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Digital Shadows vs Qualys VMDR vs Recorded Future comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

Digital Risk Protection Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Digital Shadows3.7%
Recorded Future10.3%
ZeroFOX10.2%
Other75.8%
Digital Risk Protection
Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys VMDR3.9%
Wiz4.5%
Tenable Nessus3.8%
Other87.8%
Vulnerability Management
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Recorded Future6.7%
CrowdStrike Falcon4.5%
Anomali3.7%
Other85.1%
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
 

Featured Reviews

DavidJones7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Content at Pharmaflow
Has required additional context for alerts but supports monitoring impersonation and threat activity effectively
I do not rate Digital Shadows a nine or ten because there are many things that need improvement. The information we get is kind of generic. For instance, for impersonation, we don't have much detail on their history, when it was used or how it was misused. Those further details would be really helpful, but the information we receive is basic, such as when it was last registered and when it was updated, without more insight about the malicious factors. For basic support from Digital Shadows, my impression is that it is six to seven because many times we see duplications or bugs, and the quality of the alerts is not up to the mark. We have escalated many times, but we do not receive solid responses from them in terms of fixes. Digital Shadows should focus on the engineering side rather than the support aspect because support is there to help us get updates, but in terms of quick fixes, it is not as responsive. The need for improvement lies more with the engineering part in fixing issues, which is linked to support.
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.
Derek  Lewis - PeerSpot reviewer
Account Manager at Chevron
Continuous threat intelligence has improved brand monitoring and protects against leaked credentials
Some of the areas that need improvement in Recorded Future include email reports that can show unrelated content. Sometimes alerts pop up for articles that have been published years ago but were just recently discovered by Recorded Future. For the browser extension, since the main purpose is to present information regarding IPs, I think it would be best to provide us with an idea of where the IP originates or some additional information about the organization it belongs to. API capabilities in Recorded Future are improving, but there are still some features that are missing and some errors that are hard to handle and understand. The price of Recorded Future is a bit high, especially for smaller teams working on a tight budget, but it is very effective and relatively competitive for large organizations.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Digital Shadows helps our organization identify and mitigate cyber threats through their crawling of the internet, gathering information, pivoting it, and then sending those alerts to us which we monitor from our SIEM tool."
"The most effective feature for threat intelligence, in my opinion, is collecting impersonating websites."
"This is one of the best products I have worked with so far."
"Qualys has a continuous endpoint monitoring feature for agent-based scanning. Once you deploy the solution, it monitors everything that is happening every 30 minutes. Then, if there are any vulnerabilities, they are reported."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the external channel."
"It's worth it, really, when you see the complete picture and see all the factors."
"The most valuable feature is automation."
"It is a simple solution that makes scanning easy. You just give it a scheduled task, and it will do everything for you."
"The most valuable feature is the certificate management."
"I find Qualys VM very robust, and it's very useful for vulnerability management and patch management."
"The tool is helpful in vulnerability assessment of zero-day vulnerabilities and phishing domains. The solution provides information on any domains of the organization that has undergone phishing or any other cyberattacks."
"The most valuable features of Recorded Future are the useful alerts it provides. If we are monitoring a domain, the solution will provide us with an alert in a prompt manner. It is simple for clients to receive alerts. The advanced search is useful for more accurate filter results."
"Recorded Future has positively impacted my organization by allowing our analysts to work less on doing IOC enrichments."
"The intel that they were providing us over the emails was very good. If it found any hashtag in our organization's name on the dark web, a rogue IP, or a marketplace, it would send us an email and notify us that this is being mentioned, and if we want, they can take some action."
"It can collect data from various sources, including social media and the dark web."
"The most valuable feature of Recorded Future is how it detects everything regarding our domain."
"Recorded Future has some important strengths. It has a long history of success in the market and is known for excellent threat intelligence. Its team is skilled at using AI to search for and report on threats. For many years, it was seen as the best in the industry."
"The solution is diverse and provides me with a lot of different mechanisms for evaluation."
 

