Softwr

Insurance · head to head

Duck Creek Policy vs Qualys VMDR

Duck Creek Policy logo

Duck Creek Policy

Insurance

Flexible policy administration for modern insurers

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: Duck Creek Policy no pricing published on vendor website; enterprise solution requires custom engagement; 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: Duck Creek Policy covers Policy lifecycle 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 Duck Creek Policy and Qualys VMDR actually diverge.

Attributes where Duck Creek Policy and Qualys VMDR differ
AttributeDuck Creek PolicyQualys VMDR
Starting priceOn request$3/month
Pricing modelquotesubscription
PlatformsWebWeb, Cloud, Api
CategoryInsuranceCybersecurity
Founded20001999

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 Duck Creek Policy

  • Policy lifecycle management
  • Product configuration
  • Rating engine
  • Underwriting workbench
  • Forms management
  • Billing integration
  • Multi-line support
  • Real-time quoting

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.

Duck Creek Policy

  • Policy administrationnot Qualys VMDR
  • Underwriting workflowsnot Qualys VMDR
  • Rating and pricingnot Qualys VMDR
  • Claims managementnot Qualys VMDR
  • Billing operationsnot 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 Duck Creek Policy
  • PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot Duck Creek Policy
  • An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot Duck Creek Policy
  • Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot Duck Creek Policy

Where each one falls short

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

Duck Creek Policy

  • No pricing published on vendor website; enterprise solution requires custom engagement
  • Modular product architecture means customers can mix/match components, making standard pricing impossible

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

Duck Creek Policy

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Duck Creek Policy 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 Duck Creek Policy if

  • You need policy lifecycle management.
  • You also want product configuration.
Duck Creek Policy 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 Duck Creek Policy or Qualys VMDR better?
Neither clearly leads. Duck Creek Policy 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, Duck Creek Policy or Qualys VMDR?
Duck Creek Policy starts at On request and Qualys VMDR at $3/month.
Does Duck Creek Policy or Qualys VMDR run on more platforms?
Duck Creek Policy runs on Web. Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api.
What is Duck Creek Policy best used for?
Duck Creek Policy is most often used for policy administration, underwriting workflows, rating and pricing, claims management. Of those, policy administration and underwriting workflows are not what Qualys VMDR is typically brought in for.
What can Duck Creek Policy do that Qualys VMDR cannot?
Duck Creek Policy covers Policy lifecycle management, Product configuration, Rating engine, Underwriting workbench. Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Duck Creek Policy: How much does Duck Creek Policy cost?

Duck Creek does not publish pricing. Policy is an enterprise solution for insurance carriers where implementation scope, data migration complexity, and customization requirements determine total cost of ownership. Interested prospects must contact Duck Creek's sales team through their 'Talk to Sales' call-to-action.

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.

Duck Creek Policy: Is Duck Creek Policy a modular system?

Yes, customers can adopt Duck Creek products individually (Policy, Rating, Billing, Claims, etc.) or in combination. This modularity means pricing varies based on which products and integration depth customers require.

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.

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.

Share

Related pages

More on Duck Creek Policy

More on Qualys VMDR

Keep looking

Other head to heads