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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
5.5
Qualys TotalCloud boosts efficiency, reduces manual effort, decreases risk, and offers significant cost savings with a notable ROI.
Sentiment score
6.9
Prisma Cloud boosts productivity, enhances security, and delivers high ROI by automating processes and reducing manual testing needs.
Sentiment score
5.0
Sophos Cloud Optix boosts ROI through efficiency, reducing audit prep time by 40% and enhancing proactive security measures.
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
The measurable improvements have freed up our teams to focus more on proactive security work instead of fire-fighting.
Support at Resetel
Fixing this prevented potential data exposure and strengthened compliance with PCI.
Lider Soporte Cloud at a security firm with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.4
Qualys TotalCloud support is praised for efficiency and staff knowledge but criticized for delays and inconsistent quality.
Sentiment score
7.1
Palo Alto Networks' technical support is praised for responsiveness, though regional inconsistencies and response time improvements are noted.
Sentiment score
7.4
Sophos Cloud Optix service is swift and efficient, though integration support and billing assistance need improvement, especially with AWS.
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
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
The customer support for Sophos Cloud Optix is very fast.
Lider Soporte Cloud at a security firm with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Qualys TotalCloud excels in scalability, efficiently supporting diverse environments and business sizes, though it may require skilled management.
Sentiment score
7.6
Prisma Cloud offers scalable, flexible multi-cloud solutions with easy deployment, strong automation, API support, and high scalability ratings.
Sentiment score
7.7
Sophos Cloud Optix excels in scalable multi-cloud environments, offering automated compliance and resource detection with high user ratings.
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
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Technology Specialist - Cloud Security at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We haven't had any issues scaling the solution.
Senior Cloud Security Engineer at impelsys
There aren't any limits to Prisma Cloud's scalability.
Senior Security Consultant at helpag
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 is very scalable, as it automatically detects new resources in the cloud environment as it grows.
DevOps Architect at Testware ApS
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.3
Qualys TotalCloud is highly stable with reliable support, 99.9% uptime, minimal bugs, and effective maintenance communication.
Sentiment score
7.9
Prisma Cloud is praised for its high stability, reliability, and effective troubleshooting, with minor well-managed issues.
Sentiment score
8.4
Sophos Cloud Optix is praised for stability, receiving high ratings and described as reliable and robust by users.
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
Most of the time, when the client requires data, it is not available.
Technology Specialist - Cloud Security at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The cloud environment is dynamic, so the tool must be dynamic.
Cloud Security Delivery Associate Manager at Accenture
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
 

Room For Improvement

Users suggest enhancing Qualys TotalCloud with clearer reports, better integration, intuitive UI, AI risk assessments, and improved documentation.
Prisma Cloud struggles with integration, UI, automation, cloud coverage, reporting, support, and pricing, hindering broader adoption and usability.
Sophos Cloud Optix needs dashboard improvements, better integrations, and enhanced automation to compete with industry leaders like Lacework.
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
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
Sophos Cloud Optix can scan infrastructure-as-code templates before deployment, which means our deployers catch misconfigurations early instead of publishing them into production.
Support at Resetel
 

Setup Cost

Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is high yet justified by comprehensive features and flexibility, benefiting larger enterprises seeking robust security.
Prisma Cloud's complex pricing is offset by comprehensive features, offering cost efficiency with strategic planning despite hidden costs.
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
 

Valuable Features

Qualys TotalCloud offers comprehensive vulnerability detection, cloud security management, and automation with insightful dashboards for efficient threat management.
Prisma Cloud offers advanced cloud security with continuous monitoring, automation, and centralized management, enhancing operational efficiency across industries.
Sophos Cloud Optix enhances security with multi-cloud visibility, AI detection, compliance automation, and unified management, improving efficiency.
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
It provides a single pane of glass.
enterprise architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
If I want to check how many of my S3s have encryption, I can write a Lambda function in Prisma Cloud and get that report.
Senior IT infrastructure consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Overall, the most valuable features for us in Prisma Cloud are those that provide visibility, ensure compliance with regulations, and help us align our on-premises servers and cloud environments with mandated security standards.
Architect at a tech vendor 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)
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (11th), Container Security (11th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (8th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (1st), 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) (8th), 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)
30th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.6%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 8.0%, down from 13.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Cloud Optix is 0.7%, up from 0.3% 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 Networks8.0%
Qualys TotalCloud1.6%
Sophos Cloud Optix0.7%
Other89.7%
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.
SQ
Support at Resetel
Continuous cloud visibility has simplified audits and strengthens proactive compliance tracking
One area I think Sophos Cloud Optix could improve is the alert tuning. Sometimes we still get too many notifications that are not critical, which can feel overwhelming after a while. One feature I have not mentioned yet is the integration with the DevOps workflows. Sophos Cloud Optix can scan infrastructure-as-code templates before deployment, which means our deployers catch misconfigurations early instead of publishing them into production. That has been a huge win for us because it reduces rework and keeps the security team aligned with engineering. I would rate Sophos Cloud Optix an eight because it has been very effective for visibility and compliance, and it definitely reduces our audit time. The main reason I did not give it a nine or ten is that the alert tuning could be better and deeper integration with other tools will make it even stronger.
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900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Construction Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
University
8%
Insurance Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise57
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
Areas that need improvement in every solution include the remediation part. The remediation steps should be simple en...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
Our use case involves the assets that we have under cloud, the assets exposed to the internet, and the internal appli...
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?
I believe there can be improvements in the logging mechanism, with more detailed information available about systems ...
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 u...
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...
 

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: April 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.