Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Sophos Cloud Optix comparison

Palo Alto Networks and Sophos are both solutions in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category. Palo Alto Networks is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5, while Sophos is ranked #31 with an average rating of 7.0. Palo Alto Networks holds a 11.4% mindshare in CSPM, compared to Sophos’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Palo Alto Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Read 111 Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks reviews

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13,576 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Sophos Cloud Optix

Read 4 Sophos Cloud Optix reviews

451 Views
437 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Sophos Cloud Optix

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2025

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks and Sophos Cloud Optix are competitors in cloud security. Users see Prisma Cloud as having the upper hand in integration and comprehensive security, while Sophos Cloud Optix excels with its threat intelligence and user-friendly management features.

Features: Prisma Cloud offers extensive threat detection, continuous monitoring, and seamless integration in cloud environments. Sophos Cloud Optix provides advanced automated compliance, security analytics, and unified visibility.

Room for Improvement: Prisma Cloud could enhance its user interface for greater intuitiveness, improve alert management for better prioritization, and incorporate more detailed reporting features. Sophos Cloud Optix could benefit from expanding integration capabilities, enhancing scalability for larger deployments, and providing more customization options for users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Prisma Cloud is known for its streamlined deployment process and robust customer support, which includes strong integration capabilities. Sophos Cloud Optix offers straightforward setup with excellent customer assistance and detailed onboarding guides, making it user-friendly.

Pricing and ROI: Prisma Cloud involves higher setup costs initially but promises long-term ROI through extensive security features. Sophos Cloud Optix is competitively priced, offering quicker returns with its efficient and rapid deployment model, making it a cost-effective option for many organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Sophos Cloud Optix Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Sophos Cloud Optix

September 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

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto N...

Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

111

Ranking in other categories

Web Application Firewall (WAF) (8th), Container Security (1st), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (2nd), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (2nd)

Sophos Cloud Optix

Ranking in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

31st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) category, the mindshare of Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks is 11.4%, down from 17.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Cloud Optix is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks	11.4%
Sophos Cloud Optix	0.5%
Other	88.1%

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

Featured Reviews

Harsh_Vardhan

Cloud security architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Provides visibility and control that our customers need

Different modules are valuable for different customers. We are leveraging CSPM. It is one of the best solutions for comprehensive visibility into cloud resource configurations and compliance. It has a lot of out-of-the-box policies, and the visibility that we are getting is impressive. The DSPM module is valuable. This is the latest one that Palo Alto procured from Dig Security. No competitor provides this functionality in a single pane of glass. The support for Linux and container security is also very good. That is the beauty of Prisma Cloud. However, in terms of Windows security, Prisma Cloud is lacking because currently, there is no runtime protection available. The UI is very good. We get all the things within a single UI. It is easy to use. A new user can easily understand it. It is very user-friendly.

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Jean Desir

Sr Network Engineer at Raptor Trading

DLP is a valuable feature that we use a lot for info audits.

The dashboard and the process for applying policies could be more intuitive. Cloud Optix isn't that difficult once you get the hang of it, but the IT folks managing this want it to be more user-friendly. Deploying the agents could be more seamless, too. Ideally, Cloud Optix would automate adding agents into your environment by integrating with Active Directory or some policy.

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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

"Prisma was extremely comprehensive. It's easy to drill down to gather more information and keep going. It seemed like you could drill down forever to see what the vulnerability was linked to."

"The ability to monitor the artifact repository is one of the most valuable features because we have a disparate set of development processes, but everything tends to land in a common set of artifact repositories. The solution gives us a single point where we can apply security control for monitoring. That's really helpful."

"Prisma Cloud's most important feature is its auto-remediation."

"I like Palo Alto's threat protection and Wi-Fi coverage. It has advanced features like DNS security and sandboxing. The automation capabilities are excellent."

"The solution gives us a lot of visibility across all of our cloud solutions."

"The policies that come prepackaged in the tool have been very valuable to us. They're accurate and they provide good guidance as to why the policy was created, as well as how to remediate anything that violates the policy."

"What I like most about Prisma Cloud is its zero-day signatures, maximum security, minimal downtime, cloud visibility, control, and ease of deployment."

"One feature we like is the amount of data Prisma gives us. Some infrastructure and platform vulnerabilities that in the cloud are hard to detect, and we were unaware of some of these. It's critical to shed light on these. For example, you create virtual machines and forget about them, but when you revisit them, some vulnerabilities may be detected."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pros

"I find Cloud Optix to be a valuable solution since it provides a single, unified dashboard to monitor cloud assets, such as AWS and Azure."

"The most valuable feature for me would be the solution's endpoint protection."

"I find Cloud Optix to be a valuable solution since it provides a single, unified dashboard to monitor cloud assets, such as AWS and Azure."

"DLP is a valuable feature that we use a lot for info audits."

"The most valuable feature of Sophos Cloud Optix is the simple way to manage my devices on the network. Additionally, it is easy to navigate and has a user-friendly interface."

Cons

"It's not really on par with, or catering to, what other products are looking at in terms of SAST and DAST capabilities. For those, you'd probably go to the market and look at something like Veracode or WhiteHat."

"There are hundreds of built-in policies for AWS and Azure, but GCP and Oracle are not covered as much as AWS. There is a lot of work to do on that part. There is, obviously, a tiny bit of favoritism towards AWS because it has the most market share."

"The UI could be improved."

"The feedback that we have given to the Palo Alto team is that the UI can be improved. When you press the "back" button on your browser from the Investigate tab, the query that you're working on just disappears. It won't keep the query on the "back" button."

