Docker vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud comparison

Docker and Microsoft are both solutions in the Container Management category. Docker is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.9, while Microsoft is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.1. Docker holds a 2.7% mindshare in CM, compared to Microsoft’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Docker users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Docker

Read 56 Docker reviews

1,362 Views
1,085 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Read 76 Microsoft Defender for Cloud reviews

243 Views
230 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Docker

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Docker compete in the cloud security and containerization category. Microsoft Defender seems to have the upper hand in security and integration with Azure, while Docker excels in ease of use and container management.

Features: Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers features such as robust security recommendations, compliance management, and multi-cloud capabilities. It also provides integration with Azure services for alerts and inventory management. Docker is favored for its containerization technology, allowing easy application deployment and scalability. Its open-source nature and ease of use make it ideal for developers.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Defender for Cloud users seek improved consistency, fewer false positives, and enhanced policy management. There is also a desire for more transparent pricing and better support for legacy systems. Docker users report a need for better documentation, increased stability, and enhanced security features. They also wish for more intuitive interfaces and improvements in complex orchestration handling.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Defender for Cloud's deep integration with Azure supports deployment across public, private, and hybrid environments. Support quality varies, with some users praising prompt service and others noting delays. Docker is praised for its simple deployment but relies heavily on community resources for customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides a comprehensive security solution with a pricing model that varies by usage, and while some consider it expensive, its integration with Azure contributes to ROI. Docker offers a free version that attracts smaller enterprises, though Docker Enterprise entails costs. Its ROI is notable for reduced development and deployment times.

To learn more, read our detailed Docker vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Docker vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

April 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

Docker

Ranking in Container Management

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Development Platforms (1st), Software Supply Chain Security (6th)

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Ranking in Container Management

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (7th), Container Security (4th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (4th), Compliance Management (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Container Management category, the mindshare of Docker is 2.7%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 1.1%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Management

Featured Reviews

Rikin Parekh

Backend Engineer at Northeastern University

Useful to create sandbox environments to run applications and makes it easy to test them

Overall, setting up the Docker environment is quite easy. Many methods exist, such as using Docker Compose and Docker networks to communicate between containers. The main challenge lies in designing the architecture and integrating different frameworks and microservices. I would rate the ease of setting up the tool at around nine out of ten. The time it takes to deploy depends on the scale of the system. For the early-stage startup I'm currently working with, it doesn't take much time. It's just me handling the deployment. In our early-stage startup, we have a couple of teams with around four to five backend APIs and two front-end services. Deploying these doesn't take much time. My focus is more on minimizing costs due to our lean startup structure.

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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 deployment is quite fast, which is beneficial."

"The ability to use an image with the software built into it, rather than just the software, is beneficial."

"The solution is easy to deploy for clients so it saves a lot of hassle."

"The scalability of Docker is good."

"Docker is convenient and easy to use."

"The most valuable feature of Docker is that it revolutionized virtualization by providing a new approach with containers that completely nullified the time it used to take to deploy applications on virtual servers, resulting in deployment times that can be as quick as milliseconds, unless it is a heavy application, such as Java. Additionally, resource utilization has greatly improved with Docker, allowing for more resources to be allocated to other tasks. These are a few key features that make Docker a preferred choice."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the Dockerfile, which makes the life of developers easy. Developers get a real understanding of container creation."

"Traditional deployments take more time and builds can be inconsistent across different environments. Docker solves these issues."

More Docker pros

"The most valuable features of the solution are the insights, meaning the remediation suggestions, as well as the incident alerts."

"It is very intuitive when it comes to policy administration, alerts and notifications, and ease of setting up roles at different hierarchies. It has also been good in terms of the network technology maps. It provides a good overview, but it also depends on the complexity of your network."

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

"Defender is a robust platform for dealing with many kinds of threats. We're protected from various threats, like viruses. Attacks can be easily minimized with this solution defending our infrastructure."

"Threat protection is comprehensive and simple."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud has made our environment more secure."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the vulnerability assessments and the glossary of compliance."

"Most importantly, it's an integrated solution. We not only have Defender for Cloud, but we also have Defender for Endpoint, Defender for Office 365, and Defender for Identity. It's an integrated, holistic solution."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

Cons

"As for improving Docker, I would like to see enhancements in its user interface and documentation to make it even more user-friendly and accessible. I believe Docker will expand its scope and reduce limitations to support more applications, both online and offline. For instance, in scenarios like deployments on ships or during upgrades, Docker can continue to offer software services and container-based intelligence."

"Marketing of Docker is one area that needs to improve."

"I advise new users to review their website, commands, and the steps for creating images."

"I would like to see a single package image orchestration bundled together."

"The solution needs to be more scalable for local machines."

"I want to see if new architectures have been incorporated in Docker or if we have to wait for another release."

"We'd like knowledge transfer to be easier."

"The volumes for persistent storage could be more user friendly right out of the box."

