Report: Is Orca Security a Good Competitor to Wiz?

Overview

This report examines whether Orca Security is a strong competitor to Wiz in the cloud security (CSPM/CNAPP) market. It focuses on capabilities, customer sentiment, market traction, and where each vendor is stronger or weaker.

Note: Both companies are engaged in active legal disputes over patents and make aggressive marketing claims about one another. This analysis leans on third‑party reviews and analyst commentary wherever possible.

1. Market Position & Traction

Wiz

Wiz is widely described as a market leader in CNAPP/CSPM, with very rapid growth and broad enterprise penetration. Analyst write‑ups note that Wiz became the “fastest software company ever” to $100M ARR and now serves 40–50% of the Fortune 100 and a large share of the Fortune 500.
Wiz’s Security Graph, which correlates signals across code, cloud, identities, and runtime, is repeatedly called out as a differentiator that provides “ruthless prioritization of critical risks” and strong context for attack paths.¹
Multiple case studies (Shell, Colgate‑Palmolive, Amplitude and others) highlight Wiz’s ability to rapidly surface and reduce “zero critical” issues and shorten time to detect and remediate critical threats.²

Orca Security

Orca is also recognized as a serious CNAPP player with notable growth and large customers across AWS, Azure, GCP and other clouds. AWS and Google Cloud publish case studies describing Orca’s impact in multi‑cloud estates.³
Third‑party market guides include Orca among the top CNAPP and Wiz‑class vendors alongside Prisma Cloud, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne and others, which implicitly places Orca in the top competitive tier.⁴
A TopAdvisor comparison that synthesizes public reviews explicitly names Orca Security as “Best Overall” vs Wiz based on its aggregate score and review patterns.⁵

Assessment: Wiz has clear lead in raw market penetration and brand recognition, especially in large enterprises. Orca, however, is not a niche player—it appears in every serious CNAPP shortlist and is treated as a direct peer competitor, not a second‑tier tool.

Orca is therefore a credible competitor in the same segment, though Wiz is generally viewed as the category’s commercial frontrunner.

2. Capability Comparison (CNAPP/CSPM)

High‑level feature coverage

Independent comparisons and vendor documentation show:

Both: Agentless CNAPP, CSPM, CWPP elements, CIEM, vulnerability management, multi‑cloud support, compliance coverage, risk prioritization, integrations with dev and ticketing tooling.⁶
Orca often emphasizes breadth: full‑stack visibility (workloads, storage, databases, containers, serverless), multi‑cloud compliance, data security, API security, DSPM‑like capabilities, and cost‑optimization features.⁷
Wiz often emphasizes depth of analysis and graph context: attack‑path‑centric prioritization, detailed risk analytics, runtime/cloud detection and response, and integration across code‑to‑cloud.

A third‑party summary captures a common framing: “Orca offers a more comprehensive view of cloud security by combining compliance and threat detection, while Wiz primarily focuses on threat detection and risk assessment.”⁸

Vendor comparison table (based on verified claims)

