Amazon Inspector vs Tenable Nessus comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Tenable are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.6, while Tenable is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.5. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 1.6% mindshare in VM, compared to Tenable’s 5.0% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Tenable users who would recommend it.

Amazon Inspector

Read 9 Amazon Inspector reviews

2,840 Views
2,528 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Tenable Nessus

Read 88 Tenable Nessus reviews

9,827 Views
8,943 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Amazon Inspector

Tenable Nessus

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Tenable Nessus and Amazon Inspector are critical tools in the vulnerability assessment category. Users express higher satisfaction with Tenable Nessus for its robust feature set, whereas Amazon Inspector is favored for its integration capabilities and scalability, especially in AWS environments.

Features: Tenable Nessus offers comprehensive vulnerability scanning, continuous monitoring, and extensive plugin support, catering to various security issues. Amazon Inspector automates vulnerability management for AWS environments and seamlessly integrates with AWS services, making it appealing for cloud operations. Its ability to automatically assess compliance aspects distinguishes it from the more network-centric Nessus.

Room for Improvement: Tenable Nessus could improve in its cloud-specific integration capabilities, as it is more network-focused. The user interface might be simplified for better user experience. Pricing models could be more flexible. Amazon Inspector could enhance its feature set outside AWS environments to appeal to a broader audience. Improvements in user interface design could help users more easily navigate the tool. Enhanced support for hybrid cloud environments would increase its versatility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tenable Nessus is recognized for its straightforward deployment process, making it suitable for businesses that need minimal disruption. Its customer service is more personalized, benefiting direct user interactions. Amazon Inspector benefits from native AWS integration, which simplifies setup for AWS users, and the broad support infrastructure from AWS enhances customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Tenable Nessus is known for competitive pricing with substantial feature offerings, though it may involve higher initial setup costs. Amazon Inspector's pay-as-you-go model aligns costs with usage, beneficial for dynamic AWS environments. The long-term ROI potential for Inspector is significant due to its integration and automation benefits, especially for businesses heavily relying on AWS.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Inspector vs. Tenable Nessus Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Inspector vs. Tenable Nessus

March 2026

Download the complete report

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Inspector

Ranking in Vulnerability Management

20th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Vendor Risk Management (6th)

Tenable Nessus

Ranking in Vulnerability Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Amazon Inspector is 1.6%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable Nessus is 5.0%, down from 10.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Tenable Nessus	5.0%
Amazon Inspector	1.6%
Other	93.4%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Abdalla Kenawy

AWS DevOps SRE/Infrastructure Engineer at Capgemini

Automated insights streamline data security assessment

For Amazon Inspector, we have many EC2 or virtual machines deployed inside our AWS environment, and the problem is that the existing package deployed inside this EC2 instance has already outdated packages. As we progress with time, this package needs to be updated for security enhancement, which requires us to uninstall the package, install the new version, and then we should be fine. However, the challenge comes with how to scan all our EC2 instances for security vulnerabilities, which is currently managed by Amazon Inspector. Amazon Inspector can scan EC2 instances or ECR, which is the ECR registry where we can save artifacts Docker images. Amazon Inspector can also scan Docker images uploaded to ECR for Elastic Registry service, and it can scan databases and S3 based on the latest updates. I noticed this from a couple of months ago, and it provides huge benefits for security. Regarding the best features of Amazon Inspector, it gives us a list of all existing outdated packages as part of a deployed package on EC2 instances or specific Python packages that are part of the Docker file and the Docker image itself, which are causing security concerns. Amazon Inspector can list these security concerns and offer guidance on how we can remediate it by updating the package to a specific upper version or something similar.

Read full review

MohammedJaffir

Founder at Cipheroot

Has enabled me to reduce false positives and perform deep credential auditing with seamless integrations

I mostly use the configuration audit feature for the audit configuration as a scan policy, and I will use it for credential audit, which helps me scan credentials access such as local administrator or root access, performing a deeper and more accurate check of local configuration settings and file systems, making it a highly recommended feature. Regarding integration capabilities, we can integrate Tenable Nessus with SIM tools such as Splunk, IBM QRadar, and Azure Sentinel, as well as with ticketing systems such as ServiceNow, Jira, and Slack. There is no complexity as it is very easy to integrate everything. In terms of the reporting feature, while vulnerability scanning can throw some false positives, Tenable Nessus has very few, achieving a reduction of 75% to 80% false positives with manual analysis needed. We can generate standard Nessus reports that typically include host summaries and vulnerabilities by host and plugin, alongside solutions and remediation recommendations. The main benefits I get from Tenable Nessus are complete asset inventory and comprehensive attack surface management, allowing us to prioritize vulnerabilities based on risk, focusing on true risk and threat path analysis.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The automated vulnerability detection aspect is most valuable."

"Amazon Inspector is highly stable, rated ten out of ten, and this stability impacts business security and administration positively."

