Runecast vs Vicarius vRx comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Runecast and Vicarius are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Runecast is ranked #81, while Vicarius is ranked #23 with an average rating of 7.6. Runecast holds a 0.6% mindshare in VM, compared to Vicarius’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Runecast users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Vicarius users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Runecast and Vicarius vRx based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Wiz, Qualys, Tenable and others in Vulnerability Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Vulnerability Management Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

September 2026

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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

Qualys TotalCloud

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Runecast is 0.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vicarius vRx is 0.9%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qualys TotalCloud	1.2%
Vicarius vRx	0.9%
Runecast	0.6%
Other	97.3%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021

Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees

Risk-based triage has transformed container security and now prioritizes high-impact threats

The best features Qualys TotalCloud offers currently include managing cloud infrastructure and container security while facing major challenges such as alert fatigue. Traditional vulnerability scanners flag hundreds of CVEs on short-lived Kubernetes containers, some of which have no internet exposure or are gone before we can even triage them. I leverage Qualys TotalCloud to move beyond static CVSS. I use it to implement runtime exposure, correlation risk reprioritization, and shift-left integration. This notifies developers to fix a base image upstream rather than patching live ephemeral instances. In my work with cloud and container security, the biggest operational hurdle was alert fatigue. I use Qualys to shift left from static CVSS severity to context-aware risk prioritization. I correlated raw vulnerability data with real-time risk factors such as public network exposure, active runtime execution, or overly permissive IAM roles. This allows us to immediately drop the priority of isolated containers and escalate lower-severity CVEs that sit on an exposed, high-risk path. We can map these findings directly back to our CI/CD pipelines so developers can patch the root base images upstream. We have drastically cut down the signal-to-noise ratio, saved a lot of manual hours doing triage work, and ensured engineering effort goes directly towards high-impact risk reduction.

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Burak AKCAGUN

Business Development Manager at Axoft Ukraine

Helps with risk assessments for containers, assessing security, and ensuring container compliance

I rate the overall product a nine out of ten. Customers can conveniently view all companies in a single dashboard if they have different companies. This feature eliminates the need for different solutions and separate installations. Moreover, the solution extends beyond servers, encompassing various platforms such as VMware and Kubernetes. Additionally, end-users can install the solution from their client's perspective.

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OrenBen Shalom

Information Security Manager at Pango

Consolidates vulnerability discovery, prioritization, and remediation in a single platform

Vicarius vRx offers several advantages, especially for organizations with diverse operating systems and applications requiring frequent patching. The platform helps prioritize patch installation by identifying high-risk vulnerabilities, allowing IT teams to focus on critical threats first. This prioritization is crucial because it prevents IT teams from being overwhelmed by the constant influx of patches, enabling them to create a manageable plan and allocate resources effectively. By distinguishing between critical, high-risk, and medium-risk vulnerabilities, Vicarius vRx empowers IT teams to address the most urgent threats promptly and schedule less critical patches for later. Both native operating system updates and Vicarius vRx offer vulnerability remediation. Native OS updates allow for the patching of system vulnerabilities on Windows, macOS, and Linux. However, Vicarius vRx provides a single solution for installing both operating system and application updates by also discovering application vulnerabilities. Another valuable feature is virtual patching, which allows us to protect an asset from a specific vulnerability without installing a patch. Sometimes, installing a patch alone is insufficient and requires restarting the asset. However, production servers often cannot be restarted during the day, restricting restarts to specific timeslots. Virtual patching creates a network-based protection layer that prevents exploitation of a vulnerability, offering a temporary safeguard. While not a foolproof solution for long-term use, it's a valuable tool that reduces tension between IT and security teams by providing time to properly install patches.

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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

"I appreciate Qualys TotalCloud's ability to onboard any type of device with ease, including containers."

"Qualys TotalCloud fulfills all these needs."

"Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted our organization by helping us save time and manage all assets and remediation, allowing us to achieve quarterly and half-yearly goals."

"Generally, Qualys is very good at detections, whether on cloud or on-prem, and the agent allows deployment on both infrastructures, providing continuous monitoring of your assets, which is a key selling point for us."

"While automatic inventory detection upon connection is a helpful feature, a truly valuable capability would be assessing an environment's security posture against Azure and CIS best practices."

"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."

