BMC Helix Automation Console vs Qualys VMDR comparison

BMC and Qualys are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. BMC is ranked #41 with an average rating of 8.0, while Qualys is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5. BMC holds a 0.2% mindshare in VM, compared to Qualys’s 6.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 1, 2025

Qualys VMDR and BMC Helix Automation Console are focused on vulnerability management and automation. Qualys VMDR holds an advantage in pricing and support, while BMC Helix Automation Console is favored for comprehensive automation features.

Features: Qualys VMDR offers integrated vulnerability management, detection, and response in a single platform. It provides real-time visibility and automated workflows. BMC Helix Automation Console delivers extensive automation capabilities, seamless integration with other IT operations tools, and flexibility in workflow customization. Qualys VMDR focuses on security and vulnerability management, whereas BMC Helix offers a broader automation perspective.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys VMDR is cloud-based with straightforward setup, efficient customer support, and quick response times. BMC Helix Automation Console, also cloud-based, involves a more complex deployment with extensive customization options, suitable for customers seeking flexibility.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR presents competitive setup costs and favorable ROI due to efficient vulnerability management solutions. BMC Helix Automation Console incurs higher setup costs but provides substantial ROI in operational efficiency through automation. The main difference is the lower initial investment for Qualys with faster benefits, versus BMC Helix's higher cost and greater long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Vulnerability Management Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

August 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

Zafran Security

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Zafran Security is 1.0%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of BMC Helix Automation Console is 0.2%, down from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 6.9%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Qualys VMDR	6.9%
Zafran Security	1.0%
BMC Helix Automation Console	0.2%
Other	91.9%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini

Associate Director IT Security Operations at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

Weekly insights and risk analysis facilitate informed security decisions

I appreciate the weekly insights Zafran provides, which include critical topics for networks and IT security, allowing us to evaluate which insights apply to our environment. The organization score feature is valuable to keep the leadership team updated on how our infrastructure fares security-wise. The applicable risk level versus base risk level feature is beneficial because prior to Zafran, we only used the base risk level, but now understand that risk depends on the asset itself. Zafran is an excellent tool.

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ShashiGupta

Soo at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Reasonably Priced

In terms of improvement, the product could benefit from streamlining the implementation process, particularly regarding customization. Currently, the process involves navigating through multiple layers of custom and staging forms, which can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Another aspect to consider is the foundation data provided out of the box, particularly regarding categorization and its associated values. This foundational data may only sometimes meet the mark, as organizations often require more flexibility to tailor it to their needs. Discovering hardware, for instance, can lead to different category processing needs, with certain layers providing minimal benefits. The challenge lies in the inability to directly specify servers, hardware, software, and their respective details, highlighting a need for improvement in this area. As per the current state of the Helix product, it has seen some resolution to issues but still faces challenges when adding more attributes. It can lead to restrictions, particularly with the progressive view page, limiting flexibility in certain cases. While benefits can be gained in other aspects, such drawbacks are common. Improvements are necessary to enhance flexibility in this regard. Exploring alternative solutions like containerization or cloud services may offer opportunities for optimization, requiring careful consideration due to the complexity involved. I'm still determining the current strategy. While there have been improvements in the latest version, there's still a need for further enhancements in an extended version. Additionally, stakeholders, including manufacturing companies, emphasize the importance of fine-tuning performance for the Helix product. The search functionality remains problematic, often taking more than 15 seconds, undermining reliability.

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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

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."

"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."

"Takes reports from other vulnerabilities."

"It's reasonably priced."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"This is one of the best products I have worked with so far. I like the power of Qualys, and it's a better solution because you can scan a compact file, a BIT file, or batch files. The product already knows what's happening inside, and you don't need to expand the package. Tenable will do the same thing, but you need to have a package issuance claim. With Qualys, we can immediately understand the file, even a compact file. If there's some kind of discovery or incident, you will know what happened in the environment."

"It is a simple solution that makes scanning easy. You just give it a scheduled task, and it will do everything for you."

"Qualys VM has allowed us to know the vulnerabilities we need to prioritize based on the threat levels and the possible impact if there's an intrusion."

"The product's patch management is excellent for keeping our critical servers and third-party applications updated efficiently."

"The most valuable features of Qualys VMDR include patch management and the use of virtual scanners to scan appliances and devices, especially those provided by vendors where we cannot manage them ourselves."

