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Developer Tools · head to head

Ansible vs Qualys VMDR

Ansible logo

Ansible

Developer Tools

Simple, agentless IT automation

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite
Qualys VMDR logo

Qualys VMDR

Cybersecurity

Cloud-delivered vulnerability management licensed per asset, using scanner appliances and a lightweight agent.

From
$3/month
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Ansible has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Ansible the open source project gives the engine and the language; the automation controller, automation mesh, automation hub, analytics and governance all belong to the paid Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform; Qualys VMDR licensing is per asset and each capability is its own subscription, so patch management, endpoint detection, web application scanning, container security and policy compliance are separate line items, and the platform demonstrated in a proof of concept is rarely the platform in the quote.
  • They diverge on capability: Ansible covers Playbooks, Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Ansible and Qualys VMDR actually diverge.

Attributes where Ansible and Qualys VMDR differ
AttributeAnsibleQualys VMDR
Starting priceFree$3/month
Pricing modelopen-sourcesubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinux, Windows, Mac, ApiWeb, Cloud, Api
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity
Founded20121999

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Ansible

  • Playbooks
  • Inventory management
  • Module library
  • Variables and templating
  • Handlers
  • Roles
  • Async tasks
  • Plugins

Only in Qualys VMDR

  • Cloud Agent
  • Scanner appliances
  • Authenticated scanning
  • TruRisk scoring
  • Asset inventory
  • Patch Management
  • Cloud connectors
  • Container sensor

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Ansible

  • Configuration managementnot Qualys VMDR
  • Server provisioningnot Qualys VMDR
  • Application deploymentnot Qualys VMDR
  • Multi-node managementnot Qualys VMDR
  • Orchestrationnot Qualys VMDR

Qualys VMDR

  • A hybrid workforce where scheduled network scans miss most laptops and continuous agent-based assessment is the only way to get real coveragenot Ansible
  • PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot Ansible
  • An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot Ansible
  • Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot Ansible

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Ansible

  • The open source project gives the engine and the language; the automation controller, automation mesh, automation hub, analytics and governance all belong to the paid Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
  • Event-Driven Ansible and the AI coding assistant are platform features rather than open source ones
  • Red Hat does not publish platform pricing
  • Running open source Ansible at scale means building the control plane the platform otherwise provides

Qualys VMDR

  • Licensing is per asset and each capability is its own subscription, so patch management, endpoint detection, web application scanning, container security and policy compliance are separate line items, and the platform demonstrated in a proof of concept is rarely the platform in the quote.
  • Ephemeral cloud instances consume asset entitlement until they age out of inventory, so an autoscaling group that creates and destroys hosts hourly can burn licence capacity on machines that existed for minutes, and controlling that means tuning purge policies rather than tuning the cloud.
  • Authenticated scanning produces materially better results than unauthenticated, but it requires storing and rotating privileged credentials for every target platform, which is a security project in its own right, and teams that skip it receive reports full of unconfirmed potential findings that nobody trusts.
  • The console is a set of modules with separate interfaces, search syntaxes and report engines, so an analyst moving between vulnerability management, policy compliance and web application scanning learns each one, and cross-module reporting usually ends in a spreadsheet or a script against the API.
  • The tool surfaces findings far faster than any organisation can remediate them, and it does not solve the ownership problem: without an agreed prioritisation policy and a named owner in IT operations, a first scan producing tens of thousands of findings becomes a dashboard that everyone learns to ignore.

Pricing, plan by plan

Ansible

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • Community edition
    • Unlimited nodes
    • Full functionality
  • Ansible Automation Platform$5000/year
    • Enterprise support
    • Ansible Tower
    • Advanced features

Qualys VMDR

$3/month
  • VMDR$3/month
    • Per asset
    • Vulnerability scanning
    • Detection
  • VMDR+$5/month
    • All VMDR features
    • Advanced analytics
    • Cloud integration
  • VMDR Complete$7/month
    • All VMDR+ features
    • Threat intel
    • Response automation

Which should you pick?

Choose Ansible if

  • You need playbooks.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
  • You also want inventory management.
Ansible review

Choose Qualys VMDR if

  • You need cloud agent.
  • You work on Web, Cloud, Api.
  • You also want scanner appliances.
Qualys VMDR review

Questions people ask

Is Ansible or Qualys VMDR better?
Neither clearly leads. Ansible starts at Free and Qualys VMDR at $3/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Ansible or Qualys VMDR?
Ansible has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Ansible and $3/month for Qualys VMDR.
Does Ansible or Qualys VMDR run on more platforms?
Ansible runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api. Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api.
Can I use Ansible for free?
Yes. Ansible has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month.
What is Ansible best used for?
Ansible is most often used for configuration management, server provisioning, application deployment, multi-node management. Of those, configuration management and server provisioning are not what Qualys VMDR is typically brought in for.
What can Ansible do that Qualys VMDR cannot?
Ansible covers Playbooks, Inventory management, Module library, Variables and templating. Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Ansible: Is Ansible free for commercial use?

Ansible Collaborative is open source. The page describes it as 'an open source IT automation engine' and does not impose restrictions on commercial use for the open source version.

Source
Qualys VMDR: Agent or scanner: which do I need?

Usually both. The agent covers endpoints and servers you control and gives continuous data; scanners cover devices you cannot install an agent on, such as network gear, printers and appliances, and provide the external perimeter view.

Ansible: What is the difference between open source Ansible and the commercial alternative?

The page references Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform as an enterprise alternative to Ansible Collaborative, but does not disclose specific differences, pricing, or feature comparisons between the two offerings.

Source
Qualys VMDR: Does it patch as well as detect?

Yes, through the Patch Management module, which is a separate subscription using the same agent. Core VMDR detects and prioritises but does not deploy fixes.

Ansible: Is there paid support available for Ansible?

The page does not disclose whether paid support contracts are available for open source Ansible or whether Red Hat offers support plans for their enterprise Ansible Automation Platform.

Source
Qualys VMDR: How are assets counted for licensing?

By the number of assets in inventory, which includes cloud instances and containers depending on the modules in use. Short-lived cloud assets count until they are purged, so purge settings directly affect what you consume.

Qualys VMDR: Can I keep the data in a specific region?

Yes. Qualys operates several regional platform instances and you choose which one your subscription lives on. Moving between them later is not trivial, so decide before onboarding.

Qualys VMDR: Does it scan web applications?

Web Application Scanning is a separate module licensed per application, not part of core VMDR, and it is a dynamic scanner with the usual limits around authenticated flows in single-page applications.

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