Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs The NodeZero Platform comparison

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. The NodeZero Platform

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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

Zafran Security

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Zafran Security is 0.9%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Cloud is 5.5%, up from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of The NodeZero Platform is 1.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini

Associate Director IT Security Operations at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Weekly insights and risk analysis facilitate informed security decisions

I appreciate the weekly insights Zafran provides, which include critical topics for networks and IT security, allowing us to evaluate which insights apply to our environment. The organization score feature is valuable to keep the leadership team updated on how our infrastructure fares security-wise. The applicable risk level versus base risk level feature is beneficial because prior to Zafran, we only used the base risk level, but now understand that risk depends on the asset itself. Zafran is an excellent tool.

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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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Andi Heckel

CEO at cybovate

Deploying autonomous security tools improves network protection and efficiency

One of the areas where improvement is needed is in the visibility and reporting for large enterprises. The existing GUI or NodeZero insights provide better visibility, but there's still room for enhancement. Moreover, there is a need to automate interactions with other systems, particularly in triggering or opening tickets in ServiceNow ( /products/servicenow-reviews ). Adding the application layer would also be valuable for clients.

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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

"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."

"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."

"One of the features that I like about the solution is it is both a hybrid cloud and also multi-cloud. We never know what company we're going to buy, and therefore we are ready to go. If they have GCP or AWS, we have support for that as well. It offers a single-panel blast across multiple clouds."

"The security policy is the most valuable feature for us. We can go into the environment settings and attach any globally recognized framework like ISO or any benchmark."

"Defender for Cloud has improved our security posture."

"Microsoft Defender for Cloud is stable and reliable as advertised."

"The valuable features include the ability to manage devices and the fact that Defender can replace other security tools like SCCM."

"Scalability is great, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"The integration with Logic Apps allows for automated responses to incidents."

"The most valuable features are the monitoring of users, endpoint detection and response, and the adaptability of the AI threat intelligence engine, which quickly adapts to customizations."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pros

"I rate the stability of the NodeZero Platform a ten out of ten."

"Overall, I'd rate NodeZero at nine to 9.5 out of ten."

"Penetration testing and scans are useful features."

Cons

"Initially, we were somewhat concerned about the scalability of Zafran due to our large asset count and the substantial amount of information we needed to process."

"The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvements."

"I think the ability to have some enhanced reporting capabilities is something they can improve on, as they have good reports but we have asked for some specific reporting enhancements."

"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."

"Most of the time, when we log into the support, we don't get a chance to interact with Microsoft employees directly, except having it go to outsource employees of Microsoft. The initial interaction has not been that great because outsourced companies cannot provide the kind of quality or technical expertise that we look for. We have a technical manager from Microsoft, but they are kind of average unless we make noise and ask them to escalate. We then can get the right people and the right solution, but it definitely takes time."

"Azure Security Center takes a long time to update, compared to the on-premises version of Microsoft Defender."

"Microsoft can improve the pricing by offering a plan that is more cost-effective for small and medium organizations."

"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."

"However, some Copilot features aren't available in the GCP environment. This is something we hope will be addressed in the future."

"Defender is occasionally unreliable. It isn't 100% efficient in terms of antivirus detection, but it isn't an issue most of the time. It's also somewhat difficult to train new security analysts to use Defender."

"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

"The reports are quite useless."

"One of the areas where improvement is needed is in the visibility and reporting for large enterprises."

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The price of the solution is good for the features we receive and there is an additional cost for Microsoft premier support. However, some of my potential customers have found it to be expensive and have gone on to choose another solution."

"Microsoft's licensing and pricing are sometimes complicated. If someone is new to Microsoft's licensing, they might have difficulty with it."

"The licensing is straightforward but can become expensive if you cover everything. You must balance the cost against the importance of what needs covering."

"There is a helpful cost-reducing option that allows you to integrate production subscriptions with non-production subscriptions."

"While we pay for any additional features, the pricing seems competitive, though I am not involved in the specific cost details."

"The product's pricing policy is generally favorable."

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

"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."

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing and cost advice

Information not available

See which vendors are best for you

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864,155 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?

Since we stood Zafran Security up in our private cloud, we handle the maintenance on our side. As we opted not to use...

What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

In terms of areas for improvement, Zafran Security is doing a really great job as a new and emerging company. Oftenti...

What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?

My use cases for Zafran Security revolve around two primary areas. One is around vulnerability management and priorit...

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 acros...

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 do you like most about Horizon3.ai?

Penetration testing and scans are useful features.

What needs improvement with Horizon3.ai?

One of the areas where improvement is needed is in the visibility and reporting for large enterprises. The existing G...

What is your primary use case for Horizon3.ai?

The primary use case for the NodeZero Platform is as an extension to existing vulnerability management systems. Initi...

Wiz Code vs Zafran Security

Comparisons

Compared 39% of the time

Vulcan Cyber vs Zafran Security

Compared 16% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Zafran Security

Compared 9% of the time

ServiceNow Security Operations vs Zafran Security

Compared 8% of the time

Nucleus vs Zafran Security

Compared 7% of the time

More Zafran Security Competitors

AWS GuardDuty vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 23% of the time

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Defender XDR vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 5% of the time

Orca Security vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Defender for Cloud Competitors

Pentera vs The NodeZero Platform

Compared 39% of the time

Tenable Security Center vs The NodeZero Platform

Compared 12% of the time

vPentest vs The NodeZero Platform

Compared 9% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs The NodeZero Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Rapid7 Metasploit vs The NodeZero Platform

Compared 2% of the time

More The NodeZero Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Zafran Security

Download Zafran Security product report

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Download Microsoft Defender for Cloud product report

Vulnerability Management

Download The NodeZero Platform product report

Also Known As

No data available

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

Horizon3.ai

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Zafran Security

Microsoft

Demo not available

Horizon3.ai

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

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

NodeZero Platform empowers businesses with dynamic cybersecurity solutions and innovative threat detection capabilities, enhancing existing security protocols.

NodeZero Platform offers a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity, focusing on real-time threat analysis and risk management. Its advanced features provide users with tools to respond swiftly to threats, ensuring data integrity and security. The platform's intelligent algorithms and user-centric design cater to the needs of informed cybersecurity professionals.

What are the standout features of NodeZero Platform?

Real-time Threat Detection: Allows for immediate identification and neutralization of risks.
Automated Risk Analysis: Simplifies the evaluation of potential threats.
Scalability: Adapts to the growing needs of any organization.
Customizable Alerts: Tailors notifications to specific security requirements.

What benefits can users expect from NodeZero Platform?

Increased Security Efficacy: Enhances threat response times.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces need for extensive manual oversight.
Improved Compliance: Ensures alignment with industry regulations.
Resource Optimization: Allocates cybersecurity focus effectively.

NodeZero Platform's implementation in sectors such as finance and healthcare highlights its versatility and adaptability. Organizations benefit from integrated solutions that address specific industry challenges, providing peace of mind and operational security through advanced threat management and preventative strategies.

Horizon3.ai

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Information Not Available

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. The NodeZero Platform