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Anomali vs Microsoft Defender for Identity comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 18, 2026

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
5.6
Anomali reduces manual effort and investigation time, enhancing efficiency and productivity with automation and AI, achieving 40% time savings.
Sentiment score
4.8
Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances threat detection, reduces efforts, minimizes risks, and optimizes costs despite varied ROI assessments.
Analyst productivity has improved significantly, with hours saved because of automation and AI-driven work that Anomali performs.
Member Of Leadership Advisory Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Anomali provides us with a very cost-effective value compared to the market, and I would rate it ten out of ten for return on investment metrics.
Solution Delivery Advisor at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
There is a return on investment concerning time and effort saved by 40% after implementing Anomali.
Security Consultant at Deloitte
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.6
Anomali provides strong enterprise support with prompt responses but faces criticism for delays and integration issues affecting satisfaction.
Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Defender for Identity offers knowledgeable support, yet response times can vary, especially with complex issues or initial contacts.
They have strong onboarding and deployment assistance, provide a dedicated technical account manager for large customers, and engage in regular product updates and customer interaction.
Member Of Leadership Advisory Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
The technical support at Anomali is excellent.
Senior Cyber Threat Hunter at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It doesn't seem very professional how they're handling support anymore.
Enterprise Security Architect V at FirstEnergy
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
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Anomali excels in scalable threat intelligence processing, integrating well with SIEMs and EDRs, outperforming platforms like Splunk and Sentinel.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly scalable and adaptable, excelling in large enterprises with efficient cloud-based processing.
The scalability is massive, allowing us to store millions of indicators.
Enterprise Security Architect V at FirstEnergy
I believe Anomali's scalability is good; whether it is an organization for ten people or one hundred thousand people, the job a threat intel platform has to do will be the same.
Sr. Threat Intelligence Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Anomali's scalability is impressive as a mature platform capable of processing large amounts of threat intelligence and indicators of compromise data.
Member Of Leadership Advisory Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
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
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Anomali is stable and reliable, but recent function changes require better adaptation time for improved user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly stable, reliable, with minimal downtime; occasional issues require support for agent redeployment.
From a reliability perspective, Anomali consistently injects threat feeds, works on automation, performs reliable API integrations, and supports enterprise scale globally.
Member Of Leadership Advisory Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
For example, while Microsoft allows ample time for users to adapt to deprecated features, Anomali only gave us three weeks before switching, so they need to be more cognizant of customer use cases from their engineering side.
Enterprise Security Architect V at FirstEnergy
The good thing is that they have a health check page, and if any issues arise, they notify us.
Lead Cyber Threat Intelligence Incident Response Engineer & Security Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
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
 

Room For Improvement

Anomali needs better AI-driven automation, integration, pricing, threat correlation, user experience, and improved dashboard, validation, and transparency.
Microsoft Defender for Identity needs improvements in alert accuracy, UI/UX, asset integration, automation, anomaly detection, and third-party integration.
Combining all aliases into a coherent solution would be beneficial, as we had to review each individual source ourselves.
Senior Cyber Threat Hunter at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Anomali should increase their capability to fetch details from various dark web solutions where threat actors post compromised credentials.
Lead Cyber Threat Intelligence Incident Response Engineer & Security Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Anomali's ability to correlate and integrate different Threat Intel platforms, such as Mandiant and PolySwarm, is another valuable feature, removing duplicacy and enabling the application of specific IOCs across various security controls.
Associate Consultant at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
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
 

Setup Cost

Anomali pricing is medium to high, with reasonable costs; threat feeds complicate budgeting, typically involving senior staff management.
Microsoft Defender for Identity pricing aligns with E5 licenses, offering value in hybrid setups but can be costly at scale.
Pricing and licensing are good, but the costs for purchasing threat feeds are somewhat complicated and a bit on the higher side.
Associate Consultant at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that there are not many follow-ups, but once we interacted with the product team or the leadership of Anomali, they managed a lot with us, and it all paid off to reach a conclusion that we would continue with this product.
Solution Delivery Advisor at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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
 

