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AWS GuardDuty vs Upwind comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Qualys TotalCloud
Sponsored
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (5th), Container Security (8th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (6th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (6th)
AWS GuardDuty
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Upwind
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
18th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (40th), Container Security (27th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (20th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (28th), API Security (11th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (25th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (16th), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (28th), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) (13th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (18th), Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) (8th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (7th), Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (14th), AI Security (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.9%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS GuardDuty is 7.2%, down from 13.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Upwind is 2.3%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys TotalCloud1.9%
AWS GuardDuty7.2%
Upwind2.3%
Other88.6%
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
 

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.
SK
Senior IT Auditor at Ernst & Young
Has provided automated threat detection and daily malicious activity insights while supporting seamless orchestration with existing dashboards
I would assess the integration of AWS GuardDuty with Threat Intelligence as majorly positive; no threat intelligence is 100% accurate, and there are a few false positives, but as a security engineer, this must be accepted, and overall, the response and service is good for us. We do not directly use AWS GuardDuty dashboard by itself, as we have our own integrated security dashboard; AWS GuardDuty gives the feed to that dashboard, and it's giving us a satisfactory view of how the security landscape looks. We use metrics such as zero-day threats, any malicious traffic, and any traffic which originates from OFAC countries to measure its effectiveness, as we are majorly into a financial institution, as any traffic that is from a malicious IP or a rogue device. I don't see any significant negative points regarding AWS GuardDuty; it's a good product to have if you're a cloud consumer. I rate AWS GuardDuty nine out of ten overall.
Mohammed Mudasser - PeerSpot reviewer
AI/ML Engineer at a educational organization with 5,001-10,000 employees
Runtime context has transformed how we prioritize exploitable cloud risks and protect workloads
I appreciate runtime context, which helps connect vulnerabilities and misconfigurations with actual workload behavior and network relationships, making it easier to prioritize remediation based on real exposure rather than simply working through a long list of security findings. The best features that stand out to me are contextual vulnerability prioritization, cloud workload visibility, and runtime security. I especially value how Upwind connects vulnerabilities with actual runtime behavior, which helps focus on exploitable risk rather than working through a long list of findings. It has helped us focus on actual exploitable risk instead of treating every vulnerability equally. By considering runtime activity, exposure, reachability, and sensitive data context, the team can prioritize remediation much faster and reduce unnecessary alert noise. I also value the runtime visibility and attack path context because it connects security findings with network behavior and actual workload. This makes investigations more actionable and helps the team move from simply detecting issues to understanding their real impact. The biggest positive impact has been the prioritization of cloud security risk and improved visibility. Instead of chasing every vulnerability, we can focus on issues that are actually exposed or active at runtime, which makes the security team more efficient and remediation more targeted.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Qualys TotalCloud fulfills all these needs."
"Qualys TotalCloud has improved our security posture."
"Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted my organization by providing visibility into the environment."
"I would definitely recommend Qualys TotalCloud to other customers."
"Multi-cloud visibility saves time and makes things easier, as we can also have comparability to see what configuration differences have been made from cloud to cloud."
"Qualys TotalCloud helps you not just to identify misconfigurations, but you can actually also fix issues."
"The biggest strengths of Qualys TotalCloud are that it is pretty good at cloud visibility, has easy integration, and also has multi-cloud compatibility."
"My experience with using TruRisk to mitigate noise from raw CVEs has been great."
"The solution will detect abnormalities in the AWS workload and alert us so that we can monitor and take action."
"What I like most about Amazon GuardDuty is that you can monitor your AWS accounts across, but you don't have to pay the additional cost. You can get all your CloudTrail VPC flow logs and DNS logs all in one, and then you get the monitoring with that. A lot of times, if you had a separate tool on-premise, you would have to set up your DNS logs, so usually, Amazon GuardDuty helps with all your additional networking requirements, so I utilize it for continuous monitoring because you can't detect anything if you're not monitoring, and the solution fills that gap. If you don't do anything else first, you can deploy your firewall, and then you've got your Route 53 DNS and DNSSEC, but then Amazon GuardDuty fills that, and then you have audit requirements in AU that says, "Hey, what are your additional logs?", so you can just say, "Hey, we utilize Amazon GuardDuty." You're getting your CloudTrail, your VPC flow logs, and all your DNS logs, and those are your additional logs right there, so the solution meets a lot of requirements. Now, everything comes with a cost, but I also like that the solution also provides threat response and remediation. It's a pretty good product. I've just used it more for log analysis and that's where the value is at, the niche value. Once you do threat detection, it goes into a lot of other integrations you need to implement, so threat detection is only good as the integration, as the user that knows the tools itself, and the architecture and how it's all set up and the rules that you set within that."
"It is a highly scalable solution since it is a service by AWS. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"It kinda just gives us another layer of security. So it does provide some sort of comfort that we do have something that is monitoring for abnormal behavior."
"The product has automated protection powered by AI/ML, which is now far more powerful than before. It uses AI/ML in its detection algorithm, providing fast and quick results."
"One of the advantages of cloud services is the ability to use them on demand. There's minimal installation involved; you can check the latest offerings and make new deployments while dismantling the previous ones. This approach keeps you ahead of potential services, showcasing the agility of AWS."
"We generally use AWS GuardDuty for detection of zero-day vulnerabilities and automatic threat responses; it serves as a SOAR, an orchestrated and automated response solution for us in the AWS platform."
"Amazon GuardDuty is a stable product."
"The combination of runtime visibility, security insights, and contextual risk prioritization makes it much easier to focus on the risks that actually matter."
