Amazon CloudWatch vs Microsoft Purview Audit comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft are both solutions in the Log Management category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #29 with an average rating of 8.5. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 1.3% mindshare in Log Management, compared to Microsoft’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Amazon CloudWatch

Read 49 Amazon CloudWatch reviews

9,188 Views
4,594 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Microsoft Purview Audit

Read 4 Microsoft Purview Audit reviews

3,499 Views
2,554 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon CloudWatch

Microsoft Purview Audit

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Amazon CloudWatch and Microsoft Purview Audit compete in cloud monitoring and auditing solutions. Microsoft Purview Audit appears to have an advantage with its robust features, while Amazon CloudWatch is appreciated for support and pricing.

Features: Amazon CloudWatch integrates seamlessly into AWS and provides real-time monitoring capabilities. It offers low-latency alarms and customizable dashboards for better visualization. Microsoft Purview Audit offers extensive auditing for compliance, incorporates automated discovery, and supports access policy management, which is highly regarded for regulatory processes.

Room for Improvement: Amazon CloudWatch users desire enhanced analytics, a more intuitive interface, and improved alerting mechanisms. They also suggest advanced reporting capabilities. Microsoft Purview Audit users look for better integration with third-party tools, improved user interface flexibility, and enhanced scalability options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon CloudWatch is noted for its straightforward deployment and dependable customer support, making it easy for users to start quickly. Microsoft Purview Audit requires more setup effort but provides comprehensive user guidance and responsive support that users find beneficial.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon CloudWatch is recognized for its competitive pricing, providing good ROI. It appeals to budget-conscious users with scalable options. Microsoft Purview Audit is viewed as more expensive but justifies the cost through advanced features, offering high value for those in need of a feature-rich application.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon CloudWatch vs. Microsoft Purview Audit Report (Updated: November 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. Microsoft Purview Audit

November 2026

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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

Amazon CloudWatch

Ranking in Log Management

19th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (24th), Cloud Monitoring Software (15th)

Microsoft Purview Audit

Ranking in Log Management

29th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Microsoft Security Suite (31st)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Log Management category, the mindshare of Amazon CloudWatch is 1.3%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Audit is 1.1%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Log Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Amazon CloudWatch	1.3%
Microsoft Purview Audit	1.1%
Other	97.6%

Log Management

Featured Reviews

Amandeep Pawar

Engineer Technology at Iris Software Technologies Private Limited

Monitoring microservices has improved and teams respond faster to production incidents

In my opinion, the best features Amazon CloudWatch offers are Metrics, Analytics, Logs, Alarms, Dashboards, and Log Insights, with standout features being real-time monitoring and centralized logging, proactive alerting, and fast troubleshooting. The dashboards in Amazon CloudWatch help with troubleshooting by allowing us to easily look into API latency and how much resource consumption is occurring. The CloudWatch dashboard provides real-time data and views of our application health while Log Insights lets us quickly search and analyze logs to identify root causes of production issues, making troubleshooting time efficient and monitoring much more streamlined. Amazon CloudWatch has positively impacted my organization by improving our ability to monitor production issues and easily find the root cause in the application. We can quickly fix issues at the point of occurrence, and real-time metrics for microservices provide centralized logging and automated alerts that enable fast incident detection, quicker troubleshooting, and better application reliability, ultimately reducing operational efforts by giving engineers a single platform for monitoring AWS resources and microservices. I have seen many positive outcomes in my organization, estimating that CloudWatch reduced troubleshooting time by around thirty to forty percent because engineers could correlate metrics and logging from a single platform. Early alerts also help us resolve many performance issues before they escalate into major incidents, contributing to improved service availability.

Read full review

Oksana Kosukhina.

Cloud Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Integrated auditing has strengthened data retention and improved incident investigations

