Is M365 Health Score a replacement for Microsoft Secure Score?

No. M365 Health Score ingests your tenant's actual Secure Score directly from Microsoft and builds on top of it — adding license cost waste, identity and email-security checks Secure Score doesn't cover, and a shareable PDF and Excel report that don't require admin portal access to view.

Does Microsoft Secure Score show license waste or cost?

No. Secure Score is a security-only metric. It doesn't track unused seats, disabled accounts holding paid licenses, or inactive users — which is purely a cost question, not a security one.

M365 Health Score vs. Microsoft Secure Score

We don't replace Secure Score. We make it actionable — and add what it can't see.

Microsoft Secure Score is genuinely useful, and it's the foundation of our Identity & Access pillar. But it's a security-only metric, buried in an admin portal, written for security professionals. Here's exactly what we add on top of it.

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To be upfront: we don't recalculate or second-guess your Secure Score — we pull it directly from Microsoft via Graph API and present it as-is, alongside our own checks. If your Secure Score is wrong or out of date, that's a Microsoft data issue, not ours. What we add is everything Secure Score was never designed to do.

Side by side

What each one actually covers, plainly stated.

Capability	Microsoft Secure Score	M365 Health Score
Security posture score	✓ Yes — this is its core purpose	✓ Yes — we ingest your actual Secure Score directly
License cost waste	✗ Not covered — Secure Score is security-only, not cost	✓ Yes — unused seats, disabled accounts, inactive users, with dollar amounts
Email authentication (SPF/DMARC)	✗ Not checked	✓ Yes — live DNS check against your actual domain records
Third-party OAuth app risk	~ Partial — some app governance controls, not a dedicated risk list	✓ Yes — flags specific apps and the exact risky permissions they hold
Plain-language fix instructions	~ Partial — control names and remediation links are written for security admins	✓ Yes — every finding includes a specific, copy-pasteable next step
Shareable outside the admin portal	✗ No — viewing it requires admin sign-in to the Microsoft 365 / Defender portal	✓ Yes — a PDF and Excel file you can hand to anyone, no tenant access needed
Prioritized action roadmap	✗ No — controls are listed, not sequenced into a plan	✓ Yes — every finding sorted into this week / this month / this quarter
Excel issue tracker for remediation	✗ No	✓ Yes — one row per finding, with a status column your IT team owns
Single combined score (security + cost)	✗ No — security only	✓ Yes — Health Score blends Secure Score, identity risk, license waste, and email auth
Cost	Free (included with Microsoft 365)	Free scan; full report from $99 one-time

Why this matters in practice

You don't need Defender admin access to see it

Secure Score lives inside the Microsoft 365 Defender portal — to see it, you need an admin login. Our report is a portable PDF and Excel file you can forward to an outsourced IT provider, a board member, or an accountant, without granting them any tenant access at all.

It speaks budget, not just security

Secure Score has no concept of money. Ours puts a specific monthly dollar figure next to wasted licenses, alongside the security findings — so the same report justifies both the security fix-it list and the budget conversation.

It tells you what to do, not just what's wrong

Secure Score control names are written for security professionals ("Designate more than one global admin"). We translate every recommendation — Microsoft's and our own — into a specific instruction anyone on your team can follow.

It checks things Secure Score doesn't

Email authentication (SPF/DMARC) and license waste sit entirely outside Secure Score's scope. We check them directly — DNS lookups for email auth, Graph API for license assignment — and fold the result into one combined score.

See your tenant's combined Health Score — Secure Score and everything it doesn't cover, in one report.

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