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Cloud-native application protection · September 2026 Edition

Wiz vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Seven of twelve models named Wiz first on the direct prompt; three named Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Both were named by all twelve models and Wiz carries 55 labels and Microsoft Defender for Cloud 47, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Wiz

endorsed leader

Named in six categories this edition.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

endorsed leader

Named in seven categories this edition.

First-choice share46%30%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate18%4%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#2A position in a field of 11; printed, not drawn.
Labels5547A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Wiz reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Orca Security was named alongside these two in ten of the twelve direct answers. Wiz vs Orca Security · Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Orca Security

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the cloud-native application protection page.

By framing

How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
WizFirst choices, of twelve modelsMicrosoft Defender for Cloud
Direct731 against Wiz
Paraphrase121
Comparative80
Budget-constrained1113 against Wiz
Scale-constrained30
Negative106 against Wiz · 2 against Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Wiz and Microsoft Defender for Cloud stood in it.

Both were the first choice

2 of 12 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.
Mistral SmallMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Wiz alternatives: Orca Security, Sysdig Secure
GLM 4.7 FlashXMicrosoft Defender for Cloud, Wiz alternatives: Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Rapid7 InsightCloudSec, SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security, Sysdig

Wiz first, Microsoft Defender for Cloud an alternative

5 of 12 modelsMicrosoft Defender for Cloud was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
GPT-5.4 miniWiz alternatives: Sysdig Secure
Perplexity SonarWiz alternatives: CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud, Sysdig
DeepSeek V4 FlashWiz alternatives: Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
Qwen 3.7 FlashWiz alternatives: Aikido Security, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security
Kimi K2Wiz alternatives: Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Orca Security

Microsoft Defender for Cloud first, Wiz an alternative

1 of 12 modelsWiz was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
MiniMax M2.5Microsoft Defender for Cloud alternatives: Orca Security, Wiz

Neither was the first choice, one was named

2 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Gemini 3.5 FlashOrca Security alternatives: Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Sysdig Secure, Upwind, Wiz
Grok 4.1 FastOrca Security alternatives: Aqua Security, FortiCNAPP, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Sysdig, Wiz

Neither was named

2 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5Orca Security alternatives: Prisma Cloud, Sysdig
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Microsoft Defender for Cloud leads by thirty-eight points.
Microsoft Defender for Cloud46%#1 of 10
Wiz8%#3 of 10
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
The order flips: Wiz leads at mid-market.
Wiz46%#1 of 11
Microsoft Defender for Cloud30%#2 of 11
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Wiz leads by twenty-one points.
Wiz49%#1 of 9
Microsoft Defender for Cloud28%#2 of 9
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Wiz

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of three in this category shown.

“Orca/Wiz | $7K+/mo (small) | Agentless full CNAPP | Avoid for tight budgets” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“Extremely popular, pioneered the agentless graph-based approach, and offers great UX. It is incredibly easy to use but tends to be on the pricier end” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
“Market leader by adoption ... Choose Wiz or Orca if you need fast, comprehensive visibility across multi-cloud with minimal operational overhead” Kimi K2 · comparative prompt · first choice

What the models said about Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Two of two in this category shown.

“Avoid relying exclusively on AWS Security Hub, Azure Defender, or Google Security Command Center as your primary CNAPP.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“Wiz and Microsoft Defender for Cloud are the top recommended CNAPPs due to their balance of features, ease of use, and strong mid-market fit” Mistral Small · direct prompt · first choice
Also compared
Wiz vs Orca SecurityMicrosoft Defender for Cloud vs Orca SecurityThe full CNAPP standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.