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Cybersecurity · head to head

Qualys VMDR vs SentinelOne Singularity

Qualys VMDR logo

Qualys VMDR

Cybersecurity

Cloud-delivered vulnerability management licensed per asset, using scanner appliances and a lightweight agent.

From
$3/month
Rated
-
SentinelOne Singularity logo

SentinelOne Singularity

Cybersecurity

Autonomous AI-powered endpoint security

From
$5.83/month
Rated
-

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.; SentinelOne Singularity deployment and configuration requires professional services ($5,000 to $25,000)
  • They diverge on capability: Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, SentinelOne Singularity covers Behavioral AI.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Qualys VMDR and SentinelOne Singularity actually diverge.

Attributes where Qualys VMDR and SentinelOne Singularity differ
AttributeQualys VMDRSentinelOne Singularity
Starting price$3/month$5.83/month
Pricing modelsubscriptionUnknown
PlatformsWeb, Cloud, ApiWindows, macOS, Linux, Cloud, Mobile
Founded19992013

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 SentinelOne Singularity

  • Behavioral AI
  • Autonomous response
  • ActiveEDR
  • Storyline technology
  • Rollback remediation
  • Ranger IoT
  • Cloud workload protection
  • Identity security

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

SentinelOne Singularity

  • Endpoint Securitynot Qualys VMDR
  • Edrnot Qualys VMDR
  • Xdrnot 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.

SentinelOne Singularity

  • Deployment and configuration requires professional services ($5,000 to $25,000)
  • Optional modules like Ranger and Vigilance add to total cost of ownership
  • Complex pricing tiers make budgeting difficult for large deployments

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

SentinelOne Singularity

$5.83/month
  • Singularity Core$5.83/month per endpoint
    • Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
    • Malware prevention
    • Threat isolation
  • Singularity Control$6.67/month per endpoint
    • All Core features
    • Device control
    • Firewall control
  • Singularity Complete$8.25/month per endpoint
    • All Control features
    • Endpoint Detection and Response
    • XDR capabilities
  • Singularity Commercial$17.5/month per endpoint
    • All Complete features
    • Identity protection
    • Cloud protection

Which should you pick?

Choose Qualys VMDR if

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

Choose SentinelOne Singularity if

  • You need behavioral ai.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, Linux, Cloud, Mobile.
  • You also want autonomous response.

Questions people ask

Is Qualys VMDR or SentinelOne Singularity better?
Neither clearly leads. Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month and SentinelOne Singularity at $5.83/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Qualys VMDR or SentinelOne Singularity?
Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month and SentinelOne Singularity at $5.83/month.
Does Qualys VMDR or SentinelOne Singularity run on more platforms?
Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api. SentinelOne Singularity runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Cloud, Mobile.
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 SentinelOne Singularity is typically brought in for.
What can Qualys VMDR do that SentinelOne Singularity cannot?
Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring. SentinelOne Singularity covers Behavioral AI, Autonomous response, ActiveEDR, Storyline technology.

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.

SentinelOne Singularity: What does SentinelOne Singularity XDR cover?

Singularity XDR unifies detection and response across endpoints, cloud, identity, network, and mobile, providing centralized visibility and automated response across all attack surfaces.

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.

SentinelOne Singularity: How does SentinelOne correlate data across security tools?

Singularity normalizes data from endpoints, identity, cloud, and third-party security tools into a unified data layer, enabling automatic correlation of signals without manual integration.

Source
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.

SentinelOne Singularity: Can SentinelOne integrate with existing security tools?

Yes, Singularity Marketplace provides pre-built, one-click integrations with email, network, firewall, and SaaS security tools, avoiding vendor lock-in while extending detection capabilities.

Source
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.

SentinelOne Singularity: What is the pricing model for SentinelOne Singularity?

SentinelOne pricing ranges from $5.83 to $17.50 per endpoint per month across five tiers, with optional add-on modules and enterprise pricing available on request.

Source
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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