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Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Saviynt comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 5, 2024

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 Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
3rd
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)
Saviynt
Ranking in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
8th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (3rd), Identity Management (IM) (5th), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (7th), Identity and Access Management (1st), Identity Security and Posture Management (ISPM) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 11.1%, down from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Saviynt is 3.4%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity11.1%
Saviynt3.4%
Other85.5%
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
 

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.
reviewer2774067 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a tech consulting company with 11-50 employees
Has reduced manual work and shortened project timelines through faster deployment and intuitive workflows
One of the challenges regarding Saviynt is the lack of material available on the web, as searching on Google or YouTube often yields little information. Advertising Saviynt is necessary because I was not aware of it a couple of months ago, and it is a very helpful product for many organizations. In India, IGA solutions are not widely recognized, and Saviynt can utilize this point by promoting itself in the cybersecurity field. A significant challenge is the lack of people discussing Saviynt in the open market, as the forums provide slower responses compared to platforms like Reddit. Advancements related to AI would be very helpful. Saviynt should provide pricing for their university certifications, which is currently not publicly available. Information about enrolling requires an ID that is not easily obtained, as it can only be acquired through an organization. Some small wishlist features are related to APIs. As I work on projects, I find certain features to be much needed, but at a glance, they may not seem necessary. As I continue working with Saviynt, these small API-related features become apparent and would greatly enhance the experience.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature I like most is that you can create your own customized detection rules. It has a lot of default alerts and rules, but you can customize them according to your business needs."
"The solution offers excellent visibility into threats."
"The integration into the Microsoft Defender ecosystem is the most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Identity."
"Auto-remediation is a valuable feature applied to Microsoft Defender for Identity, reducing the burden of investigating false positives."
"Microsoft Defender for Identity provides excellent visibility into threats by leveraging real-time analytics and data intelligence."
"The feature I like the most about Defender for Identity is the entity tags. They give you the ability to identify sensitive accounts, devices, and groups. You also have honeytoken entities, which are devices that are identified as "bait" for fraudulent actors."
"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 is easy to set up. Based on the number of devices you would like to set up, you can use scripts, Group Policy, etc. It takes five minutes to set up."
"It gives very good and in-depth knowledge about a particular identity. Everything is through a single click. We get to know the workflows related to a particular identity with a single click."
"It's easy to manage and easy to use; a simple tool for end-users."
"The product's initial setup phase is simple."
"Some of the self-service capabilities are quite powerful."
"Saviynt is used for the greenfield implementation for the whole IAM, IGA, MFA, SSO, and access management."
"The dedicated Freshdesk platform is a user community and a step in the right direction for offering learning resources."
"One of the tool's advantages is its user-friendly interface, making it easier to manipulate from a GUI perspective. The graphical user interface for users and administrators is straightforward. While it may require more configuration initially, once set up, it becomes more accessible and easier to use."
"Saviynt has positively impacted my organization by significantly reducing the time for a project where we previously used a spreadsheet for manual work to keep the data."
 

Cons

"And when you are working in a priority IP address, Identity is not able to know that those IPs are from the company. It sees that the IPs are from Taiwan or from Hong Kong or from India, even though they are internal IPs, resulting in a lot of false positives."
"They should improve the automation for impossible travel detection. When connected to Wi-Fi and then to VPN, the system sometimes interprets the IP address change as impossible travel."
"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."
"The tracking instance needs to be configured appropriately."
"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 documentation provided by Microsoft is often seen as a waste of time."
"Feedback on sync issues with the Microsoft portal highlighted its slow nature, with syncs sometimes taking eight hours."
"The solution should provide more detailed data regarding anomaly detections."
"One of the challenges regarding Saviynt is the lack of material available on the web, as searching on Google or YouTube often yields little information."
"It is time-consuming to troubleshoot issues."
"According to feedback I've received, some users prefer SailPoint over Saviynt in real complex environments. SailPoint has its provisioning platform. Complex integrations may pose challenges in scenarios like a large bank with thousands of users, making SailPoint a preferred choice for some."
"Saviynt cannot customize based on customer needs."
"The custom application integration is a little complex, and this tool doesn't provide so many plugins or additional applications."
"It should support more customizations. In SailPoint, we can do many customizations, but we are not able to do that in Saviynt. For workflows and other things, we can only use what is already in place. Saviynt has a lot of scope for improvement on the customization part."
"The solution does not work very well as the number of users increases."
"The technical support team's response time could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is very affordable considering that other SIEM solutions are much more expensive and have many more licensing restrictions and fees."
"Defender for Identity is a little more expensive than other Microsoft products. Identity and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are both a bit costly."
"Microsoft Defender for Identity comes as part of the Microsoft E5 licensing stack."
"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."
"The pricing is comparable to Azure Entra ID. Kind of the same"
"Saviynt's pricing is reasonable."
"The product is less expensive than one of the competitors."
"We are not into the licensing part. The clients take care of the licensing part."
"The solution has a pay-as-you-go licensing model, and you can subscribe monthly or yearly."
"The price of the license for this product is quite expensive."
"If you need to make any changes then there are additional fees."
"Saviynt's pricing is acceptable and licensing costs are yearly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare 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 Business6
Midsize Enterprise5
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 do you like most about Saviynt?
It is very easy to use. It addresses most of the trends in identity governance and risk management.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Saviynt?
Saviynt is very affordable compared to its competitors. It is cloud-based, making it significantly cheaper than on-premises solutions. This cost-effectiveness aligns well with the Saudi market, whe...
What needs improvement with Saviynt?
One of the challenges regarding Saviynt is the lack of material available on the web, as searching on Google or YouTube often yields little information. Advertising Saviynt is necessary because I w...
 

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.
Shell, McKesson, Kimberly-Clark, Ingram Micro, Intermountain Health Care, Forterra, CoreLogic
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Saviynt and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.