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BigFix vs Qualys Patch Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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
4.9
BigFix delivers quick ROI with efficient patch management, reducing manual labor and costs while improving compliance and operational efficiency.
Sentiment score
5.8
Qualys Patch Management enhances security efficiency, reducing workload and vulnerabilities, automating patches, and decreasing ransomware exposure, improving security posture.
With Qualys, we can save around 70 percent of time and between 30 to 40 percent of money.
Information Security Manager at BARC India
We have a 50 percent return on investment due to reduced operational complexity and increased efficiency in patching and detection.
Information Security - Manager at Infosys
In the past, it took us seven to ten days to close critical patches, but now we manage to address them within forty-eight hours, while high-priority SLAs can often be resolved within seven days.
IS Service Technical Specialist For Qualys Patch Management at ABB
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.6
BigFix's customer service is praised for expertise and responsiveness, enhanced by community resources and recent support improvements.
Sentiment score
7.2
Qualys Patch Management offers efficient, responsive support, with most users praising fast resolutions despite occasional language and urgency issues.
On a scale from one to ten, with ten being the highest quality, enterprise support provides timely responses, typically within four to eight hours.
Technical Director at SYSTEX
Technical support from HCL is satisfactory unless there are customization requirements.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
Whenever we need any kind of support, the BigFix team is present and available.
Solution Sales Specialist at TD SYNNEX
The support team is experienced and responsive.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
The support team is responsive and provides detailed information.
Vulnerability Management Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Whenever we raise a request and mention the priority of the ticket, they respond immediately via email or call.
Security Consultant at Onity
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
4.7
BigFix effectively manages environments of all sizes with high scalability, supporting large deployments without performance issues.
Sentiment score
7.7
Qualys Patch Management efficiently scales from small to large environments with strong ratings, though some seek affordability improvements.
BigFix requires some minimum configuration requirements.
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
It scales efficiently across different machines globally, ensuring patches are deployed smoothly.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Qualys Patch Management is a globally scalable product, easily handling increasing workloads and users.
Information Security Manager at BARC India
If a client has purchased licensing for ten thousand assets and exceeds that, Qualys continues to scan those additional assets, which ensures the client's coverage.
Lead Product Manager ASM at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.2
BigFix is praised for its stability, efficient large-scale deployments, and autonomous operations with minimal user intervention and near-perfect ratings.
Sentiment score
7.7
Qualys Patch Management is highly stable and reliable, praised for cloud-native features and quality support with minor performance issues.
I would rate the stability of Qualys Patch Management nine point five out of ten.
Information Security Lead at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The stability of Qualys Patch Management is impeccable.
Sr Cyber Security Manager at BARC India
Overall, it is reliable.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

BigFix users seek pricing adjustments, enhanced interface, improved documentation, better integration, scalability, and cloud and mobile management solutions.
Qualys Patch Management needs improvements in accuracy, integration, UI, reporting, support, automation, error clarity, and patch coverage.
Building a management console is quick and simple, taking only one to two hours for setup.
Technical Director at SYSTEX
The problem was related to the hardware configuration and hardware specifications.
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
In addition to reporting improvements, there should be a feature for application control to allow or disallow certain applications from being executed on endpoints.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
There is a limitation where Qualys may not always offer solutions for remediation, particularly for end-of-life or end-of-service applications.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It would be better if Qualys Patch Management identifies whether the process has failed at the first instance and provides a retry button or retry mechanism, allowing retries for failed patches.
Sr Security Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
For critical options, they could make them red, green for medium, and blue for less significant options.
Cyber Security Specialist at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

BigFix offers flexible pricing with competitive but potentially costly plans, beneficial licensing, and discount options for larger deployments.
Qualys Patch Management offers competitive pricing, valued for functionality, but may seem expensive; bundles enhance cost-effectiveness for large infrastructures.
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to SolarWinds, making it easier for customers to subscribe and unsubscribe.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
We get many more features at the same price as other solutions such as Microsoft SCCM.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
However, it can be a bit expensive sometimes, and I think clients can be shocked when they see the price.
Lead Product Manager ASM at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing is reasonable and less expensive than the previous tool.
Technical Lead - Security Operations at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

