Fortinet FortiDB [EOL] vs Qualys Exposure Management comparison

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Fortinet and Qualys are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Additionally, 75% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 13, 2026

Qualys VMDR and Fortinet FortiDB [EOL] are competitors in cybersecurity, focusing on vulnerability management and database protection. Our analysis indicates that Qualys VMDR has a superior edge with its extensive support metrics, while Fortinet FortiDB [EOL] offers a comprehensive database security suite that justifies its price through its feature richness.

Features: Qualys VMDR offers automated vulnerability management, detection, and response, emphasizing integration, scalability, and real-time asset discovery. It provides patch management capabilities, ensuring vulnerabilities are swiftly addressed. Fortinet FortiDB [EOL] excels in database security, featuring real-time protection, file-level protection, and detailed activity logs. Fortinet's unique offerings make it an excellent choice for organizations prioritizing database security.

Room for Improvement: Qualys VMDR could improve by expanding its database security features and refining its reporting capabilities. Some users desire enhancements in the user interface for better ease of use. Fortinet FortiDB [EOL], nearing its end of life, requires updates in integration options and deployment processes. Its documentation could also focus more on future-proofing its database protection tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys VMDR provides a streamlined deployment experience, supported by organized resources and excellent customer service. Fortinet FortiDB [EOL] offers thorough documentation and reliable support, but deployment can be somewhat complex due to its specialized nature. Although helpful, its service may need updating as it reaches its end of life.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR is known for its competitive pricing, achieving favorable ROI owing to optimal resource use. Fortinet FortiDB [EOL] may come at a higher cost, yet its comprehensive database security features justify the investment for specialized needs. Qualys VMDR offers a better balance of cost and value for organizations seeking broad vulnerability management solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Vulnerability Management Report (Updated: September 2026).

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Vulnerability Management

September 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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Vasanth Chellappa

CEO & Technical Head Executive at ChellSoft Technologies

Stable with a good interface and excellent technical support

The solution overall is good. All of the features are useful and working well for us. The technical support provided is excellent. The solution is very good at preventing intrusions. You can definitely rely on this solution to cover your security. The pricing of the solution is fair. The interface of the solution is quite stable.

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Ajay Paul

System Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

Vulnerability management has prioritized high‑risk patching and simplified bulk system reporting

The primary issue is with the reporting functionality. Even though we fix vulnerabilities, the reports do not reflect the changes immediately. Sometimes we need to manually run a script to scan the systems before Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management will update the scan results. The main issue is the reporting delay, and sometimes the Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management agent will not scan the system, which means we do not receive accurate reports in a timely manner. Additionally, there are many metrics for calculating vulnerabilities, such as the Qualys ID, severity scores, CVSS scores, and other metrics. The abundance of information can be confusing. These two aspects are the most significant negatives I have experienced with this tool.

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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

"I would definitely recommend it because it is easy to handle any cloud resources."

"I would definitely recommend Qualys TotalCloud to other users."

"I appreciate Qualys TotalCloud's ability to onboard any type of device with ease, including containers."

"Qualys TotalCloud fulfills all these needs."

"I would recommend Qualys TotalCloud to other users because it is cost-efficient and has a good return on investment."

"The biggest strengths of Qualys TotalCloud are that it is pretty good at cloud visibility, has easy integration, and also has multi-cloud compatibility."

"If someone were to ask me to review Qualys TotalCloud, I would summarize it as an end-to-end solution for cloud security with visibility and governance-grade controls without needing to manage multiple disconnected tools."

"Once you have your vulnerabilities fixed and your patches pushed out using Qualys TotalCloud, then you are able to eliminate threats and cyber risk."

More Qualys TotalCloud pros

"When you implement FortiDB in your environment, you get the benefit of three important features: VA, Auditing and Alerting."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the security aspects."

"It is a very good solution, and every day the company is updating and developing its devices."

"24 x 7 database activity monitoring captures all forms of database activity to detect erroneous or malicious activity."

"We use it to protect files and to prevent users from browsing them while they are being used."

"Customer support for this solution is good."

"It is a good solution for database monitoring."

"The solution overall is good, all of the features are useful and working well for us, the technical support provided is excellent, the solution is very good at preventing intrusions, you can definitely rely on this solution to cover your security, the pricing of the solution is fair, and the interface of the solution is quite stable."

More Fortinet FortiDB [EOL] pros

"The most recent is VMDR, which provides a comprehensive overview of how to detect, patch, and remediate specific vulnerabilities."

"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 features of Qualys VM are its ability to do proper vulnerability assessment. It has a lot of updates for all the vulnerability databases from all over the globe. It's an amazing solution when it comes to the versatility of the features it has. Additionally, the reports are very good. It generates very detailed reports about the vulnerabilities inside the environment"

"Patch supersedence."

"I find the solution's dashboard interesting...The response time is fine. You can pull up reports without dragging or consuming bandwidth."

"Monitors workstations and servers for vulnerabilities and creates reports."

"This is one of the best products I have worked with so far. I like the power of Qualys, and it's a better solution because you can scan a compact file, a BIT file, or batch files. The product already knows what's happening inside, and you don't need to expand the package. Tenable will do the same thing, but you need to have a package issuance claim. With Qualys, we can immediately understand the file, even a compact file. If there's some kind of discovery or incident, you will know what happened in the environment."

"The Vulnerability Management and Patch Management features are the most valuable features of this solution."

More Qualys Exposure Management pros

Cons

"There should be improvement from a dashboard perspective when collecting and showcasing data to lead management."

"The improvement needed in Qualys TotalCloud is mainly in the artificial intelligence automation agents, where we can customize and create what meets our needs, not necessarily having to use those provided in the tool."

"Although TotalCloud is a helpful tool, some of its advanced features are still under development."

