Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

BigFix vs Vicarius vRx 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.2
BigFix delivers fast ROI with efficient patch management, improved security, and reduced labor, enhancing efficiency and financial savings.
Sentiment score
8.1
MSPs and clients achieved significant time, cost, and efficiency gains with Vicarius vRx, realizing a 40% ROI.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
BigFix provides excellent customer support, with minor first-level inconsistencies, improved overall quality, and valuable community resources.
Sentiment score
8.0
Vicarius vRx customer service is praised for responsiveness, professionalism, and effectiveness, with high ratings and efficient communication.
On a scale from one to ten, with ten being the highest quality, enterprise support provides timely responses, typically within four to eight hours.
Technical support from HCL is satisfactory unless there are customization requirements.
Their support is very good, and they respond quickly.
During the POC and the implementation, they were very available and made their best efforts to help us.
Whenever I've contacted them, they respond promptly with a callback or by email.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.7
BigFix excels in scalability, handling deployments from small to large seamlessly, supporting hundreds of thousands of devices efficiently.
Sentiment score
7.8
Vicarius vRx scales well, featuring easy deployment across endpoints, but some face challenges during large system updates.
BigFix requires some minimum configuration requirements.
It is very simple; you just script it, and then the computers connect themselves.
When we attempted to scale this and update 200 systems, that just locked it.
We have some clients with up to a thousand agents.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
5.9
BigFix is praised for its stability, requiring minimal intervention and maintaining performance during large-scale deployments and external challenges.
Sentiment score
7.3
Users generally find Vicarius vRx stable and efficient, despite occasional deployment challenges and update-related high CPU usage.
There are some issues that they do not even know how to fix at this point.
I would rate the stability of Vicarius vRx ten out of ten.
There are some issues like high CPU usage during updates, but these were fixed.
 

Room For Improvement

BigFix needs updated documentation, UI improvements, enhanced integration, better patch support, and improved automation and scalability.
Vicarius vRx needs improved automation, simplified login, better integration, UI, and advanced management features for enhanced user experience.
Building a management console is quick and simple, taking only one to two hours for setup.
The problem was related to the hardware configuration and hardware specifications.
In addition to reporting improvements, there should be a feature for application control to allow or disallow certain applications from being executed on endpoints.
I am pretty sure that the tool works great when it comes to Windows, but when you are in an environment that has different flavors of Linux at different version levels, that may pose an issue.
We have the ability to search across the network for all switches, routers, and printers, but some devices might be outdated and have vulnerabilities.
Enhancing Vicarius vRx with improved third-party integrations, like notifications for external systems, and increased cloud integration for richer instance information, would be valuable improvements.
 

Setup Cost

BigFix offers flexible, competitive pricing options with various packages and potential discounts, despite additional costs like database licenses.
Vicarius vRx offers scalable per-asset pricing, competitive yet costly, with negotiable rates appealing to resellers but challenging for smaller entities.
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to SolarWinds, making it easier for customers to subscribe and unsubscribe.
It was very cheap.
In the past, Vicarius vRx was cheap, but now they have adjusted their pricing policy, resulting in higher renewal costs.
From a pricing perspective, Vicarius was cheaper compared to other competitors.
 

Valuable Features

BigFix is valued for ease, scalability, flexibility, real-time management, integration, single-console efficiency, and wide system adaptability.
Vicarius vRx offers automated patching, vulnerability management, and a user-friendly interface, greatly reducing manual tasks for IT teams.
The BigFix features that have proven most effective include inventory, software delivery, software distribution, software catalog, and both software and hardware management.
I use this mainly to capture inventory for IBM products, and as BigFix was part of IBM, it gets easily integrated with IBM solutions.
BigFix supports something known as Patch Policies, which allows users to define that whenever critical patches are released, they should get evaluated against machines and automatically deploy them.
It's a valuable tool that reduces tension between IT and security teams by providing time to properly install patches.
The system prioritizes vulnerabilities, identifying high, medium, and low risks, allowing us to focus on high-risk applications.
The most valuable feature is the system's ability to provide information about open CVEs and how it compares the local version with available updates.
 

Categories and Ranking

BigFix
Ranking in Patch Management
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (7th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (26th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (5th)
Vicarius vRx
Ranking in Patch Management
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (15th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of BigFix is 6.6%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vicarius vRx is 3.5%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
BigFix6.6%
Vicarius vRx3.5%
Other89.9%
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

Ravi Khanchandani - PeerSpot reviewer
Long-term partnership improves customer satisfaction and delivers efficient endpoint management
BigFix supports something known as Patch Policies, which allows users to define that whenever critical patches are released, they should get evaluated against machines and automatically deploy them. Their software distribution is very efficient because they use a pull mechanism rather than a push mechanism, allowing each machine to download from the closest repository and install themselves. The same assessment mechanism applies for real-time vulnerability remediation, allowing identification, evaluation, and automatic remediation across machines. Compliance metrics typically measure the patch percentages deployed against the number of endpoints, which could be various device types including virtual machines and mobile devices. Measurements are taken against each device type, looking into compliance percentages for browsers such as Chrome and Edge based on their versions.
OrenBen Shalom - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Patch Management solutions are best for your needs.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Media Company
9%
Non Profit
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise66
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BigFix?
The most valuable features of the solution are Windows patching and the hardware and software inventory.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BigFix?
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to other major software solutions, making it easier for customers to subscribe and unsubscribe.
What needs improvement with BigFix?
The reporting still needs improvement since customers want specific reporting, such as N-1 month patching reports. In addition to reporting improvements, there should be a feature for application c...
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.
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. Currently, they just send a link to the software. For example, if I want to updat...
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 third-party updates were an issue. It was difficult for us to manage the updates of ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Tivoli Endpoint Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

US Foods, Penn State, St Vincent's Health US Foods, Sabadell Bank, SunTrust, Australia Sydney, Stemac, Capgemini, WNS Global Services, Jebsen & Jessen, CenterBeam, Strauss, Christian Hospital Centre, Brit Insurance, Career Education Corporation
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about BigFix vs. Vicarius vRx and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.