Qualys VMDR vs Red Canary comparison

Qualys and Red Canary, a Zscaler company are both solutions in the Risk-Based Vulnerability Management category. Qualys is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5, while Red Canary, a Zscaler company is ranked #15 with an average rating of 9.0. Qualys holds a 9.7% mindshare in RBVM, compared to Red Canary, a Zscaler company’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Qualys users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Red Canary, a Zscaler company users who would recommend it.

Qualys VMDR

Read 96 Qualys VMDR reviews

18,395 Views
4,783 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Red Canary

Read 8 Red Canary reviews

5,571 Views
557 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Qualys VMDR

Red Canary

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Qualys VMDR and Red Canary compete in cybersecurity, providing solutions for vulnerability management and threat detection. Qualys VMDR focuses on extensive vulnerability management, whereas Red Canary excels in real-time threat detection and response.

Features: Qualys VMDR is valued for its comprehensive asset management, integrated patch management, and real-time response capabilities. Red Canary is notable for its automation in threat detection, seamless integration with EDR software like CrowdStrike and Carbon Black, and the expertise of its incident investigation team.

Room for Improvement: Qualys VMDR could improve user experience with more intuitive navigation and expand integration capabilities. It might benefit from enhanced reporting customization. Red Canary could enhance its automation range and improve scalability features for larger deployments. The user interface could also be made more flexible for diverse operational needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Red Canary is praised for its easy deployment and effective customer support, focusing on rapid integration and operational aid. Qualys VMDR, while offering robust technical support, involves a more complex setup due to its detailed feature set. This makes Red Canary's deployment slightly more convenient for users who prioritize immediate operational support.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR involves a higher setup cost due to its extensive features but offers significant ROI through efficient asset management. Red Canary, though requiring moderate investment, provides quicker ROI with efficient threat detection and response. While Qualys VMDR targets long-term asset management ROI, Red Canary focuses on immediate returns in managing threats effectively.

To learn more, read our detailed Qualys VMDR vs. Red Canary Report (Updated: June 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR vs. Red Canary

June 2026

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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:

ROI

Sentiment score

7.0

Qualys VMDR enhances ROI by streamlining management, improving compliance, reducing vulnerabilities, saving time, and minimizing breaches effectively.

Sentiment score

8.6

Red Canary enhances threat detection efficiency, reduces false positives, accelerates response time, and is a valuable investment for organizations.

We saw a return on investment through significant savings in time, money, and resources.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Any missed detection will definitely be triggered by Red Canary.

reviewer2856117

Security Analyst - Tier 2

We have seen a return on investment, which comes from reducing the time and effort needed to detect and respond to threats.

Anthony Tuhame

Information Technology Manager at Everseen

We have probably spent maybe 15% of the time that we were spending on incident investigation and system monitoring, demonstrating a return on investment.

John Hoffoss

Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group

For more quotes and insights, download the Red Canary report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.6

Qualys VMDR support is responsive and helpful, but users note occasional delays and suggest better response time and depth.

Sentiment score

8.7

Red Canary provides effective support with knowledgeable staff, comprehensive documentation, and high user satisfaction for prompt assistance.

We usually get on calls with tech support, and they are very helpful.

reviewer2588394

Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

The response time takes a while.

reviewer2592618

Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

The technical support provided by Qualys is pretty good.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

The support team is very knowledgeable.

Anthony Tuhame

Information Technology Manager at Everseen

In emergencies, there is an on-call person available to resolve issues immediately.

Shubham Biradar

SOC Analyst at Valorant

Their customer support is excellent.

John Hoffoss

Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group

For more quotes and insights, download the Red Canary report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.9

Qualys VMDR is highly scalable, supporting numerous assets efficiently with customizable management and seamless cloud-based architecture.

Sentiment score

7.6

Red Canary scales well in IT and data processing, though users suggest a price cut for broader adoption.

Scalability depends on the license and the number of assets being monitored.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Qualys VMDR can handle scalability, although increasing the inventory can raise the licensing costs.

Ankesh Raj

Information Security Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Qualys VMDR's scalability is good, and the customer support is good.

reviewer2753559

Cyber Security Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

We've been able to connect and throw all of the data that we have access to over to their systems to parse, process, and monitor without issue.

John Hoffoss

Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group

For more quotes and insights, download the Red Canary report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.9

Qualys VMDR is highly stable, reliable, and effective, with minimal downtime and challenges mostly due to user-side issues.

Sentiment score

8.7

Red Canary is praised for its reliable 24/7 monitoring, prompt detection, and stable, high-quality performance without downtime.

