As the digital world continues to evolve, organisations of all sizes need to stay vigilant and protect their data. In FY2024–25, the Australian Cyber Security Centre received over 84,700 cybercrime reports, an average of one every six minutes, and it’s estimated this still only reflects a fraction of actual online crime. Incidents responded to by the ACSC rose 11% on the previous year, and average losses for businesses climbed to $80,850 per report, up 50% on the year prior, with some categories reaching as high as $202,700 per incident.
This is where Microsoft Sentinel and SentinelOne come into play. These two security solutions are designed to help organisations protect their data and systems against malicious threats.
Both solutions are effective at protecting your business, but understanding the differences between them will help you make the best choice for your organisation.
Choose the best security solution for your organisation: Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-based SIEM for AI-driven threat detection, while SentinelOne is an endpoint security platform built for real-time protection.
What is Microsoft Sentinel?
Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-based Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution that provides artificial intelligence (AI) driven security analytics and threat detection. It can be used to protect against threats like ransomware and data breaches.
It combines Microsoft’s cloud-based machine learning (ML) and AI technology with advanced security analytics to detect, investigate, and respond to threats. This is done by analysing data to identify patterns and anomalies that indicate potential security incidents.
Microsoft Sentinel is also the foundation of Microsoft’s unified security operations platform. Its SIEM capabilities now sit alongside Microsoft Defender XDR inside a single Microsoft Defender portal, giving analysts one place to triage identity, endpoint, cloud, and email alerts instead of switching between consoles.
Microsoft Sentinel features and capabilities
Threat intelligence: AI and ML identify malicious activity and track the trends of malicious actors. This information can be used to create customised threat alerts and responses.
Automatic threat detection: Known threats are detected and blocked before an attack can happen.
Threat hunting: Sentinel collects data from various sources – including system logs, network traffic, and application data – and using that information to make predictions about future attacks
Advanced analytics: Powered by big data, ML, and AI, Sentinel’s advanced analytics make the solution an invaluable tool for organisations looking for a comprehensive view of their security posture.
Real-time threat analysis: The security engine in the agent monitors for and identifies new threats, providing context for the events. The user sees this context in their account so that they can investigate and determine what happened.
Built-in orchestration: Sentinel’s built-in orchestration capabilities help to manage and automate the response process. This means that you can quickly identify the source of the attack, block the malicious activity, and protect your customers.
Enhanced logging: Security events are created in Azure Active Directory (AAD) and can be searched and reviewed by administrators.
Full audit trail: An audit trail is created from the moment an event happens and is sent to the security cloud.
What is SentinelOne?
SentinelOne is an endpoint security platform that provides real-time protection against malware, viruses, and other threats. It offers a variety of features including threat detection, prevention, and response.
SentinelOne plays an integral role in protecting your organisation’s assets by detecting and blocking malicious software and ransomware before they cause damage. It also ensures that company data is secure and compliant at all times.
SentinelOne’s advanced security engine instantly analyses suspicious activity, scans for malware, and blocks threats with zero-second latency. It then generates security events and sends them to Azure for further investigation. This process is automated and can be configured to run at predefined intervals.
SentinelOne features and capabilities
Behavioural analysis: Gains insights into the activity on your endpoints so you can identify risky behaviours and take preventative measures.
Advanced threat detection: Using a combination of AI, ML, and behavioural analytics, SentinelOne detects and protects against threats before they have a chance to do any damage.
Threat response automation: SentinelOne scans all system processes and data flows to identify suspicious activities, and then takes appropriate action when it finds a threat. The automated response can be tailored to suit the specific needs of your business.
Automated remediation: Allows the system to respond quickly and effectively to any threats, taking action to contain and mitigate the attack even before it can cause any harm.
Network segmentation: This technology allows users to divide their network into smaller segments, making it harder for malicious actors to infiltrate the entire network. Each segment is monitored and protected from threats, so if a threat does penetrate one segment, the rest of the network is safe.
Application whitelisting: This creates a list of approved, or “whitelisted”, applications that can be used on your system. Any applications that are not on this list are automatically blocked from being installed or run.
Microsoft Sentinel is an SOAR and SIEM solution
Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-native Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution. They are cloud-native technologies that monitor and analyse activities across the entire IT infrastructure.
SOAR uses artificial intelligence to analyse and respond to threats in real-time, while SIEM aggregates data from multiple sources to provide a comprehensive view of the network.
SentinelOne is an endpoint security solution
Endpoint security solutions are designed to protect devices connected to the network, such as laptops and mobile devices. They concentrate on preventing malicious attacks by monitoring all activities of the device, such as applications and data, in real-time. These solutions are great for protecting individual devices, but they can be limited when it comes to protecting the network as a whole.
Endpoint detection and response are essential components of any endpoint security solution. It can detect malicious activity on your system, alert the appropriate personnel, and take the necessary steps to protect your system as cyber threats become more sophisticated.
What’s the difference?
The most obvious difference is their approach: Microsoft Sentinel takes a more comprehensive, holistic approach to security, while SentinelOne focuses more on your endpoints.
Microsoft Sentinel specialises in threat intelligence, monitoring, and incident analysis. It’s designed to detect and respond to both known and unknown threats across your entire environment.
