The CNAPP market was reshaped in 2025 by the largest cybersecurity acquisition in history: Google’s $32 billion purchase of Wiz. Palo Alto Networks’ $25 billion deal for CyberArk, which will fold identity security into cloud platform plays once closed, added to the consolidation wave. Standalone CSPM and CWPP products are disappearing into integrated platforms. We evaluated leading CNAPPs across threat detection, posture management, workload protection, identity security, and operational ease.
How We Evaluated
We assessed coverage breadth across cloud providers, services, and workload types. Detection efficacy for threats, misconfigurations, and attack paths mattered. CIEM capabilities and integration with IAM/PAM workflows counted. API quality, SIEM/SOAR integration, and CI/CD pipeline tooling were important. Dashboard clarity, alert quality, and time-to-value factored in, along with AI capabilities like LLM-powered investigation, remediation guidance, and prioritization.
1. Wiz (Google Cloud)
Score: 95/100
Now operating under Google Cloud following the $32B all-cash acquisition closed in Q3 2025, Wiz retains its agentless-first approach while gaining access to Google’s AI infrastructure and global scale. Google has committed to continued multicloud support, though AWS-heavy customers are watching closely.
Fastest time-to-value with agentless deployment across AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and Alibaba. Superior attack path analysis connects vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, identities, and data exposure. Named a Leader in the 2025 IDC MarketScape for CNAPP. New AI-powered remediation suggestions leverage Gemini models. DSPM capabilities are now integrated natively rather than as an add-on.
Best for: Organizations prioritizing speed, visibility, and AI-driven risk prioritization across multi-cloud environments
2. Palo Alto Prisma Cloud
Score: 93/100
Prisma Cloud offers the broadest feature set in the market, now strengthened by the pending CyberArk acquisition at $25B, which adds privileged access management and identity governance directly into the platform. Palo Alto’s “platformization” strategy, offering discounts for customers consolidating multiple security tools, continues to drive enterprise adoption.
Broadest capability coverage spans CSPM, CWPP, CIEM, DSPM, IaC scanning, API security, and code security. CyberArk integration will provide industry-leading PAM and identity governance within the platform. Strong runtime protection comes with agent-based workload security. The Darwin release in 2025 introduced unified risk scoring and AI-assisted remediation. 17% CNAPP market share by revenue is the largest of any vendor.
Best for: Large enterprises pursuing platform consolidation and wanting a single vendor for cloud, identity, and network security
3. CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security
Score: 91/100
CrowdStrike continues to leverage its endpoint dominance to gain cloud market share, now at 13%, the fastest growth in the CNAPP segment. The 2025 acquisitions of Adaptive Shield (SaaS security posture) and SGNL ($740M, continuous identity authorization) significantly expand the platform’s reach into SaaS and non-human identity security.
A single Falcon agent covers endpoint, cloud workload, and container protection. Named a Leader in the 2025 IDC MarketScape for CNAPP. New Falcon Exposure Management provides unified attack surface visibility. OverWatch managed threat hunting extends to cloud workloads. Charlotte AI provides natural language investigation across cloud telemetry.
Best for: Organizations wanting unified endpoint and cloud protection from a single agent with managed threat hunting
4. Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Score: 89/100
Microsoft’s integrated cloud security continues to benefit from Azure-native integration and aggressive bundling with E5 licensing. The Copilot for Security integration that went generally available in April 2024 has matured through 2025, providing natural language investigation and remediation guidance.
Deep Azure integration includes automatic resource discovery and compliance. Multi-cloud support via Azure Arc covers AWS and GCP workloads. Copilot AI integration helps with investigation assistance and KQL query generation. Pricing stays competitive, especially for existing Microsoft E5 customers. Strong CSPM with regulatory compliance mapping covers over 50 frameworks.
Best for: Microsoft-centric organizations and those with significant Azure deployments
5. Orca Security
Score: 87/100
Orca pioneered agentless cloud security with its SideScanning technology and remains a strong independent alternative in a market dominated by platform vendors. However, the Google-Wiz deal creates competitive pressure on Orca’s core agentless positioning.
