Qualys VMDR vs Trivy comparison

Qualys and Aqua Security are both solutions in the Container Security category. Qualys is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.6, while Aqua Security is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.6. Qualys holds a 2.3% mindshare in Container Security, compared to Aqua Security’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Qualys users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Aqua Security users who would recommend it.

Qualys VMDR

Read 96 Qualys VMDR reviews

12,798 Views
2,432 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Trivy

Read 12 Trivy reviews

5,344 Views
5,344 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Qualys VMDR

Trivy

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Qualys VMDR and Trivy compete in the vulnerability management category. Trivy seems to have the upper hand due to seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines and being open-source, offering a cost-effective solution.

Features: Qualys VMDR is noted for comprehensive vulnerability management, continuous monitoring, and asset tagging, facilitating automated tasks and integration. Trivy integrates seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines, supports multiple environments like Kubernetes, Docker, and Terraform, and enhances DevOps processes with lightweight robustness.

Room for Improvement: Qualys VMDR could improve in reporting, customization, cloud storage, response speed, interface simplicity, and false positive reduction. Trivy would benefit from better reporting, dynamic scanning advances, false positive reductions, report customization, and potential AI integration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys VMDR supports diverse deployment models, including public, private, and hybrid clouds, though its support service is criticized for slow response. Trivy, as an open-source tool, mainly serves public cloud users but needs better integration assistance and documentation.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR, while robust, is expensive, offering positive ROI for larger organizations due to risk reduction capabilities. Trivy, being open-source, incurs no licensing costs, providing essential functionalities and significant ROI through efficient vulnerability detection.

To learn more, read our detailed Qualys VMDR vs. Trivy Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR vs. Trivy

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

Qualys VMDR

Ranking in Container Security

9th

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), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (1st)

Trivy

Ranking in Container Security

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Container Security category, the mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 2.3%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trivy is 4.9%, up from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Container Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Trivy	4.9%
Qualys VMDR	2.3%
Other	92.8%

Container Security

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.

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Utsav Sharma

Senior Security Consultant at Ernst & Young

Maintain operational efficiency by detecting misconfigurations and vulnerabilities

The vulnerability scanning feature is excellent as it supports various container capabilities like Docker and Sharma. It also offers repository scanning in the source code domain, allowing pre-push code scans. The misconfiguration detection works well for CloudFormation, Docker files, and Terraform. Its compliance support, like NIST, ensures that configurations align with standards. Trivy helps me significantly detect misconfigurations missed by the ops engineers or in Terraform by the naked eye. It ensures that my deployments are free of misconfigurations and vulnerabilities.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Technical support is great and we've never really had a problem."

"The best features of Qualys VMDR are its patch management capabilities and the ability to mitigate vulnerabilities automatically."

"It's a good product. After the scan our internet works well. It scans our security posture."

"The reporting functionality is great."

"Qualys VMDR provides us with a quick response to threat findings through regular scheduled scanning, which improves our security operations."

"Qualys VMDR has positively impacted my organization by reducing vulnerability exposure time through faster detection and patching, and it has improved compliance reporting with accurate and up-to-date data."

"The solution is easy to use."

"I find Qualys VM very robust, and it's very useful for vulnerability management and patch management. The value that it brings to my environment is economies of scale. There is no limitation on adding any endpoints. You go by the rule, and it's added once another endpoint is added to our environment. It's automatically installed, and it's less work from our end. It frees up my license automatically if I don't need an endpoint or if my machine is decommissioned. I like the dashboard displays because I don't see any duplication. The most important part is vulnerability management and prioritization. Unlike Symantec, it shows the kind of vulnerability I would want to patch first. It provides a holistic view of the kind of vulnerabilities and the ones I should remediate first. I don't have to do a scan; it just brings up those critical kinds of vulnerabilities like zero-day vulnerabilities and tells me to prioritize them. You have to prioritize these vulnerabilities first and go on with the rest. The dashboard shows me the ones that have been fixed, so I don't have to complete an aging report. The user experience and the graphical interface are good. As it's user-friendly and understandable on an executive level, it brings real value. We also use this solution because it's robust and flexibile."

More Qualys VMDR pros

"Trivy's open source nature and wide functionality are incredibly valuable."

"Trivy is very reliable and always has an up-to-date database to scan images and identify vulnerabilities."

"Overall, I would rate Trivy a ten out of ten."

