Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Rapid7 InsightIDR comparison

Why PeerSpot?

The compared Microsoft and Rapid7 solutions aren't in the same category. Microsoft is ranked #1 in ITDR , with an average rating of 8.8, and holds a 9.6% mindshare in the category. Rapid7 is ranked #23 in SIEM , with an average rating of 7.5, and holds a 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Rapid7 users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

Read 28 Microsoft Defender for Identity reviews

8,756 Views
3,678 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Rapid7 InsightIDR

Read 33 Rapid7 InsightIDR reviews

13,646 Views
6,687 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

Rapid7 InsightIDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender for Identity and Rapid7 InsightIDR based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Huntress, SentinelOne and others in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR).

To learn more, read our detailed Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

August 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 914,805 peers since 2012

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

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (7th), Microsoft Security Suite (6th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (1st)

Rapid7 InsightIDR

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (23rd), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (11th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (32nd), Threat Deception Platforms (4th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (18th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Defender for Identity is designed for Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) and holds a mindshare of 9.6%, down 19.6% compared to last year.
Rapid7 InsightIDR, on the other hand, focuses on Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), holds 2.3% mindshare, down 2.4% since last year.

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity	9.6%
SentinelOne Singularity Identity	6.0%
Varonis Platform	5.9%
Other	78.5%

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Rapid7 InsightIDR	2.3%
Splunk Enterprise Security	7.8%
IBM Security QRadar	5.6%
Other	84.3%

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Featured Reviews

Curtis Mack

Technology Coordinator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees

Helps detect threats faster and prioritize critical security tasks with increased visibility

The feature I value most about Microsoft Defender for Identity is the ability to see where people are attempting to log in from. Microsoft Defender for Identity helps me automate routine tasks and find alerts that I set up to receive, so it helps me get where I'm trying to go easier and faster. I can see where everything is at. Microsoft Defender for Identity helps me prioritize important tasks. If I get an alert for a user who downloaded an application that is not sanctioned, I normally go straight to that user's computer device to find the device name and the user. Now I can get to them much faster. Microsoft Defender for Identity saves me time overall. I can quantify the time saved by Microsoft Defender for Identity as maybe 25 minutes, or if expressed as a percentage, maybe 20 to 25%. Some of the learning curve and actually learning what these products do takes time to figure out. Microsoft Defender for Identity definitely helps decrease the time of detection and response.

Read full review

Prajwal Chougale

SOC L2 Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Centralized threat hunting has improved alert accuracy and simplifies incident investigations

I would say there are two areas for improvement: the reporting dashboard that provides insights or reports weekly or monthly lacks detailed information about how logs are being ingested. While the details are there, they could be more concise and easier to understand for any level of authority. The second area is alert tuning; compared to Microsoft Sentinel, Rapid7 InsightIDR provides fewer alerts with more static alert functionality and lacks dynamic alerting exposures. There could be improvements to learn from past alert activities for more dynamic alert configurations. These two areas are the main areas for improvement; everything else is good.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"The feature I like the most about Defender for Identity is the entity tags. They give you the ability to identify sensitive accounts, devices, and groups. You also have honeytoken entities, which are devices that are identified as "bait" for fraudulent actors."

"The feature I like most is that you can create your own customized detection rules. It has a lot of default alerts and rules, but you can customize them according to your business needs."

"In the security portfolio that we manage, Microsoft Defender for Identity is very important because it is the professional service that we sell the most."

"I recommend Microsoft Defender for Identity because it is easy to implement."

"We use AD Connect to sync on-premises AD to Azure AD, and so far, it has been effective."

"Microsoft Defender for Identity provides excellent visibility into threats by leveraging real-time analytics and data intelligence."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Defender for Identity include real-time information for threat detection, its inclusion of behavioral analytics, and vulnerability management."

More Microsoft Defender for Identity pros

"Features for user behavior analytics and the rules for attack review are good."

"Simple configuration and automatically syncs to the cloud platform."

"The solution provides satisfying native integration features"

"Previously, when something happened, such as when a hacker was attacking one of our customers, we were always behind, or we did not know that we were hacked until the ransomware started, but with the Rapid7 solution, at every step, we could online see what a person was doing, and we could prevent ransomware."

