Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs Qualys VMDR comparison

Aqua Security and Qualys are both solutions in the Container Security category. Aqua Security is ranked #15 with an average rating of 9.0, while Qualys is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.5. Aqua Security holds a 3.0% mindshare in Container Security, compared to Qualys’s 2.3% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Aqua Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Read 16 Aqua Cloud Security Platform reviews

5,157 Views
4,435 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Qualys VMDR

Read 94 Qualys VMDR reviews

14,366 Views
2,586 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Qualys VMDR

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Qualys VMDR and Aqua Cloud Security Platform compete in the cybersecurity category, focusing on vulnerability management and container security. While Qualys VMDR leads in traditional endpoint security with comprehensive scanning and policy compliance, Aqua Cloud Security Platform excels in cloud-native security and container protection, offering a more tailored solution for organizations utilizing Docker and Kubernetes.

Features: Qualys VMDR is noted for its extensive scanning capabilities, cloud-based deployment, and policy compliance. It also provides continuous monitoring for ongoing security vigilance. Aqua Cloud Security Platform stands out with its advanced container security and support for Docker and Kubernetes environments, delivering robust runtime protection and image scanning for dynamic cloud infrastructures.

Room for Improvement: Qualys VMDR users highlight the need for better documentation on reporting, improved IT framework integration, and simplified asset tagging and vulnerability scoring. Enhanced threat intelligence integration is also requested. Aqua Cloud Security Platform could benefit from improving reporting efficacy, providing clearer security insights, and enhancing runtime security across diverse environments. More comprehensive documentation and a simplified licensing model are additional suggested improvements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys VMDR offers flexible deployment across multiple environments, with reliable customer service and technical support, though some mention slow response times. Aqua Cloud Security Platform also supports diverse cloud deployments but requires improvements in ease of deployment and support turnaround time, with users seeking streamlined management and installation processes.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR is viewed as costly, particularly for smaller enterprises, but its features and patch management justify the expense for larger organizations with significant ROI through enhanced vulnerability management. Aqua Cloud Security Platform, while less expensive than some rivals, is priced higher for its focus on container security, offering flexible pricing and strong ROI benefits for firms prioritizing cloud container security and resilience.

To learn more, read our detailed Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Qualys VMDR Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Qualys VMDR

July 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

Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Ranking in Container Security

15th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud and Data Center Security (12th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (16th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (13th), Software Supply Chain Security (9th), DevSecOps (9th)

Qualys VMDR

Ranking in Container Security

9th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Asset Management (6th), Vulnerability Management (2nd), Configuration Management Databases (2nd), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Container Security category, the mindshare of Aqua Cloud Security Platform is 3.0%, down from 4.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 2.3%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Security

Featured Reviews

Burak AKCAGUN

Business Development Manager at Axoft Ukraine

A robust and cost-effective solution, excelling in scalability, on-premises support, and responsive technical support, making it well-suited for enterprises navigating stringent regulatory environment

The most crucial aspect is runtime protection, specifically image scanning before preproduction and deployment. Customers find it invaluable to have the ability to check for vulnerabilities in an image before deployment, similar to a sandbox environment. This feature ensures that customers can identify any potential issues with the image, such as misconfigurations or vulnerabilities, before integrating it into their workloads and infrastructure. In their source pipeline, companies can identify issues before deploying changes. This is crucial because customers prefer resolving any problems or misconfigurations before the deployment process. Software change security, including GSPM Cloud, is a key feature customers seek in their infrastructure.

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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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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Their sandboxing service is also really good."

"The most valuable feature of Aqua Security is the scanner."

"The CSPM product is great at securing our cloud accounts and I really like the runtime protection for containers and functions too."

"The solution was very user-friendly."

"We use Aqua Security for the container security features."

"From what I understand, the initial setup is simple."

"The most helpful feature of Aqua Security is Drift Prevention, which is a feature that allows images to be immutable. In addition, one of the main reasons we went with Aqua Security is because it provides strong protection when it comes to runtime security."

"Valuable features include the ability to connect it to our Docker Hub where our images are stored, good integration with Slack, and the connection to the CV, to easily see which CVs are on each image."

More Aqua Cloud Security Platform pros

"The most valuable feature is the QID part, especially of CentralList, which makes it easy to assess new critical vulnerabilities."

"Qualys VM's best feature is vulnerability management."

"The Vulnerability Management and Patch Management features are the most valuable features of this solution."

"We also like the flexibility in their licensing."

"The reporting functionality is great."

"It is very easy to use and there are lots of options. We can usually easily go through it and all of the things we want to configure, and we can configure everything to our specifications very easily."

"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."

"Great web application security for scanning."

More Qualys VMDR pros

Cons

"Aqua Security could provide more open documentation so that their learning resources can be more easily accessed and searched through online. Right now, a lot of the documentation is closed and not available to the public."

"The integrations on CICD could be improved. If Aqua had more plugins or container images to integrate and automate more easily on CICD, it would be better."

"They want to release improvements to their product to work with other servers because now there are more focused on the Kubernetes environment. They need to improve the normal servers. I would like to have more options."

"In the next release, Aqua Security should add the ability to automatically send reports to customers."

"Aqua Security lacks a lot in reporting."

"Since we are working from home, we would like to have the proper training for Aqua."

"It's a bit hard to use the user roles. That was a bit confusing."

"We would like to see an improvement in the overview visibility that this solution offers."

