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Microsoft Defender for Identity vs One Identity Safeguard 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
4.4
Microsoft Defender for Identity is cost-effective and efficient, offering incident prevention and resolution without complex hardware setups.
Sentiment score
6.9
Organizations achieved ROI with One Identity Safeguard through enhanced security, cost savings, efficiency, and better protection against threats.
The time is reduced by nearly fifty percent for our audit preparation and compliance reporting compared to earlier.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
I have seen a return on investment through reduced audit effort and fewer security incidents related to privileged access, along with significant time savings for IT and security teams by automating access control and password management.
office administrator at Gitarattan International Business School
The efficiency of our team has increased as we have reduced manual credential management, allowing our IT team to focus on higher value tasks.
Technical Head Cloud Services at Softcell Technologies Limited
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Opinions on Microsoft Defender for Identity support vary, highlighting responsiveness, but issues include delays, contact challenges, and false positives.
Sentiment score
6.9
One Identity Safeguard's customer service is praised for technical strength but needs improvement in response times for complex issues.
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
I sometimes need escalations to reach expertise.
Consultant at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Sometimes, I get a very helpful response and they address issues on a call.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
When I have day-to-day incidents and problems, the response is good enough in terms of time and quality.
Team Lead / Consultant at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Identity efficiently integrates and scales globally, supporting diverse organizational needs within Microsoft’s ecosystem effectively.
Sentiment score
7.3
One Identity Safeguard efficiently scales for medium to enterprise levels but may require adjustments for optimal performance.
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
The scalability of One Identity Safeguard is perfect, scoring ten out of ten.
Business Line Manager - IGA & PAM at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Safeguard handles a growing number of users, systems, and sessions without significant degradation in performance.
Automation tester at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
We have a cluster of SPPs and a cluster of SPSs, and we can add a node to that cluster without much fuss.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly reliable, with minimal incidents, seamless operation, and consistent ratings between seven and nine.
Sentiment score
7.8
One Identity Safeguard is praised for its stability, reliability, and minimal downtime, with minor challenges resolved through support.
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
The session proxying, password vaulting, and automated workflow run consistently even under high load.
Automation tester at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability.
Team Lead / Consultant at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
In terms of stability, I rate One Identity Safeguard nine to ten out of ten.
Business Line Manager - IGA & PAM at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Identity users seek improved cloud integration, user-friendly features, better support, and streamlined processes for enhanced threat management.
One Identity Safeguard requires better integration, user experience, performance, intuitive configuration, and improved documentation for broader adoption.
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
For some configurations on the SPS side, if I need to make changes, such as for DNS servers, I must redeploy the machine.
Consultant at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
There are many steps. We are still in the onboarding phase, and it seems very manual.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
Another area for improvement could be the threat detection capabilities, like those seen in other PAM vendors.
Team Lead / Consultant at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Identity is cost-effective with E5 licenses despite complex pricing and competitive against other security solutions.
Enterprise users find One Identity Safeguard costly but valuable for its robust security and flexibility despite extra costs.
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
It is one of those where the more you buy, the cheaper it is.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
It is cheaper than CyberArk.
Team Lead / Consultant at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It is more expensive than Secret Server but way less expensive than CyberArk.
IAM Specialist
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Identity integrates with Azure to offer comprehensive threat detection, identity protection, and advanced real-time security insights.
One Identity Safeguard enhances security with advanced authentication, auditing, session management, and integrations, simplifying organizational access and compliance.
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
The auditing and approval mechanisms are features we did not have before and are greatly appreciated.
Systems Administrator at a university with 10,001+ employees
Automatic credential rotation helps our team by removing the need for manual changes to privileged passwords, reducing the risk of stale or shared credentials and ensuring that every access is controlled and compliant.
Technical Consultant at ProTechmanize Solutions (P) Ltd.
Just-in-time access has sped up admin task completion and improved our overall compliance reporting, allowing audits to be completed nearly half the time compared to earlier.
Manager, Account Services Delivery at Softcell Technologies Limited
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (8th), Microsoft Security Suite (4th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)
One Identity Safeguard
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (6th), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (2nd), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Defender for Identity is designed for Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) and holds a mindshare of 10.4%, down 18.1% compared to last year.
One Identity Safeguard, on the other hand, focuses on Privileged Access Management (PAM), holds 3.9% mindshare, down 4.2% since last year.
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity10.4%
CrowdStrike Falcon12.8%
Microsoft Entra ID Protection6.6%
Other70.19999999999999%
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
Privileged Access Management (PAM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
One Identity Safeguard3.9%
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager11.2%
Delinea Secret Server5.0%
Other79.9%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

RK
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Protect on-premises and hybrid environments with advanced threat detection and seamless integration
Our Active Directory implementation is a hybrid one. 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. It identifies lateral movements, privilege escalations, and alerts on potential attacks. The tool is also used for security posture assessment. The seamless integration with other Microsoft solutions within our Microsoft-centric environment is also a major advantage.
SV
Automation tester at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
Centralized controls have improved privileged access and simplified compliant audit workflows
We use One Identity Safeguard as a central control point for all our privileged access, which helps standardize the access policies across teams and platforms. We also use it for the approval workflows, which are enforced for high-risk systems and add an extra security layer for production access. I have been using it for one and a half years. The best feature I appreciate is the session proxying and recording. It provides transparent session access for admins without exposing the real passwords. Another valuable feature is automated password rotation, which changes the credentials automatically after each use or on a schedule. It reduces the risk of leakage and reuse of passwords. Additionally, the approval workflow and the access request feature add governance with multi-level approvals for sensitive systems. These are the features that I appreciate the most. When we started using the session proxying and recording features, overall, it was a manageable and fairly smooth process for us. However, like most security platform deployments, it had a few learning curves. Session proxying and recording worked with our major systems including Windows, Linux, and network devices with minimal configuration. Some devices and services required slight changes to firewall rules and configuration to ensure the proxy could connect cleanly. Additionally, our admins needed orientation so they understood they were joining a recorded session, particularly for remote or support use. We spent considerable time adjusting the session filtering, retention settings, and naming conventions so recordings were useful and not overwhelming. These are some areas where we encountered challenges.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) solutions are best for your needs.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise19
 

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 One Identity Safeguard?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been a good experience overall, as the back and forth with One Identity is something that is acceptable; other tools have options to do thi...
What needs improvement with One Identity Safeguard?
One Identity Safeguard could be improved with a password manager and an identity manager as one big access management system. I believe improvements could be made around integrating with other tools.
What is your primary use case for One Identity Safeguard?
My main use case for One Identity Safeguard is using only one module for privileged session, which we use for admins and contractors. A quick specific example of how my team uses One Identity Safeg...
 

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Cavium
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. One Identity Safeguard and other solutions. Updated: July 2023.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.