"Log search allows us to dive deep into aggregated logs and query all event types at once."

"The solution is very intuitive, it's easy to set up, is absolutely stable, and has a lot of integration with other security products."

"The log aggregation and storage provided by InsightIDR has shown no issues with scalability; aggregating over one hundred millions events daily."

"InsightIDR’s ability to process millions of transactions per day, and to notify me of the most critical ones, is priceless. InsightIDR has the alerts tuned, and has the ability to quickly drill down to determine the threat level."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR pros

Cons

"One area that needs improvement is the number of alerts generated, leading to alert fatigue."

"Microsoft Defender for Identity does not save me time, but I think it is the way that I secure the data."

"The impact of the sensors on the domain controllers can be quite high depending on your loads. I don't know if there's any room for improvement there, but that's one of the things that might be improved."

"When the data leaves the cloud, there are security issues."

"The configuration process is time-consuming, with installation taking two minutes but prerequisites requiring two hours."

"I can't say that I've seen a return on investment since we have Microsoft Defender for Identity because we also have another security solution in place."

"Defender for Identity gives us visibility, but we often get false positives from Azure that take us down the garden path. We go through 30 incidents each day and most of those are false positives or benign positive alerts. Occasionally, we get true positive alerts."

"For users operating in mixed environments, while Defender for Identity offers robust protection for on-premises AD, additional solutions or configurations might be necessary to ensure seamless security management across Azure and on-premises AD systems."

More Microsoft Defender for Identity cons

"The main problem lies in the processes within the client's operating systems."

"The product allows us to make only 30 custom rules."

"It would be useful to import threat intelligence in YARA format along with known incorrect email addresses."

"The searching feature in Rapid7 InsightIDR needs to evolve"

"I'd like to be able to get the compliance report within the solution which is currently not possible."

"It takes time for the product's support team to resolve issues, making it an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The interface for doing investigation needs to be enhanced with minor improvements that would make it more useful."

"I chose eight out of ten because of the analytical rules; they lack dynamic rules, and also due to the dashboard and reporting part."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is costly, and we had multiple discussions with accounting to receive a discounted rate. However, on the open market, the tool is expensive."

"You won't be able to change your tenants from where you deploy them. For example, if you select Canada, they will charge you based on Canadian pricing. If you are also in London, when you deploy in Canada, the pound is higher than Canadian dollars, but your platform resources are billable in Canadian dollars. Using your pounds to pay for any of these things will be cheaper. Or, if you deploy in London, they will charge you based on your local currency."

"Microsoft Defender for Identity comes as part of the Microsoft E5 licensing stack."

"It is very affordable considering that other SIEM solutions are much more expensive and have many more licensing restrictions and fees."

"Defender for Identity is a little more expensive than other Microsoft products. Identity and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are both a bit costly."

"It is a reasonably priced solution."

"The pricing of the solution depends on the user. But there is a yearly licensing cost."

"Licensing is straightforward. If, for some reason, you don’t meet the minimum licensing requirements, there is a third-party managed service that can help."

"The pricing and licensing are competitive."

"Accurately predict your licensing counts as this is a subscription based product."

"The pricing is good, and it is not very expensive."

"The solution has a mid-range price point in the market"

"I am sure that there are cheaper products out there, but none that meet so many of our needs whilst maintaining stability and usability."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

914,805 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Identity?

I really would have to sit down to think about how Microsoft Defender for Identity can be improved. I didn't take stock in what needs to be improved because I appreciated having the tools right the...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?

My main use cases for Microsoft Defender for Identity include Conditional Access, checking risky users, remediating risky users, and user sign-ins. I can easily remediate or determine what the user...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Defender for Identity?

I don't really use Microsoft Defender for Identity a lot because my new role doesn't allow me to take time to do so. I don't really use the threat intelligence feature of Microsoft Defender for Ide...

See all answers

What SOC product do you recommend?

For tools I’d recommend: -SIEM- LogRhythm -SOAR- Palo Alto XSOAR Doing commercial w/o both (or at least an XDR) is asking to miss details that are critical, and ending up a statistic. Also, rememb...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 InsightIDR?

