AD Tripwires vs Sticky Elephant: 2026 Comparison
AD Tripwires is a commercial honeypots & deception tool by Horizon3.ai. Sticky Elephant 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.
Security teams building internal deception infrastructure on a budget will find value in Sticky Elephant for its PostgreSQL-specific trap design and zero licensing cost. The configurable medium-interaction approach lets you tune honeypot responses to match your actual database environment, improving signal quality over generic setups. Skip this if you need Windows or Oracle honeypots; Sticky Elephant's narrow focus means you'll still need separate tools elsewhere in your database stack.
