Same-subcategory comparison

Microsoft Defender for CloudvsTenable Cloud Security

Compare buyer fit, pricing, capability depth, and purchase constraints within one buying category. A higher score is not a universal winner.

Comparison summary

How to choose

These conclusions apply to this subcategory and the buyer conditions shown here. They do not make one product universally better.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Consider when

Azure-centered organizations wanting native policy, management-group, automation, and Microsoft security integration
Teams that want a free multicloud baseline before selectively enabling advanced paid CSPM

Check before choosing

Buyers requiring one flat public paid price across every cloud resource type
Teams expecting Foundational CSPM to include graph, attack paths, security explorer, or advanced governance

Full profile

Tenable Cloud Security

Consider when

Mid-market and enterprise teams operating AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and Kubernetes
Organizations that want CSPM correlated with identity, vulnerability, data, and attack-path context

Check before choosing

Buyers requiring a transparent self-service monetary rate and fixed allowance
Teams unable to inventory billable cloud-resource types before requesting a quote

Full profile

Dimension	Microsoft Defender for Cloud	Tenable Cloud Security
Pricing and trial	Foundational CSPM 0 · per cloud scope · Foundational CSPM enabled for Azure subscriptions, connected AWS accounts, or connected GCP projects; new Azure subscriptions must opt in starting October 27, 2026 Defender CSPM Amount unverified — check official pricing The zero-price Foundational CSPM offer is exact and retained. Paid Defender CSPM is withheld from numeric offers: the pricing page lists compute, storage, database, and serverless meters and conversion rules, while the August 7 product overview lists only compute, storage, and databases by cloud; the paid amount is hidden in the captured pricing table. Microsoft directs buyers to the calculator, their Azure agreement, sales, or partners. A separate one-year pre-purchase plan offers commit-unit discounts but is a broader Defender for Cloud purchasing vehicle, not a CSPM-only SKU. Azure pay-as-you-go Defender CSPM: Enable Foundational CSPM or paid Defender CSPM on Azure subscriptions and connected AWS or GCP scopes, with usage billed through the Azure agreement. Microsoft sales or Azure partner: Acquire Defender CSPM through Microsoft sales or an Azure partner when agreement-specific pricing, government eligibility, or multicloud scope needs commercial confirmation. One-year Defender Commit Units: Pre-purchase a noncancelable one-year pool usable across publicly available Defender for Cloud plans, including Defender CSPM. Published pool discounts range from 10% to 22% by commit-unit tier, and unused units expire at term end. Full profile	Tenable Cloud Security Amount unverified — check official pricing Pricing depends on the quoted product or wrapper, billable resource count and types, cloud scope, modules, tier, volume, support, route, eligibility, payment terms, and contract. Published Tenable One ratios convert certain Cloud Security assets into Tenable One license units; they are not currency amounts and the calculator is explicitly not a sales quote. AWS Marketplace is private-offer only. No numeric Offer is generated. Direct or partner Tenable Cloud Security quote: Current cloud-security subscription priced by quoted billable cloud resources through Tenable or a partner. Tenable One package: Cloud Security can be provisioned within the broader Tenable One Foundation or Advanced package. Published CIEM, Standard, and Enterprise conversion categories are allocation estimates rather than monetary prices or exact-target plan tiers. AWS Marketplace private offer: Exact-product SaaS procurement through a customer-specific AWS Marketplace offer whose price, payment timing, commitment, and included resource quantity depend on the buyer's requirements and eligibility. Full profile
Best for	Azure-centered organizations wanting native policy, management-group, automation, and Microsoft security integration Teams that want a free multicloud baseline before selectively enabling advanced paid CSPM Enterprises needing attack paths, CIEM, data-aware posture, critical assets, and custom multicloud recommendations	Mid-market and enterprise teams operating AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and Kubernetes Organizations that want CSPM correlated with identity, vulnerability, data, and attack-path context DevSecOps programs using IaC, CI/CD, custom policies, and Kubernetes admission guardrails
Not for	Buyers requiring one flat public paid price across every cloud resource type Teams expecting Foundational CSPM to include graph, attack paths, security explorer, or advanced governance Organizations seeking a CSPM purchase that automatically includes Sentinel, Purview, runtime Defender plans, Security Copilot, or managed response	Buyers requiring a transparent self-service monetary rate and fixed allowance Teams unable to inventory billable cloud-resource types before requesting a quote Buyers assuming CSPM automatically includes every CNAPP or Tenable One module
