Flow Security vs Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks comparison

Flow Security and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) category. Flow Security is ranked #11 with an average rating of 9.0, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6. Flow Security holds a 0.3% mindshare in DSPM, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 15.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Flow Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

Flow Security

Read 1 Flow Security review

397 Views
70 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Read 110 Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks reviews

9,826 Views
113 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Flow Security

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Prisma Cloud and Flow Security are competing products in cloud security. Prisma Cloud appears to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and strong customer support, which justify its higher pricing.

Features: Prisma Cloud provides advanced threat protection, compliance monitoring, and extensive cloud workload security. Flow Security focuses on visibility, simplified cloud security management, and is cost-effective.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Prisma Cloud is known for seamless integration and strong customer support, enhancing deployment. Flow Security offers a straightforward deployment process but moderate customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Prisma Cloud has a higher initial cost with significant ROI due to its extensive protection. Flow Security offers a lower cost entry-point with faster ROI for budget-conscious buyers but lacks some advanced features.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

June 2025

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Helped 860,168 peers since 2012

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

Flow Security

Ranking in Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

11th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Database Security (8th)

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Ranking in Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

110

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (6th), Container Security (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) category, the mindshare of Flow Security is 0.3%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 15.4%, down from 21.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Security Posture Management (DSPM)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2231631

Chief Information Security Officer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

It gives us a risk report that helps us refine our process management by highlighting where we might be exposed

Flow's distinctive capability to analyze both data at rest and data in motion grants us the ability not only to get full visibility and classification of the data within our managed databases but also to visualize the data flows both within and beyond our environment. This enables us to achieve a comprehensive understanding of all our sensitive data, even as it traverses through applications, shadow databases, and external services such as third-party entities and SaaS applications. What we aspire to achieve with Flow is extended visibility into the external services themselves, which will allow us to see the data they contain.

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Mohammad Qaw

Senior Security Consultant at helpag

It gives you one console to see all of your assets, review their configurations, and build your processes

Most customers use Prisma Cloud for visibility and compliance. Prisma has so many features, but many organizations do not use them. They primarily use the visibility part to connect all their cloud accounts and hosts for visibility to see if they are missing any security controls or if they have any misconfigurations. You can connect it to cloud environments such as Azure, AWS, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba, etc., or to an on-prem data center. Prisma Cloud gives you so many options to automate processes related to your daily operations. When it comes to cybersecurity, you can automate things with their existing APIs. They also have out-of-the-box integrations with many solutions. I have not seen any limitations. Everything is customizable. You can do whatever you want, defining the reporting and custom use cases. They recently updated the UI, so it's much better than before.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Before implementing Flow Security, we had no mechanism to alert us when third-party contractors were accessing sensitive data or moving it to locations with lower security. Now we know precisely where the data is stored and can assess the risk when someone wants to develop something. Flow Security lowers our risk of a data breach."

"This positively affected our confidence in your security and compliance. No matter how complex the environment is, the the seamless integration from the top layer itself give us the immediate visibility on the number of services."

"Prisma Cloud helped us with compliance. Most of my deployments have been greenfield, so I don't have a benchmark to compare how the security posture has improved. I've always used this from day zero of the configuration. However, I can say that the compliance checks for PCI, DSS, HIPAA, etc., made my life simpler. I don't need to look at each of these standards and compare the rules I have in place."

"The most valuable feature is the continuous cloud compliance monitoring and alerting."

"Prisma was extremely comprehensive. It's easy to drill down to gather more information and keep going. It seemed like you could drill down forever to see what the vulnerability was linked to."

"What I found most valuable in Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is the VAS, such as the web application and API security. I feel that VAS adds a lot of value, mainly because it gives visibility through the application layer and threat detection features."

"It scans our containers in real time. Also, as they're built, it's looking into the container repository where the images are built, telling us ahead of time, "You have vulnerabilities here, and you should update this code before you deploy." And once it's deployed, it's scanning for vulnerabilities that are in production as the container is running."

"The UI is very good. We get all the things within a single UI."

"CSPM is the most valuable feature."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pros

Cons

"It provides a good overview of our infrastructure, but I need more end-to-end visibility, and SaaS is one of the gaps."

"The data security model needs improvement due to integration issues with certain features and cloud providers. With Palo Alto now utilizing a tool from an Israeli startup in Prisma Cloud, the integration is slow, and some features are blocked or not supported."

"Prisma Cloud's application security capabilities should be enhanced."

