BMC Helix Cloud Security vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks comparison

BMC and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category. BMC is ranked #28 with an average rating of 7.5, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5. BMC holds a 0.2% mindshare in CSPM, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 14.8% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

BMC Helix Cloud Security

Read 5 BMC Helix Cloud Security reviews

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80% willing to recommend

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Read 108 Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks reviews

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10,310 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

BMC Helix Cloud Security

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 25, 2025

BMC Helix Cloud Security and Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks compete in cloud security. While Prisma Cloud is preferred for its feature-rich offering, BMC Helix Cloud Security is more cost-effective, appealing to budget-conscious users.

Features: BMC Helix Cloud Security provides comprehensive visibility and automated risk management, unified monitoring for multicloud environments, and integration for security operations. Prisma Cloud, on the other hand, offers advanced threat detection, cloud infrastructure entitlement management, and runtime protection across cloud workloads.

Room for Improvement: BMC Helix Cloud Security could enhance its threat detection capabilities and expand its integration options with third-party tools. Additionally, enhancing real-time analytics can provide quicker insights. Prisma Cloud might improve its user interface for simpler navigation and offer more competitive pricing models. Expanding its compatibility with additional clouds would also be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BMC Helix Cloud Security offers a streamlined deployment process with strong customer service, facilitating an easier setup. Prisma Cloud provides flexible deployment options and robust customer service, but some users find the initial implementation less straightforward than BMC Helix Cloud Security.

Pricing and ROI: BMC Helix Cloud Security is recognized for its cost-effective setup and delivers significant ROI through efficient cost management. Conversely, Prisma Cloud, although priced higher, offers substantial ROI attributed to its extensive features and comprehensive security protections, making the higher investment justified for many.

To learn more, read our detailed BMC Helix Cloud Security vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BMC Helix Cloud Security vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

February 2025

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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

BMC Helix Cloud Security

Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

28th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (22nd)

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

108

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (6th), Container Security (1st), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (1st), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category, the mindshare of BMC Helix Cloud Security is 0.2%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 14.8%, down from 18.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

Featured Reviews

GregoireSoukiassian

Consultant at Ministry of Research and Education

Effectively addresses security concerns but could use enhancement in terms of integration

BMC Helix Cloud Security has room for improvement in terms of integrating its various features. It currently consists of separate point solutions that don't flow together as seamlessly as they could. This lack of integration, unlike platforms like ServiceNow, may be due to historical factors. Enhancing this integration would make it a more compelling choice from a business perspective and offer a smoother user experience. In the next release of BMC Helix Cloud Security, I would like to see additional features, particularly AI integration, which has already been announced. AI integration could bring more precision to the platform, making it even more interesting and effective.

Read full review

Mohammad Qaw

Senior Security Consultant at helpag

It gives you one console to see all of your assets, review their configurations, and build your processes

Most customers use Prisma Cloud for visibility and compliance. Prisma has so many features, but many organizations do not use them. They primarily use the visibility part to connect all their cloud accounts and hosts for visibility to see if they are missing any security controls or if they have any misconfigurations. You can connect it to cloud environments such as Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba, etc., or to an on-prem data center. Prisma Cloud gives you so many options to automate processes related to your daily operations. When it comes to cybersecurity, you can automate things with their existing APIs. They also have out-of-the-box integrations with many solutions. I have not seen any limitations. Everything is customizable. You can do whatever you want, defining the reporting and custom use cases. They recently updated the UI, so it's much better than before.

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's also multi-cloud. You can look at several cloud providers: AWS, Azure, or GCP."

"The features that I've found most valuable are its container security aspect. I also like its vulnerability management tools."

"The cool feature of Helix Cloud Security is that you can do all that — understand and remediate issues — in one dashboard, based on the different policies that are available for security, out-of-the-box."

"The best feature is time to value. With very minimal effort, you are able to have a cohesive view into your security posture on one or multiple cloud accounts, particularly if you are dealing with multicloud. If you have Azure and AWS deployments, you might have multiple subscriptions in Azure and usually multiple accounts in AWS. You may even be doing some GCP work (around Google Cloud Platform). It's very difficult to manage a common set of policies, even less reporting, across multiple subscriptions, accounts, and cloud environments. What BMC Helix Cloud Security does is provide a unified view or single pane of glass as to your baseline. Then, it also facilitates the ability for Level 1 or 2 operations support to take action and report on security vulnerabilities."

"The most valuable aspects of BMC Helix Cloud Security are its security features and regulatory compliance capabilities."

"Role-based security is a valuable feature."

"I have not seen any limitations. Everything is customizable. You can do whatever you want, defining the reporting and custom use cases. They recently updated the UI, so it's much better than before."

"I like the scanning features provided by Prisma Cloud, including the image scan and source scan."

"The container and serverless security is most valuable. It is quite a new technology for this region. Even though containers have been there for a long time, the adoption of containers is very minimal in this region. When it comes to using Kubernetes containers in a complex architecture, there is a lack of security in the market. People aren't aware of the security controls or the process for governance. Container security provided by Prisma Cloud is quite good at filling that gap."

