FortiDevSec vs Qualys Exposure Management comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Fortinet and Qualys are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Fortinet is ranked #70, while Qualys is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5. Fortinet holds a 0.5% mindshare in VM, compared to Qualys’s 4.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Qualys users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 13, 2026

Qualys VMDR and FortiDevSec are products addressing vulnerability management and application security. Customers are more satisfied with FortiDevSec's features, but Qualys VMDR is more favorable in terms of cost.

Features: Qualys VMDR offers advanced vulnerability detection, real-time monitoring, and comprehensive threat intelligence, appealing to businesses prioritizing broad cyber exposure. FortiDevSec focuses on secure DevOps integration, application-level threat protection, and advanced security capabilities, making it attractive to organizations emphasizing development security.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Qualys VMDR is praised for straightforward deployment and robust support, facilitating quick setup. FortiDevSec's deployment process may be complex due to extensive features but is backed by a responsive customer support team.

Pricing and ROI: Qualys VMDR offers competitive pricing and efficient resource utilization, providing a strong return on investment with lower initial costs. FortiDevSec requires a higher setup cost justified by its specialized features and effective performance, delivering significant returns for security-focused businesses.

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

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

September 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 TotalCloud

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FortiDevSec is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Qualys Exposure Management is 4.0%, down from 7.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qualys Exposure Management	4.0%
Qualys TotalCloud	1.2%
FortiDevSec	0.5%
Other	94.3%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021

Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees

Risk-based triage has transformed container security and now prioritizes high-impact threats

The best features Qualys TotalCloud offers currently include managing cloud infrastructure and container security while facing major challenges such as alert fatigue. Traditional vulnerability scanners flag hundreds of CVEs on short-lived Kubernetes containers, some of which have no internet exposure or are gone before we can even triage them. I leverage Qualys TotalCloud to move beyond static CVSS. I use it to implement runtime exposure, correlation risk reprioritization, and shift-left integration. This notifies developers to fix a base image upstream rather than patching live ephemeral instances. In my work with cloud and container security, the biggest operational hurdle was alert fatigue. I use Qualys to shift left from static CVSS severity to context-aware risk prioritization. I correlated raw vulnerability data with real-time risk factors such as public network exposure, active runtime execution, or overly permissive IAM roles. This allows us to immediately drop the priority of isolated containers and escalate lower-severity CVEs that sit on an exposed, high-risk path. We can map these findings directly back to our CI/CD pipelines so developers can patch the root base images upstream. We have drastically cut down the signal-to-noise ratio, saved a lot of manual hours doing triage work, and ensured engineering effort goes directly towards high-impact risk reduction.

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MohammedJaffir

Founder at Cipheroot Cybersecurity Solutions

Scans codes in CI/CD pipelines and identifies vulnerabilities

In a customer environment, developers integrate their code with CI/CD pipelines. Most developers use cloud platforms like AWS or Azure and project management tools. FortiDevSec integrates with these CI/CD pipelines using agents such as YAML files. Once integrated, FortiDevSec scans the source code using our product or within the IDE. The most valuable feature is the ability to identify known vulnerabilities in applications by generating reports easily. This development gamification is very useful for developers. Compared to TechSmart and Fortify, FortiDevSec has similar features, but it is much easier to use because of its simple setup. SysTrack, for example, is not very simple. For the CI/CD pipeline, we only need to integrate a YAML file into the security process. Compared to other products, the tool requires fewer steps. We must integrate one file with the CI/CD pipeline, automatically pulling the code report to the repository. Using our API and username, it is easy to scan the environment. The tool's integration is also easy.

