Top CNAPP Solutions in 2025: Navigating the Product Landscape

From code to cloud, a cloud native application protection platform (CNAPP) provides end-to-end security coverage across the entire lifecycle of cloud-based applications—from initial development stages through to live production environments. A CNAPP can also simplify security operations, improve developer experience, and automate compliance.

But choosing the features and functionality your organization needs in a CNAPP isn’t simple. In this post, we’ll look at why CNAPP solutions are gaining momentum, then outline essential features to look for before drilling down into today’s top five CNAPP solutions based on industry reviews.

Gartner® Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

In this report, Gartner offers insights and recommendations to analyze and evaluate emerging CNAPP offerings.

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The cloud security challenge and CNAPP solution

Cloud-native architectures multiply security challenges, expanding the attack surface compared to traditional development. That’s because today’s applications make extensive use of distributed microservices with APIs, dynamic scaling, and continuous deployment. Workloads for containers and serverless are ephemeral, and deployment is automated using infrastructure as code (IaC). Beyond all this, shared responsibility models across multiple providers create complexity in understanding and managing cloud configuration.

One reason traditional security tools—along with some modern ones—have a hard time keeping up is that they take a fragmented approach. If your vulnerability scanner is separate from your SAST or CSPM tools, then this can create a number of problems. 

Without coherent visibility across development, infrastructure, and runtime, you’re going to end up with security blind spots. And when these siloed apps don’t permit communication between security, development, and cloud architecture teams, your teams will experience alert fatigue from uncoordinated, unprioritized findings. They also won’t be able to effectively prioritize real risk because of all the noise from uncoordinated security tools.

A CNAPP solves these issues, providing complete cloud-native security in three dimensions:

• Code security: Shifts security left to the development phase

• Cloud security: Manages configuration, identity, and data risks

• Runtime security: Detects and responds to active threats

Essential CNAPP capabilities: What to look for

A modern CNAPP must unify security from code to runtime, covering three essential pillars: Secure Cloud Development, Secure Cloud Infrastructure, and Cloud Detection and Response. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect under each pillar.

Secure Cloud Development

Embed security seamlessly into the software delivery lifecycle to catch risks early and accelerate safe development.

Key capabilities:

• Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) Security: Automatically detect misconfigurations, security risks, and compliance issues in Terraform, CloudFormation, Kubernetes manifests, and other IaC templates before deployment.

• Code Vulnerability and Dependency Scanning: Perform deep scans on source code and dependencies to identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and malware. Generate software bills of materials (SBOM) to track components precisely.

• Secrets Detection: Identify and prevent exposure of sensitive secrets (API keys, tokens, passwords) within code repositories, container images, and CI/CD pipelines.

• CI/CD Pipeline Protection: Secure build pipelines by continuously auditing configuration settings and enforcing security policies during each stage of development and deployment.

Secure Cloud Infrastructure

Ensure ongoing security and compliance across cloud environments through continuous monitoring, configuration management, and identity governance.

Key capabilities:

• Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM): Continuously scan cloud resources to detect misconfigurations, compliance violations, and security gaps across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes environments.

• Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM): Provide identity and permissions visibility, identify excessive privileges, and enforce least-privilege access across cloud services, significantly reducing identity-related risks.

• Cloud Workload Protection (CWP): Maintain runtime visibility and protection for cloud workloads including VMs, containers, and serverless functions, detecting vulnerabilities and runtime threats.

• Data Security Posture Management (DSPM): Discover, classify, and protect sensitive data stored in cloud environments, proactively identifying exposure risks and ensuring data remains secured according to compliance standards.

Cloud Detection and Response

Rapidly detect, prioritize, and respond to cloud threats and incidents with comprehensive visibility and intelligent automation.

Key capabilities:

• Real-Time Threat Detection: Leverage behavioral analytics and threat intelligence to monitor cloud environments for malicious activity such as anomalous access, lateral movement, or data exfiltration attempts.

• Attack Path Analysis: Map and analyze attack vectors across cloud assets to visualize and prioritize risks, enabling quick identification and closure of critical security gaps.

• Risk-Based Prioritization: Contextually prioritize alerts and vulnerabilities based on actual business impact, allowing security teams to focus remediation efforts on the highest-risk threats.

• Automated Remediation and Incident Response: Enable automated playbooks for rapid response, containment, and mitigation of threats and incidents, minimizing manual intervention and accelerating recovery times.

An overview of leading CNAPP solutions

In this section, we’ll explore five leading CNAPP solutions, highlighting their unique strengths, architectures, and core capabilities. Consider leveraging a proof of concept (PoC)—such as a demo or trial—to determine the best fit for your enterprise.

Wiz CNAPP

Platform philosophy

Agentless, unified, and context-driven cloud security from code to runtime, powered by a centralized security graph.

Architecture and key differentiators

• Agentless-first architecture enabling deployment in minutes with immediate, comprehensive visibility.

• Unified security graph connecting vulnerabilities, identities, configurations, and sensitive data to enable context-driven security analysis.

• Risk prioritization engine focusing remediation efforts on exploitable attack paths, significantly reducing alert fatigue.

• High-performance eBPF runtime sensor delivering lightweight, effective threat detection without operational overhead.

• Single-pane management: Unified data model, policies, workflows, and user interface across multiple clouds and environments.

