Qualys VMDR vs Tenable Security Center comparison

Qualys and Tenable are both solutions in the Risk-Based Vulnerability Management category. Qualys is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5, while Tenable is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.7. Additionally, 94% of Qualys users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Tenable users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Qualys VMDR and Tenable Security Center are strong contenders in the vulnerability management category. Qualys VMDR has an edge due to its superior cloud integration and effective reporting features.

Features: Qualys VMDR provides continuous monitoring, integration with cloud environments, and comprehensive asset tracking, which are critical for dynamic IT environments. Tenable Security Center specializes in vulnerability mapping and risk-based prioritization, leveraging Nessus technology for enhanced network security and compliance.

Room for Improvement: Qualys VMDR could enhance its report customization and integration with patch management, as well as reduce false positives. Tenable Security Center could benefit from more flexible reporting and better integration with external tools like JIRA, plus improvements in web application scanning.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys VMDR offers versatile cloud deployment options, fitting various infrastructures, although its customer service experiences vary. Tenable Security Center, while often deployed on-premises, offers streamlined deployment and slightly more consistent customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR is perceived as costly for smaller businesses, though it justifies its price through extensive features and flexible pricing models. Tenable Security Center's pricing can be high for significant asset counts, yet it offers valuable network protection and compliance, contributing to a solid ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Qualys VMDR vs. Tenable Security Center Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR vs. Tenable Security Center

August 2025

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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

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini

Associate Director IT Security Operations at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Weekly insights and risk analysis facilitate informed security decisions

I appreciate the weekly insights Zafran provides, which include critical topics for networks and IT security, allowing us to evaluate which insights apply to our environment. The organization score feature is valuable to keep the leadership team updated on how our infrastructure fares security-wise. The applicable risk level versus base risk level feature is beneficial because prior to Zafran, we only used the base risk level, but now understand that risk depends on the asset itself. Zafran is an excellent tool.

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Ankesh Raj

Information Security Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Real-time responses and reporting streamline vulnerability management

Qualys VMDR provides a real-time response and reporting feature, which is excellent. It allows us to see real-time graphs and reports for every asset, server, and more, which is very user-friendly. Our clients have given good feedback, and they are satisfied with the tool. We use it daily to fix vulnerabilities by connecting with infrastructure to remediate. The feedback from the client side is very good.

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OndrejKOVAC

Solution engineer at EXPERTience

Empower clients with risk-based vulnerability management through continuous workflow and valuable insights

Tenable Security Center could improve by implementing more dynamic data displays and translating reports into European languages. This is especially relevant in Central Eastern Europe, where clients often require reports in local languages. Additionally, the licensing model could be more flexible for managed security providers, similar to a pay-as-you-go model.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."

"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"I find the solution's dashboard interesting...The response time is fine. You can pull up reports without dragging or consuming bandwidth."

"I find Qualys VM very robust, and it's very useful for vulnerability management and patch management. The value that it brings to my environment is economies of scale. There is no limitation on adding any endpoints. You go by the rule, and it's added once another endpoint is added to our environment. It's automatically installed, and it's less work from our end. It frees up my license automatically if I don't need an endpoint or if my machine is decommissioned. I like the dashboard displays because I don't see any duplication. The most important part is vulnerability management and prioritization. Unlike Symantec, it shows the kind of vulnerability I would want to patch first. It provides a holistic view of the kind of vulnerabilities and the ones I should remediate first. I don't have to do a scan; it just brings up those critical kinds of vulnerabilities like zero-day vulnerabilities and tells me to prioritize them. You have to prioritize these vulnerabilities first and go on with the rest. The dashboard shows me the ones that have been fixed, so I don't have to complete an aging report. The user experience and the graphical interface are good. As it's user-friendly and understandable on an executive level, it brings real value. We also use this solution because it's robust and flexibile."

"Qualys VM is very stable."

"The initial setup was good. We didn't have any problems with it."

"The most valuable feature is the vulnerability assessment."

"This is one of the best products I have worked with so far. I like the power of Qualys, and it's a better solution because you can scan a compact file, a BIT file, or batch files. The product already knows what's happening inside, and you don't need to expand the package. Tenable will do the same thing, but you need to have a package issuance claim. With Qualys, we can immediately understand the file, even a compact file. If there's some kind of discovery or incident, you will know what happened in the environment."

"The platform's most valuable features include its robust vulnerability detection capabilities and automated remediation workflows."

"I like the automated report generation and vulnerability report generation."

More Qualys VMDR pros

"Tenable.sc is user-friendly."

"This solution has a much lower rate of false positives compared to competing products."

"We really love the Security Center dashboard. It basically performs vulnerability scanning and then outputs a vulnerability data."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the vulnerability assessment."

"The most valuable features of Tenable SC are the reports and the dashboards."

"Tenable Security Center scans networks and gives reports."

"One of the most valuable features is their distributed scan model for allotting engines to work together as a pool and handle multiple scans at once, across multiple environments. Automatic scanning distribution is a distinguishing feature of their toolset."

"What is useful to me is being able to fulfill very customized scanning policies. In the clinical environment, because of vendor control, we can't perform credential-vulnerability scanning. And network scans, which I've done before, can cause a lot of impact. Being able to create very customized policies to be able to routinely scan and audit our clinical networks, while simultaneously not causing impact, is important to us."

