Visibility in this ranking can be paid for. Payment moves a vendor's position within the
shortlist; it never adds a vendor, and it never changes a word of the review. The largest vendors in data loss prevention (DLP) software
cannot hold places 1 to 3. Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category,
wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. How it works: placement disclosure ·
editorial process.
The 11 tools, reviewed
#1 Endpoint Protector
Endpoint DLP and device control for Windows, macOS and Linux · United States · endpointprotector.com
Device control Mixed-OS endpoints Free trial
Endpoint Protector takes first place because its pages describe a product a two-person IT team can reason about: four modules (device control, content-aware protection, enforced encryption and eDiscovery), three operating systems, and a free trial button next to the demo button. Device control goes down to vendor ID, product ID and serial number, which matters the first time someone plugs a personal drive into a finance laptop.
- Pricing: Quote only. Pricing is by request through a form on the vendor's site; no list price is published, and the page offers a free trial alongside a demo. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Small and mid-sized teams with mixed-OS laptops
- Strengths: Device control by vendor ID, product ID and serial number; Content-aware protection for data in motion; Enforced USB encryption.
Where it falls short
It is an endpoint product. The pages we read describe agents, scans and a server console, not a web proxy or an API connector for SaaS data, so files that never touch a managed laptop are outside its view.
Wrong for
Not for a cloud-first company with unmanaged devices and most data inside SaaS apps.
Visit Endpoint Protector →
#2 Mimecast Incydr
Insider-risk and data exfiltration monitoring across email, endpoint, cloud and browser · United Kingdom · mimecast.com
No policies on day one Insider risk UK-based vendor
Incydr is built around a different opening move than classic DLP. Instead of asking a buyer to write content rules first, its page says it sees, scores and protects data from day one with no tagging and no policies to configure, then adds controls (education prompt, allow with a business reason, targeted block) as the picture fills in.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only: the product page sends buyers to a Get a Quote form and publishes no price. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Lean security teams without a DLP administrator
- Strengths: Email, endpoint, cloud, browser and agentic visibility; Risk scoring tied to people; No tagging or policies to start.
Where it falls short
Its strength is behavior, not content. Detection of regulated data leans on MIP tags and AI content inspection rather than the deep template libraries of Forcepoint or Purview, and it has no free plan or trial on the page we fetched.
Wrong for
Not for a compliance-driven buyer who must show an auditor several hundred pre-built content policies.
Visit Mimecast Incydr →
#3 Nightfall AI
Cloud-native DLP for SaaS, email, endpoints and AI apps · United States · nightfall.ai
Per-user pricing SaaS and AI apps Proof of value
Nightfall is the cleanest answer to a modern complaint, that sensitive data now moves through Slack, Google Drive, Jira, Salesforce and a browser tab open to a chatbot rather than through a file server. Its pricing page names two editions, Foundation for SaaS, email, AI apps, endpoints and browsers, and Premier, which adds control of AI agents and MCP servers.
- Pricing: Per user / year. Two editions priced per user per year (Foundation and Premier), plus a data discovery add-on sold in storage tiers. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: SaaS-heavy companies worried about AI leakage
- Strengths: API integrations with 12+ SaaS apps; Endpoint and browser coverage; Pre-trained detectors for secrets, source code and PII.
Where it falls short
The dollar amounts are not visible in the page we fetched, so the per-user model is a shape, not a number.
Wrong for
Not for a manufacturer or hospital whose sensitive data sits on file servers and legacy applications.
Visit Nightfall AI →
#4 Microsoft Purview DLP
DLP inside the Microsoft 365 compliance stack · United States · microsoft.com
Microsoft 365 Published price Major vendor
Purview DLP is where most Microsoft 365 customers should look before buying anything else, because the policy engine, the labels and the audit trail are already in the tenant.
- Pricing: Per user / month. Microsoft Purview Suite is listed at $12.00 per user per month, paid yearly, and requires Microsoft 365 E3, or Office 365 E3 plus Enterprise Mobility + Security E3. Free plan: free trial.
- Best for: Microsoft 365 E3 shops
- Strengths: DLP policies across cloud apps, email, devices, Fabric and AI; Policy templates; Sensitivity labels from Information Protection.
Where it falls short
The suite requires Microsoft 365 E3 or an E3 plus Enterprise Mobility + Security E3 pairing, so the true entry cost is the licence under it.
Wrong for
Not for a company running Google Workspace or a mostly non-Microsoft stack, or one that wants a single agent across Linux servers and macOS.
