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Exterro vs Microsoft Purview eDiscovery 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
4.7
Exterro enhances student outcomes for industry readiness, reduces costs, automates risk management, but benefits are challenging to quantify.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery boosts ROI by improving data efficiency, compliance, risk management, and reducing legal and IT workloads.
Students who train on Exterro FTK tend to be better prepared for industry certifications.
Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Costs were reduced by being able to identify the fraud that occurred and thus take the decision to dismiss the person and provide the legal department with the necessary evidence for a dispute or litigation between the company and the former employee.
Owner at INCOVER Risk and Impact
We have seen a 100% return on investment.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The ease of accessing necessary information promptly is the biggest return on investment.
Manager, Information Technology Operations & Security at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
It's hard to quantify the ROI in a dollar amount, but we realize value by doing more tasks in less time than we did before.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Exterro support is praised for helpfulness and quick resolution, with high ratings and some suggesting AI for beginners.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is praised for responsive support, despite some mixed experiences with wait times and outcomes.
They are good at technical support for the products.
Owner at INCOVER Risk and Impact
I have reached out to customer support a few times, and they do offer resources, documentation, and they're really helpful for common issues.
Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Exterro has good support and documentation, which makes it easy to use.
Director of Fraud Prevention at a security firm with 11-50 employees
I would rate Microsoft Purview eDiscovery's customer service and technical support a ten.
Is admin at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.5
Exterro handles extensive projects well but faces scalability issues with hardware, licensing, and system specifications for larger workloads.
Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is scalable and efficient, seamlessly integrating with cloud infrastructures but lacks some search functions.
I can use it to process and search substantial volumes of data quite efficiently.
Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Exterro's scalability is not very high because when I am analyzing a disk, depending on my machine, if I push it a bit more, it can become unstable.
Director of Fraud Prevention at a security firm with 11-50 employees
Exterro can handle larger projects.
Student at The Assam Royal Global University
It scales with us seamlessly.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
With the E3 licensing, I would rate the scalability of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery as a six because it lacks certain critical search functionalities.
Is admin at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Exterro is generally stable but may face occasional crashes during intensive tasks on machines with limited resources.
Sentiment score
8.6
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is generally stable, with minor slowdowns, but users seek more transparency on performance issues.
Stability can actually be an issue when processing very large disk images or actually running on machines with limited RAM and processing power.
Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have had some difficulty with Exterro's stability during use.
Owner at INCOVER Risk and Impact
For us, it has been one hundred percent reliable.
Manager, Information Technology Operations & Security at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is highly reliable.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Exterro should improve forensic workflows, accessibility, pricing for academia, and simplify setup, AI, and role structures for better performance.
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery needs faster, more efficient features, better integration, NLP for queries, and affordable pricing for users.
If Exterro has an academic program where it could partner up with universities to even give out exam vouchers or have some students sit for the exam with a reduced price and work with the institution, that would be really great.
Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
I want this to expand beyond just digital evidence to include chain of custody and everything related to it across multiple categories of forensics.
Student at The Assam Royal Global University
The experience with Exterro's pricing, setup costs, and licensing is very bad because it is a very expensive tool.
Director of Fraud Prevention at a security firm with 11-50 employees
Adding more features, as Microsoft continues to expand their cloud offerings, would be beneficial.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
Defining what constitutes a credit card because that is where I get the most false positives.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
We find that many critical functions are available only to E5 license holders.
Is admin at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Exterro's pricing suits enterprises but challenges education; a tiered academic license could improve accessibility and skills-building.
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery pricing is complex, with E5 costly yet beneficial, while E3 is cheaper but limited.
The full FTK license comes at a significant cost, which sometimes can be prohibitive for smaller institutions or individual students looking to practice outside of class.
Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The experience with Exterro's pricing, setup costs, and licensing is very bad because it is a very expensive tool.
Director of Fraud Prevention at a security firm with 11-50 employees
It was a good investment.
Student at The Assam Royal Global University
With CSP or MCE-style agreements with Microsoft, the process is streamlined since we have reps from both Microsoft and CDW working together.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
As an M3, I find the Purview pricing of 1250 per user worthwhile.
Senior System Engineer at a sports company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The pricing and licensing with Microsoft can be complex, and licensing is known to be a challenge because it changes frequently.
Enterprise Content Mamagement Lead Developer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Exterro enhances investigations with efficient data management, intuitive UI, and cost-effective features, benefiting students and organizations alike.
