SentriKat vs. Qualys VMDR

Qualys VMDR is a cloud-native vulnerability management, detection, and response platform used by many Fortune 500 companies. It offers broad CVE coverage, the Qualys Detection Score (QDS) for prioritization, and integrates with Qualys's wider security suite including patch management and web application scanning.

The fundamental difference is architecture. Qualys is delivered primarily as a US-based cloud platform, by default your vulnerability data, software inventories, and scan results are processed and stored on the Qualys Cloud Platform. For European organizations subject to GDPR, NIS2, or DORA, that default creates a data-sovereignty question: your vulnerability data, which effectively maps your entire attack surface, leaves your jurisdiction. SentriKat can run fully on your own infrastructure, so it never does.

SentriKat gives you the choice. Deploy as a Cloud platform, or run it entirely on-premise within your own infrastructure. For air-gapped environments, military, government, critical infrastructure, SentriKat operates without any cloud connectivity. Your vulnerability data never leaves your network.

Pricing is another major differentiator. Qualys does not publish pricing on its website, you must contact sales for a quote. Industry reports suggest VMDR starts at roughly $10,000/year, with additional costs for patch management, container security, compliance modules, and web application scanning. Each capability is a separate paid module.

SentriKat ships a free Community Edition (10 agents, on-premises). The Cloud Pro plan starts at €249/month including container scanning, SIEM integration, compliance reporting, multi-tenant support, and SSO. No modules to purchase separately.

For EU compliance specifically, SentriKat reads the European Union's own vulnerability database, the one established under NIS2 Article 12, natively and in full. It includes built-in reporting templates for NIS2 and DORA compliance requirements. Qualys offers compliance capabilities, but as paid add-on modules without European vulnerability database integration.

SentriKat's lightweight shell-script agents also have a significantly smaller footprint compared to the Qualys Cloud Agent, making them suitable for IoT devices, legacy systems, and environments where resource consumption matters. This is particularly relevant for OT and critical infrastructure environments common in NIS2-regulated sectors.

Who should choose Qualys. Qualys covers credentialed network scanning, web applications, policy compliance and cloud posture, and its Patch Management module actually deploys the fix, which we do not do at all. If you have a security team with the hours to work a large finding list, that breadth is worth paying for. We are a specialist, not a suite, and a comparison that pretended otherwise would not survive your first technical call.

Who should choose SentriKat. An organisation in scope for NIS2 or DORA, without a security team, that needs to know which of its exposures are actually being exploited, which are already closed by a vendor patch, and needs the evidence in a report an auditor accepts.