Government · head to head
CKAN vs Semperis
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
The short version
- Only CKAN has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: CKAN the package install path requires Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 64-bit specifically; other operating systems must use the source install; 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: CKAN covers Dataset Management, Semperis covers Active Directory Forest Recovery.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which CKAN and Semperis actually diverge.
Identical on both: platforms (Web), 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 CKAN
- Dataset Management
- Data Harvesting
- API Access
- Visualization
- Extensions
- DataPusher
- Harvester
- Third-party Tools
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.
CKAN
- Publishing open government datasets in a searchable public data portalnot Semperis
- Self-hosting a data catalogue with harvesting and an APInot 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 CKAN
- Post-incident recovery where domain controllers are compromised and restoring from system-state backup would reintroduce the attacker's footholdnot CKAN
- Continuous detection of privileged group changes and directory-level tampering that domain controller security logs missnot CKAN
- Hybrid estates where AD, Entra ID and Okta all matter and no single tool currently shows changes across the threenot CKAN
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
CKAN
- The package install path requires Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04 64-bit specifically; other operating systems must use the source install
- Only Solr 9 and Solr 8 are supported, and from CKAN 2.10 they are the only Solr versions supported at all
- A working deployment requires PostgreSQL, Solr, Redis, nginx, supervisor and uWSGI to be installed and maintained separately
- Python 3.10 or later is required
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
CKAN
Free- Open SourceFree
- Data Management
- API Access
- Visualization
Semperis
On requestNo published plan breakdown. See the Semperis review.
Which should you pick?
Choose CKAN if
- You need dataset management.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want data harvesting.
Choose Semperis if
- You need active directory forest recovery.
- You also want malware-free restore.
Questions people ask
- Is CKAN or Semperis better?
- Neither clearly leads. CKAN 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, CKAN or Semperis?
- CKAN has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for CKAN and On request for Semperis.
- Does CKAN or Semperis run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use CKAN for free?
- Yes. CKAN has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Semperis starts at On request.
- What is CKAN best used for?
- CKAN is most often used for publishing open government datasets in a searchable public data portal, self-hosting a data catalogue with harvesting and an api. Of those, publishing open government datasets in a searchable public data portal and self-hosting a data catalogue with harvesting and an api are not what Semperis is typically brought in for.
- What can CKAN do that Semperis cannot?
- CKAN covers Dataset Management, Data Harvesting, API Access, Visualization. Semperis covers Active Directory Forest Recovery, Malware-free restore, Replication-stream monitoring, Automated rollback.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
CKAN: Is CKAN open-source and what license is it available under?
Yes, CKAN is an open-source data management system built on Python and available on GitHub. The license terms are available on their GitHub repository.
SourceSemperis: 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.
CKAN: Does CKAN offer commercial support for organizations?
Yes, CKAN offers commercial support through certified providers including Link Digital and Datopian. Support includes advisory services, application development, integration, managed hosting, and web development.
SourceSemperis: 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.
CKAN: Who is responsible for hosting costs when running CKAN?
Organizations deploying CKAN are responsible for their own hosting infrastructure. Commercial providers like Datopian and Link Digital offer managed hosting services if organizations prefer not to self-host.
SourceSemperis: 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.
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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