Netwrix alternative for Microsoft 365
Netwrix reports what changed. Who closes the gap in your tenant?
Netwrix 1Secure audits Active Directory and Microsoft 365 from one SaaS console and hands you reports, alerts and compliance packs. 1Security takes the Microsoft 365 side further: three years of enriched history instead of one, sensitive data found in files and mail on any licence, anomalies learned per user, app and agent, locations and devices, what every AI agent can reach today, and more than forty actions that close a finding from the same screen. Many teams run both; the free POC runs next to 1Secure on your own tenant.
- Verified 25 Oct 2026
- Keep both or switch
- Free side-by-side POC
- Every claim sourced below
Fair first
What Netwrix does well.
Written so a Netwrix customer nods. These are real strengths, and a team that relies on them can keep them while 1Security takes the Microsoft 365 security side.
Built for MSPs
One console with a managing organisation and child tenants, an organisation switcher, per-identity pricing, listings on Pax8 and the Azure Marketplace, and alerts that land in ConnectWise or ServiceNow with the full who, what, when and where already in the ticket.
Compliance packs and risk checks
PingCastle-powered checks tagged with MITRE tactics and NIST references, a risk report exported as a slide deck on a schedule, and on Netwrix Auditor report packs for GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, PCI DSS, CMMC, GLBA, FISMA/NIST and CJIS plus mappings for NIS2, DORA and the EU AI Act.
On-premise and cloud in one place
Active Directory, Group Policy, Windows Server, file servers and SQL Server audited next to Entra ID, SharePoint Online and Exchange Online. The on-premise Auditor keeps a long-term archive of ten years by default.
Classification that writes labels
In Pro Complete, 1Secure reads SharePoint Online documents against eleven sensitive data type groups, with optional OCR, and applies, clears or downgrades sensitivity labels. Netwrix Neo, the built-in assistant, answers questions about alerts in your own language.
What it does not touch
Four questions an auditing product was never built to answer.
Each one surfaces during an incident, an audit or a Copilot rollout. Netwrix 1Secure is an auditing and reporting platform: it tells you what changed and leaves the next step to you. These are the places where that model runs out.
- 01
A trail that outlives the incident
Three years of who did what, from where and on which device, as standard, with the sensitivity of what was touched on every row. On 1Secure, Netwrix staff wrote in 2025 that "we only offer 1 year of retention now"; a customer asked again in June 2026 without an answer. The on-premise Auditor keeps longer, in a separate console on your own SQL Server.
- 02
A fix in the queue, not steps in a pane
The Remediate button in 1Secure opens AI-generated step-by-step guidance; the change itself is yours to make somewhere else. 1Security stages more than forty actions on users, sites, files, apps, licences, devices, agents and messages in a review queue with a grace period, reverts them when needed, and reads the result back from Microsoft to prove it landed.
- 03
Locations, devices, what is normal
A 1Secure alert fires when a report gains a set number of records within a time window. 1Security learns what is normal for each user, app and agent and flags what breaks the pattern: sign-ins through VPN, Tor and datacenter networks, from places nobody in your company works from, from devices you have never seen, and whether Conditional Access actually covers them. No rule to write, no premium sign-in logs needed.
- 04
Mail content and AI agents, today
For Exchange Online, 1Secure records changes, mailbox permission changes and non-owner mailbox access; it does not read mail content or watch what leaves. Its agent inventory opened as a closed beta in October 2026. 1Security already shows sensitive data leaving by email, "send as" impersonation, ownerless shared mailboxes, and what each agent and Copilot can reach across files, sites and mail.
Side by side
1Security vs Netwrix 1Secure, row by row.
Three states, not two: where Netwrix has a lighter version of something, or has it only in the on-premise Auditor, the row says so. Every Netwrix cell carries a number that resolves to a public source below the table.
