Fortinet FortiSandbox vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comparison

Fortinet FortiSandbox vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

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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

Fortinet FortiSandbox

Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Threat Deception Platforms (7th)

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

12th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (13th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiSandbox is 10.5%, up from 8.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

Featured Reviews

Abdelhamid Saber

Senior Security & Infra Technology Systems Engineer at BARQ Systems

Enhanced network security with adaptable integration and really good support

We use FortiSandbox for scanning files and images that pass through our networks. It integrates with different devices, such as five adapters and other Fortinet devices It is time-saving and more secure. It saves us from a lot of antivirus and anti-malware issues. The adapter is beneficial as it…

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Jagadeesh Gunasekaran

Cyber security engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Saves us time, has good visibility, and a single dashboard

The solution is user-friendly and provides great visibility into threats. There are easy options available for specific workflow inspections. We can also get support by going through the Microsoft documentation, which is straightforward. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps helps us prioritize threats across our enterprise. It covers us from a compliance perspective and protects our organization's data. Data protection is a very important aspect of any new organization, as we need to protect our data from both external attacks and insider threats. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps helps us monitor for abnormal activity by insiders, which is one of the most important access points for attackers today. Additionally, the different cloud apps that Defender for Cloud Apps supports provide us with much more visibility into potential threats and activities on the internet. We have integrated Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps alerts with Sentinel. The integration is straightforward. We can find the configuration details on Microsoft's official documentation website. If we are familiar with how Microsoft products work, we will be able to follow the instructions clearly. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and Sentinel work natively together to deliver coordinated detection and response across our environment. Our integrated Microsoft solutions provide comprehensive threat protection, covering most of the tactics and techniques relevant to the MITRE ATT&CK framework. Sentinel allows us to ingest data from our entire ecosystem. When implementing an SIEM solution, there are always prerequisites such as Active Directory logs, security logs, firewall logs, and DNS logs. These are important logs that need to be ingested into the environment. Sentinel has many third-party connectors available that make integrations straightforward. Microsoft provides the configuration details in the Sentinel platform. It is important to integrate all relevant log sources into the SIEM solution so that we can detect and be alerted to any type of threat factor, whether it is from an internal or external source. Integrating third-party solutions into the platform requires a separate configuration, but Microsoft provides the necessary information. However, we need to have the appropriate permissions to execute these setups. Sentinel provides a centralized dashboard that covers threat management and configuration. It gives us complete insight into what entities are accessing, as well as full details for investigation. We can see how the alerts and threats are relevant to suspicious activities, whether they are related to malicious IP addresses, suspicious ASHAs, or any other indicators of compromise. All of this relevant data can be seen in a single pane. Recently, Microsoft introduced a new investigation experience in a single pane. This means that we can now get a lot of details in a single pane, without having to go there and execute a query. There are a lot of new insights being developed in the Sentinel platform these days. It has software intelligence. They recently introduced Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence, which covers almost all IOCs. This protects organizational assets from threats and suspicious traffic associated with IOCs. If a match is found, alerts are generated. This is a very interesting feature. Another great feature is automation and logic apps. We can create a number of operations, such as posting in a team's channel if a severe incident occurs or sending an email notification. There are many operations available, so we can automate a lot of tasks. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps helps us stay compliant. It has predefined mechanisms in place to prevent attacks. For example, if an external user tries to access our SharePoint folders or files, an attack will be blocked. This is why it is important to give appropriate access to guest users. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps has many features and benefits. It provides a number of policies that can be configured to meet the specific needs of our security team. These policies can be used to customize cloud applications so that only authorized users can access them and perform operations that benefit the organization. In terms of safety and security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is top-notch. Using the solution's automation features, we can suppress false positive alerts. We can also close alerts, lower their severity from "high" to "low" or "informational," or close them immediately with the appropriate commands. This will depend on the configuration automation rule and the perspective from which we are testing. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps provides a single console. We are also provided with Microsoft templates to enable workbooks instantly. Alternatively, we can build our own customized workbooks to provide better insights and improve our SOC efficiency and overall performance. Consolidating all of our security data into one dashboard has saved our security operations team a significant amount of time. From an analyst's perspective, it is now much easier to correlate events, investigate alerts, and visualize specific entities. For example, an analyst can quickly see all of the alerts associated with a particular IP address, or they can view all of the activity for a specific entity over the past 24 hours or 7 days. This level of detail and insight would not be possible if our data were siloed in multiple dashboards. The single dashboard saves our operations approximately 20 hours per week by eliminating the need to access multiple consoles and tabs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps threat intelligence can help us prepare for potential threats before they happen. However, it depends on how we develop the policies for the database to block or ignore things in our environment.

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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

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"It is a stable solution."

"The real-time analysis capability of FortiSandbox is beneficial for email analysis."

"Fortinet FortiSandbox puts suspicious files in quarantine, analyzes for virus risks, and lets them out of quarantine if it detects no risk."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that the performance it offers to users is good, making it useful for us in our company."

"Compared to other solutions, it's easy to configure and implement because of the templates. The timing of scanning files is faster."

"The solution is easy to manage."

