Qualys Web Application Scanning vs Rapid7 AppSpider comparison

Qualys and Rapid7 are both solutions in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category. Qualys is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.4, while Rapid7 is ranked #29 with an average rating of 8.0. Qualys holds a 2.1% mindshare in SAST, compared to Rapid7’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Qualys users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Rapid7 users who would recommend it.

Qualys Web Application Scan...

Read 38 Qualys Web Application Scanning reviews

3,388 Views
2,620 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Rapid7 AppSpider

Read 14 Rapid7 AppSpider reviews

897 Views
611 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Qualys Web Application Scan...

Rapid7 AppSpider

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024

Qualys Web Application Scanning and Rapid7 AppSpider are leading competitors in web application security. Based on user insights, Rapid7 AppSpider appears to have an advantage with its advanced analytics and integration features.

Features: Qualys offers robust scanning, thorough vulnerability detection, and effective risk management. Rapid7 excels with advanced analytics, a comprehensive feature set, and an extensive integration ecosystem.

Room for Improvement: Qualys can enhance its third-party integrations and improve technical aspects. Rapid7 needs to improve its documentation, reduce setup complexity, and address support response times.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys provides straightforward deployment and reliable service, enhancing its accessibility. Rapid7 offers initial complexity but allows powerful customization, balancing deployment challenges with configurability benefits.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys is cost-effective with a clear pricing structure, ensuring efficient ROI. Rapid7 is considered higher in cost but delivers substantial ROI with feature-rich offerings and strong post-deployment value.

To learn more, read our detailed Qualys Web Application Scanning vs. Rapid7 AppSpider Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Qualys Web Application Scanning vs. Rapid7 AppSpider

April 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 Web Application Scan...

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

11th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (13th)

Rapid7 AppSpider

Ranking in Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

29th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Static Application Security Testing (SAST) category, the mindshare of Qualys Web Application Scanning is 2.1%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 AppSpider is 0.5%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

Featured Reviews

SubhajitAich

Security Consultant at Cognizant

A stable solution that can be used for infrastructure vulnerability scanning and web application scanning

Qualys Web Application Scanning is very complex to use, and its graphical interface is not very user-friendly. Compared to other solutions like Tenable and Rapid7, you need to navigate a lot to get the actual results out of Qualys Web Application Scanning. If I have to search for one thing within the entire console, I have to look for it randomly. It's not very easy and very comfortable to find something. Overall, it's a very good solution, but it will be very good if the tool is more user-friendly.

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Andrei Bigdan

Executive Manager at B2B-Solutions LLC

Useful vulnerability reporting data, flexible, and simple implementation

I have had some stability problems but it could be the Microsoft Windows operating system. I found that closing other applications helps with stability. It is helpful to have as much memory as possible, such as eight gigabytes. The more pages being processed the more resources you need. I rate the stability of Rapid7 AppSpider a nine out of ten.

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

"The interface is user-friendly and easy to understand."

"It is a very stable solution."

"This product is designed for easy scalability and can easily scale up without major challenges."

"It is a good product for website penetration testing to detect vulnerabilities."

"Automated scanning has significantly improved our web application security management by reducing manual work."

"Qualys Web Application Scanning has multiple features like threat protection and container security scanning in one box."

"Qualys Web Application Scanning is user-friendly, easy to understand, easy to use, and easy to deploy."

"Qualys Web Application Scanning is robust and mature from industry standards."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning pros

"The entire solution is interactive and has a point-and-click user experience, which makes it easy to find items or drill down on information. You don't need specialized skills to use the product."

"The most valuable feature is the reporting, which is compliant with international standards."

"It is really accurate and the rate of false positives is very low."

"It scans all the components developed within a web application."

"AppSpider's most valuable feature is reporting - everything is stored in the local database so it can be sent to other machines."

"I like the ability the product has to detect vulnerabilities quickly, when it has been released in our environment, then displaying them to us."

