ManageEngine ADAudit Plus vs OSSEC

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus is an on-premises auditing and monitoring tool for Active Directory environments. It provides real-time alerts, configuration monitoring, compliance reports, and agentless monitoring. Listed platforms include Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, AWS Managed Microsoft AD, AD FS, Azure, AWS, GCP, Windows Server, Windows and macOS workstations, Windows file servers, Windows failover clusters, and supported NAS devices. The product is available for web and Windows. Its free edition covers 25 workstations. The 30-day trial lists limits of five domain controllers, two file servers, one NetApp or EMC file server, ten member servers, and 100 workstations. Standard costs $595 a year and lists two domain controllers; Professional costs $945 a year and also lists two domain controllers. ManageEngine was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, United States.

OSSEC is an open-source host-based intrusion detection system for monitoring systems and network components. It analyzes logs, checks file integrity, monitors the Windows registry, detects rootkits, and can alert users in real time or take active response actions. Monitoring can be agent-based or agentless, and a centralized server applies policies across operating systems, with server-specific overrides. Alerts can use SMTP, SMS, and syslog; active response can block an attack immediately. The system runs on Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, macOS, Solaris, and Windows, and supports self-hosted and cloud environments. OSSEC and OSSEC+ use command-line management; Atomic OSSEC editions add a management console and integrations with cloud services and other tools. OSSEC+ adds machine learning, ELK integration, threat sharing, and additional rules. Free OSSEC is listed at free; OSSEC+ is also free, with registration required. Atomic OSSEC is $5 a month per device. Atomic OSSEC SaaS offers a free 14-day trial for up to 10 endpoints.