"It is open-source."

"Trivy is easy to integrate with CI/CD and can be installed on desktops to scan images."

"I appreciate Trivy for being open-source and not requiring any payment."

"I definitely recommend Trivy."

"I rate Trivy a nine out of ten."

More Trivy pros

Cons

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

"I would like to see more accuracy in detections, better reporting capabilities, and better dashboard download capabilities."

"Qualys VMDR should improve authenticated scanning capabilities."

"When tested on Zero day, there were errors."

"They have integrated with other third parties, but it is still not viable."

"Qualys does have an on-prem solution, but it is very expensive."

"The reporting and the GUI need improvements."

"There's a need to upgrade or fix the potential vulnerability rate. Around 20,000 potential vulnerabilities were showing in Qualys VMDR, but none of the other tools showed them. When we checked, it wasn't the case. Support explained that even small issues were being counted as vulnerabilities, causing issues in our audit. So, the security features could be improved to identify vulnerabilities accurately."

More Qualys VMDR cons

"Trivy generates many false positives, flagging non-existent vulnerabilities. Improvements could include better contextual analysis or granular filtering."

"A dynamic scanning capability during runtime would be a significant advantage."

"The only problem is that Trivy does not support reporting features such as generating reports in CSV, which is useful for auditing and reporting."

"For malware detection, I need to use two tools: Trivy as my anomaly scanner and ClamAV. I am integrating these two tools into the CI pipeline. If both malware and anomaly detection could be managed by one tool, I would not need to depend on two tools."

"The reporting could be a little better. When integrating Trivy with CI, the interpretation of the reports could be improved."

"The reporting could be a little better."

"The main area for improvement is in differentiating between OS and application-based vulnerabilities."

More Trivy cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Qualys is cheaper and more affordable than other solutions."

"The product is more expensive than that of any other vendor."

"An annual license for a single scanner costs around $3,000."

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

"Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliance isn't expensive right now. But the price for their product bundles could be better."

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

"They have recently changed the pricing model, which is now better than it was before."

"It is more expensive than other products on the market."

More Qualys VMDR pricing and cost advice

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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

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

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	3
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	9

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 needs improvement with Trivy?

Trivy's marketing and awareness need improvement. Not everyone knows about it, which isn't ideal given its capabilities. There's potential to integrate AI and machine learning for enhanced function...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Trivy?

I use Trivy ( /products/trivy-reviews ) to scan code for vulnerabilities before deployment. Our projects, which are developed by different developers, involve various dependencies and third-party c...

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What advice do you have for others considering Trivy?

I recommend Trivy to others due to its powerful and useful features. However, I suggest increasing its marketing to raise awareness. I rate Trivy an eight out of ten.

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

January 2026

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Trivy

January 2026

Download Trivy 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

Trivy offers comprehensive scanning for files, images, repositories, and infrastructure. It's open-source and integrates with CI/CD for vulnerability detection and security enhancement.

Trivy scans vulnerabilities in code, Docker images, containers, and infrastructure. It integrates seamlessly into DevOps pipelines, ensuring security in dependency management and open source vulnerabilities. This tool, lightweight and open-source, provides user-friendly reports and supports continuous vulnerability database updates, fostering ease of use across operating systems. Users benefit from its scanning capabilities, covering Kubernetes, AWS credentials, and GCP service accounts, effectively identifying vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.

What are Trivy's key features?

Comprehensive Scanning: Covers files, images, repositories, infrastructure, and sensitive data.
CI/CD Integration: Easily integrates into existing pipelines for seamless security checks.
Open-Source & Lightweight: Quick setup and fast scanning capabilities ensure rapid deployment.
Continuously Updated Database: Keeps vulnerability data current for effective threat detection.
User-Friendly Reports: Generates understandable and actionable security insights.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Enhanced Security: Provides in-depth analysis of vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
Ease of Use: Designed for straightforward implementation and user interaction.
Compliance Support: Assists in meeting industry security standards and regulations.
Cross-Platform Use: Effective across different operating systems, enabling wide scalability.

In industries like technology and finance, Trivy is used extensively to secure applications, perform compliance checks, and offer security metrics visualization. It addresses microservices, container systems, and Kubernetes clusters security requirements, supporting DevOps teams and enhancing codebase analysis precision.

Aqua Security

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR vs. Trivy

December 2025

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