Gone are those days when organizations had a limited number of choices for their Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP). With the increasing use of cloud-native technologies and services, the use of CNAPP has drastically increased as it has revolutionized how organizations secure their applications.
The CNAPP platform has simplified application protection and allowed developers to minimize vulnerabilities at every stage of their development. However, with the increase in the use of CNAPP, the number of vendors has also increased drastically. It can be challenging to choose the best CNAPP vendor in 2024 from the huge list.
This guide will help you evaluate and choose from the top 10 CNAPP vendors in 2024 that will best suit your business.
What Is CNAPP?
CNAPP is a specialized suite or collection of cybersecurity tools designed to protect cloud-native applications. It is a security and compliance solution that enables developers to create, deploy, and run cloud-native applications in the public cloud infrastructure.
It combines multiple security tools and capabilities in one platform and simplifies the process of identifying, monitoring, and responding to security threats. At its core, CNAPP brings together DevOps and DevSecOps and provides complete security from development to product in the CI/CD application lifecycle.
This cloud-native security model brings together CSPM, CWPP, CSNS, KSPM, IAM, data protection, and other security capabilities in a single platform.
What Are CNAPP Vendors?
CNAPP vendors are those platforms that help organizations deploy cloud application security solutions and practices within the specific cloud environment. The vendor helps the organization with the implementation of application security solutions to secure the entire lifecycle of the cloud application from development to deployment.
The vendors assume all the responsibility for implementation and maintenance throughout the subscription period. Organizations don’t have to worry about anything. The cloud-native application security offered by the CNAPP vendor usually includes CSPM tools, CWPP tools, CIEM tools, and others.
What Are the Benefits that CNAPPs Provide?
More than simply offering an all-in-one solution, CNAPP offers a range of benefits that make it highly suitable for most organizations. The benefits it provides are:
All-in-one Security
CNAPP offers a comprehensive cloud-application security solution through a single platform and simplifies the whole security management. Developers often face difficulty handling a large number of security tools. This platform unifies a lot of security tools like CWPP, CIEM, IAM, CSPM, KSPM, CSNS, and others and helps provide a comprehensive approach.
Enhanced Application Security
Since CNAPP offers end-to-end solutions from development to deployment, it helps organizations maintain consistent visibility and threat detection throughout the environment. It involves various security machine learning, artificial intelligence, rules, and other aspects to identify potential vulnerabilities.
Enhanced Application Security
Since CNAPP offers end-to-end solutions from development to deployment, it helps organizations maintain consistent visibility and threat detection throughout the environment. It involves various security machine learning, artificial intelligence, rules, and other aspects to identify potential vulnerabilities.
Threat Detection in Real-Time
One of the most significant benefits of CNAPP is the real-time threat detection capability. It utilizes runtime visibility and cloud-native security controls to detect security issues. It also allows organizations to quickly detect and respond to threats that can jeopardize the overall security posture.
Saves Resources
With the implementation of CNAPP, organizations can save a lot of resources and time that would have otherwise been utilized for managing different tools. CNAPP integrates all the vital security tools in one place and prevents security teams from managing multiple solutions at the same time. Moreover, the centralized platform reduces the cost of operation and saves businesses a lot of money.
Simplifies Adherence to Compliance
When you integrate CNAPP into your cloud environment, it simplifies the process of meeting regulatory and compliance needs. CNAPP helps in implementing security controls, best practices, and procedures that cater to all regulatory requirements. By monitoring, detecting and remediating security issues, it enables the application to stay in compliance with the framework.
High Operational Efficiency
CNAPP provides complete visibility into your cloud application and allows you to provide security at every stage of development. Developers and security teams can maintain optimum security at every stage and prevent vulnerabilities from arising after deployment.
Promotes Collaboration Between Security and Development Team
Implementing CNAPP in an organization promotes collaboration between security and development teams. It reduces the gap between the two teams by integrating with DevOps tools and methodologies and ensures security is integrated through the CI/CD pipeline. It makes everyone in the team responsible for the security of the cloud-native application in the development stage.
