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Qualys Exposure Management vs Unified Vulnerability Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 13, 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

Qualys Exposure Management
Ranking in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
101
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (3rd), Vulnerability Management (2nd), Configuration Management Databases (3rd), Container Security (10th)
Unified Vulnerability Manag...
Ranking in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
18th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.4
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Risk-Based Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Qualys Exposure Management is 9.7%, down from 16.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Unified Vulnerability Management is 2.4%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Risk-Based Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys VMDR9.7%
Unified Vulnerability Management2.4%
Other87.9%
Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ajay Paul - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
Vulnerability management has prioritized high‑risk patching and simplified bulk system reporting
The primary issue is with the reporting functionality. Even though we fix vulnerabilities, the reports do not reflect the changes immediately. Sometimes we need to manually run a script to scan the systems before Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management will update the scan results. The main issue is the reporting delay, and sometimes the Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management agent will not scan the system, which means we do not receive accurate reports in a timely manner. Additionally, there are many metrics for calculating vulnerabilities, such as the Qualys ID, severity scores, CVSS scores, and other metrics. The abundance of information can be confusing. These two aspects are the most significant negatives I have experienced with this tool.
SA
Director, Technology at AmericaTech, Inc.
Unified vulnerability management has strengthened credential defenses and improves risk-based decisions
I believe Unified Vulnerability Management can improve by emphasizing continuous monitoring, which necessitates a dashboard for users. Creating more mobility, especially since many incidents occur outside regular hours, would be beneficial. If anything goes wrong, a mobile version or mobile dashboard could be extremely helpful. Mobility is now a mandatory capability, allowing users to manage vulnerabilities through mobile applications. Beyond mobility for Unified Vulnerability Management, more flexibility is also required. For example, vulnerability scanners routinely scan and create reports. It would be beneficial if I could create a runbook so that if any unwanted events occur, it generates alerts and stops operations. This would create a complete package for secure posture and management, allowing me to protect not just through scans but also through prevention.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is one of the best products I have worked with so far."
"The most valuable feature is automation."
"Intuitive and easy to use."
"They also have threat detection which maps threats. There is a feed that comes from Qualys when a new vulnerability is found. It tells us which machines are infected with that vulnerability."
"Using the policy compliance module allowed this to be automated and saved time as well as generated more complete coverage of assets leading to greater assurance."
"It's been the chosen solution year after year for vulnerability management and our vulnerability management program is centered around this tool."
"Detects new hosts along with vulnerabilities."
"The most valuable feature is the certificate management."
"Unified Vulnerability Management has positively impacted my organization by improving our response time to vulnerabilities significantly, reducing our average response time by 40% and delivering measurable improvements in our security posture."
"Unified Vulnerability Management has centralized the process of identifying, assessing, prioritizing, remediating, and monitoring vulnerabilities across my organization's entire IT ecosystem through a single integrated platform and governance framework, making this the most significant advantage."
"For me, the most appealing aspect of Unified Vulnerability Management for a customer or potential customer is the functionality."
"Unified Vulnerability Management gives a good overview and detailed visibility of all traffic, which allows me to easily find bottlenecks or issues."
"Based on my experience, the visibility and zero trust that Unified Vulnerability Management provides brings the biggest benefit."
"In Unified Vulnerability Management, the best features include the ability to consolidate each and every device without dependency on other patch vulnerability management software, such as Qualys and SolarWinds, which have limited modules."
"The best feature of Unified Vulnerability Management is that it never shows actual details publicly and provides different virtual information to those coming from outside the company."
 

