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Chainguard Containers vs Qualys Exposure Management comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 13, 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 Container Security
12th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (11th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (8th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (8th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (7th)
Chainguard Containers
Ranking in Container Security
30th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
3.7
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Container Image Security (1st)
Qualys Exposure Management
Ranking in Container Security
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
101
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (3rd), Vulnerability Management (2nd), Configuration Management Databases (3rd), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Container Security category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.6%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Chainguard Containers is 1.0%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Exposure Management is 2.1%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Container Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys Exposure Management2.1%
Qualys TotalCloud1.6%
Chainguard Containers1.0%
Other95.3%
Container Security
 

Featured Reviews

RO
IT Security Expert at Alior Bank S.A.
Unified risk scoring has improved our cloud visibility and simplifies remediation priorities
Qualys TotalCloud provides unified vulnerability and threat assessment across both IAS and SaaS. This solution provides a single prioritized view of risk, which helps reduce the work I would have to do. We are no longer based on CVSS; we are based on Qualys risk scoring, which is based on CVSS plus internal findings made by Qualys, and then assigns its own score. The TruRisk insight feature has found a small number of assets with high vulnerability scores, though I am cautious since some information is classified. Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted our bank's performance, and we have definitely seen benefits after implementing this solution.
ParthasarathyT - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Infrastructure Engineer at Publicis Sapient
Secures container builds, has simplified compliance audits and reduced vulnerabilities dramatically
The benefit of Chainguard Containers is that it makes development simpler. It makes the development team confident there will not be any bugs or vulnerabilities in the image they are using. It is mainly needed for vulnerabilities, SLAs, security audits, and SOC 2, ISO, and PCI compliance. The image includes SBOM, signature, and provenance metadata, which makes audits much easier. The best features Chainguard Containers offers include a reduced image size. It removes the shell and the package manager, resulting in a significantly smaller image size compared with a normal image. We can deploy production workloads directly without worrying about security concerns. If we want a strong supply chain for security, we will be using it. Many users are already tired of scanning alerts, so this will be a great thing. Removing the shell and package manager has positively impacted my team's workflow and deployment speed by making it quite user-friendly, where the developer can touch it without any hesitation. Chainguard Containers are built and pushed from non-patched binaries, with the packages compiled directly from the source. No dependencies or pre-built distro packages like Debian or Alpine are required, so there are no hidden vulnerabilities. The developer gains full control over what goes inside, and the image size is smaller with fewer vulnerabilities, in fact, zero. It has built-in processes like SBOM, which is Software Bill of Material generated. The image is cryptographically signed, and provenance is tracked, leading to faster patching, minimal footprint, and best supply chain control. Chainguard Containers has positively impacted my organization by reducing constant CVE fixing, resolving security versus DevOps conflicts, and minimizing compliance headaches. After implementing secured-by-default containers, there is less effort on fixing vulnerabilities, faster delivery, and better compliance. The impact on security teams includes a lower risk of attack, less panic during audits, and significantly fewer security noises. A specific outcome we have noted since implementing Chainguard Containers is that for a client who uses more than 200 containers, they previously received vulnerability warnings for every deployment. Once we implemented Chainguard Containers, the vulnerability ratio drastically decreased, from 100 to 30. Nearly 70% of the vulnerability checks have passed. Chainguard Containers are CVE-resistant, which is significant as CVEs represent Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures.
Ajay Paul - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
Vulnerability management has prioritized high‑risk patching and simplified bulk system reporting
The primary issue is with the reporting functionality. Even though we fix vulnerabilities, the reports do not reflect the changes immediately. Sometimes we need to manually run a script to scan the systems before Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management will update the scan results. The main issue is the reporting delay, and sometimes the Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management agent will not scan the system, which means we do not receive accurate reports in a timely manner. Additionally, there are many metrics for calculating vulnerabilities, such as the Qualys ID, severity scores, CVSS scores, and other metrics. The abundance of information can be confusing. These two aspects are the most significant negatives I have experienced with this tool.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With TotalCloud, we can scan through the API. If we are not able to deploy cloud agents on the machine, we can use the API."
"TruRisk Insights is the most important innovation they've released this year."
"I appreciate TotalCloud's real-time protection and remediation features. The remediation options include automated one-click remedies and custom changes that help manage vulnerabilities efficiently."
"I depend heavily on the reports that I have from this tool."
"The scalability is good as well. I would rate it ten out of ten."
"If someone were to ask me to review Qualys TotalCloud, I would summarize it as an end-to-end solution for cloud security with visibility and governance-grade controls without needing to manage multiple disconnected tools."
"The most valuable feature of Qualys TotalCloud is the visibility it provides."
"Qualys TotalCloud provides unified vulnerability and threat assessment for IaaS and SaaS and a single prioritized view of risk, which helps reduce my workload by not having to combine multiple sources."
"Specific outcomes and metrics show that before this, every month there would be 15 to 20 vulnerabilities, but after switching to Chainguard Containers, there are now only one or maybe two vulnerabilities."
"Chainguard Containers has positively impacted my organization by reducing constant CVE fixing, resolving security versus DevOps conflicts, and minimizing compliance headaches."
"The best feature of Chainguard Containers is being distroless, and the main thing I liked about it is that they follow the SBOM process and the continuous rebuilds they were doing, and they were helping me to rapidly remediate the failures which were happening."
"Chainguard Containers has positively impacted my organization even during the proof of concept phase by improving our security posture."
