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Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.0
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps enhances security and efficiency, offering significant ROI with up to 60% savings and streamlined operations.
Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager enhances ROI by reducing costs, process times, and improving security with no extra fees.
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
The process is reduced from weeks to a day, showcasing a solid nine for return on investment.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps support is praised for its responsiveness, though some users experience delays and resource access challenges.
Sentiment score
5.0
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's support needs improvement with slow response times, inconsistent support, and insufficient training resources.
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
Since I approach them with more complicated issues, it takes quite a bit of time to get through those two support tiers.
Senior security analyst at MB Cybermode
The support staff, who are often outsourced, seem not adequately equipped to handle issues quickly and efficiently.
Information Technology Auditor at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
The quality of support is affected because most support staff seem focused on obtaining five-star ratings rather than resolving problems thoroughly.
System Administrator at Templars
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps offers scalable, seamless integration, and reliable management for organizations of all sizes and environments.
Sentiment score
6.8
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager offers scalable compliance management, adaptable to expanding needs, though policy granularity can sometimes be limited.
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
As services increase, eDiscovery capabilities also increase, allowing easy deployment.
Digital Forensic Investigator at Los Angeles Unified School District
It is straightforward since it scans everything, covering all aspects needed in our operations.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
While the solution is scalable in terms of user numbers, there are limitations when creating more granular level policies.
Information Technology Auditor at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is highly stable, reliable, and maintains performance with minor, swiftly resolved incidents.
Sentiment score
7.8
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is stable and reliable, though could improve in user-friendliness and competitiveness in eDiscovery tools.
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
Despite stability, it needs to be more user-friendly and competitive compared to other eDiscovery tools.
Digital Forensic Investigator at Los Angeles Unified School District
It is reliable and I can depend on it.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
In terms of latency, stability is not an issue.
Information Technology Auditor at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps seeks enhanced pricing, integration, user interface, automation, and multi-cloud support, while improving insights and management.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager requires better integration, automation, accessibility, and expanded functionality; users seek improved interface and budget-friendly licensing.
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
Microsoft Copilot Security converts human language to search queries using its AdLM language model.
Digital Forensic Investigator at Los Angeles Unified School District
The speed and accessibility, particularly in the user interface, require significant work.
Senior security analyst at MB Cybermode
The Purview Compliance Portal's log management could be more user-friendly, making data retrieval, like email logs, challenging.
Information Technology Auditor at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is seen as cost-effective for enterprises within Microsoft ecosystems, despite standalone pricing concerns.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is cost-effective, especially for Microsoft 365 E5 users, offering competitive pricing with strong compliance benefits.
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
I rate the pricing as a one since it is included in what I am already paying for, as part of the Microsoft 365 E5 licensing.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors.
Information Technology Auditor at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
It was not excessively expensive.
Systems Engineer at a leisure / travel company with 201-500 employees
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps integrates well, offering threat detection, management ease, shadow IT discovery, and robust security enhancements.
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager streamlines compliance with integrated tools, automation, and dashboards, enhancing security and efficiency across platforms.
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
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager's eDiscovery is essential for organizations using Outlook as their email service.
Digital Forensic Investigator at Los Angeles Unified School District
The most valuable feature is data classification retention since I deal with terabytes of data, and managing and monitoring it simplifies the process.
Head of Technology Operations at Pobl Group
The best aspect is that it requires little to no time for implementation if I am using all of Microsoft's tools.
Senior security analyst at MB Cybermode
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Clou...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (4th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (14th)
Microsoft Purview Complianc...
Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite
23rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Data Governance (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 3.1%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Microsoft Security Suite Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps3.1%
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager1.6%
Other95.3%
Microsoft Security Suite
 

Featured Reviews

FV
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.
AO
System Administrator at Templars
Opportunities for improvement overshadow benefits
Microsoft support is great overall. However, their business model of outsourcing to third-party partners, especially in Nigeria with tech experts and other partners, needs improvement. I have raised tickets and worked with these support teams. Microsoft needs to address how partners treat their technical support staff. The quality of support is affected because most support staff seem focused on obtaining five-star ratings rather than resolving problems thoroughly. This appears to be due to the pressure from partners and Microsoft's feedback metrics system. They often rush to close tickets without deeply investigating complaints. From the level of support received, I usually try to resolve issues independently. I rate the engineers favorably understanding their pressures, even when issues remain unresolved. Overall, I would rate Microsoft Support five out of 10.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
While not cheap, Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is priced at 60% to 70% compared to some competitors. Additional costs may involve OCR page scanning.
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
When I tried to set up Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager for my organization to ensure people are not sending PII documents, especially payment cards, using keywords for flagging, it disrupted o...
What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager?
I have limited experience with the templates in Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager. Our organization hasn't fully utilized the solution beyond checking compliance scores and adjusting basic setti...
 

Also Known As

MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security
Microsoft Compliance Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Customers for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps include Accenture, St. Luke’s University Health Network, Ansell, and Nakilat.
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Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs. Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.