In this blog post, we'll compare the two suites and give you some guidance which could be right for you.
Which Microsoft 365 Advanced Threat Protection Add-On is Right for My Organisation?
Scenario 1 - “We are worried about cyberattacks, not auditors”
Scenario 2 - “Clients and regulators are on our back about compliance”
Scenario 3 - "We need both security and compliance, but budgets are tight"
Which One to Choose - At A Glance
No-one likes spending money on something they won't use or would be considered 'overkill'. That's why we've put together scenarios that will help you decide which product works best for you:
As a typical SMB, you've probably been through a phishing email scare and are aware of the risk of ransomware. You may have implemented multi-factor authentication (MFA) - hopefully across the board - but your users may already be experiencing so-called MFA fatigue.
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With Entra ID P1 (already included in your Microsoft 365 Business Premium subscription) you can grant Conditional Access based on fairly static conditions like location, device, app, group, etc.
With P2, included in the Defender Suite add-on, you can add risk into the decision. Microsoft Entra ID Protection calculates a sign-in risk (how suspicious this login looks) and a user risk (how likely this account is compromised overall) using hundreds of signals, then feeds those scores into Conditional Access policies in real time.
So you can write policies like:
“If sign-in risk is medium or high, require MFA.”Here is the real difference: even Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 is an optional add-on for Microsoft 365 Business Premium, so is not included as standard. With the Defender Suite, you're getting Plan 2, the upgraded version.
It helps you stop advanced attacks and ransomware faster with AI-powered endpoint detection and response, deception, and automated investigation and remediation that contain threats across Windows, macOS, Linux, mobile and IoT devices.
It shrinks your attack surface and supports you in fixing what matters first using integrated cyberthreat and vulnerability management plus global threat intelligence and Secure Score recommendations to identify exposures and prioritise remediation.
You benefit from enterprise-grade protection in a single platform that builds on Defender for Endpoint P1, adding advanced EDR and automation while integrating with Defender XDR and Sentinel for unified security operations.
Find more information about Microsoft Defender for Endpoint here.
Plan 1 is already included in your Microsoft Office Business Premium subscription and is about preventing threats getting through. Plan 2 adds training, investigation, hunting and automation.
More specifically:
Plan 1 (P1)
Offers core pre-breach protection for email and collaboration: Safe links, safe attachments, anti-phishing, real-time detections, basic reporting and investigations. It focuses on blocking malicious URLs, files and phishing before users are hit.
Plan 2 (P2)
Includes everything in P1, plus: attack simulation training, Threat Explorer, advanced hunting, automated investigation and response, richer reporting, investigation and remediation tooling. In other words, security operations features for post-breach investigation and response. It can also be integrated with Microsoft Defender XDR, which is not the case for P1.
If you just want solid email protection, P1 is usually enough. If you care about user training, detailed investigations and automated response (= what happens after an attack), you need P2. You can find a comparison table on Microsoft's website. Find more information about the products here.
This platform finds and controls shadow IT, ensures only approved SaaS apps are used, and protects against SaaS, OAuth and risky generative AI interactions. It delivers full SaaS visibility, risk insights and misconfiguration remediation to reduce your cloud attack surface.
See everything in your SaaS estate
Get full visibility of all the SaaS apps in use, assess them against 90+ risk factors and surface shadow IT so you can remove blind spots and improve your SaaS security posture.
Control how apps and data are used
Govern app-to-app connections, detect over-permissioned or risky OAuth apps and enforce policies that manage which apps are allowed and how they interact with your data.
Stop sophisticated SaaS attacks faster
Detect unusual behaviour across connected apps, automatically disrupt OAuth-based and other SaaS attacks, and investigate incidents in context through the Microsoft Defender portal and XDR.
Safely adopt generative AI
Discover and risk-rate generative AI apps at scale, then apply security controls so staff can use AI tools without exposing sensitive data or expanding your attack surface.
Learn more about Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps here.
If you care more about stopping cyberattacks than pleasing auditors, the Defender Suite adds the missing pieces on top of Business Premium. Entra ID P2 brings risk-based Conditional Access that automatically steps up or blocks access when sign-ins look suspicious, reducing MFA fatigue and scaling better than static rules. Defender for Endpoint Plan 2 gives you enterprise-grade EDR, AI-driven detection and automated response to advanced attacks and ransomware. Defender for Office 365 P2 strengthens protection across email and collaboration with simulations, hunting and post-breach automation, while Defender for Cloud Apps uncovers shadow IT, controls SaaS usage and secures generative AI so you can lock down modern cloud risks.
