Checkmarx One vs Qualys VMDR comparison

Checkmarx and Qualys are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Checkmarx is ranked #21 with an average rating of 7.8, while Qualys is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3. Checkmarx holds a 0.7% mindshare in VM, compared to Qualys’s 8.3% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Checkmarx users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Qualys VMDR and Checkmarx One are leading tools in vulnerability management and application security testing, respectively. In this comparison, Qualys VMDR holds an advantage in cloud-based deployment and asset management, while Checkmarx One leads in language support and static code analysis.

Features: Qualys VMDR is cloud-based, minimizing local configurations and offering flexible deployment. It provides robust asset management and patch integration, ensuring vulnerabilities are kept updated. Checkmarx One excels in static application security testing by detecting code vulnerabilities without needing compilation. It supports a wide range of programming languages and offers low false positives, enhancing secure coding.

Room for Improvement: Qualys VMDR could improve integration with additional standards and compliance requirements, patch accuracy, and reduce false positives. Its cloud reliance may not suit all businesses, preferring on-premise solutions. Checkmarx One should focus on reducing false positives and enhancing API security, while its complex licensing and higher costs are areas for potential improvement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys VMDR offers deployment flexibility across multiple cloud environments, although some users find its support response time slow. Customer satisfaction is varied, with mixed reviews on service quality. Checkmarx One traditionally focuses on on-premise deployment with strong customer support that is praised for responsiveness, often resulting in successful implementations across infrastructures.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR is viewed as expensive but offers significant ROI by improving security posture and risk reduction. Its flexible pricing models and volume discounts are appealing for large enterprises. Checkmarx One, despite being costly, is considered a worthy investment due to its exhaustive code analysis and security features. However, its pricing can lack transparency, and additional costs may arise, yet users generally experience a good ROI by enhancing security practices and minimizing vulnerability exposure.

To learn more, read our detailed Checkmarx One vs. Qualys VMDR Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Checkmarx One vs. Qualys VMDR

April 2025

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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

Zafran Security

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Zafran Security is 0.6%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Checkmarx One is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 8.3%, down from 13.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini

Associate Director IT Security Operations at Novartis

Weekly insights and risk analysis facilitate informed security decisions

I appreciate the weekly insights Zafran provides, which include critical topics for networks and IT security, allowing us to evaluate which insights apply to our environment. The organization score feature is valuable to keep the leadership team updated on how our infrastructure fares security-wise. The applicable risk level versus base risk level feature is beneficial because prior to Zafran, we only used the base risk level, but now understand that risk depends on the asset itself. Zafran is an excellent tool.

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Rohit Kesharwani

Manager, Engineering at 7-Eleven.

Provides good security analysis and security identification within the source code

We integrate Checkmarx into our software development cycle using GitLab's CI/CD pipeline. Checkmark has been the most helpful for us in the development stage. The solution's incremental scanning feature has impacted our development speed. The solution's vulnerability detection is around 80% to 90% accurate. I would recommend Checkmarx to other users because it is one of the good tools for doing security analysis and security identification within the source code. Overall, I rate Checkmarx a nine out of ten.

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Harold Jensen

Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at 3M Health Information Systems

Good visibility but expensive and needs better support

Support: It's often overseas and often following a script, basically asking us to redo what we opened the case with. Multiple APIs: There seems to be a lack of easy onboarding into Qualys. We had to use manual inputs and some API calls to get items in place. Dashboard: It is very rudimentary with very little customization. The Qualys Scripting Language (QSL) works differently in different Qualys modules, so when you get it working in one area you have to modify the syntax in others. User account management: We often have to give users more rights than needed just to give them what they need. Integration with the various Qualys Modules: You can tell the UI is different based on of the different teams that created them. QSL syntax same in all modules Responsiveness of some of the components: They time out, you get a blank screen, etc. Backend updates between the various modules: You update connectors and information takes a few minutes to show in VMDR or Global Asset View Connectors: Connectors have a throttling issue with AWS which causes them to frequently fail unless you manually run them again.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."

"The best thing about Checkmarx is the amount of vulnerabilities that it can find compared to other free tools."

