Azure Firewall Manager vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud comparison

Azure Firewall Manager and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are both solutions in the Microsoft Security Suite category. Azure Firewall Manager is ranked #28 with an average rating of 9.3, while Microsoft Defender for Cloud is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.1. Azure Firewall Manager holds a 0.5% mindshare in Microsoft Security Suite, compared to Microsoft Defender for Cloud’s 6.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Azure Firewall Manager users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft Defender for Cloud users who would recommend it.

Azure Firewall Manager

Read 8 Azure Firewall Manager reviews

878 Views
334 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Read 78 Microsoft Defender for Cloud reviews

22,132 Views
4,648 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Azure Firewall Manager

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Azure Firewall Manager and Microsoft Defender for Cloud based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Microsoft Security Suite solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Firewall Manager vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall Manager vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

June 2025

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Helped 861,390 peers since 2012

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

Azure Firewall Manager

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

28th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Firewall Security Management (11th)

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (7th), Container Management (8th), Container Security (7th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (5th), Compliance Management (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Firewall Manager is 0.5%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 6.3%, down from 10.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

MuhammadShakeel

Senior System Engineer at Confiz Solutions

Manages multiple firewalls effortlessly but faces challenges with cost efficiency

Azure Firewall Manager is good most of the time, but it could be improved regarding cost. The cost is a significant concern because we are in a region where the dollar is not our default currency, and converting to dollars makes it very expensive. Microsoft should calculate and show the products in local currencies, such as PKR or Bangladesh currency, and also introduce Indian currency similarly for Pakistan. The technical support could be improved. When a resource is assigned, that resource should follow the ticket and respond swiftly, including sending an email to inform me that an agent has been assigned. I still find myself waiting for an agent to connect with me and resolve my issues. I have not been integrating Azure Firewall Manager with Azure Virtual WAN.

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Vibhor Goel

Senior Cloud Platform Engineer at Deutsche Börse

A single tool for complete visibility and addressing security gaps

Currently, issues are structured in Microsoft Defender for Cloud at severity levels of high, critical, or warning, but these severity levels are not always right. For example, Microsoft might consider a port being open as critical, but that might not be the case for our company. Similarly, it might suggest closing some management ports, but you might need them to be able to log in, so the severity levels for certain things can be improved. Even though Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides a way to temporarily disable certain alerts or notifications without affecting our security score, it would be better to have more granularized control over these recommendations. Currently, we cannot even disable certain alerts or notifications. There should be an automated mechanism to design Azure policies based on the recommendations, possibly with AI integration. Instead of an engineer having to write a policy to fix security gaps, which is very time-consuming, there should be an inbuilt capability to auto-remediate everything and have proper control in place. Additionally, enabling Defender for Cloud at the resource group level, rather than only at the subscription level, would be beneficial.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The solution has improved our organization with its firewall."

"We are utilizing Azure Entra ID for group labeling, so Active Directory, or now it is Entra ID, securing our application for everyone who accesses it, and Azure Firewall Manager is definitely securing our projects and all its features are fine."

"The tool's support is good."

"The best feature of Azure Firewall Manager is that it is easy to maintain and configure."

"Azure Firewall Manager centralizes network security management with a hub and spoke architecture."

"It is easy to install and does not require any plugins for your browser."

"The solution is very easy to set up."

"The most valuable feature of Azure Firewall Manager is the testing and configuration."

More Azure Firewall Manager pros

"I would rate Microsoft Defender for Cloud a nine out of 10."

"When we started out, our secure score was pretty low. We adopted some of the recommendations that Security Center set out and we were able to make good progress on improving it. It had been in the low thirties and is now in the upper eighties."

"The most valuable features are the security recommendations provided by Defender for Cloud."

"Threat protection is comprehensive and simple."

"The vulnerability reporting is helpful. When we initially deployed Defender, it reported many more threats than we currently see. It gave us insight into areas we had not previously considered, so we knew where we needed to act."

"We can create alerts that trigger if there is any malicious activity happening in the workflow and these alerts can be retrieved using the query language."

"The most valuable features offer the latest threat detection and response capabilities."

"The most valuable feature for me is the variety of APIs available."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

Cons

"There should be a simple one-click deployment for a firewall, rather than a set of setup instructions that include steps such as the DNS configuration, et cetera."

"The cost is a significant concern because we are in a region where the dollar is not our default currency, and converting to dollars makes it very expensive."

"The solution can improve the integration with open-source tools."

"For Azure Firewall Manager, the learning curve for new people is a bit challenging, but the integration should be more straightforward for configuring a centralized system."

"The price is okay. This said, the solution is certainly expensive in comparison with other cloud services."

