SurfaceLoop vs Microsoft Defender EASM for SMEs
SurfaceLoop vs Microsoft Defender EASM at a glance
| Feature | SurfaceLoop | Microsoft Defender EASM |
|---|---|---|
| Price | £149/mo flat, everything included | No flat price -- Azure billing by count of billable assets |
| Pricing model | One flat price, published | Metered Azure consumption that scales with asset count |
| Trial | 14 days, full product, no card | 30 days, automatic on first resource |
| Setup | Start online, scan your own domains | Provision an Azure resource + configure discovery seeds |
| Needs an Azure subscription | - | ✓ |
| Needs a security team | - | Effectively yes -- assumes analysts |
| Asset discovery included | Included as standard | Yes, enterprise-grade |
| Remediation guidance | Plain-English | Raw inventory for analyst triage |
| Best fit | Businesses up to 200 staff | Enterprises on the Microsoft security stack |
How is Microsoft Defender EASM priced?
Microsoft does not publish a simple monthly price for Defender EASM. As of September 2026, as described in Microsoft’s own documentation, creating your first Defender EASM resource grants an automatic 30-day free trial, after which you are charged based on your count of billable assets — approved host:IP combinations, IP addresses, and domains in your inventory — with Defender EASM appearing as a line item on your Azure invoice. Your cost therefore depends on how large your discovered attack surface is, and you need an active Azure subscription before you can turn it on. Microsoft’s pricing page routes specific numbers through the Azure calculator or a sales conversation.
That model is predictable for an enterprise finance team used to Azure billing, but there is no low, fixed “starting from” figure a small business can budget against up front — and, awkwardly for a discovery tool, a bigger discovered surface means a bigger bill.
Is Microsoft Defender EASM going away?
No — and it is worth saying clearly, because the question comes up. As of September 2026, Microsoft has announced no retirement or deprecation of Defender EASM: its documentation remains actively maintained. The visible direction of travel is consolidation, not sunset: since 2025, Microsoft has been integrating Defender EASM’s external attack surface data into Microsoft Security Exposure Management in the Defender portal. Practically, that deepens the product’s tie to the wider Microsoft security stack — which strengthens it for enterprises already on that stack, and makes it even less of a standalone purchase for everyone else.
Who is Microsoft Defender EASM really for?
Defender EASM is a capable, mature enterprise platform. Its discovery engine is strong — Microsoft’s proprietary technology recursively maps infrastructure from discovery seeds — its inventory is deep, and it slots into a wider Microsoft security operation: Defender, Sentinel, Security Exposure Management, and the analysts who run them. If you already live in Azure and have a security team to interpret and action raw asset data, it is a natural fit.
The friction for a smaller organisation is operational weight. You provision an Azure resource, configure discovery seeds, manage Azure access controls, and then someone has to make sense of the inventory it produces. Without a security team, that last step is where the value stalls. For a business under 200 employees, Defender EASM is often powerful but overkill.
Who is SurfaceLoop for?
SurfaceLoop is an EASM platform built for businesses up to around 200 employees that want attack-surface visibility without a security team, a cloud account, or a sales call. Automated asset discovery is included as standard, so you find forgotten subdomains and shadow IT, not just the assets you already know about. Pricing is one published flat price — £149/mo with everything included, on a 12-month agreement invoiced by AMVIA, with never a card on file — and every finding across the seven scan categories comes with plain-English remediation.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre treats understanding what you expose to the internet as a foundational security control — SurfaceLoop delivers that baseline without a platform rollout.
How SurfaceLoop handles this
SurfaceLoop discovers your internet-facing assets from a single root domain and monitors them continuously across seven scan categories. Start a 14-day free trial of the full product on your own domains — no card details, no Azure subscription, no sales call.
See External Attack Surface Management feature →Which should you choose?
Choose Microsoft Defender EASM if you already run the Microsoft security stack, have a security team to action raw inventory, and can absorb metered Azure billing across a large estate. Choose SurfaceLoop if you are a smaller business that wants discovery-first monitoring included from the start, one flat published price, plain-English fixes, and a free 14-day way to prove it on your own estate.
Looking beyond Microsoft? See all our EASM comparisons and our roundup of the best EASM tools for small businesses.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Microsoft Defender EASM cost? +
- Microsoft does not publish a flat monthly price. As of September 2026, Defender EASM is billed through Azure: after an automatic 30-day free trial, you are charged based on your count of billable assets (approved hosts, IP addresses, and domains), appearing as a line item on your Azure invoice. Your bill scales with the size of your discovered attack surface, and you need an active Azure subscription. SurfaceLoop, by contrast, is one published flat price of £149/mo with everything included.
- Is Microsoft Defender EASM being retired? +
- No. As of September 2026, Microsoft has not announced a retirement or deprecation of Defender EASM -- its documentation is actively maintained, and new resources still come with a 30-day free trial. What has changed is direction: since 2025 Microsoft has been integrating Defender EASM's external attack surface data into Microsoft Security Exposure Management in the Defender portal, so it increasingly functions as part of the wider Microsoft security stack rather than a standalone tool.
- Do I need an Azure subscription to use Microsoft Defender EASM? +
- Yes. Microsoft Defender EASM is an Azure-native resource, so you need an Azure subscription and must provision the EASM resource, configure discovery seeds, and manage access through Azure. SurfaceLoop is self-service and needs no cloud account -- you start a 14-day free trial in the browser and run it on your own domains.
- Is Microsoft Defender EASM a bad product? +
- No. Defender EASM is a capable, mature enterprise platform with a strong discovery engine, and its data feeds naturally into Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, and Security Exposure Management. For an enterprise already running that stack with analysts to act on raw inventory, it is a natural fit. It is simply built and billed for a different buyer than a small business wanting simple, predictable attack-surface monitoring.
- Which is easier to set up, SurfaceLoop or Microsoft Defender EASM? +
- SurfaceLoop is faster to start: begin a 14-day free trial online -- no card details, no sales call -- and run the full product on your own domains. Microsoft Defender EASM requires an Azure subscription, provisioning the EASM resource, configuring discovery seeds, and setting up Azure access controls -- straightforward for an Azure-experienced team but heavier for a small business.