CyberScore vs Qualys VMDR
Qualys VMDR is the enterprise standard for vulnerability management — agents on every laptop, scanners on every subnet, policy compliance for every framework. The honest framing is Qualys covers internal + external at enterprise scale, CyberScore covers the external perimeter for teams without a six-figure VM budget — different shape, different price, different buyer.
Last reviewed June 2026. Qualys references reflect the public Qualys website at the time of writing — pricing is quote-driven and sales-led, figures cited are typical mid-market ranges from Qualys sales conversations and may have changed.
Side by side
| Capability | CyberScore | Qualys VMDR |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price (paid) | $49 one-time, $249 / month (Pro), $399 / month (Always-On) | Quote-driven, typically $$$$ — often $30-100k / year for mid-market deployments per Qualys sales conversations. No public pricing on the Qualys website at the time of writing. |
| Primary use case | External attack-surface monitoring between two pentests — DNS, TLS, headers, ports, OSINT, leaked secrets, email security. | Enterprise vulnerability management across internal + external assets. Agent-based asset inventory, patch management, policy compliance at scale. |
| Who runs it | Set-and-forget for the CISO or CTO. Weekly digest, you don't open the tool unless a score drops. | Dedicated vulnerability-management team or SOC. Qualys is a full platform — value comes from operators who own asset inventory, scan policies and remediation workflow. |
| Internal network scanning | No — by design. We only see what's reachable from the public internet. | Yes — Qualys Cloud Agent + internal scanner appliances cover internal assets, laptops, servers, containers, and cloud workloads. This is where Qualys is genuinely strong. |
| Setup time | Under 2 minutes — type a domain, get a score. No agent install. | Weeks to months — agent rollout, scanner appliance deployment, asset tagging, policy configuration, identity integration. |
| Continuous monitoring cadence | Weekly auto-scans on Pro, daily on Always-On. Email digest with delta + Slack alerts on score drops. | Configurable scan schedules + continuous agent telemetry. Powerful, but configured + maintained by the VM team. |
| Reporting / PDF artefacts | Multi-page PDF + AI Security Brief + findings-delta on rescans. Designed for a CISO + DPO to read in one sitting. | Highly customisable reporting engine — dashboards, scheduled exports, compliance templates. Built for an enterprise reporting workflow. |
| Integrations (Slack, webhook, API) | Slack incoming-webhook per domain on Pro, REST API, JSON export. Lightweight and direct. | Extensive: ServiceNow, Jira, Splunk, Slack, ITSM connectors, REST API. Designed to plug into an existing SOC stack. |
| Compliance mapping (ISO 27001 / SOC 2) | CSV export of every "Mark fixed / Won't fix / Snoozed" decision with operator email + timestamp. Pragmatic audit log. | Full Qualys Policy Compliance module with mapped frameworks (PCI DSS, ISO, NIST, HIPAA, CIS). Quote-driven add-on. |
| Hosting + data residency | Hosted in France — single Postgres database per tenant. Reports never leave EU. | Multiple regional Qualys clouds (US, EU, IN, UK, CA). Data residency depends on the platform region selected. |
| Free preview without an account | Yes — one anonymous sample scan per IP. | Free trial behind a demo request — sales-led onboarding. |
| Contract model | Month-to-month, cancel anytime. Annual saves 20%. | Annual commit, multi-year discounts via sales negotiation. |
When CyberScore is the right call
- You only need to watch the external perimeter — you do not need agents on laptops or scanners on internal subnets.
- You want a public price you can pay on a credit card, not a quote-driven contract with annual commit.
- You don't have a dedicated vulnerability management team to run Qualys properly — set-and-forget monitoring matches your headcount.
- You need a single 0-100 score for a board pack, not a Qualys dashboard suite that requires training to navigate.
When Qualys is the right call (or both)
- You need agent-based internal scanning and an authoritative asset inventory across thousands of endpoints. That's Qualys territory, not ours.
- You need policy compliance modules mapped to PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001 and CIS benchmarks out of the box.
- You already have a SOC + VM team that lives in ServiceNow / Splunk and Qualys plugs into that stack.
Some enterprise teams run both: Qualys for internal agent-based VM, CyberScore for the lightweight external watch + weekly board-ready PDF. The two don't overlap.
Frequently asked questions
Is CyberScore a Qualys VMDR replacement?+
No. Qualys VMDR is a full enterprise vulnerability management platform — agent-based internal scanning, asset inventory at scale, patch + policy compliance modules. CyberScore only covers the external perimeter (DNS, TLS, headers, ports, OSINT, leaked secrets). If you need to scan laptops, internal servers or container workloads, Qualys is the right tool, not us.
Why would an SMB pick CyberScore over Qualys?+
Two reasons: price and shape. Qualys is quote-driven and typically lands in the $30-100k per year range for mid-market deployments per Qualys sales conversations. CyberScore Pro is $249 per month, public price. And shape: most SMBs without a dedicated VM team only need the external perimeter watched, not a full VMDR rollout with agents and policy compliance modules.
Qualys VMDR pricing — why is it not public?+
Qualys does not publish list pricing on its website at the time of writing. Quotes are sales-led and depend on asset count, modules selected (VMDR core, Policy Compliance, Web App Scanning, Cloud Agent, etc.), and contract length. Mid-market deployments commonly land in the $30-100k per year range per Qualys sales conversations.
Does CyberScore do internal network scanning like Qualys?+
No — by design. CyberScore only sees what is reachable from the public internet. We do not install agents on your laptops or servers and we do not deploy scanner appliances inside your network. If internal asset inventory and patch compliance are your top priority, Qualys (or Rapid7 InsightVM, or Tenable Nessus) is the right shape, not us.
Can I run CyberScore alongside Qualys?+
Yes, that combination makes sense. Use Qualys for what it is genuinely strong at — internal agent-based scanning, asset inventory, policy compliance. Use CyberScore as a lightweight external watch with a weekly digest + Slack alerts, so the CISO has a single 0-100 score for the board pack without spinning up another Qualys dashboard.
How fast can I get started with CyberScore vs Qualys?+
CyberScore: under 2 minutes — type a domain, get a score, no agent install. Qualys: typically weeks to months — agent rollout, scanner appliance deployment, asset tagging, policy configuration, identity integration. If you need a result this afternoon for a board meeting next week, the timelines are not comparable.
See it for yourself
Run a free sample scan on your own domain — no account, no credit card, no sales call. See exactly what we surface from the public internet, then decide.
Got a comparison correction? Email patrick@cybersco.re and we'll update the page.