Features, pricing, ratings, and pros and cons, compared head to head.
Active Directory Permissions Analyzer is a commercial identity governance and administration tool by Paramount Defenses. Exostar Managed Access Gateway (MAG) is a commercial access management tool by Exostar. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best identity governance and administration fit for your security stack. Independent and vendor-neutral: our scores and rankings are earned, never bought — sponsored placement is always labeled.
Security teams managing Active Directory at mid-market to enterprise scale should pick Active Directory Permissions Analyzer when permission creep and orphaned access rights are eating your audit time. It runs agentless and requires no admin rights to surface domain-wide ACL visibility across custom schema classes and extended rights, meaning you audit without operational friction. Skip this if your organization hasn't standardized on Active Directory as your primary identity store or if you need real-time enforcement alongside analysis; this tool is audit-first, not remediation-focused. Mid-market and enterprise security teams managing third-party partner access across regulated supply chains will get the most from Exostar Managed Access Gateway because it handles the friction of federated identity at scale without forcing partners through your internal IAM infrastructure. The platform covers ITAR, DFARS, and NIST 800-171 compliance natively, and its pre-vetted network of 200,000 organizations cuts onboarding cycles from weeks to days. Skip this if your partner ecosystem is small or you need deep workforce IAM controls; MAG is purpose-built for B2B access governance, not employee identity management.
Based on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
Active Directory Permissions Analyzer
Security teams managing Active Directory at mid-market to enterprise scale should pick Active Directory Permissions Analyzer when permission creep and orphaned access rights are eating your audit time. It runs agentless and requires no admin rights to surface domain-wide ACL visibility across custom schema classes and extended rights, meaning you audit without operational friction. Skip this if your organization hasn't standardized on Active Directory as your primary identity store or if you need real-time enforcement alongside analysis; this tool is audit-first, not remediation-focused.
Exostar Managed Access Gateway (MAG)
Mid-market and enterprise security teams managing third-party partner access across regulated supply chains will get the most from Exostar Managed Access Gateway because it handles the friction of federated identity at scale without forcing partners through your internal IAM infrastructure. The platform covers ITAR, DFARS, and NIST 800-171 compliance natively, and its pre-vetted network of 200,000 organizations cuts onboarding cycles from weeks to days. Skip this if your partner ecosystem is small or you need deep workforce IAM controls; MAG is purpose-built for B2B access governance, not employee identity management.
AD permissions audit tool for analyzing ACLs, access rights, and security principals.
Federated IAM gateway for secure, compliant B2B partner access mgmt.
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Common questions about comparing Active Directory Permissions Analyzer vs Exostar Managed Access Gateway (MAG) for your identity governance and administration needs.
Active Directory Permissions Analyzer: AD permissions audit tool for analyzing ACLs, access rights, and security principals. built by Paramount Defenses. Core capabilities include Domain-wide Active Directory permissions analysis, Allow/Deny and Explicit/Inherited permission filtering, Security principal-specific permissions lookup..
Exostar Managed Access Gateway (MAG): Federated IAM gateway for secure, compliant B2B partner access mgmt. built by Exostar. Core capabilities include Federated identity management with SSO for external partner access, Centralized identity hub connecting users to approved applications, Delegated administration allowing partner orgs to manage their own user access..
Both serve the Identity Governance and Administration market but differ in approach, feature depth, and target audience.
Active Directory Permissions Analyzer differentiates with Domain-wide Active Directory permissions analysis, Allow/Deny and Explicit/Inherited permission filtering, Security principal-specific permissions lookup. Exostar Managed Access Gateway (MAG) differentiates with Federated identity management with SSO for external partner access, Centralized identity hub connecting users to approved applications, Delegated administration allowing partner orgs to manage their own user access.
Active Directory Permissions Analyzer is developed by Paramount Defenses. Exostar Managed Access Gateway (MAG) is developed by Exostar. The vendor behind a product decides its roadmap, support, and longevity, so check each company's profile before you commit.
Active Directory Permissions Analyzer and Exostar Managed Access Gateway (MAG) serve similar Identity Governance and Administration use cases: both cover RBAC. Review the feature comparison above to determine which fits your requirements.
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