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AttackIQ vs Rapid7 Metasploit comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 22, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.3
Qualys TotalCloud effectively reduces costs and labor while enhancing asset visibility and risk management, boosting efficiency by up to 40%.
Sentiment score
4.5
AttackIQ improved operational efficiency by enhancing security validation, reducing manual efforts, and increasing detection accuracy and alert quality.
Sentiment score
4.3
Rapid7 Metasploit efficiently identifies vulnerabilities and saves costs but is average for experienced users or those using Qualys/Nessus.
We are able to scan all our assets with less human intervention and achieve overall effective outcomes.
Dns architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It has saved about 90% of our time.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
TotalCloud has generated overall savings of 30 to 40 percent across various departments.
Security Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We have seen a massive return on investment with AttackIQ, specifically from a resource perspective and time spent on findings due to the fact that the accuracy of the reporting or the accuracy of the findings from AttackIQ was brilliant.
Solutions Sales Specialist at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Metasploit has helped save time, especially with testing websites or VIPD projects.
Information security engineer at Cyberisk
The ROI can be very rapid for organizations using vulnerability assessment for the first time.
Senior Security Consultant at ITSEC Asia
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Qualys TotalCloud support is knowledgeable but inconsistent, with some delays and varying service quality affecting customer satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.5
<p>AttackIQ support is responsive and knowledgeable, aiding users with BAS workflows and MITRE ATT&amp;CK, though improvements are suggested.</p>
Sentiment score
5.9
Rapid7 Metasploit support has mixed reviews, with helpful resources but varying response times and effectiveness compared to Cisco.
They are helpful, respond to my queries, and can answer any question.
Developer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Qualys's tech support is highly responsive, providing multiple ways to interact with them.
Service Manager, Security Operations at CDA IT SOLUTIONS
Qualys' customer service provides quality answers, but the response time is long, even though it is within the SLA.
Works at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The support team generally responsive, technically knowledgeable, and helpful during both onboarding and operational phases.
Security Consultant at Deloitte
The customer support for AttackIQ is quite quick to resolve issues.
Software Development Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The customer support for AttackIQ is pretty quick.
DevOps at a marketing services firm with 51-200 employees
Rapid7 sometimes struggles with queries from non-security people, whereas Tenable is more patient.
Senior Security Consultant at ITSEC Asia
The customer support is excellent
Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Qualys TotalCloud efficiently scales across multi-cloud environments, supporting diverse needs for small and large teams with minimal issues.
Sentiment score
7.1
AttackIQ excels in handling workloads, offering centralized visibility and scalability when integrated with logging, SIEM, and monitoring systems.
Sentiment score
5.1
Rapid7 Metasploit's scalability opinions vary, some see limitations, others appreciate flexibility; performance varies by project and infrastructure.
We started our organization about nine months back. We started with about 30 users, and we now have more than 100 users.
CIO at a venture capital & private equity firm with 11-50 employees
Our organization currently uses it to manage over 1200 web applications.
Analyst, Information Security at Infosys
It is absolutely scalable, and I would rate its scalability as nine out of ten.
retired at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It can handle increasing workloads and more complex simulations as my needs grow without any problem.
Software Development Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
AttackIQ scales well for enterprise-level security validation and continuous testing use cases.
Security Consultant at Deloitte
AttackIQ is quite scalable as long as you understand what you want to do with it and where you want to go.
Solutions Sales Specialist at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Metasploit can handle big projects and is already prepared for them.
Information security engineer at Cyberisk
Rapid7 Metasploit is highly scalable.
Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Rapid7 Metasploit has limited scalability based on my experience, as the customer receives the full functionality of the product with the license.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Qualys TotalCloud is praised for its stability, 99.9% uptime, reliable performance, and responsive support for resolving issues.
Sentiment score
7.9
AttackIQ is highly stable and reliable, with no downtime issues, ideal for continuous security validation and assessments.
Sentiment score
7.8
Rapid7 Metasploit's stability is highly praised, with recent versions improving and rated 8-9/10, despite occasional network issues.
Overall, the support provided has been excellent.
Analyst, Information Security at Infosys
It has a lot of scanning mechanisms, which are agentless APIs, eBPF, and cloud agents, that are highly reliable.
Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
It is a stable solution, which is why we chose it.
CIO at a venture capital & private equity firm with 11-50 employees
I have never faced any technical issues or downtimes.
Information security engineer at Cyberisk
I find Metasploit to be very stable, and I would rate its stability as a nine out of ten.
Senior Security Consultant at ITSEC Asia
 

