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Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 13, 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
4.8
Organizations benefit from Qualys TotalCloud with improved efficiency, enhanced security, and substantial savings in time and resources.
Sentiment score
7.0
Check Point Cloud Firewall boosts ROI by automating security, reducing labor, and enhancing efficiency with faster threat response.
Sentiment score
6.8
Prisma Cloud boosts productivity and security through automation, reducing vulnerabilities, saving time, and streamlining compliance for organizations.
We are able to scan all our assets with less human intervention and achieve overall effective outcomes.
Dns architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
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
The value lies in maintaining operational integrity with zero downtime or incidents, facilitating secure, ongoing business operations.
Cybersecurity consultant at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
The compliance has improved as our overall compliance score against CIS benchmark has improved from around 72 to 92% within the first three months of adoption.
Assistant Manager at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
This helped my team cut manual review time by roughly twenty to twenty-five percent, allowing me to reallocate effort to proactive cloud security improvements.
Networking and System Consultant at Orbcom,Lda.
It eliminates the need for additional hardware, making it a financially and technically sound investment.
Partner at Quasys
There was a cost reduction. That was the benefit that we had visualized while evaluating Prisma Cloud as one of the possible solutions.
Technical Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Qualys TotalCloud delivers knowledgeable support with high ratings despite occasional delays, emphasizing personalized and effective problem-solving.
Sentiment score
7.1
Check Point Cloud Firewall's support is praised for responsiveness, yet initial response time and documentation need improvement.
Sentiment score
7.1
Prisma Cloud support quality varies; clients experience quick resolutions or slow responses, with satisfaction depending on region and support level.
On a scale from one to ten, I would rate customer support a ten.
Head of IT at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
The technical support from Qualys is excellent, always available 24/7 for any urgent needs.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The technical support team is strong and helpful in solving issues promptly.
Security Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
They usually respond quite fast, and they are very knowledgeable about what they do.
Network security engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
We had an endless loop of emails trying to fix this, and the suggestion was to reinstall the gateway and do it from scratch, which was not an option at that point because it would leave that specific location without access.
System administrator at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
I think TAC of Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is very competent; they really know what they are doing.
Ingeniero en redes y Telecomunicaciones at K-IT
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
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Qualys TotalCloud excels in scalability and multi-cloud support but faces occasional performance lags and management challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
Check Point Cloud Firewall offers seamless scalability and integration with AWS and Azure, ideal for large enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.5
Prisma Cloud offers scalable, flexible multi-cloud support, efficiently accommodating large enterprises with performance, albeit needing credit purchases for optimal use.
I would rate its scalability a ten out of ten.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The scalability of Qualys TotalCloud is excellent, and I would rate it as ten out of ten.
IT Architect at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
For scalability, I would rate it a ten out of ten.
Cyber Security Specialist at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Visibility scales without performance issues as my environment expands.
Networking and System Consultant at Orbcom,Lda.
It is capable of managing the increased load and performs well as our needs expand.
IT Security Analyst at Eos Energy Enterprises, Inc.
I can deploy it everywhere I need it.
Security & Network Services at a tech company with 201-500 employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten for scalability.
Cloud Security Support at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
The scalability of Prisma Cloud is good, covering both the front end and the back end.
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Qualys TotalCloud is praised for high stability, reliability, minimal downtime, advanced scanning, prompt support, and seamless user experience.
Sentiment score
8.1
Check Point Cloud Firewall is stable and reliable with high performance, despite occasional configuration-dependent issues and resource bottlenecks.
Sentiment score
7.9
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is highly reliable and trustworthy, with minimal downtime and effective maintenance communication.
It has a lot of scanning mechanisms, which are agentless APIs, eBPF, and cloud agents, that are highly reliable.
Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We have not encountered any lagging or crashing from the tool.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The firewall itself, Gaia itself, tells you: "Look, there is this error, this problem; verify if your device is affected; if so, here is the solution."
Ingeniero en redes y Telecomunicaciones at K-IT
If there are errors, it is sometimes challenging to elaborate or troubleshoot since it is not transparent enough to understand what to search for.
Cloud Security Architect at controlware
I have not observed any downtime.
Sales manager/ project manager at Atea
We had issues whenever we were downloading the vulnerability report. It did not include all the information.
