Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Morphisec comparison

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Morphisec and Microsoft Defender for Identity compete in the cybersecurity sector, offering unique approaches to threat prevention and detection. Morphisec seems to have the upper hand in zero-day threat resilience due to its deterministic prevention, while Microsoft Defender for Identity excels in integration within the Microsoft ecosystem for threat detection and comprehensive security management.

Features: Morphisec provides deterministic attack prevention by blocking in-memory attacks without relying on threat detection. It integrates easily with Microsoft Defender, offering a lightweight design and single console for threat visibility. Microsoft Defender for Identity uses behavioral analytics and machine learning for advanced threat detection and integrates across Microsoft's cloud and on-premises environments to enhance the unified security experience.

Room for Improvement: Morphisec could improve its reporting capabilities, interaction frequency with customers, and false positives resolution. It also needs enhancements in dashboard functionality and broader antivirus integration. Microsoft Defender for Identity requires a more user-friendly administrative interface, reduction in false positives, and better on-premises Android detection. Direct remediation actions within the platform and simplified licensing are also needed.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Morphisec is noted for its straightforward deployment and responsive customer service, although time zone differences can be challenging for some users. Microsoft Defender for Identity offers strong technical support and seamless integration within Microsoft environments, but alert verification can be time-consuming.

Pricing and ROI: Morphisec is considered cost-effective, with competitive pricing and no hidden charges, providing good ROI by reducing security management workloads. Microsoft Defender for Identity, part of the Microsoft 365 suite, offers cost benefits when bundled with other Microsoft products. Despite higher costs, its comprehensive features justify the investment for existing Microsoft ecosystem users.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Morphisec Report (Updated: June 2026).

Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Morphisec

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Helped 900,747 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

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

8th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Microsoft Security Suite (5th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)

Morphisec

Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

31st

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (58th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (47th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (60th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (35th), Threat Deception Platforms (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 3.6%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Morphisec is 2.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity	3.6%
Morphisec	2.1%
Other	94.3%

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

Featured Reviews

Peter Arabomen

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.

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Rick Schibler

VP of Information Technology at Kentucky Trailer

Offers in-memory protection at a lower price than competitors

Morphisec's in-memory protection is probably the most valuable feature because it stops malicious activity from occurring. If something tries to install or act as a sleeper agent, Morphisec will detect and stop it. Morphisec's Moving Target Defense is critical to hardening our attack surface. If it detects something, it indicates whether it's valid. That means you've got a breach requiring investigation. It detects anomalies but doesn't necessarily point to what caused them. You still need to do that work. The solution is reasonably easy to administer. They made some changes last year, adding a cloud-based monitoring solution that makes deploying and monitoring our endpoints easy.

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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

"Defender for Identity has not affected the end-user experience."

"All the integration it has with different Microsoft packages, like Teams and Office, is good."

"The best feature is security monitoring, which detects and investigates suspicious user activities. It can easily detect advanced attacks based on the behavior. The credentials are securely stored, so it reduces the risk of compromise. It will monitor user behavior based on artificial intelligence to protect the identities in your organization. It will even help secure the on-premise Active Directory. It syncs from the cloud to on-premise, and on-premise modifications will be reflected in the cloud."

"I recommend Microsoft Defender for Identity because it is easy to implement."

"The most valuable aspect is its connection to Microsoft Sentinel and Defender for Endpoint, and giving exact timelines for incidents and when certain events occured during an incident."

"I think that for a defensive view, it can give most administrators absolutely amazing insight into what's happening in the network that they probably never had before."

"The solution’s alerting is fairly efficient."

"The solution offers excellent visibility into threats."

More Microsoft Defender for Identity pros

"The fact that Morphisec uses deterministic attack prevention that does not require human intervention has affected our security team's operations by making things much simpler. We don't have to really track down various alerts anymore, they've just stopped. At that point, we can go in and we can clean up whatever needs to be cleaned up. There are some things that Morphisec detects that we can't really remove, it's parts of Internet Explorer, but it's being blocked anyway. So we're happy with that."

"We have not had one machine that has been taken down due to malware now in almost four and a half years, with 600 machines that we don't have routine infections on because nothing can execute."

"Morphisec also provides full visibility into security events for Microsoft Defender and Morphisec in one dashboard... in the single pane of glass provided by Morphisec, it's all right there at your fingertips: easy to access and easy to understand. And if you choose to go down further to know everything from the process to the hash behind it, you can."

"In a month, we are saving the effort of four to five days, and earlier we used to have a dedicated person and now we don't need a dedicated resource, which has reduced our security spending and we are saving approximately $600 a month."

