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Azure Firewall vs Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
11th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (13th)
Microsoft Defender Vulnerab...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
21st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (12th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (17th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Azure Firewall is 4.0%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

AnvarSadique - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy setup and effective traffic routing enhance security
In terms of improvements, I think the price could be a concern as Azure ( /products/microsoft-azure-reviews ) services are often more expensive compared to other firewalls. However, the functional aspects of Azure Firewall met our needs. While I found the interface not particularly user-friendly, this is a common issue across vendors.
NaySan @ Suraj Verma - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides actionable vulnerability insights and recommendations with notable efficiency
They may need to improve the portal refresh rate for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management because it takes time for recommendations to disappear after mitigation; sometimes, it takes one week, when it should ideally take only one to two hours. Overall, everything is good with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management, but the portal refresh rate can take up to seven days in some cases and three or four days in others to reflect changes.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Layer four features are okay and meet my business needs."
"With Azure products, customer support is really good."
"It's helped us improve our security posture."
"It provided ease of maintenance. If a new firewall was needed, we only had to run the pipelines for this. So, the maintenance was very easy."
"One of the notable advantages of Azure Firewall is its user-friendly interface, which closely resembles or shares similarities with other Azure components."
"One of the best features is that it natively integrates with Azure Services and tools. When you have a third-party offering, that is not the case. But Azure Firewall provides a comprehensive and seamless security solution for your Azure resources."
"Azure Firewall's feature that I have found most valuable is its scalability."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution is highly scalable."
"Overall, I would rate Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management a nine out of ten."
"A valuable feature is the ease of management and integration with Microsoft products."
"Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management provides regular advisories and recommendations that help improve our security posture."
"One valuable feature is the Microsoft Security Scorecard."
"The most valuable aspect is the kind of assessment results I get, and the recommendations provided in Microsoft products really help in taking care of the resources."
"The main advantage of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is that it can locate and prevent most threats even when the endpoints are not connected to the corporate network, as long as the internet is available."
"The integration with Sentinel has been one of the most valuable features for my organization."
 

Cons

"There is a lot of room for improvement, so I would rate it a six out of ten overall."
"It needs a lot of improvement, especially on intruder detection. They are working hard on that."
"I would appreciate it if Azure Firewall included built-in VPN capabilities."
"For larger enterprises, they need to adjust the scalability."
"The reporting, logging, and monitoring features, as well as the flexibility of the policies, need to be improved."
"Azure Firewall is an expensive solution. On a scale from one to ten, where one is not affordable, I would rate the price as a three."
"In my experience, Azure Firewall is quite expensive, with a high cost. I would rate its pricing a two out of ten."
"This solution is not mature when it comes to handling perimeter traffic like internet browsing."
"It is expensive."
"The product is not stable; it is very resource-intensive, consuming a lot of memory and CPU, which makes it slow."
"The general support could be improved."
"The technical support takes too much time to resolve tickets."
"They may need to improve the portal refresh rate for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management because it takes time for recommendations to disappear after mitigation; sometimes, it takes one week, when it should ideally take only one to two hours."
"Sometimes the stability of the agents could be improved."
"Regarding Microsoft's technical support, I would rate it a three out of ten; they could be more responsive and knowledgeable."
"It is challenging to extract and customize reports from the system."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Azure Firewall is quite an expensive product."
"Azure Firewall comes with Azure native services. We did not buy any kind of license for it. Whether you have a free subscription or a pay-as-you-go model, you can deploy the Azure Firewall service... The amount that you use will determine how much you pay."
"Before choosing this solution, we evaluated others, and we found this to be the most cost-effective."
"Azure Firewalls operate on a pay-as-you-go model, similar to cloud services."
"The total cost of ownership is much less than Palo Alto, Cisco, or any other brand."
"The solution is cheaper than other brands. My company has an enterprise contract and we finally got a good price with Azure."
"It is pay-as-you-go. So, you pay based on the usage. If I remember it well, there is a basic fee, and there is a traffic fee. It is not per month. It is per hour or something like that. It is not so expensive."
"The pricing of Azure Firewall is pay-as-you-go. Fortinet also has a pay-as-you-go model, but Azure's pricing is higher and, with FortiGate, you also have the license."
"The product’s pricing is medium."
"I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"The licensing model follows a per-user per-month structure."
"The tool is a bit costly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?
Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include int...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the overall cost is reasonable. Azure Firewall offers a solid threat awareness, can...
Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?
Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigate VM integrates well and has excellent centralized reporting. It is very easy to...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
I would rate the price as a three for us due to the partnership discounts. For non-partners, however, the cost could be seen as higher, between seven to ten.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?
I have not thought about improvements for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management as of now, but this is typically an operational maintenance process. The operational maintenance process refers...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Firewall vs. Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.