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Microsoft Defender for Identity vs Red Canary comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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
4.8
Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances threat detection, reduces efforts, minimizes risks, and optimizes costs despite varied ROI assessments.
Sentiment score
8.5
Red Canary improved security ROI by efficiently detecting threats, reducing incident response times, and offering detailed alerts and cost savings.
We have probably spent maybe 15% of the time that we were spending on incident investigation and system monitoring, demonstrating a return on investment.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Defender for Identity offers knowledgeable support, yet response times can vary, especially with complex issues or initial contacts.
Sentiment score
8.7
Red Canary's customer service is highly rated for excellent communication, frequent interactions, and effective emergency response.
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
In emergencies, there is an on-call person available to resolve issues immediately.
SOC Analyst at Valorant
Their customer support is excellent.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly scalable and adaptable, excelling in large enterprises with efficient cloud-based processing.
Sentiment score
7.0
Red Canary is praised for scalability and seamless data integration, suitable for diverse clients, though cost may affect smaller enterprises.
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
We've been able to connect and throw all of the data that we have access to over to their systems to parse, process, and monitor without issue.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Defender for Identity is highly stable, reliable, with minimal downtime; occasional issues require support for agent redeployment.
Sentiment score
8.4
Red Canary is praised for its stable and reliable performance, running smoothly without issues, ensuring user satisfaction.
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

Microsoft Defender for Identity needs improvements in alert accuracy, UI/UX, asset integration, automation, anomaly detection, and third-party integration.
Red Canary MDR needs improvements in pricing, language support, system features, and integration to better serve diverse clients.
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
Red Canary can be improved by continuing to add new features and capabilities.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
Red Canary's pricing spectrum may not be ideal for smaller financial institutions.
SOC Analyst at Valorant
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Identity pricing aligns with E5 licenses, offering value in hybrid setups but can be costly at scale.
Despite higher costs, Red Canary's pricing is considered fair and valuable, enhancing security for enterprises at around $100/device.
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
The services are higher priced.
SOC Analyst at Valorant
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Identity enhances threat detection and security integration, offering streamlined investigation with automated alerts and behavioral analytics.
<p>Red Canary streamlines MITRE ATT&amp;CK processes, EDR integration, and compliance, enhancing security and resource allocation in key industries.</p>
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
Red Canary detects threats and attack patterns, allowing us to assess any significant damage caused to the banking environment, particularly if protected data has been damaged or corrupted.
SOC Analyst at Valorant
In my experience, the best features Red Canary offers are their team, their monitoring team, their expertise at incident investigation, and a focus on suspicious or actual indicators of compromise to ensure that we're not spending time just reviewing logs, but that we're actually looking at things that may indicate we have broader issues.
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
 

Categories and Ranking

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)
Red Canary
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
24th
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (36th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (9th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Identity is 3.6%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Canary is 1.9%, up from 0.3% 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%
Red Canary1.9%
Other94.5%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

OA
CyberSecurity Engineer | Information Security Management at Self Employed
Automation and threat intelligence streamline threat response and user management
In Microsoft Defender for Identity, I would appreciate improvements in providing information on conditional access. They have added more control that can be put in place, which was not present years ago. They have also integrated Azure Information Protection where policies can be configured. The Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) allows users to reset their passwords, which is a valuable tool for remote workers. They have added more features into conditional access that integrate with other components, including SSPR and Identity Information Protection, trusted IPs, and locations. These configurations in trusted IP addresses are integrated into conditional access and control the applications I want to secure. Regarding impossible travel scenarios, I can either block the user or grant access while requesting multi-factor authentication. They should improve the automation for impossible travel detection. When connected to Wi-Fi and then to VPN, the system sometimes interprets the IP address change as impossible travel. 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.
JH
Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group
Gained trusted 24/7 threat coverage and now focus security efforts on architecture and design
In my experience, the best features Red Canary offers are their team, their monitoring team, their expertise at incident investigation, and a focus on suspicious or actual indicators of compromise to ensure that we're not spending time just reviewing logs, but that we're actually looking at things that may indicate we have broader issues. The Red Canary team's expertise stands out compared to others I've worked with because their team is organized into smaller pods that support a given number of clients, so they're not just a bevy of operators going around the clock. The teams themselves have coordination and cohesion, and they get to know us. Their integrations into the different platforms and systems that we use all line up with our needs, whereas a number of other platforms offered a different variety of integrations that did not line up with our requirements. Red Canary has positively impacted my organization because I don't have to spend and hire resources to look at logs, which has enabled us to do much more in terms of improving security across the organization. With the freed-up resources, we've been able to implement CSPM, SAST, software testing tooling, and engage much more closely with our developers and engineers to focus on secure architecture and design.
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893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What needs improvement with Red Canary MDR?
Red Canary can be improved by continuing to add new features and capabilities to what they are looking at, including the types of data they're looking at and the types of systems that they're integ...
What is your primary use case for Red Canary MDR?
My main use case for Red Canary is to ensure I can sleep at night by getting 24/7 coverage by a capable team to investigate any alerts for the systems that we have in place to ensure we don't have ...
 

Also Known As

Azure Advanced Threat Protection, Azure ATP, MS Defender for Identity
Red Canary Managed Detection and Response (MDR)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Identity is trusted by companies such as St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and more.
DuPont, Quanta Services, Microchip Technology, Hopkins Public Schools, Henny Penny, Schumacher Homes
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Identity vs. Red Canary and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.