- 16Covered
- 0Partial or lighter
- 0Not covered
- 3Covered
- 13Partial or lighter
- 0Not covered
| Capability | 1Security | Netwrix |
|---|---|---|
| Gaps and incidents | ||
| Activity history | 1SecurityCovered 3 years as standard, each event carrying the user, file, device, location, app and the sensitivity of what was touched | NetwrixPartial or lighter 1 year on 1Secure per Netwrix staff; the on-premise Auditor keeps a long-term archive, 120 months by default, in its own console5 |
| Sign-in logs | 1SecurityCovered Per-user sign-ins with network, device and Conditional Access coverage, without premium sign-in logs | NetwrixPartial or lighter Entra ID Sign-In Activity report lists all attempts; no Conditional Access coverage view documented9 |
| Anomaly detection | 1SecurityCovered Learns what is normal per user, app and agent; threshold you set and re-apply to history | NetwrixPartial or lighter Alerts count records within a time frame; Auditor sums administrator-assigned alert scores per user7 |
| Locations and networks | 1SecurityCovered Country, city, VPN, Tor and datacenter classification, map, per-user travel | NetwrixPartial or lighter Sign-in attempts listed; no country, VPN, Tor or datacenter classification documented9 |
| Devices | 1SecurityCovered Every device touching data, unregistered and unmanaged ones flagged, disable action | NetwrixPartial or lighter Windows servers and file servers through the on-premise agent; no inventory of devices reaching Microsoft 365 data documented1 |
| Sensitive data detection | 1SecurityCovered Own engine with 300+ detectors and OCR on files and mail, on any licence; Purview detections as a second opinion | NetwrixCovered Pro Complete reads SharePoint Online and OneDrive documents, 11 sensitive data type groups, optional OCR, writes sensitivity labels; mail content not documented11 |
| Email and mailboxes | 1SecurityCovered Outbound sensitive content, delegated sending, shared mailboxes, actions on messages | NetwrixPartial or lighter Exchange Online changes, mailbox permission changes and non-owner mailbox access; no mail content or outbound flow9 |
| Administration, compliance, AI | ||
| Permission graph | 1SecurityCovered Direct grants, links, groups, site roles, inheritance, apps, agents and guests resolved into one answer per file | NetwrixPartial or lighter SharePoint Online state reports: direct and high-risk permissions, broken inheritance, sharing links; Entra roles; apps and agents in closed beta13 |
| Remediation | 1SecurityCovered 40+ actions across users, sites, files, apps, licences, devices, agents and email; review queue, grace period, revert, read-back confirmation | NetwrixPartial or lighter AI-generated step-by-step guidance per risk; label writes in the classification connector; agent fixes in closed beta12 |
| Compliance mapping | 1SecurityCovered 11 frameworks on shared requirements, readiness per framework from tenant data, weekly snapshots, dated evidence packs | NetwrixCovered Auditor report packs for GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, PCI DSS, CMMC, GLBA, FISMA/NIST and CJIS, mappings for NIS2, DORA and the EU AI Act; MITRE and NIST tags on 1Secure risks15 |
| AI agents | 1SecurityCovered What each agent can reach across files, sites and email, who deployed it, its activity and anomalies, quarantine and identity actions | NetwrixPartial or lighter Closed beta since October 2026: inventory across 30+ platforms, reach, ownerless agents, fixes from the console16 |
| Copilot readiness | 1SecurityCovered Dedicated screen: what Copilot reaches today, fix list, per-site indexing block, progress since the first assessment | NetwrixPartial or lighter Copilot interaction collection as an add-on; readiness through sensitive data and permission reports; no fix list documented29 |
| Fit and deployment | ||
| Public API | 1SecurityCovered REST for logs, detections, alerts, users, compliance, readiness; MCP server with the same reads; organisation-wide keys for MSSPs | NetwrixPartial or lighter No public API documented for 1Secure, a customer request from February 2026 is open; the on-premise Auditor has an Integration API22 |
| SIEM feed | 1SecurityCovered Enriched events pulled by Sentinel, Splunk or any SOC over the API | NetwrixPartial or lighter Auditor add-ons for Splunk, QRadar, ArcSight, LogRhythm and CEF export; 1Secure alerts go to email, ConnectWise or ServiceNow23 |
