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Feature comparison: Microsoft Sentinel analytics rules and Microsoft Defender custom detections

This article lists and compares the different features supported by Microsoft Sentinel analytics rules and Microsoft Defender custom detections. It also provides additional information, such as plans to support any analytics rules capabilities that aren't available in custom detections, if applicable.

Important

Custom detections is now the best way to create new rules across Microsoft Sentinel SIEM Microsoft Defender XDR. With custom detections, you can reduce ingestion costs, get unlimited real-time detections, and benefit from seamless integration with Defender XDR data, functions, and remediation actions with automatic entity mapping. For more information, read this blog.

Compare analytics rules and custom detections features

Feature Capability Analytics rules Custom detections
Alert enrichment Flexible entity mapping over Sentinel data Supported Supported
Link multiple MITRE tactics Supported Planned
Support full list of MITRE techniques and subtechniques Supported Planned
Enrich alerts with custom details Supported Supported
Define alert title and description dynamically - Integrate query results in runtime Supported Supported
Define all alerts properties dynamically - Integrate query results in runtime Supported Planned
Rule frequency Support flexible and high frequency for Sentinel data Supported Supported
Near-real-time (NRT) rules on Sentinel data Supported Planned
NRT streaming technology - Test events as they stream, not sensitive to ingestion delays Not supported. Analytics NRT rules test events after they're ingested. Supported
Determine rule's first run Supported Not supported
Rule lookback Lookback support Lookback is flexible:
  • Up to 48 hours for frequency higher than one hour
  • Up to 14 days for frequency of one hour and less
Lookback is statically determined by the frequency: Equals four times the frequency or 30 days for a frequency of 24 hours or less.

Parity with analytics rules is planned
Rule data Defender XDR data Not supported Supported
Sentinel analytics tier Supported Supported
Automated actions Native Defender XDR remediation actions Not supported Supported
Sentinel automation rules with incident trigger Supported Planned
Sentinel automation rules with alert trigger Supported Planned
Audit and health visibility Rules audit logs available in advanced hunting Supported (in the SentinelAudit table) Exposed in the CloudAppEvents table for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps users.

This capability will be available for all custom detections users in the future.
Rules health logs available in advanced hunting Supported (in the SentinelHealth table) Planned
Control alerts and events grouping Customize alert grouping logic Supported Not supported. In the SIEM and XDR solutions, the correlation engine takes care of the alerts' grouping logic and can address the need to configure the grouping logic.
Choose between all events under one alert and one alert per event Supported Not supported
Group events to one alert when custom details, alert dynamic details, and entities are identical Not supported Supported
Control incidents and alerts creation Exclude incidents from correlation engine - Ensure that incidents from different rules remain separated Planned Planned
Create alerts without incidents Supported Not supported
Alerts suppression - Define alert suppression after the rule runs Supported Not supported
Rules management Rerun rule on demand on a previous time window Supported Planned
Run rule on demand Not supported Supported
Health and quality workbooks Supported Planned
Integration with Sentinel repositories Supported Planned
Manage rules from API Supported Supported
Bicep support Supported Planned
Content hub Create rules from content hub Supported Planned
Multi workspace Create custom detections on any workspaces onboarded to Defender Supported Planned
Cross workspaces detection using the workspace operator Supported Planned
Testing and validations Rule simulation from the rule's wizard Supported Planned