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Cybersecurity · head to head

Qualys VMDR vs Resolver

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
Resolver logo

Resolver

Cybersecurity

Risk, incident and investigations platform for corporate security and operational risk teams, owned by Kroll

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Resolver kroll ownership since 2022 means the product is sold alongside risk consulting services, so buyers who want software with no services attach should expect that conversation and should price the licence separately in negotiation.
  • They diverge on capability: Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Resolver covers Incident management.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Qualys VMDR and Resolver differ
AttributeQualys VMDRResolver
Starting price$3/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Cloud, ApiWeb, iOS, Android
Founded1999Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cybersecurity).

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 Qualys VMDR

  • Cloud Agent
  • Scanner appliances
  • Authenticated scanning
  • TruRisk scoring
  • Asset inventory
  • Patch Management
  • Cloud connectors
  • Container sensor

Only in Resolver

  • Incident management
  • Investigations
  • Enterprise risk management
  • Internal audit
  • Compliance and obligations
  • Business continuity
  • Risk Event Management
  • Configurable dashboards

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

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 Resolver
  • PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot Resolver
  • An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot Resolver
  • Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot Resolver

Resolver

  • A national retailer consolidating store incident reporting, loss prevention cases and investigations into one system with defensible evidence handlingnot Qualys VMDR
  • A bank that needs operational risk events captured against a risk and control register rather than in spreadsheets and emailnot Qualys VMDR
  • A university security operations centre running dispatch, case management and clery-style reporting from a single recordnot Qualys VMDR
  • An organisation that already retains Kroll for investigations and wants case intake and vendor handoff in the same platformnot Qualys VMDR

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Resolver

  • Kroll ownership since 2022 means the product is sold alongside risk consulting services, so buyers who want software with no services attach should expect that conversation and should price the licence separately in negotiation.
  • Configuration flexibility comes at the cost of implementation time, with deployments commonly running several months and typically requiring vendor or partner services, so the first-year cost is well above the annual licence.
  • Module-based pricing means the platform gets expensive quickly once you add audit, compliance and continuity to a security-led purchase, and modules bought later rarely carry the discount of the original deal.
  • The IT and cyber compliance side is thinner than dedicated tools, so organisations chasing SOC 2 or ISO 27001 evidence automation will find it does not replace a Drata or Vanta.
  • Reporting is capable but the drag and drop builder has a real learning curve, and organisations that do not train an internal administrator end up raising support tickets for changes that should be self-service.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Resolver

On request
  • Resolver Core$undefined/year
    • Priced by modules selected and number of users
    • Annual or multi-year enterprise agreement
    • Implementation and configuration quoted separately

Which should you pick?

Choose Qualys VMDR if

  • You need cloud agent.
  • You work on Web, Cloud, Api.
  • You also want scanner appliances.
Qualys VMDR review

Choose Resolver if

  • You need incident management.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want investigations.
Resolver review

Questions people ask

Is Qualys VMDR or Resolver better?
Neither clearly leads. Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month and Resolver at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Qualys VMDR or Resolver?
Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month and Resolver at On request.
Does Qualys VMDR or Resolver run on more platforms?
Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api. Resolver runs on Web, iOS, Android.
What is Qualys VMDR best used for?
Qualys VMDR is most often used for a hybrid workforce where scheduled network scans miss most laptops and continuous agent-based assessment is the only way to get real coverage, pci dss external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirement, an estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three tools, organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landed. Of those, a hybrid workforce where scheduled network scans miss most laptops and continuous agent-based assessment is the only way to get real coverage and pci dss external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirement are not what Resolver is typically brought in for.
What can Qualys VMDR do that Resolver cannot?
Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring. Resolver covers Incident management, Investigations, Enterprise risk management, Internal audit.

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.

Resolver: Who owns Resolver?

Kroll, which acquired it in 2022. It is marketed as a Kroll business and sold alongside Kroll risk and investigations services.

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.

Resolver: What does Resolver cost?

Pricing is not published. It is quoted by module and user count on an annual or multi-year enterprise agreement, with implementation charged separately.

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.

Resolver: Is Resolver a SOC 2 compliance tool?

No. It is a risk, incident and investigations platform. Automated evidence collection for security certifications is not its strength.

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.

Resolver: How long does implementation take?

Months rather than weeks for a multi-module deployment, and most customers use vendor or partner services to configure it.

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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