What is the difference between Aqua Real-Time CSPM vs Security Monkey?

**Aqua Real-Time CSPM**: Real-time CSPM for multi-cloud security risk identification and remediation. built by Aqua Security Software Ltd.. Core capabilities include Real-time cloud security risk visibility across multi-cloud environments, Agentless scanning combined with in-workload visibility, Cloud resource discovery and unified inventory across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.. **Security Monkey**: Security Monkey monitors AWS, GCP, and OpenStack environments for policy changes and insecure configurations, providing historical tracking and alerting capabilities through a centralized interface.. Both serve the Cloud Security Posture Management market but differ in approach, feature depth, and target audience.

Who makes Aqua Real-Time CSPM vs Security Monkey?

**Aqua Real-Time CSPM** is developed by Aqua Security Software Ltd.. **Security Monkey** is open-source with 4,362 GitHub stars. Vendor maturity, funding stage, and team size can be important factors when evaluating long-term viability and support quality.

Is Aqua Real-Time CSPM a good alternative to Security Monkey?

Aqua Real-Time CSPM and Security Monkey serve similar Cloud Security Posture Management use cases: both are Cloud Security Posture Management tools, both cover GCP, AWS. Key differences: Aqua Real-Time CSPM is Commercial while Security Monkey is Free, Security Monkey is open-source. Review the feature comparison above to determine which fits your requirements.

Aqua Real-Time CSPM vs Security Monkey: Features, Integrations, Reviews (2026) | CybersecTools

Aqua Real-Time CSPM vs Security Monkey: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.

Aqua Real-Time CSPM is a commercial cloud security posture management tool by Aqua Security Software Ltd.. Security Monkey is a free cloud security posture management tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best cloud security posture management fit for your security stack.

CST Verdict

Based on our analysis of NIST CSF 2.0 coverage, core features, company size fit, deployment model, here is our conclusion:

Aqua Real-Time CSPM

Mid-market and enterprise teams managing AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud simultaneously will get the most from Aqua Real-Time CSPM because its agentless scanning paired with in-workload visibility actually catches misconfigurations that surface-level inventory tools miss. The vendor's support for VMs, containers, serverless, and Kubernetes clusters across 30+ compliance frameworks means you're not rebuilding mappings for HIPAA one year and PCI the next. Skip this if your organization runs primarily on a single cloud or needs sophisticated identity and access governance; Aqua prioritizes configuration posture over the identity layer, leaving supply chain risk assessment to adjacent tools.

Security Monkey

Teams managing sprawling AWS or GCP estates who need to catch misconfigurations before they become incidents should start with Security Monkey; its policy-change alerting catches drift that point-in-time scanners miss, and the 4,362 GitHub stars signal active community maintenance for a free tool. The historical tracking piece matters here,you're not just seeing what's wrong now, you're seeing what changed and when, which cuts investigation time significantly. Skip this if your cloud footprint is mostly Azure or you need automated remediation; Security Monkey alerts well but doesn't fix, leaving your team to manually close every gap it finds.