Valuable Features

Anomali offers comprehensive threat intelligence management with strong integration, automation, and reporting, improving visibility and reducing workload for analysts.
Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances threat detection and security integration, offering streamlined investigation with automated alerts and behavioral analytics.
Regarding integration, Anomali has capabilities to integrate with different downstream applications such as Palo Alto, allowing us to create playbooks to block domains, URLs, or IPs directly within the firewall.
Lead Cyber Threat Intelligence Incident Response Engineer & Security Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Correlating IOCs with the telemetry data we are ingesting from our data sources allows us to pull monthly reports identifying how many assets and users interacted with malicious content, giving insight into whether communications failed or users accessed restricted content, providing complete visibility of the IOCs traveling throughout our environment.
Associate Consultant at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
It aggregates intelligence from hundreds of sources, automatically de-duplicates, applies risk scoring, applies context, and reduces much manual effort.
Member Of Leadership Advisory Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
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
 

Categories and Ranking

Anomali
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (21st), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (9th), Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (4th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (14th)
Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (5th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Anomali is 3.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 3.6%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity3.6%
Anomali3.4%
Other93.0%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

TarunKumar11 - PeerSpot reviewer
Member Of Leadership Advisory Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Strategic threat intelligence has improved detection speed and consistently reduces analyst workload
Anomali can be improved in various aspects. Its AI-driven automation can further advance, and AI-powered investigation summaries can improve. User experience could be enhanced through simplification of workflows. Better board-level cyber risk dashboards could provide easier visualization. Additionally, Anomali could work on simplifying the pricing structure. Although it excels in threat intelligence aggregation and operationalization, stronger GenAI capability, improved executive reporting, and a more intuitive workflow for analysts would further increase SOC efficiency and add more business value. Regarding Anomali's AI capabilities, governance and security are quite good. Anomali has incorporated AI and machine learning primarily to improve correlation and prioritization. These capabilities are valuable but could be more mature. The platform could achieve better threat correlation, prioritization, more anomaly detection, and allow AI to accelerate intelligence analysis while further improving quality and relevance. The accuracy and reliability of Anomali's AI output are fairly reasonable and good. The AI engine works well, but this capability could be improved. Better threat correlation with threat actors, certain indicators of compromise, malware, and campaigns is possible. Threat prioritization could increase, and alert noise could be reduced through further de-duplication. While reasonable, this is not the best available, and other products possibly have more AI maturity, such as Recorded Future and CrowdStrike Falcon.
Peter Arabomen - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Engineer at Fidelity Bank Plc
Has supported hybrid identity management while integrating well with cloud directory services
The only challenge I have with Microsoft Defender for Identity is the latency. I may not put that entirely on Microsoft, because latency could be network related. At times when trying to authenticate, the prompt is delayed. We tried implementing passwordless authentication, especially for on-premises workloads, but we haven't been able to achieve that. Passwordless authentication is part of the identity functionalities, particularly when it comes to enforcing passwordless for on-premises workloads. In terms of improvements, you can't create OUs on Azure AD. Regarding giving users privileges on what they can do across different OUs, I haven't seen that feature on Microsoft Defender for Identity. Microsoft Defender for Identity needs to be able to plug into third-party applications that are not Microsoft. For instance, with a human resource application used to manage users and leave requests, when staff leaves the organization, they are first exited from that application before AD. Integration between Azure AD and third-party applications would allow automatic syncing when removing staff. The initial setup of Microsoft Defender for Identity is not hard. However, setup is one thing, and getting value from the application end-to-end is another. It can be set up and running from the first day but not functioning optimally. Initially, when we did the setup, it wasn't optimal. Over time, with continuous improvement, which we're still doing, we've gotten to a comfortable level, but there's still room for improvement.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Anomali Enterprise?
My experience with pricing involved a yearly, two-year contract; I can't specify the setup cost, but it was aligned with our budget, so I consider it good.
What needs improvement with Anomali ThreatStream?
I think that Anomali could be improved by addressing a major weakness, which is the issue of its integrators. The capacity they have when publishing a large number of indicators is quite limited. T...
What is your primary use case for Anomali ThreatStream?
My main use case for Anomali in my organization is threat intelligence. We use threat intelligence with Anomali in my day-to-day work to query feeds.What we do is query those feeds looking for all ...
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...
 

Also Known As

Match, Lens, ThreatStream, STAXX, Anomali Security Analytics
Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank of England, First Energy, UBISOFT, Bank of Hope, Blackhawk Network
Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Anomali vs. Microsoft Defender for Identity and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,838 professionals have used our research since 2012.