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IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs Vicarius vRx comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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

Zafran Security
Sponsored
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
18th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (3rd)
IBM Guardium Vulnerability ...
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
48th
Average Rating
6.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Vicarius vRx
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Patch Management (5th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Zafran Security is 1.1%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vicarius vRx is 0.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Vicarius vRx0.9%
Zafran Security1.1%
IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment0.7%
Other97.3%
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

Reviewer6233 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal
While Zafran Security is already a powerful tool, there are areas where it could be further improved to provide even greater value. One key area for enhancement is the searching capabilities within its vulnerabilities module. By incorporating the ability to create Boolean searches, users would gain the ability to apply more complex filters and customize their search criteria. This would greatly enhance the precision and efficiency with which security teams can identify and prioritize vulnerabilities. Having such tailored search capabilities would save time and resources by narrowing down vast lists of vulnerabilities to those that meet specific parameters relevant to our unique risk environment. Additionally, integrating more robust reporting and visualization tools would be advantageous. Enhanced dashboards that offer customizable visual representations of risk configurations and threat landscapes would facilitate better communication with stakeholders, making it easier to explain vulnerabilities and the rationale behind certain security measures. This would also aid in demonstrating the improvements and value derived from existing security investments to leadership and non-technical team members.
SL
Guardium Administrator at Interactive Group
Improvements sought in database optimization while benefiting from robust security monitoring
We use the analytical functionality of Guardium, but the analytical functionality is not so powerful or flexible because it does not include the application user ID. It only includes the database user ID. To identify risky users, it does not support end users, so IBM must incorporate this feature into the built-in analytical engine of the Guardium. There is only one problem I experienced while using Guardium: the internal database of the collector is MySQL, which is not so powerful or flexible. When you make a query in a MySQL database, it takes too much time to respond. IBM should replace this MySQL database with a more powerful internal database for the logging mechanism so that Guardium can collect logging data flexibly and ensure optimization. My overall experience with Guardium is good. The only problem is that IBM must replace the internal DB, MySQL, with a more powerful enterprise-level database because enterprises use it at an enterprise level, and MySQL does not support optimally.
reviewer2514510 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
Has a lot of backend issues and doesn't work the way we thought it would
We did some automation. We kicked off scheduled updates to update our systems, but it did not work. When we attempted to scale the product and update multiple systems, we ran into a lot of issues. We also ran into the issue of it creating double assets. I am not sure how that happened, but it was a mess and still is a mess. That is where we are. They should probably go back to the drawing board and make sure that they can patch Linux. In our environment, we are 99% Linux. They may need to build their own lab and have a lot of Linux devices. They can have old different Linux systems and 50 or 60 of them and attempt to do an update in their own lab and see what happens. I am still not sure if that would give them a true test because we have systems here with Docker containerization and all kinds of things on it. They will have to mimic what some of these environments will look like. I am pretty sure that the tool works great when it comes to Windows, but when you are in an environment that has different flavors of Linux at different version levels, that may pose an issue.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."
"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."
"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."
"Zafran is an excellent tool."
"With Zafran Security, it integrates with your security controls, allowing you to take that risk score and reduce it based on the controls in place or increase the risk based on different factors, such as if the issue is internet reachable or if there's an exploit in the wild."
"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."
"The reporting features are good and there are many built-in reports that can be quickly configured."
"It helped with some of the regulatory requirements. It also helped with some of the security analytics and analysis. It was worthwhile from that perspective."
"The most valuable feature is that it provides a simple English recommendation on actions that you need to take once a vulnerability is discovered."
"The Vulnerability Assessment feature is quite stable and helps identify numerous vulnerabilities in databases."
"The most efficient feature of Vicarius vRx is the ability to group assets, such as by time zone, allowing for targeted patching and streamlined management."
"While other vulnerability scanners overwhelm us with a huge list of problems after a scan, Vicarius vRx goes beyond that."
"The other products we looked at had patching tagged on another product, whereas this solely looked after the patching and vulnerabilities, which is good. We did not see any other products with such capability."
"The dashboard is quite easy to manage. The automation aspect is also very valuable."
"Vicarius vRx's automation feature is its most valuable, allowing us to automate manual tasks, receive automated reports, and easily check device update status."
"Since we started using Vicarius vRx, I have not had to worry about patching the software."
"We can easily deploy patches for third-party applications. It automatically downloads the patches for you. You do not have to download them, upload them to the solution, and configure your own scripts or anything like that. It is all automatic."
"Vicarius vRx's ability to patch third-party software is particularly valuable for us."
 

