If your immediate concern is unusual sign-ins or mailbox rules, first establish whether you need a broad security analytics platform or a focused application for your engineers.
Microsoft Sentinel collects security data across products and platforms and supports hunting, investigation and response. That breadth matters when an incident needs to be traced across identities, endpoints, networks and applications.
Vigil Alerts focuses on Microsoft 365 sign-ins, new or changed inbox rules, external forwarding and mailbox access changes. Your engineers review those signals and choose the response. It is available as self-hosted software or a dedicated hosted installation for your organisation.
| Requirement | Microsoft Sentinel | Vigil Alerts |
|---|---|---|
| Security data across an estate | Broad SIEM collection and investigation | Focused Microsoft 365 monitoring |
| Operate the application on your own server | Azure cloud service | Self-hosting available |
| Who decides on account changes? | Depends on configured response and workflows | Your engineers; no automatic remediation |
| Software pricing model | Usage and selected tiers/services | Published user-allowance plans |
Sentinel pricing depends on data types, usage, retention and services. Microsoft lists Office 365 audit logs and certain security alerts as free data sources, while some raw logs and supporting services can incur charges. It would be misleading to price every Microsoft 365 event as paid ingestion.
Vigil starts at £49/month self-hosted or £149/month dedicated hosted for up to 250 monitored users, excluding VAT. Self-hosting adds your own infrastructure and maintenance costs; both options need engineers to investigate. Check Microsoft licensing and data access separately for either design.
If the only reason for a proposed SIEM deployment is to put supported Microsoft 365 mailbox and account events in front of your existing IT team, price that requirement on its own. A fixed Vigil plan may cost less than the proposed wider deployment. Use the actual quote and include the people who will run it.
Keep the wider platform in scope if you require cross-source correlation, broad log hunting or security operations across the estate. Vigil does not replace those capabilities, and no native Sentinel integration is promised here.
Show us the account activity you want to monitor and your current operating process. We will demonstrate the relevant Vigil Alerts workflow and confirm deployment, monitoring scope and costs before you order.
Discuss your requirementsReviewed 18 October 2026. Microsoft Sentinel is a third-party product. This comparison is published by Vigil Alerts and does not imply endorsement or affiliation. Capabilities and commercial terms can change; check your quotation.
Sources: Sentinel overview, Microsoft billing and free data sources.
We’ll walk through alerts, investigation and deployment, and answer questions about your environment.
Request a demo