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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
9.0
Harness streamlines deployments, boosting efficiency, reducing errors, and lowering costs, validating its licensing investment through automation.
Sentiment score
2.5
Qualys Web Application Scanning delivers positive ROI, competitive licensing, scalability, and reduces failure rates with 70% time-saving automation.
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
Time is saved because we now save engineering time. Before, it required two to three engineers actively monitoring production during deployments, but after starting to use Harness, there is zero or minimal manual monitoring.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
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
7.8
Users appreciate Harness support's responsiveness and effectiveness, praising timely incident reports, proactive notifications, and helpful communication.
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.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
Harness customer support is really helpful anytime I try to reach out; they are available to assist with any issues I am facing.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
We have been receiving incident reports whenever an incident occurs on Harness, and they are usually quick to respond.
Technical Associate at ZS
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
7.7
Harness excels in scalability, supporting extensive applications, though performance may drop with over 20 integrations in enterprise settings.
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
7.2
Harness is stable and reliable, with minor integration issues and proactive communication during occasional downtime enhancing user experience.
Sentiment score
7.9
Users praise Qualys Web Application Scanning for its stability, reliability, minimal bugs, and consistently high-performance ratings.
We have rarely faced issues with Harness tech support.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
Harness is decently stable.
Technical Associate at ZS
 

Room For Improvement

Harness needs streamlined setup, better security, improved automation, and flexible pricing to enhance efficiency and user experience.
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
An improvement idea is better guided onboarding with more opinionated defaults and examples.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
Previously, when deploying a version that had been deployed successfully before, it sometimes failed upon trying again, which seems to be an intermittent issue about stability.
Software Engineer at Citi
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

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
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 deployment with automation, AI-driven error handling, and intuitive design, enhancing safety, visibility, and efficiency for microservices.
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
Meantime to recovery (MTTR) improved from 30 to 60 minutes before Harness to 5 to 10 minutes now.
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
The best features in Harness are its user-friendliness and setup configuration.
Senior AWS Consultant at Quantum Integrators
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)
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Build Automation (7th), Cloud Cost Management (9th), Feature Management (2nd)
Qualys Web Application Scan...
Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
13th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
40
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 Harness is 0.6%, up from 0.1% 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
ProductMarket Share (%)
Qualys Web Application Scanning2.0%
Harness0.6%
Other97.4%
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2787357 - PeerSpot reviewer
Site Reliability Engineer at Granicus Inc.
Automated delivery has made production releases safer and has reduced deployment incidents
The first point for improvement is the steep learning curve, where concepts such as services, environment, pipelines, and templates take time to understand. New users often need training before becoming productive, resulting in slower initial onboarding compared to simpler CD tools. An improvement idea is better guided onboarding with more opinionated defaults and examples. The second improvement can be on UI complexity and navigation; the UI can feel cluttered with many options and finding past executions, logs, or specific settings sometimes takes extra clicks, leading to small but noticeable productivity loss. Simplified UI views for common workflows and improved search and filtering could help. I also see cost and licensing as potential areas for improvement, as pricing can feel high for small teams and advanced features are tied to higher tiers, which may limit adoption for startups or smaller organizations. Flexible pricing models and more essential features in lower tiers could address this issue.
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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881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
5%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Harness?
It's a highly customizable DevOps tool.
What needs improvement with Harness?
The first point for improvement is the steep learning curve, where concepts such as services, environment, pipelines, and templates take time to understand. New users often need training before bec...
What is your primary use case for Harness?
My main use case for Harness is continuous deployment (CD), specifically for safe, automated deployment to production, especially in Kubernetes and cloud environments. For continuous deployment in ...
What do you like most about Qualys Web Application Scanning?
The vulnerability management feature is a strong one. And also the patch management feature.
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...
 

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: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.