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Microsoft Purview Audit vs Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Purview Audit
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
29th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Log Management (29th)
Microsoft Purview Complianc...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
24th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (21st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Purview Audit is 1.4%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager1.6%
Microsoft Purview Audit1.4%
Other97.0%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

OK
Cloud Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Integrated auditing has strengthened data retention and improved incident investigations
I have seen areas for improvement, specifically in Microsoft Purview Audit or in general about Microsoft. I have had a situation with documentation. I had a customer who wanted to create alerts and they had Microsoft 365 Business Premium. In the documentation, it was noted that this license is enough for creating alerts. When we tried to make them, we noticed they cannot do it with Microsoft 365 E3 because the customer had limited features to manage alerts. The customer had to buy E3. We created Microsoft support requests, and they confirmed that the documentation displayed not the real situation and they have been going to update documentation. The same situation occurred now with implementing Microsoft Purview Audit in the last autumn. eDiscovery was combined with search and content search, and the documentation was not clear at the beginning. It was a little difficult to describe to customers that now it is a part of eDiscovery. Content search is a very simple functionality, while eDiscovery is a little difficult. I am not entirely sure why Microsoft is going in the way of combining these services because they are the same. However, for a customer who has never seen these services, it is difficult to understand quickly. The same situation occurs with litigation holds and some other holds. For any mail, I am trying to keep data. For example, emails are held for a year or two years, ten years, it does not matter. It is difficult to understand where to find this data and where these emails are being held. I need to use eDiscovery to find out all deleted data that was kept somewhere in some hidden folders of the mailbox. Regular customers and regular administrators know that on-premises Exchange, for example, allows them to find the data in some repository and review the list of kept data. However, with this hold, we do not have any functionality to review the list of kept data. It is difficult to understand for customers how to work with this. I had a case where I spent three or four hours working deeply with a customer to explain how to work with eDiscovery, why Content Search is not there when it was before, what is an eDiscovery case, and why we are talking about all of this just to review a list of kept emails. This is difficult.
reviewer2797275 - PeerSpot reviewer
Systems Engineer at a leisure / travel company with 201-500 employees
Compliance reporting has provided governance insights and now needs faster expert support access
I would rate Microsoft Support a six or seven on a scale of one to ten, depending on who you get. Microsoft could potentially improve by being able to reach the right people immediately instead of having to deal with lower-level support staff. As an enterprise customer, having that enterprise liaison is beneficial. I have a single point of contact for issues. Previously, when this was first set up without that liaison, calling support meant getting level one support who could not help, then level two support who also could not help, and finally reaching someone who could actually assist. Having a designated Microsoft representative or support person is definitely key.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main Microsoft feature is that it offers common integration of services, of data, of identity, meaning user accounts, user access, and privileged access."
"The platform has significantly enhanced our operational insight into the overall Microsoft 365 environment."
"The overall user experience with Microsoft Purview Audit is of higher quality than when it was branded as Compliance Center, and Microsoft consistently updates and evolves functionalities and the overall experience."
"We're easily saving at least one hour per day using this solution."
"The data classification reporting is helping us figure out what and where our people are storing files and why."
"We have more visibility of data and how it is being shared."
"The setup complexity depends on what features you want to implement in Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager."
"The most valuable feature is its ability to apply regulations and ensure compliance with various policies. It also provides tools for investigation, risk assessment, and security score evaluations."
"The stability is a ten out of ten."
"We move data between clouds and also from on-premises to the cloud. There is no other mechanism to check if this data is moving according to industry standards for such things as security, bandwidth, and SSL encryption mechanism. We would not be able to see these metrics without Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager."
"The best aspect is that it requires little to no time for implementation if I am using all of Microsoft's tools."
"Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is necessary when using Outlook."
 

Cons

"We do have a Denial of Access happening."
"Areas for product improvement include enhancing customization options and integrating more comprehensive compliance features."
"I had a case where I spent three or four hours working deeply with a customer to explain how to work with eDiscovery, why Content Search is not there when it was before, what is an eDiscovery case, and why we are talking about all of this just to review a list of kept emails."
"We are still in the early stages of leveraging Microsoft Purview Audit. Currently, it's primarily used for the audit function."
"Microsoft Purview has moved its portal from classic to premium with some display improvements, yet not much in options and functionalities."
"We've had issues with data connectors for Teams."
"Integrating add-on licenses, which currently offer additional features at a cost, into the base product would be beneficial, especially for a charity organization to avoid incurring extra costs."
"There could be improved automation for handling tasks in bulk or in an automated way."
"The speed and accessibility, particularly in the user interface, require significant work."
"Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is a stable product used by organizations utilizing Outlook as their email client. Despite stability, it needs to be more user-friendly and competitive compared to other eDiscovery tools."
"When I tried to set up Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager for my organization to ensure people are not sending PII documents, especially payment cards, using keywords for flagging, it disrupted our services, so we had to deactivate it."
"Policy configuration, particularly for web interfaces and OCR scanning, presents challenges."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The pricing and licensing are moderate because we have other licenses for Microsoft services. The pricing is in line with that."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Audit?
It is not so expensive in comparison with other products, but I can tell you about an example.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Audit?
I have seen areas for improvement, specifically in Microsoft Purview Audit or in general about Microsoft. I have had a situation with documentation. I had a customer who wanted to create alerts and...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Audit?
I work with Defender for IoT by chance because I see that we have enough reviews for Defender for Office 365 today, and we need reviews for some Azure products. I work with Azure products such as L...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
The pricing and setup cost is comparable to everything else that would be available regarding licensing. It was not excessively expensive. It is another expense to manage, but paying for the soluti...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is used for governance and checking to ensure that what is being put out there is correct and is not violating any corporate policies. We use it for data classi...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
I have experience with IronScales by chance or other similar products. It was not purchased through AWS Marketplace but was purchased through a vendor. We do deal with Intune with Microsoft. I have...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Compliance Manager
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Purview Audit vs. Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.