Cons

"Qualys VM's vulnerability scan could be improved, especially the number of CVE numbers it can manage at a time."
"Every time they make a change, it's not always super smooth, and it's a little quirky with bugs sometimes."
"There's a need to upgrade or fix the potential vulnerability rate. Around 20,000 potential vulnerabilities were showing in Qualys VMDR, but none of the other tools showed them. When we checked, it wasn't the case. Support explained that even small issues were being counted as vulnerabilities, causing issues in our audit. So, the security features could be improved to identify vulnerabilities accurately."
"Web application security model needs some work."
"Support could be improved since the response can be slow."
"Qualys VMDR identifies vulnerabilities and suggests fixes. However, it does not automate patching unless the patch management module is purchased separately."
"One of the biggest issues from the clients' perspective is that all Qualys computing is on the cloud."
"The reporting and dashboards could improve in Qualys VM. However, they have improved since the previous versions."
"I cannot rate Unified Vulnerability Management in general from one to ten because I have not implemented the product."
"In Unified Vulnerability Management, the area that needs improvement is DNS-level security, which has been lacking for the last ten years."
"More AI features would be welcome, and the price should be lower because it is becoming more expensive, and customers are already looking for alternatives because of the pricing."
"Customer support varies. After COVID, I find customer support lacking, and I am not sure why the principals do not prioritize it more."
"I believe Unified Vulnerability Management can be improved by refining its reporting capabilities."
"The negative side of Unified Vulnerability Management is that you need a skill set that is not readily available."
"Improvements are necessary because Unified Vulnerability Management has been in the market for only seven or eight years, and a lot of improvement must be required for performance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is more expensive than that of any other vendor."
"Qualys VM is reasonably priced."
"Qualys VM is quite expensive. It's a subscription-based license, and it's yearly. Right now, it's open for me, and I don't have any limitations or caps on the licenses. They are seeing if the product is viable for 4500 users. I can add as much as I want, and at the end of the subscription, they'll let me know how many licenses were actually used and bill me accordingly. On a scale from one to five, I would give their pricing a three. It's still expensive."
"I used to work there, so I never paid for the product. As an employee, we get a lifetime license for personal use, and that's what I'm using. It is a comprehensive platform, so there is a lot more to it. There could be other solutions that are probably a little bit cheaper, but it depends on what people need. Different people have different needs. It offers many things on the same platform. If you add all the things up, it should be cheaper, but I have not done any analysis specifically."
"Usually every implementation is different and the quote is in function of number of assets."
"An annual license for a single scanner costs around $3,000."
"It is a high cost product. Compared to the other solutions, it is around 15 to 20% higher in cost."
"There is a license for the use of this solution. We pay annually instead of monthly to receive a better discount on the price."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Construction Company
6%
Construction Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise74
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys VMDR?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that we can consider both time and money saved.
What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?
I haven't explored Qualys VMDR's vulnerability lifecycle automation yet. One of my analysts mentioned that queries lack grouping operators in Qualys VMDR. From my experience, I would appreciate imp...
What advice do you have for others considering Qualys VMDR?
I have some understanding about PeerSpot, and I have visited the website. PeerSpot is similar to TrustRadius. It takes reviews from customers or end users who are using the tools and technologies i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Unified Vulnerability Management?
I purchased Unified Vulnerability Management directly from Zscaler, not from AWS Marketplace.
What needs improvement with Unified Vulnerability Management?
I cannot answer what could be improved about Unified Vulnerability Management because I have not implemented it. I am not in a position to give feedback. I cannot comment on what other features or ...
What is your primary use case for Unified Vulnerability Management?
We integrated Unified Vulnerability Management with the FortiGate firewall, and as of now, there are no challenges found. It is very easy to implement Unified Vulnerability Management with the Fort...
 

Also Known As

Qualys VM, QualysGuard VM, Qualys Asset Inventory, Qualys Container Security
Avalor
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Agrokor Group, American Specialty Health, American State Bank, Arval, Life:), Axway, Bank of the West, Blueport Commerce, BSkyB, Brinks, CaixaBank, Cartagena, Catholic Health System, CEC Bank, Cegedim, CIGNA, Clickability, Colby-Sawyer College, Commercial Bank of Dubai, University of Utah, eBay Inc., ING Singapore, National Theatre, OTP Bank, Sodexo, WebEx
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Qualys Exposure Management vs. Unified Vulnerability Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
909,701 professionals have used our research since 2012.