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Developer Tools · head to head

Avo vs Semperis

Avo logo

Avo

Developer Tools

Analytics governance: define a tracking plan, generate typed code from it, and catch drift before release

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Semperis logo

Semperis

Cybersecurity

Identity threat detection and Active Directory forest recovery for AD, Entra ID and Okta, from a privately held US vendor.

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Avo has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Avo editor seats are the metered unit and only five are included on the Team plan, so a company where many squads define their own events pays 50 dollars per additional editor and the real cost quickly exceeds the headline 250.; Semperis scope is limited to Active Directory, Entra ID and Okta, so an organisation whose critical identity lives elsewhere gets little from it, and the recovery value declines in direct proportion to how much has already moved off on-premises AD.
  • They diverge on capability: Avo covers Tracking plan, Semperis covers Active Directory Forest Recovery.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Avo and Semperis actually diverge.

Attributes where Avo and Semperis differ
AttributeAvoSemperis
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelPer editor seat per monthquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, Web SDK, APIWeb
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Avo

  • Tracking plan
  • Code generation
  • Inspector
  • Branching and approvals
  • Schema sync
  • Stakeholder access
  • Audit trail
  • Data design standards

Only in Semperis

  • Active Directory Forest Recovery
  • Malware-free restore
  • Replication-stream monitoring
  • Automated rollback
  • Attack indicator scoring
  • Entra ID and Okta coverage
  • Purple Knight
  • Forest Druid

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Avo

  • A product team whose iOS and Android event names have drifted apart, making cross-platform funnels meaninglessnot Semperis
  • An analytics lead who wants tracking changes to go through review rather than appearing in production unannouncednot Semperis
  • A company migrating between analytics tools that needs a canonical event schema independent of any vendornot Semperis
  • An engineering organisation that wants event tracking mistakes caught by the compiler rather than by an analyst three months laternot Semperis

Semperis

  • An organisation that cannot answer an auditor or insurer asking how long it would take to rebuild Active Directory after a destructive attacknot Avo
  • Post-incident recovery where domain controllers are compromised and restoring from system-state backup would reintroduce the attacker's footholdnot Avo
  • Continuous detection of privileged group changes and directory-level tampering that domain controller security logs missnot Avo
  • Hybrid estates where AD, Entra ID and Okta all matter and no single tool currently shows changes across the threenot Avo

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Avo

  • Editor seats are the metered unit and only five are included on the Team plan, so a company where many squads define their own events pays 50 dollars per additional editor and the real cost quickly exceeds the headline 250.
  • Avo governs event definitions but does not fix historic data, so an organisation with years of inconsistent tracking still faces the backfill problem it cannot solve.
  • Code generation requires engineering teams to adopt generated modules in their build, and in practice some platform teams resist, leaving parts of the estate ungoverned and the plan only partly enforced.
  • Inspector event volume is capped by tier, at 100,000 on free and one million on enterprise, so a high-traffic consumer product samples rather than observes everything and drift can hide in the unobserved portion.
  • It is an additional tool in an analytics stack that already costs money, and justifying it requires the organisation to accept that its existing data is unreliable, which is a political argument as much as a budgetary one.

Semperis

  • Scope is limited to Active Directory, Entra ID and Okta, so an organisation whose critical identity lives elsewhere gets little from it, and the recovery value declines in direct proportion to how much has already moved off on-premises AD.
  • The licence buys tooling, not a proven runbook: forest recovery is only worth what your last rehearsal demonstrated, and a plan that has never been executed end to end in a lab is an untested assumption regardless of what was purchased.
  • It overlaps with backup and directory management products from Quest, Veeam, Commvault and others, so the buyer must argue internally why a dedicated product is needed alongside a backup contract that already claims to protect Active Directory.
  • Running Directory Services Protector well requires someone who understands AD internals, replication metadata and Tier 0 attack paths, and without that person the alerts on privileged changes are either ignored or auto-reverted in ways that break legitimate administration.
  • Licensing is driven by identity object counts, so directories carrying years of stale user accounts and service principals pay for objects that should have been deleted, and the cleanup project that would reduce the bill is the one nobody has time for.

Pricing, plan by plan

Avo

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 2 editor seats
    • Unlimited comment seats
    • 100,000 events observed in Inspector
  • Team$250/month
    • 5 editor seats included
    • Additional editors at $50 per month annually
    • Approval workflows and branch audits
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom seats and event volume
    • 1,000,000 events observed in Inspector
    • Enforceable approval and design standards

Semperis

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Semperis review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Avo if

  • You need tracking plan.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Web SDK, API.
  • You also want code generation.
Avo review

Choose Semperis if

  • You need active directory forest recovery.
  • You also want malware-free restore.
Semperis review

Questions people ask

Is Avo or Semperis better?
Neither clearly leads. Avo starts at Free and Semperis at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Avo or Semperis?
Avo has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Avo and On request for Semperis.
Does Avo or Semperis run on more platforms?
Avo runs on Web, iOS, Android, Web SDK, API. Semperis runs on Web.
Can I use Avo for free?
Yes. Avo has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Semperis starts at On request.
What is Avo best used for?
Avo is most often used for a product team whose ios and android event names have drifted apart, making cross-platform funnels meaningless, an analytics lead who wants tracking changes to go through review rather than appearing in production unannounced, a company migrating between analytics tools that needs a canonical event schema independent of any vendor, an engineering organisation that wants event tracking mistakes caught by the compiler rather than by an analyst three months later. Of those, a product team whose ios and android event names have drifted apart, making cross-platform funnels meaningless and an analytics lead who wants tracking changes to go through review rather than appearing in production unannounced are not what Semperis is typically brought in for.
What can Avo do that Semperis cannot?
Avo covers Tracking plan, Code generation, Inspector, Branching and approvals. Semperis covers Active Directory Forest Recovery, Malware-free restore, Replication-stream monitoring, Automated rollback.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Avo: Is the free tier usable in production?

Yes. It includes two editors, code generation and 100,000 events observed in Inspector, which is enough for a small team.

Semperis: Does this replace my backups?

No. It replaces the Active Directory recovery procedure specifically. You still need backups for everything else, and the point of Semperis is that a generic system-state backup of a domain controller is a poor way to recover a forest because it restores the operating system along with whatever compromised it.

Avo: What exactly does code generation give me?

Type-safe tracking functions per platform, so a wrong event name or property type fails at compile time rather than in production data.

Semperis: Is it useful if we are cloud-only on Entra ID?

Partly. Directory Services Protector covers Entra ID and Okta for change tracking and posture, but the forest recovery product, which is the strongest reason to buy, applies to on-premises Active Directory. A genuinely cloud-only organisation should weigh it against Microsoft's own tooling.

Avo: Does Avo replace Amplitude or Mixpanel?

No. It governs the events those tools receive; you still need an analytics product.

Semperis: Are Purple Knight and Forest Druid really free?

Yes, both are free downloads with no licence requirement, and they are widely used by organisations that are not Semperis customers. They are also, transparently, the top of the sales funnel.

Avo: How much is the Team plan?

250 US dollars a month billed annually for five editors, or 300 billed monthly, with extra editors at 50 dollars.

Semperis: How long does forest recovery actually take?

The honest answer is whatever your rehearsal took. The vendor's case is hours instead of days, and automation genuinely removes most manual steps, but the number that matters for your board is the one from a test in your own environment.

Semperis: Does it require agents on domain controllers?

It collects directory changes from the AD replication stream, which is what lets it see changes that bypass the security log. Deployment details vary by product and version, so confirm the exact architecture against your domain controller change-control rules.

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