IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs Qualys VMDR comparison

IBM and Qualys are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. IBM is ranked #49 with an average rating of 5.0, while Qualys is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6. IBM holds a 0.7% mindshare in VM, compared to Qualys’s 5.0% mindshare. Additionally, 66% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

IBM Guardium Vulnerability ...

Read 4 IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment reviews

929 Views
901 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

Qualys VMDR

Read 96 Qualys VMDR reviews

12,798 Views
8,703 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

IBM Guardium Vulnerability ...

Qualys VMDR

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

Qualys VMDR and IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment are tools in the vulnerability management and data protection sector. Qualys VMDR stands out for its pricing and support, whereas IBM Guardium is favored for its extensive feature set.

Features:Qualys VMDR features comprehensive scanning capabilities, automation tools for enhanced vulnerability management, and continuous monitoring. IBM Guardium provides advanced data-level protection, in-depth risk analysis, and robust dashboard presentation.

Room for Improvement:Qualys VMDR could improve its advanced features in data protection, user interface complexity, and integration with third-party tools. IBM Guardium might enhance its user-friendliness, provide quicker deployment options, and streamline its reporting functionality.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:Qualys VMDR’s cloud-based model offers quick and easy deployment with flexible service options. IBM Guardium, while more complex to deploy, delivers comprehensive support and tailored integration services.

Pricing and ROI:Qualys VMDR provides competitive pricing and an attractive ROI due to its efficient setup and features. IBM Guardium often incurs a higher initial cost, justified by its advanced analytics and data protection capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs. Qualys VMDR Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs. Qualys VMDR

February 2026

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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

IBM Guardium Vulnerability ...

Ranking in Vulnerability Management

49th

Average Rating

6.0

Reviews Sentiment

8.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Qualys VMDR

Ranking in Vulnerability Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Asset Management (3rd), Configuration Management Databases (3rd), Container Security (9th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment is 0.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 5.0%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Qualys VMDR	5.0%
IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment	0.7%
Other	94.3%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Dr. Sajid Latif

Guardium Administrator at Interactive Group

Improvements sought in database optimization while benefiting from robust security monitoring

We use the analytical functionality of Guardium, but the analytical functionality is not so powerful or flexible because it does not include the application user ID. It only includes the database user ID. To identify risky users, it does not support end users, so IBM must incorporate this feature into the built-in analytical engine of the Guardium. There is only one problem I experienced while using Guardium: the internal database of the collector is MySQL, which is not so powerful or flexible. When you make a query in a MySQL database, it takes too much time to respond. IBM should replace this MySQL database with a more powerful internal database for the logging mechanism so that Guardium can collect logging data flexibly and ensure optimization. My overall experience with Guardium is good. The only problem is that IBM must replace the internal DB, MySQL, with a more powerful enterprise-level database because enterprises use it at an enterprise level, and MySQL does not support optimally.

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Vaibhav Ghule

Soc Lead & Edr Administration at Persistent Systems

Continuous risk-based monitoring has strengthened incident response and vulnerability prioritization

I haven't explored Qualys VMDR's vulnerability lifecycle automation yet. One of my analysts mentioned that queries lack grouping operators in Qualys VMDR. From my experience, I would appreciate improvements in the query options in Qualys VMDR, specifically in the query-building process where I would need more features and operators. Additionally, we have been facing issues with Qualys on the cloud level. We cannot download the configuration profile from the cloud agent, and it is showing a pending action for download. During 2025, we noticed outages of Qualys a couple of times. I want to mention that there is an issue with receiving timely RCA deliveries. While this is not necessarily about the tool, it relates to support. The support has not been very responsive, and we are receiving RCAs a little delayed whenever we raise support cases or communicate with the TAMs. Additionally, the UI has a slight latency, which I and my team have experienced. They have also reported this latency issue when navigating through different pages.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The reporting features are good and there are many built-in reports that can be quickly configured."

"The most valuable feature is that it provides a simple English recommendation on actions that you need to take once a vulnerability is discovered."

"The Vulnerability Assessment feature is quite stable and helps identify numerous vulnerabilities in databases."

"It helped with some of the regulatory requirements. It also helped with some of the security analytics and analysis. It was worthwhile from that perspective."

"I like the automated report generation and vulnerability report generation."

"The most recent is VMDR, which provides a comprehensive overview of how to detect, patch, and remediate specific vulnerabilities."

"The biggest benefit is from a security operations perspective, where we are able to drive our security posture upwards by remediating any discovered vulnerabilities."

"The prioritization of vulnerabilities has improved our remediation efforts by around thirty to thirty-five percent."

"Qualys VM has allowed us to know the vulnerabilities we need to prioritize based on the threat levels and the possible impact if there's an intrusion."

"The reporting is fine."

"Overall, the solution is highly rated because of its simplicity and efficiency."

"The platform's most valuable features include its robust vulnerability detection capabilities and automated remediation workflows."

More Qualys VMDR pros

Cons

"Building policies is not that easy. There are some things that are turned off by default, for example, displaying values."

