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ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

    Score9.1 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    ADAudit Plus offers real-time monitoring, user and entity behaviour analytics, and change audit reports that helps users keep AD and IT infrastructure secure and compliant. Track all changes to Windows AD objects including users, groups, computers, GPOs, and OUs. Achieve hybrid AD monitoring with a single, correlated view of all the activities happening across both on-premises AD and Azure AD. Monitor every user's logon and logoff activity, including…

    $595

    per year based on 2 Domain Controllers

    Microsoft Defender for Cloud

    Score8.7 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Defender for Cloud is a Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Workload Protection Platform (CWPP) for Azure, on-premises, and multicloud (Amazon AWS and Google GCP) resources.N/A
    Pricing
    ManageEngine ADAudit PlusMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
    Editions & Modules
    Standard
    $595
    per year Both licensed based on number of Domain Controllers, Azure AD tenants, file servers, Windows member servers, and Workstations.
    Professional
    $945
    per year Both licensed based on number of Domain Controllers, Azure AD tenants, file servers, Windows member servers, and Workstations.
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ManageEngine ADAudit PlusMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsADAudit Plus is licensed based on number of Domain Controllers (not per-user). Add-ons are available for Windows File Servers, NAS File Servers, Azure AD tenants, Windows Servers, Workstations, AD Backup and Recovery, and File Analysis. For more than 20 domain controllers, ManageEngine directs customers to contact sales for a personalized quote. Pricing is dependent on the number of domain controllers and starts at $595/year for the Standard edition, and $945/year for the Professional edition.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    ManageEngine ADAudit PlusMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
    Considered Both Products
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    64 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    65 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    63 Answers
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    60 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    64 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    64 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    59 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    54 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    61 Answers
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    56 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    ManageEngine ADAudit PlusMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud
    Score8.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    ManageEngine ADAudit PlusMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.4
    (65 ratings)
    8.5
    (68 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    8.9
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    7.7
    (13 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.1
    (57 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.7
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    ManageEngine ADAudit PlusMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
    Likelihood to Recommend
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    I would recommend ADAuditPlus (and/or Log360) to any org that is trying to achieve PCI DSS Compliance and is struggling with some of the monitoring and reporting aspects, provided that the org is prepared to spend a little time and effort in truly understanding the requirements and is prepared to document requirements and match them to the ADAuditPlus product features.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    I think it's good for cloud-native companies. A company that, from day zero, they're like, "We're going cloud, and this is how we're going to do it." They get it. It works well for them. Smaller organizations that are under X amount of resources- I don't know what that X might mean- but I feel like it plays well in smaller, more nimble organizations. If you're an older organization or if you're extremely large, it starts becoming a little difficult to manage at scale. And you have to sometimes throw bodies at the problem. Maybe not the most eloquent way of saying it, but that's what it feels like.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • ManageEngine ADAudit Plus changes for user and group management can be looked up in builtin reports
    • You can build your own reports based on almost every logic you can think of
    • You have the ability to create alerts based on logic and filters and sendout custom alerts to email, SMS or other means.
    • First you need to understand the basics of the software, after that the software itself is very helpfull in configuring specific items.
    • I really love the support that ManageEngine is giving the customer, for all questions I use the chat on their website. This is for me the best remote support I ever saw, and I saw a lot in my 20 years of experience in IT.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • It's really well laid out, with an easy-to-use, accessible UI.
    • With Microsoft Defender for Cloud, it has everything you need with the Safelink attachment, the Safelink emails for URL, the way it scans those URLs and attachments within the product, and you're seeing the results. And that adds an extra layer of security for the user, so you feel comfortable knowing the product monitors those. That's something I really like about that product.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • It's based on Java engine that is slow -- reports are often difficult to build (we are going to upgrade the machine it's running on to see if this is the issue)
    • Keeping this software up to date is a pain; there should be a better "update" function
    • The naming and navigation are terrible -- it's never clear which feature you're looking for and where it's hidden in the menus
    • Adding machines is not as easy as it should be; occasionally there are IP conflicts that are nearly impossible to resolve
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • Integrations with on-premise workloads can sometimes be challenging. Needs improvement and well standardised integration points
    • Vulnerability categories can be difficult to understand. It should allow teams to focus on critical findings and help them keep aside low-severity or suppressed vulnerabilities
