Microsoft Secure Score vs M365 Health Score
They’re complementary, not competing. Microsoft Secure Score measures your security posture and provides Microsoft’s recommended improvements. M365 Health Score reads that posture and adds tenant-health checks around identity, email authentication, app-consent exposure and license efficiency.
Microsoft Secure Score measures your Microsoft security posture and provides Microsoft’s recommended security improvements. M365 Health Score complements Secure Score by combining that security-posture information with additional Microsoft 365 tenant-health checks — identity hygiene, email authentication, data exposure and license efficiency.
| Capability | Microsoft Secure Score | M365 Health Score |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft security posture | ✓ | ✓ |
| Microsoft security recommendations | ✓ | Uses Secure Score information |
| Identity & access assessment | ✓ | ✓ |
| Email authentication (SPF / DMARC) | Depends on scope | ✓ |
| Data exposure checks | Depends on scope | Third-party app consent |
| License efficiency | Not its primary purpose | ✓ |
| Scope | Security-focused | Broader tenant health |
| Actionable findings | ✓ | ✓ |
“Depends on scope” reflects that Secure Score’s coverage of some areas varies with your licensing and configuration. This table describes what each tool emphasizes; it does not claim Secure Score is unable to perform a check.
Where they overlap
Both assess your Microsoft security posture and your identity and access hygiene, and both give you actionable findings. M365 Health Score doesn’t reinvent this — it ingests your actual Secure Score and translates the relevant recommendations into plain-language fixes inside its report.
Where M365 Health Score broadens the view
Alongside security posture, M365 Health Score adds a direct SPF/DMARC email-authentication check, a review of third-party apps holding high-risk permissions, and a license-efficiency audit that puts a dollar figure next to wasted seats. The result is a single point-in-time read of overall tenant health, scored out of 100.
Use them together
The honest recommendation: keep Secure Score as your ongoing Microsoft security baseline, and use M365 Health Score for a broader tenant-health assessment that includes areas beyond core security posture. Neither replaces the other.
Secure Score and M365 Health Score are complementary, not competing products. If you already run Secure Score, a Health Check shows what a broader tenant-health read adds.
Secure Score vs M365 Health Score FAQ
Is M365 Health Score a replacement for Microsoft Secure Score?
No. M365 Health Score complements Microsoft Secure Score. Secure Score measures your Microsoft security posture and provides Microsoft’s recommended improvements; M365 Health Score reads that posture and adds tenant-health checks such as email authentication, app-consent exposure and license efficiency.
What does M365 Health Score add on top of Secure Score?
It brings several tenant-health areas into one read: a direct SPF/DMARC email-authentication check, a review of third-party apps holding high-risk permissions, and a license-efficiency audit — alongside the identity and Secure Score information that Secure Score also covers.
Should I use both?
Yes — they work well together. Keep using Secure Score as your ongoing Microsoft security baseline, and use M365 Health Score for a broader, point-in-time tenant health assessment that includes areas beyond core security posture.
Does M365 Health Score change my Secure Score?
No. M365 Health Score is read-only. It reads your Secure Score to inform its report; it cannot change your score or any tenant setting.
See what a broader tenant health check adds
M365 Health Score reads your Secure Score and adds identity, email, app-consent and license checks — free and read-only.