Qualys VMDR is stable.

reviewer2753559

Cyber Security Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Red Canary is stable because it operates 24/7, meaning it continuously monitors our system and delivers detections and investigation reports consistently.

Anthony Tuhame

Information Technology Manager at Everseen

For more quotes and insights, download the Red Canary report

Room For Improvement

Qualys VMDR needs improved support, efficient reporting, UI, asset notifications, reduced tool dependency, better pricing, and comprehensive resources.

Red Canary needs to reduce false positives, improve detection accuracy, and offer better onboarding, pricing, features, and integration.

It does not automate patching unless the patch management module is purchased separately.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

If AI features were integrated, it could enhance the capabilities significantly.

Ankesh Raj

Information Security Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

One area where Qualys VMDR can be improved is the missing feature for deploying agents for over 1,000 assets, as we need to do it manually.

reviewer2753559

Cyber Security Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Key improvements I would like to see include fewer false positives.

Anthony Tuhame

Information Technology Manager at Everseen

Red Canary can be improved by continuing to add new features and capabilities.

John Hoffoss

Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group

I wish Red Canary could have a graph that shows the endpoint, user, and how it spreads, providing a visual representation to easily identify what happened.

reviewer2856117

Security Analyst - Tier 2

For more quotes and insights, download the Red Canary report

Setup Cost

Qualys VMDR pricing is high for small businesses but offers flexibility, discounts, and comprehensive features for larger enterprises.

Red Canary offers premium pricing due to comprehensive services, justifying costs for robust security needs despite some desiring lower prices.

I would rate the pricing between seven to eight out of ten.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

I have a notion that Qualys might be more expensive than Rapid7.

Ankesh Raj

Information Security Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

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

reviewer2588394

Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Red Canary is premium software that is not cheap and is quite expensive.

Anthony Tuhame

Information Technology Manager at Everseen

The services are higher priced.

Shubham Biradar

SOC Analyst at Valorant

For more quotes and insights, download the Red Canary report

Valuable Features

Qualys VMDR offers user-friendly management, real-time insights, and powerful integrations, significantly improving vulnerability prioritization and remediation efficiency.

Red Canary offers proactive threat hunting, real-time response, integration with EDR, and automation for enhanced security without extra tools.

The prioritization of vulnerabilities has improved our remediation efforts by around thirty to thirty-five percent.

reviewer2588394

Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

It impacts my workflow overall, with the patch management features as it has the missing patches listed in detail, making it easier to get a comprehensive report and providing some dashboards that offer visual representation.

Nabanita Roy

JMS, RPSG Ventures Limited at RP Sanjiv Goenka Group

Qualys VMDR's continuous monitoring capabilities help us respond to emergent threats by enabling my team to reach out to the security engineers whenever there is any detection of a vulnerability, informing them about it, and creating an incident.

Vaibhav Ghule

Soc Lead & Edr Administration at Persistent Systems

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Red Canary has impacted my organization positively because we treat any ticket triggered by them as high priority due to the fact that 99 percent of the time it is a true positive.

reviewer2856117

Security Analyst - Tier 2

Red Canary detects threats and attack patterns, allowing us to assess any significant damage caused to the banking environment, particularly if protected data has been damaged or corrupted.

Shubham Biradar

SOC Analyst at Valorant

In my experience, the best features Red Canary offers are their team, their monitoring team, their expertise at incident investigation, and a focus on suspicious or actual indicators of compromise to ensure that we're not spending time just reviewing logs, but that we're actually looking at things that may indicate we have broader issues.

John Hoffoss

Head of Information Security and Privacy at Ovative Group

For more quotes and insights, download the Red Canary report

Categories and Ranking

Qualys VMDR

Ranking in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Asset Management (3rd), Vulnerability Management (3rd), Configuration Management Databases (3rd), Container Security (10th)

Red Canary

Ranking in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management

15th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (23rd), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (38th), Managed Detection and Response (MDR) (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Risk-Based Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 9.7%, down from 16.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Red Canary is 1.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Risk-Based Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qualys VMDR	9.7%
Red Canary	1.6%
Other	88.7%

Risk-Based Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Vaibhav Ghule

Soc Lead & Edr Administration at Persistent Systems

Continuous risk-based monitoring has strengthened incident response and vulnerability prioritization

I haven't explored Qualys VMDR's vulnerability lifecycle automation yet. One of my analysts mentioned that queries lack grouping operators in Qualys VMDR. From my experience, I would appreciate improvements in the query options in Qualys VMDR, specifically in the query-building process where I would need more features and operators. Additionally, we have been facing issues with Qualys on the cloud level. We cannot download the configuration profile from the cloud agent, and it is showing a pending action for download. During 2025, we noticed outages of Qualys a couple of times. I want to mention that there is an issue with receiving timely RCA deliveries. While this is not necessarily about the tool, it relates to support. The support has not been very responsive, and we are receiving RCAs a little delayed whenever we raise support cases or communicate with the TAMs. Additionally, the UI has a slight latency, which I and my team have experienced. They have also reported this latency issue when navigating through different pages.

