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Government · head to head

PublicInput vs Semperis

PublicInput logo

PublicInput

Government

Inclusive Community Engagement

From
$400/month
Free plan
No
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

  • Each has a real cost: PublicInput all three plans, Listen, Engage and Engage Plus, are listed as Request Pricing with no published rate, minimum or cost driver; 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: PublicInput covers Virtual Public Meetings, 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 PublicInput and Semperis actually diverge.

Attributes where PublicInput and Semperis differ
AttributePublicInputSemperis
Starting price$400/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity
Founded2014Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), 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 PublicInput

  • Virtual Public Meetings
  • Online Surveys
  • Comment Management
  • Multi-language Support
  • Engagement Analytics
  • Zoom
  • Microsoft Teams
  • GovDelivery

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.

PublicInput

  • Civic engagementnot Semperis
  • Government consultationnot Semperis
  • Public input collectionnot 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 PublicInput
  • Post-incident recovery where domain controllers are compromised and restoring from system-state backup would reintroduce the attacker's footholdnot PublicInput
  • Continuous detection of privileged group changes and directory-level tampering that domain controller security logs missnot PublicInput
  • Hybrid estates where AD, Entra ID and Okta all matter and no single tool currently shows changes across the threenot PublicInput

Where each one falls short

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

PublicInput

  • All three plans, Listen, Engage and Engage Plus, are listed as Request Pricing with no published rate, minimum or cost driver
  • HTML and CSS customization, custom workflows and approvals, and external system integration with Accela and ESRI are listed as Enterprise Capabilities rather than core platform features
  • Public meetings functionality is sold under a separate Meetings plan rather than being included with the Engagement plans
  • Getting a plan requires booking a consultation and a tailored demo rather than self serve signup

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

PublicInput

$400/month
  • Enterprise$400/month
    • Virtual Meetings
    • Surveys
    • Comment Management

Semperis

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Semperis review.

Which should you pick?

Choose PublicInput if

  • You need virtual public meetings.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want online surveys.
PublicInput review

Choose Semperis if

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

Questions people ask

Is PublicInput or Semperis better?
Neither clearly leads. PublicInput starts at $400/month and Semperis at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, PublicInput or Semperis?
PublicInput starts at $400/month and Semperis at On request.
Does PublicInput or Semperis run on more platforms?
PublicInput runs on Web, Ios, Android. Semperis runs on Web.
What is PublicInput best used for?
PublicInput is most often used for civic engagement, government consultation, public input collection. Of those, civic engagement and government consultation are not what Semperis is typically brought in for.
What can PublicInput do that Semperis cannot?
PublicInput covers Virtual Public Meetings, Online Surveys, Comment Management, Multi-language Support. Semperis covers Active Directory Forest Recovery, Malware-free restore, Replication-stream monitoring, Automated rollback.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

PublicInput: How much does PublicInput cost?

PublicInput does not publish pricing on their website. Customers must request a demo or book a meeting to receive a quote based on their specific needs.

Source
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.

PublicInput: What pricing plans does PublicInput offer?

PublicInput offers Engagement Plans and Meetings Plans, but specific pricing for each plan is not publicly available and requires contacting their sales team.

Source
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.

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.

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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