Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Microsoft Defender vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks comparison

Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 19, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.9
SentinelOne Singularity enhances cloud security efficiency, saving time and costs, reducing breaches, and offering substantial ROI with valued integration.
Sentiment score
7.4
Cortex Cloud provides effective automation, enhances security, reduces costs, and optimizes resources, offering significant value despite its cost.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Cloud enhances security, reduces costs, and improves efficiency, offering proactive vulnerability identification and significant benefits.
The detailed information PingSafe gives about how to fix vulnerabilities reduces the time spent on remediation by about 70 to 80 percent.
After implementing SentinelOne, it takes about five to seven minutes.
Our ability to get in and review our vulnerability stance, whether daily, monthly, weekly, or whatever it might be, has drastically improved over our prior provider.
Before, we had a few staff members who monitored our environment, but now the alerting and other processes happen automatically, so there is a good ROI in terms of resources.
It eliminates the need for additional hardware, making it a financially and technically sound investment.
It helped reduce risks and sped up threat detection.
Defender proactively indexes and analyzes documents, identifying potential threats even when inactive, enhancing preventative security.
Identifying potential vulnerabilities has helped us avoid costly data losses.
The biggest return on investment is the rapid improvement of security posture.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security provides efficient customer service, rated highly for prompt and effective support across various channels.
Sentiment score
7.1
Cortex Cloud provides prompt technical support, highly rated despite occasional delays, with integration offering added benefits.
Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Defender for Cloud support varies in quality; enterprise users report better experiences, while others face inconsistencies and delays.
When we send an email, they respond quickly and proactively provide solutions.
They took direct responsibility for the system and could solve queries quickly.
Having a reliable team ready and willing to assist with any issues is essential.
Whenever I have issues with the solution, I will get an immediate response from the product team and they will try to close the issue as soon as possible.
When you send them a message, you get a response in a minute or two.
They can respond with technical documentation or pass on the case to the next level because it requires the development of a new feature or changing a feature due to a bug.
Since security is critical, we prefer a quicker response time.
The support team was very responsive to queries.
They understand their product, but much like us, they struggle with the finer details, especially with new features.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is highly scalable, seamlessly integrating and auto-scaling in diverse environments with minimal infrastructure concerns.
Sentiment score
7.8
Cortex Cloud ensures scalable integrations in cloud environments, praised for adaptability despite some module limitations and licensing constraints.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is scalable and flexible, integrates easily, but may have scalability and cost concerns at large scales.
As soon as we need to add somebody, we just add them to NinjaOne, and then we have a script set up where it automatically deploys and adds them to whichever group we need.
I would rate it a 10 out of 10 for scalability.
Scalability is no longer a concern because Cloud Native Security is a fully cloud-based resource.
It's very scalable and very easy to use.
It's the type of tool that is constantly improving, and its scalability suits our environment well.
Nowadays, all cloud solutions are scalable; scalability should be a given feature and does not need to be asked for.
We are using infrastructure as a code, so we do not have any scalability issues with Microsoft Defender for Cloud implementation because our cloud automatically does it.
Defender won't replace our endpoint XDR, but it will likely adapt and support any growth in the Microsoft Cloud space.
There might be scalability issues as you scale up to large enterprises.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is praised for reliability, stability, seamless AWS integration, with minimal bugs and rare downtime.
Sentiment score
8.0
Cortex Cloud offers strong stability and reliability, excelling in handling enterprise needs with minimal disruptions and swift incident resolution.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is reliable with minor downtime and occasional portal or connectivity issues, praised for overall performance.
In my experience, there has been 100 percent uptime.
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud is incredibly reliable.
The cloud console is very resilient.
I cannot recall any downtime with the solution.
I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.
I haven't seen any outages with Prisma Cloud.
Defender's stability has been flawless for us.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is very stable.
Microsoft sometimes changes settings or configurations without transparency.
 

Room For Improvement

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud should enhance search, reduce costs, optimize performance, integrate better, improve support, and lower false positives.
Cortex Cloud needs better documentation, user interface, API integration, automation, and support for diverse cloud environments with seamless third-party integration.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud users seek enhanced customization, better integration, improved dashboards, automation, and clearer pricing and documentation.
If I had to ask for anything to make it easier, it would be signed images that are GPG signed and a public repository where we can get the bits from.
If they can merge Kubernetes Security with other modules related to Kubernetes, that would help us to get more modules in the current subscription.
As organizations move to the cloud, a cloud posture management tool that offers complete cloud visibility becomes crucial for maintaining compliance.
Currently, it requires programming knowledge, so if someone without hardware programming knowledge could customize certain features to their requirements, it would be very helpful.
It is a SaaS solution, but some of my clients have a local regulatory requirement, and they want to install it locally on their premises.
From a developer's perspective, especially for organizations like banks developing their applications, ensuring API security before deploying them to the cloud is crucial.
Microsoft, in general, could significantly improve its communication and support.
The artificial intelligence features could be expanded to allow the system to autonomously manage security issues without needing intervention from admins.
I've heard there might be issues with scalability for larger enterprises.
 

