10 Best Cloud Native Security Tools

When cloud-native first took off, the draw was speed. Teams could ship code faster, infrastructure could scale on demand, and what used to be slow manual tasks became automated. However, those same mechanics that made teams more agile widened their attack surface. 

86% of organizations reported a cloud-native security incident in the past year. And now, attackers go straight for the supply chain. They slip malicious code into dependencies, sneak malware into containers, and comb through Kubernetes manifests for the slightest misstep. What looks like a harmless commit can mark the very beginnings of a breach.

You can’t manage these risks with a patchwork of point tools. Instead, you need a unified approach that secures code, pipelines, infrastructure, and runtime in one flow.

Top 10 Best Cloud Native Security Tools at a Glance

1. Best overall – Jit

2. Best for compliance and access governance – Apono

3. Best for securing service accounts and tokens – Astrix Security

4. Best for incident response and investigation – Mitiga

5. Best for enterprise adoption – Sysdig

6. Best for runtime protection – Sweet Security

7. Best for API protection – Upwind Security

8. Best for policy-driven security – Aryon Security

9. Best for container and Kubernetes security – Falco

10. Best for broad vulnerability scanning – Trivy

What Are Cloud Native Security Tools?

Cloud native describes an approach where applications are built from microservices, packaged in containers, and deployed through automated pipelines onto platforms like Kubernetes. This model accelerates delivery but also introduces risks at every lifecycle stage. Security has to follow the same pattern, working inside the lifecycle instead of standing at the edge.

Cloud native security tools provide defensive checks over four main layers, bringing cloud security controls into day-to-day operations. Some focus on code, scanning source and dependencies for vulnerabilities or secrets before deployment. 

Others look at infrastructure, reviewing Terraform, Helm, or Kubernetes manifests to catch misconfigurations. A third set targets the pipeline itself, enforcing policies in CI/CD so unsafe changes don’t slip through. Finally, runtime protections watch containers and services in production, alerting when processes behave in ways they shouldn’t.



These tools complement the broader security stack but focus on modern systems' short-lived and highly distributed nature. They address issues ranging from exposed secrets in a repository to overly permissive IAM roles or anomalous behavior in a cluster.

Many teams rely on a mix of individual tools that address the different layers, but more often than not, that produces gaps and inconsistent results. The current direction is toward unified platforms like CNAPP or ASPM that consolidate visibility and policy.

Benefits of Cloud Native Security Tools

• Stronger full-stack posture: Coverage extends across code, infrastructure, pipelines, and runtime environments to close gaps that attackers actively exploit.
• Early detection, faster remediation: Vulnerabilities and misconfigurations surface at the introduction, keeping issues from spreading downstream.
• Less complexity through automation: Policy enforcement and scanning run continuously in the background, removing the need for manual reviews and fragmented workflows.
• Improved developer productivity: Security feedback integrates directly into familiar pipelines to reduce context-switching and allow engineers to stay focused.
• Resilience against supply chain attacks: Continuous SBOMs and dependency scanning make it harder for attackers to sneak in tampered packages or unsafe images, complementing traditional offensive cybersecurity with proactive defenses.

Key Features to Look for in Cloud Native Security Tools

1. Native Integration Across the DevOps Toolchain

Your security tool should connect directly to GitHub, GitLab, CI/CD systems, and cloud platforms. Integration at this level (without demanding complex integrations) enforces checks at the point of change and reduces the overhead of context switching.

2. Contextual Risk Prioritization

A long list of vulnerabilities alone isn’t helpful. Choose tools that rank issues based on exploitability, runtime exposure, and system criticality. This level of detail helps teams focus on the vulnerabilities that pose the most significant risk instead of being buried under raw findings.

3. Shift-Left, Developer-Centric Remediation

Look for tools that deliver feedback in code reviews, IDEs, or pipeline runs. Early visibility keeps problems from moving downstream and turns security into a routine software-building step. It also limits the risk of late-stage rework and unstable deployments.

