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What is Microsoft Defender for Business?

Microsoft Defender for Business is an endpoint security solution based on Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. Defender for Business is designed for small and medium sized business up to 300 users, and offers protection from ransomware, malware, phishing, and other threats on devices.

Defender for Business is available in the following subscriptions:

  • Standalone: Available to non-Microsoft organizations or eligible Microsoft 365 or Office 365 organizations with up to 300 users. For example:
    • Microsoft 365 Business Basic
    • Microsoft 365 Business Standard
    • Office 365 E1
  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium: Business Premium includes Defender for Business.

Watch the following video to learn more about Defender for Business:

This article describes what's included in Defender for Business and provides links to learn more about these features and capabilities.

What's included with Defender for Business?

Defender for Business includes a full range of device protection capabilities, as shown in the following diagram:

Defender for Business features and capabilities.

With Defender for Business, you can help protect the devices and data your business uses with:

  • Enterprise-grade security: Defender for Business brings powerful endpoint security capabilities from our industry-leading Microsoft Defender for Endpoint solution and optimizes those capabilities for IT administrators to support small and medium sized businesses.

  • An easy-to-use security solution: Defender for Business offers streamlined experiences that guide you to action with recommendations and insights into the security of your endpoints. No specialized knowledge is required, because Defender for Business offers wizard-driven configuration and default security policies that are designed to help protect your company's devices from day one.

  • Flexibility for your environment: Defender for Business can work with your business environment, whether you're using Microsoft Intune or you're brand new to the Microsoft Cloud. Defender for Business works with components that are built into Windows, and with apps for Mac, iOS, and Android devices.

  • Integration with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse, RMM tools, and PSA software:

How does Defender for Business compare to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint?

Defender for Business includes the features of Defender for Endpoint Plan 1, some features from Defender for Endpoint Plan 2, and some unique features for small to medium sized businesses. The following table summarizes the differences between Defender for Business and Defender for Endpoint:

Feature Defender for
Business		 Defender for
Endpoint Plan 1		 Defender for
Endpoint Plan 2
APIs ✔ ✔ ✔
Attack surface reduction ✔ ✔ ✔
Automated investigation and remediation ✔ ✔
Automatic attack disruption ✔ ✔
Centralized management ✔ ✔ ✔
Cross-platform support
(Mac, iOS/iPadOS, Android)		 ✔ ✔ ✔
Data retention:
  • 30 days advanced hunting
  • Six months of data retention
 ✔
Endpoint detection & response (EDR) ✔
(optimized)		 ✔
Microsoft 365 Lighthouse
(optimized; for CSPs only)		 ✔ ✔ ✔
Microsoft Defender multitenant management ✔ ✔ ✔
Microsoft Threat Experts ✔
Monthly security summary reporting ✔ ✔
Next-generation protection ✔ ✔ ✔
Server support * *</sup *</sup
Simplified firewall and antivirus configuration for Windows ✔
Threat analytics ✔
(optimized)		 ✔
Vulnerability management (core capabilities) ✔ ✔

* Protection for Windows servers and Linux servers is available, but requires extra licenses. For more information, see Does Defender for Business support servers?.

How does Defender for Business compare to Microsoft 365 Business Premium?

Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Defender for Business and provides more cybersecurity and productivity capabilities as showing in the following diagram.

Diagram comparing Defender for Business to Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

For more detailed information about what's included in each subscription, see the following resources:

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