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Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Sweet Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.5
Qualys TotalCloud boosts efficiency, reduces manual effort, decreases risk, and offers significant cost savings with a notable ROI.
Sentiment score
3.7
Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks boosts efficiency and ROI with XSOAR integrations, though ROI quantification can be challenging.
Sentiment score
6.1
Sweet Security boosts incident response and reduces alert fatigue with improved visibility, prioritizing threats for informed tool investments.
It has saved about 90% of our time.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
TotalCloud has generated overall savings of 30 to 40 percent across various departments.
Security Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
CallStream helps us integrate and automate tasks.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
The solution provides a good ROI, especially for regular customers, offering discounts for three-year licenses.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I don't think the tool in itself is very capable of doing that, but we have XSOAR and other tool integrations done on the platform, so this can be accomplished.
Technical Solutions Architect at IBM
The ROI is that we are not waiting for a breach but being proactive rather than reactive.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Qualys TotalCloud support is praised for efficiency and staff knowledge but criticized for delays and inconsistent quality.
Sentiment score
6.6
Cortex Cloud's customer service is praised for prompt, knowledgeable support and effective troubleshooting, earning high user ratings.
Sentiment score
9.0
Sweet Security provides exceptional customer service and technical support, with quick issue resolution and strong customer relationships.
They are helpful, respond to my queries, and can answer any question.
Developer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Qualys's tech support is highly responsive, providing multiple ways to interact with them.
Service Manager, Security Operations at CDA IT SOLUTIONS
Qualys' customer service provides quality answers, but the response time is long, even though it is within the SLA.
Works at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
If I make it a high priority, they have resolved one query within 20 minutes.
Assistant Security Architect at Cloudnomics
If local Indian support cannot resolve an issue, global tech support aligns promptly within the agreed SLA.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Fast response times and knowledgeable staff who understand the intricacies of the system.
Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
They are there immediately, providing us with the best technical people, solving any issue we had.
Director of Security Operations at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
They gave me a trial period, did multiple follow-ups, and were reviewing themselves the findings to actually understand how their product is performing.
Infrastructure & Dev Ops Lead at Babylon Labs
I would rate customer support a nine out of ten because they maintain a competitive price, offer trial periods, provide follow-up, are very responsive, and are effectively hands-on in assisting and offering prompt service and support.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Qualys TotalCloud excels in scalability, efficiently supporting diverse environments and business sizes, though it may require skilled management.
Sentiment score
4.5
Palo Alto's Cortex Cloud is scalable and efficient, with easy onboarding, but can be costly for higher licenses.
Sentiment score
7.3
Sweet Security scales well for small to medium businesses but faces mixed reviews for large enterprise scalability and performance.
We started our organization about nine months back. We started with about 30 users, and we now have more than 100 users.
CIO at a venture capital & private equity firm with 11-50 employees
Our organization currently uses it to manage over 1200 web applications.
Analyst, Information Security at Infosys
It is absolutely scalable, and I would rate its scalability as nine out of ten.
retired at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
For stability, scalability, mean time to response, and potential incident investigation improvements, I would give it a nine or probably even a ten.
Business Development Team Lead at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Onboarding endpoints and assets on Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is very easy.
Assistant Security Architect at Cloudnomics
The platform is able to auto-shut certain resources that are not in use through the agentless scan feature.
Technical Solutions Architect at IBM
We don't need to scale it since it's all SaaS.
Cloud and compute team leader at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We are a robust enterprise with thousands of assets in the cloud or tens of thousands.
Director of Security Operations at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
The user interface that I see doesn't make me very confident that I will be able to extract information in case I had hundreds or thousands of Kubernetes clusters or hundreds or thousands of hosts.
Infrastructure & Dev Ops Lead at Babylon Labs
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Qualys TotalCloud is highly stable with reliable support, 99.9% uptime, minimal bugs, and effective maintenance communication.
Sentiment score
7.8
Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is praised for its stability, reliability, and seamless security performance without latency or issues.
Sentiment score
8.5
Sweet Security is highly stable, with users rating it 9-10/10 for reliability and quick issue resolution.
Overall, the support provided has been excellent.
Analyst, Information Security at Infosys
It is a stable solution, which is why we chose it.