Visit Microsoft Purview DLP →
#5 Cyberhaven
Lineage-based DLP, insider risk and AI security on one platform · United States · cyberhaven.com
Data lineage Source code and IP Shadow AI
Cyberhaven earns the middle of the table by attacking the oldest weakness in DLP, the rename. Its page describes data lineage that traces a piece of content from where it began through every copy, paste and rewrite, so an archive called vacation.jpg is still traced back to the 48 source files inside it.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only: the vendor's site offers a demo request and publishes no price; its /pricing path returned a not-found page when we fetched it. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Security teams protecting IP and source code
- Strengths: Data lineage from origin through every copy and paste; Endpoint coverage for Windows, Mac, Linux and VDI; Blocks uploads to unsanctioned web, SaaS and AI apps.
Where it falls short
No price is published and no free plan or trial is offered, only a demo. The platform has grown wide, so a buyer who wants simple USB blocking is paying for lineage, agents and posture management it will not use in year one.
Wrong for
Not for a ten-person company or a buyer who needs a published price this week.
Visit Cyberhaven →
#6 Proofpoint Enterprise DLP
Content and behavior DLP across email, cloud apps and endpoints · United States · proofpoint.com
Email heritage User behavior Cross-channel
Proofpoint approaches DLP from the angle that careless, malicious and compromised users cause most losses, and that content rules alone cannot tell them apart. Enterprise DLP pairs data detection with a view of how a person behaves around sensitive files, and the page says detection, policy enforcement and incident response sit in one console covering email, cloud apps and endpoints.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only: the product page offers a demo and a solution brief, and no price. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Companies already protecting email with Proofpoint
- Strengths: Cross-channel DLP for email, cloud apps and endpoints; User behavior context; Single investigation console.
Where it falls short
The DLP story is split across Enterprise DLP, Adaptive Email DLP, Insider Threat Management and a posture product, so a buyer must work out which SKU solves the actual problem. No price is published.
Wrong for
Not for a buyer who wants one priced, self-serve product, or whose email already sits in Microsoft 365 with its own DLP.
Visit Proofpoint Enterprise DLP →
#7 Forcepoint DLP
Policy-heavy DLP for regulated enterprises, in SaaS or on-premises form · United States · forcepoint.com
On-premises option 2,000+ templates Compliance
Forcepoint is the long-standing name in the category, and the vendor's own page says so, with 12,000 customers and more than fifteen years of DLP. What a buyer actually gets for the effort is breadth: over 2,000 policy and classifier templates, regulations for more than 90 countries, and an on-premises, cloud or hybrid choice that few competitors still offer.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only: the page offers a Request Pricing button and no list price. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Regulated enterprises with compliance-driven policies
- Strengths: 2,000+ policy and classifier templates; Regulations for 90+ countries; SaaS, on-premises or hybrid deployment.
Where it falls short
Power comes with weight. Getting value from 2,000 templates means a policy owner and a tuning calendar, and the on-premises option brings servers to maintain. The price is hidden behind a request form.
Wrong for
Not for a small team or a cloud-only company that wants to be live in an afternoon.
Visit Forcepoint DLP →
#8 Netskope One DLP
DLP delivered inside a security service edge platform · United States · netskope.com
Security service edge Inline inspection User coaching
Netskope One DLP is the right shape for a company that already wants to inspect web and cloud traffic at the edge and would rather add data controls to that stream than run a separate DLP stack. The vendor describes one policy framework covering web, SaaS, email, endpoints and AI environments, so a rule written for email applies to an upload.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only: the product page publishes no price and routes buyers to a general Get Started action. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Teams consolidating web, cloud and DLP security
- Strengths: Single policy framework across web, SaaS, email, endpoints and AI; Real-time inline inspection of GenAI traffic; Pop-up user coaching.
Where it falls short
DLP here is a module of a wider platform, so the cheapest way to use it is to adopt the platform. Inline inspection requires steering traffic through the vendor's cloud, which is a networking project for a small company.
Wrong for
Not for a buyer who only wants to stop USB copying or who has no appetite to reroute traffic.
Visit Netskope One DLP →
#9 Palo Alto Networks Enterprise DLP
Cloud-delivered DLP inside Prisma SASE · United States · paloaltonetworks.com
Prisma SASE ML classification Major vendor
Palo Alto Networks sells DLP as part of Prisma SASE, and its pages describe the usual strengths of a network vendor, one set of policies for on-premises networks, hybrid users, email, endpoints, a secure browser, private apps and SaaS. The classification story is concrete: more than 300 LLM-augmented identifiers, thousands of data identifiers and over 100 trainable ML classifiers, alongside Exact Data Matching and OCR.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only: the page offers a contact route and no price; the product is sold as part of Prisma SASE. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Existing Palo Alto Networks customers
- Strengths: Precision AI-driven data classification; 300+ LLM-augmented identifiers; 100+ trainable ML classifiers.
Where it falls short
Outside the Palo Alto estate it has little to offer, because the DLP is a feature of the SASE platform and not a stand-alone product. No price is published.
