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Cisco Secure Workload vs Sweet Security comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 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)
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (11th), Container Security (12th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (8th), SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) (2nd), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (7th)
Cisco Secure Workload
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
18th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Cloud and Data Center Security (7th), Microsegmentation Software (4th), Cisco Security Portfolio (7th)
Sweet Security
Ranking in Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (33rd), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (18th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (14th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (8th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (6th), AI Security (25th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.7%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Workload is 2.1%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sweet Security is 1.3%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys TotalCloud1.7%
Sweet Security1.3%
Cisco Secure Workload2.1%
Other94.9%
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)
 

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.
Raj Metkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA
Discover internal application dependencies and create a dependency map
We actively seek improvements in integrating the Infoblox DDI platform with Cisco Secure Workload. This integration allows Cisco Secure Workload to learn about our networks and network tags, providing valuable insights into vulnerabilities related to the operating system and various applications installed on our servers. Recently, Cisco announced a new product called HyperShield, an AI-based autonomous micro-segmentation solution. While Cisco has not stated that HyperShield will replace Cisco Secure Workload, it represents a natural evolution for the company. HyperShield features dynamic policy discovery and enforcement; however, once policies are enforced, they do not change until a discovery occurs, requiring a re-enforcement process. This new platform operates autonomously, minimizing the need for user or security engineer intervention. I would have expected Cisco to incorporate more automatic discovery and enforcement features within the existing Cisco Secure Workload product. Instead of enhancing the current product, they have introduced a new solution. Cisco plans to honor existing Tetration licenses, allowing users to transition to HyperShield without additional costs, reflecting the investment enterprises have already made. From Cisco’s perspective, this represents a natural progression in their product line. While the product name changes, it seems more of a rebranding effort. The enhancements are greater autonomy, improved discovery, and automatic enforcement, which are now being introduced in HyperShield. Cisco Secure Workload offers automatic policy enforcement but cannot adjust policies dynamically as the application needs to change. Having used the platform for the past five years, the recent announcement has been reassuring. Cisco has confirmed that our investment in the platform will not go to waste. They will honor our existing licenses, providing a natural migration path to the new solution without any disruption
reviewer2805510 - PeerSpot reviewer
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
Runtime-first security has transformed real-time threat detection and reduced alert fatigue
Sweet Security can be improved in terms of product maturity and ecosystem. It has a smaller market presence, so we do not have as many large enterprise deployments. Sweet Security is less mature than competitors such as Wiz or Palo Alto Networks. Some competitors provide better integrations and workflow tooling. Additionally, as a new vendor, there is a new market perception and higher perceived risk, which relates to trust of the product. Some competitors are seen as safer and more established choices. Since Sweet Security operates in the production live environment, there have been a couple of problems reported where issues occurred in production environments. However, these have been resolved within about an hour or two. Having that risk is always going to be a negative. As a cloud-native platform solution, Sweet Security is really good overall. There are only a couple of areas for improvement, such as not being fully 100% production safe, and the reality that its competitors are global, well-known companies such as Palo Alto and Wiz.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"TotalCloud's best feature is the integration of cloud accounts. It helps with the risk and security posture management of our cloud infrastructure."
"Qualys TotalCloud fulfills all these needs."
"TruRisk Insights is the most important innovation they've released this year."
"If I had to say something positive about the product that brings me the biggest benefit, I would say it has accurate reports, gets new update CVEs, zero-day attack detection, and is easy to manage with its GUI."
"Qualys TotalCloud provides a single, prioritized view based on requirements such as identifying the most vulnerable assets and calculating the average time to remediate vulnerabilities."
"The best feature would be the ability to create policies. It is easy to control and update policies as required."
"The most valuable feature of Qualys TotalCloud is the visibility it provides."
"CSPM is currently the most used feature, and we are enjoying the new feature, FlexScan, which is valuable for Internet-facing VMs."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is security."
"The only use case I can see that makes sense is micro-segmentation. I think there are other use cases for it. The main purpose of the product is to do micro-segmentation by collecting IP. That could be done by installing an agent, and then you have all the communication coming in and out. You could also use some flow sensors installed in the network that receive a copy of the traffic and then report that back to the system."
"A complete and powerful micro-segmentation solution."
"By using Tetration insight, we are able to get the latency on our level accounts and we can determine whatever the issue is with the application latency itself."
"Generally speaking, Cisco support is considered one of the best in the networking products and stack."
"The product provides multiple-device integration."
"Overall, this is a really good product and I am happy with it."
"The scalability of Cisco Tetration is very good."
"Sweet Security is a better tool and provides layer-by-layer protected environments, and with Sweet Security for cloud, security is totally under control."
"Before we had Sweet Security, upon any type of detection of activity, we needed to conduct lots of investigations in different platforms and logs until we could build the larger picture, but once we inserted Sweet Security, we are able to actually see each and every request being made from the application level towards the infrastructure, making it much easier and reducing the time for an analyst to understand what's really happening."
"For the time I have been using Sweet Security, I feel a bit more safe in the sense that there is something that continuously scans my infrastructure for issues."
"The value of having real-time visibility in our cloud environment with Sweet Security changes everything because it differentiates between identifying and reacting to something that is not really a risk and something that is truly a risk that needs to be treated."
"The value we see from having real-time visibility into our cloud environment is significant, as Sweet Security serves as our eyes and ears inside AWS, telling us what we are doing wrong so we can fix it."
"Sweet Security represents the next generation of CNAPP that differentiates through a runtime-first approach and focuses on detecting and responding to real attacks in environments."
 

