Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comparison

The compared Check Point Software Technologies and Microsoft solutions aren't in the same category. Check Point Software Technologies is ranked #10 in VM , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 1.4% mindshare in the category. Microsoft is ranked #4 in CASB , with an average rating of 8.4, and holds a 8.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Check Point Software Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps are competitors in the cloud security market. Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP appears to have a slight advantage, particularly in areas of compliance and advanced threat protection, while Microsoft Defender benefits from tight integration within the Microsoft ecosystem.

Features: Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP is noted for its robust compliance engine, granular IAM control, and centralized firewall management. It offers comprehensive visibility across multi-cloud environments. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps stands out with seamless integration with Microsoft 365 services, strong threat detection, and real-time anomaly alerts.

Room for Improvement: Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP could enhance integration with on-premise and hybrid environments, reduce false positives, and offer more support documentation. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps needs better integration with non-Microsoft environments, improved reporting capabilities, and enhanced support for local IAM users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP is praised for easy deployment in public and hybrid clouds with strong technical support. Microsoft Defender integrates seamlessly within Microsoft's ecosystem, providing consistent support but may require additional configuration for non-Microsoft environments.

Pricing and ROI: Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP offers flexible pricing models based on cloud assets, noted for higher initial costs but justified by comprehensive features, leading to ROI through enhanced security compliance. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is often included with Microsoft 365 E5 licenses, offering cost-effectiveness and a competitive pricing advantage when part of Microsoft's suite.

To learn more, read our detailed Vulnerability Management Report (Updated: September 2025).

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Vulnerability Management

September 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

Zafran Security

Mindshare comparison

Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP	1.4%
Wiz	10.6%
Tenable Nessus	7.4%
Other	80.6%

Vulnerability Management

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps	8.8%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks	17.8%
Netskope	15.0%
Other	58.4%

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini

Associate Director IT Security Operations at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Weekly insights and risk analysis facilitate informed security decisions

I appreciate the weekly insights Zafran provides, which include critical topics for networks and IT security, allowing us to evaluate which insights apply to our environment. The organization score feature is valuable to keep the leadership team updated on how our infrastructure fares security-wise. The applicable risk level versus base risk level feature is beneficial because prior to Zafran, we only used the base risk level, but now understand that risk depends on the asset itself. Zafran is an excellent tool.

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Bart Coddens

Cloud Engineer at Cloudar

Evolved cloud security with active monitoring but needs interface consistency

The user interface needs work. Sometimes, it is a transition from the old tool to the new CNAPP Two that I currently have, and remnants of the old environment can still be detected. I require consistency in the user interface to ensure everything is streamlined into the same look and feel. More work is needed in fine-tuning the threat data towards your CSPM and activity logs, aligning them with business intelligence, which requires a cohesive console interface. My assessment of CloudGuard CDRs in intrusion detection and threat hunting capabilities is that it still needs some work. All the threat data that comes in, you need to fine tune it a bit.

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Abdulrahman Muhammadi

information Security and IT Manager at Discover Dollar Technologies Pvt Ltd.

Integration with existing cloud workflows has simplified compliance and threat detection

Licensing cost is a significant concern. With Defender Plan 1, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comes with a pay-per-use model. Each feature has its own pricing when activated on VMs. For example, the vulnerability assessment has separate pricing, the base model including encryptions has separate pricing, and the compliance features have separate pricing. This applies to each VM and Azure resource individually. It is not straightforward where you can take one license and apply it to everything. Each feature has its own pricing model which can be tedious, as the costs keep accumulating. The only lacking feature currently is XDR (extended detection and response). Apart from that, I have only positive experiences with the whole Microsoft suite, except for the pricing structure.

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

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."

"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."

"The most valuable features of CloudGuard CNAPP are its reporting capabilities for aggregating vulnerability information and scoring."

"It has great scalability."

"It provides critical insights that enable the IT team to plan and launch smart investigations when there are security breaches."

"All of the features are very useful in today's market."

"It is able to bring visibility into that cloudy space where the security departments do not really see what is happening on the DevOps side. It brings visibility, security control, and standardization."

"The posture management and remediation features are the most valuable. We use GSL Builder to build custom rules in alignment with our organization's policies. CloudGuard has canned rules using multiple standard frameworks, but we also have additional rules."

"The CloudGuard for Cloud Intelligence tool has several significant features that provide security to our company."

"Alerts of cloud activity happening across all accounts is helpful."

More Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP pros

"If your business requirements are relatively simple, it can get the job done."

"I like the alert policies because they are quite robust. It has some built-in templates that we can easily pick up. One of them is the alert for mass downloads, when a particular user is running a massive download on your SharePoint site."

