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Automox vs Qualys Patch Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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

Automox
Ranking in Patch Management
17th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (50th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (61st), Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) (18th)
Qualys Patch Management
Ranking in Patch Management
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of Automox is 3.6%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Patch Management is 4.1%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

Jack Leung - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use and deploy agents but needs more stability
We just need to deploy the agent to the endpoints. We don't need to set up anything. For a single agent, it takes one or two minutes. However, we deployed globally, and you need to take into consideration the time it will take to deploy across each endpoint. It's very simple to deploy. We had three or four engineers take care of the implementation.
Revathi VeeraRaghavan - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides a centralized platform for managing assets and vulnerabilities, enabling assessment, prioritization, and remediation
Qualys Patch Management system requires several improvements. Firstly, the inability to download asset patches and the lack of third-party application integration limit patch accessibility. Additionally, rollback options are unreliable, and pre-deployment patch testing is crucial. Reporting needs enhancement, particularly with group-based compliance percentages and clearer, VMDR-like reporting in the Patch Management module. Furthermore, detection speed should be improved, as patches are released 24 hours after QIDs are published. The user interface could be more functional, with dashboards for patch compliance visualization and simplified error code language. Finally, the Mac patch catalogue needs expansion, and automated workflows, policy enforcement, and testing procedures should be streamlined for seamless, user-independent operation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"They've been adding some new features lately, which I'm not nearly as familiar with, but the ability to just deploy patches and exempt certain machines from certain patches is helpful. For instance, for our servers, we may not want to roll out zero-day patches. We are able to exempt those and make sure that they don't get those policies. We've got certain servers that have to run a particular version of Java, and being able to exempt those servers from receiving Java updates is pretty fantastic."
"It's easy to deploy agents to endpoints."
"The fact that it's just one product that can patch multiple operating systems is really great."
"The flexibility in creating tools to make changes on remote machines is most valuable to me. The reporting feature is also fantastic because on any given day I can bring up a list of machines that don't have patches, for example. Or I can bring up a list of machines that are in my environment on a certain day. The solution helps me with not only my own role, and what I look for internally myself, but it also helps during audits. I can go in and look at the number of machines in there, and their owners and timelines. It certainly helps tell a story for anything that IT requires."
"Among the most valuable features are its ease of use and the Worklets. Both of them are time-savers. Worklets enable us to customize things for a given environment. It's something like when Apple lets other people create applications. Other peoples' Worklets can be used in our environment and in our customers' environments. That saves a lot of time, and it's really cool."
"The biggest improvement to our organization involves the reduction in its man hours... We've probably saved hundreds of hours."
"It's super easy to use and we haven't found anything easier."
"Previously, we would run a report, scan it, and compare it. We were spending 15 to 30 minutes a month on each machine on this stuff because you would find stuff that wasn't up to date, then you had to fix it. This solution takes that time down to minutes. Automox saves us easily many hours a month."
"The integration of Qualys Gateway Scanner is my favorite feature."
"Automated features streamline patch deployment and ensure compliance, effectively mitigating risks and bolstering organizational security."
"We have all the information on one page. The dashboard provides comprehensive information on one page, making it easy to apply patches and monitor pending updates."
"Qualys Patch Management is beneficial for addressing critical vulnerability alerts quickly, providing significant improvements in mitigating risk within our organization."
"Patch management significantly helped us track and reduce vulnerabilities."
"Qualys Patch Management offers numerous valuable features, including automatic patching for Google browsers, which allows for scheduled updates immediately upon vendor release."
"Patch Management's most valuable feature is the ability to search for vulnerabilities using their QID."
"The integration of Qualys Gateway Scanner is my favorite feature. The patches our downloaded to QGS in our environment and deployed, saving bandwidth. The patch logging and policies have been helpful. The dashboard shows you when the patch has been applied to your assets."
 