Cons

"I think the ability to have some enhanced reporting capabilities is something they can improve on, as they have good reports but we have asked for some specific reporting enhancements."
"Initially, we were somewhat concerned about the scalability of Zafran due to our large asset count and the substantial amount of information we needed to process."
"The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvements."
"There is only one problem I experienced while using Guardium: the internal database of the collector is MySQL, which is not so powerful or flexible."
"The interface could be improved by having sub-groups of tests, ultimately making the process of collecting tests faster."
"It was not as easy to use. The user-friendliness of it was somewhat lower than what I was expecting. It was also lacking in terms of the ease of the setup. There should be an automatic agent for deployment."
"Building policies is not that easy. There are some things that are turned off by default, for example, displaying values."
"The patchless protection feature is currently difficult to understand and could be made more user-friendly."
"The user interface for deploying patches can be improved, as it appears complicated when launching patches. We can launch it for apps or OS, but the steps to get there are a bit tedious. This is the only thing."
"We had an outage due to a change Vicarius performed in their system."
"While I appreciate the automation of vulnerability management, Vicarius vRx's current manual patchless application is a point for improvement."
"Unlike previous vulnerability management systems that relied on network scanning appliances to discover and assess endpoints, Vicarius' agent-based approach is less effective for devices like switches, routers, and printers where agent installation is impractical."
"I would be happy if the patch update could be downloaded to the Vicarius server and then implemented on the client. Currently, they just send a link to the software."
"Based on the request from our clients, it would be great to have an MDM solution. If they can manage vulnerabilities on mobile devices too, that would be great. Having scripting capabilities on mobile devices would be very useful. That was the request we had from lots of clients."
"The user interface for deploying patches can be improved, as it appears complicated when launching patches."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"One thing not advantageous for it was that it was a little bit more expensive. I would rate it one out of five in terms of pricing."
"The price of vRx seems fair. None of our clients complained about the pricing. They all thought it was reasonable. Once people understood what it does, it didn't take much to get them to sign up."
"The pricing is fair."
"From a pricing perspective, Vicarius was cheaper compared to other competitors."
"Vicarius vRx is priced competitively within the market."
"I do not use other solutions, so I cannot compare its pricing to others, but its price seems okay."
"I am not sure how much it costs, but it would have saved us some costs."
"Vicarius vRx is reasonably priced."
"Vicarius vRx's per-asset pricing makes it easy for me to market to clients as it scales with their needs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
37%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Performing Arts
6%
Insurance Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Media Company
9%
Non Profit
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?
Since we stood Zafran Security up in our private cloud, we handle the maintenance on our side. As we opted not to use...
What needs improvement with Zafran Security?
In terms of areas for improvement, Zafran Security is doing a really great job as a new and emerging company. Oftenti...
What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?
My use cases for Zafran Security revolve around two primary areas. One is around vulnerability management and priorit...
What needs improvement with IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?
We use the analytical functionality of Guardium, but the analytical functionality is not so powerful or flexible beca...
What is your primary use case for IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?
We are still using IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment. We only use IBM Guardium Data Protection and monitoring, da...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?
We do not use IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment for data encryption or any other tool for analytics, or identity ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vicarius vRx?
I do not use other solutions, so I cannot compare its pricing to others, but its price seems okay.
What needs improvement with Vicarius vRx?
I would be happy if the patch update could be downloaded to the Vicarius server and then implemented on the client. C...
What is your primary use case for Vicarius vRx?
We use Vicarius vRx to manage all third-party software updates. Previously, we could manage Windows updates, but thir...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs. Vicarius vRx and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.