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Huntress Managed ITDR 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

Huntress Managed ITDR
Ranking in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
11th
Average Rating
9.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Defender for Iden...
Ranking in Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
Peace of mind in identifying compromises in your M365 tenants
Huntress Managed ITDR examines various signals from the M365 tenants. If anything suspicious is identified, their SOC analysts can take a closer look and subsequently take action. It's a comprehensive solution covering endpoints and cloud tenants, offering peace of mind. I recognized its benefits immediately, as it provides protection against M365 identity compromises, like admin account breaches.
Peter Arabomen - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The centralized management with the EDR and ITDR is beneficial."
"Huntress Managed ITDR has helped me detect identity threats extremely effectively; Compromised accounts are managed extremely well because we often get sign-ins from unknown locations faster than a client is aware their account is compromised."
"The initial setup was very easy."
"Huntress Managed ITDR examines various nulls from the M365 tenants. If anything suspicious is identified, their SOC analysts can take a closer look and subsequently take action."
"Implementing Huntress Managed ITDR has improved our business by allowing us to be more proactive with our security posture."
"I rate the overall solution as a ten out of ten."
"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."
"Auto-remediation is a valuable feature applied to Microsoft Defender for Identity, reducing the burden of investigating false positives."
"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."
"We do not see any issues with the stability of Microsoft Defender for Identity. I can say it is 100% stable."
"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 features of Microsoft Defender for Identity include real-time information for threat detection, its inclusion of behavioral analytics, and vulnerability management."
"All the integration it has with different Microsoft packages, like Teams and Office, is good."
"It automates routine testing and helps automate the finding of high-value alerts."
 

Cons

"In areas where Huntress Managed ITDR could improve, I would suggest exclusions and the ability to add whitelisting for file types or select files, making it more transparent."
"The product needs further maturity, with some improvements in the user interface."
"The product needs further maturity, with some improvements in the user interface."
"If anything, it's created more work, but that's because we're now seeing things that we weren't seeing before."
"More in-depth reporting could be beneficial for the solution."
"More in-depth reporting could be beneficial for the solution."
"One area that needs improvement is the number of alerts generated, leading to alert fatigue."
"Feedback on sync issues with the Microsoft portal highlighted its slow nature, with syncs sometimes taking eight hours."
"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."
"One potential area for improvement could be exploring flexibility in the installation of Microsoft Defender for Identity agents."
"When the data leaves the cloud, there are security issues."
"The solution could be better at using group-managed access and they could replace it with broad-based access controls."
"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."
"Defender for Identity gives us visibility, but we often get false positives from Azure that take us down the garden path. We go through 30 incidents each day and most of those are false positives or benign positive alerts. Occasionally, we get true positive alerts."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Microsoft Defender for Identity comes as part of the Microsoft E5 licensing stack."
"Defender for Identity is a little more expensive than other Microsoft products. Identity and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are both a bit costly."
"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."
"It is very affordable considering that other SIEM solutions are much more expensive and have many more licensing restrictions and fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Insurance Company
12%
University
8%
Retailer
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Huntress Managed ITDR?
In terms of pricing, it seemed pretty cheap for us. I think it was two or three dollars a user a month. Given that it wasn't a product we were expecting to buy, it was a somewhat unanticipated cost...
What needs improvement with Huntress Managed ITDR?
In my opinion, Huntress Managed ITDR has room for improvement in the speed of some screen refreshing, as it isn't as fast as it perhaps could be. The fact that it caches results is a bit odd for a ...
What is your primary use case for Huntress Managed ITDR?
My use case is really just for threat detection and response to observe and get more awareness of where our sign-ins are coming from, so we can better protect our login environment.
What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Identity?
Microsoft Defender for Identity provides excellent visibility into threats by leveraging real-time analytics and data intelligence.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Identity?
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 authentica...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender for Identity?
I've used Microsoft Defender for Identity primarily for provisioning users on Azure AD and Microsoft authentication. For hybrid scenarios, I integrate on-premises AD to Azure AD. We use AD Connect ...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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 Huntress Managed ITDR vs. Microsoft Defender for Identity and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.