In 2026, unified security means one platform covering the SDLC, from the supply chain and source code developers write, through the containers and pipelines that ship it, out to the cloud it runs in, and the endpoints it runs on. Most vendors cover a slice well and bolt on half-measures for the rest, which leaves teams in the unenviable position of having to cobble together tools from different vendors.
Adding another security tool when you realize your attack surface has grown is a game of whack-a-mole, and our data suggests there comes a point where the growing stack starts creating problems of its own.
According to Aikido's State of AI in Security and Development report, 90% of organizations using 6-8 security tools experienced an incident, compared with 64% of those running just 1-2. More tools also meant more noise and slower fixes. False positives climbed with each added tool, and average remediation time stretched from 3.3 days for teams using 1-2 tools to 7.8 days for teams on 5 or more.
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The platforms below all promise coverage across multiple layers. They differ on how much they actually cover, whether code findings are linked to cloud and runtime exposure, how noisy they are, and how they are priced. Things like identity and network security are out of scope for this post.
We cover:
- Aikido Security
- Palo Alto Cortex Cloud
- Wiz
- Checkmarx One
- Snyk
- Orca
TL;DR
Aikido Security is the strongest unified security tool because it covers code, cloud, and runtime in one platform and links findings across all three, so a code vulnerability carries its real cloud and runtime exposure. It goes further with AI Pentesting that validates findings against a running system through real exploitation, returning compliance reporting for SOC 2 and ISO 27001. It ships the governance enterprises need, including RBAC to keep teams inside their own scope, SSO for access, policy enforcement and custom rules managed per domain, and private deployment for teams that need it. AI AutoTriage and AutoFix cut the noise that comes with covering this much ground, and reachability analysis decides what actually reaches a developer. All of it runs through the workflows developers already use.
Wiz, Palo Alto Cortex Cloud, and Orca Security are strong on cloud posture but treat code security as an add-on. Snyk is mature on code and dependencies, but it has been bolting on acquisition products onto its platform without integrating them properly and offers no native cloud offering. Checkmarx One brings broad AppSec breadth weighed down by slow scans, false positives, and cost.
See how Cognism consolidated its security stack with Aikido, saving their team 1h+ every day.
What is a unified security platform?
A unified security platform covers the whole software development lifecycle from one place, so source code, dependencies, container images, cloud configuration, runtime, and developer devices are monitored in one control plane. Consolidation matters because vulnerabilities don't respect product boundaries. A dependency flaw is only exploitable if the vulnerable path actually runs in production, and you can't answer that without runtime and cloud context.
Unified security overlaps with categories analysts have already named without fitting inside any of them. CNAPP covers cloud but treats code as adjacent. ASPM sits a layer above your security tools, aggregating and correlating what they find. DevSecOps is the practice of securing how software gets shipped. A unified platform does the work all three describe, in one package.
How to choose a unified security platform
- Coverage across code, cloud, and runtime in one place: Check that source code, dependencies, containers, cloud posture, runtime, and endpoints are all covered by the same product.
- Correlation across layers: Look for a platform that connects a code finding to the container it ships in and the workload it runs on, so it only alerts you to real exposures.
- Noise and prioritization: Look for reachability analysis and AI triage that return a ranked queue of issues worth fixing.
- Remediation assistance: The strongest platforms attach a suggested patch to the PR you can review and commit at once.
- Governance and compliance for enterprise: RBAC to keep teams inside their own scope, SSO for identity and provisioning, policy enforcement that applies one rule across every layer at once, and private or on-prem deployment for teams whose data can't leave their environment.
- Fits existing developer workflows: Findings should surface in the IDE, the PR, and in Jira or Linear, so it's easy for developers to incorporate security findings into their workflows.
- Cost: Watch for per-developer pricing that scales faster than headcount, per-module billing that adds up as you turn on coverage, and quote-only pricing that hides the number until you're deep in a sales cycle. A unified platform should be cheaper than the six products it replaces.