Key Features to Look for in a CNAPP Solution
Selecting a CNAPP solution is not a straightforward task. You must consider numerous features before choosing. Here are some key features to look for in a CNAPP solution:
Comprehensive Platform
The CNAPP must serve as a platform consolidating a wide range of security tools to ensure security across the application lifecycle. Importantly, it should be able to support a varied type of cloud environment, workloads, and stacks. Moreover, the CNAPP platform must support different integration techniques and blend well with different teams and processes. You should also check that the CNAPP is available both as a SaaS solution or on-premises solution, which is an essential requirement for specific industries.
Detection and Scanning Capabilities
When you are opting for a CNAPP solution, you should ensure that it has real-time monitoring and threat detection capability. It will make sure any kind of vulnerability or threat that might impact the cloud application will be remediated instantly. The CNAPP should also have the capability of automatic vulnerability scanning as it helps the team address issues immediately. The availability of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) will also be helpful because it scans the configuration files to identify vulnerabilities and misconfiguration.
Compatibility with Application
To protect the cloud-native application, the CNAPP cloud security must be with the application and understand the application context. It should integrate with the application lifecycle and implement vital security controls to mitigate all the security risks. The platform should scan for artifacts and help maintain integrity throughout the lifecycle.
Unique Capabilities
The CNAPP solution you choose must deliver unique capabilities to enhance the overall security posture. It should provide your organization with compliance reports, which will be important for compliance audits. The solution must provide APIs for automation of security policies and help in implementation in a simplified way. It would be best to have a CNAPP solution with container security features like container image scanning and runtime protection.
Cloud Compatibility
While considering a CNAPP solution, you should ensure that the CNAPP is specifically built for cloud-native environments. The CNAPP solution must possess the capability to adapt to the dynamic workloads of the cloud-native application. It should be able to track, analyze, monitor, and control different cloud workloads. In addition, the solution must also be compatible with the IaC tools, Kubernetes, and public cloud providers that the organization is using.
Top 10 Best CNAPP Vendors in 2024
With so many CNAPP vendors available in the market, it can be difficult for many to choose the correct one. That is why we have come up with a list of the top 10 CNAPP vendors in 2024. Before head to the list, we would like to present to you a comparison table for all the top CNAPP vendors to ease up your selection process:
Vendor | Compliance Support | Automation | Key Features | Pricing |
Available | Available | 1. Agentless platform. 2. Real-time threat detection. 3. Shift left security approach. 4. Auto remediation process. | The price is available after you request a free live demo. | |
CloudGuard | Available | Available | 1. AI-based web application firewall. 2. AI threat prevention. 3. Advanced security intelligence. 4. Comprehensive code security. | You will get pricing after booking a demo. |
Orca Security | Available | Available | 1. Risk priorotization. 2. GenAI for remediation. 3. Multi-cloud attack path analysis. 4. Shift-left approach. | The pricing usually starts at $7000 per month. |
Aqua Security | Available | Available | 1. Complete visibility. 2. Advanced malware protection. 3. Vulnerability and risk scanning. 4. Automation of DevSecOps. | The standard plan starts around $50,000 per year. |
Lacework | Available | Available | 1. Automated analysis. 2. Threat detection and contextualization. 3. Multi-cloud support. 4. Identity analysis. | The standard price starts at $25,000 per year. |
Crowdstrike Falcon | Available | Available | 1. Single platform. 2. Real-time breach protection. 3. Cloud detection and response. 4. Extensible ecosystem. | You will have to contact the organization for pricing. |
Prisma Cloud | Available | Available | 1. CI/CD integration. 2. Continuous visibility. 3. API visibility. 4. Real-time protection. | The pricing is available after you request a demo. |
Wiz | Available | Limited | 1. Comprehensive scanning. 2. Proactive remediation. 3. Real-time threat detection. 4. End-to-end visibility. | The pricing is available after you request a demo. |
Ermetic | Available | Available | 1. Automated threat detection. 2. Just-in-time cloud access. 3. Automated remediation. 4. Continuous analysis. | The pricing is available after you request a demo. |
Sysdig | Available | Available | 1. Attack path analysis. 2. Cloud attack graph. 3. Risk spotlight prioritization. 4. Real-time Insight. | The pricing is available after you request a demo. |
CloudDefense.AI 
Among the diverse list of CNAPP vendors, CloudDefense.AI stands out as a pioneer, offering a holistic package of solutions that secures both cloud and application infrastructure. Although other vendors on this list demonstrate excellence in different aspects, CloudDefense.AI delivers a winning combination of all-encompassing features, easy onboarding, innovative capabilities, and user-friendly design.