Cons

"For basic support from Digital Shadows, my impression is that it is six to seven because many times we see duplications or bugs, and the quality of the alerts is not up to the mark."
"The solution doesn't pick up all the brands of the URLs."
"The solution doesn't pick up all the brands of the URLs. I have a relatively small company name, however, the solution still misses a certain number of URLs with my company's name in it that are impersonating websites. It's not very comprehensive, to be honest."
"I would like to see more accuracy in detections, better reporting capabilities, and better dashboard download capabilities."
"I’m convinced it could be possible to do a simpler interface."
"I'd like to see additional security for the app."
"Web application security model needs some work."
"Improve the API speed."
"One area of the product that could be improved is the management of vulnerabilities detected on disabled applications."
"Qualys Container Security can improve the interface. It could be easier to navigate and be enriched."
"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."
"The solution could improve in reducing the false positives. However, most of the other tools on the market have false positives. If they enhance their data algorithm, it could improve the accuracy of results and minimize false positives. Identifying patterns of false possibilities can aid in developing better reporting features that could potentially eliminate them in the future. This recording feature tool could benefit from adopting similar techniques utilized by other tools to enhance its functionality. By doing so, it could minimize the need for manual efforts in distinguishing true positives from false positives, ultimately reducing the workload."
"Lacks sufficient visibility of malware and international APT attacks."
"Some advanced intelligence features require additional licensing, which can significantly increase costs."
"We can get the data of different malware active throughout the globe, but it would be good if we can do sandboxing of a file. For example, on Any Run, we can perform sandboxing of malware along with their intel about a particular file or hash. It would be great if they have a feature like that."
"The tool can be pricey, especially for smaller companies."
"The price of Recorded Future is a bit high, especially for smaller teams working on a tight budget, but it is very effective and relatively competitive for large organizations."
"There is a semantic oncology dynamic relationship between how the MIGR Tech framework needs more data infusion enrichment capabilities."
"A possible improvement for Recorded Future would be better filtering options, particularly when dealing with large datasets."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The price is very reasonable."
"It is more expensive than other products on the market."
"In Nigerian Naira, we spend about roughly four to five million to use this solution and this is expensive compared to solutions like Nessus."
"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."
"Usually every implementation is different and the quote is in function of number of assets."
"There is a license for the use of this solution. We pay annually instead of monthly to receive a better discount on the price."
"An annual license for a single scanner costs around $3,000."
"There are no additional fees in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"There appear to be up to five different levels, with the most expensive version costing around $95,000 to $105,000 a year for subscription services."
"The price of the solution is worth it. The overall performance of the solution outweighs the cost."
"I would rate the solution’s pricing a seven out of ten."
"The biggest disadvantage of Recorded Future is the cost here in Eastern Europe. The solution is correctly priced for big companies who have the money to invest in such solutions. Also, the solution is useless on its own, which means that you have to invest in other solutions with which Recorded Future can be integrated. At present, Recorded Future can cost 60,000 euros per year. I am able to offer my clients a 5% to 10% discount, but in this region, the cost is still prohibitive even with the discount. If Recorded Future were more flexible in terms of price, there would be better sales opportunities in Europe and Eastern Europe, in particular, because we have more small- and medium-sized companies here."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Engineering Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise70
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Digital Shadows?
Regarding the cost of Digital Shadows, I think prices are a bit higher. The information provided is already available...
What needs improvement with Digital Shadows?
I do not rate Digital Shadows a nine or ten because there are many things that need improvement. The information we g...
What is your primary use case for Digital Shadows?
Our main use cases for Digital Shadows are mainly using it for threat intel. For instance, we have our domain listed ...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Recorded Future?
The price of Recorded Future is a bit high, especially for smaller teams working on a tight budget, but it is very ef...
What needs improvement with Recorded Future?
I cannot think of a way that Recorded Future can be improved. I don't have anything to add about the needed improveme...
What is your primary use case for Recorded Future?
My main use case for Recorded Future is as a threat and vulnerability feed. In relation to my use case with Recorded ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Qualys VM, QualysGuard VM, Qualys Asset Inventory, Qualys Container Security
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Accenture, Pret A Manger, Human Rights Watch
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
Fujitsu, Regions, SITA, St. Jude Medical, Accenture, T-Mobile, TIAA, Intel Security, Armor, Alert Logic, NTT, Splunk
Find out what your peers are saying about Recorded Future, ZeroFOX, Proofpoint and others in Digital Risk Protection. Updated: May 2026.
899,645 professionals have used our research since 2012.