BigFix offers scalable and customizable endpoint management with robust patching, software distribution, and security compliance across multiple platforms.
Qualys Patch Management offers efficient vulnerability management, remote management, and improves patch compliance with TruRisk scoring and cloud scalability.
The BigFix features that have proven most effective include inventory, software delivery, software distribution, software catalog, and both software and hardware management.
Technical Director at SYSTEX
I use this mainly to capture inventory for IBM products, and as BigFix was part of IBM, it gets easily integrated with IBM solutions.
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
BigFix supports something known as Patch Policies, which allows users to define that whenever critical patches are released, they should get evaluated against machines and automatically deploy them.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
We leverage this functionality to deploy scripts that adjust registry values, effectively patching vulnerabilities and enhancing the security of our machines.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We have been able to apply workarounds for zero-day vulnerabilities efficiently.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
It provides insight into the organization's security posture and keeps databases updated with new CVEs.
Security Specialist at a photography company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

BigFix
Ranking in Patch Management
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (9th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (25th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (11th)
Qualys Patch Management
Ranking in Patch Management
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of BigFix is 4.6%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Patch Management is 2.8%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys Patch Management2.8%
BigFix4.6%
Other92.6%
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ravi Khanchandani - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder Director at Techsa Services
Long-term partnership improves customer satisfaction and delivers efficient endpoint management
BigFix supports something known as Patch Policies, which allows users to define that whenever critical patches are released, they should get evaluated against machines and automatically deploy them. Their software distribution is very efficient because they use a pull mechanism rather than a push mechanism, allowing each machine to download from the closest repository and install themselves. The same assessment mechanism applies for real-time vulnerability remediation, allowing identification, evaluation, and automatic remediation across machines. Compliance metrics typically measure the patch percentages deployed against the number of endpoints, which could be various device types including virtual machines and mobile devices. Measurements are taken against each device type, looking into compliance percentages for browsers such as Chrome and Edge based on their versions.
SangramGupta - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at Deloitte
Automated patching has transformed risk-based remediation and now optimizes security workflows
I can highlight two areas for improvement. The first is better reporting flexibility and dashboard customization. Qualys VMDR has a great dashboard that I can customize, but Qualys Patch Management does not have a specific dashboard associated only with patch management and patch compliance. The customization could be improved significantly. The second area is third-party application coverage. Qualys Patch Management works very effectively when patching servers, internal servers, Windows, iOS, or Linux servers. However, when doing application security with third-party applications that require patches, it sometimes fails to complete the patch. The deployment issue with third-party applications needs enhancement, as even with integration, Qualys Patch Management is not able to deploy patches for some third-party applications. These are the two main points I can highlight for improvement.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Construction Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise67
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise31
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BigFix?
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to other major software solutions, making it easier for customers to subscribe and unsubscribe.
What needs improvement with BigFix?
I have concerns about BigFix's pricing, which I find to be slightly on the higher side. While it may not be the most affordable or competitive option, there is room for improvement. Additional feat...
What is your primary use case for BigFix?
I have been working at Tech Data for the last 12 plus years.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Patch Management?
In terms of quantifying how much it reduces the cost, I have no issues asking.
What needs improvement with Qualys Patch Management?
One area where I think Qualys Patch Management can improve is reporting and dashboard customization. As patching and vulnerability remediation are regular operational activities, having more flexib...
What is your primary use case for Qualys Patch Management?
What are your main use case/s for Qualys Patch Management? M7 4C6.44772 4 6 4.44772 6 5V12V19C6 19.5523 6.44772 20 7 20H14C15.1935 20 16.3381 19.5259 17.182 18.682C18.0259 17.8381 18.5 16.6935 18.5...
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Endpoint Manager
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

US Foods, Penn State, St Vincent's Health US Foods, Sabadell Bank, SunTrust, Australia Sydney, Stemac, Capgemini, WNS Global Services, Jebsen & Jessen, CenterBeam, Strauss, Christian Hospital Centre, Brit Insurance, Career Education Corporation
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about BigFix vs. Qualys Patch Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.