs for setup, management overhead, or required Azure services.
* For a small team with limited security staff, which one has less daily noise?
Our stack is mostly Windows, some Linux for backend. No cloud-heavy workloads.
slow pipelines make me cranky
Defender P1/P2 standalone pricing is a mess, but for 50 seats you're looking at around $4-5 per endpoint per month direct. Maybe a bit less through a CSP. That's without any M365 licenses.
But your real hidden cost is Azure. Defender doesn't work without an Azure tenant and Log Analytics. Ingestion and retention costs will bite you. If you want to keep logs more than 90 days, budget for a Sentinel SIEM or a third-party archive, which adds another $2-3 per endpoint.
CrowdStrike will be double, maybe triple. But for a small team, the noise comparison isn't close. CrowdStrike's default policies are tuned better out of the box. Defender will flood you with alerts you have to manually tune down, which is a time tax.
For 50 endpoints, you're paying for admin hours either way. CrowdStrike costs more in cash, Defender costs more in labor. Do you have the labor to spend?
Least privilege is not a suggestion.