4. Visibility and Orchestration to Combat Tool Sprawl

Look for tools that consolidate findings from code, infrastructure, pipelines, and runtime into one place. A single view reduces duplication, removes conflicting results, and consistently applies policies across environments.

Top 10 Best Cloud Native Security Tools

1. Jit



Key Features

• Security-as-Code Plans (MVS): Predefined templates that codify best practices into actionable developer steps.

• Tool orchestration: Consolidates and normalizes results from scanners like Semgrep and OSV-Scanner.

• Pipeline-native: Instead of operating as an external platform, Jit runs inside GitHub and AWS pipelines, so checks happen as part of the delivery process.

• Modular adoption: Instead of forcing full platform rollout, Jit lets organizations adopt security incrementally. You can start with lightweight checks and expand coverage as maturity grows.

Overview

Jit is a developer-first Security-as-Code platform, not a heavy CNAPP. Unlike monolithic CNAPPs designed for enterprise security teams, Jit acts as an orchestration and knowledge layer that embeds security directly into GitHub and AWS workflows. It codifies best practices through Minimum Viable Security (MVS) plans and automates open-source tools inside the pipeline.

Features

• AI Agents support AppSec by triaging vulnerabilities, suggesting remediations, and generating compliance-ready reports in a human-in-the-loop model.

• Context knowledge graph ranks risks with awareness of runtime, business impact, and compliance context.

• Explainable and audit-ready design provides transparent scoring and continuous reporting.

Pros

• Lightweight adoption path

• Developer-first workflows

• Orchestrates existing tools instead of replacing them

• Security-as-code templates that reduce learning curves for developers

• Easy onboarding compared to traditional CNAPPs that require full platform adoption

• Reduces tool sprawl by centralizing outputs from scanners into one place

Cons

• Newer platform than established CNAPPs

• Requires initial setup of MVS plans to map to the organization's needs

Customer Review

“With Jit’s AI Agents, we can delegate a lot of the tedious work of performing constant risk assessment, and it’s shockingly good at surfacing what needs to be dealt with.”

2. Apono



Key Features

• Just-in-time and time-limited access: Ensures users only hold permissions for the moment they need them.

• Automated discovery: Highlights unused or excessive privileges and can revoke them without manual cleanup.

• Flexible access requests: Allows users to obtain temporary rights through Slack, Teams, CLI, or a portal.

• Context-aware rules: Enforce least-privilege access based on factors like environment, resource, and role.

Overview

Apono delivers just-in-time (JIT) and just-enough-privilege access for human and non-human identities across cloud and data resources. It offers self-service workflows and compliance automation (SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR).

Features

• Self-service access workflows that automatically expire to prevent privilege buildup

• Continuous logs and reporting that show who accessed what and when

• Broad integrations across clouds, databases, and identity providers centralize control over human and machine identities.

• Fine-grained approval policies with multi-step workflows for sensitive access requests

Pros

• Automates privilege cleanup

• Simple, user-friendly access flows

• Strong least-privilege enforcement

Cons

• Needs tuning in complex setups

• Interface still maturing

Customer Review

“Most integration configurations are straightforward and backed up by informative yet simple documentation. In more complicated cases, Apono's team was happy to help and solved issues fast and with high professionalism.”

3. Astrix Security



Key Features

• Discovery and inventory of non-human identities: Tracks service accounts, API keys, OAuth tokens, AI agents, and other machine identities across environments.

• Least-privilege provisioning: Issues new identities with minimal access, time-limited credentials, and just-in-time permissions.

• Behavioral threat detection: Flags abnormal or out-of-scope activity from non-human identities before it escalates.

• Policy enforcement and governance: Ensures every non-human identity is assigned an owner and subject to regular review workflows.

Overview

Astrix secures non-human identities (NHIs), including service accounts, API keys, OAuth apps, and AI agents. It provides discovery, least-privilege control, and threat detection across SaaS/IaaS. It is purpose-built for machine and service accounts, not human IAM.

