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Microsoft Purview Information Protection vs Varonis Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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

Microsoft Purview Informati...
Ranking in Data Governance
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Data Privacy Management Software (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (13th)
Varonis Platform
Ranking in Data Governance
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (9th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (5th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (4th), Compliance Management (7th), Ransomware Protection (11th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Microsoft Purview Information Protection is 2.6%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Varonis Platform is 10.8%, up from 7.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance
 

Featured Reviews

Abhi T - PeerSpot reviewer
Achieve comprehensive data protection with reliable performance and room for enhanced discovery accuracy
The product is still in a growing phase. I could see that many use cases in their product are not capable enough in terms of detecting or protecting. Compared to other products, they are in the middle of bringing their solution up to the mark, so it is not a full-grown solution. They have to get more accurate results in terms of data discovery and classification. The second thing is their support; support from Microsoft takes a lot of time to get a response from their support team. The third thing is their OCR capability is not that great in terms of identifying the documents. We would love to see response times of less than 24 hours. Additionally, there is no way to check the policy's current status in terms of whether it got synced or not. You have to wait and test the use cases after 24 hours or after 48 hours, and once it starts working, then it appears the policy got implemented.
Frederic  Delos - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers the ability to identify sensitive areas, allowing you to drill down into the sensitive data
The most effective feature for me is its ability to identify sensitive areas, allowing you to drill down into the sensitive data, provided you have access, to determine whether it's a false positive or a true positive. That's the best thing for me, out of all of it. It's got everything, like other ones, but I like to be able to look at something if I'm doing forensics on the alert and say, "Okay, do I really need to do something with this?" For example, we don't want sensitive data in our OneDrive. So it identifies the sensitive data that's possibly in the OneDrive. And what I can do is look at it and identify whether it's actually sensitive data in Datalert or whether it looks like sensitive data, but I know it's a false positive. If it is a false positive, I can basically say ignore this pattern based on X, Y, and Z, you know, whether it's Redjax or keyword proximity. So I like that. With other tools, I gotta go through a whole process because it's a little bit more complex. Here, I can tag it and bag it in one shot. And the next good time I scan, it slips over it. So it helps in that.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Purview saves customers time by offering them a quick way to assess a situation and insights into how to improve."
"It ensures that sensitive data is automatically safeguarded, even for email attachments, regardless of the user or device."
"Microsoft Purview Information Protection integrates with the productivity and security tools that my customers use regularly, allowing them to avoid using multiple information protection solutions."
"Microsoft Purview Information Protection integrates with the productivity and security tools that my customers use regularly, allowing them to avoid using multiple information protection solutions."
"The user interface is nice and it's very user-friendly on that front."
"The UI is user-friendly, and I have observed that it improves further each year."
"I created training materials for end users on applying different labels, explaining their purposes, and providing examples. This was crucial since end users would apply the labels in different protection scenarios. The implementation helped the organization in several ways."
"The features my clients request most are sensitivity labels and data loss prevention. Additionally, I am trying to interest them in risk management and insider risk management, although those features are considered more advanced."
"The 24/7 support is the most valuable feature. They have been able to answer support questions pretty quickly."
"Varonis Platform is transparent and captures everything in the environment without impacting the performance. The tool helps us unify data feeds into a single reporting system."
"The telemetry to capture everything and the reports are very easy to configure without having a developer degree."
"Technical support from Varonis is rated as nine out of ten."
"I also appreciate the reporting feature, which allows for the extraction of various reports based on specific needs. These reports can be used for audit purposes, such as tracking changes in file locations or deletions."
"The most important feature is remediation. In remediation support, there is no group permission. We'll go ahead and remediate the access from the Dell folder to the parent folder."
"Varonis offers robust data access governance, allowing us to understand which sensitive data exists and who has access to it."
"The solution's classification engine is highly configurable and efficient."
 

