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Qualys TotalCloud vs Varonis Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 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

Qualys TotalCloud
Ranking in SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM)
1st
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (12th), Container Security (11th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (8th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (6th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (8th)
Varonis Platform
Ranking in SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM)
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (9th), Data Governance (4th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (3rd), Compliance Management (7th), Ransomware Protection (11th), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Varonis Platform is 7.1%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Sushant Samantara - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps us minimize attack surfaces by identifying root accounts and encryption issues
TotalCloud provides written explanations to guide remediation and eliminate cyber risks. While all cloud platforms offer security features, it's challenging to consolidate them into a single dashboard. Qualys TotalCloud effectively addresses this by consolidating multiple cloud platforms and subscriptions onto one dashboard. This allows users to quickly identify and mitigate misconfigurations and risks, simplifying security management. Before implementing TotalCloud, our compliance rate was approximately 50 to 60 percent. However, after adopting the platform, it has increased to 80 to 90 percent. TotalCloud also helps us minimize attack surfaces by identifying root accounts and encryption issues, thereby enhancing our overall security by 40 percent. TotalCloud offers a unified platform for assessing vulnerabilities and threats across both IaaS and PaaS environments. This unified view has improved our cloud security posture management. We gain a single, prioritized view of risks through TotalCloud's TruRisk Insights feature. This feature considers not only the QDA score but also factors in cost and other relevant elements to provide a comprehensive risk assessment. From a potentially overwhelming list of findings, TruRisk Insights prioritizes the most critical risks, allowing us to focus our efforts and resources on addressing these high-priority tasks efficiently. A single, prioritized view of risk streamlines the risk assessment process by eliminating the need to consolidate multiple sources. This comprehensive view is instrumental in communicating with other business customers who may be unaware of potential risks or misconfigurations within their resources. By identifying and informing them of these issues, we can guide them towards compliance and ensure a more secure environment. TruRisk Insights provides valuable findings by identifying vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, displaying them on a dashboard, and offering deeper insights into the attack surface. It analyzes not only internet-facing devices but also those indirectly connected, providing a comprehensive understanding of potential risks. This is crucial because even devices not directly connected to the internet can be vulnerable if they have an attack surface. TruRisk Insights also offers mitigation strategies, making it a highly useful tool for managing security risks. With the VMDR feature enabled and the Qualys Agent installed on various assets, we can identify existing vulnerabilities. TruRisk Insights then calculates risk scores, prioritizes tasks, and presents the number of findings. This allows us to focus on mitigating high-priority vulnerabilities while deferring those with lower priority, ultimately reducing overall risk. TruRisk Insights provides device details, allowing for containerization of misconfigured devices. This process involves isolating problematic devices and rectifying misconfigurations, ultimately enhancing our security posture.
Herman Pienaar - PeerSpot reviewer
Has valuable data alerting capabilities and efficient reporting features
The solution's classification engine is highly configurable and efficient. It provides good reporting and visualization, which is superior to previous tools like Microsoft's. The platform's data alerting capabilities and automation features for managing broken permissions are particularly notable. It offers robust automation capabilities, including global permission repair, broken access repairs, and data transport engine features for archiving and migration. The automation tools are useful for managing permissions and performing cleanup tasks efficiently. It provides strong reporting capabilities that help customers adhere to regulations and maintain compliance. Automating reporting is beneficial for maintaining robust governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) posture. It does incorporate some AI elements, particularly in its data alerting module. However, AI integration has yet to be the primary focus of my implementations. AI is expected to play a larger role in future enhancements. I recommend Varonis, particularly its effectiveness in performing data security remediation tasks. Despite its high cost, it is valuable for its capabilities and the lack of impact on end users. Overall, I rate it a nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The agent and agentless scanning in TotalCloud, particularly the FlexScan method, is incredibly valuable. With traditional scanning approaches, we had to give IP ranges and whitelist IPs. All that is now simplified. FlexScan requires minimal intervention, and after configuration, it automatically collects data and performs necessary scans."
"Qualys TotalCloud fulfills all these needs."
"Qualys TotalCloud provides a single, prioritized view based on requirements such as identifying the most vulnerable assets and calculating the average time to remediate vulnerabilities."
"I appreciate TotalCloud's real-time protection and remediation features. The remediation options include automated one-click remedies and custom changes that help manage vulnerabilities efficiently."
"I would definitely recommend Qualys TotalCloud to other users."
"TotalCloud has been excellent in providing us with immediate access to all the products and features we need, such as CSPM, TruRisk Insights, and compliance reports, including CIS and HIPAA."
"I highly recommend Qualys TotalCloud to other users."
"Vulnerability and threat detection and assessment of the criticality of the vulnerabilities exposed are most valuable."
"Varonis Platform is transparent and captures everything in the environment without impacting the performance. The tool helps us unify data feeds into a single reporting system."
"The analytics would have to be our most valuable feature."
"The most important feature is remediation. In remediation support, there is no group permission. We'll go ahead and remediate the access from the Dell folder to the parent folder."
"I also appreciate the reporting feature, which allows for the extraction of various reports based on specific needs. These reports can be used for audit purposes, such as tracking changes in file locations or deletions."
"The solution has significantly improved data security and compliance posture by allowing us to track and monitor activities. We can see who accesses data and when files are created and understand what's happening in our environment."
"On the Varonis side, technical support is phenomenal. Their ability to explain is very good, and they seem to be very knowledgeable. When I get an alert that doesn't quite make sense, they dive in there and kind of take me through it. That's very useful and very good. There are some false alerts, but it is better to have a false alert than no alert at all."
"The telemetry to capture everything and the reports are very easy to configure without having a developer degree."
"The solution's classification engine is highly configurable and efficient."
 

