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Anomali vs Microsoft Defender for Identity comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 12, 2025

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

Anomali
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
20th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (29th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (12th), Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (7th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (24th)
Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (4th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Anomali is 2.8%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 4.5%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity4.5%
Anomali2.8%
Other92.7%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

CC
Enterprise Security Architect V at FirstEnergy
Enables automated threat intelligence sorting and enhances proactive threat hunting capabilities
You have to have at least a threat intelligence background or a SOC analyst background to use it, as that's the information you'll dig around with in there. If you don't have that kind of knowledge, it probably can be a little hard to use, but they do provide training. They offer training not only for how to use the platform but also some basic threat intelligence training to explain what these things are and what these terms mean. My company is a customer of Anomali. I would recommend it to other people. I would advise making sure you don't pick it without testing other products and have your use cases well thought out and documented before testing, so you know it will solve the problems you're trying to address. Keep an open mind with it and realize that whatever you can dream of, you can probably do with the platform. Overall, I would rate Anomali an eight out of ten.
RK
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Protect on-premises and hybrid environments with advanced threat detection and seamless integration
Our Active Directory implementation is a hybrid one. The advanced threat protection is one of the strengths of Microsoft Defender for Identity, as it utilizes user and entity analytics and can detect indicative attacks. It identifies lateral movements, privilege escalations, and alerts on potential attacks. The tool is also used for security posture assessment. The seamless integration with other Microsoft solutions within our Microsoft-centric environment is also a major advantage.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We now have a very robust collection of threat intelligence based on the capabilities that Anomali provides."
"The feature I have found most valuable is credential monitoring. This feature is easy and quick."
"The most valuable aspect of Anomali is the threat modeling capability."
"I have found Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) very useful and concise. The solution is easy to use."
"I would rate Microsoft Defender for Identity at nine out of ten."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Defender for Identity include real-time information for threat detection, its inclusion of behavioral analytics, and vulnerability management."
"The most valuable aspect is its connection to Microsoft Sentinel and Defender for Endpoint, and giving exact timelines for incidents and when certain events occured during an incident."
"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."
"The basic security monitoring at its core feature is the most valuable aspect. But also the investigative parts, the historical logging of events over the network are extremely interesting because it gives an in-depth insight into the history of account activity that is really easy to read, easy to follow, and easy to export."
"It is easy to set up. Based on the number of devices you would like to set up, you can use scripts, Group Policy, etc. It takes five minutes to set up."
"The solution’s alerting is fairly efficient."
 

Cons

"An area for improvement is the intelligence sharing within the Anomali community. The tagging system can be inconsistent, as any company can use any tags for their reporting."
"Support in the past has been top-notch, but recent trends indicate that it has taken a back seat, as we often don't get answers for days."
"Less code in integration would be nice when building blocks."
"A lot of tools can give you many features, such as CTI intelligence and a tax service reduction. However, many people are combining different tools together to have more capabilities. It is up to the consumer whether they want to have multiple tools or have one tool that serves the purpose. Anomali Enterprise could improve by combining all the other tools' features into one solution."
"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."
"There is no option to remedy an issue directly from the console. If we see an alert, we can't fix it from the console. Instead, we must depend on other Microsoft products, such as MDE. That is a significant drawback. It simply works as a scanner, which can sometimes put enough load on the sensors. Immediate actions should be possible from the dashboard because. It can prevent issues from spreading further."
"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."
"One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform to promptly alert affected users and their friends."
"We observe a lot of false positives. Sometimes, when we go for a coffee break, we lock our screens. Locking the screen has a separate Windows event ID and sometimes I see it is detected as a failed login."
"When the data leaves the cloud, there are security issues."
"I would like to be able to do remediation from the platform because it is just a scanner right now. If you onboard a device, it shows you what is happening, but you can't use it to fix things. You need to go into the system to fix it instead."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When comparing the price of Anomali Enterprise to other solutions it is in the medium to high range. However, I am satisfied with the price."
"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."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Anomali ThreatStream?
An area for improvement is the intelligence sharing within the Anomali community. The tagging system can be inconsistent, as any company can use any tags for their reporting. Combining all aliases ...
What is your primary use case for Anomali ThreatStream?
I use Anomali ( /products/anomali-reviews ) for threat hunting, threat collection, operationalization of intelligence, such as indicators of compromise (IOCs), and dissemination of reports for repo...
What advice do you have for others considering Anomali ThreatStream?
For new users, I recommend taking the training provided by Anomali as it is very well articulated. I advise reading the user manual and taking the instructor-led training sessions from the customer...
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?
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...
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...
 

Also Known As

Match, Lens, ThreatStream, STAXX, Anomali Security Analytics
Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank of England, First Energy, UBISOFT, Bank of Hope, Blackhawk Network
Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Anomali vs. Microsoft Defender for Identity and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.