Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Purview Audit comparison

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Microsoft Purview Audit

June 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 909,725 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 for Cloud

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (6th), Container Management (6th), Container Security (4th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (6th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (3rd)

Microsoft Purview Audit

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

29th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Log Management (29th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 5.5%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Audit is 1.4%, up from 0.8% 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	5.5%
Microsoft Purview Audit	1.4%
Other	93.1%

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

RyanWalker

Head Of IT at Cirrus Response

Cloud security has cut investigation time and now reveals threats faster but needs simpler oversight

When deploying AI applications, my key security concerns with Microsoft Defender for Cloud are data loss, leakage of data, and guardrails around the actual AI, and I am hoping that this is going to help me put those guardrails in place and identify data exfiltration. Microsoft Defender for Cloud has not helped me manage and secure multi-cloud environments, as we are 100 percent Microsoft and have not really got it in any other environment at all. I am not yet using the unified AI-powered security feature offered by Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet using the integrated XDR feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, but that is coming. I am not yet utilizing the GenAI threat protection features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud. That is also coming and a lot of that will come from learning it here. I have enabled the agentless scanning in my cloud environment with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Assessing the impact on my workload protection without needing to install agents with Microsoft Defender for Cloud makes it a lot easier, but it also identifies a lot more, which puts more load on me sometimes. I would advise another organization considering Microsoft Defender for Cloud that it is the most logical route to follow if their whole ecosystem is Microsoft. It is easy to implement and it is very self-explanatory when doing it, making sense to just follow the steps as it is too simple, really. I would rate this review a 7.5 out of 10.

Read full review

Oksana Kosukhina.

Cloud Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Integrated auditing has strengthened data retention and improved incident investigations

I have seen areas for improvement, specifically in Microsoft Purview Audit or in general about Microsoft. I have had a situation with documentation. I had a customer who wanted to create alerts and they had Microsoft 365 Business Premium. In the documentation, it was noted that this license is enough for creating alerts. When we tried to make them, we noticed they cannot do it with Microsoft 365 E3 because the customer had limited features to manage alerts. The customer had to buy E3. We created Microsoft support requests, and they confirmed that the documentation displayed not the real situation and they have been going to update documentation. The same situation occurred now with implementing Microsoft Purview Audit in the last autumn. eDiscovery was combined with search and content search, and the documentation was not clear at the beginning. It was a little difficult to describe to customers that now it is a part of eDiscovery. Content search is a very simple functionality, while eDiscovery is a little difficult. I am not entirely sure why Microsoft is going in the way of combining these services because they are the same. However, for a customer who has never seen these services, it is difficult to understand quickly. The same situation occurs with litigation holds and some other holds. For any mail, I am trying to keep data. For example, emails are held for a year or two years, ten years, it does not matter. It is difficult to understand where to find this data and where these emails are being held. I need to use eDiscovery to find out all deleted data that was kept somewhere in some hidden folders of the mailbox. Regular customers and regular administrators know that on-premises Exchange, for example, allows them to find the data in some repository and review the list of kept data. However, with this hold, we do not have any functionality to review the list of kept data. It is difficult to understand for customers how to work with this. I had a case where I spent three or four hours working deeply with a customer to explain how to work with eDiscovery, why Content Search is not there when it was before, what is an eDiscovery case, and why we are talking about all of this just to review a list of kept emails. This is difficult.

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

"Threat protection is comprehensive and simple."

"It has improved our security posture a lot, and with the implementation of Azure Security Center, we have resolved many issues, including being able to do security monitoring of the complete infrastructure across both cloud and on-prem environments."

"The solution has improved our organization in terms of benchmarking, our Secure Score has improved a lot, and we're compliant with particular benchmarks."

"There is no better tool found to protect workloads in Azure than Microsoft Defender for Cloud."

"Having the ability to do what we could not before, such as gaining visibility and securing our full estate, is crucial."

"I would rate Microsoft Defender for Cloud a ten."

"This solution has the best security center, security manager dashboard that I have ever seen."

"It is very scalable, the product has been very easy to use and simple to set up, the maintenance and updating are part of the service so that brings great value, it's a stable product, technical support is helpful, and it's got a lot of great features."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

"The overall user experience with Microsoft Purview Audit is of higher quality than when it was branded as Compliance Center, and Microsoft consistently updates and evolves functionalities and the overall experience."

