SolarWinds Access Rights Manager Alternatives for AD Auditing

SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM) shows who has access to what across Active Directory, Windows, EMC and NetApp file servers, SharePoint, Exchange, OneDrive and Teams. It also provisions and removes accounts from templates and produces GDPR, PCI DSS and HIPAA reports. It is still sold: the product page offers a fully functional 30-day trial. There is no public price; quote on request.

The company behind it changed. Turn/River Capital completed its purchase of SolarWinds on April 16, 2025, paying $18.50 a share, about $4.4 billion, and the stock left the New York Stock Exchange. The press release talks about observability, monitoring and service desk, not about ARM. Teams reviewing a renewal often want a second quote, a published price, or a tool that covers Microsoft 365 more deeply. The picks below start with full audit suites and end with a free report tool.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Netwrix Auditor

Netwrix Auditor is still sold under that name. It records who changed what in Active Directory, Entra ID, file servers and Microsoft 365, with separate modules for Exchange, SharePoint, Windows Server, SQL Server, Oracle, NetApp, VMware and network devices. Where ARM is built around permissions and provisioning, Auditor is built around a searchable trail of changes and reports for auditors.

For the permissions side, Netwrix sells Access Analyzer as a separate product, and for cloud-only estates it points to Netwrix 1Secure, which has a 14-day free trial. The Auditor page says it deploys in 30 minutes and links docs for version 10.9.

Best for: IT and compliance teams whose auditors ask for change history more than access reviews.

Pricing:

• No public price; request pricing
• Self-service checkout for organisations with up to 150 employees
• Free trial download and in-browser demo; trial length not published

Watch out for:

• Permission analysis and provisioning, ARM's core, are split into other Netwrix products, so matching ARM may mean buying two.
• The 14-day trial figure belongs to Netwrix 1Secure, not Auditor. Ask sales how long the Auditor trial runs.

Official site: Netwrix Auditor.

Lepide Data Security Platform

Lepide maps closely onto ARM's feature list. Its platform is split into Lepide Auditor for change reports, Lepide Trust for permissions analysis, Lepide Protect for permissions management, Detect for real-time alerts, Identify for data classification and a Lepide AI module. Coverage on the home page includes Active Directory, Windows file servers, Microsoft 365, Exchange, SharePoint, SQL, Nutanix and Nasuni, plus Entra ID.

The free tools are a good way to judge it before talking to sales. Lepide gives away an Account Lockout Examiner, inactive and admin user reports, an open shares report and an AD risk assessment, along with a free data risk assessment of your environment.

Best for: Mid-size Windows shops that want to find excessive permissions and fix them in the same product.

Pricing:

• No public price; custom quote
• Free data risk assessment, demo and guided walkthrough
• Free tools: Account Lockout Examiner, Open Shares Report, AD Risk Assessment and others

Watch out for:

• The home page offers demos and an assessment but states no free trial length, so hands-on testing depends on sales.
• The pricing link goes to a quote form, so you cannot compare it with an ARM quote until both vendors reply.

Official site: Lepide Data Security Platform.

ManageEngine ADAudit Plus

Budget is where ADAudit Plus wins. ManageEngine publishes every tier: Standard starts at $595 a year for 2 domain controllers and Professional at $945, rising to $4,395 and $6,595 for 20 domain controllers. It audits activity on your domain controllers and, through add-ons, on Windows and NAS file servers, member servers, workstations and Azure AD tenants.

File server auditing is priced on top. Two Windows file servers cost $495 a year and twenty cost $3,595, while NAS starts at $595 for one. A 30-day evaluation is available, and a free edition is available too.

Best for: Admins who need AD and file server auditing on a known yearly budget.

