Atlan vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection comparison

Atlan and Microsoft are both solutions in the Data Governance category. Atlan is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.3, while Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.1. Atlan holds a 2.0% mindshare in DG, compared to Microsoft’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Atlan users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Atlan

Read 10 Atlan reviews

2,229 Views
2,162 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Purview Informati...

Read 22 Microsoft Purview Information Protection reviews

3,320 Views
2,224 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Atlan

Microsoft Purview Informati...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Microsoft Purview Information Protection and Atlan are involved in differing aspects of data management and security. While Microsoft Purview stands out with its strong focus on data security and compliance, Atlan holds the upper hand in data collaboration and governance due to its robust collaboration tools.

Features: Microsoft Purview offers data labeling, encryption, and monitoring to enhance security and compliance. Atlan provides dynamic data cataloging, metadata management, and collaboration tools, emphasizing teamwork and efficient data operationalization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Purview integrates seamlessly with existing Microsoft products, ideal for organizations already in the Microsoft ecosystem. Atlan's cloud-native deployment supports diverse tech stacks, providing versatility. Both platforms offer dedicated support, but Atlan's flexible deployment options accommodate various customer needs.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Purview often entails a higher initial setup cost but promises long-term ROI with its robust compliance and security benefits. Atlan offers competitive pricing focused on enhancing data-driven outcomes, which could lead to a higher ROI in agile and collaborative environments.

To learn more, read our detailed Atlan vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Atlan vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection

April 2026

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Helped 894,738 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

Atlan

Ranking in Data Governance

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Metadata Management (4th)

Microsoft Purview Informati...

Ranking in Data Governance

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Privacy Management Software (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Atlan is 2.0%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Information Protection is 2.0%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Governance Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Purview Information Protection	2.0%
Atlan	2.0%
Other	96.0%

Data Governance

Featured Reviews

Peter Neumann

IT consultant at Pathfinder

Has struggled to meet business needs but supports technical data exploration and transparency

Atlan can be improved by concentrating more on business data since it is developed from developers for developers, and it needs to be more business relevant. For instance, when re-importing data model diagrams, Atlan provides some diagram automation that is not connected to the business glossary, which I consider a significant fault. Atlan needs to improve by focusing more on the business side of data, not only on technical aspects.If you want to focus on technical considerations, it would be beneficial to have an interface with a real business data modeling tool such as Erwin or other business data tools, since data modeling is not the same as Draw.io. Additionally, Atlan can improve its workflows, which are hard to understand. Working with templates, Excel import, export, and running automations is not self-explanatory, and you always need help from Atlan support team. If business people want to use it and run their own reports, it must be easier to customize for their business needs.

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Abhi T

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Achieve comprehensive data protection with reliable performance and room for enhanced discovery accuracy

The product is still in a growing phase. I could see that many use cases in their product are not capable enough in terms of detecting or protecting. Compared to other products, they are in the middle of bringing their solution up to the mark, so it is not a full-grown solution. They have to get more accurate results in terms of data discovery and classification. The second thing is their support; support from Microsoft takes a lot of time to get a response from their support team. The third thing is their OCR capability is not that great in terms of identifying the documents. We would love to see response times of less than 24 hours. Additionally, there is no way to check the policy's current status in terms of whether it got synced or not. You have to wait and test the use cases after 24 hours or after 48 hours, and once it starts working, then it appears the policy got implemented.

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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

"The AI part is integrated for enriching metadata engagement, making it a comprehensive tool."

"The best feature of Atlan is its integration with communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, so business users don't have to go into a data catalog to see metadata about data assets."

"The interfaces and automated imports have helped me with transparency, as we have different sources from different techniques such as DBT, Snowflake, and other regular databases, making it effective to connect these sources and navigate through them, filter them, and enrich the data with additional meter information."

"Atlan is helpful for identifying datasets and discovering PI data, such as the classification levels of datasets (gold, silver, bronze)."