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been very positive; it is cost-effective and offers great value for the money. We bought the licensing through an agent, and the setup was...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rapid7 InsightIDR?

See all answers

Comparisons

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 6% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Identity vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

BloodHound Enterprise vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Identity Competitors

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 4% of the time

Adlumin Security Operations vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 3% of the time

Vectra AI vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 3% of the time

Darktrace vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 3% of the time

More Rapid7 InsightIDR Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Identity

September 2026

Download Microsoft Defender for Identity product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightIDR

September 2026

Download Rapid7 InsightIDR product report

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity

InsightIDR

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Identity offers real-time threat detection and protection for hybrid Active Directory environments. It integrates with Microsoft 365 components for seamless security and monitors advanced behaviors, enhancing identity protection across cloud and on-premises environments.

Microsoft Defender for Identity provides detailed threat insights and user behavior analytics to detect unauthorized access and notify anomalies. It allows setting custom detection rules, enhancing threat response automation. While it needs improvements in cloud security, SIEM integration, and access controls, users leverage its ability to mitigate identity threats like suspicious logins and ransomware. Enhanced integration with Microsoft security products ensures a coordinated threat response for identity control and privilege management.

What are the key features of Microsoft Defender for Identity?

Active Directory Federation: Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365 for comprehensive security.
Real-time Security Monitoring: Provides immediate insights into advanced user behaviors and potential threats.
Threat Insights: Delivers detailed analysis of threats with the ability to customize detection rules.
User Behavior Analytics: Analyzes user activities to detect anomalies and potential risks.
Identity Protection: Offers comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments.

What benefits should users expect from reviews of Microsoft Defender for Identity?

Unauthorized Access Prevention: Identifies potential unauthorized activities with advanced detection mechanisms.
Anomaly Notification: Alerts users to unexpected activities within their environments.
Threat Response Automation: Facilitates rapid response to threats with automated solutions.
Enhanced Cloud Security: Strengthens identity management across hybrid and cloud frameworks.

In specific industries, organizations implement Microsoft Defender for Identity to secure on-premises and hybrid Active Directory environments through user and entity behavior analytics, malicious activity detection, and integration with Microsoft security tools. This approach enhances security posture assessment and helps mitigate identity threats like identity harvesting and unauthorized access.

Microsoft

Rapid7 InsightIDR is a cloud-based security information and event management solution known for its user behavior analytics, offering rapid detection and response capabilities while facilitating seamless integration across systems.

Rapid7 InsightIDR is designed to enhance threat detection and investigation through its efficient user behavior analytics and advanced threat intelligence framework. The platform's cloud-based deployment ensures rapid setup and comprehensive event monitoring across diverse IT environments, including endpoints and Office 365. Its intuitive interface supports seamless data collection, honing in on threat detection through honeypot utilization and intelligent alerting. However, it is noted for lacking some customization features and better integration, especially with Microsoft and ITSMs.

What are the key features of Rapid7 InsightIDR?

User Behavior Analytics: Detects threats by analyzing patterns and anomalies.
Cloud Deployment: Enables quick setup and scalability.
Comprehensive Monitoring: Monitors events across systems and platforms like Office 365.
Honeypots and Alerting: Utilizes honeypots to reduce false positives and alert fatigue.
Threat Intelligence Framework: Supports effective threat hunting and remediation.

What benefits should users consider in reviews when evaluating Rapid7 InsightIDR?

Enhanced Detection: Improves threat detection with user behavior analysis.
Easy Integration: Integrates across systems for a streamlined security approach.
Rapid Response: Facilitates quick action against identified threats.
Operational Efficiency: Offers a cohesive view of security operations.

Rapid7 InsightIDR is prominently used in security operation centers to manage events, detect threats, and respond effectively. Industries apply it for network behavior monitoring, compliance, and vulnerability management. Companies integrate it with security tools to boost threat investigation, ensuring full SIEM functionalities and robust log management capacities. Its application spans behavioral and intrusion analytics, aiding in monitoring and addressing malicious activities.

Rapid7

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.

Liberty Wines, Pioneer Telephone, Visier

Buyer's Guide

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

August 2026

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Huntress, SentinelOne and others in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR). Updated: August 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

914,805 professionals have used our research since 2012.

We monitor all Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.