Wiz vs Palo Alto Prisma Cloud vs Orca Security: Real Cloud Security Cost per 1,000 Workloads in 2026
The short answer: none of the three publishes an enterprise price list, and each defines a "workload" differently, so a per-workload price is only meaningful after you fix what is being counted and which modules are attached. What can be said from public listings and procurement data: at 100 workloads, Wiz's AWS Marketplace listings imply $240–$380 per workload per year for the core platform, Orca's one-month Marketplace listing implies $840 per workload per year, and Prisma Cloud's credit model produces about $360–$720 per workload per year under the mix modeled below. Volume changes everything: reported enterprise-scale Wiz rates fall to roughly $60–$180 per workload per year. Adding runtime, code and log modules can multiply the Wiz figure by about six.
What each vendor bills
Wiz (REPORTED). No public price list. AWS Marketplace listings were reported at $24,000 a year for 100 workloads (Essential) and $38,000 for 100 workloads (Advanced), with add-ons of $28,000 for 100 runtime sensors, $58,500 for 100 code licenses and $18,000 for 300 GB of log ingestion a month (Defend). Twelve-month commitments were typical. Two procurement medians conflict: about $111,500 (range $24,005–$354,350) in an older dataset and $158,763 across 181 purchases in a newer one, so the newer figure is used here. An advisory firm reported that Wiz counts virtual machines, container nodes, serverless functions, managed databases and managed Kubernetes nodes as workloads, with list rates of $10–$15 per workload per month at upper enterprise scale, negotiated rates of $5–$8, identity (CIEM) at $0.25–$0.45 per identity per month negotiated, and data-store (DSPM) rates of $125–$225 per data store per month negotiated. It also reported a three-year default term and opening renewal uplifts of 15–28%. Pricing for AI assistants was not publicly listed (QUOTE-ONLY / UNKNOWN).
Prisma Cloud (OFFICIAL for credit consumption, REPORTED for dollars). Prisma Cloud is licensed in credits, sold in blocks of 100, on one-, two- or three-year terms. Palo Alto's documentation lists credits per protected resource: a host that runs containers consumes 7 credits (older documentation listed 5), and a host without containers 1 credit. A reseller listing showed 1 credit per cloud VM under posture management. Credit prices were reported at $9,000 per 100 credits per year for Business Edition and $18,000 for Enterprise Edition, which is $90 and $180 per credit per year. Unused credits are not refundable, and exceeding the license count triggers a banner rather than a shutdown.
Orca Security (OFFICIAL for the listing, REPORTED for procurement). Orca's AWS Marketplace listing prices one-month contracts by concurrent EC2 workloads: 100 for $7,000, 300 for $12,000, 500 for $17,000 and 1,000 for $30,000 per month. That is $70, $40, $34 and $30 per workload per month. Vendr data reported a median of $95,625 a year across 53 purchases (range $20,036–$218,112, average savings 28%). Other sources disagree: one lists Orca at "$36K+" a year, another at entry pricing near $50,000, and a procurement guide describes pricing as headcount-based. Pricing above 1,000 workloads was not publicly listed (QUOTE-ONLY / UNKNOWN).
Effective cost per protected workload
The workload mix for Prisma Cloud is ILLUSTRATIVE: 60% virtual machines at 2 credits (posture plus a host defender), 30% container hosts at 7 credits and 10% serverless or other resources at 1 credit, an average of 3.4 credits per workload. Credits are purchased in blocks of 100.
| Workloads | Wiz Essential–Advanced (Marketplace, 100 only) | Prisma Business–Enterprise | Orca (Marketplace, one-month rate annualized) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | $24,000–$38,000 ($240–$380 each) | 400 credits: $36,000–$72,000 ($360–$720 each) | $84,000 ($840 each) |
| 1,000 | QUOTE-ONLY / UNKNOWN | 3,400 credits: $306,000–$612,000 ($306–$612 each) | $360,000 ($360 each) |
| 10,000 | QUOTE-ONLY / UNKNOWN | 34,000 credits: $3.06M–$6.12M ($306–$612 each) | QUOTE-ONLY / UNKNOWN |
Formulas: Prisma annual cost = ceiling((workloads × average credits) ÷ 100) × 100 × $90 or $180; Orca annual = monthly listing × 12. At 100 workloads, the block rounding matters: 340 credits round up to 400, adding $5,400 or $10,800.