Features

• Real-time catalog of all non-human identities, plus context such as which systems they touch and how they are used. 

• Automatic detection of over-privilege, dormant identities, and secret exposure. 

• Tight access lifecycle management, including provisioning, short-lived credentials, and decommissioning of agents and identities. 

• Continuous monitoring of SaaS-to-SaaS connections to detect risky third-party integrations

Pros

• Strong visibility into non-human identities

• Automated cleanup of risky or unused accounts

• Purpose-built for AI agents and service tokens

Cons

• Limited coverage for human identity management

• Integration can be complex in large environments

Customer Review

“We like the AI agents doing the work for us, essentially saving time and being a more reliable way to secure our accounts.”

4. Mitiga



Key Features

• Comprehensive cloud detection and response: Identifies threats across cloud, SaaS, and identity systems with over 1,000 detection rules. 

• Forensic data lake: Stores years of normalized logs from multiple sources to support deep investigations. 

• Investigation Workbench: Builds unified timelines of suspicious activity so response teams can trace incidents faster and more accurately. 

• Automated incident readiness and response: Mitiga’s workflows automate detection, alerting, and containment actions, improving the speed and consistency of responses.

Overview

Mitiga focuses on helping teams investigate and respond when cloud incidents occur. Its strengths are forensic timelines, log normalization, and automated incident readiness rather than broad rule counts.

Features

• Panoramic visibility across clouds, SaaS, and human plus non-human identities. 

• Cloud Attack Scenario Library (CASL) that codifies threat intelligence into detection rules for elusive, real-world cloud attacks. 

• Agentless deployment and managed detection services so teams can lean on Mitiga for tooling and expertise.

• Retrospective analysis that reconstructs incidents using long-term log retention for compliance and post-mortem review

Pros

• Fast detection and response across cloud and SaaS environments

• Deep context for investigations

• Lower overhead for deployment / agentless integration

Cons

• Costs may scale with log volume and feature usage

• Less focused on early preventive controls like IaC or code scanning

Customer Review

“Mitiga has played a key role in modernizing how we protect our cloud infrastructure, user access, and SaaS tools that power our business. We rely on both their platform and managed services, and together they have helped us shift from reactive to truly proactive.”

5. Sysdig



Key Features

• Runtime insights and threat detection: Uses Falco rules, machine learning, and drift control to flag threats in real time across workloads, containers, Kubernetes, and cloud services. 

• Risk prioritization via attack paths: Maps out how misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and permissions combine to reveal exploitable routes. 

• Agent-and-agentless visibility: Monitors active processes and in-use packages with agents, and uses cloud APIs for broader posture and vulnerability visibility. 

• AI-powered analyst: Provides reasoning over threat and vulnerability data, helping focus efforts on what matters most.

Overview

Sysdig Secure is a runtime-powered CNAPP that prioritizes risk with runtime context, detects threats using the Falco rules engine, and adds AI assistance (Sysdig Sage) across vuln and D&R workflows. 

Features

• In-use risk focus prioritizes vulnerabilities by what workloads run, not just what images contain.

• Admission control and drift prevention block risky images at deployment time. 

• Kubernetes-aware context maps findings to namespaces, deployments, and cloud accounts for clear ownership and triage.

• Threat-hunting workflows reconstruct timelines from captured activity to speed investigations.

Pros

• High-fidelity detection of active threats and risky runtime behavior

• Strong contextual understanding of risk via attack path analysis

• Flexible deployment (agent or agentless)

Cons

• It can be expensive on a large scale, especially with large workloads or many cloud services.

• Less focused on developer-centric shift-left tooling like code scanning or PR-based feedback

Customer Review

“With seamless integration into AWS and Azure, we gain accurate asset visibility, real-time runtime threat detection, and actionable remediation guidance through Sysdig Sage AI, all while maintaining compliance at scale.”

