AD Tripwires vs HoneyUp: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
AD Tripwires is a commercial honeypots & deception tool by Horizon3.ai. HoneyUp is a free honeypots & deception tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best honeypots & deception fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:
Mid-market and enterprise security teams that treat Active Directory as a detection problem, not just a hardening problem, should evaluate AD Tripwires. It deploys honeypot objects directly into AD to catch reconnaissance and lateral movement before it reaches production assets, and the integration with Horizon3.ai's NodeZero platform means you validate that your tripwires actually work against your real attack surface. Skip this if your team lacks the AD expertise to maintain decoy objects or if you're looking for a tool that also handles response automation; AD Tripwires is detection and alerting only.
Teams running web applications who want to catch attackers early will benefit from HoneyUp's simplicity: it's a free uploader honeypot that requires minimal setup and blends into your application without overhead. The tool's lightweight footprint and zero cost make it practical for resource-constrained teams to deploy multiple instances across dev and production environments. Skip HoneyUp if you need sophisticated multi-vector deception or centralized honeypot management; this is a single-purpose trap, not an orchestrated deception platform.
