Qualys Web Application Scanning vs Rapid7 InsightAppSec comparison

The compared Qualys and Rapid7 solutions aren't in the same category. Qualys is ranked #19 in AS , with an average rating of 7.4, and holds a 1.7% mindshare in the category. Rapid7 is ranked #5 in DAST , with an average rating of 7.5, and holds a 5.7% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Qualys users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Rapid7 users who would recommend it.

Qualys Web Application Scan...

Read 40 Qualys Web Application Scanning reviews

6,493 Views
4,091 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Rapid7 InsightAppSec

Read 20 Rapid7 InsightAppSec reviews

3,288 Views
1,545 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Qualys Web Application Scan...

Rapid7 InsightAppSec

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Qualys Web Application Scanning and Rapid7 InsightAppSec based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about SonarSource Sàrl, Checkmarx, Veracode and others in Application Security Tools.

To learn more, read our detailed Application Security Tools Report (Updated: July 2026).

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Application Security Tools

July 2026

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Helped 908,858 peers since 2012

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 Web Application Scan...

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (19th), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (14th)

Rapid7 InsightAppSec

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) (5th), AI Observability (23rd)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Quality Assurance solutions, they serve different purposes. Qualys Web Application Scanning is designed for Application Security Tools and holds a mindshare of 1.7%, down 2.1% compared to last year.
Rapid7 InsightAppSec, on the other hand, focuses on Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), holds 5.7% mindshare, up 4.8% since last year.

Application Security Tools Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qualys Web Application Scanning	1.7%
SonarQube	11.8%
Checkmarx One	8.0%
Other	78.5%

Application Security Tools

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Rapid7 InsightAppSec	5.7%
Checkmarx One	13.9%
Veracode	13.8%
Other	66.6%

Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)

Featured Reviews

AnkitSharma13

Security Officer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Web scanning needs improvement but offers good vulnerability detection

The downside of Qualys Web Application Scanning is that it cannot crawl automatically. If I provide an IP address and a login form, it does basic testing, but it doesn't go deep as IBM AppScan does. If Qualys Web Application Scanning could improve its crawling capability, it would be more user-friendly. Qualys Web Application Scanning does IP-level testing, requiring direct input of credentials, and can only scan a few pages to provide known generic vulnerabilities, which isn't as beneficial from my point of view. The Vulnerability Management also relies heavily on version numbers and will flag vulnerabilities based on the component version, but it doesn't check if a real fix exists, leading to flags on components that actually have workarounds available.

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Shritam Bhowmick

Vulnerability Management Lead at garrett

Provides reliable applications security but needs better integration options

There are areas for improvements regarding false positives. Integration capabilities are lacking, as options for integrations with other tools such as SNOW, Jira, or other integration tools are not sufficient in Rapid7 InsightAppSec. The user interface sometimes has glitches, which may prevent appropriate results during navigation, and even when we get appropriate results, it can be impossible to export them to CSV records or download files. Regarding scalability, Rapid7 InsightAppSec is not a scalable solution for our industry due to limited integration capabilities. Rapid7 relies on another tool called InsightConnect, which requires additional investment, detracting from scalability. Another area that needs improvement is the integration of AI capabilities into the platform. Both Rapid7 InsightAppSec and InsightVM need to advance in that area. In terms of behavioral and pattern recognition, identifying complex attacks such as SQL, blind SQL, JSON, and LDAP injections often results in 94% false positives. This necessitates improvement in their behavioral-based analytics feature.

Read full review

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 of Qualys Web Application Scanning is the effective scanning that can be done."

"It works with many different products."

"Qualys is perfect, scalability-wise."

"The product prevents possible vulnerabilities in our network."

"It is a very stable solution."

"Qualys Web Application Scanning is user-friendly, easy to understand, easy to use, and easy to deploy."

"The advantage of Qualys Web Application Scanning lies in its user-friendly dashboard and appealing reports, which are useful for presentation to leadership."

"WAS gave us visibility into our externally exposed web applications and showed us vulnerabilities that we were not aware of and did not know how to test for."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning pros

"We have seen measurable decrease in the mean time to respond to threats by 20 percent."

"It uses a signature-based method to check for problems with your code and will provide an alert if anything is found."

"In Rapid7 InsightAppSec, a distinctive feature is the provision of a CDM for integrating web servers and web applications. To establish the connection between these applications, you only need to paste the provided CDN into your metadata. Once connected, every piece of information, including vulnerabilities, can be accessed. It also offers demo sessions."

"Dynamic application security scanning provides predefined templates and supports customization. The ability to scan external and internal applications, including on-premises ones, is precious. Additionally, it is a cloud platform, so we don't need to deploy servers or resources. This makes it time-efficient and cost-effective."

