Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Tenable Cloud Security comparison

Microsoft and Tenable are both solutions in the Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) category. Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.1, while Tenable is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.2. Microsoft holds a 11.2% mindshare in CNAP, compared to Tenable’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 71% of Tenable users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Tenable Cloud Security are competing in the cloud security management category. Microsoft Defender for Cloud has the upper hand due to its robust integration with Microsoft services.

Features: Microsoft Defender for Cloud integrates deeply with Azure resources, uses AI for threat detection, and automates incident response. It provides extensive recommendations and centralized management. Tenable Cloud Security stands out with its comprehensive vulnerability detection, software composition analysis, and robust asset management. It excels in compliance management and supports DevOps integration.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Defender for Cloud could improve by providing more granular control over policy enforcement and enhancing support for non-Microsoft platforms. Customization options for reporting might be limited, and integrating with third-party SIEM tools can be complex. Tenable Cloud Security could benefit from a more user-friendly interface and better scalability for large enterprise environments. It may also need to enhance support for real-time threat intelligence and improve its remediation automation capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Defender for Cloud benefits from easy deployment within Azure, offering a streamlined setup and familiar interface for Microsoft users. Its centralized management provides ease of use across Microsoft environments. Tenable Cloud Security is flexible in multi-cloud deployments, accommodating diverse cloud environments efficiently. Their customer support is reliable, though Microsoft’s seamless Azure integration often results in faster onboarding and configuration.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Defender for Cloud is integrated into existing Microsoft service subscriptions, potentially lowering costs for Azure users and promising a competitive ROI through enhanced threat protection. Tenable Cloud Security may have higher initial setup costs due to robust vulnerability assessments, but it translates to substantial ROI by reducing security risks and maintaining compliance. The advanced features of Tenable are seen as valuable investments for comprehensive security management.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tenable Cloud Security Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tenable Cloud Security

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

SentinelOne Singularity Clo...

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) category, the mindshare of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is 3.1%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 11.2%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable Cloud Security is 2.3%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

Featured Reviews

Andrew W

VP - Information Technology at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

Tells us about vulnerabilities as well as their impact and helps to focus on real issues

Looking at all the different pieces, it has got everything we need. Some of the pieces we do not even use. For example, we do not have Kubernetes Security. We are not running any K8 clusters, so it is good for us. Overall, we find the solution to be fantastic. There can be additional education components. This may not be truly fair to them because of what the product is going for, but it would be great to see additional education for compliance. It is not a criticism of the tool per se, but anything to help non-development resources understand some of the complexities of the cloud is always appreciated. Any additional educational resources are always helpful for security teams, especially those without a development background.

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Vibhor Goel

Senior Cloud Platform Engineer at Deutsche Börse

A single tool for complete visibility and addressing security gaps

Currently, issues are structured in Microsoft Defender for Cloud at severity levels of high, critical, or warning, but these severity levels are not always right. For example, Microsoft might consider a port being open as critical, but that might not be the case for our company. Similarly, it might suggest closing some management ports, but you might need them to be able to log in, so the severity levels for certain things can be improved. Even though Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides a way to temporarily disable certain alerts or notifications without affecting our security score, it would be better to have more granularized control over these recommendations. Currently, we cannot even disable certain alerts or notifications. There should be an automated mechanism to design Azure policies based on the recommendations, possibly with AI integration. Instead of an engineer having to write a policy to fix security gaps, which is very time-consuming, there should be an inbuilt capability to auto-remediate everything and have proper control in place. Additionally, enabling Defender for Cloud at the resource group level, rather than only at the subscription level, would be beneficial.

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Ondrej Kováč

Solution Engineer at Exclusive Networks Czechia

Has vulnerability detection, software composition analysis and asset management features

Due to its robust nature, the platform's adoption can be overwhelming initially. However, once organizations start using it, they tend to get used to it. I haven't had much direct interaction with the support team, but some partners have reported a desire for better support for the product. Another area needing improvement is the implementation complexity, especially in multi-cloud environments. Tenable Cloud Security's features mean there's a steep learning curve, which can consume significant time and resources to utilize the platform's potential and fully see immediate benefits. It's similar to AI in that you must spend time fine-tuning and training before it truly helps.

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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

"The cooperative nature of SentinelOne has influenced our decision not to shift."

"PingSafe offers comprehensive security posture management."

