Cisco SecureX [EOL] vs Nucleus Security comparison

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Cisco and Nucleus Security are both solutions in the Application Security Tools category. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Nucleus Security users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 23, 2026

Cisco SecureX EOL and Nucleus Security compete in the cybersecurity market. Nucleus Security takes the lead due to its comprehensive features and enhanced security capabilities.

Features: Cisco SecureX EOL integrates threat intelligence and automation in a centralized management platform. It seamlessly connects within Cisco's ecosystem, enhancing interoperability. Nucleus Security focuses on vulnerability management, risk prioritization, and real-time insights. Its strength lies in detailed risk assessment analysis, augmenting decision-making processes effectively.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco SecureX EOL benefits from easy integration with existing Cisco environments, providing robust support services aligned with customer network infrastructure needs. Nucleus Security offers a simple and universally adaptable deployment model, supported by responsive customer service catering to diverse security landscapes. Its versatile deployment ensures quick adaptation across various IT environments.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco SecureX EOL is considered cost-effective for businesses invested in Cisco infrastructure, leading to favorable ROI due to reduced additional costs. Nucleus Security, though higher in initial cost, provides comprehensive features enhancing security posture. This leads to high ROI by effectively preventing vulnerabilities and threats.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Security Tools Report (Updated: October 2026).

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Application Security Tools

October 2026

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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

Qualys TotalCloud

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021

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.

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Dene Lewis

Head of Technical Strategy and Direction CAE Technology Services Ltd at CAE Technology Services Limited

A scalable SaaS based platform that helps with cyber threat intelligence and automated hunting

I would rate Cisco SecureX a ten out of ten. I find the product to be a fantastic platform. If you are eligible, start using it straight away. The best way to evaluate it is to start using it and see where it fits within your organization. I think it helps our customers really deliver their SecOps goals, and I see it as a core foundation of CAE's own security strategy going forward. Our partnership with Cisco is one that was built on trust over a long period of time. This has enabled us to work together to be able to provide the solutions that our customers need to drive their organizations forward. The value we add as a reseller is being able to work closer with our customers, understand them, and get intimate with their organizations. That enables us to offer them the right solutions that will help them achieve their goals.

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reviewer2872923

Vulnerability And Compliance Manager at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Unified vulnerability view has improved risk-based decisions but reporting still needs work

One of the main issues with Nucleus Security is its lack of reporting capability. The user interface resembles an early 2000s application style, and although its speed is decent, it could be improved as more data is ingested. The overall appearance and feel need work, especially compared to modern applications from Rapid7, Qualys, and Tenable, which have more engaging user interfaces. The reporting capability is severely lacking; not being able to filter to granularity or have custom built queries is an annoyance that needs an overhaul. Additionally, there are bugs that have not been resolved, such as when you create a report and remove an asset, the asset still appears in the report despite not being present in the system anymore, leading to issues that need to be addressed quickly. Nucleus Security can become a difficult investment because I already have a vulnerability management solution, and I question where Nucleus Security fits with its licensing model. While I acknowledge automation has been described, it would be amazing to control the entire vulnerability management workflow from Nucleus Security without needing to log onto other systems. Having controls or actions that can be sent from the console down to the scanner for rescans would be beneficial. If Nucleus Security is going down this path, it should ensure that it becomes a one-stop shop for vulnerability management across multiple applications.

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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

"Qualys TotalCloud has great accuracy and reliability, as it is a very complete program with tools that help experts understand the vulnerabilities of today."

"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."

"It is a cloud-native app that integrates with both IaaS and SaaS. It seamlessly integrates with other platforms."

"My experience with using TruRisk to mitigate noise from raw CVEs has been extremely effective."

"Qualys TotalCloud is an excellent platform, and the beauty of the platform is that we can get all the vulnerabilities, see all the reports in a single dashboard, view them segregated, and easily learn about critical, high, and medium findings with appropriately provided remediation steps."

"I depend heavily on the reports that I have from this tool."

"The agent and agentless scanning in TotalCloud, particularly the FlexScan method, is incredibly valuable. With traditional scanning approaches, we had to give IP ranges and whitelist IPs. All that is now simplified. FlexScan requires minimal intervention, and after configuration, it automatically collects data and performs necessary scans."

