Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Varonis Platform comparison

Palo Alto Networks and Varonis are both solutions in the Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) category. Palo Alto Networks is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6, while Varonis is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.0. Palo Alto Networks holds a 13.7% mindshare in DSPM, compared to Varonis’s 9.3% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Palo Alto Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Varonis users who would recommend it.

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Read 111 Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks reviews

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8,794 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Varonis Platform

Read 14 Varonis Platform reviews

9,196 Views
3,035 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Varonis Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 7, 2025

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks and Varonis Platform both compete in cloud security solutions, focusing on data governance and compliance. Prisma Cloud seems to have the upper hand in integration and automation capabilities, while Varonis excels in data visibility and threat management.

Features: Prisma Cloud offers multi-cloud security, advanced workload identity, and automated forensics, providing a comprehensive view of security and compliance. Varonis Platform is distinguished by its data access governance, threat management, and ability to identify sensitive data, enhancing organizational data security through unified reporting.

Room for Improvement: Prisma Cloud needs to enhance its user interface and provide greater clarity in security checks and licensing. Its design is not intuitive, posing challenges in complex environments. Varonis Platform needs better cloud transition capabilities, an improved remediation process, and clearer cost efficiency. It also lacks effective on-prem-to-cloud integration and a user-friendly interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Prisma Cloud supports hybrid and public clouds with robust technical support, though regional quality varies. Some users report challenges with support responsiveness. Varonis Platform, primarily on-premises, also supports hybrid and public cloud deployments and is known for excellent, responsive customer support during deployment processes.

Pricing and ROI: Prisma Cloud, with its premium pricing, reflects its extensive security offerings. It offers a subscription model, potentially cost-efficient by preventing incidents despite a complex licensing model. Varonis Platform's high costs are based on user numbers, suited for larger enterprises, but it lacks a concise ROI framework. Both platforms promise ROI through enhanced data security, but this is challenging to quantify.

To learn more, read our detailed Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Varonis Platform Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Varonis Platform

July 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 Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

111

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (6th), Container Security (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (2nd)

Varonis Platform

Ranking in Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Security (20th), Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (9th), User Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) (6th), Data Governance (4th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (18th), Threat Intelligence Platforms (12th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (5th), Compliance Management (7th), Ransomware Protection (10th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) category, the mindshare of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 13.7%, down from 20.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Varonis Platform is 9.3%, up from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks	13.7%
Varonis Platform	9.3%
Other	77.0%

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

Featured Reviews

VISHWJEET GAIKWAD

Cloud Security Delivery Associate Manager at Accenture

Works very well for multi-cloud environments and is more cost-effective than cloud-native tools

Some of the clients onboard individual cloud accounts into Prisma Cloud. When any new service comes into the AWS, Azure, or any other cloud, Prisma Cloud generates a warning about the new service and any missing permissions to be able to ingest the logs. We then manually run a Terraform template for Azure or a CFT template for AWS. It is a manual task that we have to do as and when needed. It is a repetitive and manual task. They should find a way to automatically update the role with the CFT or Terraform template. It would be best if this task is automated. When an account is onboarded, if it is missing any permission, it should automatically be updated with the required permissions and policies. If they can do something from the AI security perspective, it will be helpful. I am not sure if it has any AI capabilities, but it would be helpful to have AI integration for finding out issues and remediating alerts.

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Herman Pienaar

Senior Security Consultant at Intalock Technologies

Has valuable data alerting capabilities and efficient reporting features

The solution's classification engine is highly configurable and efficient. It provides good reporting and visualization, which is superior to previous tools like Microsoft's. The platform's data alerting capabilities and automation features for managing broken permissions are particularly notable. It offers robust automation capabilities, including global permission repair, broken access repairs, and data transport engine features for archiving and migration. The automation tools are useful for managing permissions and performing cleanup tasks efficiently. It provides strong reporting capabilities that help customers adhere to regulations and maintain compliance. Automating reporting is beneficial for maintaining robust governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) posture. It does incorporate some AI elements, particularly in its data alerting module. However, AI integration has yet to be the primary focus of my implementations. AI is expected to play a larger role in future enhancements. I recommend Varonis, particularly its effectiveness in performing data security remediation tasks. Despite its high cost, it is valuable for its capabilities and the lack of impact on end users. Overall, I rate it a nine out of ten.

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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 first aspect that is important is the fact that Prisma Cloud is cloud-agnostic. It's actually available for the five top cloud providers: AWS, GCP, Azure, Oracle, and Alibaba Cloud. The second aspect is the fact that we can write our own rules to try to detect misconfigurations in those environments."

"It is user-friendly. It has a good look and feel and reporting structure. It provides a single pane of glass. These are the things that I like."

"The CWP module, runtime protection, and WAAS API are valuable."

"Technical support is quite helpful."

"The product is quite good for providing multi-clouds or cross-cloud security from a single-pane -of-glass."

"The policies that come prepackaged in the tool have been very valuable to us. They're accurate and they provide good guidance as to why the policy was created, as well as how to remediate anything that violates the policy."

"I have not seen any limitations. Everything is customizable. You can do whatever you want, defining the reporting and custom use cases. They recently updated the UI, so it's much better than before."

"CSPM is very useful because it gives us good policies and violation alerts."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pros

"The solution ensures that users have not accidentally shared sensitive information with the wrong people or too many people."

"Technical support from Varonis is rated as nine out of ten."

"The solution has significantly improved data security and compliance posture by allowing us to track and monitor activities. We can see who accesses data and when files are created and understand what's happening in our environment."

"It can easily identify unusual behavior or access patterns that may pose a potential threat, while operating as a unified reporting system."

