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Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Tenable Cloud Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 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
5.3
Qualys TotalCloud enhances efficiency and automation, achieving up to 40% cost savings and over 50% improved asset scanning.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Defender for Cloud enhances ROI by improving security, productivity, and cost efficiency, despite perceived licensing costs.
Sentiment score
5.3
Tenable Cloud Security is financially beneficial, offering cost-effective services and positive outcomes despite lacking specific recent metrics.
We are able to scan all our assets with less human intervention and achieve overall effective outcomes.
Dns architect at a tech consulting company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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
Defender proactively indexes and analyzes documents, identifying potential threats even when inactive, enhancing preventative security.
Endpoint management at a government with 10,001+ employees
Identifying potential vulnerabilities has helped us avoid costly data losses.
Manager at CBTS
Compared to not having Microsoft Defender for Cloud in place, we definitely saw an advantage by not having downtime due to a security threat.
Principal Microsoft Consultant at MicroAge
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Qualys TotalCloud's customer service is praised for responsiveness despite occasional delays, with ratings from seven to ten.
Sentiment score
6.3
Microsoft Defender for Cloud support is knowledgeable with effective documentation, but first-tier delays impact overall satisfaction.
Sentiment score
3.4
Tenable Cloud Security support receives mixed reviews with praised efficiency and availability, but some note delayed and inconsistent assistance.
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
Since security is critical, we prefer a quicker response time.
Manager at CBTS
The support team was very responsive to queries.
Programme Manager- Cyber Fusion- Group CISO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
They understand their product, but much like us, they struggle with the finer details, especially with new features.
Endpoint management at a government with 10,001+ employees
With Element, if you need a feature, you can discuss it with them, and if implementation is possible, you will have that feature within a month or two, depending on complexity.
Information Security Architect at WSP
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Qualys TotalCloud is highly scalable and adaptable, efficiently supporting varied environments and large-scale deployments with robust performance.
Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is highly scalable, seamlessly integrates across platforms, and efficiently handles growth, with room for feature improvement.
Sentiment score
5.8
Tenable Cloud Security excels in scalability, praised for handling assets efficiently, but faces challenges in larger multi-cloud setups.
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
As we have reduced our on-premises infrastructure, it is about how we can migrate workloads to the cloud to make it easier, and then having everything fully encompassed and secured within that area makes it much easier for us to scale as needed and grow.
Principal Microsoft Consultant at MicroAge
We are using infrastructure as a code, so we do not have any scalability issues with Microsoft Defender for Cloud implementation because our cloud automatically does it.
Senior Cloud Platform Engineer at Deutsche Börse
It has multiple licenses and features, covering infrastructures from a hundred to five hundred virtual machines, without any issues.
Snr. Infrastructure Architect (Data Centre) at LogicEra
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Qualys TotalCloud is stable and reliable, offering 99.9% uptime with quick support for minor issues and transparent maintenance updates.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is stable and reliable, though minor update issues occur with older systems and internet latency.
Sentiment score
7.8
Tenable Cloud Security is stable and reliable, with high ratings and prompt resolution of minor bugs, say users.
Overall, the support provided has been excellent.
Analyst, Information Security at Infosys
It has a lot of scanning mechanisms, which are agentless APIs, eBPF, and cloud agents, that are highly reliable.
Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
It is a stable solution, which is why we chose it.
CIO at a venture capital & private equity firm with 11-50 employees
Defender's stability has been flawless for us.
Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
I have not experienced any crashes or downtime.
Head Of IT at Cirrus Response
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is very stable.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
In situations where there was a platform issue, they fixed it immediately and provided a complete explanation for the occurrence.
Information Security Architect at WSP
 

Room For Improvement

Qualys TotalCloud requires UI improvements, better cloud integration, enhanced support, and optimized reporting, onboarding, and vulnerability detection.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud needs improved customization, automation, UI performance, policy management, integration, AI functions, and reduced licensing complexities.
Tenable Cloud Security needs improved speed, automation, integration, clearer licensing, better support, and AI-powered features for multi-cloud environments.
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
Microsoft, in general, could significantly improve its communication and support.
Endpoint management at a government with 10,001+ employees
It would be beneficial to streamline recommendations to avoid unnecessary alerts and to refine the severity of alerts based on specific environments or environmental attributes.
Works at Coca-Cola HBC
The artificial intelligence features could be expanded to allow the system to autonomously manage security issues without needing intervention from admins.
Cloud Consultant at i-Community AG
Adding capabilities for the scanner to automatically pick up changes and add assets automatically would be valuable.
Information Security Architect at WSP
The only complaint I hear in the market is from resellers that Tenable management team in Brazil doesn't play fair with the channel and resellers.
Owner at SUNLIT TECHNOLOGIES
 

