Qualys TotalCloud vs Scout Suite

Qualys TotalCloud is a cloud-native application protection platform for multi-cloud and container environments. It covers AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure through a single license, control plane, and TruRisk score. Its security domains include CSPM, CWPP, CIEM, CDR, Kubernetes and container security, IaC, SSPM, DSPM, and AI-SPM. TruRisk prioritizes verified, attackable exposures using exploitability, threat intelligence, asset criticality, and runtime context. FlexScan offers agentless, agent-based, network, and pipeline scanning. QFlow provides more than 300 automated playbooks and integrates with ServiceNow, Jira, SIEM, and SOAR platforms. Qualys says TotalCloud can assess cloud resources, including transient and ephemeral resources, in under 10 minutes. It also manages SaaS security posture for Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Zoom, and Google Workspace. Pre-built policy frameworks include CIS, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and NIST. A free license with limited API calls for control evaluation is listed; subscription pricing is available on request.

Scout Suite is a free, open-source command-line tool for assessing cloud security posture. It gathers configuration data through cloud-provider APIs and highlights risk areas, giving security consultants and auditors a point-in-time view of the account where it runs. The CLI creates a local HTML report containing findings and cloud-account configuration. After collection, the project says usage can continue offline. Supported providers include AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, with alpha support for Alibaba Cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Kubernetes clusters on a cloud provider, and DigitalOcean Cloud. Scout Suite runs on Linux, macOS, or a self-hosted setup and is written in Python, with support listed for Python 3.9, 3.10, and 3.11. Installation uses pip or a cloned Git repository with its requirements installed. Cloud credentials must already be configured, such as through a provider CLI. The multi-threaded tool keeps configuration settings in memory while running, and the setup guide warns that a resource-limited VM such as AWS t2.micro may have its process killed. The repository uses GPL-2.0.