Source check	99/100	99/100
Key features	Free Foundational CSPM across Azure, AWS, and GCP Multicloud inventory, Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark, Secure Score, recommendations, and workbooks Paid intelligent cloud security graph, security explorer, and contextual attack paths Native CIEM across Azure, AWS, and GCP Agentless VM vulnerability and secrets scanning plus Kubernetes and container posture	Agentless multicloud resource discovery and posture assessment AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and Kubernetes misconfiguration coverage Built-in and custom cloud policy checks Continuous compliance, reports, centralized exceptions, and audit workflows Identity, vulnerability, exposure, data, and attack-path context when entitled
Cons	Current official pages disagree on whether serverless resources appear in the complete Defender CSPM billable scope The captured pricing table suppresses the paid amount and agreement-specific Azure pricing can vary Enabling paid CSPM broadly can meter resources across connected Azure, AWS, and GCP estates after the trial state	No public amount, complete meter schedule, included resource quantity, minimum, payment timing, commitment, renewal, or cancellation term was verified Billable resource growth and mix can trigger license expansion and volume-pricing changes Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable One Cloud Exposure, and Cloud Exposure Management naming can obscure the exact ordered wrapper and modules
Category buying score	80Joint highest score	80Joint highest score
Rank	#5	#7
Context	Security & Privacy / Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Software	Security & Privacy / Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Software
Cloud coverage and visibility	84Free multicloud inventory, workbooks, and Secure Score establish baseline visibility, and paid agentless scanning plus the security graph and explorer expand asset and relationship views, subject to connector coverage and resource-type support differences.	87Agentless inventory and posture assessment across multiple cloud platforms support broad visibility, and the score reflects that the exact billable-resource scope and included quantity must still be confirmed in the quote.
Detection and policy depth	80MCSB assessments and standard recommendations run on Foundational CSPM, while paid Defender CSPM enables custom KQL recommendations and deeper agentless and container posture checks, so detection depth scales with the chosen plan and enabled scopes.	83Misconfiguration detection combined with built-in and custom policy checks delivers detection depth for standard and organization-specific controls, with effectiveness tied to policy tuning after cloud onboarding.
Risk prioritization and context	86The paid cloud security graph, attack paths, CIEM identity context, data-aware posture, and critical-asset marking supply the primary risk-context layer; without Defender CSPM those contextual signals are not part of the free baseline.	80Enables cross-domain exposure scoring and hybrid attack path context via Tenable One, though this unified view requires separate licensing.
Remediation operations	79Remediation tools, workflow automation, Logic Apps, REST APIs, and DevOps-related integrations support operational follow-through, but buyers still need to configure scopes, roles, and connected services.	83Remediation guidance, automation options, IaC/CI/CD scanning, and Kubernetes admission guardrails support preventive and corrective operations, though setup work around permissions and workflow integration remains buyer-owned.
Compliance and governance	82The paid plan adds governance rules, assigning owners, and setting due dates, which are missing from the base benchmark tracking in the free plan.	84Enables continuous audit workflows and exception tracking, though administrative teams must manually configure policies to align with custom governance goals.
Integrations and reporting	80Export, workbooks, REST APIs, Event Hubs, Log Analytics, Sentinel, ServiceNow, GitHub, and Azure DevOps provide broad reporting and integration options, but several targets are separate services rather than included capabilities.	79The GraphQL API and access to inventory, findings, relationships, tags, remediation, and vulnerabilities support reporting and integrations, but the facts do not establish SIEM or SOAR inclusion.
Support and total cost	62Foundational CSPM at zero cost lowers the entry barrier, but Defender CSPM pay-as-you-go metering lacks a retained public amount, carries serverless-scope ambiguity, and can accumulate separate charges for Logic Apps, exports, Sentinel, and related services, so total cost depends heavily on estate size and connected-service design.	49Lacks public pricing details or fixed monetary rates, making total cost of ownership highly dependent on fluctuating resource types and custom quote negotiations.
Full profile	Full profile	Full profile

Comparison summary

Most material score differences

These are the stored dimension rationales returned with each score. They explain the buyer conditions behind the gap without speculating about hidden model reasoning.