"It was not as easy to use. The user-friendliness of it was somewhat lower than what I was expecting. It was also lacking in terms of the ease of the setup. There should be an automatic agent for deployment."

"There is only one problem I experienced while using Guardium: the internal database of the collector is MySQL, which is not so powerful or flexible."

"The interface could be improved by having sub-groups of tests, ultimately making the process of collecting tests faster."

"If AI features were integrated, it could enhance the capabilities significantly."

"They should make it accessible for more operating systems."

"There's a need to upgrade or fix the potential vulnerability rate. Around 20,000 potential vulnerabilities were showing in Qualys VMDR, but none of the other tools showed them. When we checked, it wasn't the case. Support explained that even small issues were being counted as vulnerabilities, causing issues in our audit. So, the security features could be improved to identify vulnerabilities accurately."

"The reporting needs improvement. It should generate much more stuff like field reports."

"Qualys doesn't have its own tool to deploy the agents all at once, so we need to use third-party tools such as BigFix or something else to deploy the agents, which is my main concern and should be fixed by the Qualys team."

"Qualys VMDR could improve in reducing the occurrences of false positive vulnerabilities."

"We are moving away from Qualys to Defender ATP because I find that Defender ATP is much better at prioritizing the vulnerabilities that I should be looking at."

"Qualys could improve the inbuilt dashboards."

More Qualys VMDR cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"One thing not advantageous for it was that it was a little bit more expensive. I would rate it one out of five in terms of pricing."

"The price is very reasonable."

"I used to work there, so I never paid for the product. As an employee, we get a lifetime license for personal use, and that's what I'm using. It is a comprehensive platform, so there is a lot more to it. There could be other solutions that are probably a little bit cheaper, but it depends on what people need. Different people have different needs. It offers many things on the same platform. If you add all the things up, it should be cheaper, but I have not done any analysis specifically."

"It is a high cost product. Compared to the other solutions, it is around 15 to 20% higher in cost."

"We have an annual contract for Qualys VMDR. I believe it's for either two years or five years."

"Qualys VM is better suited for medium to large companies because the price can be too much for smaller customers."

"It is different for every company, but for us, it's every three years."

"The tool's pricing is expensive and I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten."

"There are no additional fees in addition to the standard licensing fees."

More Qualys VMDR pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

38%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	70

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?

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What is your primary use case for IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?

We are still using IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment. We only use IBM Guardium Data Protection and monitoring, data protection and monitoring, classical Guardium. We only use classical Guardium...

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What advice do you have for others considering IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment?

We do not use IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment for data encryption or any other tool for analytics, or identity and governance. We do not use any other solution except for protection and monit...

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What do you like most about Qualys VMDR?

I like that we have many scanners and channels that don't overload. It helps us scan and track easily. Also, the tagging system is good for tagging. We can still use QualysAgent task ID tools even ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys VMDR?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that we can consider both time and money saved.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

January 2026

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment report

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Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

January 2026

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Also Known As

No data available

Qualys VM, QualysGuard VM, Qualys Asset Inventory, Qualys Container Security

Overview

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment scans data infrastructures (databases, data warehouses and big data environments) to detect vulnerabilities, and suggests remedial actions. The solution identifies exposures such as missing patches, weak passwords, unauthorized changes and misconfigured privileges.

IBM

Vulnerability Management, Detection, and Response (VMDR) is a cornerstone product of the Qualys TruRisk Platform and a global leader in the enterprise-grade vulnerability management (VM) vendor space. With VMDR, enterprises are empowered with visibility and insight into cyber risk exposure - making it easy to prioritize vulnerabilities, assets, or groups of assets based on business risk. Security teams can take action to mitigate risk, helping the business measure their actual risk exposure over time.

Qualys VMDR offers an all-inclusive risk-based vulnerability management solution to prioritize vulnerabilities and assets based on risk and business criticality. VMDR seamlessly integrates with configuration management databases (CMDB), Qualys Patch Management, Custom Assessment and Remediation (CAR), Qualys TotalCloud and other Qualys and non-Qualys solutions to facilitate vulnerability detection and remediation across the entire enterprise.

With VMDR, users are empowered with actionable risk insights that translate vulnerabilities and exploits into optimized remediation actions based on business impact. Qualys customers can now aggregate and orchestrate data from the Qualys Threat Library, 25+ threat intelligence feeds, and third-party security and IT solutions, empowering organizations to measure, communicate, and eliminate risk across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments.

Qualys

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Agrokor Group, American Specialty Health, American State Bank, Arval, Life:), Axway, Bank of the West, Blueport Commerce, BSkyB, Brinks, CaixaBank, Cartagena, Catholic Health System, CEC Bank, Cegedim, CIGNA, Clickability, Colby-Sawyer College, Commercial Bank of Dubai, University of Utah, eBay Inc., ING Singapore, National Theatre, OTP Bank, Sodexo, WebEx

Buyer's Guide

IBM Guardium Vulnerability Assessment vs. Qualys VMDR

February 2026

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