Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Rapid7 InsightIDR comparison

The compared Microsoft and Rapid7 solutions aren't in the same category. Microsoft is ranked #3 in ITDR , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 9.7% mindshare in the category. Rapid7 is ranked #23 in SIEM , with an average rating of 7.5, and holds a 2.1% 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

7,343 Views
3,525 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Rapid7 InsightIDR

Read 32 Rapid7 InsightIDR reviews

9,277 Views
4,639 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 in this report how the two Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR Report (Updated: July 2023).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR

July 2023

Download the complete report

Helped 893,221 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) (8th), Microsoft Security Suite (5th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)

Rapid7 InsightIDR

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (23rd), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (10th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (39th), Threat Deception Platforms (6th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (23rd)

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 9.7%, down 18.0% compared to last year.
Rapid7 InsightIDR, on the other hand, focuses on Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), holds 2.1% mindshare, down 2.5% since last year.

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity	9.7%
CrowdStrike Falcon	12.8%
Huntress Managed ITDR	6.9%
Other	70.6%

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Rapid7 InsightIDR	2.1%
Splunk Enterprise Security	7.1%
IBM Security QRadar	5.2%
Other	85.6%

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

Featured Reviews

Oluwa Adetunji

CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed

Automation and threat intelligence streamline threat response and user management

In Microsoft Defender for Identity, I would appreciate improvements in providing information on conditional access. They have added more control that can be put in place, which was not present years ago. They have also integrated Azure Information Protection where policies can be configured. The Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) allows users to reset their passwords, which is a valuable tool for remote workers. They have added more features into conditional access that integrate with other components, including SSPR and Identity Information Protection, trusted IPs, and locations. These configurations in trusted IP addresses are integrated into conditional access and control the applications I want to secure. Regarding impossible travel scenarios, I can either block the user or grant access while requesting multi-factor authentication. They should improve the automation for impossible travel detection. When connected to Wi-Fi and then to VPN, the system sometimes interprets the IP address change as impossible travel. If Microsoft could develop a feature that indicates when impossible travel is caused by VPN connections, it would prevent unnecessary password resets and session disruptions, especially for VIP users in organizations.

Read full review

SohailHyder

Head Of Cyber Security at Super Secure

Has supported compliance needs for mid-sized organizations but lacks customization and advanced integration

If we pitch Rapid7 InsightIDR against solutions such as SIEMs from Splunk or LogRhythm, it is not as customizable as a SIEM solution is. This is where it can improve if we keep in front the feature sets of a complete SIEM solution. Most common in the market is QRadar, but it is depleting now. It has been taken over by some other products such as Splunk and LogRhythm. If we compare these things with Rapid7 InsightIDR, then there are definitely some gaps that need to be filled. Data retention is also one concern because Rapid7 InsightIDR is cloud-based and operates on a subscription model. Whatever data you want to retain, it has to be paid for separately or it has a cost. Other solutions that are on-premises can have their own infrastructure or they provide some data retention for a month or in some capacity-wise, they provide that solution to them which makes them more attractive.

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

"I would rate Microsoft Defender for Identity at nine out of ten."

"This solution has advanced a lot over the last few years."

"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."

"It gives you a holistic view of everything happening in your organization, and you can use it to do a lot of monitoring."

"Microsoft is a big company."

"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."

"The solution’s alerting is fairly efficient."

"The integration into the Microsoft Defender ecosystem is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Identity."

More Microsoft Defender for Identity pros

"The solution provides satisfying native integration features"

"The solution is very stable and works very well for what I need it to do."

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

"The UI is very good."

"I've used other products such as QRadar and other SIEM solutions and I find this solution is much more simplified and user-friendly."

"Rapid7's reporting is more robust than Tenable's."

"The incident case management is the most valuable feature. Even though there's always something I find I would like to add to that feature, the ability to quickly sort through all the logs, network and endpoint data, etc., and add it to an incident case as part of the investigation, is nice. Having it automatically timeline that additional data into the original incident timeline, and correlate it to other notable events and activities on the network, results in a huge improvement in our overall confidence that we've quickly traced down the right source of an issue."

"It improves because several sensors are deployed within the on-premise environment. It can be very efficient if the customer implements and operates it effectively."

More Rapid7 InsightIDR pros

Cons

"And when you are working in a priority IP address, Identity is not able to know that those IPs are from the company. It sees that the IPs are from Taiwan or from Hong Kong or from India, even though they are internal IPs, resulting in a lot of false positives."

"The solution should provide more detailed data regarding anomaly detections."

"The impact of the sensors on the domain controllers can be quite high depending on your loads."

"They should improve the automation for impossible travel detection. When connected to Wi-Fi and then to VPN, the system sometimes interprets the IP address change as impossible travel."

"Fixing the solution isn't very seamless."

"The tracking instance needs to be configured appropriately."

"Feedback on sync issues with the Microsoft portal highlighted its slow nature, with syncs sometimes taking eight hours."

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

More Microsoft Defender for Identity cons

"Lacks a mobile application."

"One thing that springs to mind is easier API integration with ITSMs. We are evaluating a new ITSM and I would like to have InsightIDR create a ticket when an attack is identified, and the ticket would be closed in InsightIDR when the ITSM resolution is completed. This would take out the "single point of failure" we currently have, if the email recipient is somehow absent, in recording the risk appetite for the incident and the actions taken to mitigate or not."

"InsightIDR is only available in a cloud version. Some of our customers prefer an on-prem solution because they want to manage the security within their environment."

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

"The reporting is the weakest aspect. There needs to be multi-level grouping for events (for example, group by user and destination). Right now, we can do a group by user and a separate table or group by destination. But I'd be more interested in where a person was logging into instead of who was logging in or where he was logging in."

"Tenable Nessus is easier to deal with. It's more efficient and accurate. InsightIDR is heavier than Tenable in terms of performance and scanning. Rapid7 would be much easier to use if it had a network connector like Tenable. Tenable's connector allows continuous monitoring over the B caps."

"I would like the ability to adjust the threshold of certain existing alerts. Currently the only option is to change the notifications or create my own alert."

"Cloud risk assessment is one area where I think they need a lot of improvement."

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."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"It is more reasonably priced than other vendors."

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

"The pricing and licensing are competitive."

"I rate Rapid7 InsightIDR's price a four on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

"The team is very willing to work with companies. My suggestion is to call the Rapid7 sales department and see how they can help."

"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."

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

893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
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?

The product pricing is very cheap.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rapid7 InsightIDR?

See all answers

Comparisons

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 5% of the time

Huntress Managed ITDR vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Identity 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

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 3% of the time

Vectra AI vs Rapid7 InsightIDR

Compared 3% of the time

More Rapid7 InsightIDR Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Identity

April 2026

Download Microsoft Defender for Identity product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightIDR

April 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

Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR

July 2023

Free Report: Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR and other solutions. Updated: July 2023.

DOWNLOAD NOW

893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Rapid7 InsightIDR report.

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.