Cloud Security Support at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Once the issues were identified, Palo Alto applied the correct solutions to ensure high availability and scalability.
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Qualys TotalCloud needs UI/UX improvements, enhanced automation, better integration, clearer licensing, and faster vulnerability detection for competitiveness.
Check Point Cloud Firewall needs better integration, simplified setup, cost efficiency, enhanced features, and improved user interface for users.
Prisma Cloud needs user interface, integration, automation, cost, and support improvements, with better multi-cloud support and visibility.
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
If we find a critical or high vulnerability on an IP or server, the remediation steps should be communicated clearly.
Cyber Security Manager at RJ Corp Retail
Scalability could be improved as well; needing to purchase a new license each time I want to add a new interface is not ideal.
Security architect at Twinformatics
Better documentation would be welcome.
Network security engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
It would be helpful to have a clear explanation of why the traffic was blocked and what policy or configuration caused it, especially in larger cloud environments.
Consultant at a consultancy with 201-500 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
Having auto Defender upgrades so that we do not have to upgrade Defender manually would be helpful.
Cloud Security Support at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Qualys TotalCloud offers competitive pricing and flexibility, especially for large enterprises, with quick setup and comprehensive integration.
Check Point Cloud Firewall provides flexible, competitively priced licensing, appealing to enterprises using multiple cloud providers despite potential expansion costs.
Enterprise buyers find Prisma Cloud expensive but valuable, with flexible pricing benefiting multi-cloud enterprises despite additional costs.
In our case, replacing the tool will give us better functionalities without increasing the cost compared to what we pay today for the competitor.
Head of IT at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Qualys TotalCloud offers good pricing that is affordable and competitive with the market.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Qualys TotalCloud offers competitive pricing given its comprehensive suite of features, including integration, assessment, remediation, and detection capabilities, all within a single platform.
IT Architect at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The pricing and licensing are expensive, costing between seven thousand to eight thousand dollars.
Android Developer at Droidforge
Check Point is expensive, however, with the features and capabilities, I can justify the cost.
Manager, Managed Security Services at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
It is the highest in the market.
System engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The cost was not on the higher side.
Technical Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing for Prisma Cloud is high.
Technical Lead at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Pricing and licensing are expensive.
Principle Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

Qualys TotalCloud optimizes cloud security with AI, enhanced risk management, and efficient threat detection across multi-cloud environments.
Check Point Cloud Firewall offers advanced security features, enhancing protection and management across cloud and on-premises environments.
Prisma Cloud enhances cloud security with real-time monitoring, automation, and CSPM for effective DevOps and multi-cloud protection.
The AI enhancements simplify vulnerability management by eliminating the need for SQL queries to create policies.
Project Lead at Persistent Systems
For example, if some machines have open vulnerabilities and the remediation team resolves them, the on-demand feature allows us to verify vulnerability resolution promptly.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
Qualys TotalCloud is also used to provide unified vulnerability and threat assessment across both IaaS and SaaS.
Group IT Cloud and Cybersecurity Engineer at Safetykleen
One of the most valuable features is the automated threat prevention, which helps us detect and block potential cyberattacks in real-time, minimizing data breaches.
Android Developer at Droidforge
Centralized management is the feature I like best, resulting in reduced workload and more continuous policy.
Security & Network Services at a tech company with 201-500 employees
Network Security provides us with unified security management across hybrid and cloud as well as on-prem.
Manager, Managed Security Services at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Its ability to centralize and address security vulnerabilities across these diverse environments makes it a crucial and decisive element within the Prisma Cloud ecosystem.
Partner at Quasys
For CWP, the runtime protection is the most valuable feature. Every tool does vulnerability monitoring through tools such as Qualys, but the additional feature we get here is runtime protection in CWP.
Cloud Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
It is as easy as registering a new subscription to AWS, and you start seeing all that data.
Technical Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Qualys TotalCloud
Sponsored
Ranking in Container Security
8th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
6th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (5th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (7th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (2nd)
Check Point Cloud Firewall ...
Ranking in Container Security
9th
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
5th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
246
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (10th), Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP) (1st), Vulnerability Management (10th), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (3rd), Cloud and Data Center Security (4th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (4th), WAN Edge (3rd), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (6th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (6th), Compliance Management (6th)
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...
