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Coder vs Qualys VMDR

Coder logo

Coder

Developer Tools

Self-hosted platform for provisioning governed cloud development environments

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 Coder has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Coder premium plan pricing is not published and requires contacting sales.; 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: Coder covers Self-hosted workspaces, Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Coder and Qualys VMDR differ
AttributeCoderQualys VMDR
Starting priceFree$3/month
Pricing modelfreemiumsubscription
Free tierYesNo
Platformsweb, linux, mac, windows, apiWeb, Cloud, Api
CategoryDeveloper ToolsCybersecurity
FoundedUnknown1999

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 Coder

  • Self-hosted workspaces
  • Multi-IDE support
  • AI coding agent support
  • OpenID Connect SSO
  • Audit logging
  • Resource quotas

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.

Coder

  • Running self-hosted development environments behind a corporate firewallnot Qualys VMDR
  • Standardizing developer workspaces across a large engineering orgnot Qualys VMDR
  • Giving approved AI coding agents governed, isolated workspacesnot Qualys VMDR
  • Enforcing SSO and audit trails on developer environment accessnot 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 Coder
  • PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot Coder
  • An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot Coder
  • Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot Coder

Where each one falls short

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

Coder

  • Premium plan pricing is not published and requires contacting sales.
  • Requires self-hosting and managing the underlying infrastructure, unlike fully managed cloud IDEs.
  • High availability, audit logging, and RBAC are gated behind the paid Premium tier, so the free Community edition lacks enterprise controls.

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

Coder

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • Unlimited workspaces and templates
    • Unlimited organization members
    • Multiple IDE support
  • Premium$undefined/month
    • Ticket-based support with SLA
    • Multi-organization access controls
    • Resource quotas and audit logging

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 Coder if

  • You need self-hosted workspaces.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, linux, mac, windows, api.
  • You also want multi-ide support.
Coder 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 Coder or Qualys VMDR better?
Neither clearly leads. Coder 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, Coder or Qualys VMDR?
Coder has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Coder and $3/month for Qualys VMDR.
Does Coder or Qualys VMDR run on more platforms?
Coder runs on web, linux, mac, windows, api. Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api.
Can I use Coder for free?
Yes. Coder has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month.
What is Coder best used for?
Coder is most often used for running self-hosted development environments behind a corporate firewall, standardizing developer workspaces across a large engineering org, giving approved ai coding agents governed, isolated workspaces, enforcing sso and audit trails on developer environment access. Of those, running self-hosted development environments behind a corporate firewall and standardizing developer workspaces across a large engineering org are not what Qualys VMDR is typically brought in for.
What can Coder do that Qualys VMDR cannot?
Coder covers Self-hosted workspaces, Multi-IDE support, AI coding agent support, OpenID Connect SSO. Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Coder: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

Yes, the Community edition is free and includes unlimited workspaces, templates, and organization members with OpenID Connect SSO, aimed at hobbyists and small teams.

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.

Coder: What does Premium add over Community?

Premium adds ticket-based SLA support, multi-organization access controls, resource quotas, audit logging, AI governance, workspace proxies, high availability, and custom branding.

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.

Coder: How is Coder priced?

Community is free; Premium is priced per user annually, with the exact rate available by contacting Coder.

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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