"Integration is one of the solution's most valuable aspects. You can integrate even third-party solutions so that they can send the information or files they quarantine through the FortiSandbox"

More Fortinet FortiSandbox pros

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is very comprehensive, providing a complete 360-degree view of applications within an organization."

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

"I like the web GUI/the management interface. I also like the security of Microsoft. As compared to other manufacturers, it's less complex and easy to understand and work with."

"The most valuable feature is its policy implementation."

"The product’s most valuable feature is SQL database."

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

"The most valuable feature is the alerting system."

"It does a great job of monitoring and maintaining a security baseline. For us, that is a key element. The notifications are pretty good."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pros

Cons

"Sometimes, there are issues upgrading the version of the firewall or the SD-LAN box. After we upgrade to the latest version of the software, we still have the same box. I think it's the same for every vendor."

"For the MSSPs, it would be great if the product could display all the threat chains on a dashboard since it is an area where the tool is currently lacking."

"For additional features, maybe a form of execution pain files in a non-virtual environment because it has threats that identify when it is being run in a virtual machine."

"It can be difficult if you need to use the Command Line Interface (CLI). It's much easier if you only have to deal with the GUI."

"In general, maybe they are not updated to cover risks."

"At least once a week we have a false alarm. This needs to be adjusted so that we get fewer of these occurrences."

"The integration is limited. The solution needs to offer better integration with multiple vendors."

"Something that needs to improve, is the end-point protection."

More Fortinet FortiSandbox cons

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps' initial setup was quite technical but we were prepared. The time of the implementation depends on the job and how many users are being set up."

"I would like more customization of notifications. Currently, you either get everything or you get limited information. I would like to have something in between where we can customize the data that is included in notifications."

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

"I believe it's only set to be integrated with Microsoft Defender for identity and identity protection. I would like to see it available for use with something like Office 365 Defender. I don't think it's integrated with that yet."

"The insights could be improved, especially in reporting. While it is possible for me to see the usage from different cloud apps, determining if critical data has been uploaded or if it is just normal transport data is difficult."

"It doesn't actually decrease the time to respond. This has been an issue with Microsoft recently. Sometimes, there is a delay when it comes to getting an alert policy email... Sometimes it takes two or three hours for that email to be sent."

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

"In the future, I would like to see more plug-and-play capabilities that use AI to tell you what needs to be done. It would be helpful if it scanned our devices and made security suggestions, on a configuration basis."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are on an annual license to use the solution. We have an additional feature that is integrated with S5, which is working well."

"The price of Fortinet FortiSandbox is not expensive."

"The solution is not expensive at all."

"The license for Fortinet FortiSandbox depends on the use case."

"FortiSandbox is a subscription that can be purchased from Fortinet directly. Only using FortiSandbox as features purchased as a subscription in the cloud."

"Fortinet is more reasonable than Palo Alto."

"Fortinet FortiSandbox is a nominally priced product, so I would not say that it is a very cheap tool."

"It is an expensive solution."

More Fortinet FortiSandbox pricing and cost advice

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

"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 has pretty good pricing."

"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."

"The E5 license offers everything bundled. People are moving to Microsoft because you buy one license and it gives you everything."

"We utilize the Microsoft E5 licensing, which encompasses the entire Microsoft suite; however, it is costly."

"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."

"This product is not expensive."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Fortinet FortiSandbox?

The real-time analysis capability of FortiSandbox is beneficial for email analysis.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiSandbox?

I think it's affordable. For the six to seven months of usage, the cost has been reasonable.

What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiSandbox?

We sometimes face a delay in email scanning due to not having multiple virtual machines. Improvements could be made in dynamic scanning, scanning all email components such as URLs and attachments, ...

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 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 notifications are pretty good.

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

The pricing for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is acceptable. If a product is of high quality, it justifies the expense.

Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Fortinet FortiSandbox

Comparisons

Compared 42% of the time

Check Point SandBlast Network vs Fortinet FortiSandbox

Compared 14% of the time

Trellix Network Detection and Response vs Fortinet FortiSandbox

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 vs Fortinet FortiSandbox

Compared 8% of the time

Trend Micro Deep Discovery vs Fortinet FortiSandbox

Compared 6% of the time

More Fortinet FortiSandbox Competitors

Zscaler Internet Access vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 21% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 15% 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 6% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Competitors

Product Reports

Fortinet FortiSandbox

Download Fortinet FortiSandbox product report

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps product report

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps report

Also Known As

FortiSandbox

MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security

Overview

Fortinet FortiSandbox is a behavior-based threat detection solution that prevents and detects malicious code in files transferred within the organization. It is integrated with FortiGate firewalls and FortiMail for threat protection and can be used for monitoring and reporting. The solution inspects files in a virtual environment with different types of virtual machines and can block or quarantine files based on their score.

The most valuable features include dynamic behavior analysis, manual scan features, easy management and configuration, fast scanning, scalability, customization, and ICAP protocol. The solution is cost-effective and faster than other sandbox solutions, with a good user interface.

Fortinet

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

Lush, Barnabas Health, Options, Riverside Healthcare, Hillsbourough County Schools, Columbia Public Schools, Schiller AG

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

Fortinet FortiSandbox vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps