Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps comparison

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps are both solutions in the Microsoft Security Suite category. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is ranked #33 with an average rating of 7.5, while Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.5. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management holds a 0.9% mindshare in Microsoft Security Suite, compared to Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps’s 3.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps users who would recommend it.

Microsoft Defender External...

Read 2 Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management reviews

1,387 Views
250 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

Read 42 Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps reviews

6,165 Views
1,295 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Defender External...

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Microsoft Security Suite solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

February 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 885,264 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

Microsoft Defender External...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

33rd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Attack Surface Management (ASM) (12th)

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

11th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (5th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 0.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 3.2%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps	3.2%
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management	0.9%
Other	95.9%

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

AndyChan3

General manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Enhanced visibility and exposes vulnerabilities but needs more integration

I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will move to full-scale production in another year, maybe Microsoft External Attack Surface Management…

Read full review

Frank Van Der Spek

Security and Continuity Manager at Rolinco NV

Deployment has been seamless with insightful data categorization and enhanced control

The features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps that I have found most valuable include the overall portal view, with bubble graphs which give us insight into what goes where in the categorization, nowadays with Generative AI but all kinds of categorization, collaboration, etc. That central view of the portal is very useful for us. The impact of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps on our organization's ability to assess and manage app related risks has been significant because we have more visibility. Therefore, we can add more control, and we have already done so. This was not possible in the old solution, in the old CASB solution with Netskope. We now can see on the spot, and we do that almost weekly, what the end users are utilizing, which cloud providers or cloud apps they're using. The visibility into OAuth apps provided by Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is very good. The visibility into risk and risk management of our organization's Generative AI apps is very nice, as you can choose the category Generative AI and then see exactly what traffic has been going to and from Generative AI in the cloud. This makes us very insightful on what is used within the company. We have some policies on blocking specific Generative AI, and we use within our company one particular AI part, which is CoPilot of Microsoft. In this way, we can see what the end users are using other than CoPilot, and that makes us more in control. The effectiveness of the integration of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps with Defender XDR and defending against SaaS attacks is very intuitive. It works immediately if we create a new policy or in Purview or in Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, or when we make an app unsanctioned by blocking it, then it is almost immediately, or at least within a couple of hours, effective on all the endpoints where the EDR is running. This gives us much better control over things than before.

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

"It seems to be better at protecting from cyberattacks."

"Microsoft External Attack Surface Management helps improve the visibility of my exposed vulnerabilities and provides an overview of my security posture across the globe."

"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 major benefit is that it is a Microsoft tool, so if you're in a Microsoft ecosystem, this is the best tool that you can get in the market."

"Overall, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is very convenient for investigation, in terms of security breaches, or if there is file exfiltration."

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

"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."

"Better logging allows us to find problems and take appropriate steps to lock them out."

"Defender for Cloud Apps has given us good visibility regarding what we've allowed in our environment until now. It helps us to know our inventory, understand what our customers are using, and steer them toward safer practices."

"Microsoft Cloud App Security brings them together onto the same platform from a security standpoint, and the application can run seamlessly across different clouds, which helps."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pros

Cons

"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."

"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."

"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."

"The graph displayed in the Defender portal mostly doesn't capture the full picture as we see in endpoint-related or identity-related alerts; we can see a complete graph of what is happening there, but Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps still falls short in capturing that whole aspect in the graph."

"I would prefer to have filtering options incorporated within the policies, enabling the solution to perform tasks beyond mere blocking or allowing."

"We've had an issue where an in-session policy was not working."

"We are having trouble with our continuous reporting configuration and struggling with configuring the collector properly with our log parsing. We've also faced difficulties getting support for this issue. It's taken us months to figure this out after going through a couple of different support channels."

"I would like for it to be available on Mac and for it to support all of the features of Microsoft financing products."

"Sometimes, we'll get false positive alarms. For example, when a SharePoint path has no file sharing, but there is an external user, it will trigger an alarm that the file has been shared with an external user."

"I want them to enhance in-session policy."

"A significant improvement I would like to see is the integration into a single pane of glass, which would allow me to view everything in one place rather than having to switch between different areas."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"It has pretty good pricing."

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

"I'm not totally involved in the pricing part, but I think its pricing is quite aggressive, and its price is quite similar to Netskope. Netskope has separate licensing fees or additional charges if you want to monitor certain SaaS services, whereas, with MCAS, you get 5,000 applications with their Office 365. It is all bundled, and there's no cost for using that. You only have the operational costs. In the country I am in, it is a bit difficult to get people with the required skill sets."

"The product's pricing seems fair."

"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 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 pricing is fair."

"This product is not expensive."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Microsoft Security Suite solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

885,264 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	19

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?

I rate the pricing of the solution as eight out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?

Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement. Introduction of more AI automation into the products would also be beneficial. The integration is not as seamless co...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

TrendAI Vision One – Cloud Security vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 15% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 8% of the time

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 8% of the time

Bitsight vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 6% of the time

Resecurity EASM vs Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management Competitors

Zscaler Internet Access vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 11% of the time

Netskope vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 9% 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 4% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Attack Surface Management (ASM)

March 2026

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management report

Download Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

March 2026

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps report

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps product report

Also Known As

No data available

MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security

Overview

In this era of hybrid work, shadow IT creates an increasingly serious security risk. Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management helps cloud security teams see unknown and unmanaged resources outside the firewall.

Microsoft

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

Information Not Available

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

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

February 2026

Free Report: Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

885,264 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps report.

See our list of best Microsoft Security Suite vendors.

We monitor all Microsoft Security Suite reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.