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Harness vs Qualys Web Application Scanning 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
Harness enhanced deployment efficiency and error reduction, yielding significant ROI through automation and AI-driven cost-saving strategies.
Sentiment score
2.5
Qualys Web Application Scanning delivers positive ROI, competitive licensing, scalability, and reduces failure rates with 70% time-saving automation.
The AI features that they have and with which we can rewrite the pipeline and troubleshoot issues significantly saved time.
Cloud Architect at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
By adopting templates and various different pipelines across our own IDP platform, we have saved upwards of 30 to 40% of development time.
Technical Associate at ZS
With Harness, the release process decreased from three or four hours to one or two hours, making deployments much quicker.
Software Engineer at Citi
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.7
Harness offers reliable, responsive customer service and well-structured documentation, providing efficient issue resolution and high user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
3.8
Customer service is generally positive but inconsistent, with some noting efficiency while others suggest improvements in speed and engagement.
We have rarely faced issues with Harness tech support.
IT Analyst | Aws Cloud Ops | Dev Ops | Fin Ops at Tata Consultancy
We have not faced any customer support issues, with tickets resolved in less than a four-day SLA.
Quality Engineering Lead at a logistics company with 51-200 employees
There was an instance when I faced issues with third-party plugins, and after raising a support ticket, they responded in a few hours with a documentation link that resolved my issue.
Senior Software Engineer 2 at Porch
They have various options in the vulnerability management process, and when we initially bought our license, we didn't realize we needed PCI for better results, which isn't included in the default configurations.
Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Once we purchase the license, we have access to top-notch support.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
I have dealt with Qualys's technical support, and any enhancements are challenging.
Senior Security Engineer at Charter Communications
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Harness effectively scales SaaS environments, supports complex workflows, but may face stability issues with simultaneous service integrations.
Sentiment score
7.2
Qualys Web Application Scanning offers scalable cloud integration but faces challenges with concurrent scan limits and report limitations.
Our entire organization uses it with hundreds of applications, and it supports this scale effectively.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It is able to work on our infrastructure side, which is EKS, and we are able to handle our organization growth effectively for an enterprise use case.
Technical Associate at ZS
When I integrated Harness to more than 20 applications in one place, it becomes less stable.
Software Engineer at Citi
My concern remains the lack of deep dive analysis and that it produces similar vulnerability results as other tools such as Nessus based on version checks instead of real impact checks.
Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is licensed for assets, so we just contact the team for additional licenses if needed.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
At one point, there was a limitation on reporting for 100,000 assets at a time.
Senior Security Engineer at Charter Communications
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Harness is considered stable and reliable, although integration with many applications may occasionally affect stability.
Sentiment score
7.9
Users praise Qualys Web Application Scanning for its stability, reliability, minimal bugs, and consistently high-performance ratings.
Harness is completely stable, and we are using it in production without facing any stability issues at all.
Quality Engineering Lead at a logistics company with 51-200 employees
We have rarely faced issues with Harness tech support.
IT Analyst | Aws Cloud Ops | Dev Ops | Fin Ops at Tata Consultancy
Harness is decently stable.
Technical Associate at ZS
 

Room For Improvement

Simplify configuration, improve UI, expand features, clarify pricing, and enhance security to improve accessibility and functionality for smaller teams.
Qualys Web Application Scanning needs improvements in detection, usability, integration, performance, pricing, and feature set to compete effectively.
There is not a lot of good support for pipeline as code, and I often find myself not using pipeline as code the way other platforms such as GitHub Actions or Jenkins integrate pipeline as code.
Technical Associate at ZS
Improved documentation and onboarding tutorials would help accelerate adoption.
Cloud Platform at Futurescape
Harness can be improved by providing more clarity on the credits it issues for Harness Cloud, as it has a tiered pricing structure involving license and credit costs, which can get confusing.
Quality Engineering Lead at a logistics company with 51-200 employees
With the growing reliance on AI, Qualys Web Application Scanning should be updated to handle AI-based applications and LLM-based attacks.
Associate Principal, Software Engineering at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
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.
Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I would like it to be cheaper because it is a bit expensive compared to competitors like Tenable Nessus.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
 