Comprehensive agentless scanning covers container internals, serverless, and data stores. Strong compliance reporting spans over 100 frameworks. Effective attack path visualization includes business context. AI-powered remediation includes code-level fix suggestions. Good developer experience supports shift-left use cases.
Best for: Organizations wanting comprehensive agentless coverage from an independent, best-of-breed vendor
6. Sysdig
Score: 85/100
Sysdig leads in container and Kubernetes runtime security, built on the open-source Falco project. The 2025 Stratoshark release (Wireshark for cloud) deepened cloud-native network visibility.
Deepest Kubernetes and container visibility via Falco and open standards. Real-time runtime protection goes beyond just posture scanning. Stratoshark provides packet-level cloud traffic analysis. Effective image scanning includes risk-based prioritization. Active open-source community and CNCF alignment benefit the ecosystem.
Best for: Container-native organizations and Kubernetes-heavy deployments requiring runtime detection
7. SentinelOne Singularity Cloud
Score: 84/100
SentinelOne extends its autonomous endpoint approach to cloud workloads, with Purple AI assistant going generally available in 2025 to provide natural language threat investigation across cloud and endpoint telemetry.
Unified agent covers endpoint and cloud workloads with autonomous response. Purple AI provides natural language investigation and hunting. Storyline technology maps cloud attack chains automatically. Pricing stays competitive versus CrowdStrike and Palo Alto. Cloud Data Lake enables long-term telemetry retention and hunting.
Best for: SentinelOne endpoint customers expanding to cloud protection with AI-assisted operations
8. Lacework (Fortinet)
Score: 82/100
Acquired by Fortinet in late 2024, Lacework’s behavioral analysis and Polygraph technology are being integrated into Fortinet’s Security Fabric. The integration adds cloud-native security to Fortinet’s network-centric portfolio.
Unsupervised machine learning handles behavioral anomaly detection. Strong Kubernetes security capabilities are included. Composite alerts reduce noise by correlating related signals. Integration with FortiGate, FortiSIEM, and FortiSOAR is underway. Polygraph visualization maps relationships across cloud entities.
Best for: Fortinet customers wanting cloud-native security integrated with their existing security fabric
9. Aqua Security
Score: 80/100
Aqua provides comprehensive cloud-native security with strong open-source contributions (Trivy, CloudSploit, Tracee) that give it credibility in developer communities.
Strong container lifecycle security covers build to runtime. Supply chain security includes SBOM generation and attestation. Effective serverless and function-level protection is included. Open-source Trivy scanner is used by millions of developers. Good Kubernetes admission control and runtime policies round out the platform.
Best for: Organizations focused on container, serverless, and supply chain security with open-source alignment
10. Tenable Cloud Security
Score: 78/100
Tenable brings vulnerability management expertise to cloud through its Ermetic acquisition (CIEM/CNAPP) and Vulcan Cyber acquisition ($147M, February 2025) for AI-powered risk prioritization. However, Tenable faces increasing competitive pressure from platform vendors, and its stock hit a 52-week low in January 2026.
Strong vulnerability prioritization with VPR scores and AI-powered triage. Good CIEM capabilities from Ermetic integration. Unified risk view across infrastructure, cloud, and identity. Integration with broader Tenable One exposure management platform. Effective compliance reporting and posture management.
Best for: Tenable customers wanting integrated cloud security within their existing exposure management program
Where the Market Is Heading
Several trends are shaping the CNAPP market in 2026.
Platformization is accelerating. Google ($32B for Wiz), Palo Alto ($25B for CyberArk), and CrowdStrike ($740M for SGNL) are buying their way to platform completeness. Standalone CNAPP vendors face acquisition or margin pressure.
AI-native investigation is standard. Every major CNAPP now includes an AI assistant (Charlotte AI, Copilot, Purple AI, Gemini) for natural language cloud investigation.
Non-human identity is the next frontier. Machine identities, service accounts, and AI agent credentials are becoming critical. CrowdStrike’s SGNL acquisition signals the market direction.
DSPM has become table stakes. Data security posture management is no longer a differentiator but a baseline expectation.
Runtime is overtaking posture. The market is shifting from periodic scanning to continuous runtime detection, with Sysdig and Falco leading this trend.