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Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security enhances detection, reduces incident response time, and saves over 30% in costs and resources.
Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Defender for Cloud boosts productivity, enhances security, and integrates seamlessly, offering cost-efficiency and significant return on investment.
Sentiment score
7.2
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange offers high ROI, enhancing security and productivity, reducing costs, and improving remote user experience significantly.
The detailed information PingSafe gives about how to fix vulnerabilities reduces the time spent on remediation by about 70 to 80 percent.
Security and Compliance Manager at Bidgely
After implementing SentinelOne, it takes about five to seven minutes.
Cloud engineer at a construction company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Our ability to get in and review our vulnerability stance, whether daily, monthly, weekly, or whatever it might be, has drastically improved over our prior provider.
IT Support Specialist at a non-tech company with 201-500 employees
Defender proactively indexes and analyzes documents, identifying potential threats even when inactive, enhancing preventative security.
Endpoint management at a government with 10,001+ employees
Identifying potential vulnerabilities has helped us avoid costly data losses.
Manager at CBTS
Compared to not having Microsoft Defender for Cloud in place, we definitely saw an advantage by not having downtime due to a security threat.
Principal Microsoft Consultant at MicroAge
When I see that I am trying to cut costs, for example, even when replacing Prisma, we have managed to save about over half a million dollars a year.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
In terms of time savings, since users no longer manually connect to the VPN, access became seamless, improving user productivity, especially for remote users.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
We don't have to purchase many components such as load balancers and proxy servers that were necessary in traditional setups.
Lead Engineer at FIS Global
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.8
SentinelOne's customer service is praised for expertise and responsiveness, with improved satisfaction post-acquisition despite occasional support variability.
Sentiment score
6.2
Microsoft Defender for Cloud offers efficient premium support, but standard support's responsiveness varies, with comprehensive documentation often assisting users.
Sentiment score
4.9
Zscaler's customer service is professional and knowledgeable, but complex issues can cause delays, affecting global user ratings.
When we send an email, they respond quickly and proactively provide solutions.
Security and Compliance Manager at Bidgely
They took direct responsibility for the system and could solve queries quickly.
Senior DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Having a reliable team ready and willing to assist with any issues is essential.
Director, DevOps at Relay Network
Since security is critical, we prefer a quicker response time.
Manager at CBTS
The support team was very responsive to queries.
Programme Manager- Cyber Fusion- Group CISO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
They understand their product, but much like us, they struggle with the finer details, especially with new features.
Endpoint management at a government with 10,001+ employees
The support engineers are technically knowledgeable, particularly for Zscaler Private Access related issues, providing clear guidance and documentation for troubleshooting.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Sometimes, support takes time since the solution has some bugs that need fixing.
architect at Tata Consultancy
They have provided the numbers and contact supports, and it is almost immediate.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security offers scalable solutions, seamlessly integrating with systems and efficiently supporting dynamic and growing environments.
Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Defender for Cloud adapts and scales efficiently with diverse organizational needs, integrating seamlessly across various cloud services.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform's cloud-native architecture enables scalable, efficient, and seamless expansion for diverse enterprises with minimal hardware changes.
I would rate the scalability of PingSafe 10 out of 10.
Sr DevOps Engineer at a media company with 51-200 employees
The SentinelOne Singularity Cloud exhibits high scalability.
Security Analyst at Intersistemi Italia s.p.a.
We've automated in our MDM so any device that we start in our MDM automatically installs SentinelOne.
IT Support Specialist at a non-tech company with 201-500 employees
As we have reduced our on-premises infrastructure, it is about how we can migrate workloads to the cloud to make it easier, and then having everything fully encompassed and secured within that area makes it much easier for us to scale as needed and grow.
Principal Microsoft Consultant at MicroAge
We are using infrastructure as a code, so we do not have any scalability issues with Microsoft Defender for Cloud implementation because our cloud automatically does it.
Senior Cloud Platform Engineer at Deutsche Börse
It has multiple licenses and features, covering infrastructures from a hundred to five hundred virtual machines, without any issues.
Snr. Infrastructure Architect (Data Centre) at LogicEra
The only limitation I was mentioning is that it was unable to identify the sources of vulnerability, which they are going to embed by the mid of this year.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is highly scalable, primarily because it is built on a cloud-native, globally distributed architecture.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
SentinelOne Singularity is praised for reliability and stability, despite occasional UI glitches and communication delays.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is stable and reliable, with minimal issues and high stability ratings, despite occasional performance hiccups.
Sentiment score
7.8
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform offers high reliability and availability with minimal downtime, ensuring effective performance for enterprises.
SentinelOne Singularity Cloud is incredibly reliable.
Security Analyst at Intersistemi Italia s.p.a.
The only downtime we had was when switching from V1 to V2 but it was smooth.
Cloud Security Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate it a ten out of ten for stability.
Sr security engineer at Halodoc
Defender's stability has been flawless for us.
Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
I have not experienced any crashes or downtime.
Head Of IT at Cirrus Response
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is very stable.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is very stable, especially in enterprise environments.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is very stable.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
 

