Hybrid AD ManagerHybrid AD Manager vs ManageEngine ADManager Plus
ADManager Plus is the best-known Active Directory management product, and if you are looking at Hybrid AD Manager you have probably looked at it too. Both install on a Windows server and are used from a web browser, on a Mac or Linux machine as easily as on Windows. Both have a free edition, a 30-day trial and a REST API.
They are built on different ideas, and that matters more than any feature list. This page sets out both, and which kind of team each suits.
ManageEngine's figures are from their published US price list and documentation as of October 2026. Check their pricing page for current prices.
The short version
ADManager Plus is a broad help desk platform. Approval workflows, automation, scheduled reports, a report library in the hundreds, bulk changes from CSV, help desk delegation with its own role model, Microsoft 365 licence management, backup and governance add-ons, and phone support around the clock.
Hybrid AD Manager is the Microsoft consoles, rebuilt for the browser. Users and Computers, Sites and Services, Domains and Trusts, DNS and Group Policy Management laid out as you already know them, your Entra ID tenant merged into the same view, and administrators working with their own Active Directory rights. It costs less and asks less of you: one MSI, no database, and nothing new to learn.
Price
Annual prices in US dollars.
| Hybrid AD Manager Standard | ADManager Plus Standard | ADManager Plus Professional | |
|---|---|---|---|
| One domain, two administrators | $365 | $595 | $1,795 |
| Five administrators | $590 | $1,195 | $3,345 |
| Ten administrators | $965 | $2,295 | $5,995 |
| Each additional domain | $180 | $345 | $595 |
| Entra ID / Microsoft 365 | One tenant included | Included | Included |
The administrator rows are not exactly like for like. A Hybrid AD Manager seat is one administrator signed in at a time, and any of your administrators can hold it. ADManager Plus prices named help desk technicians, in fixed steps, with one administrator account included in every licence. So the comparison is indicative rather than exact, and concurrent seats usually go further than named ones.
Hybrid AD Manager's Pro edition, for multiple forests and tenants, is quoted from $995.
Free editions and trials
| Hybrid AD Manager | ADManager Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Free edition | Every console, read-only. The whole directory can be browsed; each list shows its first 15 items. No reports. Never expires. | Standard features, with changes, for up to 100 objects in one domain. Never expires. |
| Trial | 30 days of the full Standard edition, then back to the free edition by itself | 30 days, fully functional, then converts to the free edition |
The free editions answer different questions. ADManager Plus lets you make changes in a very small domain; Hybrid AD Manager lets you look at all of a real one.
How they work
Who makes the change. In Hybrid AD Manager, administrators sign in with their own Active Directory accounts and every change is made with their own rights. What someone can do is exactly what Active Directory already lets them do, and there is no second permission model to maintain. ADManager Plus has its own delegation: help desk technicians are given roles in the product, which acts on their behalf. That is a real strength when you want to delegate tasks without touching directory permissions, and a second set of permissions to keep straight when you do not.
What it looks like. Hybrid AD Manager follows the Microsoft consoles: a tree, a list, right-click menus and property sheets with the tabs ADUC has, including the Security tab's Advanced permissions editor and an Attribute Editor. If your team thinks in ADUC, there is nothing to learn. ADManager Plus has its own interface, organised by task, which suits help desk staff who were never ADUC users.
What it needs to run. Hybrid AD Manager is one MSI on Windows Server 2019 or later, with no database; its settings are a folder. ADManager Plus runs on Windows with a bundled PostgreSQL database by default, or Microsoft SQL Server.
The cloud side. ADManager Plus manages Microsoft 365 accounts and licences, and can create the Active Directory and Microsoft 365 accounts in one pass. Hybrid AD Manager merges your Entra ID tenant into the same view, marks every account as synced, cloud-only or on-premises only, and offboards a leaver on both sides in one action. The cloud side is read and changed with each administrator's own Microsoft sign-in, so the application holds no permissions of its own in your tenant, nobody can do more through the console than in the Entra admin centre, and Entra ID's own audit log names the person who made the change.
Where ADManager Plus fits
It is built for large help desk operations, with:
- Approval workflows and automation (Professional edition)
- Scheduled reports, and a library of around 200 reports
- Bulk creation and changes from CSV files
- Delegation to help desk technicians, by OU and group in the Professional edition
- Microsoft 365 licence management, Exchange and Google Workspace
- Backup and recovery, and governance and compliance, as paid add-ons
- Phone support, 24/7 live support and training webinars
Where Hybrid AD Manager fits
It is built for administrators who work in the Microsoft consoles, with:
- The five Microsoft consoles, in the layout administrators already know, in one browser window
- Administrators' own Active Directory rights, with no separate permission model
- Entra ID merged into the same tree, rather than managed alongside it
- Leavers: offboarding across Active Directory and Entra ID in one action, with a record of what changed and a way to put it back
- One MSI, no database, nothing sent outside your network
- Under two-thirds of the price for two administrators, about half for five, and well under half for ten
Which suits you
Hybrid AD Manager suits teams whose administrators work in the Microsoft consoles, some of them from a Mac or Linux machine, running a hybrid estate with Entra ID, who want those consoles without a jump box at a price a small team can approve.
ADManager Plus suits large help desk operations built around approval workflows, automation and scheduled reporting.
The quickest way to decide is to see your own directory in Hybrid AD Manager: the free edition installs in minutes, and the 30-day trial unlocks the full Standard edition.
Download Hybrid AD Manager · Start a 30-day trial · See pricing