Acunetix vs Qualys VMDR comparison

Invicti and Qualys are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Invicti is ranked #28 with an average rating of 7.9, while Qualys is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6. Invicti holds a 1.1% mindshare in VM, compared to Qualys’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Invicti users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

Acunetix

Read 36 Acunetix reviews

6,676 Views
1,669 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Qualys VMDR

Read 96 Qualys VMDR reviews

12,908 Views
8,648 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Acunetix

Qualys VMDR

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Qualys VMDR and Acunetix compete in the vulnerability management category. Qualys VMDR appears to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features, scalability, and integration capabilities.

Features: Qualys VMDR offers continuous monitoring, asset and patch management, and integrates with network and web application security, providing comprehensive threat detection and ease of use for larger organizations. Acunetix is focused on application security, especially web applications, with advanced interactive application security testing capabilities and thorough vulnerability scans.

Room for Improvement: Qualys VMDR could improve reporting customization, reduce false positives, and enhance user experience to simplify asset management and integration with other security tools. Acunetix needs better handling of false positives, a more flexible licensing model, and should enhance transparency in pricing along with improving mobile and web service scanning capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys VMDR supports deployment in private, public, and hybrid cloud environments, offering flexibility but with mixed feedback on technical support responsiveness. Acunetix, mainly used on-premises, is praised for its good technical support, though there's room for better escalation handling and customer follow-up.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR is seen as costly, particularly for smaller enterprises, yet users justify it for comprehensive features and scalability. It has flexible pricing with potential discounts. Acunetix's pricing is competitive but has seen recent increases that may deter some users, requiring careful evaluation of cost versus capabilities. Both tools bring enhanced security and operational efficiency, with organizational size influencing perceived value.

To learn more, read our detailed Acunetix vs. Qualys VMDR Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Acunetix vs. Qualys VMDR

March 2026

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Helped 884,873 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

6.6

Entities saw 300% ROI with reduced risk, time savings, cost reduction, and improved security, justifying continued tool use.

Sentiment score

7.0

Qualys VMDR enhances ROI by streamlining management, improving compliance, reducing vulnerabilities, saving time, and minimizing breaches effectively.

It saves a significant amount of time by covering attack surfaces.

Abdullah Ozkan

Information Security Engineer at Tübitak Bilgem

I have seen a return on investment, as Acunetix helps reduce the man-days and effort needed for scanning bulk applications through automated assessments.

Rahul Kumar

Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Acunetix report

We saw a return on investment through significant savings in time, money, and resources.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.5

Acunetix support is responsive and helpful, but response times vary, with some delays for high-severity issues noted.

Sentiment score

6.6

Qualys VMDR support is responsive and helpful, but users note occasional delays and suggest better response time and depth.

For high-severity issues, they reach out within two to three hours, and for critical issues, a response is received within 15 minutes.

Himanshu_Tyagi

Lead Cybersecurity at TBO

The technical support from Invicti is very good and fast.

Abdullah Ozkan

Information Security Engineer at Tübitak Bilgem

Support staff not being familiar with the problem.

Rahul Kumar

Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Acunetix report

We usually get on calls with tech support, and they are very helpful.

reviewer2588394

Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

The response time takes a while.

reviewer2592618

Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

The technical support provided by Qualys is pretty good.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.9

Acunetix is praised for scalability across various environments, despite some dynamic scan issues and the need for Linux support.

Sentiment score

7.9

Qualys VMDR is highly scalable, supporting numerous assets efficiently with customizable management and seamless cloud-based architecture.

Acunetix can handle increasing workloads and more applications easily.

Rahul Kumar

Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Acunetix report

Scalability depends on the license and the number of assets being monitored.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Qualys VMDR can handle scalability, although increasing the inventory can raise the licensing costs.

Ankesh Raj

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

Qualys VMDR's scalability is good, and the customer support is good.

reviewer2753559

Cyber Security Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.1

Acunetix offers stable, reliable scans with minimal issues and high satisfaction, despite occasional upgrade glitches and initial speed concerns.

Sentiment score

7.9

Qualys VMDR is highly stable, reliable, and effective, with minimal downtime and challenges mostly due to user-side issues.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Acunetix report

Qualys VMDR is stable.

reviewer2753559

Cyber Security Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Room For Improvement

Acunetix needs improvements in speed, accuracy, usability, integration, and support to enhance functionality and user satisfaction.

Qualys VMDR needs improved support, efficient reporting, UI, asset notifications, reduced tool dependency, better pricing, and comprehensive resources.

The main concern is related to false positives; Acunetix needs to work on identifying valid and invalid findings.

Himanshu_Tyagi

Lead Cybersecurity at TBO

I could supply it with maybe a Swagger file or a JSON file, and Acunetix would pick it up, scan all the endpoints according to the OWASP Top Ten, and give me remediation and actionable remediation reports.

Adetunji Adeoje

Team Lead, Application Security at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Acunetix should have better integration with newer tools such as GitHub and Azure DevOps.

KashifJamil

CEO at Xcelliti

For more quotes and insights, download the Acunetix report

It does not automate patching unless the patch management module is purchased separately.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

If AI features were integrated, it could enhance the capabilities significantly.

Ankesh Raj

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

One area where Qualys VMDR can be improved is the missing feature for deploying agents for over 1,000 assets, as we need to do it manually.

reviewer2753559

Cyber Security Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Setup Cost

Acunetix pricing is seen as high and complex, impacting renewal decisions due to cost transparency and fluctuation issues.