"A feature improvement could be the inclusion of Windows OS support for container security, as it is currently only supported for Linux."

"The price is very expensive, actually."

"There is room for improvement in vulnerability scanning, particularly for PaaS environments. Currently, Qualys does not have full access to these instances, which limits its effectiveness."

"Regarding technical support from Qualys, they respond, but the response time can be too long. Sometimes we need to wait weeks for solutions to simple questions."

"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."

More Qualys TotalCloud cons

"I'm an old-school guy. I really don't like web GUI interfaces. They're always slow and laggy and their design is restricted, whereas a binary deployment for an admin tool is always faster, easier, more flexible. I would like that kind of functionality from Fortinet."

"We had many issues with the performance and the appliance resource management."

"We had some issues trying to fix some critical bugs, such as the SSL encryption."

"Some use case analyses could be improved."

"I would like better APIs and integration with other products, like Python and SQL."

"The pricing of this solution is a little bit on the high side and can be improved."

"I'm an old-school guy. I really don't like web GUI interfaces."

"They need to improve the web filter to make it more user-friendly."

"Every time they make a change, it's not always super smooth, and it's a little quirky with bugs sometimes."

"They should make it accessible for more operating systems."

"Certain integration factors between different options could be improved."

"The reporting and the GUI need improvements. Tenable dominated in these two areas: reporting and graphical user interface."

"For a beginning, the initial setup is complex. You have to have some knowledge for setting it up and using it."

"It is more expensive vs. other products on the market."

"When tested on Zero day, there were errors."

"The disadvantage of working with Qualys is that the graphical interface is quite outdated."

More Qualys Exposure Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers good pricing that is affordable and competitive with the market. Our partnership also provides us with additional benefits."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers competitive pricing given its comprehensive suite of features, including integration, assessment, remediation, and detection capabilities, all within a single platform."

"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."

"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches."

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

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

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

More Qualys TotalCloud pricing and cost advice

"It is not expensive."

"In the licensing model, the licenses are a little bit expensive."

"It is not costly."

"The cost needs to be reduced."

"It's relatively inexpensive in comparison to everything else that has the same functionality. If you're looking at SonicWall or if you're looking at WatchGuard, their prices are about a third higher with relatively the same functionality."

"The license is on a yearly basis."

"Qualys VM is reasonably priced."

"An annual license for a single scanner costs around $3,000."

"In Nigerian Naira, we spend about roughly four to five million to use this solution and this is expensive compared to solutions like Nessus."

"It is a high cost product. Compared to the other solutions, it is around 15 to 20% higher in cost."

"The solution is costly."

"The tool's pricing is expensive and I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"When you want to cover yourself for scalability, you will be charged for the number you place on the scan itself."

More Qualys Exposure Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

18%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

No data available

Financial Services Firm

14%

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	38

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	75

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys TotalCloud?

I was not involved in pricing, setup cost, and licensing, but I can say that the setup was fast, within a quarter, an...

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What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?

In terms of improvements, the features we are using in Qualys TotalCloud are working in the best optimal way, and I d...

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What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?

I have been using Qualys TotalCloud for the last eight months to scan the hardware and the virtual devices in our inf...

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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.

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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...

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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...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys TotalCloud

October 2026

Download Qualys TotalCloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Database Security

September 2026

Download Fortinet FortiDB [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Qualys Exposure Management

October 2026

Download Qualys Exposure Management product report

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan

FortiDB, FortiGuard Database Security

Qualys VM, QualysGuard VM, Qualys Asset Inventory, Qualys Container Security

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

FortiDB software is a comprehensive database security and compliance platform that helps large enterprises and cloud-based service providers protect their databases and applications from internal and external threats. Its flexible policy framework allows you to quickly and easily implement internal IT control frameworks for database activity monitoring, IT audit and regulatory compliance.

Fortinet

Qualys VMDR is a comprehensive cybersecurity tool offering vulnerability management, patch management, and continuous monitoring with real-time asset discovery. It delivers scalable, cloud-based solutions that enhance security operations without additional infrastructure.

Qualys VMDR provides a robust platform for enterprise security, integrating vulnerability management, compliance, and asset inventory for full visibility across cloud and on-premises environments. It features a comprehensive dashboard with threat intelligence-driven prioritization and remediation capabilities. Users benefit from accurate assessments via agent-based scanning and appreciate the intuitive, customizable scanning and reporting interface. However, there's room for improvement in false positive reduction, UI simplification, and integration capabilities, along with enhancements in asset management for large-scale deployments and the vulnerability database. Enhancing technical support speed, patch management, compliance standards, and inter-module navigation would further enrich user experience.

What are the key features of Qualys VMDR?

Vulnerability Management: Identifies and manages security vulnerabilities across environments.
Patch Management: Ensures systems are updated with the latest patches.
Continuous Monitoring: Offers real-time insights into security posture.
Asset Discovery: Provides up-to-date asset inventory and visibility.
Threat Intelligence: Enhances prioritization and remediation processes.
Customizable Dashboard: Facilitates easier scanning and reporting through an intuitive interface.

What benefits can users expect when evaluating Qualys VMDR?

Scalability: Cloud-based deployment offers easy, cost-effective expansion.
Accurate Assessment: Agent-based scanning keeps security data current.
Enhanced Security Operations: Comprehensive features streamline vulnerability management.
Advanced Reporting: Facilitates detailed insights for better security decision-making.

Qualys VMDR is widely used in industries needing stringent security and compliance measures, offering comprehensive vulnerability and compliance management. It is deployed to secure web applications, servers, and crucial assets, supporting a wide range of sectors by ensuring policy adherence and vulnerability tracking through its powerful cloud platform.

Qualys

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Chunghwa Telecom

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

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September 2026

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