Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Entra Verified ID comparison

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Microsoft Entra Verified ID

February 2026

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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

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (7th), Container Management (8th), Container Security (7th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (5th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (3rd)

Microsoft Entra Verified ID

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

21st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 5.4%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Entra Verified ID is 1.6%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud	5.4%
Microsoft Entra Verified ID	1.6%
Other	93.0%

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

RyanWalker

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.

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MuhammadWaqar

IT Director at Interwood Mobel Pvt Ltd

Supports user management and authentication but needs simpler hybrid integration for broader adoption

I believe there should be an easy provision for the on-premises and for the hybrid environment in Microsoft Entra Verified ID, as there seems to be some difficulty with hybrid implementations, especially in a country like Pakistan where most are transitioning to cloud but not fully migrating, instead opting for hybrid solutions. An ease for hybrid integration would greatly help the technical teams. I believe the policy implementation is a little bit complex on the Microsoft side; there should be a simpler way to implement policies, utilizing standardized templates for compliance, such as industry-specific templates for the service industry, which would be helpful for HIPAA and other compliances.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Provides a very good view of the entire security setup of your organization."

"The features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud that I appreciate the most are automation and event detection."

"The most valuable features are the security recommendations provided by Defender for Cloud."

"I find Microsoft Defender for Cloud's KQL very flexible and powerful. It's really easy to search through with KQL queries to find the security breaches and incidents and to track down the breach itself."

"Scalability is great, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"I appreciate the features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud the most because it incorporates itself into the entire Microsoft platform, and it's a one-stop shop for administration in the web."

"The security alerts and correlated alerts are most valuable. It correlates the logs and gives us correlated alerts, which can be fed into any security information and event management (SIEM) tool. It is an analyzed correlation tool for monitoring security. It gives us alerts when there is any kind of unauthorized access, or when there is any malfunctioning in multifactor authentication (MFA). If our Azure is connected with Azure Security Center, we get to know what types of authentication are happening in our infra."

"Defender is user-friendly and provides decent visibility into threats."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

"I would recommend this solution to others because it's simple enough to deploy."

"Microsoft Entra Verified ID has helped reduce fraud or impersonation attacks because if you are using a government-sanctioned ID, what is more secure than that?"

"I find Microsoft Dynamics 365 very easy and useful because most of the users on our end are using Microsoft, thus they are very familiar with the Microsoft Office stack, and some of SharePoint and Teams."

"The MFA number matching feature effectively prevents unauthorized access by phishing bad actors who might obtain email credentials. This feature requires users to verify a number on their screen, ensuring they only approve genuine requests."

"I like the Microsoft Authenticator app since it comes with two-factor authentication."

"The most valuable features of the solution are mainly in the areas of security and auditing."

"Microsoft Entra Verified ID has smoothed out our identity verification process and made it easier for us to authenticate users, making us more confident about our users being who they say they are so we can trust that we have secure logins for all our users."

"The authentication features of Microsoft Entra Verified ID are valuable. As an infrastructure professional, I appreciate the exceptional integration between on-premises Active Directory features and Entra ID."

Cons

"Customer service and support from Microsoft are very poor. Even for high-severity cases, response or resolution time can extend to three or four weeks."

"Comparing Microsoft Defender for Cloud to other solutions on the market, Microsoft needs to push a little bit to improve it."

"The documentation could be much clearer."

"There is no perfect product in the world and there are always features that can be added."

"The solution could extend its capabilities to other cloud providers. Right now, if you want to monitor a virtual machine on another cloud, you can do that. However, this cannot be done with other cloud platform services. I hope once that is available then Defender for Cloud will be a unified solution for all cloud platform services."

"The range of workloads is broad, but we'd love to add more workloads and make it a single security solution that covers all those workloads."

"We haven't experienced issues with Microsoft Defender for Cloud for our company size of about five hundred people. However, I've heard there might be issues with scalability for larger enterprises."

"One of the main challenges that we have been facing with Azure Security Center is the cost. The costs are really a complex calculation, e.g., to calculate the monthly costs. Azure is calculating on an hourly basis for use of the resource. Because of this, we found it really complex to promote what will be our costs for the next couple of months. I think if Azure could reduce the complex calculation and come up with straightforward cost mapping that would be very useful from a product point of view."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

"There is room for improvement in Microsoft Entra Verified ID, particularly in the integration with other platforms, as they could do better with the API, for example."

"I have not really seen return on investment with Microsoft Entra Verified ID."

"I believe there should be an easy provision for the on-premises and for the hybrid environment in Microsoft Entra Verified ID, as there seems to be some difficulty with hybrid implementations, especially in a country like Pakistan where most are transitioning to cloud but not fully migrating, instead opting for hybrid solutions."