Qualys VMDR pricing is high for small businesses but offers flexibility, discounts, and comprehensive features for larger enterprises.

The pricing cost is affordable for small and mid-sized organizations, and when compared to Checkmarx, it is significantly affordable, as Checkmarx is quite expensive.

Himanshu_Tyagi

Lead Cybersecurity at TBO

We secured a special licensing model for penetration testing companies, which is cost-effective.

Abdullah Ozkan

Information Security Engineer at Tübitak Bilgem

The pricing of Acunetix is pretty expensive and could be improved.

Srinivas Walikar

Senior Business Development Manager at Intouch World

For more quotes and insights, download the Acunetix report

I would rate the pricing between seven to eight out of ten.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

I have a notion that Qualys might be more expensive than Rapid7.

Ankesh Raj

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

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

reviewer2588394

Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Valuable Features

Acunetix provides efficient, comprehensive vulnerability scanning with user-friendly features, accurate detection, and seamless integration, enhancing security management.

Qualys VMDR offers user-friendly management, real-time insights, and powerful integrations, significantly improving vulnerability prioritization and remediation efficiency.

Its most valuable role is in enhancing security by identifying potential vulnerabilities efficiently.

Srinivas Walikar

Senior Business Development Manager at Intouch World

The solution is excellent at detecting SQL injection and cross-site scripting vulnerabilities.

KashifJamil

CEO at Xcelliti

Rahul Kumar

Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Acunetix report

The prioritization of vulnerabilities has improved our remediation efforts by around thirty to thirty-five percent.

reviewer2588394

Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

It impacts my workflow overall, with the patch management features as it has the missing patches listed in detail, making it easier to get a comprehensive report and providing some dashboards that offer visual representation.

Nabanita Roy

JMS, RPSG Ventures Limited at RP Sanjiv Goenka Group

Qualys VMDR's continuous monitoring capabilities help us respond to emergent threats by enabling my team to reach out to the security engineers whenever there is any detection of a vulnerability, informing them about it, and creating an incident.

Vaibhav Ghule

Soc Lead & Edr Administration at Persistent Systems

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Categories and Ranking

Acunetix

Ranking in Vulnerability Management

28th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (14th), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (10th), DevSecOps (6th)

Qualys VMDR

Ranking in Vulnerability Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Asset Management (3rd), Configuration Management Databases (3rd), Container Security (9th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Acunetix is 1.1%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 4.9%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qualys VMDR	4.9%
Acunetix	1.1%
Other	94.0%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Rahul Kumar

Senior Engineer - Penetration Tester at a government with 10,001+ employees

Identifies vulnerabilities across bulk web applications but needs better support and cleaner reports

The best feature Acunetix offers is the centralized dashboard and the quality of reports it generates, which includes various options for selecting reports and developer options for directly sharing the reports with developers. The centralized dashboard of Acunetix gives visibility into the security aspects of mass applications; for instance, with more than 200 applications, it provides a valuable overview of findings and necessary fixes, along with a high-level summary that helps us achieve compliance through monthly and sometimes weekly scanning. In terms of reporting, Acunetix is excellent because it can generate different types of reports, such as an executive summary report, detailed reports, and developer reports that can be shared directly with developers. Acunetix positively impacts my organization by helping identify outdated libraries and applications, including legacy applications vulnerable to old attacks based on OWASP Top 10, thus aiding in compliance checks for PCI DSS and OWASP. Acunetix provides a centralized report with compliance-related aspects and a vulnerability timeline, effectively helping reduce vulnerabilities and save time.

Read full review

Vaibhav Ghule

Soc Lead & Edr Administration at Persistent Systems

Continuous risk-based monitoring has strengthened incident response and vulnerability prioritization

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 improvements in the query options in Qualys VMDR, specifically in the query-building process where I would need more features and operators. Additionally, we have been facing issues with Qualys on the cloud level. We cannot download the configuration profile from the cloud agent, and it is showing a pending action for download. During 2025, we noticed outages of Qualys a couple of times. I want to mention that there is an issue with receiving timely RCA deliveries. While this is not necessarily about the tool, it relates to support. The support has not been very responsive, and we are receiving RCAs a little delayed whenever we raise support cases or communicate with the TAMs. Additionally, the UI has a slight latency, which I and my team have experienced. They have also reported this latency issue when navigating through different pages.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	18

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	70

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner?

I'm using Acunetix to automate security checks. Acunetix helped me catch common vulnerability issues early and improved the overall security posture of the application before development, specifica...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Acunetix Vulnerability Scanner?

I would advise anyone or any startup looking to engage in the security part to directly use Acunetix, as this will help in most aspects. I would rate this product a nine out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Acunetix?

The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that the setup cost and pricing need to be reconsidered.

See all answers

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 tagging system is good for tagging. We can still use QualysAgent task ID tools even ...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Acunetix

March 2026

Download Acunetix product report

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

March 2026

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Also Known As

AcuSensor

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

Overview

Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner is an automated web application security testing tool that audits your web applications by checking for vulnerabilities like SQL Injection, Cross site scripting, and other exploitable vulnerabilities.

Invicti

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

Sample Customers

Joomla!, Digicure, Team Random, Credit Suisse, Samsung, Air New Zealand

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

Buyer's Guide

Acunetix vs. Qualys VMDR

March 2026

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