"Singularity Cloud's ability to create custom correlation searches and reduce noise is highly valuable."

"The most valuable features of PingSafe are cloud misconfiguration, Kubernetes, and IaC scanning."

"We've seen a reduction in resources devoted to vulnerability monitoring. Before PingSafe we spent a lot of time monitoring and fixing these issues. PingSafe enabled us to divert more resources to the production environment."

"PingSafe's integration is smooth. They are highly customer-oriented, and the integration went well for us."

"There's real-time threat detection. It can show threats and find issues based on their severity and helps us with real-time monitoring."

"Cloud Native Security has helped us with our risk posture and securing our agenda. It has been tremendous in terms of supporting growth."

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security pros

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is its ability to assess an environment and give us a clear idea of what security components are lacking and which are not."

"The most valuable feature is the regulatory compliance aspect, where we utilize predefined initiatives like NIST. Alert management is another useful feature. Alerts are directly integrated with our email or DevOps board for easy viewing, allowing us to identify problem areas efficiently."

"My favorite part of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is the compliance features. Defender covers a wide range of workloads, on par with competing products on the market."

"Microsoft Defender has a lot of features including regulatory compliance and attaching workbooks but the most valuable is the recommendations it provides for each and every resource when we open Microsoft Defender."

"The most valuable feature is the recommendations provided on how to improve security."

"It takes very little effort to integrate it. It also gives very good visibility into what exactly is happening."

"The integration with Logic Apps allows for automated responses to incidents."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud has significantly enhanced our overall security posture by approximately 20 to 25 percent."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

"The solution’s vulnerability management feature has helped us identify and mitigate risks well."

"Scanning and reporting are the most valuable features of Tenable Cloud Security"

"The product's visibility and remediation work fine for me."

"If you have multi-cloud tenancy using AWS and Azure, you can have a single dashboard where you can onboard all the cloud infrastructure and have visibility into it."

"The key benefit lies in having the largest and most up-to-date database. When it comes to using any Tenable product, it excels in finding vulnerabilities and providing analytics."

"The product's deployment phase is easy."

"Ermetic can provide super visibility for our cloud environment (we are using AWS)."

"The tool alerts us on depreciating performance or deficiencies of our web application. It helps us react on time."

More Tenable Cloud Security pros

Cons

"While PingSafe offers real-time response, there is room for improvement in alert accuracy."

"We've found a lot of false positives."

"They need more experienced support personnel."

"I export CSV. I cannot export graphs. Restricting it to the CSV format has its own disadvantages. These are all machine IP addresses and information. I cannot change it to the JSON format. The export functionality can be improved."

"I believe the UI/UX updates for SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security have room for improvement."

"I request that SentinelOne investigate this false positive, as SentinelOne has a higher false positive rate than other XDR solutions."

"The Automation tab is an add-on that doesn’t work properly. They provide a list of scripts that don’t work and I have asked support to assist but they won’t help. When running on various endpoints the script doesn’t work and if it does, it’s only a couple. There are a lot of useful scripts that would be beneficial to run forensics, event logs, and process lists running on the endpoint."

"The recommended actions aren't always specific, so it might suggest recommendations that don't apply to the particular infrastructure code I'm reviewing."

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security cons

"I would like to see better automation when it comes to pushing out security features to the recommendations, and better documentation on the step-by-step procedures for enabling certain features."

"They could always work to make the pricing a bit lower."

"Defender could improve how data is represented. It can be unstructured or slow to load. The recent update allowing policy grouping into control groups is beneficial, but further enhancements for speed and clarity are needed."

"I would like to see more connectors and plugins with other platforms."

"Most customer teams need more training on this type of product."

"It's hard to reach someone who understands my problems. I haven't had many issues, so I haven't called them."

"Consistency is the area where the most improvement is needed. For example, there are some areas where the UI is not uniform across the board."

"However, some Copilot features aren't available in the GCP environment. This is something we hope will be addressed in the future."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

"If Tenable Cloud Security offers a complete Cnapp solution with CWP, CIEM, and Waap security, it will be able to compete with other competitors."

"I do think there might be room for more integrations. This could allow for further customization and flexibility, essentially offering different functionality options to accommodate various budgets."

"Ermetic needs to improve its security scanning. I would like to see more dynamic graphical forms."

"Tenable needs to offer a patch-based solution since it is an area where the tool lacks a bit."

"The product must provide more features."

