Qualys VMDR vs ServiceNow Discovery comparison

Qualys and ServiceNow are both solutions in the IT Asset Management category. Qualys is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6, while ServiceNow is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.0. Qualys holds a 2.5% mindshare in IAM, compared to ServiceNow’s 4.7% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Qualys users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Qualys VMDR

Read 96 Qualys VMDR reviews

12,480 Views
624 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Discovery

Read 44 ServiceNow Discovery reviews

3,616 Views
1,627 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Qualys VMDR

ServiceNow Discovery

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Qualys VMDR and ServiceNow Discovery compete in the vulnerability management space. Qualys appears to have the upper hand in security-specific features, while ServiceNow excels in integration and service configuration management.

Features: Qualys VMDR boasts robust vulnerability management, real-time monitoring capabilities, and scalable asset management, making it valuable for enterprises seeking comprehensive security insights. ServiceNow Discovery is noteworthy for its seamless integration with IT ecosystems, particularly its CMDB connections, and excels in service mapping for operational insights. Qualys supports detailed vulnerability insights, and ServiceNow shines in its integration abilities.

Room for Improvement: Qualys VMDR could enhance reporting customization, better manage false positives, and simplify integration with third-party solutions, alongside improving user interface complexity and support response times. ServiceNow Discovery faces criticism for high costs, limited application-specific pattern support, and manual discovery limitations. Refinements in integration and pricing models are needed to better cater to smaller enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys VMDR offers deployment flexibility across cloud models but faces challenges in customer support, with varied reviews on response efficiency and support knowledge. ServiceNow Discovery provides seamless deployment within broader service management at a higher cost. Qualys offers more deployment flexibility, whereas ServiceNow highlights a trade-off between features and cost-effectiveness. Both have areas needing support service enhancements.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR is feature-rich but expensive, with costs fluctuating based on organization size, providing good ROI by reducing vulnerabilities and streamlining processes, potentially impacting smaller enterprises budget-wise. ServiceNow Discovery is regarded as costly, with a pricing structure occasionally critiqued, although its integration capabilities often justify the expense for complex IT environments, offering considerable ROI by enhancing service management efficiencies and reducing overhead through automation.

To learn more, read our detailed Qualys VMDR vs. ServiceNow Discovery Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR vs. ServiceNow Discovery

January 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

6.1

ServiceNow Discovery's ROI is inconsistent, with full benefits seen when combined with other services for operational efficiency.

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

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Discovery 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

6.0

ServiceNow Discovery's support varies, with mixed experiences on responsiveness and effectiveness, improving with advanced support tiers and partnerships.

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 'follow the sun' model, where the time of raising the ticket and where it lands, plays a crucial role.

reviewer2759271

Manager, Solution/Service Delivery at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

This rating is because there are features on the tool that never worked and despite calling our support, there were no results.

Ayobanji Iluyomade

IT Service Performance Manager at MTN

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Discovery 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

7.4

ServiceNow Discovery is highly scalable, suited for large infrastructures, compatible with AWS and Azure, but requires careful cost management.

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

I would rate it as a nine on a scale of one to ten, indicating it is highly scalable.

UdaySiddu

Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Small companies will not be able to afford ServiceNow Discovery from the pricing perspective.

reviewer2759271

Manager, Solution/Service Delivery at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

It receives this rating because it can be difficult to troubleshoot when the discovery is failing.

Ayobanji Iluyomade

IT Service Performance Manager at MTN

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Discovery 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

8.0

ServiceNow Discovery is highly stable and reliable, with minor configuration issues not affecting its strong overall performance ratings.

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

I would rate the stability of ServiceNow Discovery as nine, as we never had downtime.

Ayobanji Iluyomade

IT Service Performance Manager at MTN

That is not a mistake of the product. It is due to excessive security on the network.

reviewer2759271

Manager, Solution/Service Delivery at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Discovery report

Room For Improvement

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

ServiceNow Discovery struggles with service mapping and integration, necessitating enhancements for usability, cloud capabilities, and easier licensing.