"The main Microsoft feature is that it offers common integration of services, of data, of identity, meaning user accounts, user access, and privileged access."

"We're easily saving at least one hour per day using this solution."

"The platform has significantly enhanced our operational insight into the overall Microsoft 365 environment."

Cons

"I felt that there was disconnection in terms of understanding the UI. The communication for moving from the old UI to the new UI could be improved. It was a bit awkward."

"The amount billed for the amount of terabytes you're scanning is too high and will lead into security risks if somebody is limiting the amount of data to be scanned based on the cost, so this is something I would prefer to be changed."

"It's really hard to get ahold of Microsoft support. When you buy a product, with the M365 portal, you're given the option to chat with somebody, and normally you don't hear back immediately."

"Customer service and support from Microsoft are very poor. Even for high-severity cases, response or resolution time can extend to three or four weeks."

"The solution's portal is very easy to use, but there's one key component that is missing when it comes to managing policies. For example, if I've onboarded my server and I need to specify antivirus policies, there's no option to do that on the portal. I will have to go to Intune to deploy them. That is one main aspect that is missing and it's worrisome."

"Another thing is that Defender for Cloud uses more resources than CrowdStrike, which my current company uses. Defender for Cloud has two or three processes running simultaneously that consume memory and processor time. I had the chance to compare that with CrowdStrike a few days ago, which was significantly less. It would be nice if Defender were a little lighter. It's a relatively large installation that consumes more resources than competitors do."

"It's hard to reach someone who understands my problems. I haven't had many issues, so I haven't called them."

"I rate Microsoft support five out of 10. It gets better once you're escalated past the first and second levels. It's difficult to get the necessary support when tickets are first opened."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

"I had a case where I spent three or four hours working deeply with a customer to explain how to work with eDiscovery, why Content Search is not there when it was before, what is an eDiscovery case, and why we are talking about all of this just to review a list of kept emails."

"Areas for product improvement include enhancing customization options and integrating more comprehensive compliance features."

"We do have a Denial of Access happening."

"We are still in the early stages of leveraging Microsoft Purview Audit. Currently, it's primarily used for the audit function."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is bundled with our enterprise subscription, which makes it easy to go for it. It is available by default, and there is no extra cost for using the standard features."

"Defender's basic version is free, which is good. Many of our teams are evaluating the paid version against third-party products."

"There are two different plans. We're using the secure basic plan, but we have used the end security plan as well. There are additional costs, but it gives us more functionalities compared to the basic plan."

"The pricing model for most plans is generally good, but the cost of the new Defender for Storage plan is high and should be revisited, as it could lead to disabling desirable security features due to cost."

"Although I am outside of the discussion on budget and costing, I can say that the importance of security provided by this solution is of such importance that whatever the cost is, it is not a factor."

"We are using the free version of the Azure Security Center."

"Understanding the costs of cloud services can be complicated at first. As with a lot of things in the cloud, it can be quite hard to understand the end cost, but it becomes clearer over time. Early on, the lack of transparency is a challenge. Microsoft does not tell you the cost when they launch something. It is clever marketing, and there is room for improvement there. There should be clarity from the start."

"The licensing cost per server is $15 per month."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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

909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	49

No data available

Questions from the Community

How is Prisma Cloud vs Azure Security Center for security?

Azure Security Center is very easy to use, integrates well, and gives very good visibility on what is happening across your ecosystem. It also has great remote workforce capabilities and supports a...

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

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing was that the license cost was the only consideration. Setup and support had no issues.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

To improve Microsoft Defender for Cloud, I think pricing-wise, the license price is a little bit higher from an ingestion cost perspective. Depending on what license you choose, you might have to p...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Audit?

It is not so expensive in comparison with other products, but I can tell you about an example.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Audit?

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Audit?

I work with Defender for IoT by chance because I see that we have enough reviews for Defender for Office 365 today, and we need reviews for some Azure products. I work with Azure products such as L...