"The most valuable feature is the consolidated information that it provides from various platforms."

"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."

More Qualys TotalCloud pros

"Runecast is a good partner for VMware. Once we have installed it, we can see all the problems and issues. It also has VMware knowledge-based articles."

"The prioritization of the vulnerabilities and patches that we must apply immediately is valuable. The automation of the tasks allows us to spend less time in that area."

"The dashboard is quite easy to manage. The automation aspect is also very valuable."

"I liked the initial dashboard."

"Agent-based scanning is the most valuable feature."

"Vicarius vRx's automation feature is its most valuable, allowing us to automate manual tasks, receive automated reports, and easily check device update status."

"The strongest advantage of Vicarius vRx is its intuitive interface, which requires minimal explanation or support, even for first-time users."

"The most valuable features of vRx would be virtualized patching and severity prioritization."

"Vicarius vRx consolidates vulnerability discovery, prioritization, and remediation in a single platform."

More Vicarius vRx pros

Cons

"Qualys TotalCloud can be improved in the integration piece, especially with ServiceNow, where there's a bidirectional sync integrated, as there is no native capability from Qualys that can give monitoring metrics of how many assets came in and how many failed or were not properly reconciled or combined."

"We encountered challenges identifying the correct resource category for certain items, such as those in containers or storage."

"The support is not up to the mark and seems to be overburdened."

"Qualys TotalCloud needs to enhance its scanning capabilities in the IP domain, as it currently lacks the functionality to resolve IPs to their corresponding domain names."

"A feature improvement could be the inclusion of Windows OS support for container security, as it is currently only supported for Linux."

"The support process is inefficient due to the excessive number of replies required when submitting tickets."

"To improve the user experience, reporting could be simplified for better comprehension by end users and project managers, facilitating issue resolution."

"Two areas for improvement in Qualys TotalCloud are the speed of the public cloud platform and vulnerability detection."

More Qualys TotalCloud cons

"The product lacks network assessment capabilities. We cannot view our network assets or scan switches, routers, or IPs for vulnerabilities and issues."

"They do have a search function for device names. They already have a list of all our devices, however, if I'm looking for something, sometimes the name does not come up at the top of the list."

"The multi-tenant portal has room for improvement."

"I would like to see more network architecture elements with patches."

"The network device vulnerability scans can be improved. It would be helpful to be able to mitigate those vulnerabilities using SSH or SNMP to get those those updates out to those devices. I don't know if that is possible because it doesn't run an agent. But at the very least, having that CPE information relative to network devices would be incredibly helpful."

"The user interface for deploying patches can be improved, as it appears complicated when launching patches. We can launch it for apps or OS, but the steps to get there are a bit tedious. This is the only thing."

"I don't like logging in. The portal could be a better process. You could use some third-party push notification rather than sending an email, waiting for the link to generate, and clicking on it. That would be good. It's somewhat frustrating when I need to log in."

"I would be happy if the patch update could be downloaded to the Vicarius server and then implemented on the client. Currently, they just send a link to the software."

"We did some automation. We kicked off scheduled updates to update our systems, but it did not work. When we attempted to scale the product and update multiple systems, we ran into a lot of issues. We also ran into the issue of it creating double assets."

More Vicarius vRx cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is high, but it meets our organizational needs."

"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 is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches."

"TotalCloud's price is about right where I would expect it to be."

"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive."

"I am not sure about the pricing. From what I understand, it is a bit on the higher side, but I do not have the exact numbers."

"Its price seems higher compared to other tools, but it is worth it. If they could adjust the pricing and make it comparable with other tools, that would be great."

"While Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive and may soon be considered overpriced."

More Qualys TotalCloud pricing and cost advice

"Runecast's pricing is cheaper than that of its competitors."

"Vicarius vRx is priced competitively within the market."

"I am not sure how much it costs, but it would have saved us some costs."

"The pricing was very reasonable and fair compared to other products. I liked that there was no tiered system. One price gave access to everything, which is nice. It is not something you get too often with enterprise IT."

"Vicarius vRx's per-asset pricing makes it easy for me to market to clients as it scales with their needs."

"Vicarius vRx is reasonably priced."

"In the past, Vicarius vRx was cheap, but now they have adjusted their pricing policy, resulting in higher renewal costs. We have had some conversations with them regarding a smaller jump in the renewal cost."