Setup Cost

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers competitive pricing with flexible models, ideal for enterprises but potentially costly for smaller businesses.
Cortex Cloud offers premium security features with complex licensing; valued for integration but perceived as expensive compared to competitors.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides customizable pricing options, with debated cost-effectiveness, especially for extensive or regional deployments.
With very little negotiation involved, we just let them know what we could pay and they were willing to meet us at slightly above what we paid with Sophos, which was still very fair for what we were looking at.
The price was very, very important to us, and it came down to the price when we were doing our evaluations WatchGuard and SentinelOne.
Covering our 50,000 endpoints would have nearly bankrupted most security programs, even well-funded ones like ours.
A strategy to optimize costs will save you money.
The licensing model for data security should be compared to the native security offered by AWS and Azure.
Prisma Cloud is remarkably expensive.
Every time we consider expanding usage, we carefully evaluate the necessity due to cost concerns.
We appreciate the licensing approach based on employee count rather than a big enterprise license.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is pricey, especially for Kubernetes clusters.
 

Valuable Features

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers user-friendly, AI-driven threat detection and remediation, enhancing productivity and security efficiency.
Cortex Cloud excels in workload security with robust identity creation, AWS integration, and multi-cloud support for comprehensive protection.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides enhanced security, AI-driven insights, multi-cloud support, and integrates with Sentinel for proactive threat management.
The real-time detection and response capabilities of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud impressive because it is a platform that uses artificial intelligence to determine what is normal and what is abnormal and can lock down any virus it may encounter.
We were shown how ransomware can be immediately stopped in real-time. That was huge.
Our previous product took a lot of man hours to manage. Once we got Singularity Cloud Workload Security, it freed up our time to work on other tasks.
Prisma offers visibility to developers and high-level leadership because the dashboard is excellent and the alerts are comprehensive.
This alerting system allows me to take the necessary steps to secure it before any attack can occur, making it the best preventive measure for our cloud.
Its ease of integration is valuable because we need to get the solution out of the door quickly, so speed and ease matter.
The most valuable feature for me is the variety of APIs available.
This feature significantly aids in threat detection and enhances the user experience by streamlining security management.
The most valuable feature is the recommendations provided on how to improve security.
 

Categories and Ranking

SentinelOne Singularity Clo...
Sponsored
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
4th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
4th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (6th), Cloud and Data Center Security (5th), Container Security (3rd), Compliance Management (3rd)
Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto N...
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
1st
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
2nd
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (1st)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
3rd
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
3rd
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (7th), Container Management (9th), Container Security (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (4th), Compliance Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) category, the mindshare of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is 2.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 14.8%, down from 17.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 13.0%, down from 14.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Andrew W - PeerSpot reviewer
Tells us about vulnerabilities as well as their impact and helps to focus on real issues
Looking at all the different pieces, it has got everything we need. Some of the pieces we do not even use. For example, we do not have Kubernetes Security. We are not running any K8 clusters, so it is good for us. Overall, we find the solution to be fantastic. There can be additional education components. This may not be truly fair to them because of what the product is going for, but it would be great to see additional education for compliance. It is not a criticism of the tool per se, but anything to help non-development resources understand some of the complexities of the cloud is always appreciated. Any additional educational resources are always helpful for security teams, especially those without a development background.
Mohammad Qaw - PeerSpot reviewer
It gives you one console to see all of your assets, review their configurations, and build your processes
Most customers use Prisma Cloud for visibility and compliance. Prisma has so many features, but many organizations do not use them. They primarily use the visibility part to connect all their cloud accounts and hosts for visibility to see if they are missing any security controls or if they have any misconfigurations. You can connect it to cloud environments such as Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba, etc., or to an on-prem data center. Prisma Cloud gives you so many options to automate processes related to your daily operations. When it comes to cybersecurity, you can automate things with their existing APIs. They also have out-of-the-box integrations with many solutions. I have not seen any limitations. Everything is customizable. You can do whatever you want, defining the reporting and custom use cases. They recently updated the UI, so it's much better than before.
Vibhor Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
A single tool for complete visibility and addressing security gaps
Currently, issues are structured in Microsoft Defender for Cloud at severity levels of high, critical, or warning, but these severity levels are not always right. For example, Microsoft might consider a port being open as critical, but that might not be the case for our company. Similarly, it might suggest closing some management ports, but you might need them to be able to log in, so the severity levels for certain things can be improved. Even though Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides a way to temporarily disable certain alerts or notifications without affecting our security score, it would be better to have more granularized control over these recommendations. Currently, we cannot even disable certain alerts or notifications. There should be an automated mechanism to design Azure policies based on the recommendations, possibly with AI integration. Instead of an engineer having to write a policy to fix security gaps, which is very time-consuming, there should be an inbuilt capability to auto-remediate everything and have proper control in place. Additionally, enabling Defender for Cloud at the resource group level, rather than only at the subscription level, would be beneficial.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) solutions are best for your needs.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
5%
Educational Organization
18%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about PingSafe?
The dashboard gives me an overview of all the things happening in the product, making it one of the tool's best featu...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PingSafe?
SentinelOne is relatively cheap. If ten is the most expensive, I would rate it a seven.
What needs improvement with PingSafe?
From my personal experience, the alerting system needs to be faster. If something happens in our infrastructure, the ...
What is your primary use case for Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks ?
Prisma Cloud helps support DevSecOps methodologies, making those responsibilities easier to manage.
What Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform do you recommend?
We like Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, since it offers us incredible visibility into our entire cloud system. We...
What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valu...
How is Prisma Cloud vs Azure Security Center for security?
Azure Security Center is very easy to use, integrates well, and gives very good visibility on what is happening acros...
What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
The entire Defender Suite is tightly coupled, integrated, and collaborative.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
The licensing is straightforward but can become expensive if you cover everything. You must balance the cost against ...
 

Also Known As

PingSafe
Prisma Cloud, Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto
Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.