For Wiz, the reported enterprise-scale rates give a scale reference, not a quote: at $10–$15 per workload per month, 1,000 workloads cost $120,000–$180,000 a year and 10,000 cost $1.2M–$1.8M; at the negotiated $5–$8, 1,000 cost $60,000–$96,000 and 10,000 cost $600,000–$960,000. Extending the 100-workload Marketplace rate linearly would give $240,000–$380,000 for 1,000, so the volume curve between those two points was not publicly listed. The Vendr median of $158,763 implies $13.23 per workload per month if it covered 1,000 workloads and $1.32 if it covered 10,000, showing how sensitive the per-workload figure is to the count.
The module stack changes the number
Using the Wiz Marketplace add-ons at 100 workloads: Advanced $38,000 + Sensor $28,000 = $66,000 ($660 per workload); adding Code brings it to $124,500; adding Defend brings it to $142,500, or $1,425 per workload. Prisma Enterprise Edition costs twice Business per credit, and DSPM, CIEM, runtime and code modules draw further credits. Orca's Marketplace listing prices concurrent workloads; module pricing was not publicly listed.
First-year versus renewal cost
Implementation and professional services were not publicly listed. A cost-tracking site reported that temporary data storage and Terraform integration work can add 30–60% to a Wiz license (REPORTED). On the $38,000 Advanced license that is $49,400–$60,800 in year one. For renewal, an advisory firm reported opening uplifts of 15–28% and buyer recovery of 18–32% against the opening proposal. On $38,000, the opening renewal is $43,700–$48,640, and after recovery about $29,700–$39,900. Prisma's multi-year subscriptions and Orca's auto-renewing contracts (REPORTED) add renewal mechanics of their own.
Break-even: avoided engineer hours
Formula: hours needed = annual cost ÷ loaded hourly cost, with a loaded $100 an hour (ILLUSTRATIVE).
| Annual cost | Hours to break even | Per workload |
|---|---|---|
| $38,000 (Wiz Advanced, 100 workloads) | 380 | 3.8 hours |
| $36,000 (Prisma Business, 100 workloads) | 360 | 3.6 hours |
| $84,000 (Orca, 100 workloads) | 840 | 8.4 hours |
| $142,500 (Wiz full stack, 100 workloads) | 1,425 | 14.3 hours |
| $306,000 (Prisma Business, 1,000 workloads) | 3,060 | 3.1 hours |
| $60,000–$96,000 (Wiz negotiated band, 1,000 workloads) | 600–960 | 0.6–1.0 hours |
Cloud security software rarely replaces engineers. It replaces the hours spent on inventory, misconfiguration triage and vulnerability prioritization, so the per-workload hours above are a useful sanity check.
Sensitivity
- Workload definition. Wiz counts container nodes, functions and managed databases; Prisma counts credits by resource type; Orca counts concurrent EC2 workloads. The same estate produces different counts.
- Prisma edition. Business versus Enterprise doubles the credit price.
- Container share. Each container host costs 7 credits against 1 for a plain VM, so raising the container share from 30% to 60% lifts average credits from 3.4 to about 4.9 (0.3 × 2 + 0.6 × 7 + 0.1 × 1 = 4.9).
- Contract shape. Orca's Marketplace price is month-to-month; annual procurement data ($95,625 median) implies a large discount from it.
Budgeting traps
- Marketplace prices are starting points. They show the rate at the smallest tiers, not the negotiated enterprise rate.
- Workload inflation. Autoscaling and ephemeral workloads can push counts above the contracted number at renewal.
- Credit blocks and expiry. Prisma credits are bought in blocks of 100 and are not refundable if unused.
- Auto-renewal. Orca contracts were reported to auto-renew unless notice is given 30 days ahead.
What to ask before you buy
Ask each vendor to state what counts as one workload, which modules are in the quote, and what the price is at twice your current count. Then compare cost per protected workload for the same module stack.