"It is in the middle. It is not the cheapest solution, but it is also not terribly expensive. We found it to be a good fit. It is fairly priced."

"The price of vRx seems fair. None of our clients complained about the pricing. They all thought it was reasonable. Once people understood what it does, it didn't take much to get them to sign up."

More Vicarius vRx pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

18%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

22%

Construction Company

20%

Government

Educational Organization

Non Profit

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	38

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

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

I was not involved in pricing, setup cost, and licensing, but I can say that the setup was fast, within a quarter, an...

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What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?

In terms of improvements, the features we are using in Qualys TotalCloud are working in the best optimal way, and I d...

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What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?

I have been using Qualys TotalCloud for the last eight months to scan the hardware and the virtual devices in our inf...

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Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vicarius vRx?

My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Vicarius vRx is that this is very good and the best on ...

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What needs improvement with Vicarius vRx?

There are improvements needed for Vicarius vRx that I have not mentioned yet, specifically the reports need to be imp...

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What is your primary use case for Vicarius vRx?

I started using Vicarius vRx primarily for vulnerability remediation and automations. My main use case for Vicarius v...

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Comparisons

Wiz vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 7% of the time

JupiterOne vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 6% of the time

Orca Security vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 6% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 5% of the time

More Qualys TotalCloud Competitors

Wiz vs Runecast

Compared 15% of the time

Orca Security vs Runecast

Compared 13% of the time

Snyk vs Runecast

Compared 11% of the time

Thoropass vs Runecast

Compared 10% of the time

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs Runecast

Compared 9% of the time

More Runecast Competitors

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Vicarius vRx

Compared 8% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Vicarius vRx

Compared 8% of the time

NinjaOne vs Vicarius vRx

Compared 8% of the time

Action1 vs Vicarius vRx

Compared 6% of the time

More Vicarius vRx Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys TotalCloud

October 2026

Download Qualys TotalCloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

October 2026

Download Runecast product report

Buyer's Guide

Vicarius vRx

September 2026

Download Vicarius vRx product report

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan

Runecast Analyzer

No data available

Overview

Qualys TotalCloud enhances security posture across cloud environments with continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, and risk visualization, ensuring efficient threat assessment and automated remediation for improved cyber risk reduction.

Qualys TotalCloud offers a robust suite of security tools essential for organizations managing multi-cloud infrastructures. By integrating cloud accounts and automating workflows, it supports AWS, Azure, and GCP, offering comprehensive vulnerability management and zero-day detection. The platform's user-friendly design, combined with its extensive risk management and unified threat assessment capabilities, enables organizations to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities effectively. TruRisk Insights provides clear insights on cyber risks, while the automation options streamline patch management and scanning processes. API integration across IaaS and SaaS environments further enhances resource allocation efficiency and saves time, addressing misconfigurations across cloud environments.

What are the most important features of Qualys TotalCloud?

Accurate Vulnerability Reports: Delivers precise and actionable insights for risk mitigation.
Zero-Day Detection: Identifies and addresses zero-day vulnerabilities proactively.
Unified Threat Assessment: Offers comprehensive evaluation of threats across the environment.
Extensive Risk Management: Manages risks effectively with advanced insights and prioritization.
Continuous Monitoring: Provides non-stop surveillance for vulnerabilities and threats.
Cloud-Native Automation: Streamlines processes and reduces manual efforts using automation.
FlexScan for Internet-Facing VMs: Scans external VMs efficiently to detect vulnerabilities.
Dashboard Risk Visualization: Clear visualization helps prioritize vulnerabilities.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Improved Security Posture: Enhances threat detection and response across clouds.
Time Savings: Automation reduces time spent on manual vulnerability management.
Resource Efficiency: Better allocation of resources through streamlined workflows.
Enhanced Risk Prioritization: Focus on critical vulnerabilities for effective mitigation.
Integrated Cloud Accounts: Facilitates seamless cloud management and security.

Qualys TotalCloud is deployed in sectors needing rigorous vulnerability management, such as finance and healthcare. Companies utilize it to secure multi-cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and GCP, focus on compliance, and integrate security into CI/CD pipelines to detect and remedy threats pre-deployment.

