Switching guide
Aqua alternatives: switching from Aqua for multi-cloud coverage
Short answer
The highest-scoring alternatives to Aqua on our coverage weights are Orca Security, Wiz and CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security. Aqua scores 7.45 and ranks 9 of 9. Before switching, check the rows where Aqua still scores higher, listed under each alternative below.
Desk research from public vendor pages read in September 2026, updated 2026-10-11. Editorial assessment; we did not run the products.
Why do teams look beyond Aqua?
- Agentless workload depth is the lowest score here.
- Tencent Cloud is not named.
- No list prices; pricing is by workloads or code repositories.
Which alternatives score highest?
- 7 of 8
Scores higher than Aqua on: Agentless workload depth, Path to first findings, Risk context from day one, Integrations and reach and Cost visibility before purchase
Aqua scores higher on: Runtime layer when you need it
- 2Wiz4 of 8
Scores higher than Aqua on: Agentless workload depth, Path to first findings, Risk context from day one, Integrations and reach and Cost visibility before purchase
Aqua scores higher on: Clouds and environments named and Runtime layer when you need it
- 4 of 8
Scores higher than Aqua on: Agentless workload depth, Path to first findings, Risk context from day one, Runtime layer when you need it, Integrations and reach and Cost visibility before purchase
Aqua scores higher on: Clouds and environments named
- 4 of 8
Scores higher than Aqua on: Agentless workload depth, Path to first findings, Integrations and reach and Cost visibility before purchase
Aqua scores higher on: Clouds and environments named and Runtime layer when you need it
- 5 of 8
Scores higher than Aqua on: Agentless workload depth, Path to first findings, Risk context from day one, Runtime layer when you need it and Integrations and reach
Aqua scores higher on: Clouds and environments named and Cost visibility before purchase
- 4 of 8
Scores higher than Aqua on: Agentless workload depth, Path to first findings, Risk context from day one, Runtime layer when you need it, Integrations and reach and Cost visibility before purchase
Aqua scores higher on: Clouds and environments named
- 4 of 8
Scores higher than Aqua on: Agentless workload depth, Path to first findings, Risk context from day one, Runtime layer when you need it and Cost visibility before purchase
Aqua scores higher on: Clouds and environments named and Integrations and reach
- 3 of 8
Scores higher than Aqua on: Agentless workload depth, Path to first findings, Risk context from day one and Integrations and reach
Aqua scores higher on: Clouds and environments named and Cost visibility before purchase
- Named on the vendor's pages we reviewed
- Not named on the pages we reviewed (this does not mean unsupported)
What should you check before you switch?
- Whether the alternative supports your disconnected or air-gapped environments at all; most platforms here do not name them.
- Whether you need FedRAMP High authorization.
- Whether your pipelines depend on Trivy, which stays open source either way.
When should you stay with Aqua?
Stay with Aqua if you run disconnected or private environments, need FedRAMP High authorization, and value kernel-layer enforcement in containers. No other platform here names air-gapped estates.
Frequently asked questions
What is the top-scoring alternative to Aqua?
Orca Security at 9.09 on our default weights. It scores higher than Aqua on Agentless workload depth, Path to first findings, Risk context from day one, Integrations and reach and Cost visibility before purchase.
Which Aqua alternatives name the most clouds?
Orca Security (7 of 8), Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud (formerly Prisma Cloud) (5 of 8) and Wiz (4 of 8).
Which Aqua alternative publishes its pricing?
Orca Security: AWS Marketplace lists four contract tiers by concurrent EC2 workloads: Small (up to 100) $7,000.00, Small-Medium (300) $12,000.00, Medium (500) $17,000.00, Large (1,000) $30,000.00. The listing has 1-month and 12-month tabs; we did not capture which term these figures belong to, so confirm the term on the listing. No price on Orca's own site. Wiz: AWS Marketplace, 12-month contract: Wiz Essential, 100 cloud workloads, $24,000.00; Wiz Advanced, 100 cloud workloads, $38,000.00. Add-ons: Wiz Sensor (100 sensors, for Wiz Advanced) $28,000.00; Wiz Code (100 licenses) $58,500.00; Wiz Defend (300 GB of logs per month, for Wiz Advanced) $18,000.00. Wiz's own site quotes custom prices. CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security: AWS Marketplace, pay as you go (listing combined with Next-Gen SIEM): runtime host protection $0.023 per hour per running host; container protection $0.054 per hour per running worker node; Fargate protection $0.01 per hour per Fargate instance. 30-day free trial with up to $500 in usage credits. CrowdStrike's own pricing page lists endpoint bundles only. Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Published list prices (USD, monthly, East/Central US): Foundational CSPM free; Defender CSPM $5.11 per billable resource; Defender for Servers Plan 1 $4.906 and Plan 2 $14.60 per server; Defender for Containers $6.8693 per vCore; Defender for Storage $10 per storage account; Defender for AI Services $0.0008 per 1,000 tokens. Free for the first 30 days; 1-year pre-purchase commit units save up to 22%. Sysdig Secure: AWS Marketplace, 1-month contract: CNAPP Enterprise $72.00 per unit per month (the unit was not captured in our read); 12-month contracts listed as saving up to 17%. Sysdig's own pricing page: licensing by number of hosts, prices by quote. Upwind: AWS Marketplace, 12-month contract: Upwind Cloud Security Platform $30,000.00; Upwind Managed Detection and Response 24/7 Service $6,000.00. The quantity each price covers was not captured in our read. 24-month and 36-month contracts are listed with savings. No price on Upwind's own site.