Pricing:

• Standard: from $595 a year (2 domain controllers) to $4,395 (20)
• Professional: from $945 a year (2) to $6,595 (20)
• Windows file server add-on: $495 a year for 2, up to $3,595 for 20
• NAS add-on: $595 a year for 1, up to $2,195 for 5
• Azure AD tenant: $995 a year; 30-day free evaluation

Watch out for:

• It audits activity, not effective permissions. The price page lists a File Analysis add-on, but ARM-style permission views and provisioning live in other ManageEngine products.
• Only annual subscriptions are listed, and counts above 20 domain controllers need a custom quote.

Official site: ManageEngine ADAudit Plus.

ManageEngine ADManager Plus

ARM does two jobs: it reports on access and it creates and removes accounts from role templates. ADManager Plus covers the second job. It provisions, modifies and deprovisions users in AD, Exchange and Microsoft 365, delegates tasks to help desk staff, and ships with more than 200 reports. It pairs naturally with ADAudit Plus from the same vendor.

The free edition handles 100 domain objects in the default domain. Standard starts at $595 a year for one domain and 2 technicians. Our Adaxes alternatives guide compares it with other AD provisioning tools in more detail.

Best for: Teams that mainly used ARM's provisioning templates and want published prices.

Pricing:

• Free edition: 100 domain objects, default domain only
• Standard: $595 a year for 1 domain and 2 technicians
• Professional: $1,795 a year for 1 domain and 2 technicians; workflow and automation included
• 30-day Professional evaluation

Watch out for:

• Approval workflows and automation are Professional-only, per the edition list, so the $595 Standard price does not cover ARM-style request approvals.
• Professional costs $1,795 a year for 1 domain and 2 technicians, three times the $595 Standard price, so budget for it if you need approvals.

Official site: ManageEngine ADManager Plus.

Varonis

Varonis began by mapping who could open which folder on corporate file servers, the same problem ARM solves, and now sells a wider data security platform with AI security, database monitoring and email modules. Its coverage list still includes Active Directory and Windows file shares next to Microsoft 365, AWS, Google Drive, Box and Okta.

It is the heaviest option here and is priced to match, through demos and quotes or cloud marketplaces such as AWS and Azure. The bigger news is ownership: Proofpoint agreed to buy Varonis on October 15, 2026 for $49.75 a share in cash, about $6.3 billion, with closing expected in the first half of 2027.

Best for: Large organisations that need access governance across file shares, Microsoft 365 and cloud stores at once.

Pricing:

• No public price; request a demo
• Also sold through AWS, Azure, Salesforce and Snowflake marketplaces

Watch out for:

• An ownership change is pending. Ask how the Proofpoint deal affects pricing and roadmap before signing a long contract.
• Every product on the coverage page carries a SaaS tag, even on-prem sources, so confirm the deployment model you will actually get.

Official site: Varonis.

Cjwdev NTFS Permissions Reporter

Sometimes the only ARM feature anyone used was the folder permission report. NTFS Permissions Reporter, a small Windows tool, does that for free. Point it at a share and it lists which users and groups have access across the whole directory tree, with direct, nested and primary group members expanded inside the report. It also adds a Report Permissions option to the right-click menu in Windows Explorer.

The free edition exports to HTML. The paid Standard Edition adds XLSX and CSV export, comparing two reports, filters, emailed results and full command-line support, with free upgrades for the life of the product.

Best for: Small IT teams that need an occasional who-can-access-this report and nothing else.

Pricing:

• Free Edition: no charge, HTML export
• Standard Edition: paid, price on the vendor's purchase page; lifetime upgrades included

Watch out for:

• It reports NTFS permissions only. There is no change auditing, Microsoft 365 coverage or provisioning.
• The product page gives no supported Windows versions and no release date for 3.1.1.

Official site: Cjwdev NTFS Permissions Reporter.

How to choose

When to stay with SolarWinds Access Rights Manager

Stay with Access Rights Manager if you rely on both halves of it, permission analysis and template-based provisioning, in one console. Most alternatives here split those jobs across two products. ARM also covers EMC and NetApp file servers next to Windows, and the 30-day trial on the product page makes it easy to compare a fresh quote against your renewal.

Frequently asked questions