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Atlan vs Microsoft Purview Data Governance comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Atlan
Ranking in Data Governance
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Purview Data Gove...
Ranking in Data Governance
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Atlan is 1.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Data Governance is 25.0%, down from 25.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance
 

Featured Reviews

Leon Pereira - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced data management with intuitive data lineage and metadata visualization
Certain UI changes could make Atlan more user-friendly. While they have an Excel add-in for interaction with Atlan, it's in its early stages and could be improved. Additionally, data observability capabilities could be enhanced to provide more alerts on stale or outdated data via communication tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, or email.
James McDowall - PeerSpot reviewer
The sensitivity and retention options in Purview are excellent
Some of the menu headings may not be easy to understand for some people. For example, when I first used Purview, I noticed that one of the self-compliance centers had changed its name. Microsoft has done a huge amount of updates, and sometimes it's hard to keep track of what Purview can do. We almost constantly have to explore it. Maybe Microsoft could have a 365 roadmap where we can look at upcoming features, or some kind of bulletin announcement for Purview users that explains new features and what they can do in simple terms. We could also look at the menu settings. In my experience of using Purview, we've never used it as an exclusive system for IT professionals or technical staff. We were very keen that other specialists around the business made use of some of these features because we thought that some of what Purview could do was relevant to other departments as well as IT. For example, we have HR managers and financial staff who use it. I think that some of the terminology in Purview is pitched toward IT and tech professionals, and it may not be immediately understood by other specialists. This is something that could be improved.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Overall, I rate Atlan as a ten out of ten."
"Atlan is helpful for identifying datasets and discovering PI data, such as the classification levels of datasets (gold, silver, bronze)."
"The best feature of Atlan is its integration with communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, so business users don't have to go into a data catalog to see metadata about data assets."
"Atlas is quite intuitive."
"The best feature of Atlan is its integration with communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, so business users don't have to go into a data catalog to see metadata about data assets."
"The technical support services are good."
"As a senior analytics engineer, Atlan's ability to show end-to-end data lineage is the most important feature for me."
"The AI part is integrated for enriching metadata engagement, making it a comprehensive tool."
"Purview helped us automate and control our data without having to rely on people to manually tag documents with specific retention periods."
"Microsoft Purview's most valuable feature is its ability to identify content across a number of prescribed regulatory frameworks, including Microsoft, GDPR, PII, and UCC Financial."
"Their data labeling or data classification is particularly valuable because we want to categorize all of our data into confidential, public, or internal."
"Microsoft Purview's primary benefit lies in safeguarding sensitive and confidential data, thereby mitigating the risk of internal data exfiltration."
"The feature that I find most valuable is its ability to block unintended data sharing, like forcing unencrypted emails to be encrypted. We're evolving technologically, so people aren't always working from their desks. Our people are on the move. We have data everywhere. For example, in airlines, they're mobile and working from one door to another. They can't carry a computer from one station to another. That's where a lot of airlines use iPads. Securing and integrating iPads is helpful."
"It is designed to seamlessly connect to various data sources, which is particularly beneficial for our customers who primarily use Microsoft technologies."
"The documentation is very exhaustive. Anyone can go ahead and try different use cases."
"Data authentication enables us to classify documents based on whether they should be restricted for internal consumption or permitted for external sharing."
 

Cons

"The challenge is in the lineage, where it requires improvement."
"The product could be improved by offering scheduled email reports for managed assets."
"One of the main areas for improvement is its governance capabilities. Atlan supports only basic out-of-the-box workflows, and it becomes challenging to customize features like how data owners should approve access to data assets."
"The challenge is in the lineage, where it requires improvement. Atlas needs to capture areas where organizations use less known applications."
"One area that could be improved is the capability to find duplicates of datasets."
"Certain UI changes could make Atlan more user-friendly."
"There are some improvements. There is a feature called Playbooks, which basically allows me to automate certain activities that would otherwise be manual. It's a very interesting feature, but there is room to improve it because, depending on the task you automate, the playbooks seem to have a hard time handling the task. So, it could be improved there. Even though it's a great feature, it can evolve further."
"Certain UI changes could make Atlan more user-friendly."
"The Microsoft Purview data connector platform, which supports ingestion from non-Microsoft data sources, can be somewhat complex."
"Two features are unsupported—custom insights and the DLP component—that would be beneficial to me as a consultant and for the customer in terms of security and monitoring. Regarding security, DLP would provide a more granular level of data masking. Custom insights would offer more detailed monitoring and alerts that can notify customers of failures or anything requiring urgent action."
"Running eDiscovery once a day takes quite a long time because it has to fetch your data. I also want the eDiscovery results to be improved. At the same time, I would like to get a centralized page where I could see records management applied to my Office 365 tenant visualized instead of waiting for a custom script to run through the complete tenant."
"While Microsoft Purview currently allows weekly scans for data sources, this limitation hinders the usefulness of the tool for frequently changing data."
"Although you can explore the data, that creates a great interest in data lineage or the data flow. How does it go from a source to a platform to a Power BI report, for example? It is possible, to some extent, to see that with Purview, but the lineage feature requires some manual work on the development side or more work from Microsoft to improve on it."
"While Purview's data connector platform can ingest information from non-Microsoft data sources, it is slow to do so and the information may become outdated."
"It could reduce pricing to encourage usage."
"I would like to have complete video documentation for training."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay per-user license. It's a different classification model than with other solutions, where they usually charge you for resources. So, that was a better model for us. And because of this difference in models or classification, it was cheaper for us to go with Atlan."
"Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is not cheap."
"There is some competition out there, but the other solutions are quite expensive. They are enterprise tools that are a bit more mature but the license costs $100,000 for some of them. Purview is pay-per-use and a lot of companies are interested in that."
"Microsoft Purview has a pay-per-use pricing model, so it's one of the most cost-effective tools, as your cost will be based on your usage. It's a pricing model that Microsoft has nailed down, making it great whether you're a small organization or a multinational, giant organization."
"People often and unjustly say that Microsoft product pricing is not in the scope of reality, that it's just too expensive at times. I do not feel that is the case at all... If I'm able to let go of 30 to 70 percent of my IT administration staff, that makes up for a lot of money."
"The price is a little bit high, but it's worth the money because it has a lot of features."
"I would rate the cost of Microsoft Purview a six out of ten with ten being the most expensive."
"Price-wise, I think it's very generous and accessible to not just enterprises but small to medium-sized companies as well. I think it's very fair in terms of how they break apart the storage and the actual computing, and that makes it very accessible. So, that is a very big plus for Purview."
"The pricing is decent. It is neither too low nor too high. Given its capabilities, the pricing is justified."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Insurance Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Atlan?
They also offer automated lineage embedded in the connectors, allowing us to track where the data is coming from and where it's going. We find it very efficient in cataloging data sources. Additi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atlan?
Atlas is competitively priced compared to other data governance platforms like Collibra and Informatica. The only major drawback is its lack of an integrated data quality module.
What needs improvement with Atlan?
The challenge is in the lineage, where it requires improvement. Atlas needs to capture areas where organizations use less known applications.
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Purview?
It is designed to seamlessly connect to various data sources, which is particularly beneficial for our customers who primarily use Microsoft technologies.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Purview?
The auto-tagging feature should be available at a lower licensing level.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Purview?
Auto-tagging should be available at lower levels of licensing. Right now, a high level of licensing is needed for auto-tagging, and this feature should be made available at a lower license level.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Purview, MS Azure Purview
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Atlan vs. Microsoft Purview Data Governance and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.