"Atlan has positively impacted the organization since it helps in discovering already available assets, allowing for reduction of redundant ingestion of external data and reduction of time to market for any project."

"Atlas is quite intuitive."

"By switching to Atlan, we have increased our productivity and saved a lot of business time."

"As a senior analytics engineer, Atlan's ability to show end-to-end data lineage is the most important feature for me."

More Atlan pros

"We can restrict access or specify who can see sensitivity labels, which can be based on the classification level. We can encrypt restricted content and limit who can see that from an internal view, too, so Purview is a powerful tool."

"The UI is user-friendly, and I have observed that it improves further each year."

"My favorite feature about Microsoft Purview Information Protection is that it generally applies to everything, so I don't have to go in and do it manually; I set a policy and then it applies."

"We use the solution for our customers' services. It helps identify and protect sensitive data in documents, PDFs, emails, and Teams chats to prevent data leakage. It can detect and block emails containing credit card information sent outside the organization."

"The feature I like the most about Microsoft Purview Information Protection is sensitivity labels."

"I recommend Microsoft Purview Information Protection for organizations using the Microsoft ecosystem."

"The features I like the most about Microsoft Purview Information Protection include the ability to set different retention policies, which have benefited my organization by being crucial in maintaining taxpayer anonymity when communicating with government employees."

"The feature I prefer the most is the automated controls around it, such as automated labeling, which is effective."

More Microsoft Purview Information Protection pros

Cons

"The challenge is in the lineage, where it requires improvement."

"Certain UI changes could make Atlan more user-friendly."

"Working with templates, Excel import, export, and running automations is not self-explanatory, and you always need help from Atlan support team."

"One area that could be improved is the capability to find duplicates of datasets."

"Customer support for Atlan is not so proactive."

"One area that could be improved is the capability to find duplicates of datasets."

"The challenge is in the lineage, where it requires improvement. Atlas needs to capture areas where organizations use less known applications."

"One of the main areas for improvement is its governance capabilities."

More Atlan cons

"The communication around Microsoft product names and functionalities can be confusing, like when they combined Office 365 Risk and Compliance with Azure Purview. Then, they added Purview Hub to Fabric, and people thought Purview Hub would do data lineages, but it didn't. It isn't full-fledged Purview. It's just one feature set."

"I wouldn't recommend Microsoft Purview Information Protection for petabytes of documents as performance might be affected."

"I have not had much luck or much experience with the comprehensiveness of the data classification abilities in Microsoft Purview Information Protection, including identifying categories and sensitive information."

"In my opinion, Microsoft Purview Information Protection can be improved by having a more seamless user experience and ease of use in protecting both structured and unstructured data."

"There should be more training and communication regarding new features. I may be missing those communications, but it often seems like changes happen in the Purview portal without notice. Having a roadmap or updates about new releases would be helpful for demonstrating to clients. If things are constantly changing, I sometimes look silly when I log in, and things have moved or changed."

"My experience with the customer service and support of Microsoft is around five out of ten. The response time is slow, and they take multiple sessions for diagnosing issues."

"I had experience with previous versions of Microsoft Purview Information Protection as well. The new version doesn't have all the features that were present in the previous native clients and functionalities. For example, the ability to track documents - knowing where your document is, who is accessing it, when and where. You could even revoke access to a particular document if needed, which was a cool feature. These aren't available right now, although Microsoft is working on bringing them back, which might take some time."

"The most concerning thing is that most of the capabilities they mention are not working as expected."

More Microsoft Purview Information Protection cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay per-user license. It's a different classification model than with other solutions, where they usually charge you for resources. So, that was a better model for us. And because of this difference in models or classification, it was cheaper for us to go with Atlan."

"The tool's pricing is not a problem for customers because they often purchase it as part of a bundle. With an E5 license, for example, users get access to the entire functionality. This is one of the main reasons why many customers are choosing Microsoft."

"The price is determined by the enterprise licensing, either the E3 or E5 licensing or the EMS plus security and other feature licensing."