| Deployment and residency | 1SecurityCovered SaaS, your own Azure (BYOC) or on-premise at any size, one product; a dedicated database per tenant | NetwrixCovered SaaS on Azure in the US, Netherlands, Switzerland, South Korea or Canada; on-premise through Netwrix Auditor, a separate product with its own console3 |
| Microsoft licence needed | 1SecurityCovered Nearly everything on Business Basic, E1 or E3; no E5 or Purview for content scanning | NetwrixPartial or lighter Required Microsoft plans not stated; the app asks for directory, audit log and SharePoint full-control permissions and a Global or Exchange Administrator role10 |
- Covered
- Partial or lighter
- Not covered
Sources for every Netwrix claim
Verified 2026-10-25- 1.Netwrix 1Secure product page (data sources, features, self-service prices) - netwrix.com/en/products/1secure/
- 2.Buy Netwrix 1Secure (Data, Identity and Complete packages per identity per year) - netwrix.com/en/buy-now/buy-1secure/
- 3.Netwrix 1Secure free trial (14 days, SOC 2 Type I, hosting regions, packages) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/freetrial
- 4.Netwrix 1Secure how it works (Azure multi-tenant SaaS, agent upload every 15 minutes) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/admin/howitworks
- 5.Netwrix community: "Enable audit data retention longer than 1 year" (staff reply on current retention) - community.netwrix.com/t/enable-audit-data-retention-longer-than-1-year/110221
- 6.Netwrix Auditor requirements (Long-Term Archive 120 months, Audit database 180 days) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/auditor/10_7/requirements/overview
- 7.Netwrix 1Secure alerts (custom report plus a threshold within a time frame) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/admin/alerts/
- 8.Netwrix Auditor Behavior Anomalies (administrator-assigned alert scores) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/auditor/10_7/admin/behavioranomalies/overview
- 9.Netwrix 1Secure activity reports (Entra ID sign-ins, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, sensitive data) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/admin/searchandreports/activity
- 10.Microsoft 365 permissions the Netwrix 1Secure app registration needs - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/configuration/registerconfig/permissions
- 11.Netwrix 1Secure SharePoint Online connectors (state, data classification, OCR, labels) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/admin/organizations/sourcesandconnectors/sharepointonline
- 12.Netwrix 1Secure Risk Assessment dashboard (AI-generated remediation guidance, MITRE and NIST tags) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/admin/riskprofiles/riskassessmentdashboard
- 13.Netwrix 1Secure state-in-time reports (SharePoint Online permissions, Entra ID accounts) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/admin/searchandreports/stateintime
- 14.Netwrix 1Secure compliance reports (Entra ID roles, Sensitive Documents, Sharing Links) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/admin/searchandreports/compliance
- 15.Netwrix Auditor product page (compliance report packs, NIS2, DORA and EU AI Act mappings) - netwrix.com/en/products/auditor/
- 16.Netwrix community: Agentic AI Security closed beta announcement (19 Oct 2026) - community.netwrix.com/t/new-in-1secure-join-the-closed-beta-to-agentic-ai-security/160895
- 17.Netwrix community: June 2026 update (Neo assistant beta, Pro Identity, Pro Data and Pro Complete packaging) - community.netwrix.com/t/whats-new-in-1secure-redesigned-dashboard-netwrix-neo-ai-assistant-and-simplified-packaging/133401
- 18.Netwrix community: September 2026 product update (Canada hosting region, classification scans) - community.netwrix.com/t/1secure-september-2026-product-update/137656
- 19.Netwrix community: October 2026 product update (Copilot add-on, SharePoint Online fixes) - community.netwrix.com/t/1secure-september-2026-product-update/161148
- 20.Netwrix community: April 2026 release (Sensitive Data Posture dashboard, ServiceNow and ConnectWise) - community.netwrix.com/t/1secure-april-2026-release-sensitive-data-posture-dashboard-smoother-reporting-experience-and-enhanced-psa-itsm-integrations/127813
- 21.Netwrix community: January 2026 release (Zurich region, Copilot event collection) - community.netwrix.com/t/1secure-january-2026-release-new-ui-and-a-new-data-center/119325
- 22.Netwrix community: "API for Netwrix 1Secure" customer request (alerts by email only) - community.netwrix.com/t/api-per-netwrix-1secure/122092
