CoreOS Clair vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud comparison

Red Hat and Microsoft are both solutions in the Container Security category. Red Hat is ranked #27 with an average rating of 9.0, while Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.1. Red Hat holds a 0.5% mindshare in Container Security, compared to Microsoft’s 7.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Red Hat users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

CoreOS Clair

Read 2 CoreOS Clair reviews

516 Views
121 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Read 78 Microsoft Defender for Cloud reviews

7,082 Views
436 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

CoreOS Clair

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

CoreOS Clair and Microsoft Defender for Cloud compete in the cloud security space. Microsoft Defender for Cloud appears to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set, despite CoreOS Clair's cost-effectiveness.

Features: CoreOS Clair offers open-source container image scanning, vulnerability detection, and streamlined threat identification for developers. Microsoft Defender for Cloud includes threat protection in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, advanced threat analytics, and automation capabilities, with expanded threat intelligence and integration abilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CoreOS Clair provides simplicity in deployment with straightforward integration into DevOps workflows. Microsoft Defender for Cloud integrates seamlessly with Azure services and other environments but may require more setup and management. Its customer service is often seen as more responsive and supportive.

Pricing and ROI: CoreOS Clair is a budget-friendly open-source solution offering significant value for container security without substantial overhead. Microsoft Defender for Cloud typically incurs higher costs, justified by its extensive security capabilities and integrations, with a favorable ROI for holistic security approaches across diverse cloud environments.

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

Buyer's Guide

CoreOS Clair vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

June 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

CoreOS Clair

Ranking in Container Security

27th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Ranking in Container Security

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (7th), Container Management (8th), 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), Microsoft Security Suite (7th), Compliance Management (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Container Security category, the mindshare of CoreOS Clair is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 7.2%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Security

Featured Reviews

Felipe Giffu

Red Hat Solution Architect at Seprol Computadores e Sistemas

An operational system, similar to Linux where you can run your applications inside containers

With CoreOS, you can run your applications inside containers. For example, if you have an application that needs to run on Linux, you can create and install a container. However, it's important to note that you don't install CoreOS inside a container; CoreOS is the host operating system that manages containers. When you mentioned using Nacula as part of your CI/CD pipeline, it means your application is deployed and managed automatically through the CI/CD process. Containers are used to deploy your application within this pipeline, but CoreOS does not run inside these containers. Instead, CoreOS is the base operating system that supports and manages these containers.

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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

"CoreOS Clair's best feature is detection accuracy."

"With CoreOS, you can run your applications inside containers. For example, if you have an application that needs to run on Linux, you can create and install a container. However, it's important to note that you don't install CoreOS inside a container; CoreOS is the host operating system that manages containers."

"One of the features that I like about the solution is it is both a hybrid cloud and also multi-cloud. We never know what company we're going to buy, and therefore we are ready to go. If they have GCP or AWS, we have support for that as well. It offers a single-panel blast across multiple clouds."

"It has seamless integration with any of the services I mentioned, on Azure, such as IaaS platforms, virtual machines, applications, or databases, because it's an in-house product from Microsoft within the Azure ecosystem."

"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."

"The product has given us more insight into potential avenues for attack paths."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud has definitely helped us manage and secure our multi-cloud environment by providing ease of use."

"I find Microsoft Defender for Cloud's KQL very flexible and powerful. It's really easy to search through with KQL queries to find the security breaches and incidents and to track down the breach itself."

"The solution is up-to-date with the latest updates and identified threats."

"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."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

Cons

"An area for improvement is that CoreOS Clair doesn't provide information about the location of vulnerabilities it detects."

"It can be improved in its support response. They usually take up to seven days to resolve the issue."

"Microsoft Graph needs improvement."

"Another thing is that Defender for Cloud uses more resources than CrowdStrike, which my current company uses. Defender for Cloud has two or three processes running simultaneously that consume memory and processor time. I had the chance to compare that with CrowdStrike a few days ago, which was significantly less. It would be nice if Defender were a little lighter. It's a relatively large installation that consumes more resources than competitors do."

"After getting a recommendation, it takes time for the solution to refresh properly to show that the problem has been eliminated."

"The pricing could be improved, as it is somewhat high for smaller companies."

"I would rate Microsoft Defender for Cloud a six out of 10 due to its lack of necessary features to operate as a standalone solution."

"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."

"Most of the time, when we log into the support, we don't get a chance to interact with Microsoft employees directly, except having it go to outsource employees of Microsoft. The initial interaction has not been that great because outsourced companies cannot provide the kind of quality or technical expertise that we look for. We have a technical manager from Microsoft, but they are kind of average unless we make noise and ask them to escalate. We then can get the right people and the right solution, but it definitely takes time."

"The solution's portal is very easy to use, but there's one key component that is missing when it comes to managing policies. For example, if I've onboarded my server and I need to specify antivirus policies, there's no option to do that on the portal. I will have to go to Intune to deploy them. That is one main aspect that is missing and it's worrisome."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"CoreOS Clair is open-source and free of charge."

"The price of the solution is good for the features we receive and there is an additional cost for Microsoft premier support. However, some of my potential customers have found it to be expensive and have gone on to choose another solution."

"I rate Microsoft Defender a three out of ten for affordability. The price could be a little lower."

"Pricing is a consideration, but we strive to keep costs low by enabling only necessary services."

"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."

"Azure Defender is a bit pricey. The price could be lower."

"While we pay for any additional features, the pricing seems competitive, though I am not involved in the specific cost details."

"Microsoft's licensing and pricing are sometimes complicated. If someone is new to Microsoft's licensing, they might have difficulty with it."

"The pricing model for most plans is generally good, but the cost of the new Defender for Storage plan is high and should be revisited, as it could lead to disabling desirable security features due to cost."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CoreOS Clair?

If you work with CoreOS or OpenShift, you don't need to pay for CoreOS separately. When you pay for OpenShift, you get CoreOS included, so you don't need to pay for the operating system separately....

See all answers

What needs improvement with CoreOS Clair?

It can be improved in its support response. They usually take up to seven days to resolve the issue.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for CoreOS Clair?

We use the tool to manage and secure the event file system. CoreOS Clair is an operational system that is very similar to Linux and offers benefits to other Linux operating systems. One major advan...

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 19% of the time

Tenable.io Container Security vs CoreOS Clair

Compared 17% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs CoreOS Clair

Compared 14% of the time

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AWS GuardDuty vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 21% of the time

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 13% 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

Container Security

June 2025

Download CoreOS Clair 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

Red Hat

Microsoft

Overview

Clair is an open source project for the static analysis of vulnerabilities in appc and docker containers.

Vulnerability data is continuously imported from a known set of sources and correlated with the indexed contents of container images in order to produce lists of vulnerabilities that threaten a container. When vulnerability data changes upstream, the previous state and new state of the vulnerability along with the images they affect can be sent via webhook to a configured endpoint. All major components can be customized programmatically at compile-time without forking the project.

Red Hat

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

eBay, Veritas, Verizon, SalesForce

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

Buyer's Guide

CoreOS Clair vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

June 2025

Free Report: CoreOS Clair vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

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

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