CIO at a venture capital & private equity firm with 11-50 employees
Continuous monitoring is crucial to ensure system stability and avoid vulnerabilities or threats.
Developer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
My impression of Cloud Runtime Security in stopping attacks in real-time is that I have never had an issue where it has let something through, causing an outage or concerns to the customer.
Business Development Team Lead at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
However, now in Cortex Cloud, I have not seen any lag or buffer.
Assistant Security Architect at Cloudnomics
My evaluation of how stable and reliable Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is very positive.
Technical Solutions Architect at IBM
I would rate the stability of Sweet Security a ten out of ten.
Works at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
We have never had any issues with stability.
Director of Security Operations at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Sweet Security is stable, as I find that user experience does not tend to reveal many production problems, and when they do occur, they are resolved quickly.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users suggest enhancing Qualys TotalCloud with clearer reports, better integration, intuitive UI, AI risk assessments, and improved documentation.
Cortex Cloud's interface and costs challenge users, with needs for improved integration, efficiency, and identity management features.
Sweet Security needs improved integration, UI, and automation, with concerns over complexity, customization, and market position risks.
Ideally, the scanner should automatically detect and scan all subdomains, even if not explicitly defined, ensuring comprehensive vulnerability assessment.
Analyst, Information Security at Infosys
Ideally, updates should be more immediate, enabling quicker implementation of solutions.
Project Lead at Persistent Systems
Our goal is to integrate all these functions into Qualys, creating a single dashboard for comprehensive security monitoring and management.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Regarding the generative AI security tool, I know for sure it's Agentic.
Cybersecurity Analyst at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The solution is quite premium in cost compared to alternatives such as Wiz.
Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
There is not a clear MSP model compared to other vendors such as CrowdStrike.
Business Development Manager For Palo Alto Networks at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The next great thing that Sweet Security can do is to turn toward IAC, how it is handled and enforced, to tackle potential breaches of policy before they really happen.
Director of Security Operations at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Maybe they can just show the actual signal and not show that there is a lot of vulnerabilities, but indicate which are important.
Infrastructure & Dev Ops Lead at Babylon Labs
The main areas for improvement are related to how Sweet Security needs to be customized.
Works at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
 

Setup Cost

Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is high yet justified by comprehensive features and flexibility, benefiting larger enterprises seeking robust security.
Sweet Security offers cost-effective pricing with fair value, integration benefits, and excellent support, ideal for enterprise-level businesses.
Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive.
Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Pricing is managed by our finance team; however, Qualys TotalCloud offers cost-effective licensing flexibility.
IT Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches.
Vice President at Inspira Enterprise
The solution is costly, with high-end capabilities suitable for enterprises.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Today, it is smart and easy to calculate the licenses.
Cloud Security Manager at T-Systems International GmbH
They're not cheap, but they're not as expensive compared to other companies.
Works at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Sweet Security contains very similar features at a much better pricing.
Infrastructure & Dev Ops Lead at Babylon Labs
Sweet Security's pricing is quite fair and cost-effective by many users.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Qualys TotalCloud offers comprehensive vulnerability detection, cloud security management, and automation with insightful dashboards for efficient threat management.
Cortex Cloud enhances security management with AI-driven threat detection, automation, and seamless CI/CD integration, reducing response times significantly.
Sweet Security offers deep runtime visibility, unifying security with real-time insights, threat detection, and customizable dashboards for APIs.
This view of risk helps reduce the work we would have to do to combine multiple sources to prioritize risk.
Works at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It will help cybersecurity professionals monitor the cloud and find vulnerabilities.
Developer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We are enjoying the new feature, FlexScan, which is valuable for Internet-facing VMs.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
AI/ML aids in anticipating remediation for misconfigurations and vulnerabilities, and automatic remediation can be easily configured.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks has reduced the time spent on incident investigations, and if I had to estimate, I would say it has cut our investigation time in half.
Sr. Compliance Analyst at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
This simplifies the management of shared responsibility among different people and entities, allowing you to use one single tool instead of having dozens of different tools to orchestrate and integrate.
Business Development Manager For Palo Alto Networks at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sweet Security's reporting tools enhance our insights into potential vulnerabilities and threats as they serve as our eyes and ears inside AWS, telling us what we are doing wrong so we can fix it.