"The most valuable feature is extensibility."

More Qualys TotalCloud pros

"Its cybersecurity and resilience have been extremely important for our organization."

"Using SecureX, a tool provided by Cisco, we can easily integrate it with many of our other Cisco products such as Cisco ISE and many networking devices."

"The SecureX solution has the best impact for the customer because it has all the visibility of my applications and my users' applications."

"The ability to create firewalls online has been most valuable including the ability to create rules."

"If management wants to ingest reports at a high level from all of the different products, they would only need one login to SecureX to view this information as opposed to separate logins for each of the integrated products."

"SecureX definitely provides us with contextual awareness throughout our security ecosystem, since it allows us to integrate multiple threat intelligence feeds, as well as multiple security appliances and platforms."

"SecureX takes all the separate pieces of security within your company, adds in intelligence from different sites and services on the internet, and makes them work together."

"It has evolved a lot, just that monitoring piece to the current Orchestrator piece. The additional analytics are there. They now have something called Insight, which can basically take data from Microsoft Azure AD and Intune to give us information about our endpoints. This is detailed information about the endpoints, from Secure Endpoint and all these different products. So, it is just constantly evolving. Every time that it evolves, we have more information with more visibility. There are more features that we have that just make everything so much easier, and it is in one place. I don't have to keep going back and forth. I don't have to go to Secure Endpoint and ISE to get the data. I don't have to go to Intune on Microsoft to get the information. It is all in one place."

More Cisco SecureX [EOL] pros

"Nucleus Security has impacted my organization positively by providing a single pane view of vulnerabilities from different connectors and enabling the automation of reporting and alerting on findings that are out of due date or out of SLA."

"The best features that Nucleus Security offers in my experience are the unified integrations with all of the different vulnerability management platforms."

"Nucleus Security has fundamentally changed how we manage our vulnerability lifecycle and made our entire incident response process much more proactive, organized, and reliable."

"The best features Nucleus Security offers, in my opinion, are that it is really great in showcasing things and providing centralized vulnerability management."

Cons

"The price is very expensive, actually."

"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."

"Two areas for improvement in Qualys TotalCloud are the speed of the public cloud platform and vulnerability detection."

"Their support could be improved."

"Qualys TotalCloud needs to enhance its scanning capabilities in the IP domain, as it currently lacks the functionality to resolve IPs to their corresponding domain names."

"To improve the user experience, reporting could be simplified for better comprehension by end users and project managers, facilitating issue resolution."

"To be honest, I would move out from this tool because it does not give a full view of vulnerability."

"Qualys TotalCloud's increasing complexity, due to the development and deployment of multiple solutions, is making the GUI difficult to navigate."

More Qualys TotalCloud cons

"what's missing right now is the multi-tenant capability."

"The automation and orchestration could be simpler. It could be that all the other parts are that easy to use so that these stick out as a negative, but that's the trickiest part for us. The workflows within the orchestration are just a bit more difficult."

"Remediation stuff could be integrated into the product's automation."

"They could expand into more areas. The more third-parties that we have tied into it, the better. The capabilities are there. As they just continue to involve the product, the more things that you can look into, then the more analytics that you can get. Also, the more data that we can get, then the better off we will be."

"Enhancing automation capabilities could further improve the product."

"Sometimes it's a little slow so that is also something Cisco should check."

"It is good that it provides information. However, I think that there needs to be more actionable items for us based on the information provided."

"It would be nice if they had a different pricing model. Most of our budget for projects goes towards Cisco."

More Cisco SecureX [EOL] cons

"Nucleus Security needs a better view into exposure management, as exposure management and attack path management are missing."

"On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Nucleus Security overall a six."

"One of the main issues with Nucleus Security is its lack of reporting capability."

"While the platform is incredibly powerful, the initial configuration curve of Nucleus Security can be a bit steep."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is high, but it meets our organizational needs."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers cost-effective licensing flexibility."

"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."

"I am not sure about the pricing. From what I understand, it is a bit on the higher side, but I do not have the exact numbers."

"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."

"It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable. It helps us to manage things with very few resources."

"TotalCloud's price is about right where I would expect it to be."