Room For Improvement

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud needs better integration, enhanced functionality, improved user interface, and cost-effective, stable solutions with comprehensive support.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud needs better integration, customization, automation, support, pricing, interoperability, analytics, legacy support, threat detection, and AI integration.
Zscaler's Zero Trust Platform faces cost, latency, and control issues, with users seeking better integration, support, and scalability.
I would also like to see Cloud Native Security offer APIs that allow us to directly build dashboards within the platform.
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Detection should be in near real-time.
Solution Cloud Architect at a insurance company with 501-1,000 employees
If notifications are available, then it will be more helpful, easy, and time-saving.
Sr Security Analyst at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Microsoft, in general, could significantly improve its communication and support.
Endpoint management at a government with 10,001+ employees
It would be beneficial to streamline recommendations to avoid unnecessary alerts and to refine the severity of alerts based on specific environments or environmental attributes.
Works at Coca-Cola HBC
The artificial intelligence features could be expanded to allow the system to autonomously manage security issues without needing intervention from admins.
Cloud Consultant at i-Community AG
It would be beneficial to have more granular centralized visibility, allowing for quick end-to-end tracing of a user request from authentication to application access without switching between multiple views.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform probably needs to be more efficient because scanning takes a lot of time.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
They might be able to identify if something is missing with Zscaler.
architect at Tata Consultancy
 

Setup Cost

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security provides flexible, modular pricing that is competitive and valued by enterprises for cloud security solutions.
Opinions on Microsoft Defender for Cloud pricing vary; it's seen as competitive yet costly, especially for complex workloads like Kubernetes.
Zscaler Zero Trust pricing varies, with flexible customization options and potential savings offsetting initial high costs for larger organizations.
With very little negotiation involved, we just let them know what we could pay and they were willing to meet us at slightly above what we paid with Sophos, which was still very fair for what we were looking at.
IT Support Specialist at a non-tech company with 201-500 employees
I recall Cloud Native Security charging a slightly higher premium previously.
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
This would have been a poor return on investment, especially considering Wiz's high cost.
Lead Data & Cloud Security Engineer at a media company with 501-1,000 employees
Security has essentially no cost when compared to the cost of a breach.
Director, Cloud and Modern Workplace at Informanix Technology Group
Every time we consider expanding usage, we carefully evaluate the necessity due to cost concerns.
Programme Manager- Cyber Fusion- Group CISO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We appreciate the licensing approach based on employee count rather than a big enterprise license.
Manager, Microsoft Technology Alliance at Silverfort
There is minimal setup cost since it is a cloud-delivered platform, eliminating the need to invest in additional hardware such as VPN gateways or maintain infrastructure.
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform is much, much cheaper when comparing price.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
 

Valuable Features

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud offers AI-driven threat detection, intuitive interface, seamless integration, automated remediation, and enhanced security management.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud enhances security with AI-driven threat detection, seamless Azure integration, and comprehensive compliance management.
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform enhances security and user experience with seamless connectivity, scalability, and robust control features.
This tool has been helpful for us. It allows us to search for vulnerabilities and provides evidence directly on the screen.
Cloud Security Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Cloud Native Security's cloud SIEM feature has been essential in preventing our most critical security incidents.
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The cloud misconfiguration feature gave us almost zero false positives.
Sr security engineer at Halodoc
The most valuable feature for me is the variety of APIs available.
Programme Manager- Cyber Fusion- Group CISO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
This feature significantly aids in threat detection and enhances the user experience by streamlining security management.
Cloud Consultant at i-Community AG
The most valuable feature is the recommendations provided on how to improve security.
Cloud architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution is cloud-based with the latest inspection engines, which I find to be amazing.
architect at Tata Consultancy
We have excellent account management, smooth marketplace engagement, and processing in how my team or organization uses Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform.
Manager, Software Development at a outsourcing company with 201-500 employees
Since we started using Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform, it has auto-configuration, and wherever we have deployed the auto-configuration, we have not encountered any problem.
Cybersecurity Senior Program Manager at Dayforce
 

