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Cybersecurity · head to head

Qualys VMDR vs Treblle

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
Treblle logo

Treblle

APIs

API observability, security, and governance platform

From
$233/month
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.; Treblle no free tier is offered; the entry-level Core plan starts at $233/month billed yearly.
  • They diverge on capability: Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Treblle covers API discovery.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Qualys VMDR and Treblle differ
AttributeQualys VMDRTreblle
Starting price$3/month$233/month
PlatformsWeb, Cloud, Apiweb, api
CategoryCybersecurityAPIs
Founded1999Unknown

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 Qualys VMDR

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

Only in Treblle

  • API discovery
  • Runtime security
  • API governance
  • Compliance monitoring
  • API documentation and analytics
  • Agentic AI support

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

Treblle

  • Gaining full visibility into API traffic across multi-cloud environmentsnot Qualys VMDR
  • Detecting shadow APIs and runtime security risksnot Qualys VMDR
  • Meeting compliance audit requirements such as HIPAA or GDPRnot Qualys VMDR
  • Governing API design standards through CI/CDnot 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.

Treblle

  • No free tier is offered; the entry-level Core plan starts at $233/month billed yearly.
  • Growth and Enterprise pricing is custom and not published, requiring a sales conversation to budget.
  • Core plan is limited to 1 workspace and only 30 days of data retention.
  • SSO and on-prem/BYO cloud deployment are reserved for the top Enterprise tier.

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

Treblle

$233/month
  • Core$233/month
    • Billed yearly
    • 5 APIs
    • 500 requests/min
  • Growth$undefined/month
    • Custom APIs and request limits
    • 50M requests/month baseline
    • API security
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Unlimited workspaces, APIs, and requests/min
    • API governance and compliance
    • SSO

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 Treblle if

  • You need api discovery.
  • You work on web, api.
  • You also want runtime security.
Treblle review

Questions people ask

Is Qualys VMDR or Treblle better?
Neither clearly leads. Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month and Treblle at $233/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Qualys VMDR or Treblle?
Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month and Treblle at $233/month.
Does Qualys VMDR or Treblle run on more platforms?
Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api. Treblle runs on web, api.
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 Treblle is typically brought in for.
What can Qualys VMDR do that Treblle cannot?
Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring. Treblle covers API discovery, Runtime security, API governance, Compliance monitoring.

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.

Treblle: What does Treblle cost?

Treblle's Core plan costs $233/month billed yearly and covers 5 APIs and 5M requests/month; Growth and Enterprise plans use custom pricing for larger request volumes and advanced features.

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.

Treblle: Is there a free plan?

Treblle does not offer a free tier; it instead offers a no-credit-card demo rather than free ongoing access.

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.

Treblle: How is usage metered?

Plans are metered by number of APIs monitored and requests per minute/month, with the Core plan capped at 500 requests/min and 5M requests/month.

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.

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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