"As a middle management member, I do not have direct pricing knowledge, but based on the knowledge from our meetings, its pricing is competitive."

More Qualys TotalCloud pricing and cost advice

"Cisco SecureX is more expensive than Trend Micro. However, considering the integration capabilities with other solutions and the quality of technical support, I believe there's justification for the price difference."

"It would be nice if they had a different pricing model. Most of our budget for projects goes towards Cisco."

"For the value you get, the pricing of the solution is excellent."

"It comes free with all Cisco products. So, it is a good price."

"It is free. It can't get any better than that."

"The product is absolutely free to any customer. As such, the only thing one must keep in mind is that as long as he already has one Cisco security product, irregardless of what that product is, SecureX is available for free."

"You can spend less money for another solution, but if you really want to have a good solution you have to pay. We are happy that we are getting such a good solution for what we are spending."

"The pricing is the best part of this solution. It is free if you buy Umbrella or Duo Security. It is also a good solution."

More Cisco SecureX [EOL] pricing and cost advice

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%

Outsourcing Company

22%

Construction Company

12%

Marketing Services Firm

University

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	38

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

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...

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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...

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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...

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

The licensing model is straightforward, with one license across multiple assets for multiple connectors. It is always...

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What needs improvement with Nucleus Security?

While the platform is incredibly powerful, the initial configuration curve of Nucleus Security can be a bit steep. Wh...

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What is your primary use case for Nucleus Security?

In the initial phase when we first brought Nucleus Security into our environment, instead of immediately pushing it i...

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys TotalCloud

October 2026

Download Qualys TotalCloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco SecureX [EOL]

October 2026

Download Cisco SecureX [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Nucleus Security

October 2026

Download Nucleus Security product report

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan

Kenna.AppSec, Kenna.VI

No data available

Overview

Qualys TotalCloud enhances security posture across cloud environments with continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, and risk visualization, ensuring efficient threat assessment and automated remediation for improved cyber risk reduction.

Qualys TotalCloud offers a robust suite of security tools essential for organizations managing multi-cloud infrastructures. By integrating cloud accounts and automating workflows, it supports AWS, Azure, and GCP, offering comprehensive vulnerability management and zero-day detection. The platform's user-friendly design, combined with its extensive risk management and unified threat assessment capabilities, enables organizations to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities effectively. TruRisk Insights provides clear insights on cyber risks, while the automation options streamline patch management and scanning processes. API integration across IaaS and SaaS environments further enhances resource allocation efficiency and saves time, addressing misconfigurations across cloud environments.

What are the most important features of Qualys TotalCloud?

Accurate Vulnerability Reports: Delivers precise and actionable insights for risk mitigation.
Zero-Day Detection: Identifies and addresses zero-day vulnerabilities proactively.
Unified Threat Assessment: Offers comprehensive evaluation of threats across the environment.
Extensive Risk Management: Manages risks effectively with advanced insights and prioritization.
Continuous Monitoring: Provides non-stop surveillance for vulnerabilities and threats.
Cloud-Native Automation: Streamlines processes and reduces manual efforts using automation.
FlexScan for Internet-Facing VMs: Scans external VMs efficiently to detect vulnerabilities.
Dashboard Risk Visualization: Clear visualization helps prioritize vulnerabilities.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Improved Security Posture: Enhances threat detection and response across clouds.
Time Savings: Automation reduces time spent on manual vulnerability management.
Resource Efficiency: Better allocation of resources through streamlined workflows.
Enhanced Risk Prioritization: Focus on critical vulnerabilities for effective mitigation.
Integrated Cloud Accounts: Facilitates seamless cloud management and security.

Qualys TotalCloud is deployed in sectors needing rigorous vulnerability management, such as finance and healthcare. Companies utilize it to secure multi-cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and GCP, focus on compliance, and integrate security into CI/CD pipelines to detect and remedy threats pre-deployment.

Qualys

Cisco SecureX is an integrated security platform that connects the breadth of Cisco's integrated security portfolio and the customer's infrastructure to create a consistent experience. The solution unifies visibility, enables automation, and strengthens your security across network, endpoints, cloud, and applications. Cisco SecureX is embedded within every Cisco Security product and supports integrations with SIEM and SOAR, so customers will not need to replace any solution or worry about layering on new technology.

