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Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Sophos Cloud Optix comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 1, 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, reduces costs by 30-40%, and increases ROI by 10-20%, significantly saving time and resources.
Sentiment score
6.8
Prisma Cloud boosts productivity and security through automation, reducing vulnerabilities, saving time, and streamlining compliance for organizations.
Sentiment score
6.0
Sophos Cloud Optix boosts productivity and cloud security by automating checks, reducing efforts, and enhancing ROI efficiently.
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
CallStream helps us integrate and automate tasks.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
It eliminates the need for additional hardware, making it a financially and technically sound investment.
Partner at Quasys
Reputation and data security are the two most important things to a financial institution.
Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees
We may have prevented a security breach with remediation of the findings.
Security Solutions Architect - Cloud Security Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Fixing this prevented potential data exposure and strengthened compliance with PCI.
Lider Soporte Cloud at a security firm with 51-200 employees
The biggest benefit has been the reduction in time spent on manual cloud security reviews and investigating misconfigurations.
Middleware administrator at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
I have seen a return on investment from Sophos Cloud Optix, with the value usually coming from the time saved, fewer manual checks, and lower compliance efforts rather than replacing a large number of staff outright.
Soc Analyst at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Qualys TotalCloud's customer support is praised for expertise and responsiveness but occasionally faces response delays and inefficiencies.
Sentiment score
7.1
Prisma Cloud support quality varies; clients experience quick resolutions or slow responses, with satisfaction depending on region and support level.
Sentiment score
6.6
Sophos Cloud Optix customer service is fast and professional, though users seek improved Azure and M365 integration 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
They can respond with technical documentation or pass on the case to the next level because it requires the development of a new feature or changing a feature due to a bug.
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Anywhere we raise a tech case, they revert back within an hour.
Cloud Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
I would give them 10 out of 10.
Sector Manager at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
I faced some issues while integrating the product with Azure or M365 into Cloud Optix.
Security Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
On the few occasions when support was needed, the response was professional, and the issues were resolved in a reasonable time frame.
Middleware administrator at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
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.
DevOps Architect at Testware ApS
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Qualys TotalCloud excels in scalability but may need skilled management, adaptable for varying environments and large-scale deployments.
Sentiment score
7.5
Prisma Cloud offers scalable, flexible multi-cloud support, efficiently accommodating large enterprises with performance, albeit needing credit purchases for optimal use.
Sentiment score
8.0
Sophos Cloud Optix excels in scalability, efficiently managing growth, automating compliance, and supporting multi-cloud environments like Azure.
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
There aren't any limits to Prisma Cloud's scalability.
Senior Security Consultant at helpag
Scalability within the credit limit is good. It is 100%.
Cloud security architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
Cloud Security Support at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Sophos Cloud Optix scales very well because it was built for multi-cloud environments, in my case Azure, and its automated compliance checks continuously apply standards across thousands of resources.
Cloud Support at a tech company with 1-10 employees
Sophos Cloud Optix has been able to accommodate additional cloud resources and workloads without any noticeable performance issues.
Middleware administrator at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Sophos Cloud Optix's scalability is exceptionally good, as it handles growth and larger environments well.
Soc Analyst at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Qualys TotalCloud is praised for stability, boasting 99.9% uptime with minimal downtime and quickly resolved minor bugs.
Sentiment score
7.9
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is highly reliable and trustworthy, with minimal downtime and effective maintenance communication.
Sentiment score
8.1
Sophos Cloud Optix offers reliable monitoring and alerts with minimal downtime, despite minor maintenance inconveniences during threat management.
Overall, the support provided has been excellent.
Analyst, Information Security at Infosys
It is a stable solution, which is why we chose it.
CIO at a venture capital & private equity firm with 11-50 employees
Continuous monitoring is crucial to ensure system stability and avoid vulnerabilities or threats.
Developer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.
Cloud Security Engineer (Team lead) at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
The cloud environment is dynamic, so the tool must be dynamic.
Cloud Security Delivery Associate Manager at Accenture
We had to build the system twice because of environmental issues.
Security Delivery Manager at Accenture
The platform has consistently provided continuous monitoring, timely alerts, and access to dashboards.
Middleware administrator at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Sophos Cloud Optix is very stable with no problems regarding the availability of the tool.
Cloud Support at a tech company with 1-10 employees
I find that Sophos Cloud Optix is stable and most of the time reliable, although there is a maintenance window almost every week, with one day dedicated to maintenance.
Soc Analyst at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Users recommend enhancing compliance, UI, integration, and reporting, improving security features, and optimizing pricing and navigation for Qualys TotalCloud.
Prisma Cloud needs user interface, integration, automation, cost, and support improvements, with better multi-cloud support and visibility.
Sophos Cloud Optix needs improved alert filtering, customizable dashboards, better integrations, intuitive interfaces, automation, reporting, and AI-driven detection.
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
Prisma Cloud is an excellent tool.
Technical Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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.
Cyber Security Architect at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Even though documentation was available, it took a while for a new person to understand what integration meant, what will be achieved after the integration, or how the integration needed to be done on the Azure or AWS side.
Technical Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
A frequent theme is making remediation guidance more actionable inside the alert itself.
Soc Analyst at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution focuses on cloud security posture management.
Security Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
While it connects well with major platforms, more granular remediation automations are needed.
Lider Soporte Cloud at a security firm with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Qualys TotalCloud is costly but offers value and integration, ideal for enterprises despite higher pricing.
Enterprise buyers find Prisma Cloud expensive but valuable, with flexible pricing benefiting multi-cloud enterprises despite additional costs.
Sophos Cloud Optix provides competitive, clear licensing valued for its security features, pleasing enterprises with its reasonable pricing.
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
The cost was not on the higher side.
Technical Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
If you are using a single tool like Prisma Cloud, with a single license, you can monitor all environments, such as Google Cloud, Azure, AWS, and Oracle Cloud.
Cloud Security Delivery Associate Manager at Accenture
The pricing for what we are using is pretty good.
Works at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
I find the price of Sophos solutions to be competitive.
Security Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Overall, the solution seems to provide good value considering the visibility, security monitoring, and compliance capabilities it offers.
Middleware administrator at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
 

