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Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
4.8
Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances threat detection, reduces efforts, minimizes risks, and optimizes costs despite varied ROI assessments.
Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Purview enhances ROI via security improvements, process automation, and compliance, despite challenges in quantifying exact returns.
Purview can do a quick scan, and it doesn't use human resources, so it gets time to do things that we need humans to focus on.
Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade
The E5 license comes with different solutions like data discovery classification, CASB, DLP solutions, and Defender for Cloud.
Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
The cost of data loss and your data going to a competitor is potentially massive.
Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Defender for Identity offers knowledgeable support, yet response times can vary, especially with complex issues or initial contacts.
Sentiment score
4.3
Mixed reviews on Microsoft Purview support highlight slow responses and untrained staff, with recent community engagement improvements noted.
Generally, the support is more effective than other providers like Oracle.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
The quality of support is very good, but troubleshooting can take time due to complex setups and the need to provide many logs.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The people I normally use for support are very knowledgeable, especially when they help remote in and get to where I need to go and show me much faster and help me understand what I should be doing.
Technology Coordinator at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees
Sometimes, I get a fast and knowledgeable response, while other times, I've experienced delays and received no resolution.
Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies
It's hard to be an ambassador for a product when you know it will be hard to get support.
Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade
After our issues are reported, it takes a long time to find a resolution.
Director Security Architecture at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly scalable and adaptable, excelling in large enterprises with efficient cloud-based processing.
Sentiment score
6.3
Microsoft Purview Information Protection is scalable, integrates well, but faces challenges in data ingestion, policy updates, and document classification.
In a Microsoft-centric organization, especially with Azure infrastructure and Office 365, Microsoft Defender for Identity is scalable.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It can be scaled across different departments organization-wide very quickly and easily.
Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies
It can handle large collections of data without issues.
Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade
Scalability can be improved by reducing these intervals.
Information Technology Senior Expert at Garanti Teknoloji
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly stable, reliable, with minimal downtime; occasional issues require support for agent redeployment.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Purview Information Protection is generally stable, with reliable performance and occasional issues, especially with large data volumes.
Microsoft Defender for Identity is quite robust and built on Azure hyperscale infrastructure, with a 99% availability.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We do not see any issues with the stability of Microsoft Defender for Identity.
Deputy Manager at Servion Global Solutions
Having recently started using it, reliability is affirmed, but manual investigation is often performed to verify if alerts identified by auto-remediation are accurate.
Instrumentation Engineer at Toyo Engineering Corp
Once implemented, I haven't had issues with its consistency.
Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies
The product is stable, and whatever it does, it does better than any other thing.
Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
Since identity is where everything is based, if that goes down, you're screwed.
Director, Network & Cloud Infrastructure at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Identity needs improvements in alert accuracy, UI/UX, asset integration, automation, anomaly detection, and third-party integration.
Microsoft Purview Information Protection needs improvements in integration, affordability, data protection, AI, automation, reliability, and cloud storage scanning.
If Microsoft could develop a feature that indicates when impossible travel is caused by VPN connections, it would prevent unnecessary password resets and session disruptions, especially for VIP users in organizations.
CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed
One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
Reducing false positives is something we've been working on with Microsoft.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Effectiveness in Microsoft Purview Information Protection means enforcing the policy and making sure it works consistently across non-Microsoft products as well.
Director Security Architecture at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
A lot of functionality in Microsoft Purview Information Protection is not exposed in an API officially yet, which has made a lot of implementation work difficult because we have to do click ops instead of DevOps.
CEO at Blue Cycle
Having a roadmap or updates about new releases would be helpful for demonstrating to clients.
Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Identity pricing aligns with E5 licenses, offering value in hybrid setups but can be costly at scale.
Microsoft Purview Information Protection offers competitive, bundled pricing with E3 and E5 licenses, appealing for integrated security solutions.
If they can reduce the costs, organizations will be happy, and it will compensate for using the Azure environment, which is more expensive on the infrastructure as a service side.
CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed
Ensuring a fair price according to market standards.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
From an organization perspective, using E5 licenses is value for money, especially if Azure and Office 365 are already in use.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I talked to people who had compared it to other products on the market, and they're spending five figures to get started.
Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade
The E5 license covers most of the solutions for different technologies, so that way, it is good and more affordable compared to any other solution.
Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
Our focus is on helping customers maximize their software investment.
Business Development Manager, Transformational Services at Dell Technologies
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances threat detection and security integration, offering streamlined investigation with automated alerts and behavioral analytics.
Microsoft Purview Information Protection enhances security with sensitivity labels, multi-platform encryption, data classification, compliance features, and user education.
We receive an advance report of risky users, allowing us to take preemptive action before an attack causes damage to organization details.
Instrumentation Engineer at Toyo Engineering Corp
The most valuable feature is its hybrid artificial intelligence, which gathers forensic data to track and counteract security threats, much like the CSI series in effect.
Owner at Alopex ONE UG
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.
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Copilot is an advantage because it's enterprise-grade AI.
Business Development Manager, Transformational Services at Dell Technologies
It's paramount to have a single solution for information protection.
Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies
Regardless of the education, the employee might share the information anyway, so the AI shouldn't be the first point of failure. It should be a human making good decisions.
Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (8th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (2nd)
Microsoft Purview Informati...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (7th), Data Privacy Management Software (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 3.5%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Information Protection is 2.4%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity3.5%
Microsoft Purview Information Protection2.4%
Other94.1%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Peter Arabomen - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Engineer at Fidelity Bank Plc
Has supported hybrid identity management while integrating well with cloud directory services
The only challenge I have with Microsoft Defender for Identity is the latency. I may not put that entirely on Microsoft, because latency could be network related. At times when trying to authenticate, the prompt is delayed. We tried implementing passwordless authentication, especially for on-premises workloads, but we haven't been able to achieve that. Passwordless authentication is part of the identity functionalities, particularly when it comes to enforcing passwordless for on-premises workloads. In terms of improvements, you can't create OUs on Azure AD. Regarding giving users privileges on what they can do across different OUs, I haven't seen that feature on Microsoft Defender for Identity. Microsoft Defender for Identity needs to be able to plug into third-party applications that are not Microsoft. For instance, with a human resource application used to manage users and leave requests, when staff leaves the organization, they are first exited from that application before AD. Integration between Azure AD and third-party applications would allow automatic syncing when removing staff. The initial setup of Microsoft Defender for Identity is not hard. However, setup is one thing, and getting value from the application end-to-end is another. It can be set up and running from the first day but not functioning optimally. Initially, when we did the setup, it wasn't optimal. Over time, with continuous improvement, which we're still doing, we've gotten to a comfortable level, but there's still room for improvement.
Abhi T - PeerSpot reviewer
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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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Defender for Identity?
I don't really use Microsoft Defender for Identity a lot because my new role doesn't allow me to take time to do so. I don't really use the threat intelligence feature of Microsoft Defender for Ide...
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...
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.
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.
 

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
Microsoft Information Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Microsoft Purview Information Protection and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.