9 Top Data Classification Tools

Data classification doesn't have to be a laborious—or manual—process.

The nine tools on this list make it easy to find, classify, govern, and even mask sensitive data across your entire system.

1. Varonis

Varonis is an automatic data classification engine.

The tool supports over 400 different privacy regulations, from GDPR and CCPA to HIPAA and PCI-DSS.

Once you indicate which privacy regulations or policies your company needs to follow, Varonis will continually scan your data for compliance.

The software will find and label sensitive data within your system. From there, you can decide to:

• Adjust data access controls
• Delete certain data points
• Quarantine data that’s at risk of exposure

Plus, Varonis maintains a file audit trail, so you can see when a policy was last updated or a file scanned.

The Varonis data classification engine is part of a larger suite of compliance tools. If you need more than one type of data management or security solution in your business, it's worth taking a closer look at Varonis products.

How Much Does Varonis Cost?

Varonis doesn't publish its pricing publicly, so you'll need to request a 30-minute demo and speak to a Varonis team member for more information.

2. Fortra Digital Guardian

Fortra Digital Guardian is a combination of automatic and manual tools to streamline big data classification.

Like Varonis, Fortra Digital Guardian will scan and label your data based on its content or context. These classification parameters may be based on:

• Privacy regulations
• Intellectual property ownership
• Data type
• Data content
• Authorship
• Potential threats

You can then review the data and decide to take action on it—or manually reclassify data points yourself.

Digital Guardian integrates directly with Microsoft Office applications, too, so it's a nice choice if your organization stores its data in Excel or Access. The tool works with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux systems, too.

How Much Does Fortra Digital Guardian Cost?

All pricing is customized based on your needs, so you'll have to get in touch with the Fortra team to request a quote.

3. ManageEngine DataSecurity Plus

ManageEngine DataSecurity Plus is a tool for personal data classification, risk management, and data loss prevention.

ManageEngine can identify both personally identifiable information (PII) and electronically protected personal health information (ePHI). It does this through the use of built-in regulatory compliance guidelines based on data privacy laws.

Once you specify what data you need to label—and what rules you must comply with—ManageEngine automates the process. It can:

• Locate enterprise data files containing PII and ePHI
• Identify files that may be at risk in a potential data breach
• Conduct a data risk assessment and assign risk scores to files
• Help you prevent data leakage through Outlook emails or external storage drives

You can also manually classify PII and ePHI data sets as you work within the tool.

Given this platform's focus on health data, ManageEngine is best suited for teams dealing with medical information—be that within a hospital system or a corporate environmental health and safety (EHS) department.

How Much Does ManageEngine DataSecurity Plus Cost?

You can download a ManageEngine DataSecurity Plus trial for free. If you'd like to continue using the software after your trial ends, you'll have to contact the company for a full price quote.

4. Satori

Satori is a platform for automatically finding and masking sensitive data.

The tool connects to various data stores, including Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, and more. By setting up automated workflows, you can use Satori to:

• Scan enterprise analytics and operational data
• Manage data access permissions
• Protect sensitive information
• Set security policies that vary by data source
• Allow teams to access data through integrations with enterprise apps like Slack and Jira

Plus, you don't need to write any code to connect Satori to various data lakes, warehouses, and tools.

How Much Does Satori Cost?

Satori pricing isn't public, so you'll need to contact the company to request a price quote.

5. Imperva

Imperva is a platform for auditing and classifying structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.

The tool connects to a wide range of enterprise tools including:

• Sharepoint
• Microsoft Teams
• Slack
• Corporate email systems

This means that you aren't limited to scanning specific data storage warehouses—Imperva lets see what kinds of data might be at risk of exposure through emails, messages, and unprotected network drives. It can scan multiple file types too, including images and PDF files.

That said, Imperva connects to major cloud and on-premises data warehouses like:

• Snowflake
• MongoDB
• SAP
• Datastax
• IBM DB2
• Microsoft SQL

This means that you can use the one tool to find, classify, and protect all of your company's information, no matter where it's housed.