"I also appreciate the reporting feature, which allows for the extraction of various reports based on specific needs. These reports can be used for audit purposes, such as tracking changes in file locations or deletions."

"Varonis offers robust data access governance, allowing us to understand which sensitive data exists and who has access to it."

"The telemetry to capture everything and the reports are very easy to configure without having a developer degree."

"Varonis Platform is transparent and captures everything in the environment without impacting the performance. The tool helps us unify data feeds into a single reporting system."

More Varonis Platform pros

Cons

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

"While Prisma provides a lot of visibility, it also creates a ton of work. Most customers that implement Prisma Cloud have thousands of alerts that are urgent."

"The alignment of Twistlock Defender agents with image repositories needs improvement. These deployed agents have no way of differentiating between on-premise and cloud-based image repositories. If I deploy a Defender agent to secure an on-premise Kubernetes cluster, that agent also tries to scan my ECR image repositories on AWS. So, we have limited options for aligning those Defenders with the repositories that we want them to scan. It is scanning everything rather than giving us the ability to be real granular in choosing which agents can scan which repositories."

"Runecast gave us more visibility into VMware's private cloud. We have more environments there, but Prisma's lack of visibility into the private cloud was a downside—there weren't many."

"The solution does not currently support servers for GCP."

"The access controls for our bank roles were not granular enough. We needed specific people to do particular actions, and we often had to give some people way too much access for them to be able to do what they needed in Prisma. They couldn't do their jobs if they didn't have that level of access, so other people had to do that part for them. It would help to have more granular role-based access controls."

"The UI is the worst."

"Palo Alto needs to add more support staff to improve their response time."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks cons

"There is one thing that if I add something manually, I get so many alerts. That's the biggest bad thing."

"The solution's interface is a little complicated with regard to setting up filters and reports."

"For unstructured data monitoring, it's one of the top ones, if not the top one, due to its usability."

"The product is very complicated."

"The solution's areas of improvement are the interface and the dependency on on-premises deployment for some components."

"The GUI should be more functional. There should be a process for connecting through Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc."

"It is significantly complex."

"Varonis requires more access permissions for its core functions compared to competitors, which can be a concern for companies about data safety."

More Varonis Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution is good for a company with at least 400 people that must be connected remotely. For smaller companies, it can be too expensive."

"From my exposure so far, they have been really flexible on whatever your current state is, with a view to what the future state might be. There's no hard sell. They "get" the journey that you're on, and they're trying to help you embrace cloud security, governance, and compliance as you go."

"Prisma Cloud is more expensive than some other solutions, but when we consider all of its use cases, the cost averages out."

"The pricing is reasonable."

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

"Prisma Cloud is cost-efficient, but the credits are on the higher end."

"The purchasing process was easy and quick. It is a very economical solution."

"The price for Prisma Cloud is reasonable."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is good. It neither expensive nor cheap. It is average."

"The platform is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."

"You could do a subscription, where you pay yearly, or you could purchase it outright. The licensing cost is based on the number of users on the system that you are monitoring."

"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."

"Licensing is on an annual basis. Maintenance and renewal fees are separate. Varonis Datalert is quite expensive."

"It's expensive, kind of, really expensive."

"Varonis Platform wasn't certainly the cheapest solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	58

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	11

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 do you like most about Varonis Platform?

The solution has significantly improved data security and compliance posture by allowing us to track and monitor activities. We can see who accesses data and when files are created and understand w...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Varonis Platform?

Varonis started as an on-premises solution and is transitioning to cloud. It hasn't fully moved yet, which is an area for improvement. Varonis requires more access permissions for its core function...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Varonis Platform?

The primary use case for Varonis Platform is data discovery, specifically for discovering sensitive data in our organization to protect it. We are looking for a solution that can scan our repositor...

See all answers

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Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

BigID vs Varonis Platform

Compared 8% of the time

Wiz vs Varonis Platform

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Purview Information Protection vs Varonis Platform

Compared 3% of the time

More Varonis Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

August 2025

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks report

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Buyer's Guide

Varonis Platform

August 2025

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Also Known As

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

SlashNext Complete

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

Varonis Platform enhances data security and governance with advanced analytics, identifying unusual access patterns and sensitive areas. Its centralized interface manages permissions across systems, offering essential capabilities for alerting and reporting.

Varonis Platform provides continuous data protection and monitoring by identifying and alerting on unauthorized data access. It offers comprehensive insights into file access and user activities, supporting data classification and simplifying compliance with tracking and monitoring capabilities. Integration with storage systems enables users to manage permissions and access effectively. Room for improvement includes cloud integration and simplifying its interface and calculation engine for ease of use. Challenges include on-premises dependency, licensing costs, and a need for enhanced DLP capabilities.

What are the primary features of Varonis Platform?

24/7 Technical Support: Ensures continuous assistance and issue resolution.
Advanced Analytics: Identifies unusual data access patterns for increased security.
Centralized Permission Management: Manages access permissions across systems.
Data Classification: Categorizes data to enhance protection measures.
Integration with Storage Systems: Simplifies compliance through tracking and monitoring.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Increased Security: Protects against unauthorized data access.
Compliance Simplification: Offers comprehensive tracking and monitoring to meet compliance standards.
Efficient Permission Management: Simplifies access controls across platforms.
Enhanced Alerting: Provides timely notifications of potential security breaches.

In finance, Varonis aids in safeguarding sensitive financial data, while in healthcare, it secures patient records. Legal industries utilize it for protecting client information, and retail sectors manage sensitive customer data. These industries benefit from Varonis' ability to prevent unauthorized access and streamline compliance.

Varonis

Sample Customers

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

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Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Varonis Platform

July 2025

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