"The pricing and setup costs are transferred to my clients, who find it affordable and are satisfied with what they receive."

"The product is affordable, and our clients agree. Sensitivity labels come with the MIP license at an additional $2 a month per user, an excellent deal for auto-labeling capabilities."

"The tool's pricing is fairly low, less than 100,000 for a year."

"Initially, Purview's cost seemed quite high because it was for personal use. I was scanning a tiny tenant and thinking, "If I extrapolate this to an enterprise-scale tenant, it will be quite costly." However, I talked to people who had compared it to other products on the market, and they're spending five figures to get started. At least, Purview has a free trial, so you can try some of the features early on."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

11%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atlan?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the licensing cost is a bit flexible but not affordable for smaller organizations. It might be way out of their budget, but it is very ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Atlan?

Atlan can be improved by enhancing their support process by reducing the resolution time. They have really bad and incomplete documentation, so they should work on the documentation as well, especi...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Atlan?

My main use case for Atlan is to define a flexible set of metadata, including measuring the quality of said data. Atlan is also a partner of ours, so we use it to integrate with our own tool. It al...

See all answers

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

It is reasonable from what I can say right now because we are using most of the Microsoft tools right now. We are using the managed SQL server of Microsoft. We are using Microsoft Purview Informati...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

In my opinion, Microsoft Purview Information Protection can be improved by having a more seamless user experience and ease of use in protecting both structured and unstructured data.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

My main use case for using Microsoft Purview Information Protection is protecting our unstructured files.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Collibra Platform vs Atlan

Compared 11% of the time

Alation Data Catalog vs Atlan

Compared 11% of the time

Dawiso vs Atlan

Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Google Knowledge Catalog vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Priva vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Atlan

May 2026

Download Atlan product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Purview Information Protection

April 2026

Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Download Microsoft Purview Information Protection product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Information Protection

Overview

Atlan is a comprehensive data management platform designed to enhance data democratization, governance, and collaboration across departments in organizations. It offers a centralized data catalog, intuitive user interface, and robust governance framework to ensure data security and compliance. Users appreciate its efficiency in streamlining processes, promoting better communication, and providing insightful analytics, which drive organizational growth and success.

Atlan

Microsoft Purview Information Protection offers sensitivity labels, automated classification, and encryption to protect data across platforms while integrating with M365, Azure, and AWS to prevent unauthorized access and enhance data governance.

Microsoft Purview Information Protection supports compliance with regulatory standards through features like data loss prevention and intuitive DLP rules. It integrates with multiple platforms such as M365, Azure, and AWS for extensive data protection. The platform helps manage sensitive data through automated labeling and effective policy deployment. While there are areas needing improvement like third-party integration, API support, and policy enforcement consistency, Purview remains a powerful tool for businesses to assess data usage and reduce unauthorized access.

What are the key features of Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

Sensitivity Labels: Facilitates the classification and labeling of data to safeguard sensitive information.
Automated Classification: Automatically classifies data based on content to streamline data security processes.
Encryption: Provides encryption solutions across platforms for robust data protection.
DLP Rules: Offers intuitive data loss prevention rules to minimize the risk of data breaches.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with M365, Azure, and AWS, enhancing interoperability and efficiency.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

Compliance Support: Helps organizations adhere to regulatory requirements efficiently.
Enhanced Data Security: Protects sensitive data with sensitivity labels and encryption.
Operational Efficiency: Facilitates data governance with automated labeling and reporting.
Data Loss Prevention: Minimizes unauthorized data exposure through efficient DLP rules.

Companies across various industries implement Microsoft Purview Information Protection to apply sensitivity labels to emails and cloud content like OneDrive and SharePoint. It's utilized for data classification, loss prevention, and governance. Microsoft partners use it for SAP integration and compliance assessments, while consultants focus on protecting and managing data efficiently for clients centered around Microsoft solutions.

Microsoft

Buyer's Guide

Atlan vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection

April 2026

Free Report: Atlan vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection

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