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CyCognito vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management 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

CyCognito
Ranking in Attack Surface Management (ASM)
12th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
3.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (9th)
Microsoft Defender External...
Ranking in Attack Surface Management (ASM)
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (33rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Attack Surface Management (ASM) category, the mindshare of CyCognito is 2.2%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 2.9%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Attack Surface Management (ASM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CyCognito2.2%
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management2.9%
Other94.9%
Attack Surface Management (ASM)
 

Featured Reviews

VO
IT Specialist at Squemart
Automated attack surface mapping has improved risk visibility but still needs better guidance
I believe CyCognito could improve by lowering the false positive rate. When false positives occur with CyCognito, we experience frustrating delays in customer support. Standard support tickets for complaints often take too long to resolve. Additionally, the remediation workflow guidance is sometimes criticized for lacking clear step-by-step instructions on fixing vulnerabilities, requiring manual engineering research. Adding specific code fixes or configuration lines could prevent teams from manually figuring out corrections. Moreover, the tool is somewhat expensive, particularly for small to medium businesses such as ours, pushing smaller IT teams to utilize lower-cost or open-source alternatives. Ideally, a pricing tier favorable to these smaller organizations would be beneficial. I also suggest a consumption-based model based on testing frequency rather than total asset count to enhance platform accessibility. CyCognito also lacks native compliance questionnaire management and vendor scorecard tracking, which could improve overall utility. Finally, while it maps third-party parameters, it cannot fully address lateral movement paths as some other scanners can, requiring reliance on external API integration.
AndyChan3 - PeerSpot reviewer
General manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Enhanced visibility and exposes vulnerabilities but needs more integration
I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will move to full-scale production in another year, maybe Microsoft External Attack Surface Management…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Since using CyCognito, we have observed specific outcomes, for the last operational year, we had about 30 to 50 percent more risk surface with hidden internet-exposed assets that traditional internal scanning tools missed, MTTR was reduced by more than 60 percent, compressing timelines to patch critical vulnerabilities from weeks or months down to days, the prioritization engine filtered out noise, forcing the security team to focus on a small fraction of exploitable risks, we also saw a less than 5 percent false positive rate, which eliminated hours of manual validation work, and we have saved significantly annually due to automated external testing, reducing reliance on manual penetration testing and expensive external bug bounty programs."
"Microsoft External Attack Surface Management helps improve the visibility of my exposed vulnerabilities and provides an overview of my security posture across the globe."
"It seems to be better at protecting from cyberattacks."
 

Cons

"When false positives occur with CyCognito, we experience frustrating delays in customer support."
"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."
"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."
"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
7%
Construction Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with CyCognito?
I believe CyCognito could improve by lowering the false positive rate. When false positives occur with CyCognito, we experience frustrating delays in customer support. Standard support tickets for ...
What is your primary use case for CyCognito?
My main use case for CyCognito is attack surface management. It helps me bridge ethical considerations as it serves as a simulation of what an attacker would do in real life, allowing me to continu...
What advice do you have for others considering CyCognito?
CyCognito is deployed in our organization as a multi-tenant public cloud SaaS platform. It analyzes our infrastructure from an outside-in attacker perspective, so it is not deployed as a private cl...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?
Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement. Introduction of more AI automation into the products would also be beneficial. The integration is not as seamless co...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?
I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

UTA, BERTELSMANN, WIPRO
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about TrendAI, CrowdStrike, Qualys and others in Attack Surface Management (ASM). Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.