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Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Vectra AI comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 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 provides cost-effective security by preventing incidents, reducing management needs, and enhancing client satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.1
Vectra AI improves security efficiency, reduces attack response time, and offers cost-effective risk mitigation, justifying investment with ROI.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.6
Microsoft Defender for Identity support receives mixed reviews, ranging from delays with basic support to effective resolutions from advanced tiers.
Sentiment score
8.3
Vectra AI's support team is responsive and expert, offering timely assistance with high satisfaction scores from users.
The quality of support is very good, but troubleshooting can take time due to complex setups and the need to provide many logs.
Generally, the support is more effective than other providers like Oracle.
The support is quite reliable depending on the service engineer assigned.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.9
Microsoft Defender for Identity is a highly scalable, cloud-based solution suitable for enterprises of all sizes and infrastructure needs.
Sentiment score
7.5
Vectra AI offers scalable solutions, efficiently managing large environments with flexible integration for cloud or on-premises deployments.
In a Microsoft-centric organization, especially with Azure infrastructure and Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity is scalable.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Defender for Identity is stable, with occasional regional issues, requiring minimal agent redeployment and rated 7-9/10 by users.
Sentiment score
8.0
Vectra AI is reliable with minimal downtime, smooth updates, resolved issues, and proactive support ensuring effective performance.
Microsoft Defender for Identity is quite robust and built on Azure hyperscale infrastructure, with a 99% availability.
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Identity requires better remediation, integration, precision, usability, threat intelligence, automation, installation flexibility, and support.
Vectra AI requires better integration, detection algorithms, user interface, and enhanced threat response, network analysis, and reporting capabilities.
Reducing false positives is something we've been working on with Microsoft.
One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform.
There is room for improvement in delivering knowledge to technical users, especially regarding what we can gain from the solution and how to apply it.
You need to have a Linux server, and from the Linux server, you must perform AI tasks, and there is a lot to be handled in the back end.
Neither Vectra nor Darktrace have a function like a status health check on my log sources and traffic sources.
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Identity is cost-effective for E5 license holders, despite perceived complexity and higher costs than other offerings.
Vectra AI offers competitive pricing based on IP addresses, justified by threat detection performance despite licensing complexities and additional costs.
From an organization perspective, using E5 licenses is value for money, especially if Azure and Office 365 are already in use.
Ensuring a fair price according to market standards.
Vectra is cheaper in terms of pricing and features compared to Darktrace.
It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances identity security through integration, real-time monitoring, advanced threat detection, and comprehensive dashboard visibility.
Vectra AI enhances threat management with AI-driven detection, alert consolidation, seamless integration, and an intuitive dashboard design.
The seamless integration with other Microsoft solutions within our Microsoft-centric environment is also a major advantage.
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.
The most valuable features of Microsoft Defender for Identity include its automatic remedies, possibilities for avoiding incidents, the privilege manager, and the generation of logs that facilitate a safer environment.
There are extensive out-of-box detection capabilities.
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (7th)
Vectra AI
Ranking in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (3rd), Network Detection and Response (NDR) (2nd), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (15th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 17.6%, down from 27.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vectra AI is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
 

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.
Mohammad Alkurdi - PeerSpot reviewer
Innovative detection features enhance monitoring
The advantages of the integration are not entirely out-of-the-box. You have to do it manually. When I'm doing tier response, an out-of-the-box solution is not available. You need to have a Linux server, and from the Linux server, you must perform AI tasks, and there is a lot to be handled in the back end. This is a major consideration about them. The recall feature, if it can be placed in some areas instead of the cloud, and charged for, would be better. Recall the storage where you watch all the traffic, and you can recall it and try to analyze it in the back end. It’s cloud-based. If they offer it on-prem, it would be better. I think they have a solution, but I have never tested it, to be honest with you.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

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 area that needs improvement is the number of alerts generated, leading to alert fatigue. Reducing false positives is something we've been working on with Microsoft.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?
Microsoft Defender for Identity ( /products/microsoft-defender-for-identity-reviews ) is used to protect our on-premises and hybrid Active Directory environment. Our organization has a hybrid infra...
What is the biggest difference between Corelight and Vectra AI?
The two platforms take a fundamentally different approach to NDR. Corelight is limited to use cases that require the eventual forwarding of events and parsed data logs to a security team’s SIEM or ...
What do you like most about Vectra AI?
The solution is currently used as a central threat detection and response system.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vectra AI?
It is very acceptable when you compare it with Darktrace, for example.
 

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
Vectra Networks, Vectra AI NDR
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Tribune Media Group, Barry University, Aruba Networks, Good Technology, Riverbed, Santa Clara University, Securities Exchange, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Vectra AI and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.