Room For Improvement

Qualys TotalCloud needs UI/UX enhancements, better integrations, compliance reporting, Windows container security, AI threat prediction, and pricing clarity.
AttackIQ needs improved onboarding, tool integrations, user-friendly features, and simplified workflows to enhance value and user experience.
Rapid7 Metasploit needs faster updates, improved tools integration, better UI, enhanced features, and updated evasion capabilities for modern defenses.
Ideally, the scanner should automatically detect and scan all subdomains, even if not explicitly defined, ensuring comprehensive vulnerability assessment.
Analyst, Information Security at Infosys
Ideally, updates should be more immediate, enabling quicker implementation of solutions.
Project Lead at Persistent Systems
Our goal is to integrate all these functions into Qualys, creating a single dashboard for comprehensive security monitoring and management.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
One area for improvement is the initial configuration complexity, which is very complex in the initial stage to configure the whole thing and integrate with the SOC, presenting a learning curve for organizations that are new to adversary emulation or continuous security validation.
Security Consultant at Deloitte
AttackIQ works best when a SOC already has a process for acting on findings.
Solutions Sales Specialist at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would appreciate even deeper integrations with security tools and more automated remediation recommendations to streamline follow-up actions.
SOC L2 | Incident Responder at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
While you can check the vulnerability, and the system will tell you there is no vulnerability, usually, a human can change one, two, or three parameters and using the same technique and the same scripts can break the system.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
The database is not always updated with the latest vulnerabilities or zero-day exploits.
Information security engineer at Cyberisk
The time taken to fetch reports based on the number of events can be extensive.
Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Qualys TotalCloud offers competitive pricing for large enterprises, providing flexible, cost-effective solutions with comprehensive features and benefits.
Rapid7 Metasploit's pricing ranges from free to $20,000, with varied opinions on its affordability compared to competitors.
Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive.
Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Pricing is managed by our finance team; however, Qualys TotalCloud offers cost-effective licensing flexibility.
IT Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches.
Vice President at Inspira Enterprise
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for AttackIQ is that since I was using the free version, I did not purchase it initially and was only utilizing the platform, doing lab simulations that were free in that environment.
Software Development Analyst at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The cost is approximately $15 per device.
Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Metasploit is cheaper than Nessus and offers a more robust community edition that provides a good experience for studying Metasploit.
Senior Security Consultant at ITSEC Asia
After that, they usually purchase the commercial part of the solution due to its deep integration with InsightVM.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

Qualys TotalCloud enhances cloud security with risk prioritization, automation, and visibility, boosting efficiency in vulnerability management and remediation.
AttackIQ provides continuous security testing, enhances visibility, and integrates with tools to improve detection and threat defense.
Rapid7 Metasploit excels in penetration testing with strong integration, comprehensive features, and efficient management in a unified platform.
This view of risk helps reduce the work we would have to do to combine multiple sources to prioritize risk.
Works at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It will help cybersecurity professionals monitor the cloud and find vulnerabilities.
Developer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We are enjoying the new feature, FlexScan, which is valuable for Internet-facing VMs.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
AttackIQ allows us to resolve issues much quicker because these issues come in categories, enabling us to prioritize them and fix the emergency issues first.
DevOps at a marketing services firm with 51-200 employees
The continuous validation of security controls through repeatable attack simulations is a massive advantage for me.
Solutions Sales Specialist at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Rapid7 offers comprehensive features within one platform, eliminating the need to integrate multiple tools to see all alerts in one place.
Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
InsightVM searches for potential threats and vulnerabilities of the infrastructure, and after that, Rapid7 Metasploit validates whether we can break the system using this vulnerability or threat, serving as a validator component of the InsightVM solution.
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
The most valuable features of Metasploit include its powerful capabilities for exploitation and scanning.
Information security engineer at Cyberisk
 

