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 for Cloud Apps vs. Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention Report (Updated: May 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs. Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

May 2024

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Helped 793,295 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Clou...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (3rd), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (15th)

Microsoft Purview Data Loss...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is 1.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is 1.8%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

Unique Categories:

Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)

15.1%

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)

2.3%

Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

22.6%

Featured Reviews

reviewer2315772

Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Nov 28, 2023

Provides good stability and a valuable SQL database

I am not sure if the product has improved our organization yet. However, it certainly gives another level of confidence that the assets are secure. We are aware of the activity in the tenant The product’s most valuable feature is SQL database. It notifies us even in case of false positives when…

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Anna Virtsan

IT Project Manager at UkrSibbank

Jul 26, 2023

Integrates well, connects with iOS and Android devices, and takes into account critical regulations from around the world

I currently work in the financial domain, and we have very strict regulations from national banks and the group side. Domain-related improvements could be really useful for organizations and banks. For example, sensitive information types are the basic level of information protection, similar to the Purview model. We start with creating or duplicating sensitive insights and editing them. I am talking about more sensitive information types that align with European regulations, especially in the financial sector. Having more variety would be beneficial. All of the EU considers sensitive information types in finance, but we need more variety, especially as a Ukrainian company. We face a lack of attention to our region, despite having the same strict regulations as EU companies. One point of improvement is related to organization and language issues. For instance, we use different sensitive information types for France, the UK, and other countries where we have offices. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't support the Ukrainian language, unlike Chinese and Japanese languages, which have deeper layers of understanding of information. It would be helpful to add support for Ukrainian. However, I understand that we are essentially bilingual, using both English and Ukrainian in our companies, and we are a minority in terms of languages. Other solutions, like ERP systems, offer localization for Ukraine and have partnerships with companies. Microsoft 365 also supports the Ukrainian language from a user perspective. However, unfortunately, Defender and Azure lack deeper settings. They do not provide language options beyond the ones already available, so our language option is missing. Purview includes sensitive info types covering a wide range of languages and country specifications. For instance, it includes passport numbers for Ukraine, but we also need a sensitive input type for our tax numbers. Currently, there is no option for our tax numbers, which forces us to duplicate the data. In contrast, they include all sorts of options such as driver's license numbers and insurance policy numbers for EU companies. It would be beneficial to have those presets available for us as well.

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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 ability to prevent users from using certain applications is one of the most valuable features. It doesn't require any configuration for implementation from the client perspective. It just works right away and gives you the information you need."

"The most valuable feature is the ease of management. It's important."

"The most valuable feature is the seamless integration across different clouds."

"Defender helps us control which applications are being used and gain more security insight into remote and hybrid users based on user identity and log in location. You can also integrate Defender for Cloud Apps with Defender for Endpoint to extend its capabilities."

"It is very easy to use, which is what we look for in these types of solutions."

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

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

"The feature that helps us in detecting the sensitive information being shared has been very useful. In addition, the feature that allows MCAS to apply policies with SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive is being used predominantly."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pros

"If we can prevent information from going out, eventually, when a regulator is asking about our security measures, we can show what we've been doing."

"I rate Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention's stability a ten out of ten."

"The auto-labeling feature is definitely the most valuable feature. It goes in and labels the documents for you in different repositories. It covers the Outlook and Exchange repositories along with SharePoint and OneDrive. It is really helpful in those areas."

"Because everything is on Microsoft and we use Azure, integration with the product is easier. That's the most important thing when you use many Microsoft products. It's easier to integrate everything in one place."

"The product is easy to configure."

"The product can block the uploads to cloud services."

"We can use Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention to manage devices and site policies."

"The most valuable features are identifying sensitive data and issuing alerts."

More Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention pros

Cons

"The interface needs to be more user-friendly."

"Defender could integrate better with multi-cloud and hybrid environments. It requires some additional configuration to ingest data from non-Azure environments and integrate it with Sentinel."

"There are challenges with detection and there are challenges with false-positive rates."

"The response time could be better. It will be helpful if the alerts are even more proactive and we can see more data. Currently, the data is a little bit weak. It is not complete. I can't just see it and completely know which user or which device it is. It takes some effort and time on my part to investigate and isolate a user. It would be great if it is more user-friendly or easy for people to understand."