"The most valuable feature for me is the Jenkins Plugin."

"It can integrate very well with DAST solutions. So both of them are combined into an integrated solution for customers running application security."

"What I like best about Checkmarx is that it has fewer false positives than other products, giving you better results."

"The most valuable features of Checkmarx are the automation and information that it provides in the reports."

"It has all the features we need."

"The most valuable feature is the simple user interface."

"Scan reviews can occur during the development lifecycle."

More Checkmarx One pros

"The solution is easy to use."

"The prioritization feature is great. I think it has all of the advanced features that we need."

"The prioritization of vulnerabilities has improved our remediation efforts by around thirty to thirty-five percent."

"The most valuable feature is the certificate management."

"It's a good product. After the scan our internet works well. It scans our security posture."

"The initial setup was good. We didn't have any problems with it."

"I find Qualys VM very robust, and it's very useful for vulnerability management and patch management. The value that it brings to my environment is economies of scale. There is no limitation on adding any endpoints. You go by the rule, and it's added once another endpoint is added to our environment. It's automatically installed, and it's less work from our end. It frees up my license automatically if I don't need an endpoint or if my machine is decommissioned. I like the dashboard displays because I don't see any duplication. The most important part is vulnerability management and prioritization. Unlike Symantec, it shows the kind of vulnerability I would want to patch first. It provides a holistic view of the kind of vulnerabilities and the ones I should remediate first. I don't have to do a scan; it just brings up those critical kinds of vulnerabilities like zero-day vulnerabilities and tells me to prioritize them. You have to prioritize these vulnerabilities first and go on with the rest. The dashboard shows me the ones that have been fixed, so I don't have to complete an aging report. The user experience and the graphical interface are good. As it's user-friendly and understandable on an executive level, it brings real value. We also use this solution because it's robust and flexibile."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

More Qualys VMDR pros

Cons

"Initially, we were somewhat concerned about the scalability of Zafran due to our large asset count and the substantial amount of information we needed to process."

"Meta data is always needed."

"You can't use it in the continuous delivery pipeline because the scanning takes too much time."

"One area for improvement in Checkmarx is pricing, as it's more expensive than other products."

"The statistics module has a function that allows you to show some statistics, but I think it's limited. Maybe it needs more information."

"The tool is currently quite static in terms of finding security vulnerabilities. It would be great if it was more dynamic and we had even more tools at our disposal to keep us safe. It would help if there was more scanning or if the process was more automated."

"The solution's user interface could be improved because it seems outdated."

"The lack of ability to review compiled source code. It would then be able to compete with other scanning tools, such as Veracode."

"Micro-services need to be included in the next release."

More Checkmarx One cons

"It would be helpful to have features for better tracking, including options for adding relevant owners or supporting groups for each asset."

"There seems to be a lack of easy onboarding into Qualys."

"The reporting in this solution can be improved."

"It is more expensive vs. other products on the market."

"The customer support is very bad."

"There's a need to upgrade or fix the potential vulnerability rate. Around 20,000 potential vulnerabilities were showing in Qualys VMDR, but none of the other tools showed them. When we checked, it wasn't the case. Support explained that even small issues were being counted as vulnerabilities, causing issues in our audit. So, the security features could be improved to identify vulnerabilities accurately."

"Qualys currently does not have any features for scanning SCADA, IoT, and Industrial Control Systems."

"If AI features were integrated, it could enhance the capabilities significantly."

More Qualys VMDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Checkmarx is not a cheap scanning tool, but none of the security tools are cheap. Checkmarx is a powerful scanning tool, and it’s essential to have one of these products."

"I believe pricing is better compared to other commercial tools."

"For around 250 users or committers, the cost is approximately $500,000."

"We have a subscription license that is on a yearly basis, and it's a pretty competitive solution."

"The solution's price is high and you pay based on the number of users."

"It is an expensive solution."

"Most of my customers opted for a perpetual license. They prefer to pay the highest amount up front for the perpetual license and then pay for additional support annually."

"We have purchased an annual license to use this solution. The price is reasonable."

