SecPortal vs Aqua Security
delivery workspace vs container-lifecycle CNAPP
Aqua Security is the container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle platform in the Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) category. The product walks the container image from source through registry through Kubernetes admission through runtime workload protection on one unified platform, layering image scanning, IaC and Kubernetes manifest scanning, secrets discovery, software supply chain integrity, cloud security posture management (CSPM), vulnerability management with in-use exploitable-package filtering, and runtime drift detection through the Aqua Enforcer agent on top of the Aqua Trivy scan engine. The buyer assumption is that the containerised workload is the asset of record and the platform engineering, cloud security, and AppSec teams need a CNAPP that owns the container and Kubernetes lifecycle end to end across AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and on-prem clusters. SecPortal is a different shape: scoped engagements, manual finding entry, AI report generation, branded client portal, native external and authenticated web scanning, and SAST plus SCA on connected repositories all live inside one workspace. This page is the side-by-side for buyers comparing a container-lifecycle CNAPP across connected clusters to a delivery workspace that scans, reports, and delivers on its own.
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| Feature | SecPortal | Aqua Security |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | Security delivery workspace with scanning, findings, AI reports, and client portal on one tenant | Container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle CNAPP that walks images from source through registry through admission through runtime, layered with CSPM, CWPP, supply chain integrity, IaC, secrets, and vulnerability management on top |
| Engagement model with scope, ROE, and deliverables | Container image, Kubernetes workload, supply chain pipeline, and runtime-event model rather than scoped engagement | |
| Client model with onboarding, contacts, and access control | Internal platform team, cloud account owner, and developer model | |
| Branded white-label client portal on your subdomain | ||
| Built-in external vulnerability scanning (16 modules) | Cloud-side external attack surface visibility scoped to connected accounts and registries; not a generic external perimeter scanner outside the container and cloud surface | |
| Authenticated web application scanning (DAST) | ||
| Code scanning (SAST/SCA via Semgrep) | Code-side coverage focuses on IaC, Kubernetes manifests, container-image package SCA via Aqua Trivy, secrets, and SBOM paired with runtime in-use filtering | |
| Container image scanning across registries and pipelines | Container image package SCA via Semgrep on connected repositories | |
| Kubernetes admission control gating at the cluster boundary | ||
| Kubernetes manifest and Helm chart scanning | ||
| Container and Kubernetes runtime workload protection through the Aqua Enforcer agent | ||
| Cloud security posture management (CSPM) | ||
| Software supply chain integrity (signing, attestation, SBOM lineage) | ||
| In-use package filtering for container vulnerability prioritisation | ||
| Subdomain enumeration and external attack surface discovery outside cloud accounts | ||
| Manual finding entry with full editor | ||
| AI-powered narrative report generation (executive, technical, remediation) | Console dashboards, AI-assisted prioritisation, and policy-violation views rather than engagement-shaped narrative deliverables | |
| 300+ finding templates with remediation guidance | Vendor-mapped container, runtime, and posture findings with developer remediation guidance | |
| CVSS 3.1 vector parsing and auto-scoring | CVSS plus Aqua in-use exploitable-package weighting that downranks unloaded packages | |
| Scanner result import (Nessus, Burp Suite, CSV) | CNAPP-native ingestion plus connectors into ticketing and CI/CD | |
| Encrypted credential vault for authenticated scans (AES-256-GCM) | Cloud-API plus Enforcer-agent-based access; no credential vault for non-container authenticated DAST | |
| Continuous scheduled scanning cadence (daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly) | Continuous agent-driven assessment plus live runtime telemetry against connected clusters and registries | |
| Retest workflow paired to original finding | Re-evaluation through the next image rebuild, the next registry scan, the next admission gate, or the next runtime-event window on the connected workload | |
| Exception register with documented decision chain | Policy waiver workflow against runtime, admission, or posture findings; not a per-finding exception decision chain | |
| Compliance framework templates | 21 frameworks including OWASP, OWASP ASVS, OWASP MASVS, OWASP API Security Top 10, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, MITRE ATT&CK, DORA, NIS2, CIS Controls, and Essential Eight | Compliance dashboards across PCI DSS, NIST 800-53, SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP, CIS Benchmarks (Docker, Kubernetes, EKS, AKS, GKE), NIST CSF, and similar mapped against ingested cloud, container, and runtime evidence |
| Integrated invoicing and Stripe Connect payments for engagements | ||
| Activity audit trail with CSV export | Platform audit logs and runtime event history inside the Aqua console | |
| MFA enforcement on every workspace | SSO and IdP-driven controls | |
| Free plan available | ||