"One of the most valuable features of AppSpider is its broad range of authentication identification, which is a key reason for its utilization."

"What I like most about AppSpider is that it's easy to use and its automated scan gives me all the details I need to know when it comes to vulnerabilities and their solutions."

More Rapid7 AppSpider pros

Cons

"In terms of the Policy Compliance model which they currently have, not all the platforms are being covered. If they could improve on the Policy Compliance model, since there are policies which are benchmarked against it, this will be helpful for us."

"The authenticated scanning feature could be improved by adding support for real-time scanning tokens and authorization tokens."

"Deployment can be complicated."

"The product's pricing could be better."

"In certain cases, this product does have false positives, which the company should work on."

"New features need to be added, specifically LLM-based solutions."

"I have dealt with Qualys's technical support, and any enhancements are challenging. I would rate them a five out of ten."

"The product should allow users to upload their payloads."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning cons

"The product needs to be able to scale for large companies, like ours. We have millions of IP addresses that need to be scanned, and the scalability is not great."

"One of the challenges I have with AppSpider is that it gives you a lot of false positives, especially when compared to other solutions."

"AppSpider has some problems with the RAM needed while scanning."

"There are some glitches with stability, and it is an area for improvement."

"Support response times are slow and can be improved."

"It needs better integration with mobile applications."

"For Japanese customers, localization is needed. The product should offer a GUI in Japanese and provide Japanese reports for end-users."

"The solution is too slow. It could take a full day to scan. Competitors are much faster."

More Rapid7 AppSpider cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing was based on the number of assets that you want to scan on your network. You can also do licensing on subscription. On subscription, it is easier and more flexible. You tell Qualys that you want to move from the 1000 to 2000 band or the 3000 or 5000 band, then they will give you the quotation for it. Once you pay for it, applying the licensing is quite easy and effective."

"There are different options available with respect to licensing."

"Pricing was reasonable and competitive. It was not too far above the other products."

"The product pricing is fair and reasonably priced."

"Qualys has an IT-based licensing based on a yearly license, which is a good way of handling it. However, in some cases, when we do the PCI scanning, the host will not like the scanning and we lose the IT license. So, this could be improved."

"We normally purchase an annual license."

"The product is expensive, at least initially, in comparison to other products in this category."

"It is an expensive platform."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning pricing and cost advice

"AppSpider is closed-source software and you need to acquire a license in order to use it."

"The price of Rapid7 AppSpider cost 9,000 annually but there is limited usage. Large companies are able to negotiate a better price or a better deal for the usage with the vendor."

"It is expensive if you want to buy the Enterprise version that is able to scan multiple applications at once."

"The licensing cost depends on the number of users."

"The price is pretty fair."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

13%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Qualys Web Application Scanning?

The vulnerability management feature is a strong one. And also the patch management feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Web Application Scanning?

I find it a bit expensive compared to other competitors.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys Web Application Scanning?

I would like it to be cheaper because it is a bit expensive compared to competitors like Tenable Nessus ( /products/tenable-nessus-reviews ). After using the product for a year, I might have more s...

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What do you like most about Rapid7 AppSpider?

The most valuable feature of Rapid7 AppSpider is the vulnerability reporting data. Additionally, the data is reported in a convenient way rather than seeing them as a PDF. We are able to generate a...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 AppSpider?

The price is not high, but for Japanese customers, localization may incur additional costs.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rapid7 AppSpider?