Valuable Features

Qualys TotalCloud enhances risk management with misconfiguration detection, TruRisk integration, continuous monitoring, automation, and seamless integration for IaaS and SaaS.
Prisma Cloud enhances cloud security with real-time monitoring, automation, and CSPM for effective DevOps and multi-cloud protection.
Sophos Cloud Optix enhances security and compliance with automated monitoring, unified dashboards, and efficient incident management across multi-cloud environments.
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
Prisma Cloud provides us with a single tool to protect all of our cloud resources and applications without having to manage or reconcile disparate security and compliance reports.
Works at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
Prisma Cloud's real-time detection and monitoring of our entire system is the most useful.
Full Stack Developer at Dobby Ads
Prisma Cloud's most valuable feature is its user identification capabilities. By integrating with Active Directory or LDAP servers, it efficiently manages user access to cloud resources.
L2 - Cloud Security Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
It includes features like vulnerability management, allowing for visibility into cloud infrastructure at a granular level, highlighting potential loopholes, and suggesting corrective actions.
Security Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
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.
DevOps Architect at Testware ApS
The best features of Sophos Cloud Optix are its multi-cloud visibility, automatic compliance checks, and AI-powered anomaly detections, with the standout feature for most teams being continuous compliance automation, which saves weeks of manual audit work.
Cloud Support at a tech company with 1-10 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Qualys TotalCloud
Sponsored
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (10th), Container Security (11th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (7th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (6th)
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
114
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (7th), 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)
20th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.9%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 7.7%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Cloud Optix is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks7.7%
Qualys TotalCloud1.9%
Sophos Cloud Optix0.6%
Other89.8%
Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
 

Featured Reviews

RO
IT Security Expert at Alior Bank S.A.
Unified risk scoring has improved our cloud visibility and simplifies remediation priorities
Qualys TotalCloud provides unified vulnerability and threat assessment across both IAS and SaaS. This solution provides a single prioritized view of risk, which helps reduce the work I would have to do. We are no longer based on CVSS; we are based on Qualys risk scoring, which is based on CVSS plus internal findings made by Qualys, and then assigns its own score. The TruRisk insight feature has found a small number of assets with high vulnerability scores, though I am cautious since some information is classified. Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted our bank's performance, and we have definitely seen benefits after implementing this solution.
reviewer2776578 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
reviewer2845695 - PeerSpot reviewer
Middleware administrator at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Centralized monitoring has strengthened cloud posture and prioritizes critical security risks
The best features Sophos Cloud Optix offers are cloud security posture management, CSPM, continuous monitoring for misconfiguration, compliance reporting, and centralized visibility across multi-cloud environments. I also find the risk prioritization helpful, as it helps me focus on the most critical security issues first, and the intuitive dashboards make it easy to understand the overall security posture. Additionally, the alerting and reporting capabilities help my team respond to issues quickly and maintain compliance with organizational security standards. Sophos Cloud Optix has positively impacted my organization by improving my visibility into cloud security and helping me identify misconfigurations before they became security incidents. It has reduced the time required to detect and investigate potential risks by providing prioritized alerts and centralized dashboards. As a result, my team responds to security issues more effectively and spends less time on manual reviews. It has also supported my compliance efforts by providing clear reporting and continuous monitoring, which has strengthened my overall cloud security posture.
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908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Construction Company
11%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Security Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise30
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise58
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
To be totally honest, I do not have any best features because I have had a bad experience using this tool, especially...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is vulnerability management and exposure management. I use this tool to evalua...
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.
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...
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 valu...
What needs improvement with Sophos Cloud Optix?
To improve Sophos Cloud Optix, I wish there were more workflow automation, richer alert filtering, and tighter integr...
What is your primary use case for Sophos Cloud Optix?
My main use case for Sophos Cloud Optix is cloud security posture management to secure AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud e...
What advice do you have for others considering Sophos Cloud Optix?
Regarding Sophos Cloud Optix's AI capabilities, I think it handles governance and security well since it covers concr...
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Sophos Cloud Optix and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.