Cons

"Enhancing clarity regarding its compliance capabilities would be beneficial, as the current scope is limited in geographic coverage."
"The onboarding process is a bit difficult. In the initial phase, it is very difficult to understand the features, what the dashboard contains, and what criteria they are using."
"We would like to see Windows-based sensors available in Qualys, as this would make the platform more versatile and support a broader range of environments."
"I would appreciate additional integration options to connect Qualys TotalCloud with our other vulnerability management tools."
"The cost of Qualys TotalCloud is high and could be more competitive."
"The main area needing improvement is integration. Although the team is strengthening TotalCloud, integration can be enhanced with SIEM, SOAR, ITSM, and other sources."
"A feature improvement could be the inclusion of Windows OS support for container security, as it is currently only supported for Linux."
"To improve the user experience, reporting could be simplified for better comprehension by end users and project managers, facilitating issue resolution."
"There is one thing that if I add something manually, I get so many alerts. That's the biggest bad thing."
"It is significantly complex."
"Varonis requires more access permissions for its core functions compared to competitors, which can be a concern for companies about data safety."
"The solution's interface is a little complicated with regard to setting up filters and reports."
"One area for improvement is the calculation engine. When applying rules in Varonis, especially for large datasets (terabytes of data), the calculations can be slow and require time to process. Speeding up this process would be beneficial."
"The GUI should be more functional. There should be a process for connecting through Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc."
"The solution's areas of improvement are the interface and the dependency on on-premises deployment for some components."
"The remediation process can be improved. There will be no existing permission group for the McAfee channel domains. We can create a new permissions group for the required folder."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is comparable. It is built into our other product, so I cannot piecemeal it. It is a part of our subscription."
"As a middle management member, I do not have direct pricing knowledge, but based on the knowledge from our meetings, its pricing is competitive."
"Qualys TotalCloud offers good pricing that is affordable and competitive with the market. Our partnership also provides us with additional benefits."
"Qualys TotalCloud is cost-efficient and was selected for its value compared to other products."
"While Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive and may soon be considered overpriced."
"The cost is high, but it meets our organizational needs."
"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive."
"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."
"Licensing is on an annual basis. Maintenance and renewal fees are separate. Varonis Datalert is quite expensive."
"It's expensive, kind of, really expensive."
"The pricing is good. It neither expensive nor cheap. It is average."
"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being the most expensive."
"Varonis Platform wasn't certainly the cheapest solution."
"You could do a subscription, where you pay yearly, or you could purchase it outright. The licensing cost is based on the number of users on the system that you are monitoring."
"The platform is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys TotalCloud?
It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable. It helps us to manage things with very few resources.
What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?
The onboarding process is a bit difficult. In the initial phase, it is very difficult to understand the features, what the dashboard contains, and what criteria they are using. This information is ...
What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?
We are managing AWS, Azure, as well as Google Cloud services in the cloud. We have different applications using those. We were previously checking the configurations manually. Qualys is helping us ...
What do you like most about Varonis Platform?
The solution has significantly improved data security and compliance posture by allowing us to track and monitor activities. We can see who accesses data and when files are created and understand w...
What needs improvement with Varonis Platform?
Varonis started as an on-premises solution and is transitioning to cloud. It hasn't fully moved yet, which is an area for improvement. Varonis requires more access permissions for its core function...
What is your primary use case for Varonis Platform?
The primary use case for Varonis Platform is data discovery, specifically for discovering sensitive data in our organization to protect it. We are looking for a solution that can scan our repositor...
 

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Nottingham Building Society
Find out what your peers are saying about Qualys TotalCloud vs. Varonis Platform and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.