Cons

"During the initial setup, I found the lack of policy segregation at the sub-site level for DLP policies to be a challenge."
"I would evaluate Microsoft's customer support for Microsoft Purview Information Protection as not satisfactory. I'm not happy with Microsoft's customer support."
"I would like the time it takes to update a DLP policy on an endpoint to be reduced."
"My experience with the customer service and support of Microsoft is around five out of ten. The response time is slow, and they take multiple sessions for diagnosing issues."
"Most of the capabilities they mention are not working as expected. That is where the challenge lies."
"I am concerned about its accuracy levels. Sometimes it throws a lot of false positives."
"Microsoft Purview Information Protection can improve in terms of scan concurrency and scan processing time."
"The communication around Microsoft product names and functionalities can be confusing, like when they combined Office 365 Risk and Compliance with Azure Purview. Then, they added Purview Hub to Fabric, and people thought Purview Hub would do data lineages, but it didn't. It isn't full-fledged Purview. It's just one feature set."
"Varonis requires more access permissions for its core functions compared to competitors, which can be a concern for companies about data safety."
"Varonis requires more access permissions for its core functions compared to competitors, which can be a concern for companies about data safety."
"We have Microsoft Office 365. I just saw an article today which says that they're actually getting integrated with Microsoft Office 365, which would be a useful feature. For user-based reports, log on activity, and stuff like that, it doesn't seem to really be present like Log360. That could just be my inexperience with it. I've been dealing with it for only about two and a half months."
"I'd like to see automatic updates for this solution. Currently, it's a manual process to update all the keywords"
"One area for improvement is the calculation engine. When applying rules in Varonis, especially for large datasets (terabytes of data), the calculations can be slow and require time to process. Speeding up this process would be beneficial."
"It is significantly complex."
"The GUI should be more functional. There should be a process for connecting through Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc."
"For unstructured data monitoring, it's one of the top ones, if not the top one, due to its usability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Initially, Purview's cost seemed quite high because it was for personal use. I was scanning a tiny tenant and thinking, "If I extrapolate this to an enterprise-scale tenant, it will be quite costly." However, I talked to people who had compared it to other products on the market, and they're spending five figures to get started. At least, Purview has a free trial, so you can try some of the features early on."
"The pricing and setup costs are transferred to my clients, who find it affordable and are satisfied with what they receive."
"The tool's pricing is not a problem for customers because they often purchase it as part of a bundle. With an E5 license, for example, users get access to the entire functionality. This is one of the main reasons why many customers are choosing Microsoft."
"The product is affordable, and our clients agree. Sensitivity labels come with the MIP license at an additional $2 a month per user, an excellent deal for auto-labeling capabilities."
"The price is determined by the enterprise licensing, either the E3 or E5 licensing or the EMS plus security and other feature licensing."
"The tool's pricing is fairly low, less than 100,000 for a year."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."
"Varonis Platform wasn't certainly the cheapest solution."
"You could do a subscription, where you pay yearly, or you could purchase it outright. The licensing cost is based on the number of users on the system that you are monitoring."
"The platform is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."
"The pricing is good. It neither expensive nor cheap. It is average."
"Licensing is on an annual basis. Maintenance and renewal fees are separate. Varonis Datalert is quite expensive."
"It's expensive, kind of, really expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
7%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Information Protection?
It ensures that sensitive data is automatically safeguarded, even for email attachments, regardless of the user or device.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Information Protection?
The pricing is not very high and is considered fine. Microsoft offers different licensing options. AIP Plan 2 is used for critical users. The AIP is included in the business standard license for cl...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Information Protection?
I am concerned about its accuracy levels. Sometimes it throws a lot of false positives. Microsoft Purview Information Protection needs to increase effectiveness and ensure compatibility. Effectiven...
What do you like most about Varonis Platform?
The solution has significantly improved data security and compliance posture by allowing us to track and monitor activities. We can see who accesses data and when files are created and understand w...
What needs improvement with Varonis Platform?
Varonis started as an on-premises solution and is transitioning to cloud. It hasn't fully moved yet, which is an area for improvement. Varonis requires more access permissions for its core function...
What is your primary use case for Varonis Platform?
The primary use case for Varonis Platform is data discovery, specifically for discovering sensitive data in our organization to protect it. We are looking for a solution that can scan our repositor...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Information Protection
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Nottingham Building Society
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Purview Information Protection vs. Varonis Platform and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.