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Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Qualys Patch Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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

Microsoft Configuration Man...
Ranking in Patch Management
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (7th), Configuration Management (4th)
Qualys Patch Management
Ranking in Patch Management
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 13.9%, down from 17.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Patch Management is 4.5%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

MikeNelson2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deployment recovery works well but requires configuration improvements
While I do not use the product frequently, many issues were due to configuration rather than the product itself. I cannot give an exact recommendation as it is not my area of responsibility. The team that uses it finds it adequate. It is presently good enough for us not to investigate other options. Overall, I rate the product a six out of ten.
Revathi VeeraRaghavan - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides a centralized platform for managing assets and vulnerabilities, enabling assessment, prioritization, and remediation
Qualys Patch Management system requires several improvements. Firstly, the inability to download asset patches and the lack of third-party application integration limit patch accessibility. Additionally, rollback options are unreliable, and pre-deployment patch testing is crucial. Reporting needs enhancement, particularly with group-based compliance percentages and clearer, VMDR-like reporting in the Patch Management module. Furthermore, detection speed should be improved, as patches are released 24 hours after QIDs are published. The user interface could be more functional, with dashboards for patch compliance visualization and simplified error code language. Finally, the Mac patch catalogue needs expansion, and automated workflows, policy enforcement, and testing procedures should be streamlined for seamless, user-independent operation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's helped us solve problems surrounding patching, installing, and reporting different patches, etc., on the virtual machines."
"What's valuable is the basic management of the systems, being able to control who can access the systems."
"The tool's most valuable features are easy patch management and software deployment."
"There have to be made some improvement in WSUS and control in other non-Microsoft products updates."
"It uses detailed descriptions of the workstations, and that is good for me."
"The main, clear valuable feature is updating the latest, patches and updates from Windows. This is the main feature we really utilize a lot."
"Automation of operating system, application, and update deployments massively reduces IT operations effort."
"You can remote control or RDP. That has been the most valuable because we can go into one console and can get to anything we want. Instead of going to all these different consoles, we centralized everything."
"The customer support team is quite responsive and always ready to assist."
"Customer service is exceptional."
"We have all the information on one page. The dashboard provides comprehensive information on one page, making it easy to apply patches and monitor pending updates."
"The integrations with VMware include configurations to mitigate vulnerabilities. It helps us identify permissions and whatever is applicable for the vulnerability for faster patching."
"I would give it a ten out of ten."
"Patch Management gave my side and the security side a single pane of glass and the ability to better coordinate the delivery of patches."
"The most valuable features of Qualys Patch Management include its ability to automate patch deployment for hundreds or thousands of assets, reducing our reliance on the IT team to perform these tasks manually."
"We can update the registry with special features such as Registry Update. We can also run scripts via the Patch Management module. These features are very helpful in our operations."
 