Ranking in Container Security
3rd
Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)
4th
Ranking in Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
114
Ranking in other categories
Web Application Firewall (WAF) (11th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 2.4%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is 4.1%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 10.1%, down from 13.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks10.1%
Qualys TotalCloud2.4%
Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)4.1%
Other83.4%
Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Risk-based triage has transformed container security and now prioritizes high-impact threats
The best features Qualys TotalCloud offers currently include managing cloud infrastructure and container security while facing major challenges such as alert fatigue. Traditional vulnerability scanners flag hundreds of CVEs on short-lived Kubernetes containers, some of which have no internet exposure or are gone before we can even triage them. I leverage Qualys TotalCloud to move beyond static CVSS. I use it to implement runtime exposure, correlation risk reprioritization, and shift-left integration. This notifies developers to fix a base image upstream rather than patching live ephemeral instances. In my work with cloud and container security, the biggest operational hurdle was alert fatigue. I use Qualys to shift left from static CVSS severity to context-aware risk prioritization. I correlated raw vulnerability data with real-time risk factors such as public network exposure, active runtime execution, or overly permissive IAM roles. This allows us to immediately drop the priority of isolated containers and escalate lower-severity CVEs that sit on an exposed, high-risk path. We can map these findings directly back to our CI/CD pipelines so developers can patch the root base images upstream. We have drastically cut down the signal-to-noise ratio, saved a lot of manual hours doing triage work, and ensured engineering effort goes directly towards high-impact risk reduction.
Oscar Nunez - PeerSpot reviewer
Ingeniero en redes y Telecomunicaciones at K-IT
Centralized management has reduced policy time and provides reliable multitenant protection
What I would like, what I think they should improve a little is the management of objects at large scale. When you work with multiple domains, there are thousands of network objects. Detecting duplicates and consistency across domains is a very manual process that should be more automated. Another thing: the SmartConsole interface is very powerful and very good, but the learning curve, compared to other solutions in the market from other manufacturers, could be modernized. I think it does not necessarily have to be done from a client application; it could be done via web, because via web I know that not all the options you have in SmartConsole are available. So it would be good if it could also be done from the web and all the options were available. Another thing that I would really like is more automation with Ansible or Terraform. I know it has improved in recent versions, but I think it is still not mature enough. Compared to other manufacturers that do have a bit more in terms of automation capabilities in integration flows with Ansible or Terraform, Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) could improve. Another thing that could be improved a little would be the TAC response time, because when there are very complex cases, I think there should be more speed initially, more ownership of those urgent cases, and not leave the customer waiting. This has happened to me: when I have cases open with Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) TAC, sometimes they do not respond and I have to keep insisting, and I think that part should improve. I do not know if it depends on who takes the ticket or on the severity of the ticket, but sometimes I have had to insist a lot, and that would be the only problem. Once they attend to me and become involved in the case, the responses they give are very professional and really help directly resolve the problems when there is a bug or troubleshooting to do. As I said, I would like to see a specific improvement in SmartConsole. I think if they improved it—how to say it—gave it a facelift so you could access all the options directly from a browser, that would be great, because sometimes, for one reason or another, you cannot download SmartConsole or, for some reason, the SmartConsole client does not start correctly, and you could do it directly from the browser. I think that would be a good option to improve. Another thing would be that in multidomain environments, I would like a global search function for objects and rules. That is, you could enter and search across all domains at once, because right now you have to go domain by domain, and in environments with many customers, you spend quite a bit of time; you have to exit one domain and enter another. So those would be the improvements I would like to see.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
18%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
16%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise39
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business133
Midsize Enterprise56
Large Enterprise146
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise21
Large Enterprise58
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys TotalCloud?
We purchased Qualys TotalCloud for GCP and Azure as well. It is comparatively better than others regarding pricing. T...
What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
I am unsure about how Qualys TotalCloud can be improved. I do not have anything else to add about the needed improvem...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is telemetry, although I am unsure about the specifics. A quick specific examp...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
Since we use a unified standard for using policies and modules in Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Net...
What needs improvement with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
The main limitations of Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) are not in Check Point itse...
What is your primary use case for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is the main manager that provides network security ...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security, Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP
Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance
Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs. Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks and other solutions. Updated: October 2026.
921,338 professionals have used our research since 2012.