Cons

"Qualys's ticketing system can be confusing when assigning tasks to individuals, and support could be improved by offering instant call solutions with engineers in addition to ticket replies."
"Some major banks and insurance companies require an on-premises solution for comprehensive vulnerability management, which TotalCloud does not offer."
"Qualys TotalCloud has the potential to improve by integrating a hybrid platform for comprehensive management of both on-premises and cloud infrastructures."
"Qualys TotalCloud's increasing complexity, due to the development and deployment of multiple solutions, is making the GUI difficult to navigate."
"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."
"TotalCloud could improve its scanning of niche devices like Wi-Fi dongles and USB modems because they are often untested. It covers everything else, like laptops, mobile devices, and Bluetooth IoT devices. They can improve on the small IoT devices because hackers and testers use these."
"One of the things that could be improved is the alerts. Qualys is a fantastic tool, especially with the TruRisk feature, but one challenge that most leaders face involves alert fatigue."
"The cloud licensing unit system is unclear, especially since "units" aren't well-defined."
"It has an uninviting interface."
"I would have expected Cisco to incorporate more automatic discovery and enforcement features within the existing Cisco Secure Workload product."
"The multi-tenancy, redundancy, backup and restore functionalities, as well as the monitoring aspects of the solution, need improvement. The solution offers virtually no enterprise-grade possibility for monitoring."
"Cisco Tetration needs more flags and system alerts that we should get with network capture."
"It is not so easy to use and configure. It needs a bunch of further resources to work, which is mainly the biggest downside of it. The deployment is huge."
"The emailed notifications are either hard to find or they are not available. Search capabilities can be improved."
"There is some overlap between Cisco Tetration and AppDynamics and there are few DC tools, it would be great to have a single pane of glass, rather than have to jump between different tools."
"A feature that I was looking for was emailed alerts and notifications so we'd get them right away."
"One thing I think Sweet Security can definitely improve is that they have a lot of features, but the UI right now is not so well designed in my opinion."
"The option to run specific playbooks through Sweet Security platform would help us a lot, but these must be fully customizable."
"Since Sweet Security operates in the production live environment, there have been a couple of problems reported where issues occurred in production environments."
"During the initial integration part, the platform sometimes flags anomalous problems when integrating with SIEM or SOAR solutions."
"There was something a year ago that caused a production issue in my company, but they fixed it within an hour."
"One area for improvement could be the alerts, as we have an issue with the alert time, the time it takes for the system to send the alert, but besides that, there is nothing special."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Qualys TotalCloud offers good pricing that is affordable and competitive with the market. Our partnership also provides us with additional benefits."
"While Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive and may soon be considered overpriced."
"Qualys TotalCloud offers cost-effective licensing flexibility."
"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."
"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."
"TotalCloud's price is about right where I would expect it to be."
"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches."
"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."
"The pricing is a bit higher than we anticipated."
"The cost for the hardware is around 300k."
"Regarding price, Cisco Secure Workload can be expensive if you don't have a budget. If you're not doing micro-segmentation, every extra security measure or enforcement you're putting on top of your existing environment will be an extra cost. It's not a cheap solution at all. But from my point of view, if you need to do micro-segmentation, this is one of the best tools I've seen for it. I can't compare that to Microsoft's solution because I haven't looked into it. I've looked into VMware and Cisco. Those are the only two that I know of. I didn't know that Microsoft could do micro-segmentation at all. Maybe they can, but I haven't heard anything about it."
"The price is based on how many computers you're going to install it on."
"Pricing depends on the scope of the application and the features. Larger installations save more."
"The price is outrageous. If you have money to throw at the product, then do it."
"It is not cheap and pricing may limit scalability."
Information not available
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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
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
Wellness & Fitness Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise31
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
 

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 Cisco Secure Workload?
CloudStrike offers antivirus capabilities and firewall features for servers and VDI but lacks automatic policy discov...
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Workload?
We actively seek improvements in integrating the Infoblox DDI platform with Cisco Secure Workload. This integration a...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Workload?
When we onboarded Cisco Secure Workload, the usual use case was to discover internal application dependencies and cre...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sweet Security?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that Sweet Security's pricing is quite fair and cost-e...
What needs improvement with Sweet Security?
Additional integration with third-party SIEM solutions and ITSM ticketing tools could be made easier. During the init...
What is your primary use case for Sweet Security?
Sweet Security is evolved for the cloud native application protection platform. It focuses specifically on protecting...
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
Cisco Tetration
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
ADP, University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC)
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Workload vs. Sweet Security and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.