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

ServiceNow ITOM is particularly not very strong in terms of monitoring capabilities. They do not have any monitoring tool.

reviewer2759271

Manager, Solution/Service Delivery at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Improvements could include implementing chatbots to simplify ticket creation.

UdaySiddu

Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

The areas of ServiceNow Discovery that have room for improvement are getting custom reports on the relationship between CIs that are not on the same table.

Ayobanji Iluyomade

IT Service Performance Manager at MTN

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Discovery report

Setup Cost

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

ServiceNow Discovery is pricey but valued for advanced features, with potential discounts though standalone costs are high.

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

ServiceNow is considered more expensive compared to other products.

UdaySiddu

Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

I think the price of ServiceNow Discovery is cheaper than BMC.

Ayobanji Iluyomade

IT Service Performance Manager at MTN

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Discovery report

Valuable Features

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

ServiceNow Discovery integrates seamlessly with ServiceNow suite, enhancing IT operations through automated mapping, security, and cloud discovery.

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

The workflows are beneficial as they allow tasks to be assigned to respective teams without the need for coding.

UdaySiddu

Software Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

ServiceNow Discovery helps with operations, audits, and allows people to assess how a particular change in infrastructure impacts other components.

Hemant_Arora

Director, Information Technology at Gen™

ServiceNow Discovery has normal discovery of CIs, as well as horizontal discovery for understanding Service Mapping.

reviewer2759271

Manager, Solution/Service Delivery at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the ServiceNow Discovery report

Categories and Ranking

Qualys VMDR

Ranking in IT Asset Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (3rd), Configuration Management Databases (2nd), Container Security (9th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (1st)

ServiceNow Discovery

Ranking in IT Asset Management

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (5th), Cloud Resource Discovery Services (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the IT Asset Management category, the mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 2.5%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Discovery is 4.7%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Asset Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Qualys VMDR	2.5%
ServiceNow Discovery	4.7%
Other	92.8%

IT Asset 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

reviewer2759271

Manager, Solution/Service Delivery at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Has supported enterprise needs well and addresses discovery across environments

Small companies will not be able to afford ServiceNow Discovery from the pricing perspective. Hence, they will not opt for ServiceNow Discovery as a solution, either as an ITSM solution or ITOM solution. It will not be affordable. I am specifically talking about the Middle East and Africa region. ServiceNow ITOM is particularly not very strong in terms of monitoring capabilities. They do not have any monitoring tool. They use event management from getting events from other tools. In that front, they had a roadmap for going for an open-source solution, but I have not seen that materialize. There is a lack of tools perspective for monitoring. Perhaps they do not have a plan because there are hundreds of tools available, and they prefer to focus on integration and event management.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare 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	16
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	23

Questions from the Community

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 tagging system is good for tagging. We can still use QualysAgent task ID tools even ...

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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.

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What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?

See all answers

What do you like most about ServiceNow Discovery?

The solution can prioritize the discovery of IP ranges. The product automatically places all Discovery CIs into the correct class within the CMDB.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Discovery?

The pricing information for ServiceNow Discovery was requested but not provided.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Discovery?

A CMDB debugging tool to give indication about the errors that appear would be appreciated.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 9% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 6% of the time

Tenable Security Center vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 5% of the time

Wiz vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 4% of the time

More Qualys VMDR Competitors

Tanium vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 18% of the time

Lansweeper vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 14% of the time

BMC Helix Discovery vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 10% of the time

Flexera One vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 7% of the time

IFS assyst vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 3% of the time

More ServiceNow Discovery Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

January 2026

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Discovery

January 2026

Download ServiceNow Discovery product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

Overview

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

ServiceNow Discovery finds applications and devices on your network, and then updates the CMDB with the information it finds. Discovery is available as a separate subscription from the rest of the Now Platform.

ServiceNow

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

York, National Grid, DXC Technology, experian, BEACHBODY

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR vs. ServiceNow Discovery

January 2026

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