Wrong for
Not for a company with no Palo Alto footprint or no plan to buy SASE.
Visit Palo Alto Networks Enterprise DLP →
#10 Zscaler DLP
DLP built into the Zscaler inline security cloud · United States · zscaler.com
Inline security cloud Email and endpoint DLP Major vendor
Zscaler describes its DLP as natively integrated in its inline security cloud, so inspection of web traffic, including TLS, happens in the same pass as everything else the platform does. Its page lists Exact Data Match, Indexed Document Matching and OCR for precise detection, email DLP through an SMTP relay with no configuration change, and a lightweight endpoint agent for devices.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only: the vendor's page offers a demo and a data sheet, and no price. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Zscaler Internet Access customers
- Strengths: Centralized policy across web, endpoint, email, SaaS and private apps; TLS/SSL inspection at scale; Exact Data Match.
Where it falls short
DLP is a feature of a platform that you buy for web security first. A buyer without Zscaler Internet Access will be adding a proxy migration to a data project.
Wrong for
Not for a company that wants a stand-alone DLP with no traffic steering.
Visit Zscaler DLP →
#11 Varonis
Agentless, cloud-native DLP for data at rest and exposure · United States · varonis.com
Agentless Data at rest Free risk assessment
Varonis starts from a different question, which is where sensitive data already sits and who can reach it. Its DLP page describes an agentless, cloud-native design that reads structured databases, unstructured files and semi-structured SaaS data through APIs, classifies what it finds and fixes exposure such as public links and over-broad permissions.
- Pricing: Quote only. Quote only: the page offers a demo and a free risk assessment, and no price. Free plan: none.
- Best for: Teams with sprawling Microsoft 365 and cloud storage
- Strengths: API-based analysis and monitoring; Discovery of sensitive data in databases, files and SaaS; Detection of public exposure and misconfigurations.
Where it falls short
There is no endpoint agent in the design its page describes, so USB copying, printing and local clipboard movement are not what it watches.
Wrong for
Not for a buyer worried about people carrying files out on devices and drives.
Visit Varonis →
Questions and answers
What is the best data loss prevention software in 2026?
Endpoint Protector ranks first of 11, best for small and mid-sized teams with mixed-OS laptops. Mimecast Incydr is second (lean security teams without a DLP administrator) and Nightfall AI third (saaS-heavy companies worried about AI leakage). Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands, wherever the category has them.
How much does DLP software cost?
Microsoft lists the Purview Suite at $12.00 per user per month, paid yearly, and it requires Microsoft 365 E3 or an equivalent pairing.
What is the difference between DLP and insider-risk software?
Classic DLP inspects content against rules, such as a card number or a project codename, and blocks the transfer. Insider-risk software watches behavior, such as an employee bulk-downloading files before resigning, and scores it.
Does DLP software work with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace?
Yes, but unevenly. Purview is native to Microsoft 365 and covers email, SharePoint, Teams and devices. Nightfall connects to Google Drive, Gmail, Microsoft OneDrive, Exchange and SharePoint through API integrations. Varonis reads Microsoft 365 and cloud storage by API.
Can DLP stop employees pasting data into ChatGPT?
Several vendors say so. Endpoint Protector says it blocks or restricts uploads to ChatGPT, Copilot and other AI apps and controls clipboard activity. Netskope inspects GenAI traffic inline, and Cyberhaven and Nightfall describe shadow AI discovery and blocking.
Do we need DLP if we already have Microsoft Purview?
Often not at first. Purview's policy engine, labels and audit trail are already in the tenant if you own the right licence. Gaps appear on non-Microsoft SaaS, macOS and Linux endpoints, and in insider-risk context outside the Microsoft estate.
What is endpoint DLP versus network DLP versus cloud DLP?
Endpoint DLP runs an agent on the laptop and controls USB, printing, clipboard and uploads at the point of action. Network DLP inspects traffic at a proxy, relay or gateway, which is what Netskope, Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks sell.
How long does DLP take to deploy?
It depends on the route. Nightfall claims deployment in about an hour and Mimecast Incydr says live in days, both vendor claims.
Is DLP required for GDPR or HIPAA?
Neither law names DLP as a required product. GDPR requires appropriate technical and organizational measures for personal data, and HIPAA requires safeguards for protected health information.
Which DLP products work on macOS and Linux?
Endpoint Protector lists Windows, macOS and Linux agents with the same module set. Cyberhaven lists Windows, Mac, Linux and virtual desktops. Purview's page highlights built-in controls for Windows devices, so check its Mac coverage for your policy types.
Can a small business use DLP without a security team?
Yes, if you choose a product that does not demand policy authoring. Mimecast Incydr and Nightfall both advertise visibility with no tuning cycle, and Endpoint Protector is built around a handful of modules a generalist can manage.