Cisco SecureX Features

Cisco SecureX has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Unified overview: Cisco SecureX offers key metrics on transactions and threats for network, endpoints, cloud and applications. In addition, the SecureX interface is integrated into all Cisco Security technologies.

Automation and an increase in operational efficiency: With Cisco SecureX, you gain better automation of workflows for products of the Cisco Security portfolio and third parties, allowing you to focus on other more important tasks. By eliminating manual work (through automatic identification of threats using analytical data of Cisco Talos and other sources), the solution helps your organization save a significant amount of time.

Security strengthening: Cisco SecureX makes it easy to compare analytical data from a set of various sources with the telemetry received from network, endpoints, e-mail, cloud, and third-party products.

Cisco SecureX Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Cisco SecureX include:

Secure every business endeavor with an open, integrated platform that has out-of-the-box interoperability and scales to meet security needs.

Advance your security maturity level using existing resources.

Turn security from a blocker into an enabler. Cisco SecureX allows you to add new security capabilities for the threat landscape.

Maximize your operational efficiency, helping you get the most from your security investments.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Cisco SecureX users.

PeerSpot user Wouter H., Technical Team Lead Network & Security at Missing Piece BV, shares several reasons why he thinks the solution is fantastic. In his opinion, “SecureX takes all the separate pieces of security within your company, adds in intelligence from different sites and services on the internet, and makes them work together. If an email is received on a machine and malware is being executed, it can be put into lockdown mode. The fact that you can have a single solution that combines endpoint intelligence with email intelligence, firewalls, and publicly available intelligence is really helpful. Also, SecureX provides us with contextual awareness throughout our security ecosystem. Before SecureX, things that were not possible, or that would take days, now literally take seconds to find out.

Michal S., Infrastructure Engineer at a media company, says, “SecureX provides many measurements and has a really good dashboard. Working with it you are able to see things very clearly and you have every detail on a single display. That saves us money and time.” He also adds, “It brings all our data into a central point. It also shows us many data connections between many of our environments. SecureX gives you really good information about potential risks. You are able to find the source of a risk, a potential risk from a user or a machine.”

Blair A., Technology Director at Shawnee Heights USD #450, explains, "One of the most valuable features is the simplicity of deploying SecureX. It's very easy to do that and then you gain very detailed visibility into everything that's going on in your network and, obviously, at the device level. There's just a wealth of information that you can pull from all of these products that are part of SecureX. You know exactly if you have an issue or not."

Cisco

Nucleus Security offers a scalable vulnerability management platform designed for effective risk reduction. By integrating with existing IT infrastructure, it enhances security measures and improves agility.

As a comprehensive security tool, Nucleus Security provides customizable vulnerability assessment, streamlined workflows, and integration capabilities with security tools to enhance threat detection and response. It's tailored for enterprises seeking an intuitive management platform that delivers actionable insights and increases efficiency. By leveraging robust automation and advanced analytics, the platform aids organizations in optimizing their cybersecurity posture.

What are the key features of Nucleus Security?

Customizable Dashboards: Offers personalized views for better visibility and control.
Automated Workflows: Reduces manual tasks, allowing for quicker incident response.
Extensive Integrations: Connects with major security tools to unify threat data.
Risk Prioritization: Analyzes threats to focus on the most critical vulnerabilities.

What benefits can users expect from Nucleus Security?

Increased Efficiency: Streamlined processes lead to faster threat resolution.
Enhanced Data Visibility: Comprehensive data access improves decision-making capabilities.
Cost Reduction: Automation reduces labor costs and minimizes resource expenditure.
Improved Compliance: Facilitates adherence to regulatory standards and policies.

In industries like healthcare, finance, and technology, Nucleus Security is implemented to address specific risks and compliance needs. It provides tailored solutions to safeguard sensitive data, manage regulatory pressures, and ensure robust threat detection. Industries benefit from its ability to adapt to sector-specific challenges while maintaining high security standards.

Nucleus Security

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

NHS, Rackspace, UNC Pembroke, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Missing Piece

Information Not Available

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October 2026

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