Setup Cost

Qualys TotalCloud is costly but justified for large companies due to features, flexibility, and VMware integration efficiencies.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers flexible pricing but gets complex and costly, requiring careful evaluation, especially for advanced plans.
Tenable Cloud Security is favorably received for its fair pricing, offering good value for enterprise cloud security solutions.
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
Security has essentially no cost when compared to the cost of a breach.
Director, Cloud and Modern Workplace at Informanix Technology Group
Every time we consider expanding usage, we carefully evaluate the necessity due to cost concerns.
Programme Manager- Cyber Fusion- Group CISO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We appreciate the licensing approach based on employee count rather than a big enterprise license.
Manager, Microsoft Technology Alliance at Silverfort
 

Valuable Features

Qualys TotalCloud offers efficient asset discovery, security posture management, and vulnerability management with excellent integration and threat intelligence features.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud enhances security and compliance with AI-powered threat intelligence, automation, and multi-cloud integration for improved protection.
Tenable Cloud Security offers comprehensive vulnerability detection, asset management, and integration, enhancing security and compliance with proactive monitoring.
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
The most valuable feature for me is the variety of APIs available.
Programme Manager- Cyber Fusion- Group CISO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
This feature significantly aids in threat detection and enhances the user experience by streamlining security management.
Cloud Consultant at i-Community AG
The most valuable feature is the recommendations provided on how to improve security.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The automatic integration capabilities, particularly with DNS, Azure, and AWS, are extremely valuable.
Information Security Architect at WSP
Perhaps the best functionalities are related to promoting a deeper analysis of the environment where applications are running in terms of creating a double armor of security to block threats that may come in the cloud with Tenable Cloud Security.
Owner at SUNLIT TECHNOLOGIES
The best features Tenable Cloud Security offers in my experience are automatic scanning, frequent scanning, and automatic finding, which I find valuable.
Cloud Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Qualys TotalCloud
Sponsored
Ranking in Container Security
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)
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (11th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (2nd)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Ranking in Container Security
4th
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
1st
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
4th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (6th), Container Management (6th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (6th), Microsoft Security Suite (7th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (3rd)
Tenable Cloud Security
Ranking in Container Security
31st
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
20th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
23rd
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
19th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDaaS) (IAMaaS) (22nd), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 2.3%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 6.9%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable Cloud Security is 3.0%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud6.9%
Qualys TotalCloud2.3%
Tenable Cloud Security3.0%
Other87.8%
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Risk-based triage has transformed container security and now prioritizes high-impact threats
The best features Qualys TotalCloud offers currently include managing cloud infrastructure and container security while facing major challenges such as alert fatigue. Traditional vulnerability scanners flag hundreds of CVEs on short-lived Kubernetes containers, some of which have no internet exposure or are gone before we can even triage them. I leverage Qualys TotalCloud to move beyond static CVSS. I use it to implement runtime exposure, correlation risk reprioritization, and shift-left integration. This notifies developers to fix a base image upstream rather than patching live ephemeral instances. In my work with cloud and container security, the biggest operational hurdle was alert fatigue. I use Qualys to shift left from static CVSS severity to context-aware risk prioritization. I correlated raw vulnerability data with real-time risk factors such as public network exposure, active runtime execution, or overly permissive IAM roles. This allows us to immediately drop the priority of isolated containers and escalate lower-severity CVEs that sit on an exposed, high-risk path. We can map these findings directly back to our CI/CD pipelines so developers can patch the root base images upstream. We have drastically cut down the signal-to-noise ratio, saved a lot of manual hours doing triage work, and ensured engineering effort goes directly towards high-impact risk reduction.
RW
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.
CD
Information Security Architect at WSP
Has significantly improved proactive monitoring through automated asset discovery and seamless integration with cloud environments
Making the system smarter would be beneficial. Adding modules for integration with AWS and Azure would be helpful. Adding capabilities for the scanner to automatically pick up changes and add assets automatically would be valuable. When discussing a big company, it is mandatory to have tools that will assist us rather than waiting for manual input to add hosts. Adding assets manually is prone to mistakes. Humans might forget to add an asset or make errors when adding multiple assets. Taking the human element out of the context and making it more streamlined is the future for security. The human should be involved where expertise is needed, such as analysis and decision-making. Currently, with resource constraints, we need tools to collect and aggregate data, eliminate false positives as much as possible, and present relevant information to employees for action.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
16%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise49
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
In terms of improvement, remediation still belongs to the cloud team, which is one of the issues we faced with Qualys...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is regarding the cloud visibility that we were not having previously. Previous...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing was that the license cost was the only consideration. Setup an...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Cloud?
To improve Microsoft Defender for Cloud, I think pricing-wise, the license price is a little bit higher from an inges...
What needs improvement with Tenable Cloud Security?
Making the system smarter would be beneficial. Adding modules for integration with AWS and Azure would be helpful. Ad...
What is your primary use case for Tenable Cloud Security?
We had other solutions that we used. One solution was that we did not have something exactly similar to what Element ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Ermetic CSPM?
I wasn't involved with the pricing, setup cost and licensing for Tenable Cloud Security.
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
Ermetic, Ermetic Identity Governance for AWS
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

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.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Tenable Cloud Security and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.