- 23.Netwrix Auditor add-ons (SIEM exports for Splunk, QRadar, ArcSight, LogRhythm, CEF; Integration API) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/auditor/10_7/addon/overview
- 24.Netwrix 1Secure customer data privacy (hosting regions) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/security/customerdataprivacy
- 25.Netwrix press release, 23 June 2026 (AI governance capabilities, pricing per identity) - netwrix.com/en/resources/news/netwrix-unveils-new-ai-governance-capabilities-for-hybrid-microsoft-environments/
- 26.Netwrix 1Secure organizations (MSP parent and child tenants) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/admin/organizations/overview
- 27.Netwrix Microsoft alliance page (Azure Marketplace listings for 1Secure and 1Secure for MSPs) - netwrix.com/en/microsoft-alliance/
- 28.Netwrix community: 1Secure SOC 2 Type II (22 Sept 2026) - community.netwrix.com/t/netwrix-1secure-achieved-soc-2-type-ii/158670
- 29.Netwrix 1Secure trial resources (Copilot governance, 210+ checks, AI-generated remediation steps) - netwrix.com/en/products/1secure/1secure-free-trial-resources/
- 30.Netwrix Auditor Copilot add-on - docs.netwrix.com/docs/auditor/10_7/addon/copilot/overview
- 31.Netwrix 1Secure risk metrics list - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/admin/riskprofiles/metrics_list
- 32.Netwrix Data Classification 5.7 (on-premise Windows services and SQL Server, supported sources) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/dataclassification/5_7
- 33.Netwrix 1Secure integrations (ConnectWise, ServiceNow, SharePoint report delivery) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/1secure/integration/overview
- 34.Netwrix Auditor supported data sources (Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Teams) - docs.netwrix.com/docs/auditor/10_7/requirements/supporteddatasources
Netwrix, Netwrix 1Secure and Netwrix Auditor are trademarks of their owner. This comparison was written by 1Security from public documentation and was not reviewed by Netwrix. If a row is out of date, write to us and we will fix it.
Richer administration
Beyond the gaps: the same questions, answered deeper.
Where both tools have a feature, the difference is how far the answer goes and whether you can act on it from the same screen instead of reading it in a report.
Who has access, and why
One graph across every path: direct permissions, sharing links, group membership, site roles, inheritance, apps, agents and guests. Every external organisation that touches your tenant resolved to a real company and reconciled with your trusted-domain settings, not a list of high-risk permissions per site.
Remediation under control
More than 40 actions on users, sites, files, apps, licences, devices, agents and messages. Each one is staged in a review queue with a grace period, can be reverted, and is read back from Microsoft to prove the change landed. The finding and the fix live on the same row.
Compliance without manual mapping
Eleven frameworks today, more arriving: GDPR, NIS2, DORA, the EU AI Act, ISO 27001 and 42001, SOC 2, NIST CSF, HIPAA and the Polish KSC and KRiBSI acts. One requirement evaluated once and counted everywhere it applies, a readiness percentage built from tenant data, weekly snapshots, a dated evidence pack for the auditor.
AI agents and Copilot
Not a list of agents: what each one can actually read across files, sites, users and email, who deployed it, what it did, and when it broke its own pattern. Copilot readiness with a fix list and a per-site indexing block, so the rollout starts from a clean reach.
The rest of the tenant
Beyond the comparison: the whole Microsoft 365 stack, from one read-only connection.
The table covers what a Netwrix buyer asks about. The same connection opens every screen below on day one, each answering a question your tenant cannot answer about itself today.
- Microsoft 365 Alerts ToolOne alert model across policies, activity and anomalies - with the evidence attached and the alert threshold in your hands.
- Microsoft 365 Monitoring ToolReal-time monitoring that catches a mass download while it is unfolding - across users, files, apps, AI agents and devices.
- Copilot Security ToolEvery AI agent's real blast radius - quantified before rollout, watched and constrained after.
- Shadow Device DetectionEvery device touching your data, reconstructed from real activity - including the machines that never enrolled anywhere.
- Impossible Travel DetectionLocations as identities, not IPs: country, city and network for every action, first-seen origins, travel timelines with verdicts - no E5, no P2.
