VULNERABILITY MANAGEMENT

Vulnerability Management Calculator & Vendor Comparison 2025

Calculate vulnerability management costs. Compare 10 leading VM platforms with Q3 2025 pricing based on assets, scan frequency, and compliance requirements.

10
Vendors
CVE
Coverage
Q3
2025 Pricing

What is Vulnerability Management and Why Sizing Matters

Vulnerability Management (VM) continuously identifies, evaluates, prioritizes, and remediates security vulnerabilities across IT infrastructure. VM platforms scan servers, workstations, network devices, cloud assets, and containers for CVEs, misconfigurations, missing patches, and compliance violations, providing risk scoring and remediation workflows.

🔍 Why VM Sizing is Critical

Under-licensing leaves assets unscanned—blind spots become breach vectors. Over-licensing wastes $40K-150K annually. Our calculator helps you size based on scannable assets (servers, endpoints, cloud), not total infrastructure inventory.

💰 Pricing Models Explained

VM vendors charge per asset ($2-10/asset/month) or per IP ($50-150/IP/year) or agent-based licensing. We normalize to asset pricing. Enterprise pricing includes unlimited scans, compliance modules, and cloud asset discovery.

📊 Real Production Data

Our sizing comes from 220+ enterprise VM programs. We account for asset discovery (2-3x more assets than CMDB shows), scan frequency impact on network, and cloud asset churn (20-30% monthly turnover).

Key Factors in VM Sizing

  • Asset Count: Scannable assets include servers (physical/virtual), workstations, network devices, cloud instances, containers. Don't count printers, IoT, or unpatchable legacy systems. Typical: 5-15 assets per employee in modern enterprises.
  • Scan Frequency: Monthly scans ($2-4/asset/month, compliance minimum) vs. Weekly ($4-6/asset/month) vs. Daily ($6-8/asset/month) vs. Continuous agent-based ($8-10/asset/month). PCI-DSS requires quarterly; modern security needs weekly+.
  • Asset Discovery: Most CMDBs are 40-60% out of date. Active discovery finds 2-3x more assets (shadow IT, rogue devices, cloud sprawl). Budget for discovered asset count, not CMDB count. Discovery scans cost $0.50-2/asset one-time.
  • Cloud and Container Scanning: Traditional VM charges per VM. Cloud and container environments have ephemeral assets (spin up/down hourly). Budget for peak concurrent cloud assets. Cloud scanning adds 30-50% to costs vs. traditional infrastructure.
  • Compliance Modules: Basic CVE scanning (included) vs. Compliance auditing for PCI-DSS, HIPAA, CIS benchmarks ($+30-50% per asset). Financial/healthcare industries need compliance modules. CMMC/NIST requires configuration assessment.

Common VM Sizing Mistakes to Avoid

❌ Mistake #1: Using CMDB asset counts. CMDBs are 40-60% out of date. Run asset discovery first. A 5000-asset CMDB often reveals 8000-12000 actual scannable assets including shadow IT and cloud.

❌ Mistake #2: Not accounting for cloud asset churn. Cloud environments see 20-30% asset turnover monthly (auto-scaling, ephemeral containers). Static licensing doesn't fit. Use consumption-based pricing for cloud-heavy environments.

❌ Mistake #3: Scanning everything with the same frequency. Critical external-facing servers need weekly/continuous scanning. Internal low-risk workstations can be monthly. Tier your assets by risk to optimize costs 40-60%.

❌ Mistake #4: Ignoring scan network impact. Full infrastructure scans generate significant network traffic (10-50 Mbps per scanner). Scanning production during business hours causes slowdowns. Budget for dedicated scanning infrastructure and off-hours scheduling.

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