"The most valuable feature of Qualys Container Security is the detailed information in the reports and the remediation. This is done to make sure there are no vulnerabilities."

"Authenticated scans provide different options, including those using or not using the FactSet and adding option profiles."

More Qualys VMDR pros

Cons

"I think the ability to have some enhanced reporting capabilities is something they can improve on, as they have good reports but we have asked for some specific reporting enhancements."

"Initially, we were somewhat concerned about the scalability of Zafran due to our large asset count and the substantial amount of information we needed to process."

"The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvements."

"No third-party applications or integrations with additional software solutions."

"In terms of improvement, the product could benefit from streamlining the implementation process, particularly regarding customization."

"Qualys could be improved in its overall performance compared to other vulnerability management or scanning tools."

"The only improvement I can think of is on the implementation side. At times it is a bit slow."

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

"What we have found is that the solution is not closely tied with the patch management. It is okay with newer ones, like Windows 10 machines; it gives the correct patch. But for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008, it does not give us the correct patch so we have to manually identify the patches. This is a major problem."

"The response time of technical support takes a while."

"We are moving away from Qualys to Defender ATP because I find that Defender ATP is much better at prioritizing the vulnerabilities that I should be looking at."

"I would like to see this solution more developed and competitive in the Cloud space."

"Endpoint stability and fault resolution could be improved."

More Qualys VMDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The tool's pricing is expensive and I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"The price is very reasonable."

"When you want to cover yourself for scalability, you will be charged for the number you place on the scan itself."

"Usually every implementation is different and the quote is in function of number of assets."

"In Nigerian Naira, we spend about roughly four to five million to use this solution and this is expensive compared to solutions like Nessus."

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

"Qualys is a pay-as-you-go model, so there's flexibility to the pricing."

"The pricing is very competitive."

More Qualys VMDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

No data available

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	69

Questions from the Community

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

Since we stood Zafran Security up in our private cloud, we handle the maintenance on our side. As we opted not to use...

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What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

In terms of areas for improvement, Zafran Security is doing a really great job as a new and emerging company. Oftenti...

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What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?

My use cases for Zafran Security revolve around two primary areas. One is around vulnerability management and priorit...

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What do you like most about BMC Helix Remediate?

It's reasonably priced.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix Remediate?

If you want to install or consume this BMC product, licensing cost is one factor, but the facility features you will ...

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What needs improvement with BMC Helix Remediate?

In terms of improvement, the product could benefit from streamlining the implementation process, particularly regardi...

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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 tagg...

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

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

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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

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ServiceNow Security Operations vs Zafran Security

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Tenable Nessus vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 10% of the time

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Qualys VMDR

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Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 8% of the time

Tenable Security Center vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Zafran Security

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

August 2025

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Also Known As

No data available

TrueSight Vulnerability Management, SecOps Response Service, BladeLogic Threat Director, BMC Helix Remediate

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

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

BMC Helix Automation Console provides robust automation capabilities for efficiently managing IT operations. It enhances operational efficiency by streamlining repetitive tasks and offering real-time insights which are crucial for businesses seeking effective IT management solutions.

BMC Helix Automation Console is designed for IT professionals who need a comprehensive tool to automate IT processes. It supports simplified cloud management, enabling users to oversee heterogeneous environments seamlessly. The integration capabilities ensure it works smoothly with existing infrastructure and provides a powerful automation suite to increase productivity and reduce operational costs, offering IT teams the ability to rapidly adapt to changing demands through a scalable and flexible platform.

What are its key features?

Cloud Management: Simplifies cloud operation by providing tools to manage resources across platforms.
Integrated Automation: Seamlessly integrates with IT ecosystems offering a connected automation experience.
Scalability: Adapts to the growing needs of enterprises, ensuring stable performance.
Real-time Insights: Offers analytics for informed decision-making and proactive management.

Why choose BMC Helix Automation Console?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces overhead through streamlined processes, improving ROI.
Productivity Boost: Automates routine tasks, freeing up time for strategic initiatives.
Enhanced Adaptability: Provides the flexibility needed to respond to business changes effectively.
Improved Decision-Making: Data-driven insights help in shaping IT strategies effectively.

BMC Helix Automation Console is widely implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and logistics, where it addresses specific automation requirements, providing flexibility and scalability. Companies find it useful for managing cloud services and maintaining a unified operational approach, leading to improved efficiency and reduced costs.

BMC

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

Information Not Available

Online Business Systems

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

Vulnerability Management

August 2025

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