Wiz protects the agents you deploy.
SanctumShield governs the shadow AI your governance hasn’t reached yet.
By Lindsay Hiebert · Founder · CISSP
Wiz is the category leader in cloud-native application protection — 40%+ of the Fortune 100 as paying customers, strong reviews, an excellent product. It’s also priced and architected for a buyer with 300+ cloud workloads and a dedicated cloud security team. SanctumShield is priced and architected for the 50–2,000-employee organization that has neither. A mature 2026 AI risk program can use both. This page explains who buys which, and why.
Wiz is the CNAPP category leader.
We respect the lineage.
Strong G2 reviews. 40%+ of the Fortune 100 as paying customers. The reference standard for cloud-native security at enterprise scale.
Agentless cloud connector — initial scan in roughly 15–30 minutes. No customer-side software to install. Strong CNAPP fundamentals: CSPM, CWPP, DSPM, CIEM, Code, Defend.
Launched the Red / Blue / Green agent triad as the runtime protection layer for deployed agents. Excellent product design: red team / blue team / purple team metaphor operationalized as software.
Wiz isn’t built for the mid-market — the math says so.
All figures below are independently sourced from third-party pricing analysts (Vendr, WizPricing.com, Spendflo) and AWS Marketplace listings. Wiz does not publish list pricing publicly; these are aggregated real-customer data points.
| Wiz tier | Annual cost | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Wiz Essential (entry) | $24,000 | Agentless CSPM only · 100 workloads · 12-month commit |
| Wiz Advanced | $38,000 | Enhanced features, deeper visibility · 100 workloads |
| Wiz Sensor add-on | +$28,000 | 100 sensors · 12-month commit |
| Wiz Code add-on | +$58,500 | 100 code licences · 12-month commit |
| Wiz Defend add-on | +$18,000 | 300 GB of logs / month |
| Typical mid-market full stack | $50K–$180K/yr | 250-person SaaS with 400–800 workloads + module stacking |
| SanctumShield | $1,188/yr | $99/month, month-to-month, no workload metering, no add-on stacking, no annual commit |
“For environments with fewer than 200 to 300 workloads, Wiz may be overkill in terms of cost.”
Red. Blue. Green. SanctumShield.
Four roles, one program.
The Wiz trio plus SanctumShield together form a complete picture of agent security and AI governance. Each role answers a different question for a different audience.
| Dimension | Wiz Red | Wiz Blue | Wiz Green | SanctumShield |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Role | Offensive — pen tester | Defensive — investigator | Resolution — remediator | Governance — artifact producer |
| Question answered | Where can this agent be exploited? | What just happened to this agent? | How do we fix this safely? | How do I prove governance to my board, auditor, and insurer? |
| Canonical output | Validated External Risk finding with full attack chain | Investigation Summary with timeline + blast-radius assessment | Pull request, IAM downgrade, code patch — verified | Executive Risk Report + AI Acceptable Use Policy + verification URL + board memo |
| Buyer | DevSecOps, Red Team | SOC, IR team | Engineering, platform team | CISO, GC, Compliance, Board, cyber insurance underwriter |
| Operates on | Deployed agents at runtime | Runtime signals + cloud telemetry | Source code + IaC + IAM | Organization profile + tools inventory + observed log traffic |
| Verifiable to a 3rd party? | No | No | No | Yes — verify URL on every report |
| Cost | Combined Wiz stack: $50,000–$180,000/yr typical mid-market | $1,188/year ($99/mo) | ||
Honest positioning, in plain English.
01Wiz automates the security operations floor. SanctumShield automates the governance artifact.
02Red finds it. Blue investigates it. Green fixes it. SanctumShield proves it was governed.
03The Wiz trio is for your engineers. SanctumShield is for everyone the engineers report to.
04Wiz produces pull requests. SanctumShield produces the artifact a regulator reads.
If you have 300+ workloads, evaluate Wiz.
Then come back for the governance artifact.
- → You have 300+ cloud workloads
- → You have a dedicated cloud security team
- → Your annual security budget is $50K+
- → You need runtime protection of deployed AI agents
- → You can operate Wiz long-term (signal triage, tuning, integration with SIEM/ticketing)
- → You’re a 50–2,000 employee organization
- → You need a regulation-anchored AUP and a board-ready risk report — not engineering tickets
- → Your cyber insurance renewal asks about AI governance
- → Your SOC 2 / HIPAA auditor wants documented AI controls
- → You don’t have (or want to operate) a platform engineering team to run an enterprise security stack
Both can be true. A mature 2026 AI risk program uses Wiz for runtime protection of deployed agents AND SanctumShield for the governance artifact layer Wiz doesn’t produce. The two tools answer different questions, for different buyers, with different cost structures. They are not competitors. They are complements.
See what the SanctumShield artifact looks like.
Run the free Shadow AI Risk Calculator first to see the assessment style, then activate the full $99/month subscription to generate your AI Acceptable Use Policy and Executive Risk Report — with a verification URL your cyber insurance underwriter can paste into their renewal workflow.