Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Trivy comparison

Microsoft and Aqua Security are both solutions in the Container Security category. Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.1, while Aqua Security is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.6. Microsoft holds a 6.2% mindshare in Container Security, compared to Aqua Security’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Aqua Security users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Read 87 Microsoft Defender for Cloud reviews

20,963 Views
6,499 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Trivy

Read 12 Trivy reviews

5,344 Views
5,344 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Trivy

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Trivy both compete in the security tools category. Microsoft Defender for Cloud seems to have an advantage in environments using Microsoft products due to its integration with Microsoft services, while Trivy is preferred for its open-source nature and seamless integration into CI/CD pipelines.

Features: Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers comprehensive security features, enhancing visibility in Microsoft environments, providing alerts, and suggesting best practices. Trivy provides seamless CI/CD integration, scans images and repositories, and detects vulnerabilities across various environments, making it highly adaptable for developers.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Defender for Cloud could improve false positive reduction, user experience for non-technical users, and pricing transparency. Trivy may expand its static and report output functionalities, especially in runtime scanning and SIEM integration, in addition to reducing false positives.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Defender for Cloud supports hybrid deployments but faces challenges with support responsiveness. Trivy is easy to deploy due to its community-driven model, but lacks extensive customer support details.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Defender for Cloud's pricing varies and is often high but offers extensive features and positive ROI through time efficiency and reduced risks. Trivy, being open-source, provides high ROI without licensing costs, making it attractive for those prioritizing budget efficiency in security management.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Trivy Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Trivy

February 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 882,637 peers since 2012

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

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Ranking in Container Security

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (8th), Container Management (7th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (7th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (2nd)

Trivy

Ranking in Container Security

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Container Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 6.2%, down from 6.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trivy is 4.9%, up from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Trivy	4.9%
Microsoft Defender for Cloud	6.2%
Other	88.9%

Container Security

Featured Reviews

David Birhange

Director, Cloud and Modern Workplace at Informanix Technology Group

Brings together cloud security insights through a unified view and supports agentless protection for virtual machines

Copilot and similar features are already being used, though not necessarily for Microsoft Defender for Cloud specifically. We are trying to get more experience before rolling out most of Microsoft Defender for Cloud's AI capabilities. This is definitely on our to-do list, and the priority is urgent as we seek to learn more about these capabilities. The GenAI threat protection from Microsoft Defender for Cloud has not been enabled yet. There are many unknowns with AI applications. AI agents will operate while you're not present, whether you are sleeping or awake, and it's unclear whether there would be any exfiltration of data or how data is being managed. Microsoft Purview is being used extensively, and there is significant development going on with DSPM that will be rolled out to address security concerns. Data labeling and proper demarcation for sensitivity of data before it is received are being actively pursued.

Read full review

Surya Aniketh Tamirisa

Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Consistently maintains vulnerability-free images and integrates effectively with builds

Trivy is very reliable and always has an up-to-date database to scan images and identify vulnerabilities. I integrated it with Jenkins jobs, so every time we run a build, if there is a high, critical, or medium vulnerability, the build is set to fail. This ensures that somebody resolves the issues before the code progresses. This approach helps keep every image in every project we work on vulnerability-free.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It helps you to identify the gaps in your solution and remediate them. It produces a compliance checklist against known standards such as ISO 27001, HIPAA, iTrust, etc."

"The most valuable features are the security recommendations provided by Defender for Cloud."

"We saw improvement from a regulatory compliance perspective due to having a single dashboard."

"Good compliance policies."

"The vulnerability reporting is helpful. When we initially deployed Defender, it reported many more threats than we currently see. It gave us insight into areas we had not previously considered, so we knew where we needed to act."

"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."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud has significantly enhanced our overall security posture by approximately 20 to 25 percent."

"Defender for Cloud provides a prioritized list of remediations for security issues, reducing risk and improving security operations."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

"Trivy is very reliable and always has an up-to-date database to scan images and identify vulnerabilities."

"I definitely recommend Trivy."

"I appreciate Trivy for being open-source and not requiring any payment."

"The most valuable feature of Trivy is its easy integration with the CI/CD pipeline."

"Trivy is easy to integrate with CI/CD and can be installed on desktops to scan images."

"Trivy is most valuable for its ability to scan all repository files and dependencies."

"I rate Trivy a nine out of ten."

"Trivy's open source nature and wide functionality are incredibly valuable."

More Trivy pros

Cons

"One of the main challenges that we have been facing with Azure Security Center is the cost. The costs are really a complex calculation, e.g., to calculate the monthly costs. Azure is calculating on an hourly basis for use of the resource. Because of this, we found it really complex to promote what will be our costs for the next couple of months. I think if Azure could reduce the complex calculation and come up with straightforward cost mapping that would be very useful from a product point of view."

"The product was a bit complex to set up earlier, however, it is a bit streamlined now."

"The range of workloads is broad, but we'd love to add more workloads and make it a single security solution that covers all those workloads."

"I recommend that they extend the scope for legacy infra assets."

"I don't appreciate Microsoft Defender for Cloud because it seems to interfere with many things. That's the problem I've been experiencing with it."

"I recommend that they extend the scope for legacy infra assets."

"It's really hard to get ahold of Microsoft support. When you buy a product, with the M365 portal, you're given the option to chat with somebody, and normally you don't hear back immediately."

"It's hard to reach someone who understands my problems. I haven't had many issues, so I haven't called them."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

"The only problem is that Trivy does not support reporting features such as generating reports in CSV, which is useful for auditing and reporting."

"A dynamic scanning capability during runtime would be a significant advantage."

"In our CI/CD pipelines, Trivy lacks built-in functionality for report analysis."

"The main area for improvement is in differentiating between OS and application-based vulnerabilities."