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Ajay Paul

System Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

Vulnerability management has prioritized high‑risk patching and simplified bulk system reporting

The primary issue is with the reporting functionality. Even though we fix vulnerabilities, the reports do not reflect the changes immediately. Sometimes we need to manually run a script to scan the systems before Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management will update the scan results. The main issue is the reporting delay, and sometimes the Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Management agent will not scan the system, which means we do not receive accurate reports in a timely manner. Additionally, there are many metrics for calculating vulnerabilities, such as the Qualys ID, severity scores, CVSS scores, and other metrics. The abundance of information can be confusing. These two aspects are the most significant negatives I have experienced with this tool.

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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

"Qualys TotalCloud provides unified vulnerability and threat assessment for IaaS and SaaS and a single prioritized view of risk, which helps reduce my workload by not having to combine multiple sources."

"The best feature would be the ability to create policies. It is easy to control and update policies as required."

"Its excellent graphical interface makes the scanning process simple."

"Qualys TotalCloud's most valuable features are its cloud security posture management, Kubernetes, and container security capabilities."

"TotalCloud's best feature is the integration of cloud accounts. It helps with the risk and security posture management of our cloud infrastructure."

"Qualys TotalCloud is an excellent platform, and the beauty of the platform is that we can get all the vulnerabilities, see all the reports in a single dashboard, view them segregated, and easily learn about critical, high, and medium findings with appropriately provided remediation steps."

"The platform's unified view of the organization proves particularly valuable for leadership team meetings."

"If I had to say something positive about the product that brings me the biggest benefit, I would say it has accurate reports, gets new update CVEs, zero-day attack detection, and is easy to manage with its GUI."

More Qualys TotalCloud pros

"In a customer environment, developers integrate their code with CI/CD pipelines. Most developers use cloud platforms like AWS or Azure and project management tools. FortiDevSec integrates with these CI/CD pipelines using agents such as YAML files. Once integrated, FortiDevSec scans the source code using our product or within the IDE."

"I find the solution's dashboard interesting...The response time is fine. You can pull up reports without dragging or consuming bandwidth."

"It's really beneficial for scanning and interacting with the agent."

"The integrations for this solution are very good, as I use a different product for virtual patching of vulnerabilities and Qualys integrates well with that product."

"Provides great functionality."

"The solution shows us classic categories, including high, medium, and low risks. It also shows critical items, and that gives us the advantage of prioritizing things."

"For a typical IT system, it is very good to go with this solution."

"The customer service level is very high."

"After implementing Qualys Exposure Management, our critical vulnerabilities' mean time to resolve (MTTR) decreased from around 20 days to five to seven days, resulting in a 65-70% improvement."

More Qualys Exposure Management pros

Cons

"Although TotalCloud is a helpful tool, some of its advanced features are still under development."

"The downside is only in container security, but it has not been a long time since they introduced these models."

"Areas that need improvement in every solution include the remediation part. The remediation steps should be simple enough for everyone to understand."

"In a future release, I suggest that zero-day vulnerabilities should be predicted in advance using AI technologies. The system is not 100% secure yet, so proactive threat hunting could be enhanced to be more proactive than the current system."

"The price is very expensive, actually."

"The onboarding process is a bit difficult. In the initial phase, it is very difficult to understand the features, what the dashboard contains, and what criteria they are using."

"I sometimes have difficulty detecting or uninstalling certain versions of applications, which I have to do manually."

"I would appreciate additional integration options to connect Qualys TotalCloud with our other vulnerability management tools."

More Qualys TotalCloud cons

"The only drawback I see with FortiDevSec is the lack of extensions."

"There were some issues later with Qualys VMDR regarding security, specifically with numerous false positive reports."

"It would be nice to have an all-in-one solution that was automated and could handle the scanning and reports as well as the patching and updating."

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

"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."

"For a company with over 100,000 assets, there are challenges with scalability."

"If anything, I would like to see the user interface modernized a bit more."

"I'd like to see additional security for the app."

More Qualys Exposure Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Qualys TotalCloud is cost-efficient and was selected for its value compared to other products."

"It isn't cheap, but it's reasonable. It helps us to manage things with very few resources."