AWS GuardDuty vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Comparisons

Compared 22% of the time

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

TrendAI Vision One – Cloud Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Competitors

eSentire MDR for Log vs Microsoft Purview Audit

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Secure Email and Web Manager vs Microsoft Purview Audit

Compared 9% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Data Lake vs Microsoft Purview Audit

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Sentinel vs Microsoft Purview Audit

Compared 5% of the time

Splunk Enterprise Security vs Microsoft Purview Audit

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Purview Audit Competitors

Product Reports

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

August 2026

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud product report

Download Microsoft Purview Audit product report

Microsoft Purview Audit

August 2026

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender

No data available

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive security platform offering integration with Microsoft services, multi-cloud capability, AI-driven threat detection, compliance, and unified visibility for improved security operations.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud manages security operations by integrating with Microsoft services and supporting multi-cloud environments. Its features include AI-driven threat detection, compliance oversight, and advanced threat protection. It simplifies processes with unified visibility, threat intelligence, and automated workflows, enhancing security posture across various workloads. Despite its robust capabilities, improvements are needed in third-party tool integration, comprehensive AI-driven remediation, and a more intuitive dashboard. Users report complexity in licensing, inadequate documentation, and high costs, with room for enhancements in compliance reporting and multi-cloud support.

What are the key features of Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

Integration with Microsoft Services: Seamlessly integrates with Microsoft platforms for streamlined operations.
Multi-Cloud Capability: Supports various cloud environments for broader coverage.
AI-Driven Threat Detection: Uses AI to identify and counter security threats effectively.
Compliance Features: Offers regulatory compliance tools to ensure adherence to standards.
Unified Visibility: Provides a comprehensive view of security operations for better management.
Endpoint Management: Manages and secures endpoint devices efficiently.
Advanced Threat Protection: Delivers enhanced defense against complex threats.
Vulnerability Management: Identifies and addresses vulnerabilities proactively.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Enhanced Security Posture: Strengthens security across multiple environments.
Unified Threat Intelligence: Centralizes threat data for informed decision-making.
Automated Processes: Streamlines security operations with automated workflows.
Prioritized Remediation: Offers prioritized actions to address security challenges efficiently.

Industries leverage Microsoft Defender for Cloud for security posture management and endpoint protection. Many companies integrate it with Office 365 for enhanced functionality. It provides comprehensive security overviews by monitoring cloud vulnerabilities, limiting unauthorized access, and replacing existing tools with its extensive capabilities from network security to compliance checks, securing Azure infrastructure, and enhancing client security.

Microsoft Purview Audit offers streamlined, user-friendly solutions for managing Microsoft 365 environments. It excels in security incident log management, privileged access control, and simplifying data access adjustments with integration between AD and Azure AD.

Key functionalities of Microsoft Purview Audit include capabilities tailored to monitor environment health, compliance, and security management within Active Directory and Microsoft ecosystems. Users can efficiently manage roles, access controls, and data retention protocols, making it a valuable resource for strategically-driven organizations with legal requirements. While the integration with Dataverse enhances its utility, user challenges arise due to complexity in certain aspects such as litigation holds and accessing hidden folder data. Additionally, users have reported issues with the precision of customization and compliance documentation, particularly when handling alerts and eDiscovery functions. Despite these challenges, Purview Audit remains a leading tool within the Microsoft suite for managing log retrieval and security oversight.

What are the key features of Microsoft Purview Audit?

User-friendly Dashboards: Easily track the health of Microsoft 365 environments.
Privileged Access Management: Efficiently manage and secure access to critical resources.
Log Management: Gain insights into security incidents through comprehensive log management.
Rules-based Access Control: Implement strict access protocols tailored to organizational frameworks.
Role-based Delegation: Streamline role delegation while adhering to security policies.
Zero Trust Security: Enhance security with a zero trust model for data protection.

What benefits should users look for?

Data Retention: Meet legal and compliance needs efficiently.
Easy Configuration: Simplify setup processes for quick implementation.
Seamless AD to Azure AD Migration: Transition effortlessly between directory services.
Detailed Audit Capabilities: Understand, monitor, and review security actions easily.

In industries with stringent data governance and compliance mandates, Microsoft Purview Audit is utilized to ensure a robust security posture. Users engage it for monitoring compliance within financial services, healthcare, and other sectors where data privacy is paramount. With its SaaS-based integration in Microsoft environments, organizations access refined log data leveraging platforms like Power Platform Admin Center, ensuring comprehensive oversight and operational efficiency.

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.

Information Not Available