Area / Claim	Orca Security	Wiz	Notes
Core model	Agentless‑first CNAPP with patented SideScanning visibility across workloads & configs.⁹	Agentless CNAPP with Security Graph correlating risks across code, cloud, identities & runtime.¹	Both avoid per‑host agents for initial coverage.
Coverage breadth	Markets itself as a purpose‑built CNAPP covering CSPM, CWPP, CIEM, DSPM, API security, vuln mgmt, compliance in one platform.⁷ ✅	Strong CNAPP; reviewers sometimes frame Wiz as more threat‑ and risk‑centric, with compliance breadth somewhat secondary.⁸ ⚠️	Both are broad; Orca messaging leans more on “single pane for all risks and compliance”.
Risk prioritization	Unified Data Model, dynamic risk scores per asset (severity, exploit likelihood, asset value) and attack‑path style context.¹⁰ ✅	Security Graph used to prioritize “toxic combinations” and blast radius; widely praised for detailed risk analysis and contextual evaluation.¹¹ ✅	Both have advanced prioritization; analysts often credit Wiz with especially strong graph‑based context.
Deployment options	Three modes: full SaaS, in‑account scanning, Bring Your Own Cloud where backend runs in customer account so no data/metadata leaves.¹² ✅	SaaS agentless platform; no equivalent full BYOC mode is surfaced in public marketing. ❌	Orca has an advantage for strict data‑residency/privacy requirements.
Ease of setup	G2 users rate Ease of Setup ~9.3; many reviews say value appears “from the first day of use”.¹³ ✅	Also praised as easy and fast (full coverage within ~24 hours is a common claim), but some reviewers find setup and workflow configuration more complex than Orca.¹⁴ ⚠️	Both easy; Orca often wins on pure simplicity.
Workflow & reporting	Strong but workflow management and documentation are pointed out as weaker spots (G2 workflow score ~7.9, docs and ServiceNow integration cited as improvable).¹⁵ ⚠️	Some sources say Wiz has more robust reporting and more flexible workflows useful for regulatory evidence and complex teams.¹⁴ ✅	enterprises needing rich reporting & automated evidence may lean Wiz.
Runtime / CDR maturity	Orca has runtime capabilities and partners (e.g., Aqua) but is often viewed as historically posture‑first, with runtime coverage expanding more recently.[^aqua-orca] ⚠️	Wiz Defend extends long‑standing agentless CDR into a full runtime suite (incident readiness, detection, investigation, forensics). Analysts still describe runtime as newer and somewhat maturing, not as battle‑tested as the CSPM core.¹⁶ ⚠️	Runtime is an evolving battleground where neither is “perfect”; Wiz currently has more analyst attention here.
API security	Orca advertises fully agentless API security as part of its CNAPP.¹⁷ ✅	Wiz handles API‑exposed data as part of its graph, but dedicated “agentless API security” positioning is less prominent in public materials. ⚠️	Advantage to Orca if API posture is a priority and unified in CNAPP is desired.
Pricing model	Asset‑/environment‑based pricing; multiple comparisons call it “competitive” but sometimes “high” compared to alternatives like Wiz.¹⁸ ⚠️	Usage‑based model; reviewers note costs can increase over time with growth.¹⁹ ⚠️	No clear winner—depends on your footprint and growth curve.
Customer satisfaction	Several aggregators (TopAdvisor, some G2 metrics) say Orca has stronger average review scores overall vs Wiz.⁵ ✅	Official G2 CNAPP/CSPM grids show Wiz in the leaders quadrant with highest satisfaction scores among CNAPP vendors (across a broader base of customers).[^wiz-g2] ✅	Both have strong sentiment; pattern is “Wiz: more customers, high satisfaction; Orca: fewer customers, slightly higher per‑customer scores in some cuts.”

3. Where Orca Competes Strongly Against Wiz

3.1 Deployment, privacy and data residency

Orca offers three deployment models, including Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) where the scanning backend and data processing run entirely in the customer’s cloud account so no data or metadata leaves the environment.¹²
Press releases and independent write‑ups emphasize that this model is used to meet stringent privacy and cost‑efficiency requirements, and is positioned as providing “the highest levels of privacy and cost savings of any cloud security platform” according to Orca’s own claims.²⁰

This is a tangible differentiator versus Wiz’s pure SaaS model; organizations with strict sovereignty rules or regulators who scrutinize data egress may find Orca more acceptable.

3.2 Agentless breadth and ease of rollout

Orca’s SideScanning reads cloud block storage snapshots and cloud metadata to build an inventory and risk picture without agents, avoiding OS compatibility gaps and missed workloads. Orca’s own research claims typical agent‑based tools cover < 50% of assets in practice.²¹
Case studies (e.g., CHEQ, RSA, Digital Turbine, university customers) report that Orca produced meaningful findings within days and significantly improved posture and compliance automation, often as a replacement or consolidation of multiple point products.²²
A number of reviewers explicitly call Orca “best for rapid deployment across multi‑cloud environments”.²³

Wiz is also agentless and quick, but the evidence base shows Orca routinely winning praise for simplicity and near‑immediate value, especially for teams that are understaffed or need fast time to value more than deep customization.