"They charge seven workloads for monitoring one compute, and that is quite expensive. This makes it difficult to move fully with the compute part because of the workload."

"I believe there are some issues with the product's maturity. In some cases, it could malfunction concerning Cloud Native."

"The pricing for the solution needs improvement."

"While the documentation continually improves, it still has limitations compared to the extensive resources available for older products like hardware firewalls, which have been around for approximately 20 years."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks cons

"The dashboard and the process for applying policies could be more intuitive. Cloud Optix isn't that difficult once you get the hang of it, but the IT folks managing this want it to be more user-friendly."

"The setup was a little bit complex."

"There are times when the devices are at maximum capacity, and it takes a while before the device is updated. For example, if the device has a virus, and it's not aligned to connect to the network, even after you've scanned the device, and cleaned out the virus, once the management clears the system to allow it back on the network it takes some time. It can be frustrating when you have your line manager or in management affected trying to access the network."

"Sophos should enhance its AI-driven detection features and anomaly detection."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The Prisma Cloud pricing is good."

"Prisma Cloud is a high-end enterprise solution, making it quite expensive."

"Almost all the CSPM tools are pretty expensive."

"Regarding Prisma Cloud's pricing, we started small, and then we just kept on growing."

"If you pay for three years of Palo Alto, it's better. If you're planning on doing this, it's obviously not going to be for one year, so it's better if you go with a three-year license... The only challenge we have is with the public cloud vendor pricing. The biggest lesson I have learned is around the issues related to pricing for public cloud. So when you are doing your segmentation and design, it is extremely important that you work with someone who knows and understands what kinds of needs you will have in the future and how what you are doing will affect you in terms of costs."

"The pricing and licensing are expensive compared to the other offerings that we considered."

"Although the cost can be high, the value is worth the price tag."

"The pricing structure is easy to understand. Depending on the use case the pricing of the solution can be different. There are not any additional costs to the standard living fees."

More Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks pricing and cost advice

"Regarding the pricing for Sophos Cloud Optix, I would say that it was a very good price."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Insurance Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	58

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks?

Prisma Cloud helps support DevSecOps methodologies, making those responsibilities easier to manage.

See all answers

What Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform do you recommend?

We like Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks, since it offers us incredible visibility into our entire cloud system. We are able to easily see where our container vulnerabilities lie and and where cl...

See all answers

What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?

Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sophos Cloud Optix?

Sophos should enhance its AI-driven detection features and anomaly detection. The solution focuses on cloud security posture management. Fortinet, having acquired Lacework, seems to be a step ahead...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Sophos Cloud Optix?

One primary use case for Sophos Cloud Optix is cloud visibility. I use it for compliance requirements and improving end user experience. The solution provides a unified dashboard for multi-cloud en...

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What advice do you have for others considering Sophos Cloud Optix?

I rate Sophos Cloud Optix seven out of ten overall. I recommend it for any size of company, considering their current ecosystem and workload. It's particularly suited for those in a Sophos ecosyste...

See all answers

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Compared 22% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks

September 2025

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks report

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Buyer's Guide

Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM)

October 2025

Download Sophos Cloud Optix product report

Also Known As

Prisma Public Cloud, RedLock Cloud 360, RedLock, Twistlock, Aporeto

No data available

Overview

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks provides comprehensive cloud-native security solutions. It covers dynamic workload identity, automated forensics, and multi-cloud protection, ensuring robust security across diverse cloud platforms.

Prisma Cloud delivers advanced capabilities for managing cloud security across AWS, Azure, and GCP platforms. It offers dynamic workload identity creation, real-time monitoring, and seamless integration into CI/CD pipelines. With automation, centralized dashboards, and enhanced visibility, users effectively manage security misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. While optimizing cloud environments through runtime protection and compliance, Prisma Cloud faces challenges with its navigation, pricing, and limited automation capabilities. Users seek improvements in API security, role-based access controls, and documentation quality, emphasizing the need for enhanced customization and reporting features.

What are the important features of Prisma Cloud?

Dynamic Workload Identity: Enables unique workload identities for security purposes.
Automated Forensics: Offers detailed insights into threats and incidents automatically.
Runtime Protection: Provides ongoing detection and blocking of suspicious activities.
Multi-Cloud Security: Protects environments on AWS, Azure, and GCP simultaneously.
Compliance Management: Assists in meeting regulatory standards across cloud platforms.

What benefits or ROI should users consider in reviews?

Enhanced Security Posture: Strengthens cloud defense lines with proactive monitoring.
Centralized Dashboard: Offers unified oversight of multiple cloud environments.
Efficient Misconfiguration Handling: Quickly identifies and addresses security lapses.
Seamless CI/CD Integration: Integrates security within development workflows.
Improved Visibility: Provides transparent insights into security operations and alerts.

Industries like finance and telecom rely on Prisma Cloud for managing cloud security posture and container security. Teams utilize its capabilities across hybrid and multi-cloud settings to ensure compliance and robust threat protection. Features like misconfiguration detection and runtime monitoring are critical in promoting security objectives in these sectors.

Palo Alto Networks

Easily identify cloud resource vulnerabilities, ensure compliance, and respond to threats faster.

Sophos

Sample Customers

Amgen, Genpact, Western Asset, Zipongo, Proofpoint, NerdWallet, Axfood, 21st Century Fox, Veeva Systems, Reinsurance Group of America

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs. Sophos Cloud Optix

September 2025

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