Core capabilities

Wiz CNAPP is built around three core capability pillars: 

• Wiz Code:

  • Software composition analysis and dependency scanning

  • Repository scanning and pull request integration

  • Container image scanning and registry integration

  • Infrastructure-as-code scanning (Terraform, CloudFormation, ARM)

  • CI/CD pipeline integration and build-time security controls

  • Supply chain security with SBOM generation

• Wiz Cloud:

  • Cloud configuration and compliance monitoring

  • Identity and entitlement risk analysis

  • Attack path analysis with the Wiz Security Graph

  • Data security posture management

  • Network exposure analysis

  • Automated policy enforcement

• Wiz Defend:

  • Real-time threat detection and response for cloud workloads

  • Container and Kubernetes runtime protection

  • Malware and cryptominer detection

  • Cloud-focused threat intelligence

  • Behavioral anomaly detection

  • Host and container intrusion detection

Review scores

Ideal for...

• Organizations seeking unified, comprehensive cloud security that seamlessly integrates secure development practices, robust infrastructure protection, and real-time threat detection and response in a single, rapidly deployable platform.

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

Platform philosophy

Extension of endpoint security leadership into cloud environments with a unified console

Architecture and key differentiators

• This platform’s combination of agent and agentless architecture may require more deployment coordination

• Integration with broader Falcon endpoint protection platform

• Threat intelligence from CrowdStrike's global sensor network

• Single console for endpoint and cloud security management

• Cloud detection and response capabilities

Core capabilities

• Cloud security posture management across major providers

• Container and Kubernetes protection

• Runtime protection for cloud workloads

• Identity threat detection and prevention

• Cloud infrastructure entitlement management

• Cloud detection and response

Review scores

Ideal for…

• Organizations primarily focused on endpoint threat detection looking to extend existing CrowdStrike investments into cloud environments.

Orca Security

Platform philosophy

SideScanning technology for agentless visibility with a focus on cloud assets

Architecture and key differentiators

• Agentless SideScanning technology leveraging cloud provider APIs

• Risk prioritization focused on exposure and business impact

• Broad coverage of cloud assets and resources

• Automated compliance reporting for major frameworks

Core capabilities

• Cloud security posture management

• Vulnerability assessment and prioritization

• Cloud infrastructure entitlement management

• Data security posture management

• Compliance automation and reporting

• Container and serverless security

Review scores

Ideal for…

• Security teams prioritizing quick initial visibility into cloud assets, with less emphasis on real-time threat detection and integrated developer workflows.

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security

Platform philosophy

AI-driven detection and response with an offensive security approach

Architecture and key differentiators

• SentinelOne’s Offensive Security Engine simulates attack paths

• Verified Exploit Paths methodology for risk prioritization

• AI-powered detection and response capabilities

• Integration with endpoint detection platform

Core capabilities

• Cloud security posture management

• Runtime workload protection with behavioral AI

• Vulnerability and risk management

• Automated threat hunting and response

• Container and Kubernetes protection

• Compliance reporting and management

Review scores

Ideal for…

• Teams prioritizing threat hunting capabilities, particularly suited for security operations centers comfortable handling more complex operational overhead.

Fortinet Lacework FortiCNAPP

Platform philosophy

Machine learning–based anomaly detection with Fortinet integration

Architecture and key differentiators

• Machine learning for behavior-based detection

• Polygraph visualization for relationship mapping

• Combined agent and agentless architecture

• Integration with Fortinet security fabric

Core capabilities

• Cloud configuration assessment

• Container security with Kubernetes integration

• Behavioral anomaly detection for workloads

• Compliance monitoring and reporting

• Cloud account security monitoring

• Identity and access governance

Review scores

Ideal for…

• Enterprises already utilizing Fortinet's broader security suite, specifically looking for machine learning-based anomaly detection, primarily for runtime and container-focused use cases.

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Understanding the Gartner® Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms

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How to evaluate and choose the right CNAPP

Before beginning the buying process, it helps to form a cross-functional evaluation team with representatives from all areas that will be using the platform: security operations, cloud security, application security, development and/or DevOps, and cloud platform engineers.

Define your organization's specific requirements:

• Which cloud environments you’ll need to secure (AWS, Azure, GCP, multi-cloud)

• Development pipeline integration needs

• Applicable compliance requirements (CIS, NIST, PCI, HIPAA, etc.)

• Current security gaps and most critical risks

• Runtime protection needs (agent vs. agentless)

• Team collaboration workflows

Together, this evaluation team will identify key evaluation criteria, including some or all of the following:

• Unified vs. modular architecture

• Deployment model and time to value (TTV)

• Agent requirements and performance impact

• API and integration capabilities

• User experience for different personas

• Risk prioritization effectiveness

• Visibility across cloud accounts and resources

• Actionable remediation guidance

Creating an effective proof of concept comes next. That means setting clear success criteria, testing with real-world workloads, measuring false positives, evaluating remediation workflows, and assessing the developer experience of each solution you’re testing.

Finally, consider your contract with the vendor. Shorter-term contracts, for instance, give you more flexibility. You’ll want to understand each vendor’s pricing models (e.g., per resource, per user, etc.), along with your own potential future growth and scaling costs. Try to hear from existing customers about the vendor’s support and professional services as well.

How to make the business case for your cloud security transformation

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Take the next step toward unified cloud security

Choosing the right CNAPP solution is critical—not just for your cloud security posture, but for enabling your development and operations teams to move quickly and securely at scale. The best way to truly evaluate how a CNAPP fits into your existing workflows, accelerates your security operations, and protects your cloud environment end-to-end is through hands-on experience.

See for yourself how Wiz can provide immediate visibility, seamlessly integrate security into your development lifecycle, and deliver real-time detection and response—all in a single, unified platform.

Schedule a live Wiz demo and see how unified cloud security accelerates your development, strengthens your infrastructure, and stops threats in real time →