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Aikido Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Aikido Security
Ranking in Container Security
30th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
23rd
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (20th), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (17th), Web Application Firewall (WAF) (28th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (12th), Static Code Analysis (9th), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) (8th), DevSecOps (10th), Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) (10th)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Container Security
5th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (5th), Container Management (6th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), 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) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Container Security category, the mindshare of Aikido Security is 1.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 5.5%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud5.5%
Aikido Security1.1%
Other93.4%
Container Security
 

Featured Reviews

Francisco Javier Vergara - PeerSpot reviewer
SecOps Engineer at IriusRisk
Automated scans have streamlined vulnerability workflows and now provide clear daily risk reports
In my experience, the best feature Aikido Security offers is its ease of use, as it was really easy to onboard our engineers into adopting Aikido Security in their day-to-day lives. The reason onboarding my engineers with Aikido Security was so easy is the user interface. The first thing our engineers see when they log in is a feed of vulnerabilities that their own repositories are affected by, which helps them focus only on their work at hand. I would also like to add that the integrations part is really useful, as all of the integrations we have added so far, mainly Jira, IDE, and API integrations, are really easy to use because they are backed by strong documentation that they maintain daily. This is a commendation to them. Aikido Security has positively impacted our organization by helping us reduce the complexity in managing our vulnerabilities. We now have a single source of truth with Aikido Security, allowing us to get rid of manually maintained automations that we previously had.
RW
Head Of IT at Cirrus Response
Cloud security has cut investigation time and now reveals threats faster but needs simpler oversight
When deploying AI applications, my key security concerns with Microsoft Defender for Cloud are data loss, leakage of data, and guardrails around the actual AI, and I am hoping that this is going to help me put those guardrails in place and identify data exfiltration. Microsoft Defender for Cloud has not helped me manage and secure multi-cloud environments, as we are 100 percent Microsoft and have not really got it in any other environment at all. I am not yet using the unified AI-powered security feature offered by Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet using the integrated XDR feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet utilizing the GenAI threat protection features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud. That is also coming and a lot of that will come from learning it here. I have enabled the agentless scanning in my cloud environment with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Assessing the impact on my workload protection without needing to install agents with Microsoft Defender for Cloud makes it a lot easier, but it also identifies a lot more, which puts more load on me sometimes. I would advise another organization considering Microsoft Defender for Cloud that it is the most logical route to follow if their whole ecosystem is Microsoft. It is easy to implement and it is very self-explanatory when doing it, making sense to just follow the steps as it is too simple, really. I would rate this review a 7.5 out of 10.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Since switching to Aikido Security, I have noticed a positive impact on my team's productivity with measurable results, as we now have measurements."
"I find Microsoft Defender for Cloud's KQL very flexible and powerful. It's really easy to search through with KQL queries to find the security breaches and incidents and to track down the breach itself."
"Defender is a robust platform for dealing with many kinds of threats. We're protected from various threats, like viruses. Attacks can be easily minimized with this solution defending our infrastructure."
"The entire Defender Suite is tightly coupled, integrated, and collaborative."
"The most valuable features are ransomware protection and access controls. The solution has helped us secure some folders on our systems from unauthorized modifications."
"There is no better tool found to protect workloads in Azure than Microsoft Defender for Cloud."
"From a security perspective, it reduced the amount of risk for employees, contractors, and users who might try to go to dangerous sites, as we blocked them."
"Defender helps us evaluate our security posture and make it more secure by providing a wider overview of endpoint security and anti-malware technology."
"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."
 

Cons

"I think Aikido Security could be improved by addressing its Jira integration, which I feel needs a bit of work."
"Sometimes it's very difficult to determine when I need Microsoft Defender for Cloud for a special resource group or a special kind of product."
"There is a slight gap between the real-time monitoring and real-time alerts."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud could be improved by adding capabilities for NetApp files and more PaaS resources from other vendors, not just Microsoft."
"The process of deploying Microsoft Defender for Cloud was not smooth. It was always a challenge migrating, as a lot of it involved application dependencies and what was required before being able to use Azure for those services."
"I would like to see better automation when it comes to pushing out security features to the recommendations, and better documentation on the step-by-step procedures for enabling certain features."
"We haven't experienced issues with Microsoft Defender for Cloud for our company size of about five hundred people. However, I've heard there might be issues with scalability for larger enterprises."
"The solution is quite complex. A lot of the different policies that actually get applied don't pertain to every client. If you need to have something open for a client application to work, then you get dinged for having a port open or having an older version of TLS available."
"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. Covering more would allow us to see and protect more workloads from a single pane of glass. Additional features should include protection for more AI workloads as it currently focuses primarily on OpenAI."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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."
"The licensing is straightforward but can become expensive if you cover everything. You must balance the cost against the importance of what needs covering."
"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."
"I'm not privy to that information, but I know it's probably close to a million dollars a year."
"The tool is pretty expensive."
"Its pricing is a little bit high in terms of Azure Security Center, but the good thing is that we don't need to maintain and deploy it. So, while the pricing is high, it is native to Azure which is why we prefer using this tool."
"The pricing and licensing of Microsoft Defender for Cloud have been good for us. We appreciate the licensing approach based on employee count rather than a big enterprise license."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise49
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Aikido Security?
I think Aikido Security could be improved by addressing its Jira integration, which I feel needs a bit of work. For my preferences, it is a bit too rigid. They recently added the capability of havi...
What is your primary use case for Aikido Security?
My main use case for Aikido Security is to utilize it as part of our vulnerability management program, where we also scan our images, codes, and manage our SBOM. A specific example of how I use Aik...
What advice do you have for others considering Aikido Security?
Since switching to Aikido Security, I have noticed a positive impact on my team's productivity with measurable results, as we now have measurements. Before, we did not even know how many vulnerabil...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing was that the license cost was the only consideration. Setup and support had no issues.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
To improve Microsoft Defender for Cloud, I think pricing-wise, the license price is a little bit higher from an ingestion cost perspective. Depending on what license you choose, you might have to p...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FinTech GoCardless ZIP CertifID HealthTech Dental Intelligence PE & Group Techstars Cronos Group Security Tech Human Security Tines HR Tech Simployer Recruitee Agency November Five Other Lighthouse (Hospitality Tech) Smokeball (LegalTech) Runna (B2C Tech) GEA Group (Manufacturing) Community fibre (Telecom) n8n (Software Development)
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 Wiz, Palo Alto Networks, SentinelOne and others in Container Security. Updated: May 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.