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Legal · head to head

Clio vs Qualys VMDR

Clio logo

Clio

Legal

Cloud practice management software for law firms

From
On request
Rated
-
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
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Clio priced per user per month, so cost scales directly with headcount and adds up for growing firms; 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: Clio covers Matter management, Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Clio and Qualys VMDR differ
AttributeClioQualys VMDR
Starting priceOn request$3/month
Pricing modelPer-user subscription with published tiers; contact vendor for current ratessubscription
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, CloudWeb, Cloud, Api
CategoryLegalCybersecurity
FoundedUnknown1999

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 Clio

  • Matter management
  • Time and billing
  • Trust accounting
  • Client intake
  • Document management
  • Integration directory

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.

Clio

  • Small and mid-sized firms replacing spreadsheets and paper matter filesnot Qualys VMDR
  • Firms needing compliant trust accounting without a separate systemnot Qualys VMDR
  • Practices billing hourly that lose revenue to uncaptured timenot 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 Clio
  • PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot Clio
  • An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot Clio
  • Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot Clio

Where each one falls short

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

Clio

  • Priced per user per month, so cost scales directly with headcount and adds up for growing firms
  • Advanced features including some automation and reporting sit in higher tiers rather than the entry plan
  • Aimed at small and mid-sized firms; large firms with complex matter structures often need heavier systems
  • Strongest in North America, with less depth in other jurisdictions’ compliance requirements

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

Clio

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Clio review.

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 Clio if

  • You need matter management.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Cloud.
  • You also want time and billing.
Clio 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 Clio or Qualys VMDR better?
Neither clearly leads. Clio 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, Clio or Qualys VMDR?
Clio starts at On request and Qualys VMDR at $3/month.
Does Clio or Qualys VMDR run on more platforms?
Clio runs on Web, iOS, Android, Cloud. Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api.
What is Clio best used for?
Clio is most often used for small and mid-sized firms replacing spreadsheets and paper matter files, firms needing compliant trust accounting without a separate system, practices billing hourly that lose revenue to uncaptured time. Of those, small and mid-sized firms replacing spreadsheets and paper matter files and firms needing compliant trust accounting without a separate system are not what Qualys VMDR is typically brought in for.
What can Clio do that Qualys VMDR cannot?
Clio covers Matter management, Time and billing, Trust accounting, Client intake. Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Clio: What does Clio cost?

Clio sells per-user subscriptions across several tiers. Rates change and vary by region, so check the vendor’s current pricing page rather than relying on a third-party figure.

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.

Clio: Does Clio handle trust accounting?

Yes, and it is one of the main reasons firms adopt it, because client fund rules are strict and mishandling them is a regulatory matter.

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.

Clio: Is Clio suitable for a large firm?

It is aimed at small and mid-sized practices. Large firms with complex matter and billing structures usually evaluate heavier enterprise systems.

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.

Clio: Does Clio integrate with existing tools?

Yes. Its integration directory is the largest in legal practice software, covering Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, QuickBooks and many others.

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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