Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Veza comparison

The compared Microsoft and Veza solutions aren't in the same category. Microsoft is ranked #3 in ITDR , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 9.7% mindshare in the category. Veza is ranked #3 in ITDR , with an average rating of 7.5, and holds a 22.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Veza users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

Read 28 Microsoft Defender for Identity reviews

7,343 Views
3,525 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Veza

Read 2 Veza reviews

3,525 Views
388 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Iden...

Veza

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender for Identity and Veza based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Huntress and others in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR).

To learn more, read our detailed Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

April 2026

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Helped 893,438 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...

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (8th), Microsoft Security Suite (5th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)

Veza

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

GRC (26th), Identity Management (IM) (22nd), Privileged Access Management (PAM) (27th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (9th), Non-Human Identity Management (NHIM) (8th), Identity Security and Posture Management (ISPM) (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 9.7%, down 18.0% compared to last year.
Veza, on the other hand, focuses on Identity Security and Posture Management (ISPM), holds 22.1% mindshare, down 29.3% since last year.

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity	9.7%
CrowdStrike Falcon	12.8%
Huntress Managed ITDR	6.9%
Other	70.6%

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

Identity Security and Posture Management (ISPM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Veza	22.1%
Saviynt Identity Cloud	26.2%
Silverfort	12.5%
Other	39.2%

Identity Security and Posture Management (ISPM)

Featured Reviews

Oluwa Adetunji

CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed

Automation and threat intelligence streamline threat response and user management

In Microsoft Defender for Identity, I would appreciate improvements in providing information on conditional access. They have added more control that can be put in place, which was not present years ago. They have also integrated Azure Information Protection where policies can be configured. The Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) allows users to reset their passwords, which is a valuable tool for remote workers. They have added more features into conditional access that integrate with other components, including SSPR and Identity Information Protection, trusted IPs, and locations. These configurations in trusted IP addresses are integrated into conditional access and control the applications I want to secure. Regarding impossible travel scenarios, I can either block the user or grant access while requesting multi-factor authentication. 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. 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.

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HarshalJethwa

Cloud Operations Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Centralized access control has strengthened least privilege and streamlined audit compliance

The best features Veza offers in my experience are access visibility to see who can access what and which parts, relationship mapping of a user to roles, policies and resources, and risk detection such as over-permission and unused permission privileges. I can perform audit compliance using those features and the platform supports multiple platforms. Out of those features, I find risk detection to be the most valuable in my day-to-day work because I can check who has over-permission or unused permissions and understand relationship mapping and access visibility. Veza has positively impacted my organization by improving access for our users, allowing us to check the user and perform auditing for our system or organization. We are now able to implement least privilege practices, which has made our organization and system more secure.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would rate Microsoft Defender for Identity at nine out of ten."

"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."

"In the security portfolio that we manage, Microsoft Defender for Identity is very important because it is the professional service that we sell the most."

"Microsoft Defender for Identity helps me automate routine tasks and find alerts that I set up to receive, so it helps me get where I'm trying to go easier and faster."

"Microsoft Defender for Identity provides excellent visibility into threats by leveraging real-time analytics and data intelligence."

"Microsoft is a big company."

"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."

"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."

More Microsoft Defender for Identity pros

"It's the only current GRC vendor with licensing rights for HITRUST 11.3 framework, and I've avoided expensive HITRUST licensing costs through a custom control framework."

"Veza has positively impacted my organization by improving access for our users, allowing us to check the user and perform auditing for our system or organization, and we are now able to implement least privilege practices, which has made our organization and system more secure."

Cons

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

"Microsoft should look at what competing vendors like CrowdStrike and Broadcom are doing and incorporate those features into Sentinel and Defender. At the same time, I think the intelligence inside the product is improving fast. They should incorporate more zero-trust and hybrid trust approaches. They need to build up threat intelligence based on threats and methods used in attacks on other companies."

"We observe a lot of false positives. Sometimes, when we go for a coffee break, we lock our screens. Locking the screen has a separate Windows event ID and sometimes I see it is detected as a failed login."

"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."

"I would like to be able to do remediation from the platform because it is just a scanner right now. If you onboard a device, it shows you what is happening, but you can't use it to fix things. You need to go into the system to fix it instead."

"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."

"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."

"One improvement I would recommend is the integration of an admin application within Teams, allowing easy access to attack information on a mobile platform to promptly alert affected users and their friends."

More Microsoft Defender for Identity cons

"The support experience could be better."

"Veza can be improved as it is currently not suitable for small projects due to its high cost, complex setup, and requirement for more integration with multiple systems."

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."

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

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

"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."

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

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

15%

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

No data available

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...

See all answers

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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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Veza?

The overall price point of Vanta is commendable, especially considering the custom control framework that allows me to evade the high costs associated with HITRUST licensing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Veza?

The support experience could be better. We often need to escalate our issues to the account executive to receive a response, especially when support is needed for integrations.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Veza?

We are currently in the implementation stages of Vanta. It's been challenging to build out as it is not as intuitive as OneTrust, especially in terms of scoping and needs.

See all answers

Comparisons

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID Protection vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 5% of the time

Huntress Managed ITDR vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Identity vs Microsoft Defender for Identity

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Identity Competitors

Lumos vs Veza

Compared 15% of the time

SailPoint Identity Security Cloud vs Veza

Compared 7% of the time

Saviynt Identity Cloud vs Veza

Compared 7% of the time

CyberArk IGA Powered by Zilla vs Veza

Compared 6% of the time

Okta Platform vs Veza

Compared 5% of the time

More Veza Competitors

Product Reports

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Microsoft Defender for Identity

April 2026

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Teleport vs. Veza

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Also Known As

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

No data available

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

Veza Core Authorization Platform enhances data access visibility, centralizes control, and simplifies user permissions management. Its robust security through zero-trust principles, seamless integration, and automated compliance reporting boost organizational efficiency, productivity, and security, while streamlining workflows and minimizing vulnerabilities.

Veza

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)

April 2026

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