Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management comparison

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management

July 2025

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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

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (7th), Container Management (8th), Container Security (7th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (1st), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (5th), Compliance Management (5th)

Microsoft Purview Insider R...

Ranking in Microsoft Security Suite

29th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Insider Risk Management (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Microsoft Security Suite category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 6.1%, down from 9.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management is 1.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Microsoft Security Suite

Featured Reviews

Vibhor Goel

Senior Cloud Platform Engineer at Deutsche Börse

A single tool for complete visibility and addressing security gaps

Currently, issues are structured in Microsoft Defender for Cloud at severity levels of high, critical, or warning, but these severity levels are not always right. For example, Microsoft might consider a port being open as critical, but that might not be the case for our company. Similarly, it might suggest closing some management ports, but you might need them to be able to log in, so the severity levels for certain things can be improved. Even though Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides a way to temporarily disable certain alerts or notifications without affecting our security score, it would be better to have more granularized control over these recommendations. Currently, we cannot even disable certain alerts or notifications. There should be an automated mechanism to design Azure policies based on the recommendations, possibly with AI integration. Instead of an engineer having to write a policy to fix security gaps, which is very time-consuming, there should be an inbuilt capability to auto-remediate everything and have proper control in place. Additionally, enabling Defender for Cloud at the resource group level, rather than only at the subscription level, would be beneficial.

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PaulRosales

Manager, Information Technology Security Compliance at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees

Insightful detection and prevention of data loss mitigates legal risks and reduces potential lawsuits

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management was helpful in performing investigations after alerts were received. I was able to quickly identify the source of issues, which was valuable for data loss prevention. Additionally, it has saved us money on lawsuits and the loss of important confidential information that could lead to legal issues.

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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 tool's most valuable feature is its support for cloud-native services like Kubernetes, containers, managed storage, and databases. Protecting these without Microsoft Defender for Cloud would be extremely challenging. For threat protection specifically, I find the signature-based detection and heuristic detection features very effective."

"With respect to improving our security posture, it helps us to understand where we are in terms of compliance. We can easily know when we are below the standard because of the scores it calculates."

"We can create alerts that trigger if there is any malicious activity happening in the workflow and these alerts can be retrieved using the query language."

"I find Microsoft Defender for Cloud's KQL very flexible and powerful. It's really easy to search through with KQL queries to find the security breaches and incidents and to track down the breach itself."

"It takes very little effort to integrate it. It also gives very good visibility into what exactly is happening."

"Good compliance policies."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud has significantly enhanced our overall security posture by approximately 20 to 25 percent."

"The most valuable feature is the hunting feature, which integrates well into the entire Microsoft ecosystem."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

"The best thing about Purview is that it's easy to integrate with our day-to-day environment. We have Active Directory, and Word and Excel. Using a third-party vendor and trying to integrate with our existing environment would be much more challenging."

"Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management was helpful in performing investigations after alerts were received."

"Insider Risk Management's graphing is highly specific and useful. You can see the last six months of data for the Microsoft tenant. You can easily find what you need. For example, you can filter for alerts about devices, emails, etc."

Cons

"Defender could improve how data is represented. It can be unstructured or slow to load. The recent update allowing policy grouping into control groups is beneficial, but further enhancements for speed and clarity are needed."

"The range of workloads is broad, but we'd love to add more workloads and make it a single security solution that covers all those workloads."

"Consistency is the area where the most improvement is needed. For example, there are some areas where the UI is not uniform across the board."

"Another thing that could be improved was that they could recommend processes on how to react to alerts, or recommend best practices based on how other organizations do things if they receive an alert about XYZ."

"The product's advanced analytics and reporting features could be improved."

"The product was a bit complex to set up earlier, however, it is a bit streamlined now."

"The solution is quite complex. A lot of the different policies that actually get applied don't pertain to every client. If you need to have something open for a client application to work, then you get dinged for having a port open or having an older version of TLS available."

"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."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud cons

"For certain things, you need to install an agent. I understand it's for integrity, but if there could be a clientless solution for certain aspects, it would make life easier."

