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Cisco Vulnerability Management (formerly Kenna.VM) vs Qualys VMDR comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 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

Cisco Vulnerability Managem...
Ranking in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
22nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (11th)
Qualys VMDR
Ranking in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
96
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (3rd), Vulnerability Management (3rd), Configuration Management Databases (3rd), Container Security (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Risk-Based Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Vulnerability Management (formerly Kenna.VM) is 2.3%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 9.8%, down from 16.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Risk-Based Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys VMDR9.8%
Cisco Vulnerability Management (formerly Kenna.VM)2.3%
Other87.9%
Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

AshishPaliwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Self-employed at Self-employed
Offers contextual prioritization and risk-based remediation of vulnerability
An improvement would be some sort of an integration with any GRC suite. There are a lot of GRC suites available, like Archer, MetricStream, Rsam, Protiviti, for example. So how would a solution like this work if my company has already invested thousands or maybe millions in a GRC solution? Do I still need it and how does it fit into an existing SAP environment? There could be interoperability, having more data sources, integrating Splunk, Qualys, FireEye, Rapid7, Carbon Black. I'm sure all that can be done to an extent, with a little more insight and a little more accuracy on the industry numbers and trends. I'd like the solution to offer any sort of assistance in any way with the remediation part, not just identification of vulnerability risk, and that is second.
Vaibhav Ghule - PeerSpot reviewer
Soc Lead & Edr Administration at Persistent Systems
Continuous risk-based monitoring has strengthened incident response and vulnerability prioritization
I haven't explored Qualys VMDR's vulnerability lifecycle automation yet. One of my analysts mentioned that queries lack grouping operators in Qualys VMDR. From my experience, I would appreciate improvements in the query options in Qualys VMDR, specifically in the query-building process where I would need more features and operators. Additionally, we have been facing issues with Qualys on the cloud level. We cannot download the configuration profile from the cloud agent, and it is showing a pending action for download. During 2025, we noticed outages of Qualys a couple of times. I want to mention that there is an issue with receiving timely RCA deliveries. While this is not necessarily about the tool, it relates to support. The support has not been very responsive, and we are receiving RCAs a little delayed whenever we raise support cases or communicate with the TAMs. Additionally, the UI has a slight latency, which I and my team have experienced. They have also reported this latency issue when navigating through different pages.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The risk context of any vulnerability is a valuable feature; that is what it is used for and then data from different sources can be fed into it, and they have good dashboards, risk meters, and virtualization."
"The risk context of any vulnerability is a valuable feature."
"The most valuable features are vulnerability scanning, policy compliance scanning, and tablet for web application scanning."
"The Qualys Agent is most valuable for getting insight into what is happening on what device with all its metadata."
"The solution shows us classic categories, including high, medium, and low risks. It also shows critical items, and that gives us the advantage of prioritizing things."
"This solution has provided information about existing vulnerabilities, and helped with quick remediation in case of global malware attacks."
"The most valuable feature of Qualys Container Security is the detailed information in the reports and the remediation, which is done to make sure there are no vulnerabilities."
"The prioritization feature is great. I think it has all of the advanced features that we need."
"The most valuable feature is the certificate management."
"Using the policy compliance module allowed this to be automated and saved time as well as generated more complete coverage of assets leading to greater assurance."
 

Cons

"An improvement would be some sort of an integration with any GRC suite."
"The only improvement I can think of is on the implementation side, otherwise the operation is fine."
"I would like to see this solution simplified to work more easily in a multi-cloud environment."
"If you're not overly experienced and you're looking for something in their management, it can sometimes be quite difficult because they can move buttons around without sending an update."
"Ticket management"
"There are scenarios where a vulnerability is reported once yet not in subsequent scans, even if we have not fixed it."
"Improve the API speed."
"One area of the product that could be improved is the management of vulnerabilities detected on disabled applications."
"The reporting is lacking a little, and it would be nice to have reports sent via email."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think the pricing is based on the number of endpoints, so it's more subscription-based."
"It is a high cost product. Compared to the other solutions, it is around 15 to 20% higher in cost."
"There are no additional fees in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliance isn't expensive right now. But the price for their product bundles could be better."
"When you want to cover yourself for scalability, you will be charged for the number you place on the scan itself."
"Usually every implementation is different and the quote is in function of number of assets."
"Qualys VM is quite expensive. It's a subscription-based license, and it's yearly. Right now, it's open for me, and I don't have any limitations or caps on the licenses. They are seeing if the product is viable for 4500 users. I can add as much as I want, and at the end of the subscription, they'll let me know how many licenses were actually used and bill me accordingly. On a scale from one to five, I would give their pricing a three. It's still expensive."
"The product is more expensive than that of any other vendor."
"Qualys is cheaper and more affordable than other solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Retailer
15%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise70
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 lack grouping operators in Qualys VMDR. From my experience, I would appreciate imp...
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 takes reviews from customers or end users who are using the tools and technologies i...
 

Also Known As

Kenna.VM, Kenna Security, Kenna, Kenna Security Platform
Qualys VM, QualysGuard VM, Qualys Asset Inventory, Qualys Container Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

TransUnion
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 Qualys, Horizon3.ai, Tenable and others in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management. Updated: May 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.