"While Microsoft continues to improve the solution, integrating the ID with biometric features could be enhanced, especially in terms of standard B2C flows for multi-factor authentication. Improvements in remembering devices and the timing of MFA triggers could also be beneficial."

"The tool's expensive nature is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"There are issues with the integration of Microsoft Entra Verified ID and MFA. Sometimes, the MFA process doesn't succeed, requiring users to sign out and log back in."

"Microsoft products basically have no support other than the knowledge base, so I would give it a two out of 10."

"I must do two-factor authentication when I sign in from a different location. It creates friction. It's not personalized for the end user. I would like to see specific insights."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Understanding the costs of cloud services can be complicated at first. As with a lot of things in the cloud, it can be quite hard to understand the end cost, but it becomes clearer over time. Early on, the lack of transparency is a challenge. Microsoft does not tell you the cost when they launch something. It is clever marketing, and there is room for improvement there. There should be clarity from the start."

"Azure Defender is a bit pricey. The price could be lower."

"Microsoft's licensing and pricing are sometimes complicated. If someone is new to Microsoft's licensing, they might have difficulty with it."

"The licensing is straightforward but can become expensive if you cover everything. You must balance the cost against the importance of what needs covering."

"The pricing model for most plans is generally good, but the cost of the new Defender for Storage plan is high and should be revisited, as it could lead to disabling desirable security features due to cost."

"It is bundled with our enterprise subscription, which makes it easy to go for it. It is available by default, and there is no extra cost for using the standard features."

"The product's pricing policy is generally favorable."

"The pricing and licensing of Microsoft Defender for Cloud have been good for us. We appreciate the licensing approach based on employee count rather than a big enterprise license."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

"I still feel the pricing is on the higher side for larger customers. They don't pay anything for on-prem Active Directory. Although we receive additional features with Microsoft’s SSO, pricing is an area Microsoft can work on."

"If one is cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the product price as seven."

"The pricing and setup are standard. With Entra, you choose between P1 and P2 licenses. We recommend having at least one P2 license in a company for better alert management, even though P2 is more expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	49

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

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 cost, and licensing for Microsoft Defender for Cloud was pretty straightforward. We did have a consultation with a third party to go over different tiers and produ...

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

Microsoft Defender for Cloud can be improved. An additional feature that should be included in the next release is Zero Trust, similar to ThreatLocker software.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Entra Verified ID?

It is hard for me to say how Microsoft Entra Verified ID can be improved. I really do not know the extent of how that can benefit everything. I am trying to learn that here at the Ignite conference.

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Entra Verified ID?

My main use cases for Microsoft Entra Verified ID are verifying the end user saying who they are and being able to back that up with government-issued proof.

What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Entra Verified ID?

My organization has not implemented the Face Check feature yet; we are using YubiKeys. My organization's trust in digital interactions really has not changed since implementing Microsoft Entra Veri...

AWS GuardDuty vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Comparisons

Compared 34% of the time

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Competitors

Okta Platform vs Microsoft Entra Verified ID

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Entra ID vs Microsoft Entra Verified ID

Compared 9% of the time

Auth0 Platform vs Microsoft Entra Verified ID

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Microsoft Entra Verified ID

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Intune vs Microsoft Entra Verified ID

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

March 2026

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud product report

Microsoft Entra Verified ID

March 2026

Download Microsoft Entra Verified ID product report

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender

No data available

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for cloud workloads. It offers real-time visibility into the security posture of cloud environments, enabling organizations to quickly identify and respond to potential threats. With its advanced machine learning capabilities, Microsoft Defender for Cloud can detect and block sophisticated attacks, including zero-day exploits and fileless malware.

The solution also provides automated remediation capabilities, allowing security teams to quickly and easily respond to security incidents. With Microsoft Defender for Cloud, organizations can ensure the security and compliance of their cloud workloads, while reducing the burden on their security teams.

Learn more about Microsoft Entra Verified ID

Microsoft Entra Verified ID is a managed verifiable credential service that lets organizations build unique user-owned identity scenarios designed for trustworthy, secure, and efficient interactions between people and organizations. Transform the way you perform identity verification with verifiable credentials.

Face Check with Microsoft Entra Verified ID is a premium privacy-respecting facial matching feature powered by Azure AI services that unlocks high-assurance identity verification at scale. It matches a user's real-time selfie with a trusted identity document – such as a driver’s license or a passport – without ever passing or storing personal data, providing secure, trustworthy verifications for organizations and a quick, simple experience for users.

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.

Information Not Available