Key Features
Here’s what makes CloudDefense.AI the top choice for securing your cloud-native applications:
Hacker's View™
Our exclusive Hacker's View™ solution uses updated methods to constantly check for weak points, detect potential pathways of invasion, outline public-facing assets, and reveal open ports – as a result, it gives you the perspective of hackers on your infrastructure. Knowing how hackers perceive things allows you to anticipate attacks and ensure the security of your applications and data before any threats come into existence.
Noise Reduction
Security alerts can be overwhelming, frequently hiding critical risks behind a flood of unneeded notifications. CloudDefense.AI's Noise Reduction technology cuts through the clutter, prioritizing high-impact threats and actionable insights. This high-level intelligence makes your security process smoother, letting you concentrate on the most urgent matters and effectively reducing actual threats.
Code to Cloud
Security shouldn't be an afterthought. CloudDefense.AI integrates seamlessly with your development process and embeds top-notch security best practices from code to cloud. The "Code to Cloud" approach ensures that vulnerabilities are identified and addressed early on and prevents them from propagating into production and risking your applications.
All-encompassing Security Suite
With CloudDefense.AI’s all-encompassing suite in hand, you have access to a holistic array of security solutions that secures your entire pipeline, from code to the cloud. Covering everything from infrastructure scanning without the need for agents to detecting threats in real-time, and even providing automatic remediation and compliance reporting, CloudDefense.AI gives you the necessary tools to ensure the security of your cloud environment at every step.
Top-notch User Experience
Getting hands-on with intricate security platforms often feels like a harrowing task. However, CloudDefense.AI liberates users from cumbersome interfaces prevalent in previous systems by providing an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard. Non-technical users too can grasp threats with ease, prioritize risks effectively using this advanced platform, and decisively act to secure their applications.
Beyond Comparison: What Sets CloudDefense.AI Apart
CloudDefense.AI distinguishes itself by delivering a holistic security experience, while other vendors may excel in specific areas. Here’s what truly sets us apart:
Seamless integrations
Connect with your existing tools and cloud providers with ease, eliminating the need for disruptive overhauls.
Scalability and flexibility
Adapt to your growing needs with a platform that scales effortlessly as your cloud environment expands.
Expert support
Benefit from our team of security professionals who are always ready to assist you and guide you on your security journey.
Pros
Seamlessly integrates with the cloud environment through agentless capability.
It is an extremely easy-to-use platform.
Offer all the capabilities in a single platform.
Auto remediates security issues in minutes.
Cons
It might be challenging to navigate for first-time users.
Don’t just take our word for it. Book a demo and witness firsthand the power and simplicity of CloudDefense.AI.
2. CloudGuard by CheckPoint
CloudGuard by CheckPoint
Another top container security tool that helps you secure your containers on any private or public cloud is Prisma Cloud. It is a one-stop solution that not only scans container images but also helps you to enforce policies for full development lifecycle.
Prisma cloud provides full visibility into your images and dependencies and also maintains compliance. Importantly, the agentless deployment makes it easier for you to integrate the solution to your containers.
Pros
Provides advanced threat prevention capability.
Compatible with a wide variety of cloud providers.
Offers robust network security.
Cons
It only offers a little customization.
Compatible with a wide variety of cloud providers.
3. Orca Security
Orca Security
Orca Security is an all-in-one CNAPP vendor that offers a cost-effective and easy security solution for the cloud-native application.