"Trivy can improve by providing an output in PDF format."

"Trivy generates many false positives, flagging non-existent vulnerabilities."

"In our CI/CD pipelines, Trivy lacks built-in functionality for report analysis."

"One drawback I have observed with Trivy is the difficulty in building or integrating a UI, particularly for an operator in the NetSuite example."

More Trivy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing depends on your workload size, but it is very cheap. If you're talking about virtual machines, it is $5 or something for each machine, which is minimal. If you go for some agent-based solution for every virtual machine, then you need to pay the same thing or more than that. For an on-premises solution like this, we were paying around $30 to $50 based on size. With Defender, Microsoft doesn't bother about the size. You pay based on the number of machines. So, if you have 10 virtual machines, and 10 virtual machines are being monitored, you are paying based on that rather than the size of the virtual machine. Thus, you are paying for the number of units rather than paying for the size of your units."

"Understanding the costs of cloud services can be complicated at first. As with a lot of things in the cloud, it can be quite hard to understand the end cost, but it becomes clearer over time. Early on, the lack of transparency is a challenge. Microsoft does not tell you the cost when they launch something. It is clever marketing, and there is room for improvement there. There should be clarity from the start."

"They have a free version, but the license for this one isn't too high. It's free to start with, and you're charged for using it beyond 30 days. Some other pieces of Defender are charged based on usage, so you will be charged more for a high volume of transactions. I believe Defender for Cloud is a daily charge based on Azure's App Service Pricing."

"While we pay for any additional features, the pricing seems competitive, though I am not involved in the specific cost details."

"Although I am outside of the discussion on budget and costing, I can say that the importance of security provided by this solution is of such importance that whatever the cost is, it is not a factor."

"This solution is more cost-effective than some competing products. My understanding is that it is based on the number of integrations that you have, so if you have fewer subscriptions then you pay less for the service."

"There are improvements that have to be made to the licensing. Currently, for servers, it has to be done by grouping the servers on a single subscription... We don't have an option whereby, if all those resources are in one subscription, we can have each of the individual servers subject to different planning."

"Pricing is a consideration, but we strive to keep costs low by enabling only necessary services."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Container Security solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

882,637 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	27
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	49

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

Questions from the Community

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 across your ecosystem. It also has great remote workforce capabilities and supports a...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Microsoft Defender for Cloud was pretty straightforward. We did have a consultation with a third party to go over different tiers and produ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

Microsoft Defender for Cloud can be improved. An additional feature that should be included in the next release is Zero Trust, similar to ThreatLocker software.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Trivy?

Trivy's marketing and awareness need improvement. Not everyone knows about it, which isn't ideal given its capabilities. There's potential to integrate AI and machine learning for enhanced function...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Trivy?

I use Trivy ( /products/trivy-reviews ) to scan code for vulnerabilities before deployment. Our projects, which are developed by different developers, involve various dependencies and third-party c...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Trivy?

I recommend Trivy to others due to its powerful and useful features. However, I suggest increasing its marketing to raise awareness. I rate Trivy an eight out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

AWS GuardDuty vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 36% of the time

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Competitors

JFrog Xray vs Trivy

Compared 18% of the time

Snyk vs Trivy

Compared 15% of the time

Kubescape vs Trivy

Compared 9% of the time

Wiz vs Trivy

Compared 8% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Trivy

Compared 3% of the time

More Trivy Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

February 2026

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Trivy

January 2026

Download Trivy product report

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender

No data available

Interactive Demo

Microsoft

Demo not available

Aqua Security

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for cloud workloads. It offers real-time visibility into the security posture of cloud environments, enabling organizations to quickly identify and respond to potential threats. With its advanced machine learning capabilities, Microsoft Defender for Cloud can detect and block sophisticated attacks, including zero-day exploits and fileless malware.

The solution also provides automated remediation capabilities, allowing security teams to quickly and easily respond to security incidents. With Microsoft Defender for Cloud, organizations can ensure the security and compliance of their cloud workloads, while reducing the burden on their security teams.

Microsoft

Trivy offers comprehensive scanning for files, images, repositories, and infrastructure. It's open-source and integrates with CI/CD for vulnerability detection and security enhancement.

Trivy scans vulnerabilities in code, Docker images, containers, and infrastructure. It integrates seamlessly into DevOps pipelines, ensuring security in dependency management and open source vulnerabilities. This tool, lightweight and open-source, provides user-friendly reports and supports continuous vulnerability database updates, fostering ease of use across operating systems. Users benefit from its scanning capabilities, covering Kubernetes, AWS credentials, and GCP service accounts, effectively identifying vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.

What are Trivy's key features?

Comprehensive Scanning: Covers files, images, repositories, infrastructure, and sensitive data.
CI/CD Integration: Easily integrates into existing pipelines for seamless security checks.
Open-Source & Lightweight: Quick setup and fast scanning capabilities ensure rapid deployment.
Continuously Updated Database: Keeps vulnerability data current for effective threat detection.
User-Friendly Reports: Generates understandable and actionable security insights.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Enhanced Security: Provides in-depth analysis of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
Ease of Use: Designed for straightforward implementation and user interaction.
Compliance Support: Assists in meeting industry security standards and regulations.
Cross-Platform Use: Effective across different operating systems, enabling wide scalability.

In industries like technology and finance, Trivy is used extensively to secure applications, perform compliance checks, and offer security metrics visualization. It addresses microservices, container systems, and Kubernetes clusters security requirements, supporting DevOps teams and enhancing codebase analysis precision.

Aqua Security

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Trivy

February 2026

Free Report: Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Trivy

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Trivy and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

882,637 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Trivy report.

See our list of best Container Security vendors.

We monitor all Container Security reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.