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Azure Government vs Qualys VMDR

Azure Government logo

Azure Government

Government

Trusted Cloud for Government

From
On request
Free plan
No
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

  • Each has a real cost: Azure Government restricted to US government entities, their solution providers and contractors handling government data, with Microsoft validating eligibility first; 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: Azure Government covers FedRAMP High Authorized, Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Azure Government and Qualys VMDR actually diverge.

Attributes where Azure Government and Qualys VMDR differ
AttributeAzure GovernmentQualys VMDR
Starting priceOn request$3/month
Pricing modelusage-basedsubscription
PlatformsWeb, Cli, SdkWeb, Cloud, Api
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity
Founded19751999

Identical on both: free tier (No), 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 Azure Government

  • FedRAMP High Authorized
  • DOD IL5 Approved
  • Isolated Datacenters
  • Hybrid Cloud
  • AI & ML Services
  • Microsoft 365
  • Dynamics 365
  • Power Platform

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.

Azure Government

  • Hosting US government workloads in dedicated domestic datacentresnot Qualys VMDR
  • Systems needing FedRAMP High, DoD IL2 to IL5, CJIS or ITAR authorisationnot Qualys VMDR
  • State, local and tribal government cloud servicesnot Qualys VMDR
  • Contractors processing controlled government datanot 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 Azure Government
  • PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot Azure Government
  • An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot Azure Government
  • Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot Azure Government

Where each one falls short

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

Azure Government

  • Restricted to US government entities, their solution providers and contractors handling government data, with Microsoft validating eligibility first
  • A narrower service catalogue than commercial Azure
  • New features arrive later than in the commercial regions
  • Pricing is not published and runs through federal contract vehicles such as JWCC, GSA and NASA SEWP

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

Azure Government

On request
  • Pay-as-you-goFree
    • Virtual Machines
    • Azure SQL
    • Storage

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 Azure Government if

  • You need fedramp high authorized.
  • You work on Web, Cli, Sdk.
  • You also want dod il5 approved.
Azure Government 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 Azure Government or Qualys VMDR better?
Neither clearly leads. Azure Government starts at On request and Qualys VMDR at $3/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Azure Government or Qualys VMDR?
Azure Government starts at On request and Qualys VMDR at $3/month.
Does Azure Government or Qualys VMDR run on more platforms?
Azure Government runs on Web, Cli, Sdk. Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api.
What is Azure Government best used for?
Azure Government is most often used for hosting us government workloads in dedicated domestic datacentres, systems needing fedramp high, dod il2 to il5, cjis or itar authorisation, state, local and tribal government cloud services, contractors processing controlled government data. Of those, hosting us government workloads in dedicated domestic datacentres and systems needing fedramp high, dod il2 to il5, cjis or itar authorisation are not what Qualys VMDR is typically brought in for.
What can Azure Government do that Qualys VMDR cannot?
Azure Government covers FedRAMP High Authorized, DOD IL5 Approved, Isolated Datacenters, Hybrid Cloud. Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Azure Government: How is Azure Government pricing determined?

Azure pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model where you only pay for services you use. Prices vary by product, region, and usage patterns. Committed use discounts and reserved instances can save up to 65% for compute services.

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.

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.

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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