This agentless CNAPP platform is a pioneer in providing a multi-cloud environment and has simplified cloud security and compliance for many organizations. Top global companies from different industries rely on Orca Security as it leverages advanced capabilities and automation tools to safeguard the cloud-native application.
Pros
Provides continuous visibility to all cloud assets from a single pane.
A centralized dashboard is used to manage all regulatory compliances.
It is loaded with automation tools for compliance alerts.
Cons
The interface is a little bit confusing.
4. Aqua Security
Aqua Security
When it comes to considering esteemed CNAPP vendors, Aqua Security comes as an obvious choice for many organizations. Aqua Security, through its platform, offers security to the cloud-native and containerized applications across the lifecycle.
Through its unified platform, it brings together all the teams and gives complete visibility to all the assets. The best thing about this platform is that it secures your applications wherever you develop and run them.
Pros
It has an impressive compliance reporting feature.
Seamlessly integrates with a variety of cloud-native ecosystems.
Stops attacks in real-time by quickly prioritizing risks.
Protects all the links in the software supply chain.
Cons
It can be difficult to operate for non-technical users.
Advanced features come only with higher plans.
5. Lacework
Lacework
Trusted by top organizations in the world, Lacework is a data drive CNAPP vendor that secures your application through runtime. It is one of the leading vendors that uses your organization’s data to protect your cloud.
From leveraging real-time threat detection, prioritizing risk, and offering numerous integrations to providing impressive customer support, Lacework is a go-to CNAPP vendor for many organizations.
Pros
Highly effective in identifying and mitigating misconfigurations.
It is loaded with pre-built integrations and is easy to integrate with existing tools.
Offers continuous monitoring for quick threat detection.
Cons
The pricing can be high for businesses with limited budgets.
6. CrowdStrike Falcon
CrowdStrike Falcon
Undoubtedly, CrowStrike Falcon is one of the major CNAPP vendors in the market that delivers impressive cloud-native application protection.
This cloud-based platform is known for its adversary-focused capabilities that secure your application from modern attacks. To maximize efficiency, this vendor has introduced an automated remediation workflow and identity access analyzer.
Pros
Puts out a complete and accurate insight into your cloud threat landscape.
Continuous monitors for malicious activity and provide alerts.
Utilizes machine learning and behavioral analysis.
Real-time monitoring of workloads.
Cons
Advanced features require tricky configuration.
It is not suitable for small organizations.
7. Prisma Cloud
Prisma Cloud
You can consider Prisma Cloud if you are looking for a CNAPP vendor that can effectively curb risk and prevent breaches at every stage of application development. Continuous visibility and monitoring for misconfiguration, prevent the vulnerability from entering production.
From web applications and workloads to APIs, it ensures real-time protection for every asset. What gives this vendor the edge is its application context capability to classify risks and remediate them.
Pros
It offers numerous advanced protection capabilities.
Offers runtime protection against anomalies and malware.
Robust vulnerability management performance.
Cons
It needs good technical knowledge to operate it.
Higher price structure than alternatives.
8. Wiz
Wiz
When it comes to the best CNAPP vendors in 2023, Wiz serves as a strong contender, as many consider it a reliable and feature-packed platform. It is designed to cater to businesses of all sizes.
It prioritizes risks according to actionable insights and leverages advanced technologies to scan every aspect. One of the main reasons behind its popularity is its ability to simplify the security stack and operation.
Pros
It effectively reduces the attack surface.
The interface is extremely easy to navigate.
Supports almost every compliance framework in the industry.
Prioritizes all the tasks through the risk queue.
Cons
The customer service is lacking.
9. Ermetic
Ermetic
Ermetic is an award-winning CNAPP platform that integrates numerous cloud security tools to offer comprehensive security. Like other top CNAPP platforms, it also offers unified asset visibility, threat detection, and comprehensive risk analysis to safeguard your application completely.
It is an agentless platform that automatically scans assets and resources exposed to threats. Whether you are a small or large business, Ermetic can secure your application with scalability.
