Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai comparison

Qualys and Horizon3.ai are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Qualys is ranked #7 with an average rating of 9.0, while Horizon3.ai is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.9. Qualys holds a 1.3% mindshare in VM, compared to Horizon3.ai’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Qualys users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Horizon3.ai users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2025

The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai and Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management compete in the cybersecurity provider category. NodeZero often edges out in terms of pricing and support, while Qualys is preferred for its extensive feature set.

Features: The NodeZero Platform offers advanced automation for vulnerability assessment, precise penetration testing capabilities, and autonomous operation useful for real-time analysis. Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management includes asset inventory management, vulnerability management, and continuous monitoring, providing a comprehensive security solution.

Room for Improvement: NodeZero could expand its feature set to compete with more comprehensive solutions and refine its user-reported experience. Customers have noted limitations in broader application integration. Qualys could simplify its platform for ease of use and provide more intuitive initial setup processes. Its reporting structure occasionally presents a steep learning curve for first-time users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: The NodeZero Platform is appreciated for its easy deployment and highly responsive customer service, enabling swift integration within organizations. Qualys, though requiring a more complex setup, offers robust technical support that aids in adapting its deployment strategy for specific organizational needs.

Pricing and ROI: The NodeZero Platform is considered cost-effective with a quicker return on investment due to its pricing model, making it attractive for businesses prioritizing affordability. Qualys, despite higher initial costs, provides long-term value through its extensive capabilities, appealing to organizations seeking deep integration and comprehensive security measures.

To learn more, read our detailed Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

December 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 January 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Zafran Security is 1.1%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is 1.3%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai is 1.5%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management	1.3%
The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai	1.5%
Zafran Security	1.1%
Other	96.1%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Reviewer6233

Works at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal

While Zafran Security is already a powerful tool, there are areas where it could be further improved to provide even greater value. One key area for enhancement is the searching capabilities within its vulnerabilities module. By incorporating the ability to create Boolean searches, users would gain the ability to apply more complex filters and customize their search criteria. This would greatly enhance the precision and efficiency with which security teams can identify and prioritize vulnerabilities. Having such tailored search capabilities would save time and resources by narrowing down vast lists of vulnerabilities to those that meet specific parameters relevant to our unique risk environment. Additionally, integrating more robust reporting and visualization tools would be advantageous. Enhanced dashboards that offer customizable visual representations of risk configurations and threat landscapes would facilitate better communication with stakeholders, making it easier to explain vulnerabilities and the rationale behind certain security measures. This would also aid in demonstrating the improvements and value derived from existing security investments to leadership and non-technical team members.

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Arshad N. R.

Cyber Security Specialist at UBS Financial

Customized dashboards and quick deployment support comprehensive asset management

We use the True Risk Score for vulnerability prioritization, though we do not solely rely upon it since some assets may be decommissioned soon or not in use. From Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management, we primarily focus on internet-facing assets. We have created separate tasks for internet-facing assets and track the True Risk dashboard specifically for these assets. If the True Risk Score is higher for any internet-facing assets, then we take action accordingly. The True Risk Score is very helpful for prioritization. The initial setup was straightforward and easy. We needed to create customized tags, group them twice, and validate whether the operating system detection was true positive or false positive. We encountered some false positives, which required coordination with the IT team for verification. In six months, we had approximately 20-25 machines that needed verification on a weekly basis. We coordinated with the IT team to identify the exact operating system specifications.

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Shaun Hunt

Chief Information Officer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has unified our IT teams by providing clear visibility into network vulnerabilities and accelerated remediation with real-world attack testing

One of the things that we've shared with Horizon is just the reporting. They've made a lot of changes over time, but when examining computers, most average normal people don't look at a computer and identify it as 114.82.117.180. They identify it as 'the printer for accounting.' When many of the reports give the very detailed technical IP address or serial number, that's really not helpful for anyone other than the person, the hands-on person that's trying to remediate it. All the managers, all the leaders, having information in that format isn't helpful. Being able to have information about what those devices are would be very helpful. There's a technical reason they can't just have an easy button because some people have really complicated networks. When examining things for the average company, the average executive, that 114 number, there's only one of those. But if examining an AT&T or a Walmart, it isn't unique. They haven't solved that problem. But for the 90% of companies, being able to have just a human readable name for all devices on your network in all of the reports all of the time would be the most beneficial.