6. Sweet Security



Key Features

• Unified detection and response: Combines cloud, workload, and application layers to detect threats in seconds.

• Runtime CSPM and cloud visibility: Spots misconfigurations and shadow assets in real time.

• Identity threat detection and response: Monitors human and non-human identities' credentials, privileges, and access patterns.

• API security with Layer-7 monitoring: Tracks usage, detects anomalies, and enforces protection at the endpoint level.

Overview

Sweet Security provides a runtime-powered CNAPP that combines real-time visibility, identity and workload threat detection, and risk management across apps, workloads, and cloud infrastructure. Its strong Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) is a key differentiator.

Features

• Unified detection and response across cloud, workloads, and applications

• AI-generated incident storylines that reconstruct full attack narratives

• Runtime-driven vulnerability prioritization based on what’s actually executed

• Identity threat detection and response (ITDR) for human and non-human accounts

• Layer-7 / API monitoring to catch anomalies and application-level threats

Pros

• Near-instant detection and resolution of threats (2-5 minute MTTR) 

• Visibility across cloud infrastructure, workloads, and identities 

• High sensor efficiency with minimal performance overhead

Cons

• Price can rise sharply with scale and feature usage

• Learning curve for fine-tuning rules, alerts, and context settings

Customer Review

"The overall experience was very positive. The vendor has provided strong support, the product performs well, and implementation was straightforward.”

7. Upwind Security



Key Features

• Real-time topology visibility: Provides a live map of network communication, APIs, and dependencies so teams can see what is running.

• Agentless cloud scanning: Covers AWS, GCP, Azure, and Kubernetes without requiring heavy agents, reducing resource load.

• Application-layer threat detection: Tracks API calls, function executions, and runtime behavior to surface risks beyond simple misconfigurations.

• Risk stories and root-cause tracing: Correlates runtime events, identity activity, and misconfigurations into clear narratives that show where risk originated.

Overview

Upwind is a runtime-powered cloud security platform that correlates runtime data with posture to reduce alert noise, map attack paths, and accelerate root-cause analysis. It also includes API security. 

Features

• Network flow visualization highlights which services communicate with each other and where external exposure exists.

• Drift detection identifies when running workloads deviate from approved configurations or baselines.

• Lateral movement mapping shows how an attacker could pivot between workloads once inside the environment.

• Forensic capture and investigation workflows record runtime activity and reconstruct timelines for compliance reviews and threat analysis.

Pros

• Strong runtime visibility into active threats

• Reduced noise with context-driven findings

• Lightweight scanning with lower overhead

Cons

• Some features require tuning to avoid false positives

• Runtime sensors can add a modest resource cost

• Posture and IaC coverage are less mature than leading CNAPPs

Customer Review

“Upwind provides a real-time visibility into what’s actually running. I especially like how runtime data is correlated into “Stories,” making it easy to trace issues back to their root cause and prioritize what truly matters.”

8. Aryon Security



Key Features

• AI-powered pre-deployment policy enforcement: Ensures misconfigurations are caught before they reach production.

• Technology-agnostic scanning: Works across IaC templates, manual configurations, and cloud console changes.

• Automated drift detection: Flags when deployed resources diverge from intended policies.

• Policy marketplace and customization: Provides ready-made policies while allowing fine-tuning for specific needs.

Overview

Aryon enforces pre-deployment cloud security policies at the cloud layer (not code), using an AI-driven policy engine and an enforcement layer to prevent risky changes before deployment. For smaller teams without a dedicated security leader, tools like Aryon can offer governance capabilities similar to what a CISO-as-a-service model would provide.

Features

• Policy engine that incorporates risk patterns, compliance standards, and best practices

• Granular controls for exceptions, waiver management, and conditional approvals

• Version control for policies with rollback options when changes create conflicts

• Integration hooks for CI/CD tools like GitHub Actions and GitLab CI to enforce checks inline.