More Tenable Security Center pros

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."

"Qualys should improve their customer experience. They need to improve the tech support experience and the turnaround time."

"It's too early for me to say if there is any room for improvement since we're in the first couple of months of using this solution."

"Qualys VMDR should improve authenticated scanning capabilities."

"It's not very user-friendly at times and requires in-depth understanding. So, a layman or someone new to Qualys won't be able to easily understand it. You need education to use the solution."

"Sometimes the scanning can get overwhelmed and start to drag when a lot of users are trying to scan at once."

"The reporting needs improvement. It should generate much more stuff like field reports."

"Qualys currently does not have any features for scanning SCADA, IoT, and Industrial Control Systems."

"If anything, I would like to see the user interface modernized a bit more."

More Qualys VMDR cons

"We experienced some difficulties with the solution’s support."

"Certain aspects require manual effort, such as exporting and analyzing data for our dashboards. The built-in components of the Tenable solution are somewhat clumsy that require external tools. So, this is an area of improvement."

"The integration is very good, although it still needs to improve."

"The solution should include compliance-based scanning."

"Support could be faster."

"Tenable SC could improve by making the creation of the initial reports easier that correspond to our network."

"It could be more user-friendly for creating custom reports."

"The product should provide risk-based vulnerability management."

More Tenable Security Center cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"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."

"When you want to cover yourself for scalability, you will be charged for the number you place on the scan itself."

"The solution is reasonably priced for the value it provides."

"The pricing is very competitive."

"Qualys VM is better suited for medium to large companies because the price can be too much for smaller customers."

"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."

"The license is on a yearly basis."

"The pricing and licensing for Qualys could be improved."

More Qualys VMDR pricing and cost advice

"I use a local license to perform penetration testing and I'm pretty happy with everything when it comes to pricing and licensing."

"We're a Fortune 500 company... our licensing costs [are] in the seven figures."

"The pricing depends upon the number of IPs."

"I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten, where ten is expensive. It is the most expensive tool my company is using."

"The licensing costs for this solution are approximately $100,000 US, and I think that covers everything."

"We're happy with the licensing cost and find it affordable."

"Tenable is open-source."

"This solution's price is quite high."

More Tenable Security Center pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	69

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	26

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...

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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...

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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...

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What do you like most about Qualys VMDR?

I like that we have many scanners and channels that don't overload. It helps us scan and track easily. Also, the tagg...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys VMDR?

Qualys offers better pricing and is feature-packed compared to other tools.

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What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?

There were some issues later with Qualys VMDR regarding security, specifically with numerous false positive reports.

See all answers

What do you like most about Tenable SC?

The tool's dashboard and reporting capabilities match our company's needs since we are able to modify the basic view ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tenable SC?

The price of Tenable Security Center is not so high; it's relatively a cheaper solution.

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What needs improvement with Tenable SC?

The reason for rating it an eight out of ten is that the initial setup could be easier; the setup is rather difficult...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 37% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

ServiceNow Security Operations vs Zafran Security

Compared 6% of the time

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Tenable Nessus vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 10% of the time

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 8% of the time

Wiz vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 5% of the time

Tanium vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 4% of the time

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Rapid7 InsightVM vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 11% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 10% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 8% of the time

The NodeZero Platform vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 7% of the time

Tanium vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Zafran Security

August 2025

Download Zafran Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

August 2025

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Security Center

August 2025

Download Tenable Security Center product report

Also Known As

No data available

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

Tenable.sc, Tenable Unified Security, Tenable SecurityCenter

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

Vulnerability Management, Detection, and Response (VMDR) is a cornerstone product of the Qualys TruRisk Platform and a global leader in the enterprise-grade vulnerability management (VM) vendor space. With VMDR, enterprises are empowered with visibility and insight into cyber risk exposure - making it easy to prioritize vulnerabilities, assets, or groups of assets based on business risk. Security teams can take action to mitigate risk, helping the business measure their actual risk exposure over time.

Qualys VMDR offers an all-inclusive risk-based vulnerability management solution to prioritize vulnerabilities and assets based on risk and business criticality. VMDR seamlessly integrates with configuration management databases (CMDB), Qualys Patch Management, Custom Assessment and Remediation (CAR), Qualys TotalCloud and other Qualys and non-Qualys solutions to facilitate vulnerability detection and remediation across the entire enterprise.

With VMDR, users are empowered with actionable risk insights that translate vulnerabilities and exploits into optimized remediation actions based on business impact. Qualys customers can now aggregate and orchestrate data from the Qualys Threat Library, 25+ threat intelligence feeds, and third-party security and IT solutions, empowering organizations to measure, communicate, and eliminate risk across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments.

Qualys

Get a risk-based view of your IT, security and compliance posture so you can quickly identify, investigate and prioritize your most critical assets and vulnerabilities.

Managed on-premises and powered by Nessus technology, the Tenable Security Center (formerly Tenable.sc) suite of products provides the industry’s most comprehensive vulnerability coverage with real-time continuous assessment of your network. It’s your complete end-to-end vulnerability management solution.

Tenable

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

IBM, Sempra Energy, Microsoft, Apple, Adidas, Union Pacific

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR vs. Tenable Security Center

August 2025

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