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BigFix vs Qualys Patch Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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
6.2
BigFix delivers fast ROI with efficient patch management, improved security, and reduced labor, enhancing efficiency and financial savings.
Sentiment score
7.2
Qualys Patch Management enhances security, reduces vulnerabilities, saves time, lowers costs, and offers an intuitive interface with updated data.
With Qualys, we can save around 70 percent of time and between 30 to 40 percent of money.
Information Security Manager at BARC India
We have a 50 percent return on investment due to reduced operational complexity and increased efficiency in patching and detection.
Information Security - Manager at Infosys
We have achieved significant time savings of 90 percent, primarily due to comprehensive oversight and visibility of security issues.
Manager Information Security at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
BigFix provides excellent customer support, with minor first-level inconsistencies, improved overall quality, and valuable community resources.
Sentiment score
7.3
Qualys Patch Management offers efficient support, though initial responses vary; communication is better via email than phone.
On a scale from one to ten, with ten being the highest quality, enterprise support provides timely responses, typically within four to eight hours.
Technical Director at SYSTEX
Technical support from HCL is satisfactory unless there are customization requirements.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
The support team is experienced and responsive.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
The support team is responsive and provides detailed information.
Vulnerability Management Engineer at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Whenever we raise a request and mention the priority of the ticket, they respond immediately via email or call.
Security Consultant at Onity
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.7
BigFix excels in scalability, handling deployments from small to large seamlessly, supporting hundreds of thousands of devices efficiently.
Sentiment score
8.4
Qualys Patch Management is scalable, accommodating growth, though improvements are needed in multi-tenancy, Mac support, and licensing cost-efficiency.
BigFix requires some minimum configuration requirements.
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
It scales efficiently across different machines globally, ensuring patches are deployed smoothly.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Qualys Patch Management is a globally scalable product, easily handling increasing workloads and users.
Information Security Manager at BARC India
If a client has purchased licensing for ten thousand assets and exceeds that, Qualys continues to scan those additional assets, which ensures the client's coverage.
Lead Product Manager ASM at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
5.9
BigFix is praised for its stability, requiring minimal intervention and maintaining performance during large-scale deployments and external challenges.
Sentiment score
7.6
Qualys Patch Management is stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and rare disruptions, offering consistent performance for most users.
I would rate the stability of Qualys Patch Management nine point five out of ten.
Information Security Lead at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
The stability of Qualys Patch Management is impeccable.
Sr Cyber Security Manager at BARC India
Overall, it is reliable.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

BigFix needs updated documentation, UI improvements, enhanced integration, better patch support, and improved automation and scalability.
Qualys Patch Management requires better driver updates, user interface improvements, increased automation, and enhanced support and integration features.
Building a management console is quick and simple, taking only one to two hours for setup.
Technical Director at SYSTEX
The problem was related to the hardware configuration and hardware specifications.
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
In addition to reporting improvements, there should be a feature for application control to allow or disallow certain applications from being executed on endpoints.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
There is a limitation where Qualys may not always offer solutions for remediation, particularly for end-of-life or end-of-service applications.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It would be better if Qualys Patch Management identifies whether the process has failed at the first instance and provides a retry button or retry mechanism, allowing retries for failed patches.
Sr Security Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
For critical options, they could make them red, green for medium, and blue for less significant options.
Cyber Security Specialist at UBS Financial
 

Setup Cost

BigFix offers flexible, competitive pricing options with various packages and potential discounts, despite additional costs like database licenses.
Qualys Patch Management offers good value despite higher costs, with scaling benefits and improved affordability for small businesses.
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to SolarWinds, making it easier for customers to subscribe and unsubscribe.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
We get many more features at the same price as other solutions such as Microsoft SCCM.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
However, it can be a bit expensive sometimes, and I think clients can be shocked when they see the price.
Lead Product Manager ASM at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
The pricing is reasonable and less expensive than the previous tool.
Technical Lead - Security Operations at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

BigFix is valued for ease, scalability, flexibility, real-time management, integration, single-console efficiency, and wide system adaptability.
Qualys Patch Management offers automated scheduling, real-time insights, and risk-based management, enhancing security and reducing vulnerabilities efficiently.
The BigFix features that have proven most effective include inventory, software delivery, software distribution, software catalog, and both software and hardware management.
Technical Director at SYSTEX
I use this mainly to capture inventory for IBM products, and as BigFix was part of IBM, it gets easily integrated with IBM solutions.
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
BigFix supports something known as Patch Policies, which allows users to define that whenever critical patches are released, they should get evaluated against machines and automatically deploy them.
Founder Director at Techsa Services
We leverage this functionality to deploy scripts that adjust registry values, effectively patching vulnerabilities and enhancing the security of our machines.
Senior Information Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
We have been able to apply workarounds for zero-day vulnerabilities efficiently.
Senior Security Consultant at CyberNxt Solutions LLP
It provides insight into the organization's security posture and keeps databases updated with new CVEs.
Cyber Security Engineer at Techensglobal
 

Categories and Ranking

BigFix
Ranking in Patch Management
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (9th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (35th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (9th)
Qualys Patch Management
Ranking in Patch Management
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of BigFix is 4.8%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Patch Management is 3.6%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Qualys Patch Management3.6%
BigFix4.8%
Other91.6%
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

JC
Technical Director at SYSTEX
Comprehensive client management and software distribution made efficient
Implementing a business solution with BigFix has some issues, primarily concerning the time required for distribution to clients if there are too many. Building a management console is quick and simple, taking only one to two hours for setup. However, a demo or trial may take over a week or two for completion.
AN
Cyber Security Specialist at UBS Financial
Patch management process becomes more efficient and cost-effective while significantly improving vulnerability remediation rates
Regarding improvements in Qualys Patch Management, I did not quite understand the downsides they were expecting. Initially, I was confused about where to find and how to use the available features. It was challenging to identify the options we could employ and why we were using them. However, once I gained hands-on experience, I was able to identify the tool's particular features, making it easier for us to use it. The initial phase had some difficulty with the user interface. I would them to improve user training. They have used many colors, which can be confusing, so they should use specific colors for specific options. For critical options, they could make them red, green for medium, and blue for less significant options. This would make it easier for a beginner to recognize which buttons are dangerous to click. Such adjustments can help new users learn the solution faster.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise66
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise23
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BigFix?
The most valuable features of the solution are Windows patching and the hardware and software inventory.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BigFix?
The pricing is pretty good and now follows a subscription model similar to other major software solutions, making it easier for customers to subscribe and unsubscribe.
What needs improvement with BigFix?
The reporting still needs improvement since customers want specific reporting, such as N-1 month patching reports. In addition to reporting improvements, there should be a feature for application c...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Patch Management?
The pricing of Qualys is promising, but I don't have the specifics. Based on my experience, both Qualys and Tenable have similar price points, but clients choose based on whether they need a compre...
What needs improvement with Qualys Patch Management?
Qualys should improve by offering a dedicated testing environment for patches, allowing clients to test patches before deploying them to production. Currently, clients must manage this themselves, ...
What is your primary use case for Qualys Patch Management?
I have experience using Qualys because I'm a pre-sales engineer in one of the systems integrator companies here in the Philippines. I am also handling and selling Qualys, doing presentations to our...
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Endpoint Manager
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

US Foods, Penn State, St Vincent's Health US Foods, Sabadell Bank, SunTrust, Australia Sydney, Stemac, Capgemini, WNS Global Services, Jebsen & Jessen, CenterBeam, Strauss, Christian Hospital Centre, Brit Insurance, Career Education Corporation
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879,889 professionals have used our research since 2012.