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Gurucul UEBA vs Microsoft Defender for Identity 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

Gurucul UEBA
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (8th)
Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (8th), Microsoft Security Suite (4th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Gurucul UEBA is designed for User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) and holds a mindshare of 2.9%, down 3.2% compared to last year.
Microsoft Defender for Identity, on the other hand, focuses on Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR), holds 11.1% mindshare, down 19.1% since last year.
User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Gurucul UEBA2.9%
Exabeam7.5%
IBM Security QRadar6.8%
Other82.8%
User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Identity11.1%
CrowdStrike Falcon13.4%
Microsoft Entra ID Protection7.3%
Other68.2%
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2506872 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Specialist - UEBA SIEM Admin at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Smooth and fast search capabilities with customizable dashboards enhance user experience
For improvement, I have requested three enhancement tickets, which are already lodged with the Gurucul support team. The first request is to add a visualization option in reports for charts or graphs. I have also requested new dashboard features. In the query box, there's a bug where taking an attribute at the end does not return data, but placing it elsewhere does. The support system could be more equipped.
RK
Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Protect on-premises and hybrid environments with advanced threat detection and seamless integration
Our Active Directory implementation is a hybrid one. 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. It identifies lateral movements, privilege escalations, and alerts on potential attacks. The tool is also used for security posture assessment. The seamless integration with other Microsoft solutions within our Microsoft-centric environment is also a major advantage.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Gurucul is the ability to customize and it is on the Hadoop platform that has a lot of flexibility."
"If you are genuinely looking for a UEBA solution, you should choose Gurucul confidently if your need is strictly UEBA."
"I appreciate the comprehensive categorization of devices based on their intended use, such as those for DNS."
"The reporting feature was the key differentiator. I also liked the ability to create dynamic rules in the environment."
"The feature I like the most about Defender for Identity is the entity tags. They give you the ability to identify sensitive accounts, devices, and groups. You also have honeytoken entities, which are devices that are identified as "bait" for fraudulent actors."
"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."
"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."
"The feature I like most is that you can create your own customized detection rules. It has a lot of default alerts and rules, but you can customize them according to your business needs."
"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."
"The solution offers excellent visibility into threats."
"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."
"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."
 

Cons

"Regarding the prioritization of threats, Gurucul UEBA needs to enhance its alert severity assignment process within the system."
"Technical support is good but can improve. I would rate it six to seven out of ten. The main issue is response time, which can take three to four hours even for simple queries."
"It could be more stable."
"Gurucul can improve on the online documentation. They should educate the end users more to allow them to do everything themselves."
"I can't say that I've seen a return on investment since we have Microsoft Defender for Identity because we also have another security solution in place."
"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."
"One area that needs improvement is the number of alerts generated, leading to alert fatigue."
"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."
"The areas of Microsoft Defender for Identity that can be improved include its cost, which is quite expensive when integrated into Sentinel. Additionally, there is room for improvement in its integration with non-Microsoft applications and systems."
"The documentation provided by Microsoft is often seen as a waste of time."
"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."
"Fixing the solution isn't very seamless."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Gurucul is competitive."
"The price is fair. In fact, I believe it was on the cheaper side when compared to the competition."
"Defender for Identity is a little more expensive than other Microsoft products. Identity and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are both a bit costly."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Photography Company
6%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Gurucul?
For improvement, I have requested three enhancement tickets, which are already lodged with the Gurucul support team. The first request is to add a visualization option in reports for charts or grap...
What is your primary use case for Gurucul?
Regarding the use cases, I have created many use cases in Gurucul UEBA. It's easy to create use cases based on behaviors.
What advice do you have for others considering Gurucul?
If you are genuinely looking for a UEBA solution, you should choose Gurucul confidently if your need is strictly UEBA. If you're looking for both theme and UEBA, you might consider other vendors. F...
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

No data available
Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Global semi-conductor company
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 IBM, Exabeam, Varonis and others in User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA). Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.