Pros

• Prevents risky deployments before production

• Integrates easily with existing workflows

• Adaptable policies that evolve with changing risks

Cons

• Limited runtime monitoring once resources are live

• Enforcement may require organizational buy-in

• Complex policies can take time to tune

9. Falco



Key Features

• Runtime threat detection: Uses kernel-level monitoring to catch unexpected process executions, file access, and network activity inside containers and hosts.

• Kubernetes and container auditing: Flags suspicious activity in Kubernetes clusters, such as privilege escalation or changes to sensitive resources.

• Rule-based engine: Provides a rich library of detection rules and supports custom rules for specific environments.

• Community-driven project: Maintained under the CNCF with strong adoption and frequent contributions.

Overview

Falco (CNCF-graduated) is one of the most widely adopted Linux security tools for container and Kubernetes environments. It’s an open-source runtime detection engine that monitors Linux kernel syscalls and enriches events with container/Kubernetes context to alert on abnormal behavior in real time. 

Features

• Sidecar and daemonset deployment options designed for Kubernetes clusters

• Community-maintained rule sets that evolve to cover new container attack methods

• Output connectors for Prometheus, Grafana, Slack, and SIEM platforms

• Audit logs that track both system-level and Kubernetes API events for investigations

Pros

• Strong runtime visibility for containers and Kubernetes

• Highly extensible through custom rules

• Backed by a large and active open-source community

Cons

• Requires tuning to reduce false positives at scale

• Limited to detection. No native remediation

• Out-of-the-box coverage focuses on runtime only

Customer Review

“It is really good for Linux systems and is a cloud native security tool, so it is quite good at the scalability front. It is perfect for UI and houses many security tools within it.”

10. Trivy



Key Features

• Vulnerability scanning for containers and images: Detects known CVEs in container images, file systems, and repositories.

• Infrastructure as Code scanning: Reviews Terraform, Kubernetes YAML, Helm charts, and Dockerfiles for insecure configurations.

• SBOM generation and analysis: Produces software bills of materials to track dependencies and exposures across the stack.

• Comprehensive ecosystem coverage: Scans OS packages, language libraries, secrets, and cloud infrastructure in one tool.

Overview

Trivy is the all-in-one open-source scanner for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, secrets, licenses, and SBOMs. It covers images, filesystems, repos, artifact registries, Kubernetes, and IaC.

Features

• CLI-based scanning that integrates directly into CI/CD pipelines

• Prebuilt policies for common misconfigurations with support for custom rule sets

• Continuous updates from public vulnerability databases and community feeds

• Plugins and integrations with platforms like GitHub Actions, GitLab, and Argo CD

Pros

• Broad coverage from containers to IaC and dependencies

• Easy integration into developer workflows and CI/CD pipelines

• Strong open-source community with frequent updates

Cons

• Vulnerability reports can be noisy without additional prioritization

• Not a complete runtime monitoring solution, focused mainly on scanning

• Some advanced enterprise features are gated behind Aqua’s commercial platform

Customer Review

“I primarily use Trivy for container and Kubernetes security, integrating it with Azure DevOps for vulnerability scans. Its feature set is impressive, though it generates false positives and struggles with database updates. Transitioning from Clair and Anchore proved beneficial.”

Orchestrate Cloud-Native Security for the Long Term

Cloud-native security tools give teams the visibility and control needed to manage fast-moving infrastructure, but no single tool solves everything. While CNAPPs and point solutions each have their role, engineering leaders increasingly need something more cohesive and developer-friendly. A solution that addresses misconfigurations, vulnerable code, and runtime risks together instead of in isolation.

Jit brings these pieces together by orchestrating multiple security tools such as SAST, IaC scanners, and runtime monitors into a single layer. It then delivers the results inside developer workflows, making security checks part of the same process teams already use to build and ship software. This approach makes for practical, scalable security for modern teams.

For organizations that want security to work as a connected system rather than a stack of disconnected tools, Jit offers a platform designed for resilience over the long term. Learn more about Jit and start your Security-as-Code journey today.