"Defender for Cloud Apps has given us good visibility regarding what we've allowed into our environment until now."

"The integration within the entire Defender suite is highly valuable because it allows for communication between different components and offers pretty decent correlations."

"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is that we are primarily using only the Defender for Cloud on the Azure Cloud."

"Better logging allows us to find problems and take appropriate steps to lock them out."

"The product helps us with privileged identity management to control who has access to what and for how long."

"It's very easy to install and it includes the Intune portal from Microsoft where I can control all the devices from one place."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pros

Cons

"Initially, we were somewhat concerned about the scalability of Zafran due to our large asset count and the substantial amount of information we needed to process."

"The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvements."

"I think the ability to have some enhanced reporting capabilities is something they can improve on, as they have good reports but we have asked for some specific reporting enhancements."

"The shift left part is not yet at a maturity level I desire. I need more integration from the code-to-cloud principle."

"Addressing the large amount of compliance information and benchmarks we need to observe, the tools are becoming our goto dashboards."

"Down the road, we would like to see automation. That is probably a feature that most people want. If they can automate patching a vulnerability, it will be much easier."

"Check Point tools need to improve the latency in the portal since they take a long time to load."

"The technical support could be better, but I do not know of any other needed improvements."

"We're looking for a solution that can incorporate legacy infrastructure for some of our business needs."

"The platform would be significantly enhanced by incorporating data security management capabilities."

"The tool should incorporate more use cases like improving security scores. It should also improve documentation."

More Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP cons

"The product is very good so far, however, it would be better if it could include more up-to-date threat protection."

"We are having trouble with our continuous reporting configuration and struggling with configuring the collector properly with our log parsing."

"Licensing cost is a significant concern. With Defender Plan 1, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comes with a pay-per-use model."

"This service would be better if it had a separate license, only for this service, that could be used to track usage."

"There could be more granular roles that are out of the box included in the product."

"Defender could integrate better with multi-cloud and hybrid environments. It requires some additional configuration to ingest data from non-Azure environments and integrate it with Sentinel."

"It takes some time to scan and apply the policies when there is some sensitive information. After it applies the policies, it works, but there is a delay. This is something for which we are working with Microsoft."

"The response time could be better. It will be helpful if the alerts are even more proactive and we can see more data. Currently, the data is a little bit weak. It is not complete. I can't just see it and completely know which user or which device it is. It takes some effort and time on my part to investigate and isolate a user. It would be great if it is more user-friendly or easy for people to understand."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Everything in this field is very expensive."

"Check Point CloudGuard Posture Management is expensive."

"Check Point CloudGuard Posture Management is always known as a good solution but an expensive one. When you're using Cisco, Check Point, or Palo Alto, you know that you will pay more, but you know that it will work."

"I suggest that you pay attention to the product pricing because while there are no tricks, and the licensing model is transparent, the final numbers may surprise you."

"We have the enterprise-level license and we renew it annually because it is worth the cost."

"The price is on the higher end."

"The solution’s pricing is a little bit high."

"The tool's pricing is moderate. Its licensing costs are yearly."

More Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP pricing and cost advice

"It has pretty good pricing."

"The product's pricing seems fair."

"The cost could be improved when you need to pay for anything. For example, refreshing files takes time to load, though it may be my Internet. To improve the refresh time, Microsoft says that we need to pay for a Premium license, and I don't like paying for things that help make a solution better."

"It is a little bit expensive. When you want to have the complete package with Office 365, Defender, and everything else, it is expensive."

"Our clients normally use the Microsoft E1 licensing, which is renewed yearly."

"We are an MST and we do not pay for the solution. However, the price of the solution could be better."

"The pricing is in the middle. It isn't too cheap or expensive compared to other antivirus or security products. It is priced according to industry standards."

"Where we are right now, this is an acceptable pricing. I would like to see more transparency given to the end user. The end user given to us is via the cloud service provider. There are different programs and license models. Some include this, and some include that. It is all over the place. There can be a little more consistency or simplification in the pricing so that your parts list is not ten pages long, and you are not trying to determine, "If I have an E3, does this cover that?", or "Do I need to pay separately for the license?" Simplification would probably be better."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	54
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	57

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	18

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?

Since we stood Zafran Security up in our private cloud, we handle the maintenance on our side. As we opted not to use...

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What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

In terms of areas for improvement, Zafran Security is doing a really great job as a new and emerging company. Oftenti...

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What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?

My use cases for Zafran Security revolve around two primary areas. One is around vulnerability management and priorit...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CloudGuard Workload Protection?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the pricing model is flexible and consumption-based, wh...

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What do you like most about CloudGuard for Cloud Intelligence?

