Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Sophos Cloud Optix comparison

Palo Alto Networks and Sophos are both solutions in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category. Palo Alto Networks is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5, while Sophos is ranked #29 with an average rating of 8.0. Palo Alto Networks holds a 9.6% mindshare in CSPM, compared to Sophos’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Palo Alto Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Read 113 Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks reviews

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98% willing to recommend

Sophos Cloud Optix

Read 5 Sophos Cloud Optix reviews

693 Views
665 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Sophos Cloud Optix

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 1, 2026

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks and Sophos Cloud Optix are both cloud security management solutions. Prisma Cloud has the advantage in data security and monitoring, while Sophos Cloud Optix stands out for cost-efficiency and integration capabilities.

Features: Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks includes advanced threat detection, compliance checks, and robust cloud workload protection. Sophos Cloud Optix offers efficient visibility, automated risk assessments, and seamless integration across platforms. Prisma Cloud focuses on advanced security protocols, whereas Sophos emphasizes easy integration and usability.

Room for Improvement: Prisma Cloud could enhance its deployment process to be more intuitive and reduce complexity for new users. It might also benefit from streamlined management of multiple cloud environments and improved integration with other third-party tools. Sophos Cloud Optix could improve its advanced threat detection capabilities and provide more comprehensive documentation for complex deployments. Additionally, better customization options for alerts and reports can enhance user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Prisma Cloud offers a structured deployment model, extensive security documentation, and responsive support for thorough implementation guidance. Sophos Cloud Optix provides a straightforward deployment process with strong customer service, emphasizing a user-friendly setup and responsive support experience.

Pricing and ROI: Prisma Cloud entails higher initial setup costs but offers significant ROI through advanced security features. Sophos Cloud Optix presents a more cost-efficient setup, delivering substantial ROI with its effective functionality. The key difference is Prisma Cloud's premium security focus justifying a higher price, while Sophos offers excellent value with lower expenditures.

To learn more, read our detailed Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Sophos Cloud Optix Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Sophos Cloud Optix

December 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

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

113

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (9th), Container Security (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (2nd), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (2nd)

Sophos Cloud Optix

Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

29th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category, the mindshare of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 9.6%, down from 16.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Cloud Optix is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks	9.6%
Sophos Cloud Optix	0.7%
Other	89.7%

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2776578

Cyber Security Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Image scanning has supported consistent security practices during cloud deployment

On a scale of ten, we would say people are happy with Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks for the part we use. People are okay with it. We probably would give an eight. We don't give ten because if we don't use the other parts of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, it's because it was difficult to implement from an operational point of view. We could have deployed the runtime monitoring with Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, but within our organization at our company, it was very difficult to find who would be the owner for the alerts. People have other tools and in the end, we don't use the full capabilities of a product that we pay for. It's partially related to the difficulty to integrate Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks runtime in our company's support process. We don't use the real-time monitoring part of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks. We don't know about the automated remediation feature of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks.

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Tanzeel Iqbal

DevOps Architect at Testware ApS

Cloud posture has improved and security reports drive ongoing compliance and cost control

I really appreciate most aspects of Sophos Cloud Optix, especially that we can set it up on AWS marketplace without needing to host a new machine. We can use their trial version where we can monitor a small number of resources without any additional cost. Setting up Sophos Cloud Optix on AWS is not difficult at all, also because my team has experience with it, making it very easy and quick to set up a trial version that helps us see the initial posture of our security setup as we grow, and then they charge based on the cloud resources. Sophos Cloud Optix impacts us positively in many ways, particularly in security, which is an important part. It is not just about fixing everything without a clear picture of what we have done to improve security, as there must be a portal explaining our progress, which I really appreciate, and it helps us save time and in optimization for performance and cost. While I have not seen much for cost optimization as we have another great tool for it, Sophos Cloud Optix aids us to set up our infrastructure appropriately, making sure databases are in a private network, and if systems are wrongly set up, it helps us quickly mitigate those issues and provides a report indicating the problem. I am really impressed with the way Sophos Cloud Optix provides its features, so I am not sure about any specific improvements needed. I am really satisfied about the reports Sophos Cloud Optix generates, provided in a PDF format which is very useful for our recording purposes.

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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 most valuable features are vulnerability monitoring, serverless access, container runtime features, and Defender."

"The product provides very good network security."

"Visibility is a key feature. Integration with other technologies across the board, whether they are Palo Alto technologies, Windows technologies, or cloud technologies, is probably the biggest thing."