Qualys

Runecast provides insightful, proactive monitoring and security analysis for virtualized environments, aiding users in identifying system vulnerabilities and ensuring compliance.

Renowned for its predictive and automated analytics, Runecast offers IT teams a reliable way to enhance the stability and security of their infrastructures. By leveraging extensive knowledge databases, it delivers actionable insights into potential issues, enabling efficient issue resolution and prevention. This reduces downtime and ensures smooth operations across IT environments.

What are the key features of Runecast?

Automated Security Audits: Offers continuous compliance checks against industry standards.
Proactive Monitoring: Identifies issues before they impact operations, ensuring high availability.
Knowledge Base Integration: Utilizes a vast database for accurate issue resolution.
Patch Management: Streamlines updates, keeping systems secure and up to date.
Historical Data Analysis: Provides insights into past performance trends, aiding in planning.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Reduced Downtime: Automated alerts help avoid unexpected outages.
Improved Security: Regular checks maintain high security standards.
Cost Efficiency: Minimizes resource waste through precise diagnostics and solutions.
Time Savings: Automation cuts down lengthy manual processes, boosting productivity.
Compliance Maintenance: Continuous checks ensure adherence to latest compliance requirements.

Runecast's implementation is particularly beneficial in sectors requiring rigorous compliance and security standards, like finance and healthcare. In these industries, its automated auditing capabilities streamline processes and enhance security, ensuring systems remain both compliant and optimized for performance.

Runecast

Vicarius vRx automates patching and vulnerability mitigation with patchless protection, appreciated for effective third-party app patching and vulnerability prioritization. The platform offers streamlined management via intuitive dashboards, consolidating vulnerability discovery and remediation.

Vicarius vRx streamlines the patching and vulnerability mitigation process, delivering automation through patchless protection. It is favored for its ability to handle third-party applications effectively while providing vulnerability prioritization. The platform's intuitive dashboards allow for efficient management, consolidating vulnerability discovery and remediation efforts. Users note the robust scripting engine and supportive community as significant assets in mitigating critical threats, reducing manual effort and remediation time. Despite the strengths, enhancements in areas like automating patchless solutions, simplifying the login process, and refining networking vulnerability scanning capabilities are needed. The patch update process, reporting, and scripting functionalities require improvements. Name changes have resulted in some confusion, and additional filtering options are desired, along with better cloud integration and system feedback on update statuses. Logging options and mobile device management support are sought after by organizations.

What are the key features of Vicarius vRx?

Patchless Protection: Automates vulnerability mitigation without patches.
Third-Party App Patching: Effectively manages updates for non-native applications.
Vulnerability Prioritization: Identifies and prioritizes critical threats efficiently.
Intuitive Dashboards: Simplifies management and oversight of vulnerabilities.
Robust Scripting Engine: Provides tools for custom threat mitigation strategies.

What benefits can users expect from using Vicarius vRx?

Efficiency Gains: Streamlines vulnerability discovery and remediation processes.
Reduced Remediation Time: Minimizes manual effort with automation.
Improved Threat Response: Quick application of critical patches across numerous assets.
Enhanced Reporting: Delivers detailed insights and compliance support.
Audit Compliance: Meets requirements for PCI, HIPAA, and regulatory frameworks.

Managed service providers utilize Vicarius vRx for compliance needs, focusing on PCI and HIPAA requirements, vulnerability management, and patching. They use it extensively for patch management, covering both Microsoft and third-party updates, and for centralized update management. It aids in achieving visibility and automation, ensuring quick application of necessary patches across numerous assets while enhancing cybersecurity effectiveness with its network functionality and audit compliance features.

Vicarius

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Our customers tell us regularly how Runecast benefits CIOs, CISOs, and both Security and Operations teams across verticals with a proactive approach that results in major time and cost savings, increased uptime and security standards complianceSuccess Highlight 75-85% troubleshooting time savings – Kiel Municipal Hospital90% time savings on reactive troubleshooting – Near East Bank90% time savings in upgrade planning– FLEXdata80% reduction in monthly incidents and issues – University of St Andrews78,000 EUR/year minimum annual cost savings – Notino100s of hours saved on security compliance with remediation scripts alone – Kiel Municipal Hospital75% time saved on troubleshooting and root cause analysis – de Volksbank

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

September 2026

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