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BigID Next vs Digital Guardian comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 22, 2026

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
7.3
BigID Next offers strong ROI through compliance, data management integration, cost savings, automation, and reduced staffing, avoiding fines.
Sentiment score
5.8
Digital Guardian improved data protection, reduced breach risks, ensured compliance, saved money, and enhanced security and operational efficiency.
We have seen returns across all three aspects: fewer employees needed, money saved, and time saved with BigID.
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It is one of the best tools in the market.
Senior Manager at KPMG
I have seen a return on investment from using BigID, particularly as it is a regulatory and compliance tool that helps avoid potential penalties for non-compliance.
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
BigID Next's support is praised for responsiveness, efficiency, and high customer satisfaction, despite occasional delays and time-consuming initial contact.
Sentiment score
6.7
Digital Guardian's customer service is prompt but can be inconsistent, especially for complex issues or international clients.
Even when I faced issues within the BigID environment, such as unsuccessful connections or new errors, the BigID team resolved them.
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the customer support a six because you cannot directly reach out to L3 or L2 support if there's a major issue.
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
BigID has one of the best technical support teams.
Senior Manager at KPMG
For vendor support, such as Fortra support, I would rate it a seven because all the support comes from different parts that sometimes have challenges meeting time zones, and sometimes they reroute to distributors and rely on partners.
IT Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
BigID Next is scalable with mixed opinions, excelling in large environments but facing data handling and presentation challenges.
Sentiment score
8.0
Digital Guardian efficiently scales across environments, managing endpoints for organizations of all sizes, despite minor regional replication challenges.
I have added very large data sources to the BigID environment, and it remains stable.
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
BigID is scalable, allowing you to purchase as many scanners as you want.
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Regarding scalability, it is a 10 out of 10.
IT Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
BigID Next is often seen as reliable with some stability concerns but praised for data security and ease of use.
Sentiment score
7.6
Digital Guardian offers superior stability with frequent updates, but some users face challenges requiring specific modifications for optimal performance.
BigID is generally stable, however, there is a noted issue with bulk tagging that can affect scan results.
Senior Associate - IT Governance and Compliance at Fulcrum Digital Inc
 

Room For Improvement

BigID Next needs enhancements in file access, security, automation, UI navigation, deployment, data governance, and support features.
Digital Guardian needs improvements in compatibility, ease of use, performance, support, and efficiency across platforms for better operation.
There is also an issue with incident tagging, where all objects get tagged without an option to untag specific ones, and reverting changes is only possible through MongoDB Central, which can lead to data loss for certain periods.
Senior Associate - IT Governance and Compliance at Fulcrum Digital Inc
I want them to focus on data mapping, assessment, automation workflow, and privacy incident management.
Senior Manager at KPMG
BigID deserves recognition for the data discovery part, which has been wonderful and quite accurate, along with the confidence level process that allows us to fine-tune results for better accuracy from the database.
Assistant Manager - Cyber : Digital Privacy and Trust at Deloitte
The issue is that it works only with users or companies with more than 500 users.
IT Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

BigID Next offers premium, capacity-based pricing; valued by large enterprises for advanced features, less feasible for smaller businesses.
Digital Guardian provides flexible licensing and custom solutions, considered the best DLP option despite higher costs.
The pricing is competitive in the market, however, I need to ask for the right price.
Senior Manager at KPMG
BigID might be expensive as it involves various paid services, like data retention and graphic rights management.
Senior Associate - IT Governance and Compliance at Fulcrum Digital Inc
 

Valuable Features

BigID Next offers a user-friendly design, seamless Microsoft integration, and powerful data discovery, classification, and protection capabilities.
Digital Guardian enhances data security with scalable DLP, seamless integration, advanced features, and comprehensive monitoring for compliance.
BigID simplifies things by integrating both data protection and data privacy in one environment, making it easier for end users.
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
One of the best features of BigID is its strength in data discovery and governance.
Senior Manager at KPMG
The most valuable feature of BigID is its large number of classifiers, which allow us to scan for specific data such as SSN numbers.
Senior Associate - IT Governance and Compliance at Fulcrum Digital Inc
Digital Guardian can easily integrate with this data classification solution and has a very granular level of configuration and policy tuning.
IT Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

BigID Next
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (6th), Data Privacy Management Software (2nd), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (4th), AI Data Analysis (2nd)
Digital Guardian
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
24th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Encryption (14th), Mobile Data Protection (6th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (32nd), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (61st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) category, the mindshare of BigID Next is 3.4%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Digital Guardian is 2.3%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
BigID3.4%
Digital Guardian2.3%
Other94.3%
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
 

Featured Reviews

Aniruddha Nath - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Data discovery has transformed compliance workflows and automation now speeds up requests and remediation
The best feature that BigID offers is data discovery and classification, which is the most powerful engine. It allows connecting to many different data sources, ranging from cloud to on-premises to structured to unstructured data. If there is no connector available, you can build your own classifiers as well. Regarding the custom classifier option, you can build custom classifiers using regular expressions, and I have done that if you know how to create regular expressions. Custom connectors are something you create to connect to a database where the connector is not available. BigID has positively impacted my organization as it's a very powerful tool, especially with the increasing regulatory compliances for different countries such as GDPR, CCPA, and India's recent DPDPA act. Having these tools in place greatly helps organizations avoid any penal charges for not being compliant with the regulatory compliances. For example, regarding compliance or reduced risks for my clients, the DSAR process I was talking about allows organizations to respond quickly to user data deletion requests under GDPR law, which traditionally has a 30-day or 60-day timeline. In larger organizations, when the number of requests is high, it becomes tedious. However, using DSAR automation with BigID, it's almost instantaneous; instead of 30 days, you can respond in just one day to what users have requested.
Syed Mubeen - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Enterprise data protection has supported regulatory compliance and integrates with classification tools
In terms of functionality, many features are valuable in Digital Guardian, as the first thing for most customers is that they are using solutions such as Boldon James and Titus, which fall under the classification side, and Digital Guardian can easily integrate with this data classification solution and has a very granular level of configuration and policy tuning. Digital Guardian's data protection policies are indeed useful for my clients. Regarding Digital Guardian, I find it to be a very good solution, and in fact, it is an enterprise-level solution that has very tight integration with most of the products, with Fortra but also with others.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Insurance Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BigID?
I like BigID's in-depth discovery and scanning capabilities, especially for unstructured data. This feature is a standout compared to competitors. The tool's data classification capabilities are i...
What needs improvement with BigID?
One improvement I would suggest is addressing the intermittent failures of BigID scans, as there are times when some errors occur. I think the BigID team is aware of this and works on resolving iss...
What is your primary use case for BigID?
BigID's main use case is connecting to various data sources to perform the data discovery process, classify the data within those systems, and identify sensitive information across various structur...
What needs improvement with Digital Guardian?
Regarding points for improvement, from a technical aspect, I do not see any suggestions that have come to my notice, but it is an enterprise-level product, and the issue is that it works only with ...
What is your primary use case for Digital Guardian?
The main use case for Digital Guardian is for endpoint DLP, as it is the product for endpoint-level DLP and is one of the core requirements for many enterprises that have to follow compliance, so t...
What advice do you have for others considering Digital Guardian?
I would recommend Digital Guardian to other users, as I mentioned, we have to see the client's existing environment, and since we are not bound to sell Digital Guardian, we are open to selling even...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Home Depot, Grant Thornton LLP, Cimpress, Fidelity Investments
The Fifth Avenue Theatre, Jabil Circuit
Find out what your peers are saying about BigID Next vs. Digital Guardian and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.