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Azure Firewall Manager 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

Azure Firewall Manager
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
25th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Firewall Security Management (10th)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (5th), Container Management (7th), Container Security (4th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (4th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Firewall Manager is 1.2%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 5.3%, down from 6.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud5.3%
Azure Firewall Manager1.2%
Other93.5%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

Poornachandar  Madipoju - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cloud Engineer at Softcell technologies
Centralized policies have streamlined multi-tenant security and now need better visibility tools
Azure Firewall Manager could be improved with better end-to-end visibility and more advanced policy simulation before deployment. We would also like more intuitive troubleshooting for rule conflicts, enhanced logging and analytics for policy impact analysis, and a more unified dashboard to simplify managing complex multi-region and multi-tenant firewall architecture. Another key improvement area for Azure Firewall Manager is better operational user experience for large-scale environments. We would benefit from more granular policy versioning and rollback controls, clearer change impact analysis before pushing updates, and deeper integration with monitoring tools to proactively detect misconfiguration or policy conflicts across hub and spoke deployments.
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

"From a traffic management perspective, it's a good firewall because it's automatically scalable based on the traffic availability."
"The most valuable feature is the web firewall, as it is easy to install and does not require any plugins for your browser."
"We are utilizing Azure Entra ID for group labeling, so Active Directory, or now it is Entra ID, securing our application for everyone who accesses it, and Azure Firewall Manager is definitely securing our projects and all its features are fine."
"The best feature of Azure Firewall Manager is that it is easy to maintain and configure."
"The tool's support is good."
"The solution is very easy to set up."
"It has helped us in multiple ways; for example, we don't require different spaces to manage it, we can do a lot of automation integrations into the code, we could integrate it into the DevOps pipeline, and it has helped us with our time-to-market for a very specific product when we are actually deploying or upgrading."
"Firewall policy management time reduced by 40 to 50% due to centralized control and reduced per-firewall configuration work."
"Overall, Azure Security Center has greatly improved our company's security posture."
"I would like to see more connectors and plugins with other platforms."
"Some of the most valuable features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud include its effectiveness in threat detection through unsupervised machine learning, CTI, and advanced sandboxing."
"The features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud that I like the most are the regulatory compliance capabilities; these features have benefited my organization by improving our overall security posture."
"The feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud that I appreciate most is the ability to view logs of applications, as I find it much clearer to understand what is running."
"This solution has the best security center, security manager dashboard that I have ever seen."
"For organizations who have an on-prem environment and are planning to move to a cloud-based solution, Azure Security Center is definitely one of the best tools that they can use."
"The solution helped out management a lot, reducing about 50% of the time needed to spend on this after implementation and saving the organization money by consolidating into one solution instead of two or three."
 

Cons

"Customer support is good, and the response time is sometimes late for complex issues, but for simple issues, the response time is very low."
"With Azure Firewall, the problem is that the NAT-ing still has to be improved."
"We could do only one-way NAT-ing, where the traffic comes from outside to internal, to Azure, which is fine. However, when we actually do NAT-ed traffic to hit the firewall, that way is not working."
"The tool's security features need to improve. It needs also to include a monitoring system for logs. It is also complicated to find a query on the Azure firewall."
"There should be a simple one-click deployment for a firewall, rather than a set of setup instructions that include steps such as the DNS configuration, et cetera."
"The configuration and settings require substantial time for learning, particularly for new users. Improvements in ease of configuration would benefit users significantly."
"Microsoft was unable to fully solve the problem with email phishing and spamming."
"The price is okay. This said, the solution is certainly expensive in comparison with other cloud services."
"Another thing that could be improved was that they could recommend processes on how to react to alerts, or recommend best practices based on how other organizations do things if they receive an alert about XYZ."
"Azure Security Center should be more easily understood by a non-technical person. It needs to be simplified and made more user-friendly for a non-technical person."
"Customizing some of the compliance requirements based on individual needs seems like the biggest area of improvement. There should be an option to turn specific controls on and off based on how your solution is configured."
"The overview provides you with good information, but if you want more details, there is a lot more customization to do, which requires knowledge of the other supporting solutions."
"The pricing could be improved, as it is somewhat high for smaller companies."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is pricey, especially for Kubernetes clusters. It could be cheaper."
"The user interface of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, like many Microsoft portals, undergoes frequent changes and feature relocation."
"Defender for Cloud is pretty costly for a single line. It's incredibly high to pay monthly for security per server."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is certainly expensive in comparison with other cloud services."
"The price of the solution is reasonable but it is reasonable for the features."
"Defender's basic version is free, which is good. Many of our teams are evaluating the paid version against third-party products."
"We only use the free tier, so we haven't faced any pricing, setup costs, or licensing challenges."
"The price of the solution is good for the features we receive and there is an additional cost for Microsoft premier support. However, some of my potential customers have found it to be expensive and have gone on to choose another solution."
"Azure Defender is definitely pricey, but their competitors cost about the same. For example, a Palo Alto solution is the same price per endpoint, but the ground strikes cost a bit more than Azure Defender. Still, it's pricey for a company like ours. Maybe well-established organizations can afford it, but it might be too costly for a startup."
"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."
"We are using the free version of the Azure Security Center."
"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is pricey, especially for Kubernetes clusters."
"Pricing is difficult because each license has its own metrics and cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise49
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Firewall Manager?
Our experience with Azure Firewall Manager is that pricing is primarily driven by the underlying Azure Firewall data processing and logging and monitoring costs rather than the manager itself. Setu...
What needs improvement with Azure Firewall Manager?
Azure Firewall Manager could be improved with better end-to-end visibility and more advanced policy simulation before deployment. We would also like more intuitive troubleshooting for rule conflict...
What is your primary use case for Azure Firewall Manager?
Azure Firewall Manager is used primarily for centralized private firewall policy management, securing hub and spoke network architecture, and enforcing consistent security controls across multiple ...
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

Information Not Available
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 Azure Firewall Manager vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.