"They are a great overall cloud security platform and they continue innovating and adding new features."
"Upwind has positively impacted my organization by reducing time to action and time to response by half."
"My advice for others looking into using Upwind is that if you are seeking a strong CNAPP with an advanced runtime and strong CDR capabilities, this is the product."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the support."
"Qualys TotalCloud can be improved in the integration piece, especially with ServiceNow, where there's a bidirectional sync integrated, as there is no native capability from Qualys that can give monitoring metrics of how many assets came in and how many failed or were not properly reconciled or combined."
"Overall, we are satisfied with it. However, the response part of the Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) module can be improved. It is not yet in place according to requirements; it is not completely available even though the module has been released."
"Regarding technical support from Qualys, they respond, but the response time can be too long. Sometimes we need to wait weeks for solutions to simple questions."
"In TotalCloud, I would suggest improvements in policy checks to cater to various inventory types like VPCs, subnets, S3 buckets, or IAMs. There is a lack of data segregation according to criticality or inventory."
"I didn't give it a ten because I would like to see simpler configuration, more customizable dashboards, and better automation and integration options."
"In terms of improvement, remediation still belongs to the cloud team, which is one of the issues we faced with Qualys TotalCloud."
"Although TotalCloud is a helpful tool, some of its advanced features are still under development."
"Because it's a threat detection service, they need to keep up with the various threat factors because new threat factors and attack factors come up all the time."
"AWS GuardDuty sometimes shows false positives and should have better detection accuracy."
"There is currently no consolidated dashboard for AWS GuardDuty. It would be helpful if they could provide a dashboard based on severity levels (high, medium, low) and offer insights account-wise, especially for users utilizing automation structures."
"In future updates of AWS GuardDuty, I would suggest implementing better UI features."
"The solution has to be integrated with new services that AWS adds like QuickSight, Managed Airflow, AppFlow and MWAA."
"We currently find Lacework to be much better at detecting vulnerabilities than AWS GuardDuty. The engines of AWS GuardDuty have to be improved."
"I work in a bank, and it would be good if AWS GuardDuty could be integrated with other monitoring and detection tools we use."
"GuardDuty is limited to AWS environments."
"Upwind can be improved because its UI is a bit difficult to navigate."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As a middle management member, I do not have direct pricing knowledge, but based on the knowledge from our meetings, its pricing is competitive."
"Qualys TotalCloud is cost-efficient and was selected for its value compared to other products."
"Although Qualys TotalCloud is relatively expensive due to its unique automation features, its cost-effectiveness is rated an eight out of ten, with ten being the most costly."
"Qualys TotalCloud offers good pricing that is affordable and competitive with the market. Our partnership also provides us with additional benefits."
"The cost is high, but it meets our organizational needs."
"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."
"It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable. It helps us to manage things with very few resources."
"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches."
"The tool has no subscription charges."
"80 percent of the customers are using AWS GuardDuty, and we recommend it due to its low cost, especially for small customers, ranging from five to ten dollars a month. In our policies, we enforce the usage of this service, making it a recommended practice for security."
"We use a pay-as-you-use license, which is competitively priced in the market."
"The pricing model is pay as you go and is based on the number of events per month."
"I prefer to have something on demand for myself. That's why I haven't been paying for GuardDuty specifically. AWS provides a wide range of offerings, especially in the security area."
"The price of the solution is exactly right."
"In terms of the costs associated with Amazon GuardDuty, it was $1 per GB from what I recall. Pricing was based on per gigabyte. For example, for the first five hundred gigabytes per month, it'll be $1 per GB, so it'll be $500. If your usage was greater, there's another bracket, for example, the next two thousand GB, then there's an add-on cost of 50 cents per GB. That's how Amazon GuardDuty pricing slowly goes up. I can't remember if there was any kind of additional cost apart from standard licensing for the solution. Nothing else that at least comes to mind. What the service was charging was worth it. That was one good thing when using Amazon GuardDuty because my company could be in a certain tier for a certain period. My company wasn't under a licensing model where it could overestimate its usage and under-utilize its usage and pay much more. This was what made the pricing model for Amazon GuardDuty better."
"It can get very expensive. If you turn on every feature, it can turn into hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
18%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise38
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise16
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys TotalCloud?
We purchased Qualys TotalCloud for GCP and Azure as well. It is comparatively better than others regarding pricing. T...
What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
I am unsure about how Qualys TotalCloud can be improved. I do not have anything else to add about the needed improvem...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is telemetry, although I am unsure about the specifics. A quick specific examp...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon GuardDuty?
AWS GuardDuty is an expensive feature, and while you can't expect the price to be low, it can be lower because it's p...
What needs improvement with Amazon GuardDuty?
AWS GuardDuty is a good product; it's doing its job right now, and I don't see any additional improvements needed. Co...
What is your primary use case for Amazon GuardDuty?
We generally use AWS GuardDuty for detection of zero-day vulnerabilities and automatic threat responses; it serves as...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Upwind?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing process were pretty reasonable.
What needs improvement with Upwind?
I would appreciate more customizable dashboards and reporting for different teams, such as security operations, engin...
What is your primary use case for Upwind?
My main use case for Upwind is cloud security and workload protection. I primarily use it to gain visibility into clo...
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
No data available
Upwind Security Upwind Platform for AWS Security Hub, Upwind Security Upwind for AWS Security Hub Extended
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
autodesk, mapbox, fico, webroot
StockX, Yotpo, bill, Digital Turbine, nanit, CallRail, boomi
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS GuardDuty vs. Upwind and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.