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Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs SUSE Rancher comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

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 Container Security
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (7th), Container Management (8th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (2nd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (4th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (5th), Microsoft Security Suite (7th), Compliance Management (5th)
SUSE Rancher
Ranking in Container Security
32nd
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Container Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 7.2%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SUSE Rancher is 0.3%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Security
 

Featured Reviews

Vibhor Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Sachin Deorah - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables seamless local Kubernetes development and quick deployment to the cloud
Rancher Desktop provides support for Kubernetes setup on local machines. It allows us to run Kubernetes as per our requirement, and the desktop application offers a good UI. We use Rancher Desktop for local development, testing APIs locally, and it helps to seamlessly publish to the cloud. This makes it a valuable tool for developers.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's quite a good product. It helps to understand the infections and issues you are facing."
"It offers virus management and addresses threats such as viruses, worms, spyware, and other critical security concerns."
"It isn't a highly complex solution. It's something that a lot of analysts can use. Defender gives you a broad overview of what's happening in your environment, and it's a great solution if you're a Microsoft shop."
"Using Security Center, you have a full view, at any given time, of what's deployed, and that is something that is very useful."
"I would rate Microsoft Defender for Cloud a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the vulnerability assessments and the glossary of compliance."
"The main feature is the security posture assessment through the security score. I find that to be very helpful because it gives us guidance on what needs to be secured and recommendations on how to secure the workloads that have been onboarded."
"The most valuable feature is the recommendations provided on how to improve security."
"The most valuable features of SUSE Rancher include the user interface and the display features."
"Rancher Desktop provides support for Kubernetes setup on local machines."
"Rancher Desktop provides support for Kubernetes setup on local machines."
 

Cons

"Defender could improve how data is represented. It can be unstructured or slow to load."
"If they had an easier way to display all the vulnerabilities of the machines affected and remediation steps on one screen rather than having to dive deep into each of them, that would be a lot easier."
"The user interface of Microsoft Defender for Cloud, like many Microsoft portals, undergoes frequent changes and feature relocation."
"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."
"I recommend that they extend the scope for legacy infra assets."
"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."
"Azure's system could be more on point like AWS support. For example, if I have an issue with AWS, I create a support ticket, then I get a call or a message. With Azure support, you raise a ticket, and somebody calls back depending on their availability and the priority, which might not align with your business priority."
"Microsoft Defender could be more centralized. For example, I still need to go to another console to do policy management."
"Some initial setup and configuration were required by the admin side for enabling security policies, which were not supported initially."
"Some initial setup and configuration were required by the admin side for enabling security policies, which were not supported initially."
"Additional features for a paid solution should be included, such as more detailed insights, better graphics, and an improved user interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Its pricing is a little bit high in terms of Azure Security Center, but the good thing is that we don't need to maintain and deploy it. So, while the pricing is high, it is native to Azure which is why we prefer using this tool."
"The licensing cost per server is $15 per month."
"This is a worldwide service and depending on the country, there will be different prices."
"We only use the free tier, so we haven't faced any pricing, setup costs, or licensing challenges."
"Pricing depends on your workload size, but it is very cheap. If you're talking about virtual machines, it is $5 or something for each machine, which is minimal. If you go for some agent-based solution for every virtual machine, then you need to pay the same thing or more than that. For an on-premises solution like this, we were paying around $30 to $50 based on size. With Defender, Microsoft doesn't bother about the size. You pay based on the number of machines. So, if you have 10 virtual machines, and 10 virtual machines are being monitored, you are paying based on that rather than the size of the virtual machine. Thus, you are paying for the number of units rather than paying for the size of your units."
"It has global licensing. It comes with multiple licenses since there are around 50,000 people (in our organization) who look at it."
"The product's pricing policy is generally favorable."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

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 SUSE Rancher?
Rancher is free of cost for us as it is open source. However, there might be costs involved when using Kubernetes on cloud services.
What needs improvement with SUSE Rancher?
I believe additional features for a paid solution should be included, such as more detailed insights, better graphics, and an improved user interface.
What is your primary use case for SUSE Rancher?
My primary use case for SUSE Rancher is managing Kubernetes clusters, allocating them to different users, and monitoring workloads. I manage all cluster-related activities through Rancher.
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. SUSE Rancher and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.