"We could do only one-way NAT-ing, where the traffic comes from outside to internal, to Azure, which is fine. However, when we actually do NAT-ed traffic to hit the firewall, that way is not working."

"The configuration and settings require substantial time for learning, particularly for new users. Improvements in ease of configuration would benefit users significantly."

"The tool's security features need to improve. It needs also to include a monitoring system for logs. It is also complicated to find a query on the Azure firewall."

More Azure Firewall Manager cons

"An area where Microsoft Defender for Cloud could be improved is in getting away from having multiple menus that do the same thing, which seems imposing when looking at it."

"Microsoft can improve the pricing by offering a plan that is more cost-effective for small and medium organizations."

"Another thing that could be improved was that they could recommend processes on how to react to alerts, or recommend best practices based on how other organizations do things if they receive an alert about XYZ."

"Sometimes it's very difficult to determine when I need Microsoft Defender for Cloud for a special resource group or a special kind of product."

"Defender is occasionally unreliable. It isn't 100% efficient in terms of antivirus detection, but it isn't an issue most of the time. It's also somewhat difficult to train new security analysts to use Defender."

"The customer service at Microsoft has room for improvement. The first line of support is not technically adept and often requires engaging higher-level technicians to resolve issues."

"Most customer teams need more training on this type of product."

"The solution is quite complex. A lot of the different policies that actually get applied don't pertain to every client. If you need to have something open for a client application to work, then you get dinged for having a port open or having an older version of TLS available."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable but it is reasonable for the features."

"The solution is certainly expensive in comparison with other cloud services."

"The cost is fair. There aren't any costs in addition to the standard licensing fee."

"The pricing and licensing of Microsoft Defender for Cloud have been good for us. We appreciate the licensing approach based on employee count rather than a big enterprise license."

"This solution is more cost-effective than some competing products. My understanding is that it is based on the number of integrations that you have, so if you have fewer subscriptions then you pay less for the service."

"Security Center charges $15 per resource for any workload that you onboard into it. They charge per VM or per data-base server or per application. It's not like Microsoft 365 licensing, where there are levels like E3 and E5. Security Center is pretty straightforward."

"Pricing depends on your workload size, but it is very cheap. If you're talking about virtual machines, it is $5 or something for each machine, which is minimal. If you go for some agent-based solution for every virtual machine, then you need to pay the same thing or more than that. For an on-premises solution like this, we were paying around $30 to $50 based on size. With Defender, Microsoft doesn't bother about the size. You pay based on the number of machines. So, if you have 10 virtual machines, and 10 virtual machines are being monitored, you are paying based on that rather than the size of the virtual machine. Thus, you are paying for the number of units rather than paying for the size of your units."

"Pricing is difficult because each license has its own metrics and cost."

"Currently, Microsoft offers only one plan at the enterprise level which is $15 per machine."

"The solution is expensive, and I rate it a five to six out of ten."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Firewall Manager?

The most valuable feature of Azure Firewall Manager is the testing and configuration.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Firewall Manager?

The pricing for Azure Firewall Manager seems okay compared to its good features. Although extra expenses are incurred for additional services, these are not directly related to the firewall, and th...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Firewall Manager?

See all answers

How is Prisma Cloud vs Azure Security Center for security?

Azure Security Center is very easy to use, integrates well, and gives very good visibility on what is happening across your ecosystem. It also has great remote workforce capabilities and supports a...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

The entire Defender Suite is tightly coupled, integrated, and collaborative.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

The pricing is pretty standard.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 34% of the time

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Compared 30% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Panorama vs Azure Firewall Manager

Compared 15% of the time

AlgoSec vs Azure Firewall Manager

Compared 13% of the time

AWS Firewall Manager vs Azure Firewall Manager

Compared 9% of the time

More Azure Firewall Manager Competitors

AWS GuardDuty vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 21% of the time

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Orca Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall Manager

July 2025

Download Azure Firewall Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

June 2025

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Microsoft

Overview

Azure Firewall Manager is a security management service that provides central security policy and route management for cloud-based security perimeters.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for cloud workloads. It offers real-time visibility into the security posture of cloud environments, enabling organizations to quickly identify and respond to potential threats. With its advanced machine learning capabilities, Microsoft Defender for Cloud can detect and block sophisticated attacks, including zero-day exploits and fileless malware.

The solution also provides automated remediation capabilities, allowing security teams to quickly and easily respond to security incidents. With Microsoft Defender for Cloud, organizations can ensure the security and compliance of their cloud workloads, while reducing the burden on their security teams.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall Manager vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

June 2025

Free Report: Azure Firewall Manager vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Firewall Manager vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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