The new scanning function is a valuable feature that wasn't available until recently.

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What needs improvement with CloudGuard for Cloud Intelligence?

There is a lack of functionalities and usability. I used to compare it with another solution that is focused on speci...

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Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?

Cisco Umbrella is an integral component of the Cisco SASE architecture. It integrates security in a single, cloud-nat...

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What do you like most about Microsoft Cloud App Security?

It does a great job of monitoring and maintaining a security baseline. For us, that is a key element. The notificatio...

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

At the time of implementation, when the size of our organization was small, it was a more affordable product. Since a...

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Comparisons

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Compared 34% of the time

Vulcan Cyber vs Zafran Security

Compared 14% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Zafran Security

Compared 8% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Zafran Security

Compared 7% of the time

Nucleus vs Zafran Security

Compared 7% of the time

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Wiz vs Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP

Compared 14% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP

Compared 12% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP

Compared 7% of the time

Cloudflare vs Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP

Compared 4% of the time

Orca Security vs Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP

Compared 4% of the time

More Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP Competitors

Zscaler Internet Access vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 16% of the time

Netskope vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 12% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 6% of the time

Skyhigh Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Zafran Security

September 2025

Download Zafran Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP

October 2025

Download Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

September 2025

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps report

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps product report

Also Known As

No data available

Check Point CloudGuard Posture Management, Dome9, Check Point CloudGuard Workload Protection, Check Point CloudGuard Intelligence

MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP offers comprehensive cloud security with features like dynamic access control, asset protection, and compliance checks, tailored for organizations seeking enhanced governance across AWS, Azure, and GCP platforms.

Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP provides robust capabilities, including centralized firewall management, IAM scanning, and real-time visibility. Its strengths lie in predictive visualization, threat intelligence, and auto-remediation, making it a valuable tool for risk mitigation and compliance management. The platform's integration and responsiveness enhance cloud security, ensuring alignment with industry standards and effective threat protection.

What are the key features of Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP?

Dynamic Access Control: Enables granular security permissions for cloud resources.
Asset Protection: Safeguards cloud assets from unauthorized access and threats.
Compliance Checks: Ensures alignment with industry regulations like PCI DSS and SOC 2.
Centralized Firewall Management: Simplifies firewall rule configuration across cloud environments.
IAM Scanning: Audits and secures identity and access management configurations.
Real-Time Visibility: Provides insights into cloud environments for proactive threat detection.

What benefits and ROI should you expect from Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP?

Threat Intelligence: Identifies and mitigates potential risks before exploitation.
Auto-Remediation: Automates responses to security incidents, reducing manual intervention.
Intuitive Interface: Simplifies management and enhances operational efficiency.
Posture Management: Maintains strong security posture through continuous assessment.

Organizations in finance, healthcare, and retail frequently implement Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP for compliance and security across cloud environments. It assists with workload protection, threat detection, and regulatory obligation fulfillment, proving effective for securing applications and monitoring API interactions.

Check Point Software Technologies

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a comprehensive security solution that provides protection for cloud-based applications and services. It offers real-time threat detection and response, as well as advanced analytics and reporting capabilities. With Defender for Cloud Apps, organizations can ensure the security of their cloud environments and safeguard against cyber threats. Whether you're running SaaS applications, IaaS workloads, or PaaS services, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps can help you secure your cloud environment and protect your business from cyber threats.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Benefits:

Provides comprehensive security for cloud applications
Integrates with other Microsoft security tools
Easy to use and deploy
Provides real-time threat detection and response
Strong protection against phishing attacks and other common threats
Highly customizable to meet specific needs of different organizations

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Use Cases:

Governance, authentication, security, and compliance.
Detects shadow IT and anomalous user behavior
Controls access to applications
Provides auditing and filtering setups
Used for end-user compute devices, file monitoring, user investigation, and activity
Used for data governance, threat detection, and getting visibility over cloud applications
Used to identify information about applications beyond organizational boundaries
Prevent exfiltration and data filtration of corporate data
Used to deal with spam emails and detect shadow IT

Reviews from Real Users

Ram-Krish, Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm, says that Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps "Integrates well and helps us in protecting sensitive information, but takes time to scan and apply the policies and cannot detect everything we need".

PeerSpot user, Senior Cloud & Security Consultant at a tech services, writes that Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps "Great for monitoring user activity and protecting data while integrating well with other applications".

Simon Burgess,Infrastructure Engineer at SBITSC, states that Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is "A fluid, intelligent product for great visibility, centralized management, and increased uptime".

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Symantec, Citrix, Car and Driver, Virgin, Cloud Technology Partners

Customers for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps include Accenture, St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and Nakilat.

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

September 2025

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