For Japanese customers, localization is needed. The product should offer a GUI in Japanese and provide Japanese reports for end-users.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 9% of the time

Fortify WebInspect vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 7% of the time

Acunetix vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 44% of the time

Acunetix vs Rapid7 AppSpider

Compared 11% of the time

Invicti vs Rapid7 AppSpider

Compared 8% of the time

OWASP Zap vs Rapid7 AppSpider

Compared 7% of the time

PortSwigger Burp Suite Professional vs Rapid7 AppSpider

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys Web Application Scanning

March 2025

Download Qualys Web Application Scanning product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 AppSpider

May 2025

Download Rapid7 AppSpider product report

Also Known As

Qualys WAS

AppSpider

Overview

Qualys Web Application Scanning (WAS) is a fully cloud-based web application security scanner. The scanner will automatically crawl periodically and test web applications to discover potential vulnerabilities, including cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection. The consistent testing equips the automated service to generate consistent results, lessen false positives, and offer the ability to scale to protect thousands of websites effortlessly.

Qualys Web Application Scanning is bundled with different scanning technology to carefully scan websites for malware infections and will send notifications to website owners to assist in preventing blacklisting and brand reputation damage. As digital transformation takes place in various organizations, Qualys WAS gives organizations the ability to track and document their web app security status through its interactive reporting capabilities.

Qualys WAS empowers organizations to remediate any web application vulnerabilities quickly. Some of the key tools offered are:

Deep Scanning: All apps and APIs on your internal network and public cloud are covered by Qualys WAS deep scanning to show you any visible vulnerabilities.
DevSec Ops Tool: Detect security issues in your code while still in app development stages and generate comprehensive reports.
Comprehensive Discovery: Discover and catalog new and unknown web apps in your network.
Malware Detection: Scan a website, identify vulnerabilities, and receive alerts to any infections.

Benefits of Qualys Web Application Scanning

Qualys Web Application Scanning offers many benefits, including:

Quick Deployment: Requires no infrastructure or software to upkeep.
Effortless Scalability: Effortlessly launch a deep scan and protect thousands of websites.
Centralized Management: Manage and mend all web app vulnerabilities through a single interface.
Excellent Integration Capabilities: Integrates with Qualys Web App Firewall (WAF) for a single-click virtual patching of found vulnerabilities.
Respond to Threats Immediately: Qualys Continuous Monitoring offers the user a hands-free service by automatically launching scanning and sending notifications of a potential threat.
Cost-effective Solution: Data is analyzed in real time as Qualys WAS is an end-to-end solution; this helps avoid costs associated with managing multiple security vendors.

Reviews from Real Users

Qualys Web Application Scanning stands out among its competitors for a variety of reasons. Two of those reasons are its progressive scan and quick detection of vulnerabilities.

P.K., a senior software developer at a tech vendor, writes, "The feature that I have found most valuable is the progressive scan. It is good. It's done in 24 hours."

Nagaraj S., lead cybersecurity engineer at a tech service company, notes, "I have found the detection of vulnerabilities tool thorough with good results and the graphical display output to be wonderful and full of colors. It allows many types of outputs, such as bar and chart previews."

Qualys

SPAs, APIs, mobile—the evolution of application technology is measured in months, not years. Is your web application security testing tool designed to keep up? AppSpider lets you collect all the information needed to test all the apps so that you aren’t left with gaping application risks.

Our dynamic application security testing (DAST) solution crawls to the deepest, darkest corners of even the most modern and complex apps to effectively test for risk and get you the insight you need to remediate faster. With AppSpider on your side (or, rather, all of your sides), you’ll be able to scan all the apps today and always be ready for whatever comes next.

Rapid7

Sample Customers

BskyB, Cartagena, ClearPoint Learning Systems, Connect Group, du, Fortrex Technologies, HBOR, HDI, Highlights for Children, The Lithuanian State Enterprise Centre of Registers, City of Miami Beach, Microsoft, MidlandHR, MSCI Inc., Northern Arizona University, Ofgem, Olympus Europa, PhoneFactor, RTL Nederland, ThousandEyes, VGZ Organisatie B.V.

Microsoft

Buyer's Guide

Qualys Web Application Scanning vs. Rapid7 AppSpider

April 2025

Free Report: Qualys Web Application Scanning vs. Rapid7 AppSpider

Find out what your peers are saying about Qualys Web Application Scanning vs. Rapid7 AppSpider and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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