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CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

SentinelOne Singularity Clo...
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Ranking in Container Security
3rd
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
4th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
3rd
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (6th), Cloud and Data Center Security (5th), Compliance Management (2nd)
CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Se...
Ranking in Container Security
6th
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
7th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
8th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (13th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (2nd), Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) (5th)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Container Security
4th
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
2nd
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
4th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (7th), Container Management (9th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (4th), Compliance Management (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) category, the mindshare of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is 2.5%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security is 6.4%, up from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 13.9%, down from 17.0% 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.
Saif Ullah Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Boosts security by automatically blocking applications or activities, but query responses have been slower recently
For the past six months, we have been facing some issues. Because it is a cloud-based infrastructure, it has been getting slower. There are no bugs because they release updates continuously. We highly appreciate that, but during hunting or running a query on different logs, the time frame has increased in the past six months. It takes longer to give us the results. Another issue is the lack of proper documentation. During investigations, there is no proper documentation available. This is a problem because many people are saying there should be proper documentation explaining what CrowdStrike captures from the machine and the meaning of it.
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the notification system, providing real-time alerts and comparisons crucial for maintaining security."
"It integrates very well. We sell different products from different vendors. We know that the SentinelOne Singularity platform can be integrated with several different solutions from different vendors."
"Cloud Native Security's best feature is its ability to identify hard-coded secrets during pull request reviews."
"Cloud Security has provided a single view to observe all workloads, prioritization for handling cloud assets, and reduced noise by distinguishing false positives effectively."
"We're monitoring several cloud accounts with Singularity. It is convenient to identify issues or security failures in any account. It's nice to have all the details we need to solve these issues."
"Cloud Native Security helps us discover vulnerabilities in a cloud environment like open ports that allow people to attack our environment. If someone unintentionally opens a port, we are exposed. Cloud Native Security alerts us so we can remediate the problem. We can also automate it so that Cloud Native Security will fix it."
"PingSafe offers three key features: vulnerability management notifications, cloud configuration assistance, and security scanning."
"The most valuable aspects of PingSafe are its alerting system and the remediation guidance it provides."
"There is a lot that it can do, but endpoint protection is the main thing about it. The fact that it uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to monitor and remediate the issues in real-time is probably the bread and butter of the product."
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"The most significant benefit is how quickly malware and other malicious attacks are detected."
"The most valuable feature of CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security is its lightweight sensor, taking minimal space and not impacting server performance."
"The RTR feature stands out as particularly valuable to me due to its capability to log into machines."
"It provides alerts on suspicious command executions, helping us safeguard our systems."
"The most valuable features are the real-time response, which allows me to log into a machine to pull files and check signatures for malicious activities, and the ability to restrict USB block storage usage on endpoints by policy."
"The initial setup is easy ."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud has made our environment more secure."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its support for cloud-native services like Kubernetes, containers, managed storage, and databases. Protecting these without Microsoft Defender for Cloud would be extremely challenging. For threat protection specifically, I find the signature-based detection and heuristic detection features very effective."
"The entire Defender Suite is tightly coupled, integrated, and collaborative."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud helps in improving our overall security posture. We have a nice overview of what is missing where and what can be improved."
"The main feature is the security posture assessment through the security score. I find that to be very helpful because it gives us guidance on what needs to be secured and recommendations on how to secure the workloads that have been onboarded."
"The valuable features include the ability to manage devices and the fact that Defender can replace other security tools like SCCM."
"It alerts us to our vulnerabilities and ensures compliance by marking off a compliance tool checklist."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the insights, meaning the remediation suggestions, as well as the incident alerts."
 