"When considering DAST, it is not attributed to a singular feature but rather the capabilities of the engine that provides a genuine penetration testing experience and delivers insightful reports."

"It's very easy to use and user-friendly, and it does the job."

"The templates feature is very easy; you just choose the kind of attack you want on your web application, and you run it against that template and receive a report, which is great."

"It is a very robust solution."

More Rapid7 InsightAppSec pros

Cons

"I would like it to be cheaper because it is a bit expensive compared to competitors like Tenable Nessus."

"The licensing and user permissions are a little wonky for a DevOps team to use, probably because it’s traditionally an InfoSec tool."

"The reporting contains too many false positives."

"The pricing of Qualys is quite expensive in comparison with the other products in this category that are offering pretty much the same thing."

"The scanner reports a lot of false positives, which is something that needs to be improved."

"We have many websites. We don't force scanning on all of them at once because it's taking some time."

"The tool should have a live HTTP editor and more configuration options for some situations, such as handling applications that have URL rewriting enabled."

"Deployment can be complicated."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning cons

"The performance can be improved."

"In the future, if they can have integration with a lot of ticketing systems then it would be amazing."

"The interface should be a little bit easier to manage. Sometimes, the logic that they use is kind of strange."

"The only concern I have with Rapid7 is that it does not provide enough information about vulnerabilities within AppSec."

"When you add new projects for the same product, it either duplicates or replaces the scan configuration. If I run a scan for the same product with a different scan configuration, it should keep the previous scan configuration and not replace it with the new scan configuration. It should just add the new scan configuration. That would be helpful. They do keep the results as it is, but the scan configuration keeps changing. For example, I have set a scan configuration to a full scan, and next week, I want to run a new scan for the same product with some changes or new functionalities. I want to run a partial scan. Currently, if I change the scan configuration to partial, it changes the old one also to partial. That should be improved."

"There is room for improvement in Rapid7 InsightAppSec by giving clients the ability for extra columns on reports and enabling the extraction of remediation reports into a CSV format. Currently, the PDF format is cumbersome to go through when dealing with thousands of pages."

"The technical support from Rapid7 is not bad, but the response time can be quite slow sometimes."

"I required a solution to manage on-premises, but I was not as satisfied as expected."

More Rapid7 InsightAppSec cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product has a very good licensing model."

"Qualys has an IT-based licensing based on a yearly license, which is a good way of handling it. However, in some cases, when we do the PCI scanning, the host will not like the scanning and we lose the IT license. So, this could be improved."

"The product pricing is fair and reasonably priced."

"It is an expensive platform."

"Qualys Web Application Scanning's pricing is a bit expensive compared to other solutions available in the market."

"The cost is $30,000 USD for one year to cover WAS (Web Application Security) and the VM (Virtual Machine) security in a company with 200 employees."

"Try the free trial of the product to understand the basic working mechanisms."

"There are different options available with respect to licensing."

More Qualys Web Application Scanning pricing and cost advice

"I rate Rapid7 InsightAppSec’s pricing an eight out of ten."

"Rapid7 InsightAppSec is cheap."

"The price of this product is very cheap."

"They offer a good price, but I don't remember its cost. It is fair as compared to the competition. We have opted for project-based licensing, not user-based. We can add any number of users. That doesn't matter. It is worth the money."

"I'm not sure how much it costs exactly, but I know it's expensive."

"Its price is competitive. It is not expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

13%

Construction Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	27

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys Web Application Scanning?

Regarding pricing, I think for personal use, it is costly, but if organizations are ready to pay, then it is fine as they are using it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys Web Application Scanning?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Qualys Web Application Scanning?

I use Qualys Web Application Scanning, and we are using Vulnerability Management. By Vulnerability Management, I mean not TotalCloud; they have some on-premises solutions also. Patch Management and...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rapid7 InsightAppSec?

Customers sometimes experience issues with performance. One thing that I recall is that most customers often want to have reporting as per their customized dashboard. This needs to be improved beca...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Rapid7 InsightAppSec?

I usually recommend this solution for financial institutions. Banks and financial institutions need this solution mostly because they have to follow stringent compliance advisory requirements, so t...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Rapid7 InsightAppSec?