"Due to its robust nature, the platform's adoption can be overwhelming initially. However, once organizations start using it, they tend to get used to it. I haven't had much direct interaction with the support team, but some partners have reported a desire for better support for the product."

"There is a need for the support team to improve their response time since it is one of the areas where the product's technical team has certain shortcomings."

"I have faced several bug incidents with the solution"

More Tenable Cloud Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am personally not taking care of the pricing part, but when we moved from CrowdStrike to PingSafe, there were some savings. The price of CrowdStrike was quite high. Compared to that, the price of PingSafe was low. PingSafe is charging based on the subscription model. If I want to add an AWS subscription, I need to pay more. It should not be based on subscription. It should be based on the number of servers that I am scanning."

"The price depends on the extension of the solution that you want to buy. If you want to buy just EDR, the price is less. XDR is a little bit more expensive. There are going to be different add-ons for Singularity."

"We found it to be fine for us. Its price was competitive. It was something we were happy with. We are not a Fortune 500 company, so I do not know how pricing scales at the top end, but for our cloud environment, it works very well."

"SentinelOne provided competitive pricing compared to other vendors, and we are satisfied with the deal."

"As a partner, we receive a discount on the licenses."

"While SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers robust protection, its high cost may be prohibitive for small and medium-sized businesses."

"It is cost-effective compared to other solutions in the market."

"It is cheap."

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security pricing and cost advice

"Defender's basic version is free, which is good. Many of our teams are evaluating the paid version against third-party products."

"Its pricing is a little bit high in terms of Azure Security Center, but the good thing is that we don't need to maintain and deploy it. So, while the pricing is high, it is native to Azure which is why we prefer using this tool."

"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 tool is pretty expensive."

"I rate Microsoft Defender a three out of ten for affordability. The price could be a little lower."

"Pricing depends on your workload size, but it is very cheap. If you're talking about virtual machines, it is $5 or something for each machine, which is minimal. If you go for some agent-based solution for every virtual machine, then you need to pay the same thing or more than that. For an on-premises solution like this, we were paying around $30 to $50 based on size. With Defender, Microsoft doesn't bother about the size. You pay based on the number of machines. So, if you have 10 virtual machines, and 10 virtual machines are being monitored, you are paying based on that rather than the size of the virtual machine. Thus, you are paying for the number of units rather than paying for the size of your units."

"Currently, Microsoft offers only one plan at the enterprise level which is $15 per machine."

"The solution is expensive, and I rate it a five to six out of ten."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

"There is a need to opt for a subscription-based pricing model to use Tenable Cloud Security. I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"The tool's price is good compared to other brands. The tool's subscription is for a year."

"The tool's pricing is fair."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about PingSafe?

The dashboard gives me an overview of all the things happening in the product, making it one of the tool's best featu...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PingSafe?

It is cost-effective compared to other solutions in the market.

See all answers

What needs improvement with PingSafe?

In version 2, a lot of rules have been deployed for Kubernetes security and CDR, which makes a lot of issues of criti...

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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 acros...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

The entire Defender Suite is tightly coupled, integrated, and collaborative.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

Initially, the cost was reasonable, but additional services from Microsoft sometimes incur extra expenses that seem h...

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What do you like most about Tenable Cloud Security?

The solution’s vulnerability management feature has helped us identify and mitigate risks well.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tenable Cloud Security?

Another team uses the tool. Tenable acquired Ermetic. I think Tenable has features, stays up to date, and upgrades ev...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Tenable Cloud Security?

Right now, I use Tenable as CNAPP, and it is good for the product as it offers enhanced security to users. We did use...

See all answers

Comparisons

Wiz vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 24% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 20% of the time

AWS GuardDuty vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 8% of the time

Orca Security vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 5% of the time

Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP vs SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Compared 5% of the time

More SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security Competitors

AWS GuardDuty vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 21% of the time

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 13% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

Orca Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Competitors

Wiz vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 20% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 11% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 10% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 7% of the time

Orca Security vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 6% of the time

More Tenable Cloud Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

March 2025

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security report

Download SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

March 2025

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Cloud Security

March 2025

Download Tenable Cloud Security product report

Also Known As

PingSafe

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

Ermetic, Ermetic Identity Governance for AWS

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

SentinelOne

Microsoft

Demo not available

Tenable

Overview

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security protects cloud workloads, offering advanced threat detection and automated response. It integrates seamlessly with cloud environments and secures containerized applications and virtual machines against vulnerabilities.