I have seen areas for improvement, specifically in Microsoft Purview Audit or in general about Microsoft. I have had a situation with documentation. I had a customer who wanted to create alerts and they had Microsoft 365 Business Premium. In the documentation, it was noted that this license is enough for creating alerts. When we tried to make them, we noticed they cannot do it with Microsoft 365 E3 because the customer had limited features to manage alerts. The customer had to buy E3. We created Microsoft support requests, and they confirmed that the documentation displayed not the real situation and they have been going to update documentation. The same situation occurred now with implementing Microsoft Purview Audit in the last autumn. eDiscovery was combined with search and content search, and the documentation was not clear at the beginning. It was a little difficult to describe to customers that now it is a part of eDiscovery. Content search is a very simple functionality, while eDiscovery is a little difficult. I am not entirely sure why Microsoft is going in the way of combining these services because they are the same. However, for a customer who has never seen these services, it is difficult to understand quickly. The same situation occurs with litigation holds and some other holds. For any mail, I am trying to keep data. For example, emails are held for a year or two years, ten years, it does not matter. It is difficult to understand where to find this data and where these emails are being held. I need to use eDiscovery to find out all deleted data that was kept somewhere in some hidden folders of the mailbox. Regular customers and regular administrators know that on-premises Exchange, for example, allows them to find the data in some repository and review the list of kept data. However, with this hold, we do not have any functionality to review the list of kept data. It is difficult to understand for customers how to work with this. I had a case where I spent three or four hours working deeply with a customer to explain how to work with eDiscovery, why Content Search is not there when it was before, what is an eDiscovery case, and why we are talking about all of this just to review a list of kept emails. This is difficult.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"CloudWatch provides essential monitoring capabilities that integrate seamlessly with other AWS services."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon CloudWatch is its ease of use and logs. You do not have to go to each separate system to see the logs, such as Syslog and they are located in one dashboard GUI."

"Scheduling is a valuable feature."

"Amazon CloudWatch offers cost-saving advantages by being an inbuilt solution that requires no separate setup or maintenance for monitoring tasks."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon CloudWatch is reliability."

"Task automation through Amazon CloudWatch has improved the company's overall efficiency in terms of the time to resolve issues, so the tool has been beneficial."

"What I would advise anyone looking into using Amazon CloudWatch is to go for it especially when you're on the AWS environment."

"The technical support is fantastic; it's the best ever."

More Amazon CloudWatch pros

"The platform has significantly enhanced our operational insight into the overall Microsoft 365 environment."

"The main Microsoft feature is that it offers common integration of services, of data, of identity, meaning user accounts, user access, and privileged access."

"The overall user experience with Microsoft Purview Audit is of higher quality than when it was branded as Compliance Center, and Microsoft consistently updates and evolves functionalities and the overall experience."

"We're easily saving at least one hour per day using this solution."

Cons

"It's not an advanced way of monitoring."

"Better reporting is always something needed. That could be an answer to just about anything. But you always want better reporting, better dashboards, things that are just more dynamic and more accessible."

"The dashboard of Amazon CloudWatch is not very customizable right now."

"I do not know whether or not CloudWatch can be integrated with on-prem services."

"It would be beneficial for CloudWatch to provide an API interface and some kind of custom configuration."

"It is hard to configure; it is not a straightforward tool."

"CloudWatch's scalability could be improved."

"Adding conditional expressions would enhance its functionality."

More Amazon CloudWatch cons

"We do have a Denial of Access happening."

"I had a case where I spent three or four hours working deeply with a customer to explain how to work with eDiscovery, why Content Search is not there when it was before, what is an eDiscovery case, and why we are talking about all of this just to review a list of kept emails."

"We are still in the early stages of leveraging Microsoft Purview Audit. Currently, it's primarily used for the audit function."

"Areas for product improvement include enhancing customization options and integrating more comprehensive compliance features."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Amazon CloudWatch has very cheap pricing, and it hardly costs my company $25-$30 a month for fifty systems, so it's pretty affordable."

"The pricing model is pay-as-you-go so you have to be mindful of usage to manage costs."

"What's were using is the free service of Amazon CloudWatch, so they're not charging us. As for hidden fees, we're not aware of them because we're using what our clients provided us."

"The pricing is average."

"I consider it as a medium-priced solution."

"Its pricing is reasonable. It is sometimes tricky, but it is reasonable as compared to others."

"The product's cost is relatively inexpensive."

"It is a free-of-charge service."

More Amazon CloudWatch pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	26

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon CloudWatch?

The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Amazon CloudWatch has been positive. It was very easy to set up because it is built into AWS and does not require separate licensing, bein...

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What needs improvement with Amazon CloudWatch?

For improvements, I think Amazon CloudWatch could enhance certain areas, particularly regarding pricing structure. I wish to see simpler pricing, more intuitive dashboards, easier log queries for b...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Amazon CloudWatch?