Cons

"On some hardware, we'd like an easier way to get peripherals attached."
"SCCM should strive to enhance the accuracy of its reporting functions in order to avoid any issues with incorrect or inaccurate data."
"Based on my experience with SCCM 2016, the main, big issue is not having a good user-friendly environment. It needs much better GUI."
"This solution should be simpler, and more consistent across modules/sections."
"The solution does not support remote devices so the CMG is still required."
"It would be of benefit if Configuration Manager could be connected/integrated with multiple Microsoft Intune subscriptions rather than just one (the current limit)."
"Microsoft should extend support for additional platforms."
"There is a reboot issue with the patching. Sometimes, if patching runs into any issue whatsoever, it doesn't reboot but it doesn't tell you it errored out. It just sits there and we don't find out until the next day whether it patched or not. That was a big issue for us. We're working through that. They added some stuff in there now where you can actually tell reboot is pending. But we still need some kind of notification that if something fails or is pending, we know. We shouldn't have to go in and look. They don't have anything for that right now."
"There is room for improvement in the detection logic. It sometimes detects open vulnerabilities that are not truly there, such as orphan files that are not really exploitable. It would be helpful if they were classified as information-only rather than Sev 4 or Sev 5."
"They need to improve the user-friendliness of identifying how many devices are affected by a particular patch."
"The user interface could be more functional, with dashboards for patch compliance visualization and simplified error code language."
"A patch contract is a bundle of patches that we are going to roll out. I would like to reference those patches from separate jobs. They explained at a conference that it cannot be done, but that is my main complaint. I wish that the whole schema was a little bit clearer because there is a little bit of cloudiness around it."
"It works with Windows and Linux, but Mac patch support is not yet available."
"Qualys could improve its capacity to fix vulnerabilities on VMware and other virtualized environments. The reporting could also be enhanced to make it more user-friendly. It's difficult for beginners to learn."
"Qualys's current response time for releasing solutions to zero-day vulnerabilities, which takes approximately 12 to 16 hours, needs improvement."
"Qualys can do regular check-ins to go over not only all the vulnerabilities but also the overall process to see if there is anything where we might need improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of SCCM depends on the size of the organization. The price is competitive."
"We have to pay for a license."
"Microsoft provides a steep price for their enterprise products, but they offer very competitive pricing for their legacy customers."
"Its price is okay because it is part of our licensing."
"Pricing and licensing are a downside of SCCM. It's expensive. I'd have to confirm this, but I think they changed the licensing to core-based instead of socket-based. It's not cheap, because you have to buy the software, you have to buy SQL. Another thing we learned from talking to Microsoft is that they provide you a license for SQL if you run it on the same box as the primary server. If you run it outside that box, you have to buy SQL. Microsoft does recommend you running it on the same box because of performance. But then, in order to run SQL, SCCM, and everything on the same box, you better have some resources. It's an expensive solution. There's no doubt about it."
"There is an annual license needed to use the solution."
"The licensing is good because they have various options, depending on what you are looking for."
"We have a support license from Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager and the overall price of the solution is reasonable."
"I'm unaware of Qualys' exact price, but it's more expensive than Nessus. With technological products, you need to pay to get the best."
"Pricing for Qualys Patch Management is moderate."
"Qualys Patch Management offers a moderate price point, neither cheap nor expensive, considering its comprehensive functionality."
"From what I have heard, Qualys Patch Management is pricey, which is a main barrier to entry. Another aspect that I do not like about Qualys is that they do not add new patch management functionalities to the existing package. It is a separate SKU, so you have to pay more money."
"Its price is competitive in the market. Compared to other solutions like Rapid7, Qualys offers a favorable price point and robust features."
"It is affordable, but they should provide features as per the rate they are charging. We have a big infrastructure with about 80,000 licenses. We expect better support from the Qualys team. So, it is affordable, but more features should be there, and the support should be better."
"Qualys Patch Management comes as part of a bundled package with several modules, making it a cost-effective deal for us."
"The licensing cost is more than 2,000 for the whole Americas region"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
How to choose between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly SCCM)?
ManageEngine Desktop Central is very easy to set up, is scalable, stable, and also has very good patch management. What I like most about ManageEngine is that I can log on to every PC very easily a...
What do you like most about SCCM?
One of the standout features of SCCM is its application management capabilities. It allows us to create packages efficiently and deploy them to specific groups within our network. This streamlined ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Patch Management?
From a pricing perspective, I find Qualys to be a bit higher, but it is worth it. Compared to other tools, it is on the costly side, but I believe it is worth the investment.
What needs improvement with Qualys Patch Management?
Regarding improvements in Qualys Patch Management, I did not quite understand the downsides they were expecting. Initially, I was confused about where to find and how to use the available features....
What is your primary use case for Qualys Patch Management?
I am using Qualys Patch Management for two years, and everything is satisfactory from my side. Before purchasing Qualys Patch Management, we were already using Qualys VMDR and the cloud agent model...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Configuration Manager vs. Qualys Patch Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,874 professionals have used our research since 2012.