No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Fortinet FortiSandbox 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.8
Fortinet FortiSandbox ensures high ROI by preventing cyber threats, saving costs, and securing data, rated nine out of ten.
Sentiment score
7.2
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps enhances security, reduces costs, and optimizes resources with seamless integration and proactive monitoring.
The biggest return on investment so far has been visibility, knowing what we have in our environment.
Cloud and data protection engineer at a university with 10,001+ employees
As a small team, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps allowed us to manage systems with just one or two people.
Manager, Information Technology Security Compliance at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
We have at least saved the costs we had from the Netskope solution this year.
Security and Continuity Manager at Rolinco NV
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Fortinet FortiSandbox generally offers friendly, informed support, but users face delays and need better handling of complex issues.
Sentiment score
6.6
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps support has mixed reviews, with high technical proficiency but inconsistent responsiveness and communication delays.
Sometimes the technical engineer is very good and helpful, and sometimes we go through many processes until it gets escalated to a higher level or to another advanced technical engineer.
Security Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Their customer service is pretty good, but it's frustrating to go through three or four channels before reaching the right person.
Cloud and data protection engineer at a university with 10,001+ employees
The support is excellent, and the speed of response is commendable.
Solutions Architect at a university with 51-200 employees
There were instances where the engineers were knowledgeable and helpful, but at other times it felt like a ping pong game, with unnecessary transfers until the right person was found.
Manager, Information Technology Security Compliance at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Fortinet FortiSandbox is scalable and adaptable, though experiences vary with cloud licenses and hardware requirements.
Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps offers scalable, cloud-native security but may require extra resources for large-scale policy management.
For what I know about the log collector and how much data it can take in, it is super scalable and capable of handling high workloads.
Cloud and data protection engineer at a university with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is very scalable, provided you have the right subscription.
Solutions Architect at a university with 51-200 employees
In my experience, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is good enough for small to medium businesses.
Manager, Information Technology Security Compliance at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Fortinet FortiSandbox is generally rated as stable and reliable, with users giving stability ratings between eight and nine.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and continuous improvements praised by users.
Fortinet FortiSandbox works fine, is easy to manage, and functions well.
Security Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
I would rate it a ten because I have not experienced any stability issues so far with Defender for Cloud Apps.
Head of Security Operations at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
I would assess the stability and reliability of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps as stable
Network Engineer at Apexon
My impression on the stability and reliability of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is that it is very stable.
Security and Continuity Manager at Rolinco NV
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiSandbox needs better vendor integration, enhanced features, improved usability, and faster, more automated security analysis capabilities.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps needs improvements in pricing, interface, integrations, alert precision, documentation, and multi-cloud support.
I think Fortinet FortiSandbox could introduce more automation tools and AI tools.
Security Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
For data loss prevention, it would be useful to be able to drill down into the kind of data being transferred over CloudApp.
Head of Security Operations at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Defender typically connects to Entra ID, but we have local users on the cloud for database access, SSH, or RDS, and there is nothing produced by Defender regarding those local IAM users.
Network Engineer at Apexon
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps would benefit if Microsoft allows users to fine-tune false positives, enabling us to dismiss alerts or make adjustments so that such things don't trigger multiple times in the future.
Security delivery analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiSandbox is priced mid-range, with options for cloud and on-prem, plus potential support license costs.
Enterprise users find Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps affordable within bundles but expensive standalone, desiring more pricing transparency.
The cost is in the mid-range.
Security Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The pricing for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is acceptable.
Solutions Architect at a university with 51-200 employees
My organization is currently revisiting pricing, but previously, the cost was a bit expensive, yet comparable to other solutions with similar functionalities and features.
Manager, Information Technology Security Compliance at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
It's not the cheapest, but also not the most expensive, placing it in the mid-level range.
IT Architect at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiSandbox delivers excellent threat detection, seamless integration, fast performance, ease of use, and robust customization options.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps offers seamless integration, real-time threat detection, and robust security features for comprehensive cloud protection.
The smooth integrations between Fortinet FortiSandbox and other Fortinet solutions such as FortiWeb and FortiFirewall and with other Fortinet environments are what I really appreciate.
Security Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
It provides excellent suggestions and options for configuration; for example, it can track suspicious files getting uploaded to cloud resources on Azure based on their signatures, generating alerts for those files.
Security delivery analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The product recommends things that need to be blocked and allows for dynamic configuration, which cuts down on potential issues that might arise from going through lists and understanding what needs to be blocked.
Partner & Chief Executive Officer at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
The ability to sanction unsanctioned apps using Secure Score benchmarking, included in Cloud, is also beneficial.
Head of Security Operations at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiSandbox
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Threat Deception Platforms (3rd)
Microsoft Defender for Clou...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiSandbox is 4.5%, down from 7.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 2.1%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiSandbox4.5%
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps2.1%
Other93.4%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

AN
Security Manager at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Advanced sandboxing has protected users from zero-day threats and has simplified secure file scanning
The smooth integrations between Fortinet FortiSandbox and other Fortinet solutions such as FortiWeb and FortiFirewall and with other Fortinet environments are what I really appreciate. We have minimum false positives during threat detection. Our clients have not given negative feedback from detection. As you know, it still needs some tuning after implementation. However, we never receive negative feedback for many false positives during implementation.
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.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) solutions are best for your needs.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
8%
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 Business16
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise9
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiSandbox?
The cost is in the mid-range. It is not low and it is not high.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiSandbox?
I think Fortinet FortiSandbox could introduce more automation tools and AI tools.
What is your primary use case for Fortinet FortiSandbox?
Clients primarily ask us to integrate Fortinet FortiSandbox either with FortiMail or with firewalls to scan downloadable files and ensure that client access browsing is secure with no harmful files...
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

FortiSandbox
MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security
 

Overview

 

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.
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiSandbox vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.