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Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Microsoft Entra ID Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Identity offers cost-effective, efficient security breach prevention, reducing management time without additional hardware needs, meeting client expectations.
No sentiment score available
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
9.1
Microsoft Defender for Identity support is effective and praised, but lower-tier users may experience delays and first-level challenges.
Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Entra ID Protection support is generally helpful, with mixed experiences depending on subscription and partner involvement.
Generally, the support is more effective than other providers like Oracle.
They often refer to internal blogs, which doesn't offer much new information and can limit our capabilities in troubleshooting.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
9.2
Microsoft Defender for Identity is praised for scalability, handling varied environments and expanding easily with company growth.
Sentiment score
8.4
Microsoft Entra ID Protection is highly scalable and adaptable, efficiently handling diverse organizational needs from small businesses to enterprises.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender for Identity is stable and reliable, with positive user ratings despite occasional downtime and minor issues.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Entra ID Protection is rated highly for stability despite occasional bugs and rare Azure-related outages.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Identity needs enhanced security, integration, user-friendliness, threat intelligence, and improved documentation to address user challenges.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection needs improvements in integration, compatibility, user interface, and pricing to enhance user experience and scalability.
One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform.
Microsoft has not offered control over how they calculate high or low-risk scenarios.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Identity offers cost-effective pricing through E5 licensing, with flexible options for enterprises based on location.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection pricing is considered competitive but slightly complex, with potential improvements needed in the pricing structure.
Ensuring a fair price according to market standards.
Microsoft Entra ID requires additional licensing components.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances security with integration, AI analysis, real-time alerts, and a user-friendly dashboard for threat management.
Microsoft Entra ID Protection enhances security and efficiency with seamless integration, single sign-on, and comprehensive identity management features.
The most valuable feature is its hybrid artificial intelligence, which gathers forensic data to track and counteract security threats, much like the CSI series in effect.
Having a single sign-on feature with Entra ID ensures seamless access to various applications, even those with significant security constraints.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
7th
Ranking in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (4th)
Microsoft Entra ID Protection
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
9th
Ranking in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 7.6%, up from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra ID Protection is 4.9%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Sachin Vinay - PeerSpot reviewer
Easily detects advanced attacks based on user behavior
The best feature is security monitoring, which detects and investigates suspicious user activities. It can easily detect advanced attacks based on the behavior. The credentials are securely stored, so it reduces the risk of compromise. It will monitor user behavior based on artificial intelligence to protect the identities in your organization. It will even help secure the on-premise Active Directory. It syncs from the cloud to on-premise, and on-premise modifications will be reflected in the cloud. Identity harvesting is the most common threat. Legacy Microsoft solutions and Amazon face the same issues in the cloud. Users don't implement other security mechanisms in the cloud. In an on-premise environment, we would have multiple security devices like firewalls and several layers of security. Cloud users are less bothered because cloud features are there and only need to be configured. Microsoft Defender for Cloud is the best solution because all threats are completely visible, and it has a great dashboard. The dashboard displays each threat and score, so we can identify the threat rating and act efficiently to avoid compromising user identities. We have a single sign-on feature on the cloud. If we lose a single set of identities, it can compromise the entire organization, including cloud and on-premise. The same identities are being used everywhere. The user activity has to be completely visible on the dashboard, and it has to generate a pattern. It will notify us if there is any security breach. It is a complete monitoring set. Minor changes in the user identity can lead to data leakage. If a password is changed in the cloud, it will be reflected automatically in the on-premise. This minor change will trigger an alert in Microsoft Defender for Identity. It ensures that each cloud identity is well protected from spoofing. It has a comprehensive database of well-known spoofing techniques, enabling us to provide cloud identity protection completely. It has a vast scope because it is completely single sign-on. In the emerging industry, we use single sign-on because users need to authenticate, but it's challenging to remember multiple passwords. Once your user signs in, you can access all the data. An identity compromise would lead to various issues and affect the data on-premises. Defender maintains a constantly updated database with the latest signatures, attack models, and threats. If it detects one threat, it will monitor the suspicious event and give us frequent alerts. Identity protection is vital because we use an identity mechanism for everything, including firewall-related activities. The exact identity used in the cloud is used in the most complex firewalls. We require an excellent migration technique to regain this user credential if something gets compromised. Blocking this requires a massive set of procedures. Microsoft Defender comprehensively monitors identity and provides frequent alerts regarding any issue, so we don't need to think of anything else. Defender's bidirectional sync capabilities are helpful because we need to sync data from multiple directions, including tenant-to-tenant, on-premise-to-cloud, and cloud-to-cloud syncing. As a university, we have multiple tenants, so we need to sync or access data across platforms. That way, everything is more secure, and Microsoft Defender for Cloud also provides ample security for cloud transfers. The bidirectional sync capabilities are flawless—10 out of 10. Our on-premise Active Directory is perfectly synced with the Azure AD. Everything is synced with on-premise, and changes are reflected in minutes. If a problem with identity is addressed on the cloud, the fix will be mirrored on-premise and vice versa. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Identity are bundled. If we have these two solutions, we don't need to worry about anything else or third-party antivirus. Microsoft Defender for Identity acts as a link to all the Microsoft security features that require identity-based validation. Microsoft Defender instantly provides identity security for all our applications, and users need not worry about typing their passwords. Even in situations with less complex encryption mechanisms, users don't need to worry about typing in their passwords. Defender will check and monitor if there are any flaws in that, and it will let us know if there are any issues. We're a Microsoft shop, so everything works together. If one feature isn't working, everything will be affected. If Defender isn't working, half of our Microsoft security features will be dead. Without identity security, user data can easily be compromised, and data can fall into the hands of intruders or other hackers. The solutions have to complement each other. If anything got wrong, the entire setup would have flaws. Microsoft security has a legacy security mechanism. A while back, we might have gone with Defender for Endpoint, but Microsoft has also grown into the face of the cloud. The same Defender solution is completely maintaining cloud security. We can imagine Microsoft's vast scale and how Defender can protect the cloud environment from vulnerabilities and attacks. We are definitely delighted with Microsoft products. The dashboard features are fantastic because it provides a comprehensive overview. It has a great alert mechanism and log inspector that tracks when users access various servers. With this kind of identity validation, we can control which servers the users can access. We have total visibility from the dashboard. We can track identity usage even if there are no issues. That is an essential advantage.
Mahender Nirwan - PeerSpot reviewer
Access to other software is just one click away and suitable for big organizations
Currently, we have limited use of Microsoft AD. We only use it to see if user blocks are available. If they are, we unblock the account and get access accordingly. AD has paid access control features. We can add access control over AD. For example, for documentation, we use an Outline tool. It's open source, and we add our company's knowledge base to it. It's an alternative to Confluence. We don't want everyone to have access to all documentation. If I create documentation for my team, only my team should have access, not support or sales. We can add these scopes or access controls over AD. Once integrated, the person will get the appropriate access control features upon logging in. Role-based access control is a great feature of Active Directory.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Identity?
Microsoft Defender for Identity provides excellent visibility into threats by leveraging real-time analytics and data intelligence.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Identity?
One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform to promptly alert affected users and their...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?
I am actively working with Microsoft Defender for Identity for tasks involving SQL identity endpoint management and have used it since 2019.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Active Directory Identity Protection?
Pricing for Microsoft products is slightly high, and it influences some customers to consider switching to other service providers.
What needs improvement with Azure Active Directory Identity Protection?
There is a lot of confusion around the user interface. For new users, it can be difficult or confusing to understand the concepts of managed identity and role protection.
 

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
Azure Active Directory Identity Protection, Azure AD Identity Protection
 

Learn More

Video not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Microsoft Entra ID Protection and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
824,052 professionals have used our research since 2012.