Comparison · Vexta
Vexta vs Qualys VMDR: an honest comparison.
Qualys is an enterprise security platform - broad, deep, expensive. Vexta is a focused vulnerability scanner with AI triage built for engineering teams who want shippable findings in CI/CD, not an enterprise compliance dashboard.
This Vexta vs Qualys VMDR comparison is built from first-hand work: customers who have used both, engineers who have written exploits against the same target with each scanner, and procurement teams who have negotiated both contracts. No paid placements, no affiliate links - we sell Vexta, so the bias is disclosed, but every row below is verifiable from public Qualys VMDR documentation.
Pick Vexta if
You're a 10–200 person engineering org that wants developers to find and fix vulns in their own workflow.
Pick Qualys VMDR if
You're a Fortune-500 with a dedicated security operations team, compliance auditors on payroll, and a multi-million dollar annual security budget.
There is no single right answer in a Vexta vs Qualys VMDR decision. Both products solve the same surface problem - finding vulnerabilities before an attacker does - but they make different bets about who is operating the tool, how much manual review is acceptable, and what the report has to look like for downstream auditors.
The honest test is this: download both, point them at the same target, and compare the findings 48 hours later. We offer that as a paid pilot with Vexta. If you want the same from Qualys VMDR, ask their sales team for a free trial credit - most will accommodate.
Side-by-side
Vexta vs Qualys VMDR: feature comparison
| Feature | Vexta | Qualys VMDR |
|---|---|---|
| Vulnerability scanning (external + internal) | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI-triaged findings + fix guidance | ✓ | ✕ |
| CI/CD-native (developer workflow) | ✓ | ∼ |
| Single-binary install | ✓ | ✕ |
| Self-host option | ✓ | ∼ |
| Enterprise GRC / compliance dashboards | ∼ | ✓ |
| SCA + container image scanning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reports humans read (vs spreadsheet exports) | ✓ | ∼ |
| Procurement cycle | Self-serve, sign up today | Months - RFP, demo, MSA, ARR commit |
| Starting price | Free / $49/mo | 5-figure annual minimum |
Common questions
Is Vexta missing something Qualys has that we'd need?
If you're a Fortune-500 with a CISO + compliance team and a dedicated audit cadence - yes, Qualys's GRC dashboards, integrations into enterprise SIEM/SOAR, and compliance certifications across every framework matter. For everyone smaller, the answer is no - most of those features are paid weight you'll never use. Vexta covers vulnerability scanning + reports + fix guidance, which is the core 90%.
Can Vexta replace Qualys for our SOC 2 / ISO 27001 audit?
Yes for the vulnerability-management control. Vexta produces auditor-ready reports for SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA showing scan cadence, findings, and remediation timelines. We work directly with several Indian and US accredited auditors who accept Vexta output.
How fast can we be running Vexta vs Qualys?
Vexta: download binary, run first scan in under 5 minutes. Qualys: procurement cycle averages 6–10 weeks (RFP, security review, MSA negotiation, deployment), then 2–4 weeks of initial config.
What about scale - does Vexta handle large enterprises?
Vexta Enterprise supports unlimited targets, unlimited seats, SSO, on-prem deployment, and a dedicated engineer. We have customers scanning 10k+ assets. The product scales technically; the procurement model is just much simpler than Qualys.
Try Vexta on one target.
No agents to install, no card to enter, no SDR call. Free tier covers single-target scanning indefinitely.