Comparison
SysFlint AD vs. ManageEngine ADAudit Plus
ADAudit Plus is a commercial Active Directory change-auditing product built primarily around real-time activity: who changed what, who logged on where, and alerting on it as it happens. SysFlint AD answers a narrower question — what state is the directory in right now, and how has that changed since last month — and it is free.
Side by side
| SysFlint AD | ADAudit Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary question answered | What state are my accounts and privileged groups in? | What changed, who did it, and when? |
| Cost | Free, forever — the whole product, no edition limits | Commercial editions; the vendor also offers a limited free edition |
| Real-time change and logon auditing | No — point-in-time reporting, diffed between runs | Yes, the core of the product |
| Account hygiene reporting | Disabled, stale, never-used, password-policy exceptions, privileged access | Included alongside its change-auditing reports |
| Last-logon accuracy | Queried across every domain controller | Derived from collected activity data; see the vendor documentation |
| Deployment | One installer, one domain-joined machine, no database to plan | Server product with a backing database; sizing depends on log volume |
| Domain controller footprint | None — no agents, no schema change | Collects domain controller event data; check current agent requirements |
| Data location | Entirely on your hardware, no cloud component | On-premises, with cloud options offered by the vendor |
ADAudit Plus is the better choice if
- You need to know who made a change and when, not just what the current state is.
- Real-time alerting on logons, lockouts, or group changes is a requirement.
- You need event-log-derived forensics for incident investigation.
- You want a commercially supported product with a vendor relationship behind it.
SysFlint AD is the better choice if
- The job is account hygiene and access review, not change forensics.
- You need the whole product free, with no edition limits to design around.
- You want a single installer rather than a server product with a database to size.
- No agent may touch a domain controller and no data may leave the network.
Frequently asked questions
- Does SysFlint AD do real-time change auditing?
- No. It reports on directory state and diffs consecutive runs. If you need to know within seconds that someone was added to Domain Admins, you need an event-log-based product like ADAudit Plus.
- Why is it free when ADAudit Plus is not?
- Because it does much less. It is one focused reporting tool rather than a supported change-auditing platform, and it is the first product in the SysFlint range.
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