Pros
Offers risk analysis, asset discovery, and threat detection for comprehensive security.
Continuously scans and detects vulnerabilities and threats.
Extremely straightforward to use.
Cons
You will have to spend a lot of time learning it.
10. Sysdig
Sysdig
By offering numerous advanced capabilities, Sysdig has emerged as a leading CNAPP vendor in the industry. With the availability of both agentless and agent deployment capabilities, it can identify threats across the platform.
Sysdig has helped users with rich context about various threats that users need to prioritize. It can offer quick forensic cloud investigation and detect risk within a few seconds of scanning.
Pros
It effectively identifies risk using Sysdig Okta detection.
Efficiently mitigates software supply chain issues.
It has adaptive security policies.
It helps you prioritize and identify real risks through cloud attack graphs.
Cons
Doesn’t provide any unique features.
How to Choose the Best CNAPP Vendor?
Choosing CNAPP vendors can be tricky as there are a lot of factors to consider. That is why we have come up with a guide that will help you choose the best CNAPP vendor:
Visibility
A CNAPP vendor should offer complete visibility into the cloud stack and allow you to analyze whatever is happening in your infrastructure. By offering comprehensive visibility, it makes sure everyone can detect threats before they can make any impact.
Threat Detection
The CNAPP vendor should be able to detect threats with ease and remediate them quickly. Some of the vendors offer automated threat detection capability that quickly identifies risks and vulnerabilities and prioritizes them according to their impact.
Seamless Integration
When choosing the best CNAPP vendor, it should easily integrate with your cloud services like AWS, Azure, or GCP with ease. Ensure you don't have to go through tricky configuration to integrate the vendor with your existing architecture.
Deployment Capability
You need to make sure the deployment of the CNAPP vendor is seamless and prevents you from going through any kind of hassle. The deployment process should be similar to plug n play of devices, making it easier to integrate and configure.
Prioritization Capability
A cloud-native application is plagued by endless threats these days. The CNAPP vendor should go through every part of the cloud environment and identify vital threats that might jeopardize the application in development.
Interface
One of the vital factors to take into consideration is the interface, as not all CNAPP offers an intuitive interface. You should avoid vendors offering interfaces that are difficult to navigate and have a huge learning curve.
Customer Support
The customer support of the vendor you will choose has to be responsive and should solve your issues in a specific time.
FAQ
What is the CNAPP strategy?
The CNAPP strategy refers to the effort of unifying security and compliance capabilities into one platform and detecting and preventing cloud security threats. The main motive of the CNAPP strategy is to help the developer and security team build, deploy, and run cloud applications while securing the complete lifecycle.
Is Defender for Cloud a CNAPP?
Defender from Microsoft Corporation is a renowned CNAPP in the industry. It provides organizations with end-to-end solutions for cloud workloads across different cloud services like GCP, Azure, and AWS.
What is CNAPP security?
CNAPP security is the effort that the platform takes to secure the cloud-native application throughout its lifecycle and prevent it from getting affected by vulnerabilities and security threats. It takes a comprehensive approach to safeguarding the applications, workloads, and other cloud assets.
How much does CNAPP cost?
The cost of CNAPP varies from vendor to vendor, and it is largely dependent upon the capabilities you want. Some CNAPP offers a plan that starts from $720 annually, while some vendors charge $2235 for securing 100 assets annually.
Conclusion
Finding the right CNAPP vendors in 2024 is a tricky task because only the right vendor will ensure the security and integrity of cloud-native applications, data, services, and other assets. Through this guide, we have put forward the top 10 best CNAPP vendors in 2024 that you can choose from and secure your applications. When choosing vendors, CloudDefense.AI will cater to all, as it has all the capabilities, features, and favorable user experience you would be looking for in a top CNAPP vendor.
Anshu Bansal, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist, currently co-founds CloudDefense.AI, a cybersecurity solution with a mission to secure your business by rapidly identifying and removing critical risks in Applications and Infrastructure as Code. With a background in Amazon, Microsoft, and VMWare, they contributed to various software and security roles.