"Its price seems higher compared to other tools, but it is worth it. If they could adjust the pricing and make it comparable with other tools, that would be great."

"TotalCloud's price is about right where I would expect it to be."

"Although Qualys TotalCloud is relatively expensive due to its unique automation features, its cost-effectiveness is rated an eight out of ten, with ten being the most costly."

"The pricing is comparable. It is built into our other product, so I cannot piecemeal it. It is a part of our subscription."

"While Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive and may soon be considered overpriced."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers cost-effective licensing flexibility."

More Qualys TotalCloud pricing and cost advice

Information not available

"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."

"The license is on a yearly basis."

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

"Usually every implementation is different and the quote is in function of number of assets."

"The product is more expensive than that of any other vendor."

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

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

"Qualys VM is reasonably priced."

More Qualys Exposure Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

18%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Construction Company

23%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Outsourcing Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	38

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	75

Questions from the Community

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

I was not involved in pricing, setup cost, and licensing, but I can say that the setup was fast, within a quarter, an...

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What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?

In terms of improvements, the features we are using in Qualys TotalCloud are working in the best optimal way, and I d...

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What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?

I have been using Qualys TotalCloud for the last eight months to scan the hardware and the virtual devices in our inf...

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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?

I haven't explored Qualys VMDR's vulnerability lifecycle automation yet. One of my analysts mentioned that queries la...

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What advice do you have for others considering Qualys VMDR?

I have some understanding about PeerSpot, and I have visited the website. PeerSpot is similar to TrustRadius. It take...

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Comparisons

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Compared 11% of the time

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Orca Security vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 6% of the time

Uptycs vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 2% of the time

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SonarQube vs FortiDevSec

Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Identity vs FortiDevSec

Compared 12% of the time

FortiCNAPP vs FortiDevSec

Compared 12% of the time

OpenText Core Application Security vs FortiDevSec

Compared 10% of the time

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Rapid7 InsightVM vs Qualys Exposure Management

Compared 4% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Qualys Exposure Management

Compared 3% of the time

Tenable Security Center vs Qualys Exposure Management

Compared 3% of the time

Rapid7 Metasploit vs Qualys Exposure Management

Compared 3% of the time

Wiz vs Qualys Exposure Management

Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys TotalCloud

October 2026

Download Qualys TotalCloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Static Application Security Testing (SAST)

October 2026

Download FortiDevSec product report

Buyer's Guide

Qualys Exposure Management

October 2026

Download Qualys Exposure Management product report

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan

No data available

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

Overview

Qualys TotalCloud enhances security posture across cloud environments with continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, and risk visualization, ensuring efficient threat assessment and automated remediation for improved cyber risk reduction.

Qualys TotalCloud offers a robust suite of security tools essential for organizations managing multi-cloud infrastructures. By integrating cloud accounts and automating workflows, it supports AWS, Azure, and GCP, offering comprehensive vulnerability management and zero-day detection. The platform's user-friendly design, combined with its extensive risk management and unified threat assessment capabilities, enables organizations to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities effectively. TruRisk Insights provides clear insights on cyber risks, while the automation options streamline patch management and scanning processes. API integration across IaaS and SaaS environments further enhances resource allocation efficiency and saves time, addressing misconfigurations across cloud environments.

What are the most important features of Qualys TotalCloud?

Accurate Vulnerability Reports: Delivers precise and actionable insights for risk mitigation.
Zero-Day Detection: Identifies and addresses zero-day vulnerabilities proactively.
Unified Threat Assessment: Offers comprehensive evaluation of threats across the environment.
Extensive Risk Management: Manages risks effectively with advanced insights and prioritization.
Continuous Monitoring: Provides non-stop surveillance for vulnerabilities and threats.
Cloud-Native Automation: Streamlines processes and reduces manual efforts using automation.
FlexScan for Internet-Facing VMs: Scans external VMs efficiently to detect vulnerabilities.
Dashboard Risk Visualization: Clear visualization helps prioritize vulnerabilities.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Improved Security Posture: Enhances threat detection and response across clouds.
Time Savings: Automation reduces time spent on manual vulnerability management.
Resource Efficiency: Better allocation of resources through streamlined workflows.
Enhanced Risk Prioritization: Focus on critical vulnerabilities for effective mitigation.
Integrated Cloud Accounts: Facilitates seamless cloud management and security.

