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Drata vs USM Anywhere comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 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

Drata
Ranking in Compliance Management
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
USM Anywhere
Ranking in Compliance Management
15th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
115
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (40th), Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (32nd), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (49th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Compliance Management category, the mindshare of Drata is 5.4%, down from 9.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of USM Anywhere is 1.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Compliance Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Drata5.4%
USM Anywhere1.2%
Other93.4%
Compliance Management
 

Featured Reviews

JS
Chief Technology Officer at Revyse
Platform requires compliance expertise and struggles with control accuracy
Drata helped us manage our SOC 2 compliance by automating the monitoring of our infrastructure, but overall, the platform didn't work effectively at all. Being fairly new SOC 2 compliance, understanding how the platform worked was really difficult to use. In particular, their UI shows many false positives, indicating that requirements are taken care of even when they're not. This makes it really difficult to manage and understand where we were in the process without being a compliance expert myself. A specific example of when the UI gave us a false positive is that there were several controls within the Drata platform that were completely monitored, such as ensuring that our databases are encrypted at rest. However, there are other controls that are a combination of monitored controls and manual evidence required, and they don't show that secondary requirement at all, even though it's what an actual auditor would require. Using Drata to understand the full scope of what we needed to accomplish and what we needed to provide evidence on was unsuccessful. I went back and forth between the auditor a dozen times and talked to the Drata team multiple times about trying to sort that out to ensure I actually had a punch list of things to do so that they understood the scope of what we needed, but couldn't get there. We eventually tried to cancel the subscription, but they refused, despite the platform not providing the value they promised. We attempted to get their Slack integration working so that we would be notified in real-time of any monitoring issues that were out of compliance, but ultimately, we couldn't get that to work. Drata has impacted our organization negatively, as it made the whole compliance process more complicated and cost me significant time. The complications with Drata extended the entire process by about six months and cost me probably 10 hours a week while we were still trying to get Drata to work, totaling about 40 hours of my time. I think Drata could be improved by changing it so that it reports the actual status of the controls and are more proactive about helping organizations at our stage of business get to compliance.
Kris Nawani - PeerSpot reviewer
Co-Founder/Director at Bangkok MSP Company Limited
Offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software
USM Anywhere is used for threat detection and investigation. It provides a solution with built-in threat intelligence and various other investigation tools The solution offers complete coverage without the need to install additional software, as it is maintained by the vendor. It helps in saving…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Drata keeps adding new features, allowing us to build our entire InfoSec program within it. Adding new components and evidence for different audits is easy. Drata also integrates with various software, like ticketing systems, source code control, and cloud platforms, continuously pulling evidence from these integrations. Without a GRC tool with these integrations, we used to gather evidence from different software during audits manually. Drata has a significant impact on our security posture management. Previously, Drata had features for security posture management, primarily through integration with AWS. For example, it would scan AWS for specific security requirements, like ensuring all S3 buckets are private. It will be reported on the Drata platform if it finds a public bucket. Recently, Drata introduced a new feature that uses an infrastructure-as-code approach. This feature detects issues and provides AI-generated suggestions for fixing them. If an organization uses infrastructure-as-code solutions like Terraform, Drata will suggest changes to the Terraform code to address the issues. You can then review and apply these changes to fix the problems. This is particularly useful when dealing with many topics, as it helps automate and speed up the process of implementing fixes. However, this AI-generated code feature is part of Drata’s upsell options. The basic version of Drata offers limited capabilities compared to the advanced features available with a paid upgrade. Even without this new feature, Drata's security posture management is valuable, as it scans cloud environments for deviations from defined security baselines. Many tools offer similar capabilities, but Drata’s new feature that translates issues into actionable fixes is a notable advancement. This benefits teams with the capability and resources to use this tool effectively."
"Drata offers APIs for every clause so that it can integrate into various platforms."
"The way the tool's controls are linked to the framework, specifically with SAST and HIPAA frameworks or any other frameworks, is really good."
"The product is 100 percent friendly to use."
"My experience with customer support was good; they were responsive, but they didn't ever get us to a solution that worked."
"Drata helps eliminate evidence gathering and makes assigning different activities to different team members easier, simplifying compliance and audit processes. In Pennsylvania, we're putting in thousands of hours. Drata improves our security posture by reducing extra work, allowing us to focus on other security directives. I like the control editing and task management features the most. It's easy to use, but it's also easy for people to think they don't need security experts if they have it."
"Drata helped us publish our ISO and SOC reports, which was essential for the acquisition. The challenge now is whether Drata can scale up to meet the needs of a larger company, which already has tools like Intune to enforce laptop encryption. Drata is excellent for startups and small—to medium-sized companies but may face challenges in larger organizations with multiple environments."
"OTX is a great module that lets staff maintain and monitor updates regarding events in the infrastructure and takes decision to improve the security perimeter."
"The USM is a work horse, no matter what devices or the number of logs we throw at it, the system processes them in real time, correlates the events, and alerts on only events that need human review."
"We had used previous products and found AlienVault centralized the logging for our security."
"We are able to get alerts perfectly with FIM and VA features."
"Our main focus was intrusion detection, alerts, and correlation. It's easy to use AlienVault and integrate it with other alert tools because it includes lots of connectors. Either the tool is already there, or AlienVault will write an API for us if they don't have a connector for the solution that is providing the logs."
"Allowed us to help our customers satisfy compliance needs around logging and monitoring."
"The IDS and the threat intelligence are very useful. They are very intuitive and data-rich."
"It has allowed us to see what is happening on our servers."
 

