Fortify Software Security Center vs Qualys Web Application Scanning comparison

OpenText and Qualys are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. OpenText is ranked #21 with an average rating of 9.0, while Qualys is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.7. OpenText holds a 0.9% mindshare in SAST, compared to Qualys’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of OpenText users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

Fortify Software Security C...

Read 8 Fortify Software Security Center reviews

890 Views
828 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Qualys Web Application Scan...

Read 40 Qualys Web Application Scanning reviews

3,821 Views
2,751 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Fortify Software Security C...

Qualys Web Application Scan...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Qualys Web Application Scanning and Fortify Software Security Center are two prominent solutions in the web application security domain. According to user reviews, Fortify is seen as superior due to its extensive features, though Qualys is preferred for pricing and customer support satisfaction.

Features: Qualys is noted for detailed vulnerability scanning, simple integration, and effective threat detection. Fortify provides comprehensive code analysis, supports multiple programming languages, and delivers robust security assessment which offers a thorough evaluation of potential vulnerabilities.

Room for Improvement: Qualys could improve real-time alerts, offer better reporting customization, and expand its threat database. Fortify's configuration process could be more intuitive, updating mechanisms need enhancement to keep up with new threats, and system resource usage could be optimized for performance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys is easy to deploy with excellent customer support, making it user-friendly for many businesses. Fortify, although more complex in setup, is backed by extensive documentation and knowledgeable support staff which ensures issues are resolved efficiently.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys attracts users with its cost-effectiveness and clear ROI benefits. In comparison, Fortify requires a higher initial investment but is viewed as offering long-term value due to its comprehensive feature set and deep security insights.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortify Software Security Center vs. Qualys Web Application Scanning Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fortify Software Security Center vs. Qualys Web Application Scanning

December 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

Fortify Software Security C...

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

21st

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Qualys Web Application Scan...

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

13th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (16th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of Fortify Software Security Center is 0.9%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Web Application Scanning is 2.0%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Qualys Web Application Scanning	2.0%
Fortify Software Security Center	0.9%
Other	97.1%

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

Diego Caicedo Lescano

Chief Innovation Officer at SAGGA

Enables centralized analysis and improves governance through seamless tool integration

The main use case for Fortify Software Security Center is exceptional because we have governance and control through that console. You can centralize both static analysis and dynamic analysis, and correlate both analyses in one tool to get better results by combining those independent results from each solution. That is outstanding, and there is no tool I have seen on the market that offers these capabilities. I appreciate the interoperability with other solutions from Fortify Software Security Center. Because we are using Kiuwan, you can run Kiuwan analyses and integrate them with Fortify Software Security Center to get those results in a single console. That is a good console for centralizing things in one point. That is one of the best features of the on-premises Fortify.

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AnkitSharma13

Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Web scanning needs improvement but offers good vulnerability detection

The downside of Qualys Web Application Scanning is that it cannot crawl automatically. If I provide an IP address and a login form, it does basic testing, but it doesn't go deep as IBM AppScan does. If Qualys Web Application Scanning could improve its crawling capability, it would be more user-friendly. Qualys Web Application Scanning does IP-level testing, requiring direct input of credentials, and can only scan a few pages to provide known generic vulnerabilities, which isn't as beneficial from my point of view. The Vulnerability Management also relies heavily on version numbers and will flag vulnerabilities based on the component version, but it doesn't check if a real fix exists, leading to flags on components that actually have workarounds available.

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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

"The overall rating for this tool is ten out of ten."

"I like the explanation of issues provided by Fortify Software Security Center."

"Fortify Analytics' AI function helps scan and provides more detailed explanations and recommendations about vulnerabilities."

"This is a stable solution at the end of the day."

"Software Security Center is highly customizable and helps me test all vulnerability data against the latest conventions like OWASP Top Ten, CVE Top twenty-five, and several other legal compliances."

"The reporting is very useful because you can always view an entire list of the issues that you have."

