Cybersecurity · head to head
Qualys VMDR vs Ring Neighbors
Qualys VMDR
Cybersecurity
Cloud-delivered vulnerability management licensed per asset, using scanner appliances and a lightweight agent.
- From
- $3/month
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- Only Ring Neighbors has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- 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.; Ring Neighbors neighbors by Ring is a free app only available in the US, per the vendor's own page (Internet Archive capture, 1 January 2023)
- They diverge on capability: Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Ring Neighbors covers Video Request Portal.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Qualys VMDR and Ring Neighbors actually diverge.
| Attribute | Qualys VMDR | Ring Neighbors |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $3/month | Free |
| Pricing model | subscription | freemium |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Web, Cloud, Api | Web, Ios, Android |
| Category | Cybersecurity | Government |
| Founded | 1999 | 2013 |
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 Qualys VMDR
- Cloud Agent
- Scanner appliances
- Authenticated scanning
- TruRisk scoring
- Asset inventory
- Patch Management
- Cloud connectors
- Container sensor
Only in Ring Neighbors
- Video Request Portal
- Community Alerts
- Geographic Requests
- Case Management
- Resident Opt-in
- Ring Devices
- CAD Systems
- Social Media
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 Ring Neighbors
- PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot Ring Neighbors
- An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot Ring Neighbors
- Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot Ring Neighbors
Ring Neighbors
- Citizen Servicesnot Qualys VMDR
- Records Managementnot Qualys VMDR
- Public Safetynot Qualys VMDR
- Civic Engagementnot 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.
Ring Neighbors
- Neighbors by Ring is a free app only available in the US, per the vendor's own page (Internet Archive capture, 1 January 2023)
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
Ring Neighbors
Free- Public Safety PortalFree
- Video Requests
- Community Alerts
- Case Management
Which should you pick?
Choose Qualys VMDR if
- You need cloud agent.
- You work on Web, Cloud, Api.
- You also want scanner appliances.
Choose Ring Neighbors if
- You need video request portal.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Ios, Android.
- You also want community alerts.
Questions people ask
- Is Qualys VMDR or Ring Neighbors better?
- Neither clearly leads. Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month and Ring Neighbors at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Qualys VMDR or Ring Neighbors?
- Ring Neighbors has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $3/month for Qualys VMDR and Free for Ring Neighbors.
- Does Qualys VMDR or Ring Neighbors run on more platforms?
- Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api. Ring Neighbors runs on Web, Ios, Android.
- Can I use Ring Neighbors for free?
- Yes. Ring Neighbors has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month.
- 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 Ring Neighbors is typically brought in for.
- What can Qualys VMDR do that Ring Neighbors cannot?
- Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring. Ring Neighbors covers Video Request Portal, Community Alerts, Geographic Requests, Case Management.
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.
Related pages
More on Qualys VMDR
More on Ring Neighbors
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- Ring Neighbors vs CentralSquare
- Ring Neighbors vs Axon Records
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