3.3 Broad posture + compliance focus

Several independent comparisons say Orca takes a more holistic posture+compliance view, while Wiz is perceived as slightly more threat / risk‑detection‑centric.⁸
Orca heavily markets multi‑cloud compliance, with support for 100+ frameworks, CIS benchmarks and custom checks, and case studies around audit readiness.²⁴
Orca’s State of Cloud Security reports are based on actual production telemetry from the Orca platform rather than surveys, which suggests real visibility into misconfigurations, exposed data, and vulnerable assets across many customers.²⁵

For organizations where auditability, compliance coverage, and posture governance are equal priority to “find the worst 20 risks,” Orca’s positioning is attractive and plausibly stronger than Wiz’s default narrative.

3.4 API security, reachability and cost optimization extras

Orca offers agentless API security and agentless reachability analysis, attempting to show not just that something is exposed but that it is actually reachable from the internet or from sensitive segments.¹⁷²⁶
Orca invests in cloud cost optimization features (e.g., discovering neglected assets and retiring them to minimize spend), which can help demonstrate ROI in security + cost savings combined.²⁷

These extended capabilities are areas where public documentation points to Orca leading relative to Wiz, at least in integrated form inside the CNAPP.

4. Where Wiz Maintains an Edge Over Orca

4.1 Graph‑based risk analysis and maturity of the platform

Multiple independent sources highlight Wiz’s Security Graph as a significant advantage: it correlates misconfigurations, identities, vulnerabilities, data exposure, and runtime signals into attack paths and “toxic combinations” of risk.¹[^wiz-toxic]
PeerSpot and similar review sites explicitly say Wiz has an advantage in detailed risk analysis and contextual risk evaluation, providing a comprehensive view of critical risks.¹¹
Analysts describe Wiz as the de facto standard for graph‑based cloud risk management at large scale, with millions of workloads protected and hundreds of large enterprises in production.²⁸

Orca does have a Unified Data Model and attack‑path concepts, but the external commentary disproportionately credits Wiz for advanced context and attack‑path analytics.

4.2 Workflow, reporting and “platform” story

G2 comparison data and third‑party write‑ups report that Wiz has richer reporting and more flexible workflows, which some customers rely on for regulatory reporting and large‑team collaboration.¹⁴
Wiz positions itself as a platform shared by security, dev, and operations, with a large percentage of users actually sitting in Dev/DevOps rather than security, and many customers achieving and maintaining “zero critical” status.[^wiz-platform]
Runtime‑oriented features via Wiz Defend give Wiz an integrated posture+runtime story (CNAPP + CDR) that analysts describe as important in 2025’s shift toward runtime and SOC convergence.¹⁶

This suggests that in very large, mature programs with strong SOC and AppSec functions, Wiz is often seen as the safer/default choice, particularly if they want a strategic platform with strong runtime and incident response integrations.

4.3 Perceived gaps or weaknesses in Orca

Third‑party reviewers and analyst notes mention several Orca limitations that create openings for Wiz:

Workflow management & documentation: Orca’s workflow features score lower than Wiz’s; some customers want better integration maturity with ServiceNow and data centers, and clearer documentation.¹⁵
Real‑time risk assessment & alert presentation: Some reviewers say Orca could improve real‑time assessment, alert clarity, and the way risks are presented, which can matter in larger teams and SOC workflows.¹⁵
Need for sharper focus: One independent assessment suggests Orca has a very broad feature set and would benefit from being known for “one or two things exceptionally well,” implying its messaging and differentiation can feel diffuse compared to Wiz’s crisp Security Graph story.²⁹

These issues don’t negate Orca’s competitiveness but tilt the scale toward Wiz in highly structured, process‑heavy organizations.