My main use case for Amazon CloudWatch is the monitoring and analytics of the application servers. I basically use Amazon CloudWatch to monitor the microservices and AWS infrastructure, helping me ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Audit?

It is not so expensive in comparison with other products, but I can tell you about an example.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Audit?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Audit?

I work with Defender for IoT by chance because I see that we have enough reviews for Defender for Office 365 today, and we need reviews for some Azure products. I work with Azure products such as L...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch

November 2026

Download Amazon CloudWatch product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Purview Audit

October 2026

Download Microsoft Purview Audit product report

Overview

Amazon CloudWatch offers centralized logging, real-time monitoring, and integration with AWS services, assisting organizations in improving operational efficiency and reducing troubleshooting time.

Amazon CloudWatch provides a comprehensive monitoring solution that includes dashboards, alerts, and detailed reporting to analyze server and application performance. Its user-friendly interface supports AWS services monitoring through integration with resources like EC2, S3, and Lambda. However, improvements can be made in customization, dashboard design, and integration with third-party tools.

What are Amazon CloudWatch's key features?

Ease of Use: Simplifies monitoring and logging with a user-friendly interface.
Centralized Logging: Collects logs from applications and AWS resources for comprehensive analysis.
Real-time Monitoring: Provides real-time insights into AWS services and applications.
Integration with AWS: Seamlessly works with AWS resources such as EC2, S3, and Lambda.
Dashboards and Alerts: Customizable dashboards and proactive alerting to quickly identify issues.

What benefits should users look for?

Operational Efficiency: Reduces troubleshooting time through detailed monitoring and alerting.
Scalability: Adapts to growing infrastructural needs without compromising performance.
Stability: Delivers a reliable and consistent monitoring experience across AWS environments.
Data Analytics: Offers advanced analytics to understand application and infrastructure performance.

Amazon CloudWatch is widely implemented across industries to monitor essential metrics like CPU and memory utilization. Companies rely on its capabilities for anomaly detection, incident response, and performance checks, making it indispensable for automated monitoring in AWS environments.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Microsoft Purview Audit offers streamlined, user-friendly solutions for managing Microsoft 365 environments. It excels in security incident log management, privileged access control, and simplifying data access adjustments with integration between AD and Azure AD.

Key functionalities of Microsoft Purview Audit include capabilities tailored to monitor environment health, compliance, and security management within Active Directory and Microsoft ecosystems. Users can efficiently manage roles, access controls, and data retention protocols, making it a valuable resource for strategically-driven organizations with legal requirements. While the integration with Dataverse enhances its utility, user challenges arise due to complexity in certain aspects such as litigation holds and accessing hidden folder data. Additionally, users have reported issues with the precision of customization and compliance documentation, particularly when handling alerts and eDiscovery functions. Despite these challenges, Purview Audit remains a leading tool within the Microsoft suite for managing log retrieval and security oversight.

What are the key features of Microsoft Purview Audit?

User-friendly Dashboards: Easily track the health of Microsoft 365 environments.
Privileged Access Management: Efficiently manage and secure access to critical resources.
Log Management: Gain insights into security incidents through comprehensive log management.
Rules-based Access Control: Implement strict access protocols tailored to organizational frameworks.
Role-based Delegation: Streamline role delegation while adhering to security policies.
Zero Trust Security: Enhance security with a zero trust model for data protection.

What benefits should users look for?

Data Retention: Meet legal and compliance needs efficiently.
Easy Configuration: Simplify setup processes for quick implementation.
Seamless AD to Azure AD Migration: Transition effortlessly between directory services.
Detailed Audit Capabilities: Understand, monitor, and review security actions easily.

In industries with stringent data governance and compliance mandates, Microsoft Purview Audit is utilized to ensure a robust security posture. Users engage it for monitoring compliance within financial services, healthcare, and other sectors where data privacy is paramount. With its SaaS-based integration in Microsoft environments, organizations access refined log data leveraging platforms like Power Platform Admin Center, ensuring comprehensive oversight and operational efficiency.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

AirAsia, Airbnb, Aircel, APUS, Avazu, Casa & Video, Futbol Club Barcelona (FCBarcelona), National Taiwan University, redBus

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Amazon CloudWatch vs. Microsoft Purview Audit

November 2026

Free Report: Amazon CloudWatch vs. Microsoft Purview Audit

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon CloudWatch vs. Microsoft Purview Audit and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.

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