- Conditional Access MonitoringDeclared Conditional Access compared against observed sign-ins: coverage verdicts, ungoverned traffic share, and the ranges your offices outgrew.
- Office 365 Access ManagementEffective access, resolved - who can reach what, through which grant, and one place to take it away.
- SharePoint Governance ToolEvery site ranked by exposure and abandonment - links, guests and Copilot access under control.
- Office 365 User ProvisioningLifecycle access from day one to offboarding - reach, dormant accounts and license reclaim in one flow.
- Microsoft 365 Audit ToolUp to three years of searchable activity history - every action tied to an actor, device and location.
- Microsoft 365 Inventory ToolEight live inventories on one permission graph - including the sites, devices and AI agents that were never registered anywhere.
- Office 365 ReportingAnswers, not exports - regulator-grade numbers, saved views and a read-only API for your SOC.
- Microsoft 365 File PermissionsWho has access to any file, and why - people, links, apps and AI agents on one map, with the fix in the same place.
- Sensitive Data DiscoveryWhere regulated data lives and everything that can reach it - two detection engines, no premium licence required.
- Office 365 Email MonitoringOutbound sensitive content, delegated-send abuse and whole-thread evidence that survives deletion.
- Purview Label CoverageWhat your sensitivity labels actually cover, and which of them protect anything at all.
- AI Agent InventoryEvery agent in the tenant with its real reach counted, its blueprint reviewed, and guardrails you can verify.
- AI Data RestrictionDeclare a data type off-limits to AI and every agent, app and user still reaching it becomes a live violation - recorded for the auditor.
- AI Spend TrackingInteractions, Copilot credits and Azure tokens in one ledger per agent - with the spend column next to what each agent can reach.
- Microsoft 365 User Access ReviewEvery identity with what it can reach, what it did, and whether it should still exist - including SharePoint-only guests that live outside the directory.
- Group Access AnalysisWhat membership in a group actually unlocks - nesting resolved, external members surfaced, blast radius counted.
- App and OAuth Consent GovernanceEvery app with a foothold in the tenant: how it got in, who let it in, and what it can actually read.
- Remediation AutomationFindings become fixes at tenant scale, counted before you enable them and staged behind a review window.
- Microsoft 365 Licence OptimizationThe seats you pay for and nobody uses - unassigned units, licences on guests, and dormant accounts still billing.
- Microsoft 365 Anomaly DetectionEvery policy, user, app and agent measured against its own baseline - with an alert line you move and see the answer to at once.
- Office 365 Sign-in LocationsEvery place your tenant is reached from, with your Conditional Access configuration laid over observed reality.
- Microsoft 365 Unified Audit LogWho did what, when, from where and on which device - retained up to three years on a standard licence.
- SharePoint Site InventoryEvery site, channel site and OneDrive in one list, ranked by external reach, abandonment and what Copilot can read.
- Microsoft 365 Activity AnalyticsThe extremes rather than the averages - a mass download inside the hour, and everything nobody has touched in a year.
- Microsoft 365 Trend TrackingAny number in the tenant followed over time, with the change and the deviation attached - and alerting on the same object.
- Microsoft 365 Compliance MonitoringReadiness for eleven regulations measured from live tenant data - with weekly snapshots and a dated evidence pack per framework.
- Microsoft 365 Security ScoreMicrosoft Secure Score beside the score measured from what actually happens - one worklist ranked by points still on the table.
- External Domain MonitoringEvery organisation your tenant exchanges data with, resolved to a real company - with drift flags and an enforceable verdict per domain.
- All featuresEvery screen in one list
Fits what you run
Native to Microsoft 365, open to the rest of your stack.
Every action runs through Microsoft Graph, roles sync from Entra, setup takes minutes, and the platform stays read-only until you decide to enable writes. There is no agent to install, no SQL Server to size and no archive share to back up.
A public REST API and an MCP server expose logs, detections, alerts, users and compliance status, so your SIEM, SOC or MSSP receives events that already carry the user, the file, the device, the location and who could reach what, instead of raw audit rows. An MSSP uses one organisation-wide key for all its tenants.
Run it as SaaS, in your own Azure subscription with our container images, or on-premise, air-gapped if needed, as the same product. Each tenant gets its own database, and disconnecting removes the data within seven days.