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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

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

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

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

"With Zafran Security, it integrates with your security controls, allowing you to take that risk score and reduce it based on the controls in place or increase the risk based on different factors, such as if the issue is internet reachable or if there's an exploit in the wild."

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

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

"We have had zero attacks since we enabled all the features in Qualys CSAM."

"The best feature is asset discovery through their cloud agent or IP-based scanning."

"There are no stability issues, and I would rate it a ten out of ten."

"I use it primarily with tagging, asset counts, and groups that we can put them in, and we also use it to tell if a device has been merged and seen in Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management, so that's beneficial for us too."

"The best features of Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management include its ability to scan and consider each and every endpoint based on the target we have given. This makes it stand out."

"The most valuable feature is the Management sensor, which helps identify gaps in policy agent availability, thereby improving agent utilization."

"The most valuable features of Qualys CSAM include the ability to manage authorized and unauthorized applications efficiently. This feature helps in validating applications and maintaining a secure environment."

"Tags are very useful for us since we can tag virus applications in infrastructure types such as databases, operating systems, or web platforms."

More Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management pros

"The NodeZero Platform is amazing; what I love most about it is that it's automated and comparable to the manual pen testing we did with a third-party company, but with the added benefit of unlimited retesting to validate fixes."

"We experienced a threat that could have severely crippled us, but we were able to shut it down before it escalated, thanks to internal vulnerability testing and addressing critical vulnerabilities using their tool."

"The NodeZero Platform's real attack capabilities help identify vulnerabilities on my on-premise systems by adding an element of validation and offensive security testing on top of known vulnerabilities. The feature that allows security teams to fix and retest vulnerabilities instantly is very useful, even though it may not happen literally 'instantly.' It's a necessary tool for any organization to understand whether vulnerabilities are genuinely exploitable by attackers. With its near-real-time testing capabilities, it's an essential part of any security portfolio."

"The NodeZero Platform's real attack capabilities help in identifying vulnerabilities on our on-prem systems because it provides actual vulnerabilities by attacking our systems."

"After the third party conducts the pen test, The NodeZero Platform is run, and it finds the same things they found and sometimes a few other things that they did not even identify."

"My favorite feature about The NodeZero Platform is that it's autonomous, and it truly delivers on that promise—it can be set and forgotten while it performs its tasks, and it does exactly what it claims to do."

"Honestly, it's one of the most transformational technologies we've implemented in our company."

"Penetration testing and scans are useful features."

More The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai 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."

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

"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 UI needs improvement as it can become overwhelming after prolonged use."

"Based on the company's budget, Qualys offers limited features, which can also be utilized in other environments."

"From the user experience perspective, we need a simpler interface and reduced complexity in certain features, particularly with the Qualys Query Language."

"The Qualys CAPS service requires further exploration and improvement, particularly in its handling of protocols and reactivity with MAC and IP addresses for CAP agents."

"Currently, whenever the agent is running, it consumes over ten percent of my CPU, indicating that CPU consumption is another area Qualys needs to address."

"As of now, the support, results, and low false positives do not necessitate changes."

"One downside of Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management is that I would prefer to see a more interactive dashboard."

"There can be further simplification to reduce the overall noise and provide ESAM-related data."

More Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management cons

"One of the areas where improvement is needed is in the visibility and reporting for large enterprises."

"The only issue we’ve encountered is that sometimes the scans take a long time to complete."

"You need to be cautious about what it scans, as it could potentially cause issues."

"I encountered challenges with patch management, as we struggled to test and implement patches due to time constraints. This led to our patch management process being ineffective."

"The reports are quite useless."

"Sometimes even their support doesn't know why we're seeing certain issues."

"The speed of the scans takes some time, but in my opinion, it is not surprising for what it is doing."

"They've added a chatbot which isn't particularly useful, but when it can't answer questions, it forwards messages to human support."

More The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Though the solution is considered expensive, if bundled with other services such as VMDR or cloud agents, its value would significantly increase. It is currently a bit costly, but with bundling, it could become attractive to more customers."

"Qualys is competitively priced for its features. Its pricing is suitable for large organizations with more than 4,000 assets, but for smaller organizations with few assets, such as banks, the costs might be high. They should come up with packages that are suitable for small organizations."

"The pricing is market-competitive."

"Qualys offers excellent value for money."

"Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management can be expensive, especially if we already have VMDR."

"The pricing for Qualys Cybersecurity Asset Management is reasonable, with an annual subscription costing around $1,000 per year or a monthly subscription starting at approximately $72 per month, depending on the specific package and features included."