Cloud and compute team leader at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sweet Security enabled teams to see each detection of activity upon every request made from the application level towards the infrastructure, making it much easier and reducing the time for an analyst to understand what is really happening.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
I really love the feature within Sweet Security platform that allows you to visualize the specific packages or functions that are being loaded to the memory and are actually being executed by the operational system.
Director of Security Operations at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Qualys TotalCloud
Sponsored
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
11th
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
8th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
8th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Container Security (11th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (1st)
Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto N...
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
29th
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
13th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
16th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
11th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (11th), Software Supply Chain Security (6th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (7th), Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) (7th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (6th)
Sweet Security
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
31st
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
15th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
19th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (9th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 2.0%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 2.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sweet Security is 1.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys TotalCloud2.0%
Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks2.7%
Sweet Security1.5%
Other93.8%
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
 

Featured Reviews

RO
IT Security Expert at Alior Bank S.A.
Unified risk scoring has improved our cloud visibility and simplifies remediation priorities
Qualys TotalCloud provides unified vulnerability and threat assessment across both IAS and SaaS. This solution provides a single prioritized view of risk, which helps reduce the work I would have to do. We are no longer based on CVSS; we are based on Qualys risk scoring, which is based on CVSS plus internal findings made by Qualys, and then assigns its own score. The TruRisk insight feature has found a small number of assets with high vulnerability scores, though I am cautious since some information is classified. Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted our bank's performance, and we have definitely seen benefits after implementing this solution.
SJ
Technical Solutions Architect at IBM
Cloud security has improved as AI-driven runtime protection detects threats and reduces incidents
In my opinion, Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks could be improved or enhanced in various ways. I don't have an idea about that yet because for that you actually need to use two or three different other tools to make a basic comparison. If you ask me how good the tool is, I would fairly rate it quite high. The tool is very popular, and customers can already see that it is one of the cloud leaders in the security space. The platform had a very good feature which provides documentation links about how to use a specific feature on the UI. It takes you to the proper documentation page where it suggests what to do and tells you about the steps that need to be done for a resource deployment. My thoughts about improving the product which I believe could greatly aid vendors is that it used to be a very user-friendly tool, but now they have incorporated everything under one umbrella. It has XDR, XSOAR, and Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks. Before, we used to have separate modules and separate environments for each of these capabilities or features. Right now, it is a little complex and users would take their own time to know the tool better. This is something that would have been way better, but I would say there would be different opinions on this. Talking about user-friendliness, it has decreased now.
reviewer2805510 - PeerSpot reviewer
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
Runtime-first security has transformed real-time threat detection and reduced alert fatigue
Sweet Security can be improved in terms of product maturity and ecosystem. It has a smaller market presence, so we do not have as many large enterprise deployments. Sweet Security is less mature than competitors such as Wiz or Palo Alto Networks. Some competitors provide better integrations and workflow tooling. Additionally, as a new vendor, there is a new market perception and higher perceived risk, which relates to trust of the product. Some competitors are seen as safer and more established choices. Since Sweet Security operates in the production live environment, there have been a couple of problems reported where issues occurred in production environments. However, these have been resolved within about an hour or two. Having that risk is always going to be a negative. As a cloud-native platform solution, Sweet Security is really good overall. There are only a couple of areas for improvement, such as not being fully 100% production safe, and the reality that its competitors are global, well-known companies such as Palo Alto and Wiz.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) solutions are best for your needs.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Construction Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Wellness & Fitness Company
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
Areas that need improvement in every solution include the remediation part. The remediation steps should be simple en...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
Our use case involves the assets that we have under cloud, the assets exposed to the internet, and the internal appli...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks?
I am not fully aware of the pricing and licensing of Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks. The pricing is also based on...
What needs improvement with Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks?
In my opinion, Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks could be improved or enhanced in various ways. I don't have an idea...
What is your primary use case for Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks?
The usual use cases for Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks that I have been working with mostly are as simple as dete...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sweet Security?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that Sweet Security's pricing is quite fair and cost-e...
What needs improvement with Sweet Security?
Sweet Security can be improved in terms of product maturity and ecosystem. It has a smaller market presence, so we do...
What is your primary use case for Sweet Security?
My main use case for Sweet Security as a distributor is to distribute to our partners within the UK channel, and they...
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Cortex Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Sweet Security and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.