Qualys TotalCloud is deployed in sectors needing rigorous vulnerability management, such as finance and healthcare. Companies utilize it to secure multi-cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and GCP, focus on compliance, and integrate security into CI/CD pipelines to detect and remedy threats pre-deployment.

Qualys

FortiDevSec enhances application security by integrating seamlessly into development pipelines, facilitating early threat detection and mitigation. It supports continuous delivery models and ensures robust application defenses while maintaining efficient development workflows.

By embedding security into DevOps processes, FortiDevSec allows teams to address vulnerabilities during development. It automates security assessments, offering insights that help in reducing risk and improving compliance. Its integration capabilities streamline application security without disrupting developer productivity.

What are the key features of FortiDevSec?

Continuous Integration: Automates security checks within development workflows.
Comprehensive Analysis: Provides multi-vector scanning for thorough threat detection.
Risk-Based Prioritization: Identifies and prioritizes critical vulnerabilities.
Integration Compatibility: Easy integration with existing CI/CD tools.

What benefits can users expect from FortiDevSec?

Enhanced Security: Improves application protection by identifying security threats early.
Increased Efficiency: Reduces manual security assessment time with automation.
Compliance Support: Aids in aligning with industry security standards.
Cost Effectiveness: Minimizes costs associated with post-production vulnerability fixes.

Industries implementing FortiDevSec like finance and healthcare benefit from its ability to meet strict regulatory standards while ensuring secure and rapid application deployment. It supports integration into existing workflows, making it a valuable tool for maintaining compliance and protecting sensitive data.

Fortinet

Qualys VMDR is a comprehensive cybersecurity tool offering vulnerability management, patch management, and continuous monitoring with real-time asset discovery. It delivers scalable, cloud-based solutions that enhance security operations without additional infrastructure.

Qualys VMDR provides a robust platform for enterprise security, integrating vulnerability management, compliance, and asset inventory for full visibility across cloud and on-premises environments. It features a comprehensive dashboard with threat intelligence-driven prioritization and remediation capabilities. Users benefit from accurate assessments via agent-based scanning and appreciate the intuitive, customizable scanning and reporting interface. However, there's room for improvement in false positive reduction, UI simplification, and integration capabilities, along with enhancements in asset management for large-scale deployments and the vulnerability database. Enhancing technical support speed, patch management, compliance standards, and inter-module navigation would further enrich user experience.

What are the key features of Qualys VMDR?

Vulnerability Management: Identifies and manages security vulnerabilities across environments.
Patch Management: Ensures systems are updated with the latest patches.
Continuous Monitoring: Offers real-time insights into security posture.
Asset Discovery: Provides up-to-date asset inventory and visibility.
Threat Intelligence: Enhances prioritization and remediation processes.
Customizable Dashboard: Facilitates easier scanning and reporting through an intuitive interface.

What benefits can users expect when evaluating Qualys VMDR?

Scalability: Cloud-based deployment offers easy, cost-effective expansion.
Accurate Assessment: Agent-based scanning keeps security data current.
Enhanced Security Operations: Comprehensive features streamline vulnerability management.
Advanced Reporting: Facilitates detailed insights for better security decision-making.

Qualys VMDR is widely used in industries needing stringent security and compliance measures, offering comprehensive vulnerability and compliance management. It is deployed to secure web applications, servers, and crucial assets, supporting a wide range of sectors by ensuring policy adherence and vulnerability tracking through its powerful cloud platform.

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

Vulnerability Management

September 2026

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