5. Customer Sentiment & Head‑to‑Head Comparisons

Positive sentiment on Orca vs Wiz

TopAdvisor and other aggregation sources state that Orca has stronger overall reviews than Wiz when normalized across reviewers, and even label Orca the “Best Overall” choice in a direct Orca vs Wiz comparison.⁵
G2 comparison pages show Orca with higher scores in Ease of Setup and Quality of Support, with users praising responsive support and rapid onboarding.¹³
Multiple case studies emphasize that Orca “adds value practically from the first day of use”, compared to tools where value emerges only after lengthy deployments.³⁰

Positive sentiment on Wiz vs Orca

Wiz is consistently highlighted as a leader in CNAPP on major review platforms, with blog posts noting that users give Wiz the highest satisfaction scores among CNAPP/CSPM vendors overall.[^wiz-g2]
Customers and partners (Optiv, Telefónica Tech, cloud providers) call Wiz a “must‑have tool in any CISO stack”, praising clarity, holistic visibility, and its ability to get cross‑functional teams aligned on the same risk picture.³¹³²

Mixed/contradictory views

Some independent blogs and competitor content criticize Wiz as focusing more on “flash” than depth and flexibility, particularly in emerging runtime security use cases; others note alert fatigue and integration challenges in complex environments.³³³⁴
Conversely, other analysts argue that Wiz’s runtime and CDR capabilities are maturing quickly, and that its consolidated platform is exactly what enterprises want in a year of security tool consolidation.¹⁶³⁵
PeerSpot notes that Orca’s documentation, real‑time risk assessment, and alert presentation can be improved—meaning neither vendor is viewed as flawless, and trade‑offs differ by environment.¹⁵

The pattern across sources is: both are well‑regarded, with Orca slightly ahead on “experience per customer” in some cuts, and Wiz ahead in overall scale, graph‑based sophistication, and platform breadth.

6. Legal & Ecosystem Context

Orca has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Wiz in U.S. court, alleging Wiz copied Orca’s inventions and passed them off as its own.³⁶
Wiz has publicly countered that Orca is copying Wiz’s innovations and that Orca’s own innovation is lagging.³⁷
The case has not been fully resolved; a Delaware court declined to summarily dismiss Orca’s complaint, allowing litigation to proceed.³⁸

While this doesn’t directly impact technical capabilities, it does:

Confirm that the two are direct head‑to‑head competitors at a deep technology level.
Introduce legal and partner‑ecosystem risk. Some analysts advise channel partners reselling Wiz to consult legal counsel about potential exposure.³⁹

If you are highly risk‑sensitive about vendor legal battles, you may factor this into selection.

7. Compliance Considerations

Your organization’s stated compliance requirements are:

Hi
(No additional concrete frameworks or regulations were specified.)

Because this requirement is ambiguous and does not map to any known standard (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS), it is not possible to definitively state whether Orca Security or Wiz “meets” or “fails” this requirement.

Both vendors publicly advertise support for numerous compliance frameworks (CIS Benchmarks, NIST, PCI, HIPAA‑related mappings, etc.), but without a specific, recognized standard beyond the word “Hi”, there is no meaningful pass/fail compliance test to apply.

⚠️ Compliance Alert:

The requirement labeled “Hi” is not a recognizable industry compliance standard. Because of this, no vendor—including Orca Security or Wiz—can be reliably evaluated against it.
To perform a real compliance comparison, you should clarify which concrete standards (e.g., SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, HIPAA, PCI DSS, GDPR) are mandatory. At that point, both vendors’ attestations, audit reports, and product features can be compared.

At present, both vendors must be treated as “unverified” against your unique internal requirement, not non‑compliant—but you should not assume compliance until concrete standards are defined and vendor evidence is reviewed.