"The ability to stop attacks without having to detect or have a signature for the attack is the most valuable feature."

"Morphisec is a straightforward solution that is efficient and very stable."

"Morphisec has absolutely helped save money on our security stack. The ransomware at the end of the day can cost organizations millions upon millions of dollars. Investing in tools like Morphisec is a great reduction in that cost. If I can spend $10,000 in a year to protect assets that could be ransomed for $20,000,000, that's definitely a bet that one should pursue. Morphisec absolutely it's worth the investment."

"Morphisec is quite an important tool for us in terms of security and InfoSec because of the malware protection."

More Morphisec pros

Cons

"When the data leaves the cloud, there are security issues."

"The areas of Microsoft Defender for Identity that can be improved include its cost, which is quite expensive when integrated into Sentinel. Additionally, there is room for improvement in its integration with non-Microsoft applications and systems."

"The solution should provide more detailed data regarding anomaly detections."

"There is no option to remedy an issue directly from the console. If we see an alert, we can't fix it from the console. Instead, we must depend on other Microsoft products, such as MDE. That is a significant drawback. It simply works as a scanner, which can sometimes put enough load on the sensors. Immediate actions should be possible from the dashboard because. It can prevent issues from spreading further."

"Defender for Identity gives us visibility, but we often get false positives from Azure that take us down the garden path. We go through 30 incidents each day and most of those are false positives or benign positive alerts. Occasionally, we get true positive alerts."

"One potential area for improvement could be exploring flexibility in the installation of Microsoft Defender for Identity agents."

"The solution could be better at using group-managed access and they could replace it with broad-based access controls."

"The documentation provided by Microsoft is often seen as a waste of time."

More Microsoft Defender for Identity cons

"I haven't been able to get the cloud deployment to work."

"Right now, it's just their auto-update feature. I know they are currently working on that."

"The dashboard is the area that requires the most improvement."

"The only area that really needs improvement is the reporting functionality. Gathering the detailed information that is in the system for an executive, or for me as a director, could be better. Some of the interface and reporting aspects are a little bit dated. They're working on it."

"It would be useful for them if they had some kind of network discovery. That kind of functionality I think would give IT administrators a little bit more confidence that they have 100 percent coverage, and it gives them something to audit against. Network discovery would be one area I would definitely suggest that they put some effort into."

"It would be useful for them if they had some kind of network discovery."

"Some of the filters for the console need improvement. There are alerts that show up and just being able to acknowledge that we've seen those and not turn them off, but dismiss them, would be a huge benefit."

"It would be nice if they could integrate Morphisec with other traditional antivirus solutions beyond Microsoft Defender. That is probably my biggest gripe."

More Morphisec cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is costly, and we had multiple discussions with accounting to receive a discounted rate. However, on the open market, the tool is expensive."

"You won't be able to change your tenants from where you deploy them. For example, if you select Canada, they will charge you based on Canadian pricing. If you are also in London, when you deploy in Canada, the pound is higher than Canadian dollars, but your platform resources are billable in Canadian dollars. Using your pounds to pay for any of these things will be cheaper. Or, if you deploy in London, they will charge you based on your local currency."

"It is very affordable considering that other SIEM solutions are much more expensive and have many more licensing restrictions and fees."

"Microsoft Defender for Identity comes as part of the Microsoft E5 licensing stack."

"Defender for Identity is a little more expensive than other Microsoft products. Identity and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are both a bit costly."

"We are still using a separate tool. I know for our 600 or I think we're actually licensed for up to 700 users, it runs me 23 or $24,000 a year. When you're talking to that many users plus servers being protected, that's well worth the investment for that dollar amount."

"The pricing is definitely fair for what it does."

"It does not have multi-tenants. If South Africa wants to show only the machines that they have, they need their own cloud incidence. It is not possible to have that in a single cloud incidence with multiple tenants in it, instead you need to have multiple cloud incidences. Then, if you have that, it will be more expensive. However, they are going to change that, which is good."

"Compared to their competitors, the price of Morphisec is not that high. You can easily deploy it on a large-scale or small-scale network."

"Morphisec is reasonably priced because our parent company's other subsidiaries use different products like CrowdStrike. CrowdStrike is four or five times more expensive than Morphisec. The competitive pricing saves us money in our overall security stack."

"Licenses are per endpoint, and that's true for the cloud version as well. The only difference is that there is a little extra charge for the cloud version."

"It is an annual subscription basis per device. For the devices that we have in scope right now, it is about $25,000 a year."