"You can easily download the tool's rule packs and update them."

"It's very important because they want to scan their source code every day, so we provide CICD integration to our customers so they can auto build and auto test every day, get reports, and fix issues."

More Fortify Software Security Center pros

"The features of Qualys Web Application Scanning are impressive as the scan is faster and gets completed quickly, the dashboards look great, the option for scheduled scans makes it fully automated, and customizable reports can be downloaded anytime in CSV, PDF, or whichever format required."

"The simplicity of exporting reports and the simplicity and clarity of the reports included with the product are good."

"The most valuable features are the scheduled scanning, detailed reports, asset management, the knowledge database, and the overall product framework."

"Qualys' process of updating signatures is something we really appreciate, and it's way ahead of its industry peers."

"The tool links vulnerabilities with DDIs and gives a complete overview of the application. The continuous monitoring capability is good."

"It combines both web application vulnerability management and internal vulnerability management on one platform and dashboard. Usually, you have to purchase separate tools."

"The advantage of Qualys Web Application Scanning lies in its user-friendly dashboard and appealing reports, which are useful for presentation to leadership."

"It works with many different products."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning pros

Cons

"Fortify Software Security Center's setup is really painful."

"Improvements needed for Software Security Center include better aggregation views of datasets."

"I am not satisfied with the percentage of false positives, which is around eighteen percent."

"The product's overlap feature is restrictive and requires more customization efforts, which can be expensive."

"The support for Fortify on-premises is the same as for the other products. I would say the support is not good and I would rate it a three out of ten."

"We are having issues with false positives that need to be resolved."

"Improvements needed for Software Security Center include better aggregation views of datasets."

"This solution is difficult to implement, and it should be made more comfortable for the end-users."

"When comparing this solution to Veracode, Veracode has good interactive features and gives a clear understanding of what the vulnerabilities are, which error line of the vulnerability is on and what can be done. It gives interactive features, whereas this solution does not give a clear understanding of where or how to fix the problem."

"The product should allow users to upload their payloads."

"Sometimes the response time is low because the handshake fails, and then you have to re-login and start again."

"The GUI could be a little less complicated as it opens a lot of new windows for creating search lists, templates, reports, or for scanning purposes."

"We receive false positives sometimes when using a solution that could be improved. However, the technical team provides us with the exact explanation why it was giving us that kind of error."

"In certain cases, this product does have false positives, which the company should work on."

"The downside of Qualys Web Application Scanning is that it cannot crawl automatically."

"They should try to include business logic vulnerabilities in the scanner testing."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is priced fair."

"As a Fortify partner company providing technical support, I find the product expensive in our country, where local, inexpensive products are available."

"This is a costly solution that could be cheaper."

"It is an expensive platform."

"Qualys WAS' pricing is competitive."

"We are on an annual license for the solution and the pricing could be more affordable."

"We normally purchase an annual license."

"The cost is $30,000 USD for one year to cover WAS (Web Application Security) and the VM (Virtual Machine) security in a company with 200 employees."

"From my perspective, it is a budget-friendly option."

"Try the free trial of the product to understand the basic working mechanisms."

"Qualys has an IT-based licensing based on a yearly license, which is a good way of handling it. However, in some cases, when we do the PCI scanning, the host will not like the scanning and we lose the IT license. So, this could be improved."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	27

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus Software Security Center?

The pricing for the on-premises Fortify is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Micro Focus Software Security Center?

In my opinion, there are no areas that could be improved with Fortify Software Security Center. I would say it is a good product and a mature product. However, the SAST has many improvement areas. ...

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What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Software Security Center?

We have installed Fortify Static Code Analysis, SAST, in Ecuador in two customers. The Fortify ScanCentral includes three components: SAST, Fortify Software Security Center, and the WebInspect.

See all answers

What do you like most about Qualys Web Application Scanning?

The vulnerability management feature is a strong one. And also the patch management feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Web Application Scanning?

