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Drata is a compliance-automation platform that collects evidence and manages SOC2/ISO/HIPAA audits. WinSentinel is purpose-built for Windows hardening with one-click auto-remediation — it fixes the endpoint misconfigurations and maps them to CIS, SOC2, and HIPAA, producing the technical evidence a compliance program reports on.
| Capability | WinSentinel | Drata |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Focus | Windows hardening & compliance | Compliance automation & audit readiness |
| What It Actually Does | Finds & fixes endpoint misconfigurations | Collects evidence, tracks controls, maps frameworks |
| Auto-Remediation | ✓ One-click fix for every finding | ✗ Reports gaps; doesn't remediate machines |
| Windows Hardening Depth | ✓ 33 specialized audit modules | ✗ Not an endpoint hardening tool |
| Compliance Mapping | ✓ CIS, SOC2, HIPAA, Essential 8 per finding | ✓ SOC2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI, GDPR |
| Evidence Collection | ✓ PDF/CSV/SARIF machine reports | ✓ Automated evidence across SaaS stack |
| Auditor Workflow / Trust Center | Not an audit-management platform | ✓ Auditor portal, policies, trust page |
| Setup Complexity | 30 seconds (dotnet tool install) | Connect cloud/identity/HR integrations |
| Infrastructure Required | None (runs locally) | Cloud SaaS + integration connectors |
| Real-Time Monitoring | ✓ Process, file, registry watch | ✓ Continuous control monitoring |
| Security Score | ✓ 0–100 overall + per-module | Control readiness %, not a hardening score |
| CI/CD Integration | ✓ GitHub Action + SARIF | ✗ Not designed for CI |
| Open Source | ✓ MIT license | ✗ Proprietary SaaS |
| Pricing | Free (single machine, unlimited) | Per-company, annual contract, quote-based |
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Per-company, annual contract
Drata checks whether a control is in place and flags gaps for you to fix elsewhere. WinSentinel is the tool that fixes them — 33 Windows-specific modules that query WMI, Registry, Group Policy, Defender, and Windows APIs directly and remediate misconfigurations on the box.
A compliance platform tells you SMB signing or BitLocker is non-compliant; it can't change the setting. WinSentinel generates FixEngine commands with one-click remediation for every finding — you close the gap, not just log it.
Drata's endpoint checks are broad and cross-platform (disk encryption on, screen lock set). WinSentinel audits LSA protection, WDigest, credential caching, firewall rules, Kerberos delegation, and dozens more Windows-specific weaknesses a generic agent never inspects.
Drata is a cloud SaaS that connects to your identity, cloud, and HR systems. WinSentinel runs locally with zero infrastructure — install in 30 seconds, scan in 60, no account or connectors required.
Drata is a governance platform, not a build-time check. WinSentinel ships as a GitHub Action with SARIF output, so a hardening regression fails the pipeline before it ships.
Drata is quote-based SaaS on annual contracts. WinSentinel is free and open source for unlimited single-machine use — the whole CLI and every audit module, including CIS/SOC2/HIPAA mapping.
Drata organizes your compliance program and satisfies the auditor's paperwork. WinSentinel makes the underlying Windows machines actually compliant — it finds and fixes the misconfigurations, then maps each finding to CIS, SOC2, and HIPAA. Harden the endpoints with WinSentinel, and let Drata collect the evidence. Real hardening plus audit-ready reporting, not either/or.
They solve different halves of compliance. Drata collects evidence from your SaaS stack, tracks controls, and streamlines SOC2/ISO/HIPAA audits. WinSentinel is the tool that actually hardens each Windows machine and maps its findings to CIS, SOC2, and HIPAA - the endpoint reality Drata reports on. Fix the machine with WinSentinel, then feed its posture into your compliance program.
No. The free tier runs entirely on the local Windows machine - no cloud tenant, no connector setup, no account required. Drata is a cloud SaaS that integrates with your identity, cloud, and HR systems to automate evidence collection. WinSentinel gives you the hardened endpoint; Drata is where the evidence trail lives.
WinSentinel is free for unlimited use on a single machine. Drata is a compliance-automation SaaS priced per company on annual contracts. WinSentinel Pro - which adds fleet management and org-wide compliance rollups across many machines - is $29/mo for up to 25 nodes or $79/mo for up to 100 nodes, with annual billing saving 17%.
Yes. The CLI and every audit module are free and open source under the MIT license, installed with dotnet tool install --global WinSentinel.Cli. A single machine gets the full power - all audit modules, the real-time monitor, scheduled scans, and PDF reports with CIS/SOC2/HIPAA mapping - with no limits and no account required. Pro is only for organizations that want fleet-wide compliance rollups from one control plane.
Yes. WinSentinel is built specifically for Windows 10 and Windows 11 (and Windows Server). It uses native Windows APIs to audit configuration - SMB signing, BitLocker, LSA protection, Defender, firewall - that a compliance-automation platform can only ask you to attest to. WinSentinel produces the technical evidence; Drata organizes it for the auditor.