Top unified security tools 2026
Aikido Security
Enterprise-grade unified security platform that covers the entire SDLC end-to-end
Aikido Security offers enterprise-grade SAST, SCA, secrets scanning, IaC, container images, CSPM, and runtime protection in one platform. Each of these ships as a standalone product with its own depth, so teams can adopt what they need without compromising on coverage or capability. Findings route to the tools teams already use, including Jira, Linear, Slack, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps.
For teams that need to go beyond SAST, Aikido adds three products that reason about logic and intent rather than matching known patterns. Deep PR Review reviews each pull request as it opens, reasoning about what the change affects elsewhere in the codebase and catching IDORs, broken access control, and other flaws SAST structurally can't see. AI Code Analysis applies the same reasoning across the whole repository, surfacing logic flaws before a live target exists to test against. And an AI Pentest validates findings against a running system through real exploitation, satisfying compliance requirements.
Aikido also covers the full software supply chain through Aikido Intel for real-time threat intelligence, Safe Chain for blocking malicious packages at install time, and Device Protection for the developer machines where code gets written.
When the fix for a vulnerability isn't a simple upgrade, Aikido Libraries and Aikido Images step in. Libraries produces patched versions of the packages you already run, so the fix lands without a version bump or an API change. Images does the same at the container layer, clearing High and Critical CVEs to a defined SLA using backports and selective upgrades, on the OS version and distro you already use. Both ship as daily AutoFix PRs directly in the workflow your team already uses.
Cognism, a B2B sales intelligence company, came to Aikido for end-of-life detection and ended up consolidating several vendors onto the platform. "Before we had several tools for several features. Now it's all in one centralized place," says Kristina, a security engineer on their vulnerability and incident team. "Previously, we triaged daily 40-50 new findings and now Aikido does that for us," saving the team at least an hour a day.
Best for: Enterprise teams consolidating point products who need governance and private deployment without the legacy rollout timeline.
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Palo Alto Cortex Cloud (formerly Prisma Cloud)
Broad cloud CNAPP, heavy to run
Palo Alto Networks is a large cybersecurity vendor, built on its "next-generation" firewall. Cortex Cloud is its CNAPP, bringing together tools Palo Alto has built internally with several acquisitions, most notably Bridgecrew for IaC scanning and Twistlock for container and workload protection. It offers CSPM, DSPM, IaC scanning (built on the Checkov engine Palo Alto acquired with Bridgecrew), SCA, secrets, container and workload security, and web application and API security across AWS, Azure, and GCP, but no native SAST.
However, reviews cite a steep learning curve, complex setup, and limited customer support, meaning teams likely need a dedicated staff to run Cortex Cloud. Pricing is credit-based, quote-only, and climbs quickly with cloud footprint. Palo Alto is also folding Prisma Cloud into a broader Cortex Cloud platform, which is worth factoring in on any multi-year commitment.
Best for: Large teams already inside the Palo Alto ecosystem, with the security engineering headcount to run a platform this wide.
Wiz
Deep cloud coverage, newer to code
Wiz is best known for cloud security. Wiz Security Graph maps how cloud resources connect and traces the attack paths that actually reach something valuable. For regulated teams, Wiz Outpost runs the scanning inside the customer's own environment and sends only metadata back, though it carries real infrastructure cost to operate.
Code security is the newer half of the story. Wiz Code arrived in 2024 with SCA, SBOM, secrets, IaC, and container scanning, and native SAST followed in late 2025. Keep in mind that this is a recent addition to a platform whose depth still sits on the cloud side, and reviewers note that it generates a high number of false positives and its IDE extension could use improvement.