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is renowned for its efficiency in mitigating threats in real-time. The platform integrates effortlessly with existing cloud environments, ensuring robust cloud security management with minimal manual intervention. Securing containerized applications and virtual machines, it excels in threat intelligence and endpoint protection. However, improvements are needed in performance during high workload periods, and more integrations with third-party tools and better documentation would be beneficial. Users often find the installation process complex, support response times slow, and the dashboard's navigation unintuitive.

What are the key features of SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security?

Real-time Threat Detection: Identifies and mitigates threats as they occur.
Automated Response: Automatically responds to threats to minimize impact.
Ease of Deployment: Simple setup process with scalable options.
Machine Learning Insights: AI-driven insights enhance threat prevention.
Seamless Integration: Integrates with cloud environments for unified security management.

What are the primary benefits or ROI to expect from SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security?

Enhanced Threat Mitigation: Improved security against real-time threats.
Reduced Manual Intervention: Automated processes save time and resources.
Scalability: Easily adapts to growing security requirements.
Centralized Management: Manage security across platforms from a single console.
Advanced Threat Intelligence: Provides in-depth analysis and protection.

In specific industries, SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security is implemented to safeguard critical data and infrastructure. Organizations in finance, healthcare, and technology depend on its real-time threat detection and automated response to protect sensitive information. Its ability to secure containerized applications and virtual machines is particularly valuable in dynamic environments where rapid scaling is necessary.

SentinelOne

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.

Microsoft

Tenable Cloud Security is a comprehensive solution designed to help organizations secure their cloud environments across various platforms, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. It offers continuous visibility, compliance management, and threat detection to ensure that cloud infrastructure and applications are protected from vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.

Tenable Cloud Security exemplifies a comprehensive Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) by providing a unified solution that covers the entire cloud security lifecycle, from development to runtime. This platform is designed to address vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, threats, and compliance risks across multi-cloud environments, making it an essential tool for organizations adopting cloud-native architectures. In practice, Tenable Cloud Security integrates security into the development process through its shift-left approach, particularly with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) security. This ensures that security measures are embedded early in the development lifecycle, allowing teams to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities before they reach production. Once in production, the platform continues to provide real-time visibility into cloud environments, enabling continuous monitoring and proactive threat detection.

The solution's comprehensive protection spans various aspects of cloud security, including the identification and remediation of misconfigurations, automated compliance management, and advanced threat intelligence. By automating these processes, Tenable Cloud Security reduces the manual effort required to manage cloud security, freeing up resources for more strategic initiatives.

What are the key features of Tenable Cloud Security?

Unified Platform: Covers the entire cloud security lifecycle, from development to runtime, providing comprehensive protection.
Shift-Left Approach with IaC Security: Integrates security early in the development process, ensuring that vulnerabilities are caught and remediated before deployment.
Continuous Monitoring: Offers real-time visibility and monitoring of cloud environments, enabling proactive threat detection and response.
Automation: Streamlines security operations, reducing the need for manual intervention and increasing operational efficiency.
Comprehensive Threat and Compliance Management: Identifies and mitigates vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance risks across multi-cloud environments.

What are the benefits of using Tenable Cloud Security?

Improved Security Posture: Early detection and remediation of vulnerabilities lead to a stronger overall security posture.
Operational Efficiency: Automation reduces the workload on security teams, allowing them to focus on higher-priority tasks.
Risk Reduction: Proactively identifies and addresses risks before they impact production environments.
Simplified Compliance: Helps organizations meet and maintain compliance with industry standards, reducing the complexity and cost of audits.

Tenable Cloud Security is particularly valuable in industries with stringent regulatory requirements, such as finance, healthcare, and retail. For example, in the financial sector, it helps organizations ensure compliance with regulations like PCI-DSS while safeguarding sensitive data across cloud environments.

In summary, Tenable Cloud Security is a robust CNAPP solution that integrates security throughout the cloud lifecycle, providing comprehensive protection and operational efficiency for cloud-native environments.

Tenable

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Tyler Technologies, Bilfinger, BarkBox, MongoDB, airSlate, Adama, Latch, Cloudinary, Riskified, AppsFlyer, IntelyCare, Aidoc, 42Dot, and more.

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tenable Cloud Security

February 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tenable Cloud Security

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tenable Cloud Security and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.

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