I have not heard any complaints. I do not have any recommendations because customers were initially worried about the number of scans they used to perform, and now it has been enhanced or it will s...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

OWASP Zap vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 6% of the time

Veracode vs Qualys Web Application Scanning

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 14% of the time

AppCheck vs Rapid7 InsightAppSec

Compared 14% of the time

Veracode vs Rapid7 InsightAppSec

Compared 13% of the time

StackHawk vs Rapid7 InsightAppSec

Compared 11% of the time

More Rapid7 InsightAppSec Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys Web Application Scanning

July 2026

Download Qualys Web Application Scanning product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 InsightAppSec

July 2026

Download Rapid7 InsightAppSec product report

Also Known As

Qualys WAS

InsightAppSec

Overview

Qualys Web Application Scanning offers advanced vulnerability management, progressive scheduling, and seamless integration with DevOps environments. Its user-friendly design enables enterprises to enhance security with comprehensive scanning and detailed forensic insights.

Qualys Web Application Scanning addresses enterprise-level security challenges by providing robust solutions for vulnerability management, penetration testing, and compliance checks. While easing the navigation process, it supports risk mitigation with precise risk ratings, minimal false positives, and detailed reporting. However, it faces challenges with its complex interface, authenticated scanning, and automation features. Integrating smoothly with CI/CD pipelines, it is suitable for continuous and automated scanning, adapting to diverse company requirements.

What are the standout features of Qualys Web Application Scanning?

Progressive Scheduling: Enables efficient management of scanning activities, optimizing for time-sensitive scenarios.
Vulnerability Management: Offers robust identification and management of vulnerabilities across various applications.
Integration with DevOps: Seamlessly integrates with CI/CD pipelines, supporting rapid development cycles.
Risk Ratings: Provides precise risk assessments, crucial for prioritizing security efforts.
Engaging Dashboard: Offers an intuitive interface for navigating security tasks efficiently.

What benefits or ROI should users look for in Qualys Web Application Scanning reviews?

Scalability: Supports enterprise needs with a design adaptable to diverse security demands.
Risk Mitigation: Detailed alerts and forensic insights aid in reducing potential threats.
Comprehensive Reporting: Facilitates informed decision-making with clear, concise reports.
Penetration Testing: Enhances security assessments with ongoing evaluation capabilities.

Organizations across sectors like education, banking, and international data centers leverage Qualys Web Application Scanning for conducting penetration testing, scanning web applications, and managing vulnerabilities. It aids in audit security and compliance, identifying threats, and generating user-friendly reports, making it a valuable asset for maintaining strong security postures.

Qualys

Rapid7 InsightAppSec is a cloud-based security tool offering robust web scanning capabilities with a user-friendly interface and seamless integration. It enhances dynamic application security testing through customizable modules, providing comprehensive reports and remediation guidance.

InsightAppSec delivers dynamic application security testing with features like Attack Replay and a centralized dashboard for vulnerability insights. It supports flexible deployment options and simplifies scheduling frequent scans. The tool's intuitive graphical interface and extensive scanning coverage make it valuable for identifying vulnerabilities in web applications, APIs, and e-commerce sites, ensuring compliance. However, improvements are needed in detection accuracy, reporting options, and integrations with external tools like WAF and ticketing systems. There is a need for better scan management, support for mobile applications, customized reporting options, pricing flexibility, improved support, and AI integration.

What are the key features of InsightAppSec?

Seamless Integration: Easily integrates within SDLC for automated scans.
User-Friendly Interface: Offers an intuitive graphical experience.
Robust Web Scanning: Provides extensive vulnerability scanning of web applications and APIs.
Customizable Attack Modules: Tailors testing to meet specific security needs.
Attack Replay: Facilitates re-testing of potential vulnerabilities for accuracy.
Centralized Dashboard: Offers comprehensive insights into vulnerabilities.

What benefits should users look for?

Comprehensive Reports: Delivers detailed insights into security vulnerabilities.
Remediation Guidance: Provides actionable advice to fix identified vulnerabilities.
Scalability: Supports growth by handling increased demands efficiently.
Extensive Coverage: Ensures thorough security testing across multiple platforms.
Flexible Deployment: Adapts to different operational environments.

Industries rely on InsightAppSec for vulnerability scanning to secure web applications, APIs, and e-commerce platforms. Its integration within the SDLC aids in automating scans during development. While limitations exist with certain tool integrations, its cloud-based engine and effective reporting make it essential for internal and external application security assurance.

Rapid7

Sample Customers

BskyB, Cartagena, ClearPoint Learning Systems, Connect Group, du, Fortrex Technologies, HBOR, HDI, Highlights for Children, The Lithuanian State Enterprise Centre of Registers, City of Miami Beach, Microsoft, MidlandHR, MSCI Inc., Northern Arizona University, Ofgem, Olympus Europa, PhoneFactor, RTL Nederland, ThousandEyes, VGZ Organisatie B.V.

CenterPoint Energy, CPA Australia, Hypertherm, First American Financial Corporation, Rackspace

Buyer's Guide

Application Security Tools

July 2026

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