| Pricing model | Free, Pro, Team | Sales-led licensing by container workload, scanned image, and Enforcer agent count, with separately priced modules for runtime protection, supply chain security, posture, and serverless |
| Setup time | 2 minutes | Cloud and registry connection plus Enforcer agent deployment across each cluster plus admission webhook plus policy calibration |
| Best fit for | AppSec teams, internal security teams, vulnerability management teams, product security teams, pentest firms, MSSPs, and consultancies that scan, record, report, and deliver findings from one workspace | Platform engineering, cloud security, container security, and AppSec teams operating Kubernetes-heavy AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, or on-prem estates that need a container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle CNAPP across image, registry, admission, runtime, IaC, secrets, supply chain, posture, and vulnerability management |
SecPortal vs Aqua Security: delivery workspace vs container-lifecycle CNAPP
Aqua Security is the container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle platform in the Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) category. The product walks the container image from source through registry through Kubernetes admission through runtime workload protection on one unified platform, layering image scanning, IaC and Kubernetes manifest scanning, secrets discovery, software supply chain integrity, cloud security posture management (CSPM), vulnerability management with in-use exploitable-package filtering, and runtime drift detection through the Aqua Enforcer agent on top of the Aqua Trivy scan engine. The buyer assumption is that the containerised workload is the asset of record and the platform engineering, cloud security, and AppSec teams need a CNAPP that owns the container and Kubernetes lifecycle end to end across AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, and on-prem clusters.
SecPortal is a different category. SecPortal is a security delivery workspace that carries scoped engagements, manual and scanner-driven findings, AI-generated reports, a branded client portal, and an audit trail all on one tenant. The buyer is a penetration testing firm, an MSSP, a consultancy, an AppSec team, a vulnerability management team, a product security team, or an in-house security function whose work spans more than the container and Kubernetes lifecycle and whose deliverables go to external clients, business units, or auditors. If you are comparing a container-lifecycle CNAPP that walks images from source to runtime to a delivery workspace that scans, reports, and delivers on its own, this page is the side-by-side. The adjacent CNAPP and cloud security comparisons buyers evaluate alongside Aqua are SecPortal vs Wiz, SecPortal vs Orca Security, SecPortal vs Prisma Cloud, SecPortal vs Microsoft Defender for Cloud, and SecPortal vs Sysdig.
Where Aqua stops for engagement, manual finding, and delivery work
These are not Aqua-specific criticisms; they are properties of a container-lifecycle CNAPP when you compare it to running scoped engagements, manual reviews, external and authenticated web scanning, AI report writing, and branded delivery on a single workspace.
Built as a container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle CNAPP, not a delivery workspace
Aqua Security is a Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) built around the container and Kubernetes lifecycle. The platform reads container images at build, scans registries, watches Kubernetes admission, observes runtime workloads through the Aqua Enforcer agent, and pairs that with cloud posture, infrastructure-as-code scanning, secrets discovery, software supply chain integrity, vulnerability management with in-use exploitable-package filtering, and Aqua Trivy across container, Kubernetes, IaC, SBOM, and license surfaces. The buyer assumption is that the containerised workload is the asset of record and the platform engineering, cloud security, and AppSec teams need a CNAPP that walks every container image from source through registry through admission through runtime on one unified platform. SecPortal is a different shape: scoped engagements, manual finding entry, AI report generation, branded client portal, native external and authenticated web scanning, and SAST plus SCA on connected repositories all live inside one workspace.
No engagement, scope, or deliverable model
Aqua is organised around the container image, the Kubernetes cluster, the runtime workload, the supply chain pipeline, and the developer-routed remediation. There is no scoped engagement record with a kickoff, a defined target list, a final report, and a closure date. If the work you ship is a penetration test, a vulnerability assessment, an external attack surface programme, an AppSec code review, a third-party security review, or a compliance audit with a contract scope and a deliverable, Aqua does not carry that record. SecPortal does, on the same workspace as the scanner, the report generator, and the client portal.
No branded client portal on your subdomain
Aqua output lives inside the Aqua Platform console and inside developer and ticketing surfaces (pull requests, Jira tickets, chat messages, Kubernetes admission webhooks, SIEM forwards). There is no white-label portal a security team or consultancy can hand to an external client, a business unit, or an auditor under their own brand. SecPortal serves a branded client portal on a tenant subdomain so every finding, retest, remediation thread, and report download lives under your name rather than under a vendor name.