"The reporting capabilities sometimes leave a little to be desired. It could be improved in terms of producing reports to provide information to the C-suite or others."

"The user interface also isn't user-friendly. When we introduce Insider Risk Management to our clients, they often find it difficult to understand. There is too much information, and the UI is not scalable. Also, entry-level IT technicians are not always interested in learning something new. It should be clearer and easier to understand."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Security Center charges $15 per resource for any workload that you onboard into it. They charge per VM or per data-base server or per application. It's not like Microsoft 365 licensing, where there are levels like E3 and E5. Security Center is pretty straightforward."

"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 only use the free tier, so we haven't faced any pricing, setup costs, or licensing challenges."

"Azure Defender is definitely pricey, but their competitors cost about the same. For example, a Palo Alto solution is the same price per endpoint, but the ground strikes cost a bit more than Azure Defender. Still, it's pricey for a company like ours. Maybe well-established organizations can afford it, but it might be too costly for a startup."

"I am not involved in this area. However, I believe its price is okay because even small customers are using Azure Security Center. I don't think it is very expensive."

"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."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is pricey, especially for Kubernetes clusters."

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

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

35%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Cloud?

The entire Defender Suite is tightly coupled, integrated, and collaborative.

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

The pricing is pretty standard.

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management?

The reporting capabilities sometimes leave a little to be desired. It could be improved in terms of producing reports to provide information to the C-suite or others.

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management?

The primary use case for Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management was data loss prevention. This was my main objective.

What advice do you have for others considering Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management?

I would recommend Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management to others. I would rate the overall solution as a nine.

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Product Reports

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

August 2025

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud product report

Download Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management product report

Insider Risk Management

August 2025

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management report

Also Known As

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

Microsoft Insider Risk Management

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Overview

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive security solution that provides advanced threat protection for cloud workloads. It offers real-time visibility into the security posture of cloud environments, enabling organizations to quickly identify and respond to potential threats. With its advanced machine learning capabilities, Microsoft Defender for Cloud can detect and block sophisticated attacks, including zero-day exploits and fileless malware.

The solution also provides automated remediation capabilities, allowing security teams to quickly and easily respond to security incidents. With Microsoft Defender for Cloud, organizations can ensure the security and compliance of their cloud workloads, while reducing the burden on their security teams.

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management is used to identify and mitigate internal threats, monitor risky activities, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards, tracking confidential information, detecting unusual behavior, and managing data protection.

Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management provides actionable insights and automates risk management processes to enhance security and safeguard sensitive data. Users benefit from its ability to detect insider threats early and appreciate its comprehensive auditing capabilities and customizable risk indicators. It seamlessly integrates with existing systems, allowing for easy policy configuration and leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms. Users find the real-time alerts to enhance security monitoring and proactive risk mitigation. Its detailed incident reporting and efficient data protection are frequently commended.

What are the key features of Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management?

Early Detection: Identifies insider threats at an early stage.
Comprehensive Auditing: Offers extensive auditing capabilities for thorough investigation.
Customizable Risk Indicators: Allows for tailoring risk indicators to specific needs.
Seamless Integration: Integrates effortlessly with existing systems.
Easy Policy Configuration: Simplifies the setup of security policies.
Advanced Machine Learning: Utilizes sophisticated algorithms for better threat detection.
Real-time Alerts: Provides instant notifications to enhance monitoring.
Detailed Incident Reporting: Generates comprehensive reports on incidents.
Efficient Data Protection: Ensures confidential information is secure.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Enhanced Security: Improved threat detection and mitigation.
Actionable Insights: Helps in making informed security decisions.
Automated Processes: Reduces manual effort in risk management.
Compliance Assurance: Ensures adherence to regulatory standards.

In industries such as finance, healthcare, and legal, Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management is implemented to secure client data, ensure regulatory compliance, and proactively mitigate internal threats. Organizations leverage its real-time alerts, advanced machine learning capabilities, and detailed reporting to maintain stringent security standards in highly regulated environments.

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available