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Government · head to head

Mapbox Government vs Qualys VMDR

Mapbox Government logo

Mapbox Government

Government

Maps and Location for Government

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 Mapbox Government has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Mapbox Government the Navigation SDK free tier covers only up to 10 monthly active users, and 11 or more 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: Mapbox Government covers Custom Map Design, Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Mapbox Government and Qualys VMDR differ
AttributeMapbox GovernmentQualys VMDR
Starting priceFree$3/month
Pricing modelusage-basedsubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb, Cloud, Api
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity
Founded20101999

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 Mapbox Government

  • Custom Map Design
  • Navigation SDK
  • Geocoding
  • Spatial Analysis
  • Offline Maps
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud

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.

Mapbox Government

  • Embedding maps and turn by turn navigation in government applicationsnot Qualys VMDR
  • Routing and geocoding for public sector fleet and field operationsnot Qualys VMDR
  • Custom cartography for agency web and mobile appsnot 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 Mapbox Government
  • PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot Mapbox Government
  • An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot Mapbox Government
  • Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot Mapbox Government

Where each one falls short

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

Mapbox Government

  • The Navigation SDK free tier covers only up to 10 monthly active users, and 11 or more requires contacting sales
  • Volume pricing beyond the published free tiers is not listed and requires contacting sales for a discount
  • Pricing is metered per product, so Directions API, Navigation SDK and map loads are each billed on their own meter

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

Mapbox Government

Free
  • GovernmentFree
    • Custom Maps
    • Navigation
    • Geocoding

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 Mapbox Government if

  • You need custom map design.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want navigation sdk.
Mapbox 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 Mapbox Government or Qualys VMDR better?
Neither clearly leads. Mapbox Government 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, Mapbox Government or Qualys VMDR?
Mapbox Government has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Mapbox Government and $3/month for Qualys VMDR.
Does Mapbox Government or Qualys VMDR run on more platforms?
Mapbox Government runs on Web, Ios, Android. Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api.
Can I use Mapbox Government for free?
Yes. Mapbox Government has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month.
What is Mapbox Government best used for?
Mapbox Government is most often used for embedding maps and turn by turn navigation in government applications, routing and geocoding for public sector fleet and field operations, custom cartography for agency web and mobile apps. Of those, embedding maps and turn by turn navigation in government applications and routing and geocoding for public sector fleet and field operations are not what Qualys VMDR is typically brought in for.
What can Mapbox Government do that Qualys VMDR cannot?
Mapbox Government covers Custom Map Design, Navigation SDK, Geocoding, Spatial Analysis. Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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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