No native pentest, manual finding, or narrative report workflow
Aqua produces image scan output, IaC and Kubernetes manifest findings, runtime drift detections, admission control blocks, posture rule violations, and vulnerability rankings filtered by in-use exploitability, but it does not draft narrative pentest reports, accept manual finding entry from a tester or reviewer outside the container surface, or generate executive summaries and remediation roadmaps that go to a board, an auditor, or an external client. SecPortal supports manual finding entry with a full editor, drafts executive, technical, and remediation deliverables from the live findings record, and pairs every retest to the original finding so the closure record holds up under audit.
No external perimeter or authenticated web scanning that sits outside the container and cloud surface
Aqua is built around the container image and the Kubernetes workload. The platform reads registries, walks Helm charts and Kustomize manifests, scans IaC at build, runs admission controllers in the cluster, and watches runtime behaviour through the Enforcer agent inside each cluster, but it does not run external vulnerability scans against an internet-facing perimeter that lives outside the connected container and cloud surface, and it does not run authenticated web application scans against a logged-in non-containerised application. SecPortal runs 16 external scanner modules across DNS, TLS, ports, headers, technology, subdomain enumeration, path probing, and CVE matching on any verified domain, plus 17 authenticated web scanner modules against any logged-in target.
Sales-led pricing tied to workload, image, and Enforcer count
Aqua pricing is sales-led and licensed by container workload, scanned image, Enforcer agent count, and runtime-protected node, with separately priced modules for runtime protection, supply chain security, posture, and serverless and a contract floor that fits enterprise procurement rather than self-service onboarding. The Enforcer agent has to be deployed on every cluster the team wants admission control or runtime protection across. SecPortal pricing is published on the website with a free plan, monthly Pro and Team tiers, and no annual contract floor for the Pro and Team tiers.
How a container-lifecycle CNAPP and a delivery workspace see the same problem differently
Container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle CNAPP is a useful framing for image-to-runtime exposure plus admission control, but the buyer should be clear-eyed about what a lifecycle-anchored CNAPP gives you and where the engagement, manual finding, and delivery workflow has to go instead. The contrast below is between a CNAPP that derives value from walking every container image across source, registry, admission, and runtime on the connected clusters and a delivery workspace that holds the engagement record on the tenant where the operators run.
A container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle CNAPP walks the image from source to runtime
Aqua and similar container-lifecycle CNAPP platforms start from the assumption that the container image and the Kubernetes workload are the asset of record. The economic value comes from one platform that scans the image at source, watches the registry, gates admission into the cluster, observes runtime behaviour through an agent inside each node, and routes the remediation back through the developer pipeline that produced the image. The product is the container-and-Kubernetes side of cloud security, pairing image immutability and admission control with runtime drift detection so the backlog routed to developers is anchored to what actually runs inside the cluster.
A delivery workspace owns the engagement and finding record from scope to closure
SecPortal does not assume that a container-lifecycle CNAPP is the right shape for every kind of security work. The workspace runs scoped engagements, supports manual finding entry from a tester or reviewer, runs its own external and authenticated web scanning plus code scanning on connected repositories, calibrates severity through CVSS 3.1 with environmental adjustment, ships AI-generated executive, technical, and remediation deliverables, and serves the report and the live findings through a branded client portal on a tenant subdomain. The same record holds for a scoped pentest, a continuous vulnerability assessment, an AppSec code review, a third-party security review, and an external attack surface programme.
The right answer depends on whether the container is the work or the work goes wider than the container
If the team is a cloud security or platform engineering function operating multi-cluster Kubernetes on AWS, Azure, GCP, or on-prem, the bottleneck is walking every image from source through registry through admission through runtime on one platform with admission control gating and Enforcer-anchored runtime drift detection, and the buyer needs a CNAPP that owns the container and Kubernetes lifecycle end to end, a container-lifecycle CNAPP like Aqua is the right shape. If the team is a penetration testing firm, an MSSP, a consultancy, an AppSec team, a vulnerability management team, a product security team, or an in-house security function whose work spans pentest engagements, manual finding entry, external perimeter scanning, authenticated web testing, code scanning, AI report writing, and branded client delivery, a delivery workspace like SecPortal is the right shape. Many enterprises run both: the container-lifecycle CNAPP for the image and runtime layer and a delivery workspace for the engagement, finding, and report lifecycle that sits beside it.
