How Excavate
compares.
Most insider risk products are software your team runs. Excavate is a service that keeps the record and does the investigating. Here is how that compares with the other ways companies handle it.
Every option below can tell you that something happened. The difference is who works it out and what you hold at the end. With a platform or a DLP tool, your team works the alerts or checks what the tool’s AI found. A forensics firm is usually engaged once a matter arises, one matter at a time. With Excavate the record is already kept, our AI agent and examiners work every trigger, and every case ends in a conclusion signed by the examiner.
How companies handle
insider risk.
Each is right for someone. This is what each one gives you, and who does the work.
Software, usually with an agent on every laptop or browser. It records activity and raises alerts, and your analysts investigate, or review what the vendor’s AI and analysts found. Some also sell managed services on top. Excavate vs DTEX → Excavate vs Proofpoint → Excavate vs Above →
Insider Risk Management comes with the top Microsoft 365 licenses. Policies evaluate a person after a trigger, and your team works the alerts and cases. Strong at prevention inside Microsoft 365. Excavate with Microsoft Purview →
Rules that block or flag data as it leaves, with content classification. They stop the transfer. Excavate adds the investigation: what else the person did across your systems, and why, worked out by our AI agent and examiners and written up as a conclusion.
Usually engaged once a matter arises, often through counsel, for deep work on one matter. Excavate or a forensics firm →
A SIEM, detection rules and your own analysts. Full control, and a team you have to hire and keep. A US information security analyst’s median annual pay was $129,180 in May 2025.1 In ISACA’s 2026 survey, 58% of organizations said their security team is understaffed, and 55% struggle to keep qualified people.2 History goes back as far as you kept the logs.
A tamper-evident record of the systems you already run, every trigger worked by our AI agent and examiners, an exit review for every departure, and written conclusions. Coverage installs nothing on laptops.
Side by side.
By category. Products inside a category differ, so the named comparisons go product by product.
| Capability | Excavate | Insider risk platform | DLP tool | Forensics firm | In-house |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works continuously, before anything goes wrong | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Warns you when activity looks risky | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partly |
| The investigating is done for you | Yes | Partly | No | Yes | No |
| Ends in a written, signed conclusion | Yes | Partly | No | Yes | Partly |
| Every departure reviewed | Yes | Partly | No | Partly | Partly |
| Evidence kept before you need it | Yes | Partly | Partly | Partly | Partly |
| No team to hire, train or keep | Yes | Partly | No | Yes | No |
Use it with what
you already have.
Excavate’s coverage is read-only and installs nothing, so it runs next to your DLP, your EDR and Microsoft Purview without touching them. They keep blocking and alerting. Excavate keeps the record and works each trigger to a written answer.
Questions to ask
any vendor.
Including us. The answers tell you more than a feature list, so ours are under each one.
- Who works an alert after it fires, and how many hours a week does that take?Excavate: Our AI agent and examiners work every trigger. Your team decides what to do with each conclusion.
- What history exists for a person on the day they resign?Excavate: Whatever each source still kept when you connected, and everything since.
- How long are alerts, cases and activity kept?Excavate: Until you delete them.
- What is installed on the laptop, and who in your company has to approve it?Excavate: Nothing, for coverage. On a case, your IT runs our collection tool on the laptop.
- What do you hand counsel or HR at the end: an alert, a case file, or a signed conclusion?Excavate: A written conclusion signed by the examiner, with the evidence and its chain of custody.
- What happens to a leaver’s laptop before anyone has looked at it?Excavate: Every exit review asks IT to hold it until the review closes.
Questions buyers ask.
Is Excavate a DLP or an insider risk platform?+
Neither. It is a service: we keep the record and do the investigating. It works next to your DLP: the DLP stops a transfer, and Excavate finds out what else the person did, and why.
Do we still need our insider risk tool?+
If your team works its alerts and you rely on what it sees on the laptop, keep it, and use Excavate for departures and written conclusions. If nobody has the hours to work the queue, that is the gap Excavate fills.
How do you keep these comparisons fair?+
Every statement about a named product comes from that vendor’s public documentation, linked and dated on its page. Categories are described in general terms. If something is out of date, write to info@excavate.ai and we will correct it.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Information security analysts, pay as of May 2025
- ISACA: State of Cybersecurity 2026, press release of 22 September 2026
DTEX, Proofpoint, Above and Microsoft Purview are trademarks of their owners. Excavate is not affiliated with or endorsed by any company named on this page. If something here is out of date, write to info@excavate.ai and we will correct it.
See it on your own systems.
Thirty minutes on the systems you run, and what Excavate would do with them.