Cybersecurity · head to head
Drata vs Semperis
Drata
Cybersecurity
Agentic trust management with compliance automation.
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
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
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Drata no published pricing for any tier; requires contacting sales team for quotes; 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.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Drata and Semperis actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cybersecurity).
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 Drata
Nothing recorded that Semperis does not also cover.
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.
Drata
- SaaS companies automating SOC 2 certification for enterprise salesnot Semperis
- Organisations managing multi-framework compliance simultaneouslynot Semperis
- Vendor management programmes requiring third-party security assessmentsnot Semperis
- Enterprises implementing AI governance and monitoring AI systemsnot Semperis
- Organisations seeking continuous compliance monitoring rather than point-in-time auditsnot 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 Drata
- Post-incident recovery where domain controllers are compromised and restoring from system-state backup would reintroduce the attacker's footholdnot Drata
- Continuous detection of privileged group changes and directory-level tampering that domain controller security logs missnot Drata
- Hybrid estates where AD, Entra ID and Okta all matter and no single tool currently shows changes across the threenot Drata
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Drata
- No published pricing for any tier; requires contacting sales team for quotes
- Solution tiers (Startup, Growth, Enterprise) are marketing categories with no corresponding published prices or feature differentiation
- No transparency on cost per framework, per user, or based on organisational size
- AI questionnaire automation claims 375+ hours saved annually but does not publish per-questionnaire costs or limits
- Compared directly with Vanta by customers, but pricing opaque for cost-benefit analysis
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
Drata
On request- Startup$undefined/variable
- 'Launch Trust Fast' with automated evidence collection
- SOC 2 and other framework support
- Basic compliance automation
- Growth$undefined/variable
- 'Accelerate Trust Smoothly' as teams expand
- Multi-framework compliance
- Enhanced AI automation
- Enterprise$undefined/variable
- 'Command Trust at Scale' for complex needs
- Advanced GRC capabilities
- Dedicated support
Semperis
On requestNo published plan breakdown. See the Semperis review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Semperis if
- You need active directory forest recovery.
- You also want malware-free restore.
Questions people ask
- Is Drata or Semperis better?
- Neither clearly leads. Drata starts at On request and Semperis at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Drata or Semperis?
- Drata starts at On request and Semperis at On request.
- Does Drata or Semperis run on more platforms?
- Drata runs on Web, API. Semperis runs on Web.
- What is Drata best used for?
- Drata is most often used for saas companies automating soc 2 certification for enterprise sales, organisations managing multi-framework compliance simultaneously, vendor management programmes requiring third-party security assessments, enterprises implementing ai governance and monitoring ai systems. Of those, saas companies automating soc 2 certification for enterprise sales and organisations managing multi-framework compliance simultaneously are not what Semperis is typically brought in for.
- What can Drata do that Semperis cannot?
- Semperis covers Active Directory Forest Recovery, Malware-free restore, Replication-stream monitoring, Automated rollback.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Drata: What compliance frameworks does Drata support?
Drata supports multiple frameworks including SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS and others, with multi-framework management capabilities.
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.
Drata: Does Drata automate questionnaires?
Yes. Drata's AI uses approved content to draft consistent responses, automating questionnaire completion and saving claimed 375+ hours per year.
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.
Drata: How many customers does Drata have?
Drata serves 8,500+ global customers ranging from startups to enterprises, with a 4.8/5.0 rating on G2.
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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