8. Overall Answer: Is Orca a Good Competitor to Wiz?

Putting the evidence together:

Same category, same deals
- Analysts, market guides, and legal filings all treat Orca Security and Wiz as direct peers in the CNAPP/CSPM market, competing in the same enterprise opportunities.
Capability parity with different emphases
- Both provide comprehensive agentless CNAPP across CSPM, CWPP elements, CIEM, and compliance.
- Orca is stronger on: deployment flexibility (BYOC), data‑residency‑sensitive models, simplicity of rollout, holistic posture+compliance view, and extras like API security and cost optimization.
- Wiz is stronger on: graph‑based context, detailed risk analysis, mature platform story, workflow/reporting sophistication, and overall market footprint.
Customer sentiment supports Orca as a viable alternative
- Aggregated reviews and some comparisons explicitly rate Orca above Wiz overall, especially in ease of setup and support quality.
- This suggests that in environments where time‑to‑value and operational simplicity are critical, Orca is not just a viable competitor but often a preferred alternative.
No decisive “better in every way” winner
- Evidence does not show Wiz categorically outperforming Orca or vice versa across all dimensions.
- Instead, strengths diverge: Wiz leads in scale and graph‑based analytics; Orca leads in certain deployment/privacy and breadth‑of‑coverage aspects.

Conclusion

Based on independent reviews, analyst coverage, and documented capabilities, Orca Security is a strong and credible competitor to Wiz in the CNAPP/CSPM space.

Whether Orca is the better choice for you depends on your priorities:

If you value strict data residency, easy rollout, strong multi‑cloud posture/compliance coverage, and integrated extras (API security, cost optimization), Orca looks particularly compelling.
If you prioritize graph‑driven risk analysis, runtime/CDR integration, rich reporting/workflows, and following the market’s most widely adopted CNAPP, Wiz likely remains the safer bet.

Suggested follow‑up topics

For deeper dives, see:

Wiz documentation and analyst commentary on its Security Graph and contextual risk analysis.https://www.wiz.io/ ↩ ↩² ↩³
Wiz customer references and “Zero Critical Club” program showcasing organizations reaching zero critical risks.https://www.wiz.io/zero-critical-club ↩
AWS and Google Cloud case studies on Orca’s deployment at scale.https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/big-data/orca-securitys-journey-to-a-petabyte-scale-data-lake-with-apache-iceberg-and-aws-analytics/ ↩
CNAPP market reports that analyze Wiz, Orca and peers.https://softwareanalyst.substack.com/p/redefining-cnapp-a-complete-guide ↩
TopAdvisor head‑to‑head comparison: “Orca Security vs. Wiz: Best Overall: Orca Security.”https://www.topadvisor.com/compare/orca-security-vs-wiz ↩ ↩² ↩³
Wiz vs Orca comparison from SECO or similar third‑party blogs summarizing features and pros/cons.https://www.secopsolution.com/blog/wiz-vs-orca ↩
Orca platform overview covering CSPM, CWPP, CIEM, DSPM, API security and more.https://www.orca.security ↩ ↩²
Independent statement that “Orca offers a more comprehensive view of cloud security by combining compliance and threat detection, while Wiz primarily focuses on threat detection and risk assessment.”https://www.secopsolution.com/blog/wiz-vs-orca ↩ ↩² ↩³
Orca’s description of patented SideScanning technology for agentless CNAPP.https://orca.security/platform/ ↩
Orca’s unified data model and dynamic risk scoring documentation.https://innetworktech.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ORCA-Side-Scanning-Technical-Brief-Digital.pdf ↩
PeerSpot comments that Wiz has an advantage in detailed risk analysis and contextual risk evaluation.https://www.peerspot.com/products/comparisons/orca-security_vs_wiz ↩ ↩²
Orca’s three deployment modes and BYOC option.https://orca.security/resources/comparisons/wiz/ ↩ ↩²
G2 comparison: Orca scoring higher on Ease of Setup and Quality of Support vs Wiz.https://www.g2.com/compare/orca-security-vs-wiz-wiz ↩ ↩²
G2/Wiz blog citing Wiz as in the leaders quadrant with highest satisfaction among CNAPP/CSPM vendors.https://www.wiz.io/blog/wiz-top-cnapp-cspm-g2 ↩ ↩² ↩³
PeerSpot and G2 reviews noting Orca’s strengths and “room for improvement” in real‑time assessment, docs and ServiceNow integration.https://www.peerspot.com/products/comparisons/orca-security_vs_wiz ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Analyst discussion of Wiz Defend and runtime security maturity.https://softwareanalyst.substack.com/p/runtime-security-in-2025-how-wiz ↩ ↩² ↩³
Orca’s claim of being the industry’s first fully agentless API security capability.https://orca.security/resources/video/orca-security-api-security-explainer/ ↩ ↩²
PeerSpot note that some view Orca’s pricing as high compared to alternatives like Wiz.https://www.peerspot.com/products/comparisons/orca-security_vs_wiz ↩
Third‑party note that Wiz’s usage‑based pricing may rise over time.https://www.secopsolution.com/blog/wiz-vs-orca ↩
Press releases on Orca’s privacy and cost‑savings claims via flexible deployment.https://orca.security/resources/press-releases/orca-security-privacy-cost-savings/ ↩
Orca research noting <50% asset coverage by traditional agent‑based CWPPs.https://orca.security/resources/blog/cwpp-cspm-ciem-cnapp/ ↩
Representative Orca case studies (RSA, CHEQ, Digital Turbine, universities).https://orca.security/resources/case-studies/ ↩
ClickUp blog listing Orca as a top Wiz alternative, “best for rapid deployment across multi‑cloud environments.”https://clickup.com/blog/wiz-competitors/ ↩
Orca’s multi‑cloud compliance marketing and framework support.https://orca.security/platform/multi-cloud-compliance/ ↩
Orca’s 2024 and 2025 State of Cloud Security reports based on live production data.https://orca.security/resources/blog/2024-state-public-cloud-report-risk-prioritization/ ↩
Orca’s agentless reachability analysis for production workloads.https://orca.security/resources/blog/agentless-dynamic-reachability-reduce-cloud-risks/ ↩
Orca blogs on cloud cost optimization and examples of reduced cloud waste.https://orca.security/resources/blog/5-examples-of-how-orca-reduces-cloud-costs/ ↩
Contrary and analyst data on Wiz protecting millions of workloads and serving a large fraction of Fortune 100/500.https://research.contrary.com/company/wiz ↩
Independent assessment suggesting Orca’s broad feature set could benefit from tighter focus on a few signature strengths.https://tag-infosphere.com/advisory/publications/download/independent-assessment-and-review-of-cybersecurity-vendor-orca-security ↩
Orca case study quote: “Orca adds value practically from the first day of use.”https://orca.security/resources/case-studies/ ↩
CloudWars article on Wiz’s holistic cloud‑native security platform replacing point products.https://cloudwars.com/cybersecurity/wiz-takes-a-holistic-cloud-native-approach-to-cloud-security-while-replacing-point-products/ ↩
Customer quote calling Wiz a “must‑have” tool in any CISO stack.https://www.wiz.io ↩
Orca comparison page claiming Wiz focuses more on flash than depth/flexibility and criticizing its alert prioritization.https://orca.security/resources/comparisons/wiz/ ↩
Third‑party discussion of alert volume and false positives in Wiz deployments.https://rheintec.io/en/it-security-blog/why-we-chose-wiz-as-the-cnapp-solution-for-our-customers ↩
Commentary on 2025 being “the year of security consolidation” and Wiz’s role.https://www.wiz.io/blog/wiz-acquires-gem-security-to-reinvent-threat-detection-in-the-cloud ↩
Orca’s patent complaint against Wiz.https://www.securityweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Orca-vs-Wiz-Lawsuit-Complaint.pdf ↩
Coverage of Wiz’s counter‑allegations that Orca copied Wiz features.https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/wiz-counters-orca-securitys-patent-infringement-allegations-a-25442 ↩
Reporting on Delaware court declining to dismiss Orca’s suit against Wiz at an early stage.https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/ryjc8dgnr ↩
Analyst warning that Wiz resellers should consult counsel about potential patent infringement risk.https://datos-insights.com/blog/orca-versus-wiz/ ↩