Prowler vs Orca Security: Open Cloud Security Platform vs Agentless CNAPP

The Fundamental Difference: Open vs Closed

Prowler and Orca solve the same problem in opposite ways. Prowler is an open cloud security platform built on an Apache 2.0 codebase with 14,000+ GitHub stars and 300+ contributors. Every check, every detection rule, every compliance mapping is something your team can read, audit, and change. Orca Security is a polished but fully proprietary CNAPP. You see the findings, not the logic that produced them.

That difference shows up in practice. When an auditor asks how a finding was determined, Prowler users point to the exact Python class and its execute() method. Orca users point to a vendor datasheet. When your team disagrees with a check, Prowler users fork it and ship their own version. Orca users file a request and wait for the next release.

Prowler was created in 2016 by Toni de la Fuente, a former AWS security engineer, on the belief that cloud security tooling should be transparent and vendor-neutral. Orca was founded in 2019 by former Check Point engineers and built a strong agentless product, but it kept the engine closed. Organizations like Salesforce, Siemens, Tesla, and IBM trust Prowler precisely because they can verify what it does.

Agentless Scanning: What It Actually Means

Orca's signature is SideScanning, an agentless approach that reads block-storage snapshots out of band through the cloud provider's API. It is genuinely clever and gets you broad visibility fast without installing anything on your workloads. Prowler is also agentless. It connects with a read-only role and queries the cloud control plane directly. Neither tool requires you to roll out agents to get started.

The honest nuance is timing. Snapshot-based scanning is periodic, not continuous, so there is a window between scans where new risk is invisible. Orca acknowledged this gap in January 2025 when it shipped Orca Sensor, an optional eBPF runtime sensor that adds real-time detection. In other words, the agentless pioneer added a lightweight agent to cover what snapshots miss.

Prowler runs on demand and on a schedule, integrates into CI/CD pipelines, and emits findings in OCSF so you can feed them into any SIEM or data platform. Because it is open source, you can see exactly which API calls each check makes and extend the scan to cover services and providers Orca does not.

Cost: Free to Start vs Quote-Only

Prowler Cloud publishes its pricing and starts free. Orca does not publish pricing and has no free tier or self-service trial. To even evaluate Orca, you go through a sales process and a custom quote. That alone is a meaningful difference for teams that want to prove value before committing budget.

Why Prowler's pricing is structurally simpler

• Per-account pricing scales with your org structure, not with how many VMs, containers, or data assets you run.
• No per-user fees. Your whole security, DevOps, and compliance team can use the platform.
• No module upselling. Compliance frameworks, IaC scanning, and Kubernetes are included.
• The open source CLI is completely free with no workload limits or feature gates.
• You can start today without a sales call or a quote.

Cloud Provider Coverage: 16 vs 6

Prowler supports 16 cloud and SaaS providers. Orca supports 6. If your environment goes beyond AWS, Azure, and GCP, that gap decides whether you get one unified view or several blind spots.

Prowler coverage depth

• AWS: the deepest coverage of any open source tool, hundreds of checks across 60+ services, and an official AWS Security Hub partner integration.
• Azure: full CIS Benchmark coverage including Entra ID MFA checks, with Bicep remediation code.
• GCP: CIS Benchmark coverage with Cloud Asset Inventory integration.
• Kubernetes: CIS Kubernetes Benchmark at cluster and namespace level.
• Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace: SaaS posture that Orca does not cover.
• GitHub: repository and organization security checks.
• Cloudflare: 29 checks across DNS, SSL/TLS, WAF, access control, and zone config.
• Plus: Alibaba Cloud, Oracle Cloud, OpenStack, MongoDB Atlas, Okta, Vercel, and more.
• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform and CloudFormation scanning via Trivy.

Orca coverage

Orca supports AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, Alibaba Cloud, and Kubernetes. That is solid multi-cloud coverage for the major IaaS platforms. What it does not give you is posture management for the SaaS and identity layers: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Okta, and Cloudflare. If a lot of your real risk lives in those services, Orca leaves them out.

Customization and AI-Native Extensibility

Prowler is built to be extended. Every check is a Python class with a metadata YAML file, so any security engineer can write a custom check in under an hour. That is not a roadmap promise. Organizations like Inditex (the parent of Zara), Spain's National Cryptologic Center (CCN), and AWS have contributed to the platform.

• Custom checks via Python: inherit from the Check base class, implement execute(), return CheckReport objects.
• Prowler Studio: an AI assistant that helps create detection checks, generate remediations, and update compliance frameworks.
• Prowler MCP Server (mcp.prowler.com/mcp): exposes Prowler to any MCP-compatible AI agent like Claude Code or Cursor, so teams can query findings, trigger scans, and correlate results.
• Custom compliance frameworks: map any internal policy or regulation to Prowler checks with YAML and track it like any built-in framework.
• OCSF-native output: findings drop straight into any SIEM, SOAR, or data platform that speaks OCSF.

Orca has added AI agents and runtime AI detection, and it can capture MCP activity for visibility. But the underlying platform stays closed. You can consume Orca's AI features, but you cannot read the detection logic, write your own checks, or add provider coverage yourself.

Choose the AI Model That Powers Your Security

Most platforms hand you one AI assistant running one model, take it or leave it, on the vendor's infrastructure. Prowler lets you choose the model behind your AI security workflows. That matters for two reasons: performance, and keeping your data inside your own boundary.

• Best-in-class by default. Your Prowler license includes the top-performing model from OpenAI, so you get state-of-the-art AI out of the box with nothing to set up.
• Bring your own model from Amazon Bedrock. Prefer a different model, or need every prompt and response to stay inside your perimeter? Point Prowler at Amazon Bedrock and run the entire AI workflow within your own security boundary. Your data does not leave your environment. That is a hard requirement for regulated and security-conscious teams, and it is a choice Orca does not give you.
• Bring a custom or OpenAI-compatible model via OpenRouter. Run your own fine-tuned model, or any OpenAI-compatible model available through OpenRouter. You are never locked into one vendor's idea of which AI you should use.

Who Should Choose Prowler

Prowler is the right choice for specific teams and situations. Here is who benefits most.

Frequently Asked Questions