Qualys Q1 2025 Earnings: A Cybersecurity Leader’s Momentum Builds

Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS) delivered a strong start to 2025, with its first-quarter results underscoring its position as a leader in cybersecurity risk management. Revenue grew 10% year-over-year to $159.9 million, while the company raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $648 million to $657 million, reflecting confidence in its product innovations and market traction.

The quarter was marked by strategic product launches, third-party validation of its solutions, and robust customer adoption. Qualys’ natively integrated platform, which combines vulnerability detection, compliance, and protection across hybrid environments, is increasingly becoming a must-have for enterprises seeking to quantify and act on cyber risk in real time.

Product Innovation Fuels Growth

Qualys’ momentum in Q1 stemmed from its ability to address evolving cybersecurity needs with tailored solutions. Key launches included:

1. Managed Risk Operation Center (mROC): This new service allows partners to offer unified managed risk mitigation by leveraging Qualys’ Enterprise TruRisk Management platform. With over 25 active proof-of-concept (POC) engagements already underway—and POCs doubling from the prior quarter—mROC is positioning Qualys to capture greenfield opportunities, similar to the early days of its Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service.

2. TotalAppSec: This unified platform integrates API security, web application scanning, and malware detection, addressing a growing demand for holistic application risk management.

3. Integration with ServiceNow: Qualys’ Container Security module was embedded into ServiceNow’s workflow automation platform, enabling customers to automate vulnerability remediation at scale.

These launches align with Qualys’ vision of consolidating the cybersecurity stack into a single, AI-driven platform. CEO Sumedh Thakar emphasized the company’s cloud-native architecture and rapid innovation as key differentiators, enabling customers to achieve “durable long-term growth” in an era of escalating cyber threats.

Technical and Market Validation

Qualys’ technical capabilities are central to its value proposition. Its Enterprise TruRisk Platform now processes 18 trillion data points to generate real-time risk insights, quantifying exposure in financial terms—a feature dubbed the “language of business.” This capability helps organizations prioritize remediation efforts by aligning cybersecurity investments with tangible risk reduction.

Third-party recognition further bolsters its credibility. GigaOm named Qualys TotalCloud a leader in its Cloud Workload Security Radar, praising its hybrid environment support and asset discovery. Meanwhile, Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Manager was highlighted as a leader in GigaOm’s Attack Surface Management Radar for its ability to unify internal and external threat monitoring.

Customer Traction and Financial Strength

Qualys serves over 10,000 subscription customers, including a majority of the Forbes Global 100 and Fortune 100. The company’s customer base is not only large but also sticky: its dollar-based net retention rate remains above 100%, indicating strong upselling potential.

Financially, Qualys is firing on all cylinders. Operating cash flow surged 28% year-over-year to $109.6 million, while adjusted EBITDA rose 8% to $74.8 million, maintaining a consistent 47% margin. Non-GAAP net income increased to $61.4 million, or $1.67 per diluted share—a 15% increase over the prior-year period.

Conclusion: A Cybersecurity Leader with Room to Grow

Qualys’ Q1 results and strategic advancements paint a compelling picture for investors. The company is capitalizing on secular trends in cybersecurity, where enterprises are shifting from fragmented point solutions to unified platforms that prioritize risk quantification and automation.

With its cloud-native architecture, AI-driven analytics, and ecosystem integrations (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure), Qualys is well-positioned to deepen its penetration in the $189 billion cybersecurity market. The doubling of mROC POCs and the raised revenue guidance to $648 million–$657 million for 2025 suggest that Qualys is not just keeping pace but accelerating ahead of peers.

Crucially, Qualys’ financial discipline—exemplified by its 47% EBITDA margin and 28% operating cash flow growth—ensures it can reinvest in R&D while delivering returns to shareholders. As organizations worldwide prioritize cyber resilience, Qualys’ ability to turn petabytes of data into actionable risk insights could solidify its place as a foundational platform for decades to come.

In a sector rife with complexity, Qualys’ simplification of risk management—and its proven ability to monetize it—makes it a compelling investment in a landscape where cybersecurity spending is only set to rise.