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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
4.1
BigFix quickly delivers ROI in security compliance, streamlines patch management, reduces errors, and cuts costs with efficiency.
Sentiment score
5.9
Organizations using Qualys Patch Management see improved security, reduced costs, and significant workload reductions, achieving positive ROI.
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
In the past, it took us seven to ten days to close critical patches, but now we manage to address them within forty-eight hours, while high-priority SLAs can often be resolved within seven days.
IS Service Technical Specialist For Qualys Patch Management at ABB
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.5
BigFix support is knowledgeable but varies; improved under HCL with valued community resources and direct engineer access.
Sentiment score
7.1
Qualys Patch Management is praised for support yet criticized for delays, language barriers, and varying service quality.
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
5.5
BigFix efficiently manages large-scale endpoints with minimal issues, praised for scalability, flexibility, and ease of setup.
Sentiment score
7.8
Qualys Patch Management is scalable, efficiently manages large networks, but lacks Mac patch support and requires licensing for expansion.
It supports approximately two to three hundred thousand endpoints, demonstrating significant scalability capabilities.
Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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
6.9
BigFix is highly reliable and stable, effectively handling tasks with minimal issues, praised for its robustness in endpoint management.
Sentiment score
7.7
Qualys Patch Management is stable and reliable, with high ratings, responsive support, and efficient patch handling despite occasional lags.
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 requires improvements in speed, ease of use, automation, integration, pricing, and network efficiency for optimal user satisfaction.
Qualys Patch Management needs better integration, reporting, and support, with AI enhancements to improve user experience and efficiency.
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 a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

BigFix costs $30-$80 per endpoint annually, with prices varying by modules and additional database licenses.
Qualys Patch Management is competitively priced, offering good value for its comprehensive features and functionality despite some cost concerns.
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
I rate the price for BigFix as medium, neither low nor high.
Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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 robust patch management, compliance, and integration with scanners, excelling in scalability, customizability, and multi-platform support.
Qualys Patch Management optimizes security by automating patching, enhancing visibility, and integrating with vulnerability management to reduce risks.
Patching is the most preferable feature that users choose BigFix for, making it a very important component.
Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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
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.
Security Specialist at a photography company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

BigFix
Ranking in Patch Management
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Configuration Management (10th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (25th), Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) (11th)
Qualys Patch Management
Ranking in Patch Management
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of BigFix is 4.7%, down from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Patch Management is 2.8%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Qualys Patch Management2.8%
BigFix4.7%
Other92.5%
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

InderjeetSingh4 - PeerSpot reviewer
Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
End-to-end automation has simplified patching and software deployment across thousands of servers
There is one feature in BigFix called the automation patch policy that requires enhancement. When an action is initiated through the patch policy, it appears on the console but arrives in chunks. When targeting hundreds of servers from the patch policy, the actions come in chunks such as ten out of six, ten out of nine, or ten out of fifteen. This fragmented approach creates a significant challenge for the patching team to monitor the action status. I would recommend that the development team provide a single action or one to two actions instead of multiple actions requiring individual monitoring. A broad status update could be provided to the client indicating the overall progress of the patch policy implementation rather than requiring monitoring of every individual action. This would reduce the bandwidth required by the team to track multiple actions on the console.
SangramGupta - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at Deloitte
Automated patching has transformed risk-based remediation and now optimizes security workflows
I can highlight two areas for improvement. The first is better reporting flexibility and dashboard customization. Qualys VMDR has a great dashboard that I can customize, but Qualys Patch Management does not have a specific dashboard associated only with patch management and patch compliance. The customization could be improved significantly. The second area is third-party application coverage. Qualys Patch Management works very effectively when patching servers, internal servers, Windows, iOS, or Linux servers. However, when doing application security with third-party applications that require patches, it sometimes fails to complete the patch. The deployment issue with third-party applications needs enhancement, as even with integration, Qualys Patch Management is not able to deploy patches for some third-party applications. These are the two main points I can highlight for improvement.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Construction Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise68
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise32
 

Questions from the Community

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?
I have concerns about BigFix's pricing, which I find to be slightly on the higher side. While it may not be the most affordable or competitive option, there is room for improvement. Additional feat...
What is your primary use case for BigFix?
I have been working at Tech Data for the last 12 plus years.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Patch Management?
The experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Qualys Patch Management has been straightforward without any complex difficulties. Support from Qualys Patch Management around licensing ...
What needs improvement with Qualys Patch Management?
Qualys Patch Management has room for improvement regarding certain blockages and error reporting; if a patch fails, it often lacks accurate detail on why the failure occurred, necessitating manual ...
What is your primary use case for Qualys Patch Management?
Qualys Patch Management serves as both a vulnerability identification tool and a patching tool in our organization. We initially used it for vulnerability identification, and then expanded to using...
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Endpoint Manager
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not 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: June 2026.
903,996 professionals have used our research since 2012.