Endpoint protection

The application has a box for your EDR provider’s name, and all you have is what came with Windows. Endpoint protection for a small business has three answers. A few Windows PCs and nobody asking: buy nothing. A form or client wants EDR, or you want one view of every computer: Microsoft Defender for Business at $3 a user a month, $180 a year at 5 people and $1,440 at 40. Nobody to read the alerts: ESET PROTECT Premium, because ESET’s analysts read them. Prices are in US dollars.

Buy nothing until someone asks, or you can’t check by hand

Free Defender is built into Windows 10 and 11, and it needs no replacing because the business has grown. We’d draw the line at about 10 computers, because past that nobody walks round them to check. A Mac at work is the exception, since Microsoft lists the built-in antivirus for Windows only. Here’s when free Defender is enough in full.

Then ask who will open the console

Defender for Business automates a lot, but a console nobody opens monitors nothing. If the honest answer is “no one”, pay for analysts: ESET PROTECT Premium is $1,030 a year at its 10-device minimum, and $3,292 at 40. Whichever you pick, read what “do you use EDR” is really asking on the form before you write a name in the box.

Ignore a second brand unless you have a reason for it

Bitdefender GravityZone has one clear case: Linux desktops, or a console on your own hardware. Weighing that against ESET? What each console asks of you each week settles it. Otherwise skip the comparison charts. On Business Premium you’ve already paid for Defender for Business, so switch it on before buying anything.