Government · head to head
Ring Neighbors 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 Ring Neighbors has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Ring Neighbors neighbors by Ring is a free app only available in the US, per the vendor's own page (Internet Archive capture, 1 January 2023); 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: Ring Neighbors covers Video Request Portal, 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 Ring Neighbors and Semperis actually diverge.
| Attribute | Ring Neighbors | Semperis |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | On request |
| Pricing model | freemium | quote |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Platforms | Web, Ios, Android | Web |
| Category | Government | Cybersecurity |
| Founded | 2013 | Unknown |
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 Ring Neighbors
- Video Request Portal
- Community Alerts
- Geographic Requests
- Case Management
- Resident Opt-in
- Ring Devices
- CAD Systems
- Social Media
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.
Ring Neighbors
- Citizen Servicesnot Semperis
- Records Managementnot Semperis
- Public Safetynot Semperis
- Civic Engagementnot 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 Ring Neighbors
- Post-incident recovery where domain controllers are compromised and restoring from system-state backup would reintroduce the attacker's footholdnot Ring Neighbors
- Continuous detection of privileged group changes and directory-level tampering that domain controller security logs missnot Ring Neighbors
- Hybrid estates where AD, Entra ID and Okta all matter and no single tool currently shows changes across the threenot Ring Neighbors
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Ring Neighbors
- Neighbors by Ring is a free app only available in the US, per the vendor's own page (Internet Archive capture, 1 January 2023)
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
Ring Neighbors
Free- Public Safety PortalFree
- Video Requests
- Community Alerts
- Case Management
Semperis
On requestNo published plan breakdown. See the Semperis review.
Which should you pick?
Choose Ring Neighbors if
- You need video request portal.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Ios, Android.
- You also want community alerts.
Choose Semperis if
- You need active directory forest recovery.
- You also want malware-free restore.
Questions people ask
- Is Ring Neighbors or Semperis better?
- Neither clearly leads. Ring Neighbors 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, Ring Neighbors or Semperis?
- Ring Neighbors has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Ring Neighbors and On request for Semperis.
- Does Ring Neighbors or Semperis run on more platforms?
- Ring Neighbors runs on Web, Ios, Android. Semperis runs on Web.
- Can I use Ring Neighbors for free?
- Yes. Ring Neighbors has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Semperis starts at On request.
- What is Ring Neighbors best used for?
- Ring Neighbors is most often used for citizen services, records management, public safety, civic engagement. Of those, citizen services and records management are not what Semperis is typically brought in for.
- What can Ring Neighbors do that Semperis cannot?
- Ring Neighbors covers Video Request Portal, Community Alerts, Geographic Requests, Case Management. Semperis covers Active Directory Forest Recovery, Malware-free restore, Replication-stream monitoring, Automated rollback.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
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.
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.
Related pages
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- Semperis vs LastPass
- Semperis vs NICE Actimize
- Semperis vs Netwrix
- Semperis vs VMware Carbon Black
- Semperis vs LogRhythm SIEM
- Semperis vs One Identity
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- Semperis vs Authy
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