Categories and Ranking

SentinelOne Singularity Clo...
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Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
118
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (4th), Cloud and Data Center Security (3rd), Container Security (3rd), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (4th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (3rd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (3rd), Compliance Management (1st), AI Observability (2nd)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
89
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (6th), Container Management (7th), Container Security (6th), 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), Microsoft Security Suite (7th), Compliance Management (4th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (3rd)
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
67
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (6th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (8th), Application Control (5th), ZTNA as a Service (1st), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (2nd), Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Defender for Cloud15.1%
AWS GuardDuty12.5%
Wiz10.7%
Other61.7%
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform9.1%
Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks10.8%
Cato SASE Cloud Platform9.4%
Other70.7%
Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)
 

Featured Reviews

SC
Information Security Engineer at DataVigilant Infotech
Enables us to prioritize and effectively address critical security issues
Evidence-based reporting helps us to prioritize and solve critical security issues. The new visualization feature demonstrates how an attacker can enter the system, highlighting the potential path that can be exploited and outlining all the steps the attacker could take. With that visibility, we can ensure the perimeter is strong and attackers cannot enter, thus reducing the risk. It has helped us prioritize issues. The visibility into how an attack could happen is valuable. For example, it highlights the system vulnerability and outlines where an attack could propagate. The visualization helps me to prioritize remediation, and if I don't know where to start, I can check to see the score that enables me to prioritize issues. I am using infrastructure-as-code scanning, and it's one of the useful features. In pre-production, it identifies embedded secrets and misconfigurations, including issues with Kubernetes or some privileged containers. This feature allows us to pass the audit and secure IaC code so that it isn't easily exploitable by attackers. We can more proactively work to identify and resolve vulnerabilities by using the dashboard and the alerting system that SentinelOne provides. It helps us with audits and compliance. We can show the compliance in percentage. We can confidently say that our company or infrastructure is very secure. It has improved our security posture by 30% to 35%. It has reduced our false positives by 30%. It has helped teams collaborate better. The security team manages SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security, and when it flags vulnerabilities, they are forwarded to DevOps for remediation. Previously, we needed to identify and report the issues, but there would be lapses in communication. Now, there is a centralized dashboard that anyone can look at and see the open issues and work on them.
RW
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.
Vibin Thomas - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead, Technical Content Security at Valuepoint Systems
Zero trust access has transformed remote connectivity and now simplifies secure app usage
Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform, especially Zscaler Private Access, is very strong, though there are a few areas where improvements can be made. One challenge observed is around initial troubleshooting and visibility. While Zscaler Private Access provides logs, it can sometimes take time to pinpoint the exact cause of access issues, especially in complex environments with multiple policies and identity integration. Another area is the dependency on identity and connector health. Since Zscaler Private Access is heavily reliant on app connectors and identity providers, any issues with these components can impact user access, making proper monitoring critical. During the initial setup, policy configuration and application onboarding require careful planning, especially for larger environments with many applications. These challenges are manageable with proper design and monitoring. Overall, the platform delivers strong security and user experience. I would recommend a few improvements, especially around user interface, reporting, and troubleshooting experience. From a user interface perspective, while the platform is powerful, the policy configuration and navigation can feel complex, especially for new users. A more simplified and intuitive layout for policy mapping and application access would help reduce the learning curve. In terms of reporting, Zscaler Private Access provides logs, but having more built-in customizable dashboards and analytics would be very helpful. Better visibility into user access patterns, application performance, and real-time troubleshooting insights would improve operational efficiency. From a support and troubleshooting standpoint, it would be beneficial to have more granular centralized visibility, allowing for quick end-to-end tracing of a user request from authentication to application access without switching between multiple views. These improvements would make the platform even more efficient, especially for large-scale enterprise environments.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business49
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise55
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise49
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise44
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about PingSafe?
The dashboard gives me an overview of all the things happening in the product, making it one of the tool's best featu...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PingSafe?
Regarding the pricing for SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security, I do not think it is something I can compare.
What needs improvement with PingSafe?
I do not see room for improvement in SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security. In the future, I would like to see the i...
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 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 an...
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 inges...
What is the better solution - Prisma Access or Zscaler Private Access?
We looked into Prisma Access before choosing Zscaler Private Access (ZPA). Palo Alto’s Prisma Access is a secure ac...
What needs improvement with Zscaler SASE?
The solution needs to improve a lot of aspects.
What is your primary use case for Zscaler SASE?
We are using Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange for its Zscaler Internet Access service. It provides web security, DLP, data...
 

Also Known As

PingSafe
Microsoft Azure Security Center, Azure Security Center, Microsoft ASC, Azure Defender
Zscaler SASE, Zscaler DLP, Zscaler CASB, Zscaler CSPM, Zscaler Browser Isolation, Zscaler Posture Control
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is trusted by companies such as ASOS, Vatenfall, SWC Technology Partners, and more.
Siemens, AutoNation, GE, NOV
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs. Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange Platform and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
886,077 professionals have used our research since 2012.