"Our licensing is tied into our contract. Because we have a long-term contract, our pricing is a little bit lower. It is per year, so we don't get charged per endpoint, but we do have a cap. Our cap is 80 endpoints. If we were to go over 80, when we renewed our contract, which is not until three years are over. Then, they would reevaluate, and say, "Well, you have more than 80 devices active right now. This is going to be the price change." They know that we are installing and replacing computers, so the numbers will be all over the place depending on whether you archive or don't archive, which is the reason why we just have to keep up on that stuff."

More Morphisec pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Outsourcing Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Construction Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	15

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	8

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...

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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...

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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...

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Comparisons

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 5% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Identity vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

Huntress Managed ITDR vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Identity Competitors

Symantec Endpoint Security vs Morphisec

Compared 7% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Morphisec

Compared 5% of the time

FortiCNAPP vs Morphisec

Compared 5% of the time

Halcyon vs Morphisec

Compared 4% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Endpoint vs Morphisec

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Microsoft Defender for Identity

Download Microsoft Defender for Identity product report

Download Morphisec product report

Also Known As

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

Morphisec, Morphisec Moving Target Defense

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Identity offers real-time threat detection and protection for hybrid Active Directory environments. It integrates with Microsoft 365 components for seamless security and monitors advanced behaviors, enhancing identity protection across cloud and on-premises environments.

Microsoft Defender for Identity provides detailed threat insights and user behavior analytics to detect unauthorized access and notify anomalies. It allows setting custom detection rules, enhancing threat response automation. While it needs improvements in cloud security, SIEM integration, and access controls, users leverage its ability to mitigate identity threats like suspicious logins and ransomware. Enhanced integration with Microsoft security products ensures a coordinated threat response for identity control and privilege management.

What are the key features of Microsoft Defender for Identity?

Active Directory Federation: Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft 365 for comprehensive security.
Real-time Security Monitoring: Provides immediate insights into advanced user behaviors and potential threats.
Threat Insights: Delivers detailed analysis of threats with the ability to customize detection rules.
User Behavior Analytics: Analyzes user activities to detect anomalies and potential risks.
Identity Protection: Offers comprehensive protection in both cloud and on-premises environments.

What benefits should users expect from reviews of Microsoft Defender for Identity?

Unauthorized Access Prevention: Identifies potential unauthorized activities with advanced detection mechanisms.
Anomaly Notification: Alerts users to unexpected activities within their environments.
Threat Response Automation: Facilitates rapid response to threats with automated solutions.
Enhanced Cloud Security: Strengthens identity management across hybrid and cloud frameworks.

In specific industries, organizations implement Microsoft Defender for Identity to secure on-premises and hybrid Active Directory environments through user and entity behavior analytics, malicious activity detection, and integration with Microsoft security tools. This approach enhances security posture assessment and helps mitigate identity threats like identity harvesting and unauthorized access.

Microsoft

Morphisec enhances security with its signatureless attack prevention, integrating smoothly with Microsoft Defender. Users benefit from real-time threat detection and seamless system integration, protecting against zero-day threats and ransomware across networks.

Morphisec's security solution focuses on preventing cyber threats without requiring threat signatures or user action. Its integration with Microsoft Defender offers simplified visibility and management while delivering quick responses. Lightweight in nature, Morphisec ensures zero performance degradation and employs in-memory protection along with Moving Target Defense. This approach effectively counters zero-day threats and ransomware, maintaining a user-centric dashboard that eases administrative workloads. Morphisec's easy deployment also enables small teams to manage risks and uphold robust security measures efficiently.

What are Morphisec's key features?

Signatureless Threat Prevention: Stops attacks without threat signatures or user interaction.
Microsoft Defender Integration: Provides unified management and quick response capabilities.
In-Memory Protection: Shields against zero-day and ransomware threats efficiently.
Moving Target Defense: Minimizes exposure to in-memory attacks.
User-Friendly Dashboard: Simplifies administration by reducing burdens.
Easy Deployment: Facilitates straightforward setup for small teams.

What benefits and ROI should be considered in user reviews?

Real-Time Detection: Immediate identification of threats enhances proactive threat management.
Seamless Integration: Compatible with existing systems, reducing delay risks.
Cloud-Based Updates: Ensures current protection with minimal manual input.
Multi-Layered Security: Adds a solid last defense layer, supplementing other antivirus solutions.

Morphisec is widely used across industries like financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing to bolster defenses against malware and ransomware. Its deployment spans workstations and servers, integrating efficiently into existing infrastructures. Industries value real-time threat detection, ease of deployment, and cloud-based updates, noting its ability to identify threats missed by other antivirus solutions.

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.

Lenovo/Motorola, TruGreen, Covenant Health, Citizens Medical Center

Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Morphisec