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Government · head to head

NextRequest vs Qualys VMDR

NextRequest logo

NextRequest

Government

Public Records Request Management

From
$300/month
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: NextRequest now sold as part of the CivicPlus product line rather than standalone, and nextrequest.com redirects into the CivicPlus site; 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: NextRequest covers Request Intake, Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where NextRequest and Qualys VMDR differ
AttributeNextRequestQualys VMDR
Starting price$300/month$3/month
PlatformsWebWeb, Cloud, Api
CategoryGovernmentCybersecurity
Founded20151999

Identical on both: pricing model (subscription), 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 NextRequest

  • Request Intake
  • Workflow Management
  • Document Redaction
  • Public Portal
  • Reporting
  • Document Systems
  • Email
  • Payment Processors

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.

NextRequest

  • Receiving and routing public records and FOIA requestsnot Qualys VMDR
  • Tracking request status and statutory deadlines centrallynot Qualys VMDR
  • Redacting documents before release with RapidReviewnot Qualys VMDR
  • Invoicing and collecting payment for records requestsnot Qualys VMDR
  • Publishing a public-facing request portal for residentsnot 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 NextRequest
  • PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot NextRequest
  • An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot NextRequest
  • Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot NextRequest

Where each one falls short

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

NextRequest

  • Now sold as part of the CivicPlus product line rather than standalone, and nextrequest.com redirects into the CivicPlus site
  • Pricing is not published
  • Aimed at government agencies, so it is not a general purpose request or ticketing tool

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

NextRequest

$300/month
  • Standard$300/month
    • Request Management
    • Document Redaction
    • Public Portal

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 NextRequest if

  • You need request intake.
  • You also want workflow management.
NextRequest 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 NextRequest or Qualys VMDR better?
Neither clearly leads. NextRequest starts at $300/month and Qualys VMDR at $3/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, NextRequest or Qualys VMDR?
NextRequest starts at $300/month and Qualys VMDR at $3/month.
Does NextRequest or Qualys VMDR run on more platforms?
NextRequest runs on Web. Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api.
What is NextRequest best used for?
NextRequest is most often used for receiving and routing public records and foia requests, tracking request status and statutory deadlines centrally, redacting documents before release with rapidreview, invoicing and collecting payment for records requests. Of those, receiving and routing public records and foia requests and tracking request status and statutory deadlines centrally are not what Qualys VMDR is typically brought in for.
What can NextRequest do that Qualys VMDR cannot?
NextRequest covers Request Intake, Workflow Management, Document Redaction, Public Portal. Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

NextRequest: What is the price of NextRequest FOIA management?

NextRequest pricing is not published on their website. Customers must request pricing directly through the website contact form or call the sales team at 888-228-2233.

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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