"Defender for Cloud Apps could come with more configured policies out of the box. Also, integration could be easier. Integration is moderately difficult because Microsoft hasn't developed a solution that unifies device onboarding and management. You have to use Intune to manage devices and Defender for Endpoint to enforce policies. They need to fix their integration, but I believe they will straighten it out by the end of the year."

"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."

"There are some features, such as user navigation content filtering, that are disabled by default, and it probably makes sense to enable them by default."

"They need to improve the attack surface reduction (ASR) rules. In the latest version, you can implement ASR rules, which are quite useful, but you have to enable those because if they're not enabled, they flag false positives. In the Defender portal, it logs a block for WMI processes and PowerShell. Apparently, it's because ASR rules are not configured. So, you generally have to enable them to exclude, for example, WMI queries or PowerShell because they have a habit of blocking your security scanners. It's a bit weird that they have to be enabled to be configured, and it's not the other way around."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps cons

"Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention's licensing is expensive."

"It could cover more solutions and technologies."

"There is a need for improvements, particularly in ensuring that file-based recognition is more reliable and comprehensive."

"I would like Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention to be on the source code or SQL databases. It is difficult to do classification and labeling when you have a third-party source code or a third-party Oracle database. It is seamless when it comes to Microsoft documents but is not so with third-party source codes. Microsoft needs to work on it a little bit more."

"There is a lot of ambiguity when you are setting up labels, such as sensitive information labels. It is a little daunting at first if you don't have prior knowledge, and there is a little bit of a learning curve for setting up the labels. Some of the setup wizards could be more helpful from an AI perspective. They can streamline the setup through more AI technologies so that you don't have to jump through so many hoops and different menus and dropdowns. It would be useful to have a setup wizard that is more hands-off and engaging for setting up the information type labels. If you tell them this is what we're trying to protect, it should basically start to lead you down that path of best practices. Such a feature would be great."

"The solution should provide better integration with other systems."

"A site can have different containers where you store data. We have always wanted to apply compliance, labels, and policies at the container level, rather than to an outer shell or at the site level. That is something we have been looking forward to and I believe Microsoft is already planning something like that."

"The scalability, in terms of the portal, could be more user-friendly. Sometimes I have faced difficulties in identifying the options."

More Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be better and should be reconsidered."

"Microsoft offers bundle discounts and a pay-as-you-go option."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"We have an educational licensing agreement. It's a customer agreement for multiple years."

"Our clients normally use the Microsoft E1 licensing, which is renewed yearly."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps pricing and cost advice

"It is a part of our Microsoft licensing. We pay for a yearly renewal. Its price is reasonable for the size of the organization we are. It is fairly competitive, and you get what you pay for. We have an E5 license, and a part of understanding the E5 license is to see what all you get with it. If you really look at it from that standpoint, you get a lot of value. You have Defender and all its security features in there as well. Their licensing is fairly flexible. They have different programs. We've seen ones where you could pay for up to three to five years in advance. There is also a monthly pay-as-you-go type of deal, but we're doing a yearly renewal and fixing the budget."

"The product has the best price-to-performance ratio."

"Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention is part of a bundle and is not sold as a standalone product."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"I am satisfied with the tool's pricing."

"We are using the E3 license for Microsoft 365 with the E5 compliance license add-on."

"It's a little bit pricey compared to competitors, but it's not too high."

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793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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

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 p...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?

The most valuable features are identifying sensitive data and issuing alerts.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?

The pricing is a little bit better when compared to others on the market.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention?

It could cover more solutions and technologies. One of the challenges that we're facing now is how we can identify our critical information storage level, for example, via scanning or some other me...

See all answers

Comparisons

Zscaler Internet Access vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 23% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 20% 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 8% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Compared 6% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps Competitors

Symantec Data Loss Prevention vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 18% of the time

Forcepoint Data Loss Prevention vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 16% of the time

Zscaler DLP vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 11% of the time

Amazon Macie vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Intune vs Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Compared 9% of the time

More Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

July 2024

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps report

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

July 2024

Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention report

Download Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention product report

Also Known As

MS Cloud App Security, Microsoft Cloud App Security

Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention, MS Endpoint DLP, Microsoft Endpoint DLP

Learn More

Microsoft

Overview

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".

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Our mission is grounded in both the world in which we live and the future we strive to create. Today, we live in a mobile-first, cloud-first world, and the transformation we are driving across our businesses is designed to enable Microsoft and our customers to thrive in this world.

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs. Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

May 2024

Free Report: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs. Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps vs. Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.

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