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery ensures efficient data retrieval with multi-platform integration, automation, compliance visibility, and adherence to global data privacy laws.
The keyword search and indexing capability is very impressive in the sense that I'm able to quickly show or demonstrate, or have my students carve through large volumes of data to find relevant artifacts as well as deleted files.
Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The reporting makes it easier for me to find information, and the filter system is much easier to incorporate what I have prepared.
Student at The Assam Royal Global University
Exterro has had a positive impact on my organization by bringing many conveniences and delivering quick answers so that the board can make the best decision between terminating someone or even finding out if the person under investigation is or is not guilty in that incident.
Owner at INCOVER Risk and Impact
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is its ability to search across various platforms, including Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive.
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
Purview can connect to iOS, Mac, Android, and SaaS apps, which is critical for capturing SMS and MMS text message data.
Is admin at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Purview's inclusion of global regulations is critical because we're heavily regulated by FERC, Sarbanes-Oxley, and the SEC.
Enterprise Content Mamagement Lead Developer at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Exterro
Ranking in eDiscovery
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery
Ranking in eDiscovery
1st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (22nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the eDiscovery category, the mindshare of Exterro is 3.0%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is 5.1%, down from 26.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
eDiscovery Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery5.1%
Exterro3.0%
Other91.9%
eDiscovery
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2844027 - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Hands-on forensic training has bridged academic learning and real-world investigation practice
Speed has been an issue, but at the same time, I wasn't sure if that is particularly something that could be improved because I understand that there are large forensic images and can take a significant amount of time to process. That has been one thing with my students. Usually when they're doing a lab, they have to take a lot of time to actually process the image. Sometimes I actually give them processed images for the latter labs, but when it comes to creating the disk images themselves and processing the images, it takes a lot of time. At the same time, sometimes the memory and hardware requirements could be demanding as well, specifically for lower-spec machines that students usually have. Although we do have lab machines that FTK runs on smoothly, for machines that students use, sometimes they can't be very high-end, so that is a real constraint. Since I am in academia, I would actually think more in terms of the academic pricing and licensing model. I would really appreciate if Exterro actually has an academic pricing or licensing model. Sometimes the cost could be a barrier. If Exterro has an academic program where it could partner up with universities to even give out exam vouchers or have some students sit for the exam with a reduced price and work with the institution, that would be really great.
Frank Radeck - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, IT Infrastructure & Cloud Technology at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees
Tasks that took an entire day before we implemented the solution now take just 30 minutes.
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Purview eDiscovery is its ability to search across various platforms, including Exchange, SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive. It enables a streamlined, unified process for searching across these platforms. It is critical for Purview to be able to connect to iOS, Mac, and Android devices and data in other SaaS apps. From a support perspective, I can do things while I'm eating lunch or something else. It's more dynamic and responsive. I think everybody appreciates it. We're not tied to one device. Purview's multi-cloud capabilities are also essential for the same reasons. Keeping everything under one umbrella further increases the time savings. Purview accounts for critical regulations from around the world. This is crucial because we hold ourselves accountable to standards and need to align with them. Working at a law firm, we have clients who dictate to us what standards they expect. The visibility is excellent. As we move more things into the cloud, more opportunities exist to put everything under one umbrella.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
9%
Construction Company
9%
Insurance Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Government
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Exterro?
I do not remember the cost, but I did save time because I had a last-minute assignment. It was very easy and I could complete it on time. It was a good investment.
What needs improvement with Exterro?
I would like Exterro to be a complete forensics workflow. Currently it is effective for handling digital evidence, but it only compares with EnCase, FTK Imager, or Autopsy. I want this to expand be...
What is your primary use case for Exterro?
As a forensic science student, I can realistically use Exterro for all of my academic work. It is very easy to understand and manage digital evidence. I use it for storage, tagging, and organized i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?
The setup process was very straightforward. We acquired pricing through our reseller in NASDAQ, eliminating the need to search for prices ourselves.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?
The query language can be time-consuming to figure out if you don't know it initially. While there are options with dropdowns to select criteria, having a natural language feature would be benefici...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview eDiscovery?
I sometimes use it for legal holds or to find lost items, and to determine what is going on. However, most of the time, my use case is legal-related.
 

Also Known As

Exterro Fusion
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Allstate, Statoil, AOL, Nike, Citgo, Target, UnitedHealth Group, Microsoft, MetLife, VISA, Oracle, American Express
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Exterro vs. Microsoft Purview eDiscovery and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.