Glasswall, a cybersecurity company that had moved from Snyk to Wiz Code, ran a side-by-side test of Wiz Code and Aikido. "Aikido came out on top because it cuts through all of that stuff that we don't care about, and it presents the information that we do care about," says Chris Holman, a DevSecOps engineer and team lead there
Best for: cloud-first teams already running heavy multi-cloud who want to add lightweight code and IaC scanning without a second vendor.
Checkmarx One
Deep code analysis with an on-prem past
Established in 2006, Checkmarx built its reputation on deep code inspection in regulated industries like finance and healthcare. Checkmarx One is its move to the cloud, but it's a lift-and-shift of the on-prem engine rather than a ground-up rebuild, so it still leans on centralized scanning that takes awkward workarounds to fit into CI/CD, and an interface built for security analysts rather than developers. The batch scans that once ran for hours are faster now, though large codebases can still take tens of minutes. Language coverage is broad, and exploitable path analysis traces the full call path from user input to the vulnerable function so you can see how an attacker would actually reach it.
DAST and API security are available as separate modules billed on top of the core platform, and the brand carries real weight in compliance-driven organizations that need the governance and reporting Checkmarx has built for security teams. Checkmarx does correlate findings to cloud and runtime, but through partner integrations (Sysdig for runtime, Wiz and AWS for cloud exposure) rather than native scanning, so the full picture still depends on running those other tools alongside it. AI has arrived in the form of the Checkmarx One Assist agents for remediation and inline fixes, but reviewers still report elevated false positives on large codebases.
Best for: Regulated enterprises with a dedicated AppSec team who want deep code analysis and audit-ready reporting, and can absorb the setup time and per-module cost.
Snyk
Developer-first AI security platform, no native cloud
Snyk started as a developer-first alternative to security-team platforms, and that early focus drove its popularity. It maintains a database covering open source vulnerabilities. Container and Kubernetes security scanning is available, along with IaC analysis for Terraform, CloudFormation, and Kubernetes manifests.
Snyk’s DeepCode AI generates fix suggestions for some code vulnerabilities. Snyk has leaned hard into AI security lately, with Snyk Studio scanning AI-generated code in real time inside tools like Cursor and Claude Code through an MCP server, and its Evo line adding AI security posture management and agent governance. Snyk offers reachability analysis, but reviewers report elevated false positives.
It has IDE integrations for VS Code, IntelliJ, Eclipse, and Visual Studio, and its DAST arrived through the 2024 Probely acquisition, now shipping as Snyk API & Web. Much of the platform's breadth came through acquisition, and the pieces don't always cohere into one product the way a platform built end to end does. Having all these capabilities is one thing, but putting them into a cohesive platform that developers can actually use is different, and alternatives like Aikido actually offer that.
Snyk also doesn't have a dedicated cloud security product in the class of Aikido, Wiz, or Orca. Aikido's State of AI in Security and Development report flags this split, as teams running separate AppSec and cloud tools were 50% more likely to hit an incident (31% versus 20%). Pricing also climbs through feature-based tiers and add-ons, so broad coverage adds up quickly.
Best for: Developer-first teams already on Snyk
Orca Security
Agentless cloud coverage, code security second
Orca is one of the more established names in agentless cloud security, built on its patented SideScanning approach, which reads workload data straight from cloud snapshots and APIs rather than running an agent on every machine. Its unified data model correlates CSPM, CWPP, CIEM, DSPM, and API security into a single risk graph, with attack-path analysis that maps chains of exposure to the assets that matter, and an optional eBPF sensor adds runtime detection where you want it.
Code security is the newer and thinner half. Orca does shift-left scanning for dependencies, IaC, images, and secrets, plus SAST, and through 2026 it has been adding AI on top, including a triage agent that deprioritizes SAST false positives and code reachability analysis. But depth still sits firmly on the cloud side, and a team whose primary need is developer-facing code security will feel that Orca was built cloud-first. Reviewers note that tuning reachability settings is necessary.
Best for: Teams whose main gap is cloud coverage and who want broad, fast visibility without deploying agents.
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