"We have standardized vendor process management, so we want to reduce multiple vendors. Prisma Cloud is part of Palo Alto. We use Palo Alto firewalls and other solutions. Prisma has many features that intelligently cover cloud security. One solution can cover runtime for EC2 systems, containers, and Fargate. We also have EKS/Kubernetes integration. So, whatever the cloud-native solution in Pfizer, we can use one solution to secure that."

"As a pure-play CSPM, it is pretty good. From the data exposure perspective, Prisma Cloud does a fairly good job. Purely from the perspective of reading the conflicts, it is able to highlight any data exposures that I might be having."

"Prisma Cloud helped us with compliance. Most of my deployments have been greenfield, so I don't have a benchmark to compare how the security posture has improved. I've always used this from day zero of the configuration. However, I can say that the compliance checks for PCI, DSS, HIPAA, etc., made my life simpler. I don't need to look at each of these standards and compare the rules I have in place."

"I would say Twistlock is a fairly sophisticated tool."

"The features of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks are overall satisfying, although I would like to verify some aspects."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pros

"The most valuable feature for me would be the solution's endpoint protection."

"I find Cloud Optix to be a valuable solution since it provides a single, unified dashboard to monitor cloud assets, such as AWS and Azure."

"The most valuable feature of Sophos Cloud Optix is the simple way to manage my devices on the network. Additionally, it is easy to navigate and has a user-friendly interface."

"Sophos Cloud Optix impacts us positively in many ways, particularly in security, which is an important part, and it helps us save time and in optimization for performance and cost."

"DLP is a valuable feature that we use a lot for info audits."

"I find Cloud Optix to be a valuable solution since it provides a single, unified dashboard to monitor cloud assets, such as AWS and Azure."

Cons

"A better correlation between the multiple products Prisma Cloud contains would be crucial. It would reduce the time spent looking at reports and enable you to get all the actionable insights across products. I think that Palo Alto is working on it, but they need to work faster because it doesn't make sense to have all these products in a single pane of glass without any correlation between them."

"Sometimes, when you assign subnets to regions, the IP address will jump from one location to another because it will automatically change substantially. Then, we need to add those IP subnets to our firewall for existing access. The need to update those subnets potentially causes maintenance or access issues. So far, we can only provide bigger customers with six subnets, and a small company may not be able to access those services."

"Prisma Cloud is very comprehensive, but there should be better support for the customization of the reports. If Palo Alto can have more customized reports available or give an option to the users to customize the reports, that would be great."

"It would be ideal if they could somehow reduce the deployment time."

"The licensing is a bit confusing."

"The data security model needs improvement due to integration issues with certain features and cloud providers. With Palo Alto now utilizing a tool from an Israeli startup in Prisma Cloud, the integration is slow, and some features are blocked or not supported."

"The data security model needs improvement due to integration issues with certain features and cloud providers."

"Prisma Cloud lags behind in terms of security automation capabilities."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks cons

"Sophos should enhance its AI-driven detection features and anomaly detection."

"The setup was a little bit complex."

"I have not connected with Sophos Cloud Optix customer support yet, but I had a bad experience when our AWS cloud got compromised, leading to many resources being provisioned, and while Sophos Cloud Optix identified those resources, the resulting bill from AWS was quite high due to the usage charges, which I tried to investigate with the Sophos team, though I am not sure if they assisted with the refund."

"The dashboard and the process for applying policies could be more intuitive. Cloud Optix isn't that difficult once you get the hang of it, but the IT folks managing this want it to be more user-friendly."

"Sophos should enhance its AI-driven detection features and anomaly detection."

"There are times when the devices are at maximum capacity, and it takes a while before the device is updated. For example, if the device has a virus, and it's not aligned to connect to the network, even after you've scanned the device, and cleaned out the virus, once the management clears the system to allow it back on the network it takes some time. It can be frustrating when you have your line manager or in management affected trying to access the network."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost was not on the higher side. Overall, the cost gets recovered with its implementation."

"Our licensing fees are $18,000 USD per year."

"The pricing is good. They gave us some good discounts right at the end of the year based on the value that it brings, visibility, and the ability to build in cloud, compliance, and security within one dashboard."

"Its price is reasonable as compared to other products. The main challenge is explaining the licensing model to customers. It isn't a problem related to Palo Alto. Commonly, people don't understand cloud licensing or security licensing. When they have fixed virtual machines, they know what they are going to be charged, but when it comes to cloud automation, it is hard for them to get clarity in case of high workloads or when they have enabled auto-scaling, etc. It would be helpful if Palo Alto can educate people on their licensing programs."