More Docker cons

"For Kubernetes, I was using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). To see that whatever is getting deployed into AKS goes through the correct checks and balances in terms of affinities and other similar aspects and follows all the policies, we had to use a product called Stackrox. At a granular level, the built-in policies were good for Kubernetes, but to protect our containers from a coding point of view, we had to use a few other products. For example, from a programming point of view, we were using Checkmarx for static code analysis. For CIS compliance, there are no CIS benchmarks for AKS. So, we had to use other plugins to see that the CIS benchmarks are compliant. There are CIS benchmarks for Kubernetes on AWS and GCP, but there are no CIS benchmarks for AKS. So, Azure Security Center fell short from the regulatory compliance point of view, and we had to use one more product. We ended up with two different dashboards. We had Azure Security Center, and we had Stackrox that had its own dashboard. The operations team and the security team had to look at two dashboards, and they couldn't get an integrated piece. That's a drawback of Azure Security Center. Azure Security Center should provide APIs so that we can integrate its dashboard within other enterprise dashboards, such as the PowerBI dashboard. We couldn't get through these aspects, and we ended up giving Reader security permission to too many people, which was okay to some extent, but when we had to administer the users for the Stackrox portal and Azure Security Center, it became painful."

"When you work with it, the only problem that we're struggling with is that we have 21 different subscriptions we're trying to apply security to. It's impossible to keep everything organized."

"From my own perspective, they just need a product that is tailored to micro-segmentation so I can configure rules for multiple systems at once and manage it."

"Consistency is the area where the most improvement is needed. For example, there are some areas where the UI is not uniform across the board."

"It needs to be simplified and made more user-friendly for a non-technical person."

"The product was a bit complex to set up earlier, however, it is a bit streamlined now."

"Microsoft Defender could be more centralized. For example, I still need to go to another console to do policy management."

"No possibility to write or edit any capability."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is a free open-source tool."

"The pricing of the solution is fairly cheap."

"I use the solution's open-source version."

"Docker is a free tool."

"Docker is a free open-source solution."

"Docker is cost-effective and open-source."

"Since Docker is an open-source solution, it is free of cost."

"The current cost for us is nothing as an open source."

More Docker pricing and cost advice

"I am not involved much with the pricing but the bundle offering is good."

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

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

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

"Its pricing is a little bit high in terms of Azure Security Center, but the good thing is that we don't need to maintain and deploy it. So, while the pricing is high, it is native to Azure which is why we prefer using this tool."

"I am not involved in this area. However, I believe its price is okay because even small customers are using Azure Security Center. I don't think it is very expensive."

"The product's pricing policy is generally favorable."

"This is a worldwide service and depending on the country, there will be different prices."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Insurance Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

14%

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 Docker?

We are using Docker to host applications.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Docker?

I consider Docker's pricing to be affordable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Docker?

In terms of communication between services, perhaps the configuration within networks between containers could be improved.

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 cost is generally reasonable. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Plan 2 costs $15 per server, per month. For a normal customer with ten to twenty servers, the cost is about $300 per month, which is a...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware Tanzu Platform vs Docker

Compared 29% of the time

Rancher Labs vs Docker

Compared 14% of the time

Codespaces vs Docker

Compared 13% of the time

Mirantis Container Runtime vs Docker

Compared 13% of the time

Nutanix Kubernetes Engine NKE vs Docker

Compared 8% of the time

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AWS GuardDuty vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 20% of the time

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 11% 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

Docker

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

April 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

Docker

Microsoft

Overview

Docker is a versatile container platform used for running and deploying applications in isolated environments, ensuring consistency across development, testing, and production.

Docker offers solutions for containerizing applications, automating deployments, and managing infrastructure through its robust platform. It supports CI/CD workflows, provides a development platform for container management, and simplifies the setup by using streamlined tools. Organizations leverage Docker for building microservices, running UI applications, deploying web services, and setting up secure environments. It also facilitates managing containers via Kubernetes and creating development stacks for enhanced productivity.

What are Docker's key features?

Security: Offers containment and isolation of applications.
Easy Use: Simplifies the deployment and management of applications.
Documentation: Extensive resources to aid in understanding and implementation.
Customization: Flexible environment configurations.
Scalability: Efficiently handles applications irrespective of scale.
Internal DNS: Manages network configurations within the container ecosystem.
Overlay Networks: Facilitates seamless inter-container communication.
Resource Efficiency: Optimizes usage of system resources.

What benefits should users look for?

Consistency: Ensures homogeneous environments across development, testing, and production stages.
Portability: Allows applications to run consistently on any platform.
Cost-Effectiveness: Reduces overhead costs associated with application deployment.
Speed: Accelerates the build, test, and deployment cycles.
Flexibility: Supports various tools and integrations to adapt to different workflows.

Industries implement Docker for CI/CD pipelines, scaling services, and improving resource utilization. Tech companies use Docker for building and deploying their software in isolated environments. Finance and healthcare sectors deploy applications securely, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. Educational institutions set up consistent development environments for coding labs and training students in advanced technologies.

Docker

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

Docker vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud

April 2025

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