More Aqua Cloud Security Platform cons

"The reporting section needs improvement as running reports can take several hours."

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

"Qualys VMDR is basically susceptible to false positives, and false negatives."

"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."

"We face issues while scanning multiple assets."

"Integration could be better. When you think about scanning, it's not used just with this product alone but with other Qualys products. If you think about the bundle, the product itself is good. But integration with other products and packages has space for improvement. They should also offer a better price for bundles."

"This solution could be improved by extending the agent capabilities to different operating systems including Mac and Linux. We would also like the capability to easily check for vulnerability in assets in the IOTs."

"Qualys does have an on-prem solution, but it is very expensive."

More Qualys VMDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of this solution could be improved."

"It comes at a reasonable cost."

"Dealing with licensing costs isn't my responsibility, but I know that the licenses don't depend on the number of users, but instead are priced according to your workload."

"They were reasonable with their pricing. They were pretty down-to-earth about the way they pitched their product and the way they tried to close the deal. They were one of the rare companies that approached the whole valuation in a way that made sense for our company, for our needs, and for their own requirements as well... They will accommodate your needs if they are able to understand them and they're stated clearly."

"Aqua Security is not cheap, and it's not very expensive, such as Splunk, they are in the middle."

"We do see over $100,000 in terms of price, for mid-size programs. You likely will pay more than $100,000 without any discount. It is a bit pricey."

"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."

"An annual license for a single scanner costs around $3,000."

"It is a high cost product. Compared to the other solutions, it is around 15 to 20% higher in cost."

"Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliance isn't expensive right now. But the price for their product bundles could be better."

"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."

"The license is on a yearly basis."

"It's very expensive, especially if you want to use multiple modules of Qualys."

More Qualys VMDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you think of Aqua Security vs Prisma Cloud?

Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Aqua Security?

Customers find it invaluable to have the ability to check for vulnerabilities in an image before deployment, similar to a sandbox environment.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Aqua Security?

It comes at a reasonable cost. When compared to Prisma Cloud, it is more budget-friendly.

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?

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

See all answers

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

Comparisons

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 19% of the time

Wiz vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 16% of the time

SUSE NeuVector vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 5% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 5% of the time

Tencent Cloud Workload Protection vs Aqua Cloud Security Platform

Compared 3% 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

Tenable Security Center vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 6% of the time

Wiz vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 5% of the time

More Qualys VMDR Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Aqua Cloud Security Platform

August 2025

Download Aqua Cloud Security Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

August 2025

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Also Known As

Aqua Security Platform, CloudSploit, Argon

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

Overview

Aqua Security stops cloud native attacks, preventing them before they happen and stopping them when they happen. Dedicated cloud native threat research and the most loved cloud native security open source community in the world put innovation at your fingertips so you can transform your business. Born cloud native, The Aqua Platform is the most integrated Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP), securing from day one and protecting in real-time. Aqua has been stopping real cloud native attacks on hundreds of thousands of production nodes across the world since 2015.

Aqua Security Features

Aqua Security has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Vulnerability scanning
Dynamic threat analysis
Automates DevSecOps
CI/CD integrations
Cloud security posture management
Kubernetes security
Hybrid and multi-cloud
Container security
Serverless security
VM security
Cloud workloads protection

Aqua Security Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Aqua Security. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Designed for scale and performance: The Aqua Security platform was designed to scale to the largest environments in order to protect huge clusters and massive DevOps pipelines.

Empowers DevOps to detect issues early and fix them fast: The solution was designed to help you solve issues immediately - before they cause greater damage to your organization. It helps you gain insight into your vulnerability posture and prioritize remediation and mitigation according to contextual risk.

Automated compliance and security posture: Aqua Security checks your cloud services, Infrastructure-as-code templates, and Kubernetes setup against best practices and standards. This way, you can ensure the infrastructure you run your applications on is securely configured and in compliance.

Artifact scanning: The Aqua Security platform scans artifacts for vulnerabilities, malware, and other risks during development and staging. It allows you to set flexible and dynamic policies to control deployment into your runtime environments.

Minimizes false positives: Aqua Security relies on a variety of sources and proprietary research to curate and present vulnerabilities in the most accurate way, which helps to minimize false positives and unnecessary noise in the pipeline.

Automated security testing: The Aqua Security platform automates security testing in your CI/CD pipeline, and continuously scans registries and serverless function stores to detect emerging risks. By implementing the platform, you can get actionable feedback within your CI environments to empower your organization’s developers to fix issues rapidly.

Granular controls: The solution provides protection for your VM, container, and serverless workloads using granular controls with instant visibility and real-time detection and response.

Sandboxed environment: With Aqua Security, you can run images in a secure sandboxed environment that traces indicators of compromise (IOCs) such as container escapes, reverse shell backdoors, malware drops, code injection backdoors, and network anomalies.

Reviews from Real Users

Lizeth Z., Cloud Security Specialist at Telstra, says, “Aqua Security is the most advanced solution in the market for container security. Aqua Security allows us to check for vulnerabilities in the CI/CD pipeline, so application teams can remediate issues before going into production. Aqua Security helps us to check the vulnerability of image assurance and check for malware.”

Aqua 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

Sample Customers

HPE Salesforce Telstra Ellie Mae Cathay Pacific HomeAway

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

Aqua Cloud Security Platform vs. Qualys VMDR

July 2025

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