"I find the CSPM area to be a more valuable and flexible feature."

"The CSPM and CWPP functionalities are pretty good."

"Prisma was extremely comprehensive. It's easy to drill down to gather more information and keep going. It seemed like you could drill down forever to see what the vulnerability was linked to."

"The solution's dashboard looks very user-friendly."

"The UI is very good. We get all the things within a single UI."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pros

Cons

"Every organization out there doesn't rely on just one control body. They use FISMA control. They may use HIPAA, CIS, PCI, or SOX, then blend them. One of the things that is now in big demand for BMC Helix Cloud Security is content. That's the next journey in its lifespan, making it easier for the community to share and collaborate on content for security controls that can be measured and remediated."

"We've had some with issues connectors. The connectors have seemed to have caused a little bit of trouble, perhaps with the APIs trying to scan the environment. The only time I've had to reach out to tech support was for that. It seems it may not have been scanning correctly or I wasn't seeing data within a specific time. But we've set up a couple of connectors in the past couple of weeks and they actually scanned the AWS environment and we had data within about 10 minutes. It's working a lot faster and I think they're making improvements as they go."

"The UI could be more user-friendly."

"I want the role-based security feature to be improved."

"BMC Helix Cloud Security has room for improvement in terms of integrating its various features."

"It would be nice Prisma Cloud merged its modules for CSPM and infrastructure as code. It would simplify the pricing and make it easier for customers to evaluate the solution because there are different modules, and you need to add it to your subscription separately."

"While the code security feature has undergone recent enhancements, there is room for improvement in terms of its cost module."

"Some module customization might be needed and certain features like adding custom labels are currently unavailable unless we have administrator access."

"We identified two things that we felt would be great to have, but they are under NDA. So, I can't disclose them. Other than those two things, we identified a generic bug in the secret key management service on AWS that needs to be fixed. We reported it to them, and we want them to fix it."

"The UI is the worst."

"It can be too expensive for small companies."

"The licensing is a bit confusing."

"One of the requests is that Prisma Defender for the ECS solution is only supported for Linux. It does not support Windows."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is based on an annual subscription, upfront, and it's based on cloud assets. Whether your assets are in Azure and AWS combined, the tool tells you how many assets are being scanned and that's the number used for pricing."

"It is a subscription model with term licensing that is usually yearly. This includes, not only the product, but support and maintenance. It is based on cloud assets. Therefore, if you have 100 cloud assets, those cloud assets are measured based on evaluation or transactions. For example, if I'm evaluating that cloud asset for CIS compliance, PCI compliance, and AWS best practices, that asset gets evaluated three times, as those are three transactions. However, the license model is based on peak asset usage. So, over a year, if you deploy 100, 1000, 500, and then 2000 assets, you will be charged for the 2000 peak of assets managed by Helix Cloud Security."

"If you pay for three years of Palo Alto, it's better. If you're planning on doing this, it's obviously not going to be for one year, so it's better if you go with a three-year license... The only challenge we have is with the public cloud vendor pricing. The biggest lesson I have learned is around the issues related to pricing for public cloud. So when you are doing your segmentation and design, it is extremely important that you work with someone who knows and understands what kinds of needs you will have in the future and how what you are doing will affect you in terms of costs."

"I don't know a better way to do it, but their licensing is a little confusing. That's due to the breadth of different types of technologies they are trying to cover. The way you license depends on where you're securing. When they were Twistlock it was a simple licensing scheme and you could tell what you were doing. Now that they've changed that scheme with Palo Alto, it is quite confusing. It's very difficult to predict what your costs are going to be as you try to expand coverage."

"It is an expensive tool. It is not cheap technology. It is a serious investment for any customer. Customers typically buy it together with services. In my experience, customers buying Prisma Cloud are prepared to pay for the implementation and the tool itself."

"We are encountering some resistance in the African market regarding the cost of Prisma Cloud."

"The pricing and licensing are expensive compared to the other offerings that we considered."

"The cost depends on the pricing model. Compared to other solutions, the cost isn't that bad."

"Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks carries a higher cost, but its enhanced security measures justify the expense."

"The Prisma Cloud pricing is good."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

26%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Educational Organization

17%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Helix Cloud Security?

The most valuable aspects of BMC Helix Cloud Security are its security features and regulatory compliance capabilities.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix Cloud Security?

I would rate the price of BMC Helix Cloud Security as a seven in terms of costliness. It is not the cheapest option available, as it tends to be more expensive than some competitors, but it offers ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with BMC Helix Cloud Security?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks ?

Prisma Cloud helps support DevSecOps methodologies, making those responsibilities easier to manage.

See all answers

What Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform do you recommend?

We like Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, since it offers us incredible visibility into our entire cloud system. We are able to easily see where our container vulnerabilities lie and and where cl...

See all answers

What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?

Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BMC Helix Cloud Security

March 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

March 2025

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks report

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Also Known As

TrueSight Cloud Security, SecOps Policy Service

Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto

Overview

BMC Helix Cloud Security is a SaaS tool designed to help organizations reduce compliance and security lapses resulting from next-gen container and cloud technologies. The solution offers a fully transparent, user-friendly view of all compliance data gathered throughout container resources, cloud, and data centers. BMC Helix Cloud Security can be used to insert compliance inquiries precisely in DevOps workflows for immediate assessment in relation to critical “go, no-go” conclusions throughout the entire workflow.

BMC Helix Cloud Security offers enterprise organizations a unique compliance solution with robust functionalities to concentrate on numerous use processes that may interfere with digital transfigurations, such as:

Discovering resources, accounts, and configurations that are non-compliant with standard regulations or the organization's own policies and protocols.
Multi-source cloud compliance for PaaS service infrastructures, networks, storage, and containers.
DevOps workflows with melded security and compliance for WebApp application blueprints and weaknesses, and all application libraries.
Out-of-box capabilities for immediate compliance integration for DevOps workflows.

BMC Helix Cloud Security is SaaS, which makes it a very flexible solution. It is able to integrate seamlessly with many of today’s enterprises’ demands. BMC Helix Cloud Security can easily perform as a policy-as-code (YAML) based protocol language, open RESTful APIs, or by seamlessly compiling extensible data connectors.

Many of today's enterprise organizations must comply with numerous policies and regulations to maintain effective operations. BMC Helix Cloud Security ensures an enterprise organization is able to satisfy regulatory standards such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act, Defense Information System Agency (DISA), or any other stringent government or internal organizational compliance standards. The solution has a comprehensive compliance policy that utilizes mode-two capabilities and will ensure that an enterprise organization will greatly minimize or even negate the threat of ransomware and data breaches throughout its network.

BMC Helix Cloud Security will also see that container and container hosts are configured correctly and will then regularly audit to ensure compliance at the three important levels of compliance - images, daemon configuration, and host configuration.

BMC Helix Cloud Security is designed to identify vulnerabilities by dissecting and thoroughly investigating compliance data for container and cloud resources and delivering the outcomes through a friendly, easy-to-understand dashboard. The solution can also provide support for unique or custom sources, provided that data is in a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.

BMC Helix Cloud security is also able to help discover and minimize vulnerabilities created by new services, objects, and resources instituted by containers and public clouds. These can sometimes be forgotten, creating a tremendous risk to an organization. BMC Helix Cloud Security will ensure these new services will be carefully and continually monitored to ensure industry and government standards and regulations are not being compromised. The solution is continually dissecting data and then will deliver outcomes in a dynamic, easy-to-understand dashboard.

BMC Helix Cloud Security offers a user-friendly, robust, complete compliance strategy to ensure organizations maintain the highest levels of productivity and profitability while negating the risk of any type of compliance vulnerabilities.

BMC

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks delivers comprehensive security for cloud environments, focusing on workload protection, identity creation, and seamless AWS integration. Its cloud visibility and control, combined with thorough vulnerability scanning, help maintain robust security across multi-cloud platforms.

Prisma Cloud provides essential capabilities for cloud security posture management, container security, and compliance monitoring. Enterprises utilize it to secure cloud configurations, detect vulnerabilities, and ensure regulatory compliance, spanning AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Its runtime management, identity-based micro-segmentation, and threat detection enhance cybersecurity. Despite needing improvements in documentation, integration complexities, UI, and the need for role-based access control refinement, it remains pivotal for securing assets across cloud infrastructures, particularly with its capabilities for vulnerability scanning and CI/CD pipeline integration.

What are the key features?

Workload Identity Creation: Establishes identities for cloud workloads, enhancing security through precise access management.
Dynamic Workload Protection: Protects applications dynamically, securing resources during runtime.
Integration with AWS Products: Seamlessly integrates with AWS services, maximizing the efficiency of cloud operations.
Automated Forensics: Provides detailed insights through automated investigations and runtime mapping between containers.
Application Dependency Map: Enables compliance and asset management through comprehensive inventory functionality.

What benefits or ROI should users expect?

Proactive Threat Prevention: Enhances security measures with advanced threat detection and prevention.
Cloud Visibility and Control: Offers control across multi-cloud environments, ensuring users maintain a strong security posture.
Prevention Capabilities: Users value its ability to prevent vulnerabilities and threats effectively.
Integration Capabilities: Supports seamless integration into existing cloud infrastructures and CI/CD pipelines.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, Prisma Cloud is implemented to strengthen cybersecurity measures, facilitate regulatory compliance, and enhance governance. Organizations leverage its features to secure sensitive data, monitor configurations, and integrate security processes within CI/CD workflows, ensuring robust protection across complex cloud infrastructures.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

NHS, Vodafone, Kansas City Life, SKY Italia, Cybera

Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America

Buyer's Guide

BMC Helix Cloud Security vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

February 2025

Free Report: BMC Helix Cloud Security vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

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