What Cayosoft does

Cayosoft, Inc. is a privately held software company headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, that builds an agentless, API-driven platform for managing, monitoring and recovering hybrid Microsoft identity environments. Its technology unifies administration across Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online and Intune through a single console, replacing the fragmented native consoles and PowerShell-based workflows common in mid-market and enterprise IT shops. Core technology components include policy-driven runbooks, HR/ERP/SIS-driven identity lifecycle automation, real-time change monitoring with one-click rollback, an Observational Change Data model that detects indicators of exposure, compromise and attack, and a patent-pending continuously validated standby-forest architecture that enables Active Directory forest recovery in minutes rather than days or weeks.

The company sells through a hybrid go-to-market combining direct enterprise field sales, a product-led growth motion anchored by a permanently free Guardian Protector tier, and the Cayosoft ADvantage Partner Program (ADvocate/ADvisor tiers) targeting resellers, MSPs, cloud service providers and systems integrators. Revenue is generated primarily through annual subscriptions for Cayosoft Administrator and the three Guardian Platform tiers (Protector free, Audit & Restore paid, Instant Forest Recovery highest), supplemented by tiered support packages (Standard, Professional, Enterprise) and professional services. Recent strategic extensions include Cayosoft Microsoft Migration Services (in partnership with XMS Solutions, May 2026), a forthcoming Cayosoft Guardian SaaS deployment option, and an Identity Forensics & Incident Response service launched alongside Guardian 7.2's AI agent identity monitoring at RSA 2026.

Cayosoft serves federal and state government, healthcare, education, manufacturing, telecommunications and financial services customers, with named logos including the IRS, State of New Mexico, State Department of IT, Honeywell, The Auto Club Group (AAA), Mednax, US Cellular, NTT Data and Citrus Health Network. The company reports 5+ million users managed worldwide, 99% three-year customer retention, a 5.0 Gartner Peer Insights rating and SOC 2 Type II certification, and is a member of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association. The company is backed by Centana Growth Partners following a $22.5 million private equity round announced in March 2024.

Name

Cayosoft

Legal name

Cayosoft, Inc.

Website

https://cayosoft.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Cayosoft, Inc. is a privately held software company that provides an agentless, unified management, monitoring and recovery platform for hybrid Microsoft identity environments (Active Directory, Entra ID, M365, Teams, Intune, Exchange), serving federal and commercial enterprise customers through subscriptions, a free Guardian Protector tier and a channel partner program.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Active Directory Management and Recovery Software

NAICS

Computer Facilities Management Services (541513)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Identity Orchestration & Policy (Zero Trust Access, Conditional Access) (HDADAAAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

User Lifecycle Provisioning & SCIM Automation (HDAEAJAK), Cloud Identity & Access Management Infrastructure (IAM/IdP/MFA) (HDABAHAF), Business Continuity Management (BCM) Platforms (HDABAIAD)

Keywords

• Active Directory management
• Hybrid identity security
• Identity threat detection
• Active Directory recovery
• Identity governance automation

Headquarters

HQ city

Westerville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Software Subscriptions: Annual subscription licensing for Cayosoft Administrator, Guardian Audit & Restore, and Guardian Instant Forest Recovery. Licensing is flexible, based on managed users or functional needs. Products offered in tiered tiers (Protector free, Audit & Restore paid, Instant Forest Recovery highest tier).
2. Support Services: Tiered support packages including Standard Support (included), Professional Support (additional purchase, 24x5), and Enterprise Support (additional purchase, 24x7 for P1 issues). Enterprise includes named Technical Success Rep, Executive Sponsorship, Customer Advisory Board invitation, and proactive upgrade planning.
3. Professional Services: Implementation and deployment services including white-glove onboarding, deployment professional services (8 hours Professional, 40 hours Enterprise), and the new Cayosoft Microsoft Migration Services delivered in partnership with XMS Solutions.
4. Freemium (Guardian Protector): Free forever threat detection and change monitoring product with unlimited object coverage, real-time alerts, and exportable audit logs. No trial expiration, no throttled dashboards, no hidden paywalls. Advanced rollback and forest recovery are optional paid upgrades.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Cayosoft provides a hybrid Microsoft identity management and resilience platform that unifies administration, monitoring, and recovery of Active Directory together with Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Intune, Exchange, and Teams through an agentless, API-driven console. Its Administrator product automates identity lifecycle, provisioning, license management, and Zero Trust delegation, while the Guardian Platform delivers continuous change monitoring, one-click rollback, and patent-pending instant Active Directory forest recovery in minutes.

Product overview

Cayosoft is a hybrid Active Directory management and recovery platform delivered as a unified enterprise suite. The core product architecture consists of two primary product lines: Cayosoft Administrator, which unifies and automates day-to-day identity lifecycle management, provisioning, license optimization, and delegation across hybrid AD, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Exchange, Teams, and Intune; and the Cayosoft Guardian Platform — an award-winning identity resilience platform offered in three escalating tiers — Guardian Protector (free real-time threat detection), Guardian Audit & Restore (adds instant rollback and audit-ready compliance), and Guardian Instant Forest Recovery (adds patented instant AD forest recovery in minutes). Supporting service offerings include the newly launched Microsoft Migration Services (developed with XMS Solutions) for continuous identity modernization, and the Identity Forensics & Incident Response (IFIR) service for expert-led hybrid identity incident response. Cayosoft also embeds free Active Directory tools (Guardian Protector free tier, Administrator trial, Guardian trial) that are maintained and updated alongside the commercial products. The company holds SOC 2 Type II certification and is a Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA) member.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Cayosoft Guardian Platform: Unified identity resilience platform to monitor and recover across the entire Microsoft hybrid identity stack.
• Cayosoft Administrator
• Cayosoft Guardian Protector
• Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore
• Cayosoft Guardian Instant Forest Recovery