    • Pricing can be improved as it can be over-priced for smaller businesses and would potentially affect their ROI due to the small scale
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    It works great for everything we need and use. Any issues in the software are pretty easy to resolve with tech support. And they are very responsive to resolving issues. Even ones where a fix/patch are required. At present, the software does everything we need it to for compliance, audit, and account review.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    It is a great product that integrates nicely when running an Azure platform and even multi-cloud environment. Not looking for point-solutions but a suite that answers most requirements. It is very comfortable being able to use KQL, workbooks and automation that is native to the azure platform
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    Usability
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    ADAudit with its cloud and on prem install option allows any organization to get in on AD report management. Whether you need to report internally only for for external audit controls its a great tool with flexibility to handle most any user or group report capability. Since this also includes m365 integration it enables IT pros to administer usage, license, cost control and permission access to most anything in Microsoft's portfolio. Its a great tool all around for AD integrated access needs.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    My visibility is limited because I'm only doing very small pieces of what the overall org does. And also, we have limitations on what we're allowed to use. It's not like we get a new product as users or leadership level users, and everything is on, and we can just do whatever we want. We're very restricted in what we can use any tooling within the org because of the different levels of regulatory constraints we have, because of just the nature of who we are inherently. So that's why. I don't think it's necessarily the product. I think it's more or less of what we're able to do with the product.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    uptime good
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    Integration/overlap between products could be improved
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    I'd give their support a 10 if it weren't for the fact that sometimes, the support team (I believe they are overseas) can take a little bit to respond, but not too long. I may submit a ticket in the morning and won't hear about it until later in the afternoon. However, my tickets were not "urgent," so that may have been the reason for the delay. Other than that, support is great, and the ManageEngine account team has visited us in the past. It's always nice to see your product representatives take a white-glove approach like that.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    knowledgable and prompt response
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    The remote setup team helped when i needed it and setup weas very straight forward and easy. The advanced setup for an external db and customizations for our latest version AD environment went pretty easy once they found documentation on customization.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    In terms of features, ADAudit Plus offers a comprehensive set of features for monitoring and auditing Active Directory, including real-time alerts, detailed reports, and user behavior analytics. The platform also offers support for multiple platforms, including Windows, UNIX, and Linux, as well as integration with other ManageEngine tools.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    I believe Microsoft Defender for Cloud stacks up well against the other tools we looked at. It is native to the Azure platform and provides the same insights as the other tools. We selected Microsoft Defender for Cloud because it integrates well with the Azure resources and gives the needed insight, security alerts and recommendations.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    updates are effective and system is reliable
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    I like the ability to customize reports and provided great visibility to AD and some servers.
    • It helped greatly with customer support issues when we used ADAudit with the hundreds of customer accounts used for SSON to the LOB application server to users over Citrix.
    • It saved time on some issues with accounts and Group Policy changes that affected customer experience.
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    Microsoft
    • Ensuring compliance with data protection regulations can prevent costly fines and legal issues, positively impacting ROI.
    • Effective cloud resource protection can optimize cloud spending and resource utilization, ultimately reducing cloud infrastructure costs.
    • The subscription costs associated with Defender for Cloud can add to an organization's operational expenses, impacting ROI.
    • Smaller organizations may find the feature set and complexity of Defender for Cloud unnecessary, potentially overinvesting in security solutions.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    ManageEngine ADAudit Plus Screenshots

    Screenshot of Active Directory Audit Dashboard
Track all critical AD changes — user modifications, group updates, GPO changes, and logon events — from a single console.Screenshot of User Logon Failures Report
Spot and investigate failed logon attempts across your environment with drill-down reports showing who, when, and from where.Screenshot of Attack Surface Analyzer Dashboard
Detect 25+ AD attack indicators including Kerberoasting, Golden Ticket, and DCSync attacks before they cause damage.Screenshot of Cloud Directory Audit Dashboard
Monitor sign-ins, role changes, and config modifications across Microsoft Entra ID with correlated on-premises and cloud visibility.Screenshot of Kerberoasting Attack Detection Report
Surface suspicious service ticket requests and identify compromised service accounts before attackers escalate privileges.Screenshot of Real-Time Alert Dashboard
Centralize and prioritize security alerts across your environment with configurable real-time email and SMS notifications.

    Microsoft Defender for Cloud Screenshots

    Screenshot of Remediation of critical issues in codeScreenshot of Cloud security benchmark mapped to industry FramworksScreenshot of Prioritization of critical risks with contextual threat analysisScreenshot of Workload protectionScreenshot of Unified DevOps VisibilityScreenshot of Visualizations to improve security posture proactively