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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
4.9
BigFix delivers quick ROI with efficient patch management, reducing manual labor and costs while improving compliance and operational efficiency.
Sentiment score
5.9
Qualys Patch Management reduces costs and risks, enhances security and efficiency, despite its higher price, offers substantial value.
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
7.6
BigFix's customer service is praised for expertise and responsiveness, enhanced by community resources and recent support improvements.
Sentiment score
7.2
Qualys Patch Management support is responsive and effective, but users sometimes face delays and desire more proactive communication.
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
Whenever we need any kind of support, the BigFix team is present and available.
Solution Sales Specialist at TD SYNNEX
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
4.7
BigFix effectively manages environments of all sizes with high scalability, supporting large deployments without performance issues.
Sentiment score
8.4
Qualys Patch Management is scalable, supporting global deployments and extensive environments, though licensing impacts performance and affordability.
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
6.2
BigFix is praised for its stability, efficient large-scale deployments, and autonomous operations with minimal user intervention and near-perfect ratings.
Sentiment score
7.5
Qualys Patch Management is highly rated for stability despite occasional deployment issues, connectivity constraints, and scheduled downtime.
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 users seek pricing adjustments, enhanced interface, improved documentation, better integration, scalability, and cloud and mobile management solutions.
Qualys Patch Management struggles with integration, automation, usability, downtime, pricing, and requires enhanced support and improved 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 pricing with competitive but potentially costly plans, beneficial licensing, and discount options for larger deployments.
Qualys Patch Management offers competitive pricing, justified by features and flexibility, with discounts for larger implementations and improved bundles.
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 offers scalable and customizable endpoint management with robust patching, software distribution, and security compliance across multiple platforms.
Qualys Patch Management offers automated, efficient vulnerability remediation with robust integration, enhancing compliance and security through precise asset visibility.
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
7th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (9th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (34th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (9th)
Qualys Patch Management
Ranking in Patch Management
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of BigFix is 4.4%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Patch Management is 3.5%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Qualys Patch Management3.5%
BigFix4.4%
Other92.1%
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

AM
RPA Developer at Hexaware Technologies Limited
Successfully manage endpoint security and compliance while facing integration challenges
I have not come across any difficulties. I integrated it with ILMT (IBM License Metric Tool). It lets us identify all software being used in my organization with BigFix. It provides input of all types of software being used, including details and information about hardware specifications. I am more involved in software licensing and procurement, so I utilize this tool for procuring more licenses if needed for our company. After integration, we get different dashboards showcasing our IBM infrastructure, highlighting various issues in our environment that we can mitigate. I recommend BigFix to others. I rate BigFix a seven out of ten.
Revathi VeeraRaghavan - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security - Manager at Infosys
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise67
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise8
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?
Qualys reduces risk for us and our clients by upwards of 50% when we arrive at a client site with no previous software installed. If they have other software they were using and then transition to ...
What needs improvement with Qualys Patch Management?
The interface could benefit from improved user experience and quality of life improvements. The dashboard could be more intuitive, as this is a common concern for applications with extensive point-...
What is your primary use case for Qualys Patch Management?
Our clients vary greatly because we support many other technologies, such as Microsoft 365. Our clients can range from fewer than 100 to up to 2,000 or 3,000 devices.
 

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
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about BigFix vs. Qualys Patch Management and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
882,637 professionals have used our research since 2012.