Products and services

• Cayosoft Administrator Unified hybrid Active Directory management console that automates identity lifecycle (provisioning, deprovisioning, license management) and enforces Zero Trust delegation and policy-driven controls across Active Directory, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Exchange, Teams, and Intune from a single web interface, replacing disconnected native consoles and PowerShell scripts. Target users are enterprise IT administrators, identity management teams, and managed service providers managing hybrid Microsoft environments.
• Cayosoft Guardian Protector Free, always-on, real-time threat detection and change monitoring solution for Microsoft hybrid identity environments, providing continuous visibility across Active Directory, Entra ID, Microsoft 365, Teams, Exchange Online, and Intune with no agents and no trial expiration, intended to drive grassroots IT admin adoption and serve as the entry point to the Guardian Platform.
• Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore Paid second tier of the Guardian Platform that adds one-click rollback of identity changes, granular recovery of users/groups/attributes/GPOs/policies, immutable audit-ready reporting for SOX/HIPAA/GDPR/NIST compliance, real-time alerts with remediation workflows, SIEM integration, and Zero Trust enforcement with role-based access and least privilege controls, sold as an annual subscription for organizations needing audit-ready change control.
• Cayosoft Guardian Instant Forest Recovery Highest tier of the Guardian Platform offering patent-pending instant Active Directory forest recovery, including a continuously tested malware-safe isolated standby forest enabling AD cutover in minutes, automated daily pre-recovery, fully orchestrated DNS/SYSVOL/FSMO recovery, and guaranteed restoration that reduces recovery time from days/weeks to minutes for enterprises needing guaranteed AD disaster recovery.
• Cayosoft Microsoft Migration Services End-to-end Microsoft migration service developed in partnership with XMS Solutions to help organizations modernize identity infrastructure across Active Directory, Entra ID, and Microsoft 365, including pre-migration assessments, phased execution, data validation, and post-migration monitoring and governance, with positioning as a continuous identity modernization model rather than a one-time project for MSPs and large enterprises.
• Identity Forensics & Incident Response (IFIR) Service Incident response service designed for Microsoft hybrid identity environments, combining expert-led investigation with automated recovery and guaranteed Active Directory restoration in minutes, announced March 2026 at RSA 2026 and sold as a paid service engagement for organizations experiencing AD compromise, ransomware impact, or hybrid identity incidents.

Quantifiable outcome

• 99% less downtime during AD disasters (Paradigm Technica validated)
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability7 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• XMS SolutionscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 May 2026Strategic partnership to deliver Cayosoft Microsoft Migration Services for organizations modernizing identity and collaboration environments across Active Directory, Entra ID, and Microsoft 365. XMS Solutions provides expert-led migration execution while Cayosoft provides the platform for ongoing management, monitoring, and recovery.
• BlueAlly Technology SolutionsminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPartner in the Cayosoft ADvantage Partner Program. CTO David Coulter quoted endorsing Cayosoft's innovative solutions for hybrid infrastructures.
• Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA)coreTechnology or IntegrationCayosoft is a member of Microsoft Intelligent Security Association, recognizing exceptional partners contributing to cybersecurity innovation within the Microsoft ecosystem.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Quest Software: Quest is a direct competitor in AD management, migration, and recovery, with On Demand Recovery and Recovery Manager for AD competing directly against Cayosoft's Guardian platform; Cayosoft explicitly lists Quest on its competitor replacement page.
• Netwrix: Netwrix is a direct competitor in AD auditing, change monitoring, and access governance; its Netwrix Auditor and StealthAUDIT products compete with Cayosoft Guardian Audit & Restore for AD change visibility and compliance reporting.
• Saviynt: Saviynt is a direct competitor in identity governance and administration (IGA), addressing hybrid identity lifecycle, access reviews, and least-privilege enforcement across Microsoft and multi-cloud environments similar to Cayosoft Administrator.
• One Identity (Quest): One Identity is a direct competitor in identity governance, privileged access management, and AD management, with One Identity Manager and Safeguard overlapping Cayosoft's lifecycle automation and delegation use cases.
• BeyondTrust: BeyondTrust is a direct competitor in privileged access management and AD delegation, with products that overlap Cayosoft's Zero Trust delegation and role-based access control functionality for hybrid Microsoft environments.
• Semperis: Semperis is a direct competitor focused on Active Directory forest recovery, identity threat detection, and incident response, with overlapping products like Directory Services Protector and Active Directory Forest Recovery that compete head-to-head with Cayosoft Guardian.

Broad incumbents

• Rubrik: Rubrik is a broader incumbent in enterprise data backup and recovery that competes at the high end of AD forest recovery; Cayosoft explicitly lists Rubrik on its competitor replacement page, though Rubrik's identity coverage is one piece of a wider data-security portfolio.
• Commvault: Commvault is a broad incumbent in enterprise backup and disaster recovery that overlaps Cayosoft's forest recovery use case as part of a larger data-protection portfolio; Cayosoft lists Commvault on its competitor replacement page.
• CrowdStrike: CrowdStrike is a broad incumbent in endpoint and identity threat detection whose Falcon Identity Threat Protection competes with Cayosoft Guardian Protector; CrowdStrike brings significantly larger scale and an adjacent platform angle.
• Microsoft (Entra ID / M365 native): Microsoft's native Entra ID, Microsoft 365, and Intune administration tools are the implicit baseline competitor; any expansion of native change monitoring, rollback, or forest recovery features inside the Microsoft stack directly competes with Cayosoft's premium differentiated layers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/cayosoft
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/Cayosoft
• Facebookfacebook.com/Cayosoft
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cayosoft

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cayosoft