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Anomali vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 18, 2026

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

Anomali
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
21st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) (32nd), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (12th), Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (8th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (22nd)
Microsoft Defender for Clou...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
13th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Anomali is 3.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 2.0%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps2.0%
Anomali3.4%
Other94.6%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

CC
Enterprise Security Architect V at FirstEnergy
Enables automated threat intelligence sorting and enhances proactive threat hunting capabilities
You have to have at least a threat intelligence background or a SOC analyst background to use it, as that's the information you'll dig around with in there. If you don't have that kind of knowledge, it probably can be a little hard to use, but they do provide training. They offer training not only for how to use the platform but also some basic threat intelligence training to explain what these things are and what these terms mean. My company is a customer of Anomali. I would recommend it to other people. I would advise making sure you don't pick it without testing other products and have your use cases well thought out and documented before testing, so you know it will solve the problems you're trying to address. Keep an open mind with it and realize that whatever you can dream of, you can probably do with the platform. Overall, I would rate Anomali an eight out of ten.
FV
Security and Continuity Manager at Rolinco NV
Deployment has been seamless with insightful data categorization and enhanced control
The features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps that I have found most valuable include the overall portal view, with bubble graphs which give us insight into what goes where in the categorization, nowadays with Generative AI but all kinds of categorization, collaboration, etc. That central view of the portal is very useful for us. The impact of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps on our organization's ability to assess and manage app related risks has been significant because we have more visibility. Therefore, we can add more control, and we have already done so. This was not possible in the old solution, in the old CASB solution with Netskope. We now can see on the spot, and we do that almost weekly, what the end users are utilizing, which cloud providers or cloud apps they're using. The visibility into OAuth apps provided by Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is very good. The visibility into risk and risk management of our organization's Generative AI apps is very nice, as you can choose the category Generative AI and then see exactly what traffic has been going to and from Generative AI in the cloud. This makes us very insightful on what is used within the company. We have some policies on blocking specific Generative AI, and we use within our company one particular AI part, which is CoPilot of Microsoft. In this way, we can see what the end users are using other than CoPilot, and that makes us more in control. The effectiveness of the integration of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps with Defender XDR and defending against SaaS attacks is very intuitive. It works immediately if we create a new policy or in Purview or in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, or when we make an app unsanctioned by blocking it, then it is almost immediately, or at least within a couple of hours, effective on all the endpoints where the EDR is running. This gives us much better control over things than before.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We now have a very robust collection of threat intelligence based on the capabilities that Anomali provides."
"I have found Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) very useful and concise. The solution is easy to use."
"I have found Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) very useful and concise. The solution is easy to use."
"The feature I have found most valuable is credential monitoring. This feature is easy and quick."
"The most valuable aspect of Anomali is the threat modeling capability."
"The benefit you get is that you are able to monitor all your applications and control the data that goes out of those applications."
"The solution does not affect a user's workflow."
"The ability to prevent users from using certain applications is one of the most valuable features."
"Everything from Microsoft is integrated. You receive regular reports on them all. You can push your reports, logs, and security alerts, which are all integrated. It is crucial that these solutions work natively together to deliver coordinated detection and response across our environment."
"Defender's integration with our identity solutions is critical in our current setup."
"Overall, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is very convenient for investigation, in terms of security breaches, or if there is file exfiltration."
"The impact of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps on our organization's ability to assess and manage app related risks has been significant because we have more visibility."
"The discovery function and the discovery catalog are really valuable, and the ability to sanction unsanctioned apps using Secure Score benchmarking, included in Cloud, enhances the organization by helping to manage and control cloud app usage effectively."
 

Cons

"Support in the past has been top-notch, but recent trends indicate that it has taken a back seat, as we often don't get answers for days."
"A lot of tools can give you many features, such as CTI intelligence and a tax service reduction. However, many people are combining different tools together to have more capabilities. It is up to the consumer whether they want to have multiple tools or have one tool that serves the purpose. Anomali Enterprise could improve by combining all the other tools' features into one solution."
"Anomali Enterprise could improve by combining all the other tools' features into one solution."
"Less code in integration would be nice when building blocks."
"An area for improvement is the intelligence sharing within the Anomali community. The tagging system can be inconsistent, as any company can use any tags for their reporting."
"The response time could be better. It will be helpful if the alerts are even more proactive and we can see more data. Currently, the data is a little bit weak. It is not complete. I can't just see it and completely know which user or which device it is. It takes some effort and time on my part to investigate and isolate a user. It would be great if it is more user-friendly or easy for people to understand."
"If you have more elaborate needs or if you have some more sophisticated use cases, for example, if you need an in-line component, or if you need to distinguish between sanctioned and unsanctioned applications, this solution doesn't cut it."
"This service would be better if it had a separate license, only for this service, that could be used to track usage."
"I would like for it to be available on Mac and for it to support all of the features of Microsoft financing products."
"Defender for Cloud Apps could come with more configured policies out of the box. Also, integration could be easier. Integration is moderately difficult because Microsoft hasn't developed a solution that unifies device onboarding and management. You have to use Intune to manage devices and Defender for Endpoint to enforce policies. They need to fix their integration, but I believe they will straighten it out by the end of the year."
"Defender for Cloud apps is primarily useful for Azure apps. It has limited capabilities for applications based on other cloud platforms."
"However, the price of the solution could be better."
"There are some features, such as user navigation content filtering, that are disabled by default, and it probably makes sense to enable them by default."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When comparing the price of Anomali Enterprise to other solutions it is in the medium to high range. However, I am satisfied with the price."
"It has fair pricing. You pay for what you get. As far as I know, there are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fee."
"It has pretty good pricing."
"It is a little bit expensive. When you want to have the complete package with Office 365, Defender, and everything else, it is expensive."
"The product's pricing seems fair."
"Our clients normally use the Microsoft E1 licensing, which is renewed yearly."
"The pricing is a little bit high but right now, we are okay with it because of the compatibility with Office 365, Teams, and Azure AD."
"Microsoft offers bundle discounts and a pay-as-you-go option."
"We have an educational licensing agreement. It's a customer agreement for multiple years."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Anomali ThreatStream?
An area for improvement is the intelligence sharing within the Anomali community. The tagging system can be inconsistent, as any company can use any tags for their reporting. Combining all aliases ...
What is your primary use case for Anomali ThreatStream?
I use Anomali ( /products/anomali-reviews ) for threat hunting, threat collection, operationalization of intelligence, such as indicators of compromise (IOCs), and dissemination of reports for repo...
What advice do you have for others considering Anomali ThreatStream?
For new users, I recommend taking the training provided by Anomali as it is very well articulated. I advise reading the user manual and taking the instructor-led training sessions from the customer...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?
Cisco Umbrella is an integral component of the Cisco SASE architecture. It integrates security in a single, cloud-native solution, unifying multiple features like DNS-layer security, threat intelli...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Cloud App Security?
At the time of implementation, when the size of our organization was small, it was a more affordable product. Since all our productivity applications were on O365, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Cloud App Security?
The fidelity of the signal in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps has been a challenge in some areas. There have been instances where the alerts generated have been false positives. A lot of work has...
 

Also Known As

Match, Lens, ThreatStream, STAXX, Anomali Security Analytics
MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank of England, First Energy, UBISOFT, Bank of Hope, Blackhawk Network
Customers for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps include Accenture, St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and Nakilat.
Find out what your peers are saying about Anomali vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.