Quest Software Alternative

Modern Active Directory Security, Auditing, Compliance & Recovery.

Reduce Risk. Simplify Compliance.
Strengthen Identity Security.

Organizations depend on Active Directory and Entra ID to secure access to critical systems, applications, and data. Yet many Quest deployments rely on multiple point products, fragmented workflows, and complex administration to achieve security, compliance, and recovery objectives.

Cygna Labs Security & Compliance Platform delivers a unified approach to Active Directory, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, and hybrid identity security—combining auditing, entitlement management, security posture assessment, compliance reporting, and recovery into a single platform.

Trusted by many Fortune 500 companies worldwide, Cygna Labs helps security and IT teams prevent, detect, remediate, and recover from identity-related threats while meeting regulatory requirements and reducing operational complexity.

Why Organizations Replace Quest
with Cygna Labs

Reduce Identity Risk

Identify Active Directory and Entra ID misconfigurations

Discover excessive permissions and privilege escalation risks

Detect indicators of compromise and indicators of exposure

Uncover attack paths leading to Tier 0 assets

One Platform for Security, Compliance, Entitlements & Recovery

Instead of managing multiple disconnected tools, Cygna Labs provides integrated visibility and control across your hybrid identity environment.

Strengthen Incident Response

Real-time auditing and change monitoring

Threat detection and investigation support

Rapid recovery capabilities for Active Directory and Entra ID

Continuous monitoring for configuration drift

Meet Compliance Requirements Faster

Out-of-the-box reporting for:

PCI-DSS

HIPAA

FISMA

GLBA

SOX

GDPR

ISO 27001

Cygna Labs vs. Quest

The comparison below summarizes key product, deployment, recovery, auditing, Microsoft 365 and licensing differences based on the supplied Quest/Cygna comparison materials.

Capability / Requirement	Cygna Labs Security & Compliance	Quest Software
Platform Approach	Unified platform approach across Active Directory, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, recovery, auditing and permission reporting, using a common data store where applicable.	Typically delivered across multiple products or modules, with several capabilities requiring separate licensing or add-ons.
AD Auditing Data Collection	Real-time collection via agent, with an option for interval-based event log collection.	Real-time collection via agent on domain controllers.
AD Object & Attribute Change Detail	Displays who, when, what, where, and from/to details, including hostname and IP, for AD object and attribute changes.	Displays who, when, what, where, and from/to details, including hostname and IP, for AD object and attribute changes.
Out-of-box AD Change Coverage	All AD changes are automatically detected and displayed.	Provides a limited set of AD changes out of the box, with expansion available through manual configuration.
GPO Change Auditing	Audits GPO changes and supports custom GPO filters.	Audits GPO changes and supports custom GPO filters.
Extended AD Coverage	Supports multiple domains and multiple forests; AD LDS auditing, AD-integrated DNS changes, third-party schema extensions.	Supports multiple domains and forests; AD LDS, DNS and third-party schema extension coverage may require add-ons or have limited availability.
Administration Experience	Web UI and integration with standard RSAT tools such as ADUC; no additional GUI software required.	Windows GUI with partial RSAT integration; no additional GUI software required.
Agent Options	Supports agent-based and agentless collection options.	Agent-based collection only.
Reporting & Search	Predefined reports, custom report creation, report designer/wizard, scheduled reports, web reports, filtering/search by who, when, what, where, attributes and values.	Predefined reports, custom report creation, report designer/wizard, scheduled reports, web reports, filtering/search by who, when, what, where, attributes and values.
SIEM and Alerting	Real-time alerting, custom filter alerts, Event Log and SMTP alerts, and SIEM integration are available.	Real-time alerting and custom filter alerts are available; SMTP alerts and SIEM integration may require add-ons.
Internal Audit and Storage	Includes solution-internal audit capability, data aging/purging, tiered storage, retention policies and intelligent space-saving storage.	Includes data aging/purging, tiered storage and retention policies; solution-internal audit capability is partial and intelligent space-saving storage is not indicated.
AD Recovery	Supports rollback from backups and audit data, deleted-object restore from backups and audit data, subtree restores, backlink rollback, GPO versioning and fast/space-saving backup access.	Supports rollback from backups and audit data, deleted-object restore from backups, subtree restores and backlink rollback; deleted-object restore from audit data, automatic GPO versioning and fast/space-saving backup mechanisms are not indicated.
Entra ID Auditing	Available within the standard Cygna Labs Platform, offered as perpetual licensing. Not a cloud solution (you control your data).	Part of a SaaS solution that required a subscription. More expensive option over time.
Entra ID Recovery	Available within the standard Cygna Labs Platform, offered as perpetual licensing. Not a cloud solution (you control your data).	Part of a SaaS solution that required a subscription. More expensive option over time.
Microsoft 365 Auditing	Available within the standard Cygna Labs Platform, offered as perpetual licensing. Not a cloud solution (you control your data).	Part of a SaaS solution that required a subscription. More expensive option over time.
Licensing Model	Trust-based licensing by biological user for AD, recovery, Entra ID and Microsoft 365 modules.	Module-based licensing in several areas, including per enabled user object for some AD-related modules; some cloud/M365 components use biological-user licensing.
Consolidation Impact	Can reduce tool sprawl by bringing audit, recovery, entitlement and cloud identity visibility into a more unified operating model.	Requires multiple Quest products to cover the same AD, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, recovery and entitlement use cases.

Platform Approach