Setup Cost

Harness pricing is higher than open-source but justified by benefits, with room for improvement in licensing cost noted.
Qualys Web Application Scanning offers flexible, negotiable pricing, deemed cost-effective but pricey, with discounts for bulk orders.
From what I understand with respect to Harness, licensing and setup costs were relatively low for an enterprise, and the pricing was more catered toward enterprises who would invest in the technology.
Technical Associate at ZS
The licensing cost is a little bit too high.
Cloud Architect at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
They offer discounts on bulk licenses, making it cheaper compared to competitors like Veracode DAST.
Associate Principal, Software Engineering at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
I find it a bit expensive compared to other competitors.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
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.
Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Harness simplifies CI/CD automation with AI-driven processes, enhancing deployment speed and reliability while reducing risks and manual effort.
Qualys Web Application Scanning offers efficient vulnerability management with Selenium IDE integration, real-time monitoring, and comprehensive security features.
Harness uses AI to suggest errors in case of deployment failures.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The platform also supports cloud-native environments and Kubernetes deployments, making pipeline management easier, and its automation capabilities significantly improve speed and reliability.
Cloud Platform at Futurescape
If something goes wrong, I can use AI troubleshooting to build or test my fails and analyze the logs, suggesting the fixes.
Cloud Architect at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
It effectively detects vulnerabilities like the OWASP Top 10 without any issues in reporting.
Senior Security Engineer at Charter Communications
Credential scanning is very effective because it goes in-depth into the system, crawling the pages, and reporting on vulnerabilities.
Team Lead, Cyber Security at Uridium Technologies
Qualys Web Application Scanning is accurate and provides minimal false positives.
Associate Principal, Software Engineering at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech
 

Categories and Ranking

Harness
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Build Automation (5th), Cloud Cost Management (6th), Feature Management (2nd)
Qualys Web Application Scan...
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
14th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of Harness is 0.7%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Web Application Scanning is 1.9%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Static Application Security Testing (SAST) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Harness0.7%
Qualys Web Application Scanning1.9%
Other97.4%
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
 

Featured Reviews

MK
Technical Associate at ZS
Templatized pipelines have improved efficiency while limitations in code-based development remain
Harness UI can do a lot of good things. Harness's UI should not feel very complicated. At the current stage, it feels very commercialized and compared to other platforms such as Argo CD or Jenkins, which feel much more lively and much more simple. Infrastructure as code or pipeline as code is something that Harness severely lacks. There is not a lot of good support for pipeline as code, and I often find myself not using pipeline as code the way other platforms such as GitHub Actions or Jenkins integrate pipeline as code. Pipeline as code is definitely one of the disadvantages when it comes to Harness. Additionally, the entire platform feels very commercialized, which is something that a lot of developers, especially open-source enthusiasts, might not appreciate even within the organization. One of the very important key factors I observed was that there is no way to execute nested pipelines, which means that we cannot execute child pipelines within child pipelines and child pipelines even within those child pipelines. There is no way to execute nested pipeline execution, which may or may not be required based on the use case, but it is definitely one of those features that I wish the platform had.
AnkitSharma13 - PeerSpot reviewer
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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909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Harness?
There are some UI components that can be improved. The needed UI improvements include more graphs, more history, the ability to create pipelines through the UI, and more interactions, with UI compo...
What is your primary use case for Harness?
My main use case for Harness is to create pipelines, deploy applications, and manage security pipelines. I use Harness to deploy applications to EC2 instances and Kubernetes instances, and I create...
What advice do you have for others considering Harness?
My advice for others looking into using Harness is to use AI capabilities, create pipelines, and then use it to deploy. Harness is a good tool. I would rate this review a nine out of ten.
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.
What needs improvement with Qualys Web Application Scanning?
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...
What is your primary use case for Qualys Web Application Scanning?
I use Qualys Web Application Scanning, and we are using Vulnerability Management. By Vulnerability Management, I mean not TotalCloud; they have some on-premises solutions also. Patch Management and...
 

Also Known As

Armory
Qualys WAS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Linedata, Openbank, Home Depot, Advanced
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.
Find out what your peers are saying about Harness vs. Qualys Web Application Scanning and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.