A lot of the not-for-profits we meet are pricing up SentinelOne while sitting on a perfectly capable endpoint product they have never switched on.
It tends to come up in a budget meeting. The board has asked someone to "look at cyber," a SentinelOne quote has come back with a per-device price, and the obvious question follows: why pay for this when already has security in the box? For an organisation that runs lean on purpose, paying twice to protect the same laptops is a hard sell. So they ask. Buy SentinelOne, or is Defender enough?
Unlike a lot of cyber comparisons, this is a fair fight. Both are proper platforms doing the same job. For a not-for-profit, the deciding factor usually is not the technology. It is the pricing, and what you have already bought.
What you're actually comparing
Both products live on your laptops and servers, watch for malicious behaviour, and step in when something goes wrong. The real difference is where each one comes from.
SentinelOne is a standalone endpoint platform
SentinelOne, sold as the Singularity platform, is a dedicated security vendor's product. You license it per endpoint, roll its agent out across your devices, and run it from its own console. It has a strong reputation, particularly for autonomous response, where the agent can contain a threat on the device without waiting for a human, and for rollback on Windows, which can put a machine back to how it was before the attack. Because it is vendor-neutral, it behaves much the same across Windows, macOS and Linux, and it has nothing to do with your productivity software.
Defender for Business is built into Microsoft 365
is Microsoft's equivalent, and the part that matters here is where it lives. Defender for Business, the version aimed at smaller organisations, is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium. It does the same fundamental work, watching device behaviour and isolating compromised machines, and it feeds into Microsoft's wider Defender so that signals from your email, identities and devices get read together rather than one screen at a time.
So you have two competent endpoint platforms. One you buy on its own. One you may already be paying for and not using.
Where the money actually goes
This is where the value case gets clear, because the two are priced on opposite principles.
Defender is mostly included in your Microsoft 365 licence
If your not-for-profit runs on Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Defender for Business is already yours. It is in the licence. No separate per-device line, no second vendor contract, no extra agent to buy.
Sector pricing sharpens the point. Eligible Australian NFPs can get Microsoft 365 Business Premium through Microsoft's grant and discount programs, which pulls the per-user cost well under the commercial rate. So you end up with a capable endpoint platform, plus email and identity protection, inside a licence your sector can access at charity rates. To get the same protection, SentinelOne is an added cost on top of the Microsoft licences you need anyway.
The catch is that included is not the same as switched on. We walk into Business Premium tenants most weeks where Defender is licensed but doing nothing. Devices never enrolled. The left at default. That is the worst spot to be in, because you are paying for the licence and getting none of the cover, and it is usually the exact gap a SentinelOne quote is meant to plug. Nine times out of ten the cheaper fix is to turn on what you already own.
SentinelOne is a separate cost per endpoint
SentinelOne is billed per device, per year, as its own subscription, and it sits entirely on top of your Microsoft spend. For a 50-person charity that is a real recurring number. It can be money well spent in the right setting. It is money spent twice if the protection it adds mostly repeats what Defender already gives you in the 365 licence.
How they compare on protection
This is not a case of paying more for less. SentinelOne is a strong product, and there are places where it leads.
Its autonomous on-device response and Windows rollback are genuinely good, and being vendor-neutral it stays consistent across mixed operating systems, which suits shops with a lot of Mac or Linux. It has rated near the top of independent testing for years.
Defender's edge is a different one. It is the integration. Because it is part of the Microsoft estate, it reads device alerts next to Office 365 email threats and Entra sign-in risk, and you manage it through the same and Microsoft 365 admin tools your IT support already lives in. For a Microsoft-first organisation running mostly Windows, that joined-up picture tends to be worth more day to day than a slim lead on any one endpoint metric, and you skip standing up a second console nobody asked for. Most Australian NFPs are overwhelmingly Windows and 365, so the core protection lands much the same and the decision comes down to cost and fit.
Why Defender is the right starting point for most NFPs
Line them up and the order is fairly obvious. Defender for Business is already in your licence, often at charity pricing, it covers the things attackers actually go for, and it runs on tooling your support team already knows. SentinelOne is an extra contract that pays off in specific situations. So the sensible first move for a not-for-profit is to get full value out of what you own before bolting a second product onto it.
In practice that means enrolling every device into Defender for Business, switching on the Microsoft 365 protection that comes with Business Premium, enforcing and sensible through Entra, and tuning the alerts so the ones that matter get seen. Do that properly and a typical NFP goes from "licensed but exposed" to genuinely well defended, mostly inside money already committed. That is the job our Fortify managed security service is built for, and for most not-for-profits it is the whole job.
It lines up with the too, which counts for something when a funder or your insurer starts asking how mature your security really is. You can show real progress on the Microsoft tooling you already hold, then back it with penetration testing when you need independent proof the configuration stands up.
When SentinelOne genuinely makes sense for a not-for-profit
SentinelOne is not the wrong answer for everyone, and some NFPs should pick it. The signals are reasonably clear.
You run a genuinely mixed estate with a lot of Mac or Linux, where a vendor-neutral agent stays more consistent than Microsoft's does. You are on a lower Microsoft 365 tier that does not include Defender for Endpoint, so the protection is not bundled and the maths changes. You have made a deliberate call to keep your security vendor separate from your productivity vendor. Or you have a specific need, like the rollback, that you have tested and rate.
If that is you, SentinelOne earns its keep. If it is not, buying it now usually means paying a second time for protection your Microsoft licence already includes.
The honest answer: switch on what you own first
This is not really a contest over which agent catches a fraction more in a lab.
For the typical Australian NFP, running Windows and Microsoft 365 at charity pricing, Defender for Business is a capable endpoint platform you have already paid for. Get it switched on, configured and actually watched, and you close the gaps attackers use, with no second subscription. SentinelOne is worth its separate cost when your estate is mixed, your licensing leaves Defender out, or you have a real reason to keep your security vendor independent. Start with what you own, make it earn its place, and let an actual need decide whether SentinelOne follows.
For a sector that has to justify every dollar, that order is the responsible one as well as the cheaper one.
Frequently asked questions
Is Microsoft Defender as good as SentinelOne?
For day-to-day endpoint detection and response they are close, and both score well in independent testing. SentinelOne leads on autonomous on-device response, ransomware rollback and consistency across mixed operating systems. Defender leads on integration with Microsoft 365, Entra and Intune. For a Microsoft-first organisation running mostly Windows, Defender's joined-up view usually matters more than a small gap on any single detection score.
Is Microsoft Defender included in Microsoft 365?
For the plans most not-for-profits use, yes. Microsoft 365 Business Premium includes Defender for Business for endpoint protection, plus email and identity protection. The enterprise E5 plan includes the more advanced Defender for Endpoint Plan 2. The thing to watch is that licensed is not the same as configured, and the protection only counts once it is properly turned on.
Does buying SentinelOne mean paying for endpoint protection twice?
Often, yes. If you are on Microsoft 365 Business Premium you are already paying for Defender for Business inside that licence. SentinelOne is a separate per-device subscription on top, so unless you have a specific reason to run it, you are paying again for capability you largely already have.
When should a not-for-profit choose SentinelOne over Defender?
When you run a genuinely mixed estate with a lot of Mac or Linux, when your Microsoft 365 tier does not include Defender for Endpoint, or when you have made a deliberate choice to keep your security vendor independent of Microsoft. For most Windows-and-365 NFPs none of those apply, and Defender is the better-value place to start.