Regarding pricing, I think for personal use, it is costly, but if organizations are ready to pay, then it is fine as they are using it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys Web Application Scanning?

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 10% of the time

SonarQube vs Fortify Software Security Center

Compared 8% of the time

Acunetix vs Fortify Software Security Center

Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

Checkmarx SAST vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 6% of the time

Veracode vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 6% of the time

Acunetix vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 6% of the time

More Qualys Web Application Scanning Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

January 2026

Download Fortify Software Security Center product report

Buyer's Guide

Qualys Web Application Scanning

January 2026

Download Qualys Web Application Scanning product report

Also Known As

Micro Focus Software Security Center, Application Security Center, HPE Application Security Center, WebInspect

Qualys WAS

Overview

Software Security Center enables management, development, and security teams to work together to triage, track, validate, automate, and manage software security activities.

OpenText

Qualys Web Application Scanning (WAS) is a fully cloud-based web application security scanner. The scanner will automatically crawl periodically and test web applications to discover potential vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection. The consistent testing equips the automated service to generate consistent results, lessen false positives, and offer the ability to scale to protect thousands of websites effortlessly.

Qualys Web Application Scanning is bundled with different scanning technology to carefully scan websites for malware infections and will send notifications to website owners to assist in preventing blacklisting and brand reputation damage. As digital transformation takes place in various organizations, Qualys WAS gives organizations the ability to track and document their web app security status through its interactive reporting capabilities.

Qualys WAS empowers organizations to remediate any web application vulnerabilities quickly. Some of the key tools offered are:

Deep Scanning: All apps and APIs on your internal network and public cloud are covered by Qualys WAS deep scanning to show you any visible vulnerabilities.
DevSec Ops Tool: Detect security issues in your code while still in app development stages and generate comprehensive reports.
Comprehensive Discovery: Discover and catalog new and unknown web apps in your network.
Malware Detection: Scan a website, identify vulnerabilities, and receive alerts to any infections.

Benefits of Qualys Web Application Scanning

Qualys Web Application Scanning offers many benefits, including:

Quick Deployment: Requires no infrastructure or software to upkeep.
Effortless Scalability: Effortlessly launch a deep scan and protect thousands of websites.
Centralized Management: Manage and mend all web app vulnerabilities through a single interface.
Excellent Integration Capabilities: Integrates with Qualys Web App Firewall (WAF) for a single-click virtual patching of found vulnerabilities.
Respond to Threats Immediately: Qualys Continuous Monitoring offers the user a hands-free service by automatically launching scanning and sending notifications of a potential threat.
Cost-effective Solution: Data is analyzed in real time as Qualys WAS is an end-to-end solution; this helps avoid costs associated with managing multiple security vendors.

Reviews from Real Users

Qualys Web Application Scanning stands out among its competitors for a variety of reasons. Two of those reasons are its progressive scan and quick detection of vulnerabilities.

P.K., a senior software developer at a tech vendor, writes, "The feature that I have found most valuable is the progressive scan. It is good. It's done in 24 hours."

Nagaraj S., lead cybersecurity engineer at a tech service company, notes, "I have found the detection of vulnerabilities tool thorough with good results and the graphical display output to be wonderful and full of colors. It allows many types of outputs, such as bar and chart previews."

Qualys

Sample Customers

Neosecure, Acxiom, Skandinavisk Data Center A/S, Parkeon

BskyB, Cartagena, ClearPoint Learning Systems, Connect Group, du, Fortrex Technologies, HBOR, HDI, Highlights for Children, The Lithuanian State Enterprise Centre of Registers, City of Miami Beach, Microsoft, MidlandHR, MSCI Inc., Northern Arizona University, Ofgem, Olympus Europa, PhoneFactor, RTL Nederland, ThousandEyes, VGZ Organisatie B.V.

Buyer's Guide

Fortify Software Security Center vs. Qualys Web Application Scanning

December 2025

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