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Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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 Defender External...
Ranking in Attack Surface Management (ASM)
14th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (33rd)
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset ...
Ranking in Attack Surface Management (ASM)
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (9th), Patch Management (6th), Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) (3rd), Software Supply Chain Security (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Attack Surface Management (ASM) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management is 3.0%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is 3.6%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Attack Surface Management (ASM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management3.6%
Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management3.0%
Other93.4%
Attack Surface Management (ASM)
 

Featured Reviews

AndyChan3 - PeerSpot reviewer
General manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Enhanced visibility and exposes vulnerabilities but needs more integration
I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will move to full-scale production in another year, maybe Microsoft External Attack Surface Management…
Omkar Vahadne - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Volkswagen Group Technology Solutions India
Centralized asset management has supported real-time risk tracking across massive inventories
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is good enough to differentiate different kinds of assets, whether applications, computers, or servers. There are categories to differentiate all of them, making it easier to manage this kind of infrastructure. One thing that I particularly liked about Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is that it has a very broad classification of different kinds of assets, which is very helpful to manage. The ticketing functionality that it has to manage all these kinds of infrastructure makes it easier to work on different kinds of problems that these large inventories face. It is mostly scalable and quite a good option. The inventory count was really huge, and doing it manually or using other options would have been difficult. We considered ServiceNow at that time, which was a good option. However, having real-time scanning and all those things in one single solution makes Qualys always the best option. Getting different kinds of modules and inventory in one solution is good enough. TruRisk scoring was enabled, and we had integrated ServiceNow with Qualys. All findings from Qualys used to go into ServiceNow, where we had our own scoring system. For example, if an asset is critical to the organization and has a risk scoring as critical but is also exposed to the internet, we would have two different kinds of risk scores. We did not consider directly using the Qualys TruRisk score but instead used custom scores of our own, which worked well enough. I deployed a few Cloud Agents on both Linux and Windows machines for scanning purposes. It was a cloud-based SaaS solution.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft External Attack Surface Management helps improve the visibility of my exposed vulnerabilities and provides an overview of my security posture across the globe."
"It seems to be better at protecting from cyberattacks."
"Authorized and unauthorized software visibility is the best feature for me."
"Overall, I would give Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management a nine out of ten."
"The integration with different third-party tools, such as cloud providers like Azure and AWS, and asset management tools like CMDB systems, is valuable."
"I recommend Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management due to its superior asset information collection capabilities, including comprehensive hardware and software inventorying."
"The support is extremely helpful, deserving a 10 out of 10 rating."
"The best features of Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management include its ability to scan and consider each and every endpoint based on the target we have given. This makes it stand out."
"ESAM covers the entire attack surface, discovers more, and provides complete details about the assets, such as the external interface and internal interface, correlating them so we get the complete details of the assets, which were not given by the other solution."
"Tags are very useful for us since we can tag virus applications in infrastructure types such as databases, operating systems, or web platforms."
 

Cons

"Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement."
"With Microsoft, support is always crazy, it's not easy to get support."
"The integration is not as seamless compared to competitors like Palo Alto."
"Sometimes both updates and software types appear together on one list, making it hard to differentiate."
"One downside of Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is that I would prefer to see a more interactive dashboard."
"One improvement that they can make in the EASM module is the scan frequency. After EASM is configured the first time, it allows you to do the complete configuration, but if you want to reconfigure it, it will not ask or provide any option for scan frequency. For that, you need to raise a case with Qualys and talk to the Qualys team."
"They should address the false positives generated in EASM. It is fetching assets that have Infosys as the keyword. They should fix that."
"Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management could be more cost-effective by offering a lower price point or integrating with existing VMDR features."
"The product stability has notably declined over the last two months, and the performance to fulfill a page request is very slow compared to its previous performance."
"All required features are available in Qualys CSAM. However, it would be helpful if Qualys CSAM started incorporating AI models. An inclusion of threat details for AI and LLM-related risks would be beneficial."
"The UI needs improvement as it can become overwhelming after prolonged use."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is cost-effective because, in a single tool, we are getting everything. All the solutions come in a single license or price."
"Qualys is competitively priced for its features. Its pricing is suitable for large organizations with more than 4,000 assets, but for smaller organizations with few assets, such as banks, the costs might be high. They should come up with packages that are suitable for small organizations."
"Though the solution is considered expensive, if bundled with other services such as VMDR or cloud agents, its value would significantly increase. It is currently a bit costly, but with bundling, it could become attractive to more customers."
"Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management can be expensive, especially if we already have VMDR."
"The pricing is fair. I would love to see the price come down a little bit, but we do get a lot of value out of it. We are squeezing every ounce of value we can out of the tool."
"The Qualys Cybersecurity Asset Management pricing is well-aligned with our usage."
"The pricing is market-competitive."
"The pricing for Qualys CSAM is nominal."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise23
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?
Further integration across different Microsoft products would be an improvement. Introduction of more AI automation into the products would also be beneficial. The integration is not as seamless co...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management?
I am currently in the pilot stage of implementing Microsoft External Attack Surface Management (EASM). My organization is transitioning to a comprehensive track of Microsoft solutions, and we will ...
What needs improvement with Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?
I think the one thing Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management can do better is the package management and the updating process. Knowing that you can't update any of the packages until you've done the...
What is your primary use case for Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?
I primarily use it for a small, single-site, multi-source setup with multi-WAN inputs. I have a main fiber connection and a couple of failovers while managing different networks across different se...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management vs. Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,939 professionals have used our research since 2012.