Read full review

Anthony Tuhame

Information Technology Manager at Everseen

Continuous threat monitoring has strengthened our endpoint protection and reduced false positives

Key improvements I would like to see include fewer false positives. I understand that almost all EDR or cybersecurity platforms cannot be 100 percent accurate, but I need to see fewer false positives. Another thing I want to see is improved threat detection accuracy. I want them to improve their AI and investigations and implement a faster investigation process. I would recommend them to invest heavily in machine learning. I would also recommend introducing onboarding calls before someone purchases the software because we faced a challenge whereby we had no idea about how to install it in our system. We had to rely on documentation and support, but if they could offer onboarding calls, it would be great.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	70

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

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

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that we can consider both time and money saved.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Qualys VMDR?

I have some understanding about PeerSpot, and I have visited the website. PeerSpot is similar to TrustRadius. It takes reviews from customers or end users who are using the tools and technologies i...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Red Canary MDR?

The services are higher priced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Red Canary MDR?

I wish Red Canary could have a graph that shows the endpoint, user, and how it spreads, providing a visual representation to easily identify what happened.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Red Canary MDR?

My main use case for Red Canary is that a Red Canary analyst monitors our logs, and if they see any abnormality, they create a ticket that we use to analyze the situation. We assign that ticket and...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Huntress Managed EDR vs Red Canary

Compared 4% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon Complete MDR vs Red Canary

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

July 2026

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

July 2026

Download Red Canary product report

Also Known As

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

Red Canary Managed Detection and Response (MDR)

Overview

Qualys VMDR is a comprehensive cybersecurity tool offering vulnerability management, patch management, and continuous monitoring with real-time asset discovery. It delivers scalable, cloud-based solutions that enhance security operations without additional infrastructure.

Qualys VMDR provides a robust platform for enterprise security, integrating vulnerability management, compliance, and asset inventory for full visibility across cloud and on-premises environments. It features a comprehensive dashboard with threat intelligence-driven prioritization and remediation capabilities. Users benefit from accurate assessments via agent-based scanning and appreciate the intuitive, customizable scanning and reporting interface. However, there's room for improvement in false positive reduction, UI simplification, and integration capabilities, along with enhancements in asset management for large-scale deployments and the vulnerability database. Enhancing technical support speed, patch management, compliance standards, and inter-module navigation would further enrich user experience.

What are the key features of Qualys VMDR?

Vulnerability Management: Identifies and manages security vulnerabilities across environments.
Patch Management: Ensures systems are updated with the latest patches.
Continuous Monitoring: Offers real-time insights into security posture.
Asset Discovery: Provides up-to-date asset inventory and visibility.
Threat Intelligence: Enhances prioritization and remediation processes.
Customizable Dashboard: Facilitates easier scanning and reporting through an intuitive interface.

What benefits can users expect when evaluating Qualys VMDR?

Scalability: Cloud-based deployment offers easy, cost-effective expansion.
Accurate Assessment: Agent-based scanning keeps security data current.
Enhanced Security Operations: Comprehensive features streamline vulnerability management.
Advanced Reporting: Facilitates detailed insights for better security decision-making.

Qualys VMDR is widely used in industries needing stringent security and compliance measures, offering comprehensive vulnerability and compliance management. It is deployed to secure web applications, servers, and crucial assets, supporting a wide range of sectors by ensuring policy adherence and vulnerability tracking through its powerful cloud platform.

Qualys

Red Canary Managed Detection and Response (MDR) offers robust threat detection, rapid response capabilities, continuous security monitoring, and seamless integration with existing tools. Valued for its actionable reporting and proactive threat intelligence, it streamlines operations and enhances organizational efficiency and security.

Red Canary, a Zscaler company

Sample Customers

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

DuPont, Quanta Services, Microchip Technology, Hopkins Public Schools, Henny Penny, Schumacher Homes

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR vs. Red Canary

June 2026

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