Cons

"One of our use cases was setting up a firewall for our endpoints, specifically for our remote users... We were hoping to utilize SentinelOne's firewall capabilities, but there were limitations on how many URLs we could implement. Because of those limitations on the number of URLs, we weren't able to utilize that feature in the way we had hoped to."
"One area for improvement could be the internal analysis process, specifically the guidance provided for remediation."
"The areas with room for improvement include the cost, which is higher compared to other security platforms. The dashboard can also be laggy."
"In some cases, the rules are strictly enforced but do not align with real-world use cases."
"While it is good, I think the solution's console could be improved."
"We can customize security policies but lack auditing capabilities."
"The recommended actions aren't always specific, so it might suggest recommendations that don't apply to the particular infrastructure code I'm reviewing."
"I would like PingSafe's detections to be openly available online instead of only accessible through their portal. Other tools have detections that are openly available without going through the tool."
"There were some integration issues with this product."
"The pricing is very high and should be improved."
"One area for improvement in Falcon Cloud Security is the support portal."
"I would not say the tool's integration capabilities were straightforward because the complexity depends on the volume of the data."
"The log scale or Humio side of it where it collects the data and expands into the XDR world still needs time to develop in terms of the way it combines the data and metadata that flows into the platform. I know they're working on it."
"The UI part needs to be improved."
"I think the UI could be improved, but the technical support said CrowdStrike will improve the UI in the near future. But right now, it’s so messy."
"The only suggestion for improvement would be the pricing."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is not compatible with Linux machines."
"Most customer teams need more training on this type of product."
"Microsoft can improve the pricing by offering a plan that is more cost-effective for small and medium organizations."
"The solution could extend its capabilities to other cloud providers. Right now, if you want to monitor a virtual machine on another cloud, you can do that. However, this cannot be done with other cloud platform services. I hope once that is available then Defender for Cloud will be a unified solution for all cloud platform services."
"It needs to be simplified and made more user-friendly for a non-technical person."
"Azure Security Center takes a long time to update, compared to the on-premises version of Microsoft Defender."
"From a compliance standpoint, they can include some more metrics and some specific compliances such as GDPR."
"From my own perspective, they just need a product that is tailored to micro-segmentation so I can configure rules for multiple systems at once and manage it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"While I'm slightly out of touch with pricing, I know SentinelOne is much cheaper than other products."
"SentinelOne is relatively cheap. If ten is the most expensive, I would rate it a seven."
"Singularity Cloud Workload Security's pricing is good."
"We found it to be fine for us. Its price was competitive. It was something we were happy with. We are not a Fortune 500 company, so I do not know how pricing scales at the top end, but for our cloud environment, it works very well."
"It's not expensive. The product is in its initial growth stages and appears more competitive compared to others. It comes in different variants, and I believe the enterprise version costs around $55 per user per year. I would rate it a five, somewhere fairly moderate."
"PingSafe is cost-effective for the amount of infrastructure we have. It's reasonable for what they offer compared to our previous solution. It's at least 25 percent to 30 percent less."
"PingSafe falls within the typical price range for cloud security platforms."
"It's a fair price for what you get. We are happy with the price as it stands."
"It's an expensive package but does what it says it will do."
"It is expensive, but it adds value."
"CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security is very expensive for us. Last month, we had a big issue that took much time and money to resolve. It slowed down our business and required our management team to get involved. We had a problem similar to the "Blue Screen of Death" issue many US companies faced. This incident used up many of our IT resources in just a few months. That's why we're looking for a replacement tool now."
"I am not the one who handled the pricing. A different team worked on it, but it is pretty expensive."
"CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security is pricy."
"Its price is moderate."
"It's an expensive product"
"The pricing is reasonable, neither overly expensive nor excessively cheap, making it competitive compared to other market options."
"This is a worldwide service and depending on the country, there will be different prices."
"There is a helpful cost-reducing option that allows you to integrate production subscriptions with non-production subscriptions."
"We only use the free tier, so we haven't faced any pricing, setup costs, or licensing challenges."
"Pricing is a consideration, but we strive to keep costs low by enabling only necessary services."
"Our clients complain about the cost of Microsoft Defender for Cloud."
"Defender for Cloud is pretty costly for a single line. It's incredibly high to pay monthly for security per server. The cost is considerable for an enterprise with 500-plus virtual machines, and the monthly bill can spike."
"I'm not privy to that information, but I know it's probably close to a million dollars a year."
"The licensing is straightforward but can become expensive if you cover everything. You must balance the cost against the importance of what needs covering."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
5%
Computer Software Company
14%
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?
It is cost-effective compared to other solutions in the market.
What needs improvement with PingSafe?
In version 2, a lot of rules have been deployed for Kubernetes security and CDR, which makes a lot of issues of criti...
What do you like most about CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security?
It's easy to gather insights and conduct analysis about existing threats.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security?
It's an expensive product. The solution costs around $60 for a single user on a yearly basis. I would rate the pricin...
What needs improvement with CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security?
I am not part of the current monitoring team, so I do not know how they feel about the tool. I am sharing information...
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?
Initially, the cost was reasonable, but additional services from Microsoft sometimes incur extra expenses that seem h...
 

Also Known As

PingSafe
CrowdStrike Falcon ASPM
Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
 

Interactive Demo

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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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 CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.