So let's look at the costs of the Microsoft Defender Suite Again - and their individual components if added separately:
| Microsoft Defender for... | Prices per user/month* | Microsoft Defender Suite |
| Endpoint P2 | £4.20 | (included) |
| Office 365 P2 | £3.99 | (included) |
| Identity | £4.41 | (included) |
| Cloud Apps | £2.84 | (included) |
| Microsoft Entra | ||
| ID Plan 2 | £7.25 | (included) |
| Total | £22.69 | £8.09* |
| Savings | 64% |
*Prices based on annual subscription with monthly payments
It may be the tender asking for audit trails, retention or Data Loss Prevention (DLP) that triggers you to look into a solution that can help with that - that's where the Microsoft Purview Suite comes in.
Information Protection and DLP
Classifies and labels sensitive data so protection follows the file, wherever it goes, and uses DLP policies to quietly block or restrict risky sharing (like financial or health data leaving the organisation).
Insider Risk Management
Monitors user behaviour for signs of risky or malicious activity (for example, mass downloads or unusual sharing) so you can act early while still protecting employee privacy.
Message Encryption, Records & Lifecycle Management
Encrypts sensitive emails so only intended recipients can read them, and applies automated retention / deletion policies to content so you meet regulatory obligations without manual records admin.
eDiscovery (Premium), Audit (Premium), Compliance Manager
Helps legal and compliance teams find and hold content for investigations, provides detailed audit logs for forensic analysis, and gives a central dashboard to track compliance posture and remediation actions.
| Cost per user/month * | Microsoft Purview Suite | |
| E5 eDiscovery & Audit | £4.83 | (included) |
| E5 Insider Risk Management | £4.83 | (included) |
| E5 Info Protection & Governance | £5.67 | (included) |
| Total | £15.33 | £8.09* |
| Savings | 47% |
*Prices based on annual subscription with monthly payments
Let's assume you have a broad risk profile but a limited IT headcount, so could benefit from automation - that's where the combined Microsoft Defender and Purview Suites make sense. And if you sign up for the combined suites rather than adding them on separately, you'll again benefit from a reduced price (£12.08 vs. £16.18). But below is a breakdown of everything included with individual pricing vs the packet price of Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Purview Suite in one package.
With all the information above, we can understand that it can be a little confusing which one (or IF) you should get an add-on for your Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium subscription.
In summary:
If you've decided that you'd like to stay ahead of emerging threats with enterprise-level protection by purchasing the add-ons, here's what we'd recommend:
Discuss your requirements (or what you think they are) with a Microsoft partner (such as us). Why? As an SMB ourselves, we feel your pain when it comes to budgets. We always explain solutions to our customers and advise them about what they do, and more importantly don't need.
You can, of course, buy Microsoft 365 licences directly from Microsoft. The reason our customers choose to buy through us is that while licence cost is broadly the same, you get our experience bundled in. We help you pick the right plans, design sensible policies and avoid the wasted spend and disruption that come from trial and error. In practice, the value of that guidance often offsets our fees, so your overall spend is similar but you end up with a cleaner, safer and better used Microsoft environment.
Rather than opting for a full rollout, we'd advise you piloting the solution on a smaller subset of users rather than a tenant-wide rollout. Why? Simple: with great power comes great responsibility.
The Microsoft Defender Suite and Purview are powerful but are also very capable of breaking real work if the settings are wrong. Because Microsoft 365 Defender and Purview directly change how people work (email, files, apps, sharing, retention), a tenant-wide switch-on is risky: misconfigured policies can block customer emails, break key apps, over-encrypt content, wipe or lock data, flood security with false positives and make external collaboration painful, all at once and for everyone. Piloting on a subset lets you safely find and fix these issues first: tune noisy rules, identify business-critical workflows that get blocked, sort out client / device / network prerequisites, and test your incident and approval processes in the real world. By the time you roll out tenant-wide, you have evidence-based settings, clearer communications, and far less chance of “IT just broke my job” fallout.
While piloting means part of the organisation is not yet benefitting from the full protection. The idea is to:
Start with a group that is representative and moderately high value,
Run many policies in audit / report-only mode first where that is possible,
Then move to enforcement and expand the scope in controlled phases.
That gives you a defensible balance between improving security/compliance and not accidentally breaking the business. Piloting on a subset lets you find the sharp edges without taking the whole tenant down.
We promise we'll deliver impartial advice, so why not book a free consultation call for us to see what we can do for you?