Cons

"As concerns the patching concepts, there's a bit of a learning curve in terms of working out how Automox wants you to work within the console, not only splitting up everything into groups, but then having the various policies assigned."
"The only thing that we've ever truly wanted is an onsite repository. Currently, all updates are provided directly from the internet. So, if you have 1,000 devices, all 1,000 devices go directly out to the internet. We would love the option of being able to put the updates on local storage so that we're not consuming as much bandwidth. That is literally the only thing that we've ever wanted."
"The stability has come a long way from what it was like when it started and now it's really good."
"There should be better inventory capabilities. Right now, they only allow you to have insight into software out-of-the-box. It would be nice to also extend that into custom inventory that can be modified and managed by the practitioner."
"When we bring on a new client, we need to go into that client and manually set up my account, my chief engineer's account, three technicians' accounts, and a billing person's account all over again, which is annoying. We have probably up to 15 or 16 of our clients on Automox now. For every single one of those, we have had to go in and set this up. Then, if anything changes, we have to remember to go to Automox and change it 15 or 16 times. So, we just want inheritable permissions, and that is it. We have talked to them about this, and they are like, "Yeah, we hear a lot of complaints about it." I am thinking, "Guys, I have been complaining about this for a year and a half. When are you going to do it?" It must be some tricky thing or not an easy fix, because I can only assume if it were easy, then they would have done it by now."
"They need to improve the automation features."
"Asset management would be a great feature to add to Automox. We would run easier scripts or more out of the box scripts that would help us in audits. \"
"It should have integrated workstation access. So, there should be a remote desktop feature."
"Qualys could improve its randomized download feature and provide more detailed information about patch failures, including the reason for failure."
"The GUI has areas that need improvement, particularly in the accuracy of results when adding dashboards and running queries."
"A patch contract is a bundle of patches that we are going to roll out. I would like to reference those patches from separate jobs. They explained at a conference that it cannot be done, but that is my main complaint. I wish that the whole schema was a little bit clearer because there is a little bit of cloudiness around it."
"Its implementation is too recent to make any judgments about areas needing improvement. In terms of pricing, of course, it is not free. Cheaper is always better."
"In our environment, the application sometimes crashes, requiring improvement."
"Downloading extensive vulnerability reports, especially those with millions of entries, is time-consuming."
"In our environment, the application sometimes crashes, requiring improvement."
"I struggled to see patch availability for some applications in the Qualys console, requiring me to use third-party repositories."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is very reasonable compared to the competition."
"Automox just charges us a set amount per user, per month, for using the product. That is very important to us. Because it's a cloud-native solution, you're saving on the cost of hosting an on-premises solution on your servers."
"The product is a great value."
"We're doing it annually directly through Automox. It is per endpoint. It is $2 and some change per endpoint, but I believe the cost is right around $28,000. Everything is covered in this fee."
"We are on the premium licensing, which is the one that has the API capability that we use."
"There are no additional costs in addition to the extended licensing fees with Automox. You get your support and your per endpoint license with what you purchased."
"Its licensing for a year was nine grand. There was no additional fee."
"The pricing and licensing costs have been great for us... My advice to others who are evaluating or thinking of implementing Automox is to give it a shot. If a free trial is still available, definitely use it, because it makes life a lot easier."
"Qualys Patch Management is expensive."
"Qualys Patch Management's pricing could be more competitive, as it presents a significant obstacle for many companies who find it unaffordable."
"From what I have heard, Qualys Patch Management is pricey, which is a main barrier to entry. Another aspect that I do not like about Qualys is that they do not add new patch management functionalities to the existing package. It is a separate SKU, so you have to pay more money."
"Qualys is fairly priced."
"The pricing is fair and within our budget."
"Its price is competitive in the market. Compared to other solutions like Rapid7, Qualys offers a favorable price point and robust features."
"It is affordable, but they should provide features as per the rate they are charging. We have a big infrastructure with about 80,000 licenses. We expect better support from the Qualys team. So, it is affordable, but more features should be there, and the support should be better."
"The licensing cost is more than 2,000 for the whole Americas region"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
10%
Real Estate/Law Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Automox?
It's easy to deploy agents to endpoints.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Automox?
We do pay a monthly licensing fee. I'd rate the pricing as average. It's not cheap yet not too expensive. You can also pay for more support if you require them to provide consultancy services.
What needs improvement with Automox?
They need to improve the automation features. It could be more stable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Patch Management?
Qualys Patch Management comes as part of a bundled package with several modules, making it a cost-effective deal for us. I cannot speak to the separate cost, as we have always used it as part of th...
What needs improvement with Qualys Patch Management?
There is room for improvement in the inclusion of more patches. That's the only improvement I would suggest. Not all patches are available on Qualys, so they need to get licenses for other patches ...
What is your primary use case for Qualys Patch Management?
Mostly, I've used it because I'm working in the Vulnerability Management Team. I've done the POC for Patch Management and then handed over the product to the Patch Management Team, which handles th...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Automox vs. Qualys Patch Management and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.