"There are hundreds of built-in policies for AWS and Azure, but GCP and Oracle are not covered as much as AWS. There is a lot of work to do on that part. There is, obviously, a tiny bit of favoritism towards AWS because it has the most market share."

"Prisma Cloud lags behind in terms of security automation capabilities."

"While the code security feature has undergone recent enhancements, there is room for improvement in terms of its cost module."

"While the documentation continually improves, it still has limitations compared to the extensive resources available for older products like hardware firewalls, which have been around for approximately 20 years."

"When an account is onboarded, if it is missing any permission, it should automatically be updated with the required permissions and policies."

"A couple of exporting functionalities should be more user-friendly because if I want to export something, I can get a lot of data visible to that particular CSV."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The pricing is competitive; for the most part, the security firms have similar prices."

"The pricing is competitive. From what I have seen in the past, it is on par with the others."

"Prisma Cloud's licensing system functions as expected with a solid licensing infrastructure."

"I wouldn't mind if it were cheaper. We are spending a fair amount of money on Prisma Cloud."

"Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks has helped the company save some money. Cost-wise, it's okay."

"Prisma Cloud is more expensive than Check Point CloudGuard."

"The pricing structure is easy to understand. Depending on the use case the pricing of the solution can be different. There are not any additional costs to the standard living fees."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

24%

University

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Flow Security?

Before implementing Flow Security, we had no mechanism to alert us when third-party contractors were accessing sensitive data or moving it to locations with lower security. Now we know precisely wh...

See all answers

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

I rate Flow Security six out of 10 for affordability. It's a fixed expense and far from the cheapest solution. We had to delay our purchase because business was bad and our CFO didn't like the idea...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Flow Security?

I would like better visibility into all of our third-party providers. For example, we use one contractor to move data from one place to another. When the data leaves our service, we can see where i...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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 are able to easily see where our container vulnerabilities lie and and where cl...

See all answers

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 valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Database Security

June 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

June 2025

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks report

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Also Known As

No data available

Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto

Overview

Flow is a data security platform that combines Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) together with real-time detection and response to data security violations. Flow is not just your cloud security tool with a data scanning utility. It is the only platform that analyzes both data at rest and data in motion. By also following and analyzing all data flows in runtime, the platform enables security teams to regain control over all their data, including shadow data stores and applications across all cloud, on-prem, and SaaS environments.

Flow’s deep analysis of the organization’s data journey from origin to destination allows security teams to automatically catalog all their sensitive data (e.g. PII, PHI, PCI); visualize data flows; detect and remediate data risks; and effectively respond in real-time to data violations by providing the full context: who, what, when, where and why.

Flow Security

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks delivers comprehensive security for cloud environments, focusing on workload protection, identity creation, and seamless AWS integration. Its cloud visibility and control, combined with thorough vulnerability scanning, help maintain robust security across multi-cloud platforms.

Prisma Cloud provides essential capabilities for cloud security posture management, container security, and compliance monitoring. Enterprises utilize it to secure cloud configurations, detect vulnerabilities, and ensure regulatory compliance, spanning AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Its runtime management, identity-based micro-segmentation, and threat detection enhance cybersecurity. Despite needing improvements in documentation, integration complexities, UI, and the need for role-based access control refinement, it remains pivotal for securing assets across cloud infrastructures, particularly with its capabilities for vulnerability scanning and CI/CD pipeline integration.

What are the key features?

Workload Identity Creation: Establishes identities for cloud workloads, enhancing security through precise access management.
Dynamic Workload Protection: Protects applications dynamically, securing resources during runtime.
Integration with AWS Products: Seamlessly integrates with AWS services, maximizing the efficiency of cloud operations.
Automated Forensics: Provides detailed insights through automated investigations and runtime mapping between containers.
Application Dependency Map: Enables compliance and asset management through comprehensive inventory functionality.

What benefits or ROI should users expect?

Proactive Threat Prevention: Enhances security measures with advanced threat detection and prevention.
Cloud Visibility and Control: Offers control across multi-cloud environments, ensuring users maintain a strong security posture.
Prevention Capabilities: Users value its ability to prevent vulnerabilities and threats effectively.
Integration Capabilities: Supports seamless integration into existing cloud infrastructures and CI/CD pipelines.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, Prisma Cloud is implemented to strengthen cybersecurity measures, facilitate regulatory compliance, and enhance governance. Organizations leverage its features to secure sensitive data, monitor configurations, and integrate security processes within CI/CD workflows, ensuring robust protection across complex cloud infrastructures.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America

Buyer's Guide

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June 2025

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