Qualys VMDR vs RiskIQ Illuminate comparison

The compared Qualys and RiskIQ solutions aren't in the same category. Qualys is ranked #3 in VM , with an average rating of 8.6, and holds a 5.0% mindshare in the category. RiskIQ is ranked #30 in ASM , and holds a 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Qualys users are willing to recommend the solution.

Qualys VMDR

Read 96 Qualys VMDR reviews

12,798 Views
8,703 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

RiskIQ Illuminate

Read 1 RiskIQ Illuminate review

447 Views
232 Comparison Views

0% willing to recommend

Qualys VMDR

RiskIQ Illuminate

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Qualys VMDR and RiskIQ Illuminate based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Wiz, Tenable, Qualys and others in Vulnerability Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Vulnerability Management Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

January 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

Qualys VMDR

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

RiskIQ Illuminate

Average Rating

0.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Attack Surface Management (ASM) (30th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Qualys VMDR is designed for Vulnerability Management and holds a mindshare of 5.0%, down 9.2% compared to last year.
RiskIQ Illuminate, on the other hand, focuses on Attack Surface Management (ASM), holds 1.0% mindshare, up 0.3% since last year.

Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Qualys VMDR	5.0%
Wiz	6.6%
Tenable Nessus	5.1%
Other	83.3%

Vulnerability Management

Attack Surface Management (ASM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
RiskIQ Illuminate	1.0%
CrowdStrike Falcon	7.5%
HackerOne	5.0%
Other	86.5%

Attack Surface Management (ASM)

Featured Reviews

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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SimonClark

Cyber Security Advisor - Director at Fort Net UK

Able to discover unpatched servers, offers good stability, and scales very well

A low-cost service to evaluate the risk score of a supply chain would be very helpful. This could be useful for insurance companies offering cyber insurance to enterprise customers, providing the insurer with a valuable way to unobtrusively, quickly, and frequently assess their customers and apply appropriate premiums for the level of risk. This would also be useful for enterprises. They could, for example, assess companies prior to a merger or acquisition. What would also be useful for any enterprise would be if their supply chain has some kind of direct digital access to parts of their network.

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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 most valuable feature is automation."

"Qualys VMDR provides a real-time response and reporting feature, which is excellent."

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

"I value the scheduling of scans and reports as per the desired timeframes."

"Technical support is great and we've never really had a problem."

"Authenticated scans provide different options, including those using or not using the FactSet and adding option profiles."

"The most valuable features of Qualys VM are its ability to do proper vulnerability assessment. It has a lot of updates for all the vulnerability databases from all over the globe. It's an amazing solution when it comes to the versatility of the features it has. Additionally, the reports are very good. It generates very detailed reports about the vulnerabilities inside the environment"

"Qualys VM had a recent upgrade and the newer version is supporting the cloud."

More Qualys VMDR pros

"The solution is stable with 12 years of established historical data."

Cons

"It would be helpful to have features for better tracking, including options for adding relevant owners or supporting groups for each asset."

"Sometimes the scanning can get overwhelmed and start to drag when a lot of users are trying to scan at once."

"Qualys VM's vulnerability scan could be improved, especially the number of CVE numbers it can manage at a time."

"Qualys should improve their customer experience. They need to improve the tech support experience and the turnaround time."

"Certain integration factors between different options could be improved."

"Qualys VM could improve by having more skilled support personnel."

"It is a struggle to be able to pull our report and to be able to do onboarding using automated tools."

"Improve the user interface."

More Qualys VMDR cons

"A low-cost service to evaluate the risk score of a supply chain would be very helpful."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When you want to cover yourself for scalability, you will be charged for the number you place on the scan itself."

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

"Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliance isn't expensive right now. But the price for their product bundles could be better."

"In Nigerian Naira, we spend about roughly four to five million to use this solution and this is expensive compared to solutions like Nessus."

"We do see over $100,000 in terms of price, for mid-size programs. You likely will pay more than $100,000 without any discount. It is a bit pricey."

"The solution is reasonably priced for the value it provides."

"The pricing and licensing for Qualys could be improved."

"They have recently changed the pricing model, which is now better than it was before."

More Qualys VMDR pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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

No data available

Questions from the Community

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 ...

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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.

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What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?

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Comparisons

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 9% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 8% of the time

Tenable Security Center vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 5% of the time

Wiz vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 27% of the time

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Compared 26% of the time

Cisco Vulnerability Management (formerly Kenna.VM) vs RiskIQ Illuminate

Compared 24% of the time

Mandiant Advantage vs RiskIQ Illuminate

Compared 23% of the time

More RiskIQ Illuminate Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

January 2026

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Attack Surface Management (ASM)

February 2026

Download RiskIQ Illuminate product report

Also Known As

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

RiskIQ Digital Threat Management

Overview

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

Threats are as vast as the internet. Defending your attack surface is a challenge of continuous change and global scale. RiskIQ Illuminate Internet Intelligence shows cyber threats relevant to your critical assets through connected digital relationships. It is the only security intelligence solution with tailored attack surface intelligence to uncover exposures, risks, and threats against your unique digital footprint, pinpointing what’s relevant to you—all in one place.

RiskIQ

Sample Customers

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

DocuSign, Outbrain, The Economist Group, Rackspace, The Citizen Lab

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

January 2026

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