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BigID vs Varonis Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

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

BigID
Ranking in Data Governance
5th
Ranking in Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Data Privacy Management Software (3rd)
Varonis Platform
Ranking in Data Governance
7th
Ranking in Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (10th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (5th), Compliance Management (8th), Ransomware Protection (8th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of BigID is 7.6%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Varonis Platform is 9.7%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance
 

Featured Reviews

Ankita Sabale - PeerSpot reviewer
Predefined classifiers in place support sensitive data scanning effectively
BigID does not currently support Kerberos authentication for DataStax. On the user interface, analyzing true and false positives can be challenging, as I can only view 2,000 characters at a time. When tagging scan results, all objects get tagged without the option to untag specific ones. This requires reverting changes through MongoDB, which can result in data loss.
Frederic  Delos - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers the ability to identify sensitive areas, allowing you to drill down into the sensitive data
The most effective feature for me is its ability to identify sensitive areas, allowing you to drill down into the sensitive data, provided you have access, to determine whether it's a false positive or a true positive. That's the best thing for me, out of all of it. It's got everything, like other ones, but I like to be able to look at something if I'm doing forensics on the alert and say, "Okay, do I really need to do something with this?" For example, we don't want sensitive data in our OneDrive. So it identifies the sensitive data that's possibly in the OneDrive. And what I can do is look at it and identify whether it's actually sensitive data in Datalert or whether it looks like sensitive data, but I know it's a false positive. If it is a false positive, I can basically say ignore this pattern based on X, Y, and Z, you know, whether it's Redjax or keyword proximity. So I like that. With other tools, I gotta go through a whole process because it's a little bit more complex. Here, I can tag it and bag it in one shot. And the next good time I scan, it slips over it. So it helps in that.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the most valuable things in a data-focused world is a tool, a technology that's data-centric, not trying to master data management or whatever else. It's a source of truth for what data an organization holds, giving it the ability to catalog, categorize, and understand its data."
"BigID is more advanced than Microsoft Purview when it comes to machine learning and AI development tools."
"BigID's scanning feature is its most valuable component."
"The most valuable feature of BigID is its large number of classifiers, which allow us to scan for specific data such as SSN numbers."
"It provides a unified view across different databases and supports a wide range of data source types, including cloud and on-premises systems."
"BigID integrates well with our other products."
"Data classification is highly effective due to its automatic capabilities."
"BigID has one of the best technical support teams."
"On the Varonis side, technical support is phenomenal. Their ability to explain is very good, and they seem to be very knowledgeable. When I get an alert that doesn't quite make sense, they dive in there and kind of take me through it. That's very useful and very good. There are some false alerts, but it is better to have a false alert than no alert at all."
"I also appreciate the reporting feature, which allows for the extraction of various reports based on specific needs. These reports can be used for audit purposes, such as tracking changes in file locations or deletions."
"The solution's classification engine is highly configurable and efficient."
"The analytics would have to be our most valuable feature."
"Technical support from Varonis is rated as nine out of ten."
"The solution ensures that users have not accidentally shared sensitive information with the wrong people or too many people."
"Varonis Platform is transparent and captures everything in the environment without impacting the performance. The tool helps us unify data feeds into a single reporting system."
"Varonis offers robust data access governance, allowing us to understand which sensitive data exists and who has access to it."
 

Cons

"Improvement could be made in data consent management and data privacy impact assessment."
"More classifications about different states are needed"
"I want them to focus on data mapping, assessment, automation workflow, and privacy incident management. The privacy tools have not been widely used, and they have not invested much in privacy code privacy tools."
"In terms of what could be improved, when you're looking in a BigID file, you cannot really get the whole file. You have to export it to download it to another platform that allows you to completely view it, or run a program. That was one of the things that was really a disappointing point for me. Not to be able to view everything. There's a lot more data, but you can't get it all at once."
"Some users find catalog navigation challenging due to the lack of a search-by-column feature, which makes it difficult to locate specific data quickly."
"There are some shortcomings when it comes to Calvirus authentication, which is not yet supported by BigID."
"I want them to focus on data mapping, assessment, automation workflow, and privacy incident management."
"BigID is expensive. I prefer McAfee."
"The remediation process can be improved. There will be no existing permission group for the McAfee channel domains. We can create a new permissions group for the required folder."
"We have Microsoft Office 365. I just saw an article today which says that they're actually getting integrated with Microsoft Office 365, which would be a useful feature. For user-based reports, log on activity, and stuff like that, it doesn't seem to really be present like Log360. That could just be my inexperience with it. I've been dealing with it for only about two and a half months."
"Varonis requires more access permissions for its core functions compared to competitors, which can be a concern for companies about data safety."
"There is one thing that if I add something manually, I get so many alerts. That's the biggest bad thing."
"It is significantly complex."
"I'd like to see automatic updates for this solution. Currently, it's a manual process to update all the keywords"
"The solution's areas of improvement are the interface and the dependency on on-premises deployment for some components."
"The product is very complicated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing depends. If you have thousands of data sources to connect and manage, and you struggled with an MDM package in the past, you'll find BigID valuable and even cheap. But if you're a small business, it's probably not the right tool for you."
"I think that BigID's pricing is very reasonable."
"The solution is not licensed per user but rather based on capacity. For instance, organizations with large amounts of data, such as 50 GB or more, are the ones that typically qualify for BigID."
"The solution is expensive."
"The product is expensive, but so are all competitor tools"
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."
"The platform is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."
"The pricing is good. It neither expensive nor cheap. It is average."
"It's expensive, kind of, really expensive."
"You could do a subscription, where you pay yearly, or you could purchase it outright. The licensing cost is based on the number of users on the system that you are monitoring."
"Varonis Platform wasn't certainly the cheapest solution."
"Licensing is on an annual basis. Maintenance and renewal fees are separate. Varonis Datalert is quite expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
10%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BigID?
I like BigID's in-depth discovery and scanning capabilities, especially for unstructured data. This feature is a standout compared to competitors. The tool's data classification capabilities are i...
What needs improvement with BigID?
BigID does not currently support Kerberos authentication for DataStax. On the user interface, analyzing true and false positives can be challenging, as I can only view 2,000 characters at a time. W...
What is your primary use case for BigID?
BigID is part of our data governance project. We onboard data sources in our environment and scan for specific sensitive data sets, such as SSN numbers, passport numbers, and medical information, w...
What do you like most about Varonis Platform?
The solution has significantly improved data security and compliance posture by allowing us to track and monitor activities. We can see who accesses data and when files are created and understand w...
What needs improvement with Varonis Platform?
Varonis started as an on-premises solution and is transitioning to cloud. It hasn't fully moved yet, which is an area for improvement. Varonis requires more access permissions for its core function...
What is your primary use case for Varonis Platform?
The primary use case for Varonis Platform is data discovery, specifically for discovering sensitive data in our organization to protect it. We are looking for a solution that can scan our repositor...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Home Depot, Grant Thornton LLP, Cimpress, Fidelity Investments
Nottingham Building Society
Find out what your peers are saying about BigID vs. Varonis Platform and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.