Container-lifecycle ownership versus adjacent CNAPP positioning
Aqua differentiates inside the CNAPP category by anchoring on the container and Kubernetes lifecycle rather than on a security-graph abstraction, an agentless block-storage read, a multi-module CSPM and CWPP bundle, a first-party Azure-and-AWS posture model, or a Falco-anchored runtime engine. The contrast below names how the lifecycle frame compares to the adjacent positioning each CNAPP vendor takes.
Image-to-runtime walk: Aqua Enforcer, admission controllers, and Aqua Trivy
Aqua walks the container image across five stations: source repository scan, image build scan, registry scan, Kubernetes admission gate, and runtime workload protection through the Aqua Enforcer agent inside each cluster. Aqua Trivy, donated to the CNCF, covers container images, IaC, Kubernetes manifests, SBOM, and license scanning across the open-source and commercial deployments. The buyer benefit is one operating record for the same image as it moves from a developer commit to a production pod, plus the option to block at admission or kill at runtime when drift, runtime anomaly, or known-vulnerable behaviour is detected.
Adjacent CNAPP positioning contrasts
Wiz markets the Security Graph and agentless reads. Orca markets SideScanning and the unified data model. Palo Alto Prisma Cloud markets breadth across CSPM, CWPP, and CIEM. Microsoft Defender for Cloud markets Azure-first multicloud posture. Sysdig markets Falco-anchored runtime workload protection. Aqua markets container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle ownership with image immutability, admission control gating, and Enforcer-anchored runtime drift detection. The vocabulary differs but the underlying CNAPP shape is similar: read the connected cloud surface, model the container and identity graph, surface the toxic combinations that matter.
Where SecPortal sits next to a container CNAPP rather than inside the category
SecPortal is not a container-lifecycle CNAPP and does not claim to replace one. SecPortal sits next to a CNAPP as the engagement and delivery workspace where scoped pentest findings, manual reviewer findings, external perimeter scan output, authenticated web DAST output, SAST and SCA output from connected repositories, AI-generated reports, and the branded client portal all live on one tenant. If the container-lifecycle CNAPP is the right answer for the image-to-runtime work, the delivery workspace is still the right answer for the engagement, report, and client-delivery work that sits beside it.
Who each platform is the right fit for
Aqua and SecPortal solve different problems for different buyers. The honest answer is that the right tool depends on whether the work is container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle exposure plus admission control or scoped engagements, manual review, external scanning, and branded delivery on one workspace. Many enterprises run both, with the container-lifecycle CNAPP carrying the image-to-runtime layer and the delivery workspace carrying the engagement record beside it.
Aqua fits platform engineering and cloud security teams running Kubernetes-heavy estates
If you are a platform engineering, cloud security, or container security team operating multi-cluster Kubernetes on AWS, Azure, GCP, or on-prem, the asset of record is the container image and the workload, the bottleneck is walking every image from source through registry through admission through runtime on one platform with admission control gating and Enforcer-anchored runtime drift detection, and the team needs a CNAPP that owns the container and Kubernetes lifecycle end to end, Aqua was built for that container-lifecycle shape. The buyer assumption is one CNAPP with an Enforcer agent that sits inside the cluster and routes a lifecycle-anchored backlog through developer and ticketing surfaces.
SecPortal fits teams who run scoped engagements, scan, and ship deliverables
If you are a penetration testing firm, an MSSP, a consultancy, an AppSec team, a vulnerability management team, a product security team, or an in-house security function whose work covers scoped engagements, manual finding entry, external perimeter scanning, authenticated web testing, code scanning, AI-generated reporting, and branded delivery, SecPortal carries that lifecycle on one tenant. Findings, scans, retests, exception decisions, evidence, and the audit trail all live on the engagement record rather than scattered across a container CNAPP console, a separate report generator, a separate scope-of-work template, and a separate portal.
SecPortal fits buyers who deliver findings to clients, business units, or auditors
If you ship reports to external clients, business unit owners, or auditors, and every finding, retest, remediation thread, and report download has to live under your brand on a tenant subdomain rather than under a vendor console, SecPortal is the workspace that holds that record. Aqua output goes into the Aqua console and into developer and admission surfaces in the cluster organisation that owns the workloads; it is not a delivery workspace for findings produced outside that container and cloud surface.
Transparent pricing, no procurement cycle
SecPortal pricing is published on the website and self-service from sign-up. There is no annual contract floor on the Pro or Team tiers, no per-workload or per-image licensing model, no Enforcer-count audit, and no sales call required before you can run a real engagement.
