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Forcepoint CASB vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

Forcepoint CASB
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
18th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Defender for Clou...
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (16th), Microsoft Security Suite (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) category, the mindshare of Forcepoint CASB is 1.6%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 5.6%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps5.6%
Forcepoint CASB1.6%
Other92.8%
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
 

Featured Reviews

AlexOgbalu - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at LiveFromSpace Limited
Improving support responsiveness has remained critical while access monitoring and compliance needs have been fully addressed
We have the enterprise licenses for the scanning of the codes, both at runtime and in development, and we also have access to Veracode's e-learning platform as well as a bundle from Veracode.All that has been mentioned is the main benefits Forcepoint CASB provides to us, and it helps us to meet compliance requirements that are necessary in our industry. It's important for enterprises considering Forcepoint to work with very good system integrators and value-added resellers because a lot of things needed go beyond just getting the licenses. You need someone skilled to do all those configurations, write all the rules, and make sure you achieve a very stable environment. I am giving this review an overall rating of eight.
Abdulrahman Muhammadi - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Generally, most of our customers are happy with it though."
"The visibility around the usage of cloud applications within my tenant is the most valuable aspect of the solution, as the administrator gets visibility and control of these applications for users whether on-premise or not and whether using pocket devices or their IOD."
"As it is based on AWS, it is not a problem."
"Macro integration is a good feature."
"The most valuable aspect for us is the fact that the product seamlessly integrates with the Forcepoint DLP."
"Forcepoint CASB ensures that access to cloud applications is properly vetted and monitored, helping us unify access across the board regardless of device or location, while advanced notifications and behavior analytics make it easy to detect unknown connections or baseline changes."
"I like that the layout and configuration are easy compared to other solutions on the market."
"The product offers several advantageous features including real-time control and monitoring capabilities, helping identify and manage various activities including shadow IT activities."
"It's a full engine that you can use to discover all your assets in the cloud, whether they are on a public cloud or a private cloud."
"The most valuable features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps include live, up-to-date information, which provided real-time alerts, and the ability to delve into detailed metadata information."
"The most valuable feature is its policy implementation."
"It's very easy to install and it includes the Intune portal from Microsoft where I can control all the devices from one place."
"The most valuable feature is the seamless integration across different clouds."
"The raw logs that come directly from Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps contain all the data I need, and the ability to track activities happening on cloud applications and the alerts provided is an interesting aspect."
"The solution is helping a lot; we get very detailed reporting on security that really shows what users are doing, including what they've opened, what they're sharing, downloading, viewing, and when they are logging in."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is to stop shadow IT."
 

Cons

"It could be more robust, especially around custom applications."
"Integration is an area of the solution that needs to be improved."
"When using the Forcepoint CASB, and you are a remote worker, basically not in the office, you have to have an agent on your computer, a Forcepoint agent. However, with many other CASB solutions, they can integrate with MDM."
"If I was to sell a CASB product brand new to somebody, I would sell them Netskope. I wouldn't sell them Forcepoint."
"Lacks different ways to authenticate users."
"Forcepoint technical support in general could improve in this area."
"We are not happy with the solution."
"Forcepoint CASB is mature and performing its function, but it is not easy to manage and not as fully-featured as competitors."
"If this solution were more robust then it would be much more useful."
"I would like to see them include more features in the older licenses. There are some features that are not available, such as preventing or analyzing cloud attacks."
"We've had an issue where an in-session policy was not working."
"There are certain areas where the product could improve, such as some functionalities that did not work as expected."
"An area of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps that needs to be improved or enhanced is the reporting function. In the beginning, there was a good reporting function which gave us a sort of monthly overview report. But that has gone away."
"The insights could be improved, especially in reporting."
"I would like for it to be available on Mac and for it to support all of the features of Microsoft financing products. It is really for Windows."
"Currently, reporting is not very straightforward and it needs to be enhanced. Specific reports are not included and you need to run a query, drill down, and then export it and share it. I would love to have reports with more fine-tuning or granularity, and more predefined reports."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing really depends on the size of the customer's business because it is price-relevant to the environment."
"The solution is not that expensive compared to Zscaler. Netskope is between Forcepoint CASB and Zscaler in terms of cost. Forcepoint CASB would be the first choice because it negotiates well and offers a perpetual license, though it may seem subscription-based. I rate its pricing a six out of ten."
"It is a little bit expensive. When you want to have the complete package with Office 365, Defender, and everything else, it is expensive."
"The pricing is a little bit high but right now, we are okay with it because of the compatibility with Office 365, Teams, and Azure AD."
"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."
"Our clients normally use the Microsoft E1 licensing, which is renewed yearly."
"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."
"The product's pricing seems fair."
"The pricing is fair."
"Its pricing is on the higher side. Its price is definitely very high for a small-scale company. As an enterprise client, we do get benefits from Microsoft. We get a discounted price because of the number of users we have in our company. We have a premier package, and with that, we do get a lot of discounts. There are no additional costs. It only comes in the top-tier packages. Generally, the top-tier license is the best license that you can get for your organization. If you want, you can buy it separately, but that's not a good idea."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Forcepoint CASB?
I would put the pricing of Forcepoint CASB at a five, closer to a four. I don't think it's very expensive, but it's also not very cheap.
What needs improvement with Forcepoint CASB?
From a functionality perspective, I don't have any recommendations, but in terms of support, the speed of support is something that can be managed better. This is not exactly for Forcepoint CASB, b...
What is your primary use case for Forcepoint CASB?
Forcepoint CASB ensures that access to cloud applications is properly vetted and monitored. We have a lot of remote and field workers, and many staff members are not required to come into the offic...
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-native solution, unifying multiple features like DNS-layer security, threat intelli...
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 all our productivity applications were on O365, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Cloud App Security?
The fidelity of the signal in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps has been a challenge in some areas. There have been instances where the alerts generated have been false positives. A lot of work has...
 

Also Known As

Imperva Skyfence
MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Zions Bank, GE Healthcare, HomeAway, Logitech, Universal, California National Resources Agency and many mor
Customers for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps include Accenture, St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and Nakilat.
Find out what your peers are saying about Forcepoint CASB vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,679 professionals have used our research since 2012.