SentinelOne, on the other hand, focuses on prevention first, providing real-time, AI-powered protection against both known and unknown threats, plus automated remediation so you can respond to threats without manual intervention.
Microsoft Sentinel vs SentinelOne at a glance
| Category | Microsoft Sentinel | SentinelOne |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Cloud-native SIEM, delivered through Azure and the Microsoft Defender portal | Agent-based Singularity Platform, installed on endpoints, servers, and cloud workloads |
| Pricing model | Consumption-based, priced on data ingested, stored, and consumed | Per-endpoint licensing, typically tiered by feature set |
| Detection approach | Correlates logs and telemetry across the environment using AI, ML, and analytics rules | Behavioural AI and ML on the endpoint itself, detecting activity as it happens |
| Automation | SOAR playbooks and Logic Apps to orchestrate response across connected systems | Automated remediation and rollback executed directly on the affected device |
| Integrations | Over 350 native connectors across Microsoft and third-party tools | Integrates with SIEM platforms, including Microsoft Sentinel, plus identity and cloud providers |
When to use both together
Microsoft Sentinel and SentinelOne are often positioned as competitors, but in practice they solve different problems and work well as a “better together” pairing rather than an either-or choice.
SentinelOne protects the endpoint itself, stopping malware, ransomware, and suspicious processes on the device in real time, before damage occurs. Microsoft Sentinel doesn’t compete with that; instead, it ingests SentinelOne’s telemetry alongside data from identities, email, network devices, and cloud services, giving your security team one correlated view across the entire environment.
This combination gives an organisation deep, automated protection on every laptop and server from SentinelOne, plus the broad, cross-environment visibility and long-term threat hunting that only a SIEM like Microsoft Sentinel can provide. For many mid-sized and enterprise organisations, running both is now the recommended approach rather than the exception.
2026 feature updates for both platforms
Both vendors have pushed significant AI updates into their platforms recently.
On the Microsoft side, Sentinel now runs inside the unified Microsoft Defender portal, bringing SIEM and XDR into one interface with a shared incident queue. Microsoft Security Copilot is embedded directly into this experience, summarising incidents, generating Kusto Query Language (KQL) hunting queries from plain English, and recommending next steps to reduce mean time to resolution. A Sentinel data lake underpins this AI-ready foundation, giving Copilot a wider pool of security data to reason over.
On the SentinelOne side, Purple AI has moved from an assistant into an increasingly autonomous analyst. Purple AI Agentic Investigation, opened to all customers in mid-2026, can detect, investigate, verify, and respond to threats without waiting for an analyst to open the alert, drawing on a multi-model approach alongside SentinelOne’s own proprietary models. Every verdict carries a full, auditable evidence chain, and customers control how much autonomy the system is given through an adjustable human-in-the-loop setting.
Find the right security solution with expert guidance
Microsoft Sentinel is the more comprehensive of the two solutions, offering an end-to-end security solution with a network view. SentinelOne, on the other hand, is more focused on endpoint security, as well as automated patch management and vulnerability scanning.
Ultimately, both are ideal security solutions for keeping your network secure and safeguarding against attacks. Which one you choose will depend on your specific needs and budget.
The cyber security specialists at Steadfast Solutions are highly experienced in deploying and managing advanced security solutions; talk to them about your needs today, and ensure your business is fully protected against all threats.
FAQs
Can Microsoft Sentinel and SentinelOne be used together?
Yes, they are often used as a “better together” solution rather than choosing one or the other. While SentinelOne protects your individual devices (endpoints), Microsoft Sentinel can collect data from SentinelOne. By connecting with them, you get a bird-eye view of your entire network while still having the deep, automated protection on every laptop and server.
Which solution is easier for a small team to manage?
If you have a small IT team with limited security experience, you might find the following differences helpful:
- SentinelOne: Generally easier to manage daily because it is highly automated and acts as a “set and forget” tool for blocking viruses and ransomware.
- Microsoft Sentinel: Requires more active management and a higher level of expertise to write the rules that help detect complex threats across a whole company.
Does using Microsoft Sentinel affect my internet speed or data limits?
Since Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-based tool, it has to “ingest” or upload logs from your office to the cloud. If you are a very large company sending massive amounts of data, this can use a significant amount of bandwidth. It is important to configure your “Data Collection Rules” carefully to ensure you are only sending the most important security information to the cloud.
How do these tools handle "Zero-Day" attacks?
A “Zero-Day” is a brand-new threat that has never been seen before. These tools handle them differently:
- SentinelOne: Uses Artificial Intelligence to watch how a file behaves. If a file starts acting like a virus, it stops it even if it doesn’t recognise the name.
- Microsoft Sentinel: Looks for suspicious patterns across your whole network, such as someone logging in from a foreign country while also trying to access a restricted file.
Do I still need a traditional Antivirus if I have SentinelOne?
No, SentinelOne is designed to replace your traditional Antivirus. While old-fashioned Antivirus looks for a list of “known bad files,” SentinelOne is an EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) tool. This means it is much more advanced and can stop modern threats that traditional Antivirus software would completely miss.