SecPortal Free
Free forever
1 user, 3 clients, 2 engagements per client, 3 AI credits, 6 core scan modules.
SecPortal Pro
From $149/month
All scan modules, 100 clients, 25 AI credits/month, branded client portal, invoicing, compliance tracking.
SecPortal Team
From $299/month
Up to 5 users, 75 AI credits/month, team management, activity audit trail with CSV export, MFA enforcement.
Why teams pick SecPortal alongside or instead of Aqua Security
- Run scoped engagements with a kickoff, deliverables, retests, and a final invoice on one record rather than an open-ended container-lifecycle backlog inside a CNAPP console
- Scan the perimeter outside the container and cloud surface with 16 external modules and 17 authenticated web modules in addition to SAST plus SCA on connected repositories
- Generate executive, technical, and remediation deliverables with Claude from the live findings record
- Enter manual findings from a tester, reviewer, or third-party report into the same record the scanners feed
- Deliver findings through a branded client portal on a tenant subdomain instead of through a vendor container-security console
- Pair every retest to the original finding so the closure record holds up under audit
- Document CVSS, EPSS, KEV, asset tier, exposure, and compensating controls on the engagement record so prioritisation is defensible to a board, an auditor, or an application owner
- Map findings across 21 framework templates including OWASP, OWASP ASVS, OWASP MASVS, OWASP API Security Top 10, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, MITRE ATT&CK, DORA, NIS2, CIS Controls, and Essential Eight
- Store privileged scan credentials encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM and rotate them through the in-product credential vault
- Invoice clients or business units directly from the engagement record through Stripe Connect
- Start on the free plan and upgrade without a workload-count audit, an image-count audit, an Enforcer-count audit, or a sales call for the higher tier
Related reading
If you are evaluating how to run an in-house container security, Kubernetes security, cloud security, or vulnerability management programme alongside or instead of a container-lifecycle CNAPP, the pages below cover the workflows, signals, and adjacent comparisons that come up most often.
- CNAPP explained for the category-level explainer of what a CNAPP covers, how the sub-disciplines (CSPM, CWPP, CIEM, KSPM, IaC, container) fit together, and where the container-lifecycle variant came from.
- KSPM explained for the Kubernetes posture sub-category that sits inside the CNAPP umbrella alongside the container image and runtime layers.
- Container image vulnerability remediation workflow for the operational workflow of moving container-image findings from scan to fixed across base-image rebuilds and downstream rebakes.
- Cloud security assessment workflow for the workflow view of running cloud security assessments on the engagement record.
- SecPortal for cloud security teams for the audience page that lays out the verify-connect-store-schedule-triage-report loop on the cloud-hosted application surface.
- Kubernetes penetration testing guide for the engagement-side checklist that complements continuous container-lifecycle CNAPP monitoring with scoped offensive testing inside Kubernetes clusters.
- Risk-based vulnerability management buyer guide for the category-level evaluation guide that names the four product shapes (analytics layer, single-vendor exposure, ITSM-tied response, engagement-record workspace) and where a container-lifecycle CNAPP fits.
- Reachability analysis for vulnerability prioritisation for the deeper explainer of how in-use, reachable, and load-time signals downrank vulnerable packages that never execute.
- Vulnerability prioritisation for the operational workflow that captures CVSS, EPSS, KEV, asset tier, and exposure into a defensible queue.
- Scanner result triage for ingesting Nessus, Burp, and CSV output into the same findings record that SecPortal native scanners feed.
- Security tool consolidation for the operational rationale behind which security tools sit on which side of the container, cloud, and engagement boundary.
- Security tool coverage overlap for the catalogue-level coverage matrix across SAST, SCA, DAST, container, IaC, secrets, ASM, CNAPP, pentest, and bug bounty.
- Vulnerability management programme maturity model for the maturity scaffold that frames whether a container-lifecycle CNAPP, a delivery workspace, or both are the next investment.
- SecPortal vs Sysdig for the adjacent CNAPP comparison against the Falco-anchored runtime variant that pairs posture with live system-call signal rather than container-lifecycle image-to-runtime ownership.
- CIS Benchmarks for the prescriptive hardening guides covering Docker, Kubernetes, EKS, AKS, GKE, and OpenShift that audit-side stakeholders read against the container security programme.
- ISO 27017 cloud security controls for the cloud-specific control set that audit-side stakeholders read against the cloud security programme.
When the work is scoped delivery, not container-and-Kubernetes lifecycle exposure
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