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Cybersecurity · head to head

Qualys VMDR vs Warp

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
Warp logo

Warp

Developer Tools

The terminal reimagined with AI and modern features

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Warp 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.; Warp limited cloud agents access on free tier
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Qualys VMDR and Warp differ
AttributeQualys VMDRWarp
Starting price$3/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionUnknown
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Cloud, ApimacOS, Windows, Linux
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools
Founded19992020

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 Warp

Nothing recorded that Qualys VMDR does not also cover.

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

Warp

  • Modern terminal environment for developersnot Qualys VMDR
  • AI-assisted command execution with multiple LLM providersnot Qualys VMDR
  • Multi-agent orchestration and codebase indexingnot Qualys VMDR
  • Agentic development workflowsnot 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.

Warp

  • Limited cloud agents access on free tier
  • Limited collaboration features on free tier
  • Limited cloud conversation storage on free tier
  • IME input not properly handled on macOS (discarded during command or Agent output)
  • Terminal zoom functionality does not properly resize grid in TUI applications, causing misaligned rendering
  • Multi-language (i18n) support missing as of documentation
  • Requires macOS 10.14 or later (excludes older Mac hardware)
  • Requires Windows 10 build 1903 or later (excludes pre-build 1903 systems)
  • Linux requires glibc 2.31 or higher and GPU support (OpenGL ES 3.0+ or Vulkan) for rendering

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

Warp

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Warp review.

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 Warp if

  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on macOS, Windows, Linux.
Warp review

Questions people ask

Is Qualys VMDR or Warp better?
Neither clearly leads. Qualys VMDR starts at $3/month and Warp at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Qualys VMDR or Warp?
Warp has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $3/month for Qualys VMDR and Free for Warp.
Does Qualys VMDR or Warp run on more platforms?
Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api. Warp runs on macOS, Windows, Linux.
Can I use Warp for free?
Yes. Warp 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 Warp is typically brought in for.
What can Qualys VMDR do that Warp cannot?
Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring.

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.

Warp: What is the pricing model?

Usage-based, priced per agent run. Qualifying orgs get $10k of factory usage during closed early access.

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.

Warp: Where does our data live?

Data lives wherever you choose - Warp's cloud, or fully self-hosted inside your own VPC, under your existing retention and compliance rules.

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.

Warp: What is included in the free trial?

Get up to $10,000 in free factory usage during early access.

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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