"If you pay for three years of Palo Alto, it's better. If you're planning on doing this, it's obviously not going to be for one year, so it's better if you go with a three-year license... The only challenge we have is with the public cloud vendor pricing. The biggest lesson I have learned is around the issues related to pricing for public cloud. So when you are doing your segmentation and design, it is extremely important that you work with someone who knows and understands what kinds of needs you will have in the future and how what you are doing will affect you in terms of costs."

"It is an expensive tool. It is not cheap technology. It is a serious investment for any customer. Customers typically buy it together with services. In my experience, customers buying Prisma Cloud are prepared to pay for the implementation and the tool itself."

"Almost all the CSPM tools are pretty expensive."

"I find the pricing to be expensive."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"Regarding the pricing for Sophos Cloud Optix, I would say that it was a very good price."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

Media Company

Insurance Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	22
Large Enterprise	56

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks?

Prisma Cloud helps support DevSecOps methodologies, making those responsibilities easier to manage.

See all answers

What Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform do you recommend?

We like Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, since it offers us incredible visibility into our entire cloud system. We are able to easily see where our container vulnerabilities lie and and where cl...

See all answers

What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?

Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sophos Cloud Optix?

I believe there can be improvements in the logging mechanism, with more detailed information available about systems or network logs being beneficial.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Sophos Cloud Optix?

I use Sophos Cloud Optix most of the time to harden our AWS infrastructure or Azure infrastructure, and sometimes I use it to meet different types of compliance requirements such as SOC 2 and ISO 2...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Sophos Cloud Optix?

I have not integrated Sophos Cloud Optix with other tools, but I believe there are many integration options available. The learning curve for new users on my team with Sophos Cloud Optix is not muc...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 10% of the time

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Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 6% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

Compared 4% of the time

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Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP vs Sophos Cloud Optix

Compared 30% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Sophos Cloud Optix

Compared 21% of the time

AWS Security Hub vs Sophos Cloud Optix

Compared 18% of the time

Wiz vs Sophos Cloud Optix

Compared 14% of the time

Snyk vs Sophos Cloud Optix

Compared 10% of the time

More Sophos Cloud Optix Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

January 2026

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks report

Download Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos Cloud Optix

January 2026

Download Sophos Cloud Optix product report

Also Known As

Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto

No data available

Overview

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks provides comprehensive cloud-native security solutions. It covers dynamic workload identity, automated forensics, and multi-cloud protection, ensuring robust security across diverse cloud platforms.

Prisma Cloud delivers advanced capabilities for managing cloud security across AWS, Azure, and GCP platforms. It offers dynamic workload identity creation, real-time monitoring, and seamless integration into CI/CD pipelines. With automation, centralized dashboards, and enhanced visibility, users effectively manage security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. While optimizing cloud environments through runtime protection and compliance, Prisma Cloud faces challenges with its navigation, pricing, and limited automation capabilities. Users seek improvements in API security, role-based access controls, and documentation quality, emphasizing the need for enhanced customization and reporting features.

What are the important features of Prisma Cloud?

Dynamic Workload Identity: Enables unique workload identities for security purposes.
Automated Forensics: Offers detailed insights into threats and incidents automatically.
Runtime Protection: Provides ongoing detection and blocking of suspicious activities.
Multi-Cloud Security: Protects environments on AWS, Azure, and GCP simultaneously.
Compliance Management: Assists in meeting regulatory standards across cloud platforms.

What benefits or ROI should users consider in reviews?

Enhanced Security Posture: Strengthens cloud defense lines with proactive monitoring.
Centralized Dashboard: Offers unified oversight of multiple cloud environments.
Efficient Misconfiguration Handling: Quickly identifies and addresses security lapses.
Seamless CI/CD Integration: Integrates security within development workflows.
Improved Visibility: Provides transparent insights into security operations and alerts.

Industries like finance and telecom rely on Prisma Cloud for managing cloud security posture and container security. Teams utilize its capabilities across hybrid and multi-cloud settings to ensure compliance and robust threat protection. Features like misconfiguration detection and runtime monitoring are critical in promoting security objectives in these sectors.

Palo Alto Networks

Easily identify cloud resource vulnerabilities, ensure compliance, and respond to threats faster.

Sophos

Sample Customers

Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Sophos Cloud Optix

December 2025

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