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Microsoft Sentinel vs Netwrix Auditor comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 18, 2024

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 Sentinel
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (5th), AI-Powered Cybersecurity Platforms (6th)
Netwrix Auditor
Ranking in Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
35th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
GRC (8th), Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (17th), Active Directory Management (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Sentinel is 7.7%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netwrix Auditor is 0.2%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
 

Featured Reviews

KrishnanKartik - PeerSpot reviewer
Every rule enriched at triggering stage, easing the job of SOC analyst
It's a Big Data security analytics platform. Among the unique features is the fact that it has built-in UEBA and analytical capabilities. It allows you to use the out-of-the-box machine learning and AI capabilities, but it also allows you to bring your own AI/ML, by bringing in your own IPs and allowing the platform to accept them and run that on top of it. In addition, the SOAR component is a pay-per-use model. Compared to any other product, where customization is not available, you can fine-tune the SOAR and you'll be charged only when your playbooks are triggered. That is the beauty of the solution because the SOAR is the costliest component in the market today. Other vendors charge heavily for the SOAR, but with Sentinel it is upside-down: the SOAR is the lowest-hanging fruit. It's the least costly and it delivers more value to the customer. The SOAR engine also uniquely helps us to automate most of the incidents with automated enrichment and that cuts out the L1 analyst work. And combining M365 with Sentinel, if you want to call it integration, takes just a few clicks: "next, next finish." If it is all M365-native, it is a maximum of three or four steps and you'll be able to ingest all the logs into Sentinel. That is true even with AWS or GCP because most of the connectors are already available out-of-the-box. You just click, put in your subscription details, include your IAM, and you are finished. Within five to six steps, you can integrate AWS workloads and the logs can be ingested into Sentinel. When it comes to a third party specifically, such as log sources in a data center or on-premises, we need a log collector so that the logs can be forwarded to the Sentinel platform. And when it comes to servers or something where there is an agent for Windows or Linux, the agent can collect the logs and ship them to the Sentinel platform. I don't see any difficulties in integrating any of the log sources, even to the extent of collecting IoT log sources. Microsoft Defender for Cloud has multiple components such as Defender for Servers, Defender for PaaS, and Defender for databases. For customers in Azure, there are a lot of use cases specific to protecting workloads and PaaS and SaaS in Azure and beyond Azure, if a customer also has on-premises locations. There is EDR for Windows and Linux servers, and it even protects different kinds of containers. With Defender for Cloud, all these sources can be seamlessly integrated and you can then track the security incidents in Microsoft's XDR platform. That means you have one more workspace, under Azure, not Defender for Cloud, where you can see the security incidents. In addition, it can be integrated with Sentinel for EDR deep-dive analytics. It can also protect workloads in AWS. We have customers for whom we are protecting their AWS workloads. Even EKS, Elastic Kubernetes Service, on AWS can be integrated, as can the GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine). And with Defender for Cloud, security alert ingestion is free
Mohamed Tantawy - PeerSpot reviewer
Can track every admin action in large environments and includes AI modules to detect and prevent unauthorized changes
The initial setup of Netwrix Auditor was straightforward. Some functions require agents while others are agentless, simplifying implementation. It consumed minimal server and client resources, and the wizard-based console made it simple to deploy with the help of architectural teams. All required ports were in place, and they covered all critical services and databases effectively. I would rate the easiness of the initial setup as a nine out of ten. The deployment of Netwrix Auditor took around three weeks, mainly due to the preparation of the environment and servers. The deployment process involved actions such as preparing virtual servers and building databases. Once deployed, it took only about a week to complete. Third-party consultants assisted us with deployment. Only one or two engineers were needed for deployment and maintenance, which could be handled remotely with minimal complexity.

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 that onboarding to the SIM solution is quite easy. If you are using cloud-based solutions, it's just a few clicks to migrate it."
"It is easy to implement (turn on) - does need a skilled analyst to develop queries and playbooks."
"The automation feature is valuable."
"While Microsoft Sentinel provides a log of security events, its true power lies in its integration with Microsoft Defender."
"Sentinel is a Microsoft product, so they provide very robust use cases and analytic groups, which are very beneficial for the security team. I also like the ability to integrate data sources into the software for on-premise and cloud-based solutions."
"Microsoft Sentinel enables you to ingest data from the entire ecosystem and that connection of data helps you to monitor critical resources and to know what's happening in the environment."
"It has a lot of great features."
"The log query feature has been the most valuable because it's very good. You can put your data on the cloud and run queues from Sentinel. It will do it all very fast. I love that I don't have to upload it to an Excel file and then manually look for a piece of information. Sentinel is much faster and is good for big databases."
"I have found user behavior analysis and the ability to run risk assessments important features. Additionally, the interface and online documentation are very good."
"Netwrix provides features that no other solution on the market does."
"It maintains audit logs for the duration of time that you wish, as long as you have the storage capacity to do so."
"The most valuable feature is the real-time monitoring."
"The most valuable features of Netwrix Auditor are its affordability compared to similar products and its comprehensive monitoring of admin activities."
"What I find the most valuable about Netwrix Auditor is the way it shows risk. The reports are very clear."
"I am impressed with the tool's reporting feature and notifications."
 

