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Microsoft Configuration Manager vs Qualys Patch Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 2025

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

Microsoft Configuration Man...
Ranking in Patch Management
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Server Monitoring (6th), Configuration Management (3rd)
Qualys Patch Management
Ranking in Patch Management
4th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Patch Management category, the mindshare of Microsoft Configuration Manager is 15.0%, down from 18.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Patch Management is 4.1%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Patch Management
 

Featured Reviews

MikeNelson2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deployment recovery works well but requires configuration improvements
While I do not use the product frequently, many issues were due to configuration rather than the product itself. I cannot give an exact recommendation as it is not my area of responsibility. The team that uses it finds it adequate. It is presently good enough for us not to investigate other options. Overall, I rate the product a six out of ten.
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

"Automation of operating system, application, and update deployments massively reduces IT operations effort."
"The cloud account management is a valuable feature."
"The product is suitable for our size, handling 800 devices."
"The solution is highly scalable."
"It is a very good solution. It has a good interface and is easy to use. On top of that, it is very reliable in terms of distribution as well as getting the report."
"This solution has made life easy with respect to patching, compliance, and OSD."
"It uses detailed descriptions of the workstations, and that is good for me."
"It does the job and meets our needs. With everybody working remotely these days, we are using this solution to deploy everything. The deployment of PCs is easy."
"Patch Management, if configured correctly, works effectively without requiring further action."
"Compared to other tools, Qualys is better due to its automation capabilities, which allow us to achieve high compliance rates."
"Qualys Patch Management offers numerous valuable features, including automatic patching for Google browsers, which allows for scheduled updates immediately upon vendor release."
"Automated features streamline patch deployment and ensure compliance, effectively mitigating risks and bolstering organizational security."
"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 feature of Qualys Patch Management is the support and service provided by Qualys."
"Qualys Patch Management has reduced our organizational risk by 99.9 percent."
"Qualys Patch Management leverages vulnerability feeds from the VMDR module, allowing us to identify vulnerabilities missing Qualys patches."
 

Cons

"The cost of the product can be improved."
"Microsoft should extend support for additional platforms."
"The operations could be faster and you need some patience with this tool."
"The assets have reached their end-of-life, and patching them is a complex and laborious task. It would be highly advantageous if there were an integrated solution that provided distinct options for each end-of-life asset, streamlining the process and facilitating comprehension."
"Based on my experience with SCCM 2016, the main, big issue is not having a good user-friendly environment. It needs much better GUI."
"The solution could improve the functionality for automating, license management. Additionally, more and better-looking reports are needed."
"The solution is on-premises. The cloud version of the product, if a person needs to be on the cloud, would be InTune, which already exists as an option. SCCM doesn't need to offer cloud features for this reason."
"The tool's deployment can be cumbersome."
"A patch contract is a bundle of patches that we are going to roll out. I would like to reference those patches from separate jobs. They explained at a conference that it cannot be done, but that is my main complaint. I wish that the whole schema was a little bit clearer because there is a little bit of cloudiness around it."
"One of the challenges that we have faced with the Patch Management tool is that you cannot patch all the things. There are some limitations, whereas, in SCCM, we can create a package and just deploy that through it. Anything is deployable through SCCM, whereas Patch Management is very selective."
"The pricing of the solution is slightly high compared to other tools in our field."
"The GUI has areas that need improvement, particularly in the accuracy of results when adding dashboards and running queries."
"In our environment, the application sometimes crashes, requiring improvement."
"Qualys can do regular check-ins to go over not only all the vulnerabilities but also the overall process to see if there is anything where we might need improvement."
"Its implementation is too recent to make any judgments about areas needing improvement. In terms of pricing, of course, it is not free. Cheaper is always better."
"Qualys's current response time for releasing solutions to zero-day vulnerabilities, which takes approximately 12 to 16 hours, needs improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is an annual license needed to use the solution."
"Presently, I am using a free trial version."
"Its licensing is quite complicated because we are getting the license not only for SCCM but for the full Microsoft package. We don't need to pay for a separate license. We need to have one license that includes everything we need, such as Windows, Microsoft 365, SCCM, encryption, and so on. So, we don't have a specific price for it. Perhaps, it is good that it includes the full suite of licensing of Microsoft. It is expensive, but we are getting a lot of features."
"We have to pay for a license."
"Pricing is negotiable with Microsoft, depending upon which of their packages you choose."
"I would rate the cost as eight out of ten."
"We use the tool's free license. It is expensive."
"The price could be better."
"I'm unaware of Qualys' exact price, but it's more expensive than Nessus. With technological products, you need to pay to get the best."
"Qualys Patch Management is expensive."
"Qualys Patch Management's pricing could be more competitive, as it presents a significant obstacle for many companies who find it unaffordable."
"The pricing is reasonable and less expensive than the previous tool."
"While the cost of Qualys Patch Management is slightly high compared to alternative tools, it is not excessively expensive."
"Pricing is on the higher side. We found it costly compared to other vendors."
"Compared to other tools, the price of Qualys Patch Management is reasonable."
"Qualys is fairly priced."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
How to choose between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly SCCM)?
ManageEngine Desktop Central is very easy to set up, is scalable, stable, and also has very good patch management. What I like most about ManageEngine is that I can log on to every PC very easily a...
What do you like most about SCCM?
One of the standout features of SCCM is its application management capabilities. It allows us to create packages efficiently and deploy them to specific groups within our network. This streamlined ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Patch Management?
Qualys Patch Management comes as part of a bundled package with several modules, making it a cost-effective deal for us. I cannot speak to the separate cost, as we have always used it as part of th...
What needs improvement with Qualys Patch Management?
I deploy patches to endpoints and servers every month. However, despite a job showing as successful, I need to examine the job in detail. For instance, if I have deployed patches to 100 endpoints, ...
What is your primary use case for Qualys Patch Management?
I use Qualys Patch Management as a single platform for patch management. We have Microsoft, Adobe, and various other apps. I create a scheduled task to push all the required patches to the laptops ...
 

Also Known As

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM )
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
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