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IBM X-Force Exchange vs VirusTotal comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 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

IBM X-Force Exchange
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
15th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VirusTotal
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) category, the mindshare of IBM X-Force Exchange is 1.5%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VirusTotal is 3.9%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VirusTotal3.9%
IBM X-Force Exchange1.5%
Other94.6%
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
 

Featured Reviews

IM
IT Infrastructure Security Lead at South Consult
Speed threat assessment ,security investigations leveraging on real time actionable threat intel integrated to your Security Intelligence Platform
The most valuable features I found include : The ability to add a vulnerability report Support for STIX and TAXII Threat Feed Manager- While viewing X-Force reports, users can enrich IP, URL and malware reports using threat intelligence So suppose you're investigating an a possible threat and you just found that there is an offense that is saying, one of your users had access to some honey port defined address You can quickly leverage X-Force to help you by doing an X-Force exchange look-up quickly. If you have an aspect of interest, such as an email, file , vulnerability data for, you can leverage X-Force to understand this in-depth.
Chinmay Banerjee - PeerSpot reviewer
Advisor Adtech/Martech/API product/project Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Helps businesses collect threat data while keeping privacy in mind and apable of detecting, blocking, and removing viruses and malware
There are two gray areas I still need to explore. I have worked with VirusTotal because it easily integrates with over seventy antivirus scanners and blacklisting services. In addition to those there is much scope to improve and add other services or integrations. The areas for improvement are that VirusTotal is not using much AI or generative AI models, while other competitors are starting to build them. For example, VirusTotal's work is based on the setup done by their engineers. If you want to do scanning or protection activities for a specific site, app, or device, that is the area VirusTotal is currently focused on. But other competitors are building AI models that can do things like left-side scanning and provide auto-generated reports. VirusTotal has predefined reports, but there is a lot of manual effort involved. Secondly, the API is very limited if I want to integrate VirusTotal with other applications. They need to build more connectors and provide support for Webhook connectors for the API. If you can't build your own connector, it's always good to have provisions for Webhook setup connectors across platforms. Thirdly, Kaspersky, a competitor of VirusTotal, is using a methodology called "gatekeeper." A gatekeeper is a security system that protects the inside of a building from outside threats. This is the model Kaspersky is currently using. You have your website set up, but the entire army of VirusTotal or Kaspersky is standing guard, protecting you from the first gate itself. Right now, VirusTotal detects threats from your domain, but it is always better to verify inside the domain and protect it from the first level when people or malware are entering. This first level of protection is lacking in VirusTotal right now. The security bridge and protection gate are missing.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's quite integratable so you can actually integrate and get IP malware and URL information. It also gives you some form of intelligence into what you're trying to investigate or what you're trying to understand."
"This product has helped to increase staff productivity."
"The most valuable feature is you have the expertise of human experience directly involved. There is a team of experts."
"It is quite simple for anyone if they just want to check some suspicious URLs."
"The most valuable feature is the worldwide malware information database."
"VirusTotal provides 95% to 98% accurate information."
"VirusTotal provides 95% to 98% accurate information."
"It allows us to see if there have been previous reports on certain indicators of compromise, providing insights from other security professionals."
"The product is easy to use with coding, such as Python or Java, via its API."
"The initial setup is easy."
"It provides detailed insights into possible malicious behavior, dropped files, and TCP connections."
 

Cons

"I would like to see better integration with other systems, solutions, and vendors."
"You have to look for the new information from X-Force. X-Force will provide it but you have to look for it. We need clearer visibility."
"We would like to have more AI capabilities to detect threats and improve its productivity from a cybersecurity standpoint."
"VirusTotal has different versions, and sometimes the parameters of the API are not very clear."
"They can improve the telemetry. Whenever we handle a sample, they cannot provide any information about a victim."
"I would like to see improved correlation with other threat intelligence sources, not just reliant on its own database, to enhance the database of threat intelligence that VirusTotal offers."
"VirusTotal has predefined reports, but there is a lot of manual effort involved."
"I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy."
"The platform could improve in the areas of endpoints and networks."
"There is room for improvement, particularly in making some of the most useful features more accessible in the non-paid version."
"VirusTotal is hard to understand because you need to know Google Docs to create queries, and it doesn't have documentation for that."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Cost is clearly a consideration, but the important thing is what we do with the data and how we protect it."
"One of the fastest ways to cut costs is reducing staff, and this product can reduce staff by 70 percent."
"We are using VirusTotal with free licenses, managing the license limits across three or four accounts, thus incurring no costs."
"The pricing is very economical."
"VirusTotal is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
14%
University
5%
Educational Organization
5%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for IBM X-Force?
It's a threat intelligence platform, and we aim to enhance its intelligence by integrating additional security solutions.
What advice do you have for others considering IBM X-Force?
It falls under the category of AI-embedded threat intelligence, which makes detection more efficient by reducing the rate of false positives and improving the overall detection rate. When the threa...
What do you like most about VirusTotal?
With VirusTotal, I can check for any hash, malware, file, domain, IP URL, or malicious URL, and Kaspersky stays clean.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VirusTotal?
I do not know about the pricing or licensing as our organization services VirusTotal for our clients.
What needs improvement with VirusTotal?
I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy. VirusTotal should add more details like those from competitors such as URL Void or Symantec URL Checker, which show the categ...
 

Also Known As

X-Force Exchange, X-Force
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM X-Force Exchange vs. VirusTotal and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.