Cons

"The thing with Drata is you cannot open multiple tabs on the same interface or the same desktop,"
"One of the challenges with Drata is that if you're paying for a subscription to ISO 27001, you must undergo a risk assessment. You should have access to all necessary modules on the platform to achieve your compliance posture and certification."
"The product can improve in its API documentation area."
"Drata has impacted our organization negatively, as it made the whole compliance process more complicated and cost me significant time."
"The existing features of Drata are already extensive and costly to integrate."
"The solution is quite costly."
"There is room for improvement in Drata. The core features are solid, but some new features are in a very MVP (Minimum Viable Product) stage. They work, but the user experience isn't always smooth. While the core features are well-developed compared to the market, the new features need more polish. They could benefit from more user feedback and iterations to make them more useful. Some of these new features look promising buthave flaws, so we can’t fully adopt them or justify paying extra for them now. The user interface is clean and intuitive. However, you'll need some specific knowledge if you're a security policy manager or need to set updifferent integrations."
"In terms of improvements, I'd suggest better marketing since the industry tends to market these tools as security experts, which isn't true."
"The only complex area of the setup was writing the custom scripts."
"Different functions to customize reports should be added."
"It should be able to communicate with other security solutions to stop threats."
"It would be hard for any legitimate MSSP to use it."
"Maybe logs are the problem, as the database query is too slow. If you want to search something, you need time to find it."
"Its reporting tools need improvements. It would be good if they can provide integration with other ticketing systems. Currently, we only have integration with Slack and Jira. It is also a bit slow, and its replication engine can be improved."
"We would like more plugins. This being the main point of improvement which would benefit the users."
"I've been told that AlienVault doesn't have a full version of NES running in there, but I'm not sure if that's accurate or if my engineer made it that way. I'm not sure he was completely honest either because we had NES in the environment before. Those tools could be improved because AlienVault is a SIEM, and it added all these other features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Drata's pricing is quite reasonable. Compared to other tools in the market, including its biggest competitor, Vanta, Drata is much cheaper. Even compared to other tools like AuditBoard, which aren’t as good, Drata’s price remains competitive."
"I remember that my company used to pay 25,000 USD to use the product...The product's cost is really high, but it is a powerful tool."
"It's one of the more expensive options, but I think it's worth the money if you can afford it."
"They charge a license based on the storage. ATT AlienVault USM is a less expensive solution than IBM QRadar."
"It is affordable, and it also has many features that the premium products such as ArcSight and QRadar have. It is a very good platform for a SIEM solution. Everything is included in the price."
"​The price point is good.​"
"It is a product that is priced in a medium range, making it neither a cheap nor a costly product."
"They are a little more expensive than Microsoft."
"It has good pricing."
"QRadar, ArcSight and Splunk are some of the most expensive SIEM products out there in the market and not everyone has the budget to buy them. In such cases, AV USM is a very cost effective alternative."
"The pricing is a good value. The key thing is that for the new product, the licensing of it, is subscription-based and it's based on data. Clients need to be really careful when thinking about that, because odds are they're going to need to put a lot more data into it than what they initially estimate, which is going to drive their subscription costs up."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Performing Arts
7%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business64
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Drata?
Drata helped us manage our SOC 2 compliance by automating the monitoring of our infrastructure, but overall, the platform didn't work effectively at all. Being fairly new SOC 2 compliance, understa...
What is your primary use case for Drata?
Our main use case for Drata is to provide a platform for us to manage our SOC 2 compliance.
What advice do you have for others considering Drata?
My advice to others looking into using Drata is that I would advise them not to use it. I would rate Drata a 1 out of five because the platform requires that you be a compliance expert and doesn't ...
What do you like most about AT&T AlienVault USM?
The most valuable feature of the solution is the ease of deployment that it provides to users. The integrations that the product has with third-party applications are useful.
What needs improvement with AT&T AlienVault USM?
There are scalability issues due to a 60 TB limit, which restricts its use for large customers like banks. It is also limited when used with bigger products and has complex password requirements.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
AT&T AlienVault USM, AlienVault, AlienVault USM, Alienvault Cybersecurity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Abel & Cole, Bank of Ireland, Bluegrass Cellular, CareerBuilder, Claire's, Hays Medical Center, Hope International, McCurrach, McKinsey & Company, Party Delights, Pepco Holdings, Richland School District, Ricoh, SaveMart, Shake Shack, Steelcase, TaxAct, Taylor Morrison, Vonage and Zoom
Find out what your peers are saying about Drata vs. USM Anywhere and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.