Support and total cost

13 pts

Microsoft Defender for Cloud · 62/100: Foundational CSPM at zero cost lowers the entry barrier, but Defender CSPM pay-as-you-go metering lacks a retained public amount, carries serverless-scope ambiguity, and can accumulate separate charges for Logic Apps, exports, Sentinel, and related services, so total cost depends heavily on estate size and connected-service design.
Tenable Cloud Security · 49/100: Lacks public pricing details or fixed monetary rates, making total cost of ownership highly dependent on fluctuating resource types and custom quote negotiations.

Risk prioritization and context

6 pts

Microsoft Defender for Cloud · 86/100: The paid cloud security graph, attack paths, CIEM identity context, data-aware posture, and critical-asset marking supply the primary risk-context layer; without Defender CSPM those contextual signals are not part of the free baseline.
Tenable Cloud Security · 80/100: Enables cross-domain exposure scoring and hybrid attack path context via Tenable One, though this unified view requires separate licensing.

Remediation operations

4 pts

Microsoft Defender for Cloud · 79/100: Remediation tools, workflow automation, Logic Apps, REST APIs, and DevOps-related integrations support operational follow-through, but buyers still need to configure scopes, roles, and connected services.
Tenable Cloud Security · 83/100: Remediation guidance, automation options, IaC/CI/CD scanning, and Kubernetes admission guardrails support preventive and corrective operations, though setup work around permissions and workflow integration remains buyer-owned.

Research basis

This page uses stored product facts, official evidence, and category scoring rationales. It is not an account-based hands-on test, and third-party user ratings are not folded into the category buying score.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Fact confidence: 99% · Fact checked: 2026-08-10
Tenable Cloud Security: Fact confidence: 99% · Fact checked: 2026-08-10

More tools

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Software

Add more tools from the same subcategory to this comparison. The page keeps up to 6 tools.

Palo Alto Networks Prisma Cloud

Prisma Cloud is a SaaS CNAPP whose CSPM entitlement combines agentless multicloud inventory, configuration and compliance policy, IAM context, attack-path analysis, threat correlation, remediation guidance, automation, and enterprise integrations.

Rapid7 InsightCloudSec

Rapid7 InsightCloudSec is a cloud security platform with agentless multicloud inventory, CSPM policy checks, compliance governance, attack paths, contextual risk scoring, no-code remediation bots, APIs, and optional adjacent CNAPP capabilities.

Wiz Cloud Security Platform

Wiz Cloud Security Platform delivers CSPM through Wiz Cloud, using agentless cloud API connections, the Wiz Security Graph, configuration rules, compliance frameworks, attack-path context, remediation workflows, and a broad integration ecosystem.

Orca Security Platform

Orca Security Platform delivers CSPM inside an agentless-first CNAPP, using cloud API and SideScanning data, a unified asset and relationship model, configuration controls, compliance frameworks, attack paths, automation, remediation guidance, and enterprise integrations.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides free Foundational CSPM and paid Defender CSPM plans, combining multicloud inventory, secure score, policy assessment, compliance, a cloud security graph, attack paths, data and identity context, governance, and workflow automation.

80Compared

Qualys TotalCloud

Qualys TotalCloud delivers CSPM through the Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Platform, with connectors for AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI, centralized inventory, continuous controls, compliance governance, attack-path context, remediation, and enterprise workflow integrations.

Tenable Cloud Security

Tenable Cloud Security is Tenable's current CNAPP domain for agentless cloud inventory, CSPM, compliance, identity-aware risk analysis, attack paths, remediation, and developer guardrails across AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and Kubernetes. It is sold through quote-based standalone or Tenable One Cloud Exposure routes using billable cloud-resource scope rather than a public monetary rate.

80Compared

AWS Security Hub

AWS Security Hub is a unified cloud security service whose Essentials plan combines Security Hub CSPM, Amazon Inspector vulnerability management, security-focused inventory, contextual exposure analytics, and response workflows under resource-unit pricing.

Sysdig Secure

Sysdig Secure delivers CSPM inside its broader CNAPP through agentless cloud connections, Kubernetes posture checks, dynamic inventory, graph search, custom posture controls, compliance governance, IaC remediation, and CSPM APIs.

#10

Lacework FortiCNAPP

Lacework FortiCNAPP is Fortinet's SaaS CNAPP whose cloud-security tiers all include CSPM and KSPM resource discovery, configuration management, custom policies, compliance reporting, and secrets detection, with advanced risk, attack-path, CIEM, workload, DSPM, and code-security capabilities gated or separately licensed.

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