"The biggest benefit is from a security operations perspective, where we are able to drive our security posture upwards by remediating any discovered vulnerabilities."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Qualys help identifies the weakness in our critical infrastructure and provides guidelines how to address them."
"Regarding its competitors in the market, I believe Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management has a strong offering."
"Before we were taking eight hours, now we're taking around 30 minutes to respond to any incident, security and such."
"The initial setup and onboarding process of Qualys VMDR was quite smooth, as we were able to draft the SOPs from the documentation portal itself and everything was available in the documentation, so it was not a hassle for us to get the integrations done on time."
"The most valuable features are vulnerability detection and the scanning capability to enable identification of vulnerabilities across our network."
"Authenticated scans provide different options, including those using or not using the FactSet and adding option profiles."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in vulnerability scanning, particularly for PaaS environments. Currently, Qualys does not have full access to these instances, which limits its effectiveness."
"The patching process with Qualys Patch Management, which is part of TotalCloud, does not cover installing certain prerequisites on the servers or workstations. This shortcoming means we must rely on SCCM when any service stack updates or additional prerequisites are needed."
"The support is not up to the mark and seems to be overburdened."
"The onboarding process is a bit difficult. In the initial phase, it is very difficult to understand the features, what the dashboard contains, and what criteria they are using."
"It is already perfect, but they can bring some newer dashboards and customization options for the dashboard. It would be great to be able to include on-prem assets on the dashboard."
"The cost of Qualys TotalCloud is high and could be more competitive."
"The areas in the solution that have room for improvement include the UI/UX design, which should be improved, and they should integrate more artificial intelligence into the product."
"I would like the ability to disable certain default built-in policies as they can be misleading when creating dashboards. That is the top one."
"The biggest challenge in Chainguard Containers is that they provide minimal images, which can make troubleshooting difficult because common debugging tools are also not included."
"The only limitation or challenge that stood out during my evaluation of Chainguard Containers was the fact that it is primarily based on Alpine, which can be tricky to use in native Kubernetes environments, as we use Tecton primarily, which is a CI/CD pipeline that runs on native Kubernetes."
"Sometimes there are backend errors which we come across again and again, and there is a resolution, but there are pending tickets for it. That sucks sometimes."
"The accuracy and reliability of the output from Chainguard Containers are below average, but I still give it an average rating of 6.5 to 7 because of its capabilities and its functionality for a developer-friendly approach."
"The IoT scan is not great and we would like to see some improvements to it."
"Regarding improvement, compliance features haven't been utilized much."
"It's not very user-friendly at times and requires in-depth understanding. So, a layman or someone new to Qualys won't be able to easily understand it. You need education to use the solution."
"Second, the remedies provided by Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management are sometimes not useful most of the time. In that case, we need to troubleshoot or find out the remedies by ourselves."
"The solution is a bit expensive if you do not have access to discounts."
"Qualys Container Security can improve the interface. It could be easier to navigate and be enriched."
"The reporting and dashboards could improve in Qualys VM. However, they have improved since the previous versions."
"For a company with over 100,000 assets, there are challenges with scalability."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches."
"The cost is high, but it meets our organizational needs."
"It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable. It helps us to manage things with very few resources."
"The pricing is comparable. It is built into our other product, so I cannot piecemeal it. It is a part of our subscription."
"Qualys TotalCloud offers cost-effective licensing flexibility."
"As a middle management member, I do not have direct pricing knowledge, but based on the knowledge from our meetings, its pricing is competitive."
"Its price seems higher compared to other tools, but it is worth it. If they could adjust the pricing and make it comparable with other tools, that would be great."
"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive."
Information not available
"The tool's pricing is expensive and I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"There are no additional fees in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"It is a high cost product. Compared to the other solutions, it is around 15 to 20% higher in cost."
"We do see over $100,000 in terms of price, for mid-size programs. You likely will pay more than $100,000 without any discount. It is a bit pricey."
"An annual license for a single scanner costs around $3,000."
"The price is very reasonable."
"Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliance isn't expensive right now. But the price for their product bundles could be better."
"Usually every implementation is different and the quote is in function of number of assets."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
University
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise31
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise74
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
To be totally honest, I do not have any best features because I have had a bad experience using this tool, especially...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is vulnerability management and exposure management. I use this tool to evalua...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Chainguard Containers?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that while I work on implementation and do not manage billin...
What needs improvement with Chainguard Containers?
The only limitation or challenge that stood out during my evaluation of Chainguard Containers was the fact that it is...
What is your primary use case for Chainguard Containers?
Chainguard Containers was a tool brought into my enterprise as a proof of concept that we evaluated, but we have not ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys VMDR?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that we can consider both time and money saved.
What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?
I haven't explored Qualys VMDR's vulnerability lifecycle automation yet. One of my analysts mentioned that queries la...
What advice do you have for others considering Qualys VMDR?
I have some understanding about PeerSpot, and I have visited the website. PeerSpot is similar to TrustRadius. It take...
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
No data available
Qualys VM, QualysGuard VM, Qualys Asset Inventory, Qualys Container Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Information Not Available
Agrokor Group, American Specialty Health, American State Bank, Arval, Life:), Axway, Bank of the West, Blueport Commerce, BSkyB, Brinks, CaixaBank, Cartagena, Catholic Health System, CEC Bank, Cegedim, CIGNA, Clickability, Colby-Sawyer College, Commercial Bank of Dubai, University of Utah, eBay Inc., ING Singapore, National Theatre, OTP Bank, Sodexo, WebEx
Find out what your peers are saying about Chainguard Containers vs. Qualys Exposure Management and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.