Savings, last and measured
It runs on the licences you already have, and finds the ones you do not use.
Most of what 1Security does needs no premium Microsoft plan: content scanning without E5 or Purview, locations without premium sign-in logs, three years of history without a SIEM contract or an archive server of your own. On top of that it ranks what you pay for and nobody uses, each item with its idle time and a reclaim action waiting in the review queue.
- Business Basicthe plan most features run on
- 3 yearsof activity history without a SIEM contract or archive server
- 0E5 or Purview add-ons needed for content scanning
- 1 queueunused licences, dead apps, orphaned sites and mailboxes, reclaimed from one place
Keep both or switch
You do not have to choose on day one.
If Netwrix audits your Active Directory, Group Policy, file servers and SQL Server, or feeds your MSP ticket flow, keep it. 1Security takes the Microsoft 365 side: incidents, sensitive content, locations and devices, agents, compliance evidence and the actions that close each finding. 1Security changes nothing in your tenant until you enable actions, so there is no setting the two tools could disagree on. Many customers run both for a year and then decide which one they still open.
The free proof of concept runs side by side on your own tenant: read-only consent in the morning, first findings the same day on a small tenant, and one meeting to compare what each tool showed.
What the side-by-side POC compares
- Sensitive data in files and mail that carries no label and is reachable by guests or Anyone links
- Sign-ins from VPN, Tor and datacenter networks and unknown devices in the last 90 days, and whether Conditional Access covered them
- AI agents and apps, and what each can reach today
- Anomalies on users, apps and agents over 90 days, without writing a threshold
- Mail leaving with sensitive content and who can send as whom
- Findings closed from the review queue versus findings still waiting in a report
FAQ
Questions buyers ask when they already run Netwrix.
Do I have to remove Netwrix 1Secure to use 1Security?
No. 1Security reads your tenant through its own Entra app with read-only consent and changes nothing until you enable actions. Netwrix keeps working as before. Teams that keep both usually leave Active Directory, file server and SQL Server auditing and the MSP ticket flow with Netwrix and move Microsoft 365 incidents, sensitive content, locations, devices, agents and compliance evidence to 1Security.
Which Microsoft licence do I need?
Nearly everything works on Business Basic, Office 365 E1 or Microsoft 365 E3. Content scanning, locations and three-year history need no premium plan. The few features that read premium Microsoft data, such as Purview detections or per-sign-in detail, are listed on the requirements page with what you get without them, and the free licence checker tells you before you connect.
Does 1Security store my file or email content?
No. Content is streamed into the sensitivity scan and discarded when it finishes. What persists is the detection type, the match count and a confidence bucket linked to the file or message, never the matched values. The data handling page lists exactly what is read and what is stored.
We are an MSP running 1Secure for many clients. How does 1Security fit?
Each client tenant connects with its own read-only consent and gets its own database. One organisation-wide API key reads every tenant you manage, so your SOC or reporting pulls all of them from one place. Partners build a report template once and use it for every client with their own brand kit, and can open a branded live demo for a prospect without a Microsoft account.
How does it feed our SIEM or SOC?
Through the public REST API: logs, detections, alerts, security alerts, users, compliance status and Copilot readiness, with scoped API keys per tenant or organisation-wide. The same reads are available as MCP tools. Sentinel and Splunk pairings are described on their own pages.
How do you know what Netwrix does and does not do?
From Netwrix's public documentation, its community release notes, pricing and buy pages, and the Azure Marketplace links on its Microsoft alliance page, each linked under the table with the date we last checked. Where Netwrix has something only in the on-premise Auditor, the row says so. If something has changed or we got a row wrong, tell us and we will correct it.
What does the free POC include, and how long does it take?
A read-only connection to your tenant, a full scan, and a comparison meeting. A small tenant shows first results within one to two hours; a tenant with around a million files takes six to twelve hours for the first full map. Nothing is changed in your tenant during the POC.
See both on your own tenant.
Book a demo, then a free side-by-side proof of concept next to Netwrix 1Secure. Read-only consent, first findings the same day, nothing changed in your tenant.
Or keep the report subscription and hope someone acts on page four.