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BigID Next vs Fortra's 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
7.4
Fortra's Digital Guardian delivers high ROI and efficiency, with dependable data loss prevention and minimal workflow interruptions.
It is one of the best tools in the market.
Senior Manager at KPMG
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
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
It is reliable, it has a broad scope, and the vendor is easy to reach out to and makes it easy to request assistance.
Security Managed Services Associate at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It doesn't block my workflows, saving me from wasting hours of troubleshooting security blocks that could happen with other tools.
Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I see some return on investment with Fortra's Digital Guardian since the license is based on the endpoints, which is where you can save.
System Engineer/Consultant at Notable Frontier Sdn Bhd
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
BigID Next's support is praised for responsiveness, efficiency, and high customer satisfaction, despite occasional delays and time-consuming initial contact.
Sentiment score
8.0
Fortra's Digital Guardian support is generally positive, though experiences vary; some face delays, others find software reliable.
BigID has one of the best technical support teams.
Senior Manager at KPMG
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
developing the custom connectors was relatively easy because of the courses I attended at BigID University and the support given by the BigID engineering team.
Senior Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
For others looking into using Fortra's Digital Guardian, I would suggest learning the steps for monitoring and maintaining the server, especially policy configuration, since it is quite tricky and includes a lot of processes.
Security Managed Services Associate at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Technical support from Fortra can vary; sometimes I encounter great engineers with high experience who can resolve issues quickly, but other times I face less experienced engineers which can cause delays in issue resolution.
System Engineer/Consultant at Notable Frontier Sdn Bhd
I have never had to contact Fortra's Digital Guardian's customer support because the software has never crashed or caused any issues on my machine.
Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
BigID Next is scalable with mixed opinions, excelling in large environments but facing data handling and presentation challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
Fortra's Digital Guardian is scalable and adaptable, efficiently handling performance, licensing, and stability for varied enterprise needs.
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
Even when my laptop is under heavy load, running multiple instances of automated browsers via Selenium, PyCharm, and handling background API requests, the agent remains stable and completely unnoticeable.
Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
While there are limits, we attempt to work around them, sometimes needing to collaborate with Fortra's Digital Guardian engineers to find solutions.
System Engineer/Consultant at Notable Frontier Sdn Bhd
 

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
8.5
Fortra's Digital Guardian is highly stable, rated 9/10 by users, with minimal downtime and no significant issues reported.
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
Fortra's Digital Guardian is stable; it doesn't have a negative effect on my system performance.
Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

BigID Next needs enhancements in file access, security, automation, UI navigation, deployment, data governance, and support features.
Fortra's Digital Guardian struggles with user-friendliness, scalability, CPU efficiency, visibility, compatibility, and cost compared to alternatives.
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
System reporting and default system reporting are not totally usable and require customization to be practical.
System Engineer/Consultant at Notable Frontier Sdn Bhd
Fortra's Digital Guardian does have some mishaps and imperfections, but it has been really helpful for us as a DLP tool.
Security Managed Services Associate at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I give Fortra's Digital Guardian a seven because it doesn't compromise my system performance, but I don't get any visibility about what's happening and I don't know which criteria are used for preventing data leaks or classifying my files as sensitive or not sensitive.
Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

BigID Next offers premium, capacity-based pricing; valued by large enterprises for advanced features, less feasible for smaller businesses.
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
The pricing is competitive in the market, however, I need to ask for the right price.
Senior Manager at KPMG
 

Valuable Features

BigID Next offers a user-friendly design, seamless Microsoft integration, and powerful data discovery, classification, and protection capabilities.
Fortra's Digital Guardian offers customizable policies, cross-platform protection, and real-time detection, enhancing data control and productivity.
One of the best features of BigID is its strength in data discovery and governance.
Senior Manager at KPMG
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
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
Fortra's Digital Guardian can detect any user activity after installation and commissioning without the need for policy implementation; it just works by system default.
System Engineer/Consultant at Notable Frontier Sdn Bhd
With this file tagging, everything that needs to be controlled or monitored is blocked for any file transfer because once the file is tagged by Fortra's Digital Guardian, that tag remains wherever the file is placed.
Security Managed Services Associate at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Fortra's Digital Guardian's lightweight nature impacts my productivity and workflow positively because it delivers enterprise security without hurting developer productivity, and the system performance remains stable.
Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

BigID Next
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (8th), Data Privacy Management Software (1st), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (5th), AI Data Analysis (7th), Data Security Platforms (DSP) (1st)
Fortra's Digital Guardian
Ranking in Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
22nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Data Loss Prevention (DLP) category, the mindshare of BigID Next is 2.4%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortra's Digital Guardian is 1.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BigID Next2.4%
Fortra's Digital Guardian1.3%
Other96.3%
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.
Lucianofernandez Fernandez Moroaga - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Security has protected data quietly and now needs to give users more visibility and control
Regarding how Fortra's Digital Guardian can be improved, the fact that it runs as a background process isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you don't get any visibility into what it's doing unless a security policy is triggered. In the future, they could improve that to give users more visibility about what's happening. I give Fortra's Digital Guardian a seven because it doesn't compromise my system performance, but I don't get any visibility about what's happening and I don't know which criteria are used for preventing data leaks or classifying my files as sensitive or not sensitive. I would give it a ten if it had more visibility about what's happening or more contact with the user. Regarding the accuracy and reliability of Fortra's Digital Guardian's output, since it's fully managed by my company's IT department, I don't get any visibility of what processes it runs internally, so I don't know how it classifies the files. Therefore, I cannot give you a certain answer about that.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Insurance Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Large Enterprise11
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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 advice do you have for others considering BigID?
I have covered information regarding data scanning, data classification, and the DSAR module, as these are the parts I have worked on, apart from developing custom connectors for a few data sources...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortra's Digital Guardian?
Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, I am not aware of the actual cost since only the leadership discusses that. Regarding licensing, I believe we are able to get as much licensing as need...
What needs improvement with Fortra's Digital Guardian?
Regarding how Fortra's Digital Guardian can be improved, the fact that it runs as a background process isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you don't get any visibility into what it's doing unless a ...
What is your primary use case for Fortra's Digital Guardian?
My main use case for Fortra's Digital Guardian is that I don't configure the software directly; instead, I experience it as an end-user on my corporate laptop where it runs silently in the backgrou...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Home Depot, Grant Thornton LLP, Cimpress, Fidelity Investments
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about BigID Next vs. Fortra's Digital Guardian and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.