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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

BigFix
Ranking in Patch Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
97
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (6th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (23rd), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (4th)
Qualys Patch Management
Ranking in Patch Management
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of BigFix is 7.9%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Patch Management is 4.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

Bella Yakoby - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers third-party patching feature, good scalability, and enhance endpoint management capabilities
From the perspective of the team that's handling the environment, it's not so user-friendly compared to other solutions, the competitors. We hire new teams from time to time, and they are complaining, look, although BigFix is very robust and cross-platform, it's not so fun to work with. The user interface for the technical teams is not so advanced. It's not so intuitive compared to SCCM, compared to ManageEngine. And this is the fact that they have, with the teams, because they have the rejection. The look and feel of the system are old-fashioned. For new employees, it's less easy to find someone I don't need to educate on how to work with BigFix. Although it's easy, it's not as intuitive as the other solutions, and the functionality of the other solutions is less advanced. Let's summarize: The user interface has to be changed from the perspective of the teams that are managing the product. It's old school.
Revathi VeeraRaghavan - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides a centralized platform for managing assets and vulnerabilities, enabling assessment, prioritization, and remediation
Qualys Patch Management system requires several improvements. Firstly, the inability to download asset patches and the lack of third-party application integration limit patch accessibility. Additionally, rollback options are unreliable, and pre-deployment patch testing is crucial. Reporting needs enhancement, particularly with group-based compliance percentages and clearer, VMDR-like reporting in the Patch Management module. Furthermore, detection speed should be improved, as patches are released 24 hours after QIDs are published. The user interface could be more functional, with dashboards for patch compliance visualization and simplified error code language. Finally, the Mac patch catalogue needs expansion, and automated workflows, policy enforcement, and testing procedures should be streamlined for seamless, user-independent operation.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's very straightforward."
"We rely on BigFix as part of our consulting engagements. It's more efficient from a visibility and discovery standpoint on the initial phase, the consulting engagement. It also increases our efficiencies on the remediation phase of our engagements."
"The tool's most valuable features are patching and integration with vulnerability scanners."
"Vulnerability scanning and patch automation."
"Software distribution and patch management are the most valuable."
"BigFix has drastically reduced the maintenance window period to patch and reboot servers."
"BigFix technical support is good."
"What I like most is that it is a powerful solution."
"The first thing I would say is the ease of use."
"We can update the registry with special features such as Registry Update. We can also run scripts via the Patch Management module. These features are very helpful in our operations."
"Patch Management's most valuable feature is the ability to search for vulnerabilities using their QID."
"Patch management provides more clarity from the dashboard and console, which is very helpful for our team to prioritize and take prior action."
"The most valuable features of Qualys Patch Management include its ability to automate patch deployment for hundreds or thousands of assets, reducing our reliance on the IT team to perform these tasks manually."
"The most valuable features are the ease of managing both first-party and third-party patching, the generation of dashboards, and the provision of real-time information."
"Qualys Patch Management is an effective tool for vulnerability remediation."
"The most valuable feature of Qualys Patch Management is the support and service provided by Qualys."
 

Cons

"The remote software installation could be better."
"BigFix could improve its asset management capabilities to discover assets, including hardware."
"The look and feel of the system are old-fashioned."
"The main shortcoming of BigFix was integration with vulnerability management. If you had a vulnerability in your software and BigFix on the endpoint, you needed integration with Qualys, Tenable, or another vulnerability management solution to fix that. It was like, "Okay, we can identify issues, and get that information back from the endpoint, but what are we doing about it?""
"We're a partner, so we deliver technical support to customers. When we need to talk to the product support, traditionally, with the product over the last five years, I would not say support has been supportive. I hope that changes."
"We would like to see a different license plan, e.g. to include features from lifecycle with Patch Management, as an example."
"I self-taught for this online, so the initial setup was a little difficult to pick up at first. I had to create a couple of testing environments and destroy them in order to learn how to use it. There was a lot of trial and error, a lot of reading of the manuals."
"I would like better support on the backend."
"False positives were the biggest concern."
"The GUI has areas that need improvement, particularly in the accuracy of results when adding dashboards and running queries."
"There is room for improvement in the detection logic. It sometimes detects open vulnerabilities that are not truly there, such as orphan files that are not really exploitable. It would be helpful if they were classified as information-only rather than Sev 4 or Sev 5."
"Qualys Patch Management's pricing could be more competitive, as it presents a significant obstacle for many companies who find it unaffordable."
"The GUI has areas that need improvement, particularly in the accuracy of results when adding dashboards and running queries."
"A common area for improvement in Patch Management, both within our environment and others I've encountered, is the lack of built-in driver updates."
"The Qualys agent sometimes encounters authorization issues, leading to inaccurate vulnerability reports."
"False positives were the biggest concern. We also had some concerns with respect to the Cloud Agent."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license is subscription-based."
"The tool's price continues to go up. The cost per endpoint can vary, ranging from approximately 30 to 80 dollars per year. Compared to other products, pricing is in the middle. You need to buy an additional database license, but most users already have it."
"We have a subscription-based contract with BigFix."
"The price of BigFix could be lower. However, I am always seeking a lower price."
"It might be about $23 a client."
"When purchasing, buying with other IBM tools provided us with a very good discount in pricing."
"I can estimate the reduced cost of servers maintenance to approximatively $500,000."
"You get what we call the Platform Edition, which you get for free. The patch service is maybe $0.50 per workstation per month. Then there's the basic server cost, which is about $1.50 per server per month. You also get into Lifecycle which does power management, OSD remote control, and those types of things, and that might be about 10 times the price - which works out to about $13 per server and, maybe $5 per workstation per month."
"From what I have heard, Qualys Patch Management is pricey, which is a main barrier to entry. Another aspect that I do not like about Qualys is that they do not add new patch management functionalities to the existing package. It is a separate SKU, so you have to pay more money."
"Qualys Patch Management is expensive."
"Qualys Patch Management's pricing is competitive."
"Compared to other tools, the price of Qualys Patch Management is reasonable."
"The pricing is reasonable and competitive. We get many more features at the same price compared to other solutions such as Microsoft SCCM. It is worth the money considering the services and features it has. Their support team is also awesome."
"It is affordable, but they should provide features as per the rate they are charging. We have a big infrastructure with about 80,000 licenses. We expect better support from the Qualys team. So, it is affordable, but more features should be there, and the support should be better."
"Qualys Patch Management is a cost-effective solution for managing our 43,000-plus assets."
"Qualys Patch Management comes as part of a bundled package with several modules, making it a cost-effective deal for us."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Educational Organization
13%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 competitive, but not the most competitive.
What needs improvement with BigFix?
While performing integration, we face many issues with IBM solution. We need detailed information about those issues that can help users to mitigate them. The problem was related to the hardware co...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Patch Management?
From a pricing perspective, I find Qualys to be a bit higher, but it is worth it. Compared to other tools, it is on the costly side, but I believe it is worth the investment.
What needs improvement with Qualys Patch Management?
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....
What is your primary use case for Qualys Patch Management?
I am using Qualys Patch Management for two years, and everything is satisfactory from my side. Before purchasing Qualys Patch Management, we were already using Qualys VMDR and the cloud agent model...
 

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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Find out what your peers are saying about BigFix vs. Qualys Patch Management and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.