More Checkmarx One pricing and cost advice

"It is a high cost product. Compared to the other solutions, it is around 15 to 20% higher in cost."

"It's very expensive, especially if you want to use multiple modules of Qualys."

"Qualys VM is better suited for medium to large companies because the price can be too much for smaller customers."

"There is a license for the use of this solution. We pay annually instead of monthly to receive a better discount on the price."

"The solution is costly."

"Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliance isn't expensive right now. But the price for their product bundles could be better."

"The solution is expensive."

"The pricing is very competitive."

More Qualys VMDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Educational Organization

33%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?

I find that the pricing for Zafran aligns well with the comprehensive features it offers. The asset and user-based li...

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What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

Zafran is a new startup. Features are continuously being added or improved. 1) Continued integrations with existing (...

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What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?

We connect this to our vulnerability scanner as input, our security tools to better determine risk, and our change ma...

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What alternatives are there for Fortify WebInspect and Fortify SCA?

I would like to recommend Checkmarx. With Checkmarx, you are able to have an all in one solution for SAST and SCA as ...

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What do you like most about Checkmarx?

Compared to the solutions we used previously, Checkmarx has reduced our workload by almost 75%.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Checkmarx?

The pricing is relatively expensive due to the product's quality and performance, but it is worth it.

See all answers

What do you like most about Qualys VMDR?

I like that we have many scanners and channels that don't overload. It helps us scan and track easily. Also, the tagg...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys VMDR?

Qualys offers better pricing and is feature-packed compared to other tools.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?

They can tweak their UI since the new version seems a bit jumbled up, and the old UI was more user-friendly.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)

March 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Checkmarx One

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

April 2025

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Also Known As

No data available

Qualys VM, QualysGuard VM, Qualys Asset Inventory, Qualys Container Security

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

Checkmarx One is an enterprise cloud-native application security platform focused on providing cross-tool, correlated results to help AppSec and developer teams prioritize where to focus time and resources.

Checkmarx One offers comprehensive application scanning across the SDLC:

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
API security
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
Container security
IaC security
Correlation, prioritization, and risk management
Codebashing secure code training
AI security
Tech partnerships extending AppSec into runtime analysis
Developer tool integrations including: CI/CD tools, development frameworks, feedback tools, IDEs, programming languages and SCMs

Checkmarx One provides everything you need to secure application development from the first line of code through deployment and runtime in the cloud. With an ever-evolving set of AppSec engines, correlation and prioritization features, and AI capabilities, Checkmarx One helps consolidate expanding lists of AppSec tools and make better sense of results. Its capabilities are designed to provide an improved developer experience to build trust with development teams and ensure the success of your AppSec program investment.

Checkmarx

Vulnerability Management, Detection, and Response (VMDR) is a cornerstone product of the Qualys TruRisk Platform and a global leader in the enterprise-grade vulnerability management (VM) vendor space. With VMDR, enterprises are empowered with visibility and insight into cyber risk exposure - making it easy to prioritize vulnerabilities, assets, or groups of assets based on business risk. Security teams can take action to mitigate risk, helping the business measure their actual risk exposure over time.

Qualys VMDR offers an all-inclusive risk-based vulnerability management solution to prioritize vulnerabilities and assets based on risk and business criticality. VMDR seamlessly integrates with configuration management databases (CMDB), Qualys Patch Management, Custom Assessment and Remediation (CAR), Qualys TotalCloud and other Qualys and non-Qualys solutions to facilitate vulnerability detection and remediation across the entire enterprise.

With VMDR, users are empowered with actionable risk insights that translate vulnerabilities and exploits into optimized remediation actions based on business impact. Qualys customers can now aggregate and orchestrate data from the Qualys Threat Library, 25+ threat intelligence feeds, and third-party security and IT solutions, empowering organizations to measure, communicate, and eliminate risk across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments.

Qualys

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

YIT, Salesforce, Coca-Cola, SAP, U.S. Army, Liveperson, Playtech Case Study: Liveperson Implements Innovative Secure SDLC

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

Buyer's Guide

Checkmarx One vs. Qualys VMDR

April 2025

Free Report: Checkmarx One vs. Qualys VMDR

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