Categories and Ranking

Qualys TotalCloud
Sponsored
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Container Security (11th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (9th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (8th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (7th)
AttackIQ
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
36th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (4th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (12th), Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (5th)
Rapid7 Metasploit
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
25th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AttackIQ is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 Metasploit is 2.0%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys TotalCloud1.2%
Rapid7 Metasploit2.0%
AttackIQ0.7%
Other96.1%
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Risk-based triage has transformed container security and now prioritizes high-impact threats
The best features Qualys TotalCloud offers currently include managing cloud infrastructure and container security while facing major challenges such as alert fatigue. Traditional vulnerability scanners flag hundreds of CVEs on short-lived Kubernetes containers, some of which have no internet exposure or are gone before we can even triage them. I leverage Qualys TotalCloud to move beyond static CVSS. I use it to implement runtime exposure, correlation risk reprioritization, and shift-left integration. This notifies developers to fix a base image upstream rather than patching live ephemeral instances. In my work with cloud and container security, the biggest operational hurdle was alert fatigue. I use Qualys to shift left from static CVSS severity to context-aware risk prioritization. I correlated raw vulnerability data with real-time risk factors such as public network exposure, active runtime execution, or overly permissive IAM roles. This allows us to immediately drop the priority of isolated containers and escalate lower-severity CVEs that sit on an exposed, high-risk path. We can map these findings directly back to our CI/CD pipelines so developers can patch the root base images upstream. We have drastically cut down the signal-to-noise ratio, saved a lot of manual hours doing triage work, and ensured engineering effort goes directly towards high-impact risk reduction.
Charl Pinches - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Sales Specialist at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Continuous validation has transformed our SOC and now proves control effectiveness with evidence
Running in our SOC, it moves the conversation from assumptions and dashboards to measurable proof, which is exactly what makes AttackIQ valuable in day-to-day security operations. The breach and attack simulation that supports testing, prevention, detection, and response is a key feature for me, as is the ongoing exposure management, rather than a one-time security assessment. AttackIQ's reporting helps translate technical findings into actionable remediation steps, which are easy to understand. The continuous validation of security controls through repeatable attack simulations is a massive advantage for me. Once properly implemented, AttackIQ becomes a valuable part of a continuous validation program. The one feature I rely on the most from AttackIQ is specifically the continuous validation of security controls through repeatable attack simulations. From the reporting that stands out, once you have the report, the translation from a technical finding perspective and how they align with actionable remediation steps is easy to understand, which helps significantly. From a SOC perspective, AttackIQ running in our SOC is a solid enterprise-grade platform delivering genuine operational value. The biggest strength for me is the realism, its alignment with all the compliance situations we might have, and the ability to continuously validate control effectiveness. By doing that, we can continuously provide feedback to our customers to ensure they are running the best of breed for their security posture and environment. AttackIQ is best viewed as a tool that helps a SOC move from assumption-based security to evidence-based security, while providing reporting that can easily be communicated in layman's terms to your customer base. It is most effective for teams that want to prove their controls work, identify gaps early, and continuously improve rather than just rely on periodic testing alone.
reviewer1247523 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Extensive exploit database and seamless integration enhance penetration testing capabilities
The automated approach in the audits or in the hacking testing with Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved because even the same attack you provide today will go in different ways another day. I prefer when the auditor or pen-tester provides the attack in a non-automated mode. For some, it might be a valuable option, but I'm not sure it's valuable for us, as after the attack has been provided, we should release a report detailing how it transpired and what the customer should improve to block this way of attack. If the attack was provided in an automated mode, you cannot receive sufficient information that helps with this final report for the customer. While you can check the vulnerability, and the system will tell you there is no vulnerability, usually, a human can change one, two, or three parameters and using the same technique and the same scripts can break the system. Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved in areas concerning the experience with finding particular scripts pre-installed in the solution. Customers, administrators, and pen-testers spend considerable time trying to locate the specific component they need by the name of the technique or the name of the attack, so any improvements in making it easier to find those predefined components by name or timeframe would be beneficial. Search filters could be a correct improvement.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
16%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise35
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
In terms of improvement, remediation still belongs to the cloud team, which is one of the issues we faced with Qualys...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is regarding the cloud visibility that we were not having previously. Previous...
What needs improvement with AttackIQ?
There is a learning curve at the beginning, especially for teams that are quite new to a BAS or continuous validation...
What is your primary use case for AttackIQ?
The key features that we mainly depend on are the continuous validation of security controls through repeatable attac...
What advice do you have for others considering AttackIQ?
The accuracy of AttackIQ is very good and the reliable output is straightforward and easy to understand. The advice I...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 Metasploit?
The pricing of Rapid7 Metasploit is quite affordable. It has a free version that many customers start with, and after...
What needs improvement with Rapid7 Metasploit?
The automated approach in the audits or in the hacking testing with Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved because even ...
What is your primary use case for Rapid7 Metasploit?
I use Rapid7 Metasploit as a distributor, as an integrator, and as a user. I use Rapid7 Metasploit in my company inte...
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
DeepSurface
Metasploit
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Information Not Available
City of Corpus Christi, Diebold, Lumenate, Nebraska Public Power District, Prairie North Regional Health, Apptio, Automation Direct, Bob's Stores, Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions, Carnegie Mellon University
Find out what your peers are saying about AttackIQ vs. Rapid7 Metasploit and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.