Runecast vs Vicarius vRx comparison

Runecast and Vicarius are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Runecast is ranked #71, while Vicarius is ranked #16 with an average rating of 7.9. 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 92% 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.

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

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

May 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 June 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.0%, up from 0.9% 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%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qualys TotalCloud	1.0%
Vicarius vRx	0.9%
Runecast	0.6%
Other	97.5%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Robert Orłowski

IT Security Expert at Alior Bank S.A.

Unified risk scoring has improved our cloud visibility and simplifies remediation priorities

Qualys TotalCloud provides unified vulnerability and threat assessment across both IAS and SaaS. This solution provides a single prioritized view of risk, which helps reduce the work I would have to do. We are no longer based on CVSS; we are based on Qualys risk scoring, which is based on CVSS plus internal findings made by Qualys, and then assigns its own score. The TruRisk insight feature has found a small number of assets with high vulnerability scores, though I am cautious since some information is classified. Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted our bank's performance, and we have definitely seen benefits after implementing this solution.

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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

"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."

"One of the most valuable features of Qualys TotalCloud is FlexScan, which is specifically for internet-facing VMs. We found this feature to be very useful. It was a key differentiator for us."

"The vulnerability management feature is the one I like the most because it provides a clear picture of all vulnerabilities."

"If I had to say something positive about the product that brings me the biggest benefit, I would say it has accurate reports, gets new update CVEs, zero-day attack detection, and is easy to manage with its GUI."

"TotalCloud's best feature is the integration of cloud accounts. It helps with the risk and security posture management of our cloud infrastructure."

"CSPM is currently the most used feature, and we are enjoying the new feature, FlexScan, which is valuable for Internet-facing VMs."

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

"Qualys TotalCloud is an excellent platform, and the beauty of the platform is that we can get all the vulnerabilities, see all the reports in a single dashboard, view them segregated, and easily learn about critical, high, and medium findings with appropriately provided remediation steps."

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 ability to consolidate vulnerability discovery, prioritization, and remediation in one platform is crucial."

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

"Vicarius vRx has reduced 70% of the time we spend on patching."

"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 other products we looked at had patching tagged on another product, whereas this solely looked after the patching and vulnerabilities, which is good. We did not see any other products with such capability."

"vRx seemed to be user-friendly and very easy to use."

"Vicarius vRx's primary strength is its user-friendly interface."

"Vicarius vRx has reduced meantime to remediate by 90 percent."

More Vicarius vRx pros

Cons

"In a future release, I suggest that zero-day vulnerabilities should be predicted in advance using AI technologies. The system is not 100% secure yet, so proactive threat hunting could be enhanced to be more proactive than the current system."

"Overall, we are satisfied with it. However, the response part of the Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) module can be improved. It is not yet in place according to requirements; it is not completely available even though the module has been released."

"The price is very expensive, actually."

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

"The patching process with Qualys Patch Management, which is part of TotalCloud, does not cover installing certain prerequisites on the servers or workstations. This shortcoming means we must rely on SCCM when any service stack updates or additional prerequisites are needed."

"TotalCloud could improve the classification of vulnerabilities. Specifically, it could enhance the categorization of what aspects fall under patches resolved by OS or software updates and what pertains to configuration adjustments."

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

"With the growing integration of AI, I would like Qualys to enhance its service offerings to better accommodate AI-related risks."

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."

"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 patchless protection feature is currently difficult to understand and could be made more user-friendly."

"It would be beneficial if Vicarius vRx could implement smart tagging or suggest tags to create a group for these development tools, signifying that they should not be regularly updated."

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

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

"I would appreciate additional filter options, such as the ability to filter by AWS tags."

"Unlike previous vulnerability management systems that relied on network scanning appliances to discover and assess endpoints, Vicarius' agent-based approach is less effective for devices like switches, routers, and printers where agent installation is impractical."

"There can be more scripting capability and more filtering capability. We should be able to filter more granular details in the operating system such as whether it is a service, application, executable, or something like that. For the most part, we are satisfied with what we are able to filter."

More Vicarius vRx cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Although Qualys TotalCloud is relatively expensive due to its unique automation features, its cost-effectiveness is rated an eight out of ten, with ten being the most costly."

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

"As a middle management member, I do not have direct pricing knowledge, but based on the knowledge from our meetings, its pricing is competitive."

"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."

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

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

"Qualys TotalCloud offers good pricing that is affordable and competitive with the market. Our partnership also provides us with additional benefits."

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

More Qualys TotalCloud pricing and cost advice

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

"The pricing is great because we are a reseller of the product. It is really up to us and Vicarius, and they are very easy to work with."

"Vicarius vRx offers a competitive price point for the features it provides."

"The pricing is fair."

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

"I know we got it for a very cheap price, and I now see why. It was very cheap. It was maybe 12,000 or 14,000 dollars."

"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 is reasonably priced."

"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."

More Vicarius vRx pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

25%

Educational Organization

13%

Comms Service Provider

13%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

14%

Non Profit

10%

Media Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	28

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

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

The price is very expensive, actually.

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What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?

Areas that need improvement in every solution include the remediation part. The remediation steps should be simple en...

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What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?

Our use case involves the assets that we have under cloud, the assets exposed to the internet, and the internal appli...

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

I do not use other solutions, so I cannot compare its pricing to others, but its price seems okay.

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What needs improvement with Vicarius vRx?

I would be happy if the patch update could be downloaded to the Vicarius server and then implemented on the client. C...

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What is your primary use case for Vicarius vRx?

We use Vicarius vRx to manage all third-party software updates. Previously, we could manage Windows updates, but thir...

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Comparisons

Wiz vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 9% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 6% of the time

JupiterOne vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 5% of the time

Nucleus Security vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 5% of the time

More Qualys TotalCloud Competitors

Wiz vs Runecast

Compared 13% of the time

Orca Security vs Runecast

Compared 13% of the time

Snyk vs Runecast

Compared 10% of the time

Thoropass vs Runecast

Compared 9% of the time

Todyl vs Runecast

Compared 8% of the time

More Runecast Competitors

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Vicarius vRx

Compared 8% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Vicarius vRx

Compared 6% of the time

Action1 vs Vicarius vRx

Compared 6% of the time

NinjaOne vs Vicarius vRx

Compared 6% of the time

More Vicarius vRx Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys TotalCloud

May 2026

Download Qualys TotalCloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

May 2026

Download Runecast product report

Buyer's Guide

Vicarius vRx

May 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

May 2026

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