"The pricing is fair. I would love to see the price come down a little bit, but we do get a lot of value out of it. We are squeezing every ounce of value we can out of the tool."

"It is cost-effective because, in a single tool, we are getting everything. All the solutions come in a single license or price."

More Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	23

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?

I'm not entirely sure about the pricing; I don't know.

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What needs improvement with Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?

I think the one thing Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management can do better is the package management and the updating ...

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What is your primary use case for Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?

I primarily use it for a small, single-site, multi-source setup with multi-WAN inputs. I have a main fiber connection...

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What do you like most about Horizon3.ai?

Penetration testing and scans are useful features.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Horizon3.ai?

I think The NodeZero Platform could improve by leveraging GPUs for password cracking, which would be pretty good.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Horizon3.ai?

We use The NodeZero Platform for control validation and we are also looking for the likelihood of vulnerabilities.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Zafran Security

January 2026

Download Zafran Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management

January 2026

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management report

Download Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management product report

Buyer's Guide

The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

January 2026

The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai report

Download The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai product report

Also Known As

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Horizon3.ai

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

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management provides key features including asset inventory management, end-of-life tracking, dynamic tagging, and integration with CMDB, offering extensive visibility and support for proactive threat response.

Qualys offers comprehensive visibility across hardware and software assets, aiding in tracking unauthorized applications and facilitating automated vulnerability remediation. Its user-friendly interface and dynamic risk scoring enhance security posture management. Users leverage it for vulnerability management and compliance, benefiting from real-time risk identification and efficient operations in cloud and on-premises environments.

What are the key features of Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management?

Asset Inventory Management: Provides detailed visibility over hardware and software assets.
End-of-Life Tracking: Helps identify technical debt by pinpointing outdated hardware and software.
Dynamic Tagging: Allows flexible classification and categorization of assets.
Real-Time Risk Identification: Detects risks as they arise, enhancing threat response capabilities.
CMDB Integration: Streamlines data integration for comprehensive asset insights.

What benefits should users look for in Qualys reviews?

Improved Security Posture: Enables proactive threat management and streamlined operations.
Efficient Remediation: Automates vulnerability management and patch deployment.
User-Friendly Operations: Simplifies cybersecurity operations with an intuitive interface.
Comprehensive Asset Visibility: Offers unparalleled insight into organizational assets.
Scalable Solutions: Facilitates asset tracking across cloud and on-premises environments.

Cybersecurity teams in various industries, such as financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing, utilize Qualys to manage technical debt through end-of-life tracking and facilitate robust patch management. It supports compliance and visibility initiatives, essential for maintaining data integrity and operational security in dynamic environments.

Qualys

NodeZero by Horizon3.ai is an offensive security platform that enables users to adopt an attacker’s perspective, reveal vulnerabilities, and verify defense effectiveness with evidence-backed insights.

NodeZero provides autonomous pentesting, showing how attackers exploit misconfigurations, credentials, and exposures into attack paths. It helps focus on real risks rather than hypothetical ones, integrating seamlessly into existing IT and security workflows to streamline processes. The platform drives risk-based vulnerability management and CTEM by validating vulnerabilities and measuring resilience.

What standout features improve your security?

Autonomous Pentesting at Scale: Executes extensive pentests across broad IT landscapes swiftly.
Hybrid Cloud Coverage: Navigates on-premises and cloud domains to find attack paths.
Proof of Exploitation: Offers evidence for every finding.
Fix Validation: Allows quick retesting to ensure vulnerabilities are resolved.
NodeZero Tripwires: Uses deception tokens for real adversary detection.

What benefits should you expect from reviews?

Reduced Vulnerability Noise: Prioritizes exploitable risks with ServiceNow integration.
Automated Workflows: MCP Server automates processes, reducing bottlenecks and enhancing efficiency.
Immediate Fix Validation: Ensures defenses work during attacks.
Real-Time Resilience Measurement: Helps schedule routine assessments without external help.

NodeZero assists in automated penetration testing and vulnerability management in industries like finance and healthcare. It enhances security processes by complementing or replacing existing solutions, enabling efficient testing, feedback, and control validation.

Horizon3.ai

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Government agencies, Defense Industrial Base organizations, and enterprises in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and criticalinfrastructure rely on NodeZero to meet rigorous security and compliance requirements with continuous, scheduled, and on-demand testing.

Buyer's Guide

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

December 2025

Free Report: Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

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