How Much Does Imperva Cost?

Pricing for the full Imperva data classification software platform is customized to your needs, so you'll have to contact the company for a quote.

You can also opt to download Imperva Classifier, a free tool that lets you scan your enterprise databases and get a sense for how Imperva works.

6. OneTrust

OneTrust is an artificial intelligence (AI) powered data discovery and classification platform.

The OneTrust data classification process involves scanning files from connected sources that can include:

• Unstructured file sharing networks
• Enterprise databases
• Data lakes and warehouses
• Google Drive
• Sharepoint
• SaaS tools
• ZIP files

Like Imperva, OneTrust can even scan PDFs and images. It uses optical character recognition (OCR) to identify potentially sensitive data in these files.

Once OneTrust finds data in your systems, it can automatically classify it based on different rules that you set within the tool.

Plus, the platform directly integrates with popular customer service ticketing systems like Zendesk and ServiceNow. This allows your support teams to pass on and resolve customer requests for data access or deletion.

How Much Does OneTrust Cost?

Like many other data classification platforms, OneTrust doesn't publish its pricing online. You'll need to contact the OneTrust team to request a demo or free trial along with a price quote.

7. Forcepoint

Forcepoint is an AI-powered data classification solution for unstructured data.

Forcepoint works with data warehouses, cloud storage, network drives, corporate email systems, and more to help prevent the loss of data marked as sensitive.

When using Forcepoint, you can:

• Set data classification policies
• Set up automatic data protection rules
• View a map of all the unstructured data found throughout your organization
• Automatically adjust data security policies within the app based on changing risk assessments

The platform uses AI to understand the context around how data should be classified, and what its risk level is. You can tell the tool to follow specific data protocols, like GDPR or HIPAA, and customize parameters without code.

How Much Does Forcepoint Cost?

Forcepoint's data classification tool is part of a larger suite of software for data management and compliance. You'll need to contact the Forcepoint team to discuss exactly what you need and request a customized price quote.

8. Atlan

Atlan is a data governance system with AI capabilities.

You can use the Atlan platform to:

• Discover and label data
• Apply access and governance rules based on data type
• Approve changes to existing, labeled data sets
• Automatically apply data policies to tagged data
• Chat with the Atlan AI to understand, manipulate, use, and govern data

Like several other tools on this list, Atlan comes complete with built-in privacy regulations, called "playbooks." These playbooks follow requirements set forth by laws like GDPR, and allow you to identify and label PII within your system. You can label data based on its purpose or source, too.

Atlan can also hash and mask sensitive data so it's not readable by unauthorized parties.

How Much Does Atlan Cost?

You'll have to book a demo session with the Atlan team in order to learn more about pricing.

9. Securiti

Securiti is an automatic data classification and labeling tool.

The platform uses machine learning to recognize patterns in documents that may include sensitive information. It can recognize things like:

• Privacy consent forms
• Healthcare forms
• Financial statements
• Sales documents
• Credit reports
• Transcripts
• Copies of ID cards

You can then direct Securiti to apply labels based on a file's type or purpose.

Security pulls its labels from your company's Microsoft security center—so you'll need to use that service in order for this tool to work. That said, it can apply labels to data across multiple storage areas, including:

• Google Drive
• Dropbox
• AWS
• Azure Cloud
• Workday
• Oracle
• Salesforce

Securiti's data classification tool is part of a larger suite of products that includes solutions for data governance, cookie consent management, privacy notice management, and more.

How Much Does Securiti Cost?

You'll need to talk to the Securiti team to learn more about their full suite of products and get a quote based on your company's needs.

Conclusion

Data classification is an important process, but one that works best in tandem with a robust data management process. If you're still working out how to best store and organize your organization's data, check out our complete list of the top data management tools for more useful suggestions.