Cons

"The performance could be improved. If I create 15 to 20 lines for a single-use case in KQL, sometimes it takes more time to execute. If I create use cases within a certain timeline, the result will show in .01 seconds. A complex query takes more time to get results."
"I believe one of the challenges I encountered was the absence of live training sessions, even with the option to pay for them."
"From a client perspective, they'd like to see more cost savings."
"We do see continuous improvement all the time, however, I haven't got a specific feature that is lacking or not well designed."
"We have been working with multiple customers, and every time we onboard a customer, we are missing an essential feature that surprisingly doesn't exist in Sentinel. We searched the forums and knowledge bases but couldn't find a solution. When you onboard new customers, you need to enable the data connectors. That part is easy, but you must create rules from scratch for every associated connector. You click "next," "next," "next," and it requires five clicks for each analytical rule. Imagine we have a customer with 150 rules."
"For certain vendors, some of the data that Microsoft Sentinel captures is redacted due to privacy reasons."
"When we pass KPIs to the governance department, there's no option to provide rights to the data or dashboard to colleagues. We can use Power BI for this, but it isn't easy or convenient. They should just come up with a way to provide limited role-based access to auditing personnel"
"When it comes to ingesting Azure native log sources, some of the log sources are specific to the subscription, and it is not always very clear."
"When there are issues I would like remediation to be in one place."
"There is room for improvements when it comes to the licensing."
"There is room for improvement with the introduction of AI functionality."
"An improvement would be if there was an another way to manage the logs besides email because it's not so practical."
"The solution lacks self-service on password reset. It also needs to improve its scalability."
"The Linux compatibility of this solution could be improved."
"If you buy direct, there is a minimum of 150 licenses that must be procured. The price point and barrier of entry is a little bit higher than it would be if you purchased the solution from an authorized reseller partner, rather than buying it and managing yourself."
"I expect usability features to become more refined over time. I'm interested to see how it evolves and continues to improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am not involved on the financial side, but from an enterprise-wide use perspective, I think the price is good enough."
"Azure Sentinel is very costly, or at least it appears to be very costly. The costs vary based on your ingestion and your retention charges."
"The pricing is fair... With a traditional SIEM, you pay a lump sum for licenses. But with Sentinel, it's pay-as-you-go according to the amount of data you inject."
"The pricing isn't very high. It depends on the number of logs you have. If you're expecting to ingest 50 to 60G in a day, but you're only ingesting 20 to 25G per day at first and you have a good team to analyze the logs, then you can segregate the ingestion at under 15G."
"Microsoft Sentinel's pricing is relatively expensive and extremely confusing."
"I have had mixed feedback. At one point, I heard a client say that it sometimes seems more expensive. Most of the clients are on Office 365 or M365, and they are forced to take Azure SIEM because of the integration."
"I don't know yet because they gave us a 30-day test window for free."
"Sentinel is a pay-as-you-go solution. To use it, you need a Log Analytics workspace. This is where the logs are stored and the cost of Log Analytics is based on gigabytes... On top of that, there is the cost of Sentinel, which is about €2 per gigabyte. If a customer has an M365 E5 license, the logs that come from Microsoft Defender are free."
"The tool's price is fair."
"There is a license for this solution and we are on an annual license. The price is reasonable."
"This solution is reasonably priced. I would rate it a nine out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Is there a common threat intelligence tool that aggregates multiple threat intelligence sources?
Yes, Azure Sentinel is a SIEM on the Cloud. Multiple data sources can be uploaded and analyzed with Azure Sentinel and its Threat Hunting functionality with AI available as templates or customized ...
What is a better choice, Splunk or Azure Sentinel?
It would really depend on (1) which logs you need to ingest and (2) what are your use cases Splunk is easy for ingestion of anything, but the charge per GB/Day Indexed and it gets expensive as log ...
Which is better - Azure Sentinel or AWS Security Hub?
We like that Azure Sentinel does not require as much maintenance as legacy SIEMs that are on-premises. Azure Sentinel is auto-scaling - you will not have to worry about performance impact, you will...
What do you like most about Netwrix Auditor?
The most valuable features of Netwrix Auditor are its affordability compared to similar products and its comprehensive monitoring of admin activities.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Netwrix Auditor?
The pricing of Netwrix Auditor varies based on the number of users and devices in our environment, but it is generally very cost-effective compared to other solutions. We don't pay for licenses sep...
What needs improvement with Netwrix Auditor?
The solution currently meets my needs, but there is room for improvement with the introduction of AI functionality as suggested by the vendor. Additionally, expanding capabilities like database act...
 

Also Known As

Azure Sentinel
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Sentinel is trusted by companies of all sizes including ABM, ASOS, Uniper, First West Credit Union, Avanade, and more.
AT&T, SanDisk, Siemens, Verizon, Electrolux, Allianz, Societe Generale
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Sentinel vs. Netwrix Auditor and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.