"The vulnerability discovery is valuable, and they also rank those vulnerabilities for you. So, you could rapidly attack some of the higher, severe vulnerabilities as they pop up, if they do pop up."

"It operates continuously, so as soon as resources are created, it scans them for vulnerabilities."

"I recommend Amazon Inspector because it allows the automation of processes and requires less manual monitoring."

"The scalability of the solution itself is unparalleled."

"My experience with AWS technical support is very good, I didn't face any specific challenges, and even the documentation of AWS is good for both Microsoft, which is Azure, and AWS."

"The findings dashboards are neat and easy to understand, offering clear demarcations for different types of findings and detailed insights into specific vulnerabilities and their associated instances. It is not a place where everything is dumped together. It offers an easy-to-understand layout."

More Amazon Inspector pros

"The main benefits I get from Tenable Nessus are complete asset inventory and comprehensive attack surface management, allowing us to prioritize vulnerabilities based on risk, focusing on true risk and threat path analysis."

"It's scalable."

"It does exactly what you expect it to do, and its pricing is great. We couldn't really ask for a better deal."

"Easy to set up vulnerability scanner with good stability and a responsive technical support team."

"The value that Tenable Nessus brings to my company is significant because we can see risks; it is also good to see the pages risk and system risks, and it saves money."

"The trial version is very good for testing whether it will suit your needs."

"The solution can scale well."

"It also has an executive report where you don't have to provide the client all the detail for them to sift though. But if they wish to dig through the detail they can."

More Tenable Nessus pros

Cons

"The most challenging aspect I faced with Amazon Inspector during integration was automating the remediation process."

"The other point is that the reporting features of Inspector need improvement. For example, I am in an organization with millions of CVEs, and getting an overview of all this is challenging."

"It has automated vulnerability assessment, yet I seek more flexibility in defining custom vulnerability checks tailored to my needs, which is more difficult."

"There are challenges associated with the interdependencies in AWS services, like requiring an Active Directory for other services, resulting in additional charges."

"One area for improvement in Amazon Inspector is the automation aspect."

"There is room for improvement in the scanning capabilities. I'd like to see broader coverage in terms of the vulnerabilities detected."

"One major area for improvement is remediation. My team works on remediating findings over time, likely using available patches. However, easier integration with Amazon's patching services would be very helpful."

"The false positive rate of Amazon Inspector is a little high, and it is not covering all different applications and scanning."

More Amazon Inspector cons

"The reports are okay, but the interface is a bit difficult to navigate in some cases."

"The price could be reduced."

"It wasn't very clear how the scripts are running the scans. There's information about the script but it's not straightforward. The script information for each of the plugins should be available, but it doesn't give us straightforward direct information about how it was executed. That needs to be more clear."

"Lacks some penetration testing-related services."

"One significant drawback we encounter is the tool's tendency to flag patched packages incorrectly. For instance, if a package is patched by Debian maintainers but not updated to a major or minor version, Nessus may still flag it as vulnerable based on its database. This discrepancy leads to false alarms and requires our developers, system admins, and DevOps teams to address them."

"The features are limited when it comes to scanning network devices for vulnerabilities."

"Remediation needs improvement."

"EQA's and dashboards should be addressed in the next release."

More Tenable Nessus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The lowest cost would be around $10 for a few small accounts, however, for thousands of accounts, it could be around $5000 to $6000 dollars per month."

"The pricing is very transparent and clear."

"It's priced according to market standards for its services."

"It is scaled as you go. There are probably a certain number of scans per month, and there are tiers. If you're under a certain tier, it is free. The second level is pennies, and then all the way up to like a million. So, it has a tiered pricing program. They're pretty good with your initial scanning, and there is room to scale based on being affordable, but it is fairly cheap. There are no additional costs. They pretty much think about it as a pay-per-scan type model."

"We incurred a single cost for a perpetual license, although I cannot comment on the price as this is above my management level."

"The price of Tenable Nessus is too expensive for each service center."

"There is an annual license required to use this solution."

"Nessus is affordable, but its licensing model could be improved with more flexibility for adding assets."

"The newer tools are quite pricey. There is a case of some fine tuning that can be done in terms of licensing. The IP based licensing that is offered makes the tool very expensive. If they want the IT industry to adopt it, the price should be looked at."

"Nowadays, your vulnerability applications are going to be kind of pricey because lots of them, including Rapid7, are based upon a base price, but then they add in the nodes. That's where they get you. If you're a big network, obviously, you need to scan everything. Therefore, it's going to be costly. The risk and insurance money associated with having ransomware on my networks is going to cost me more money, time, and marketing than the price of the tool. That's why I'm speaking only as an information security officer to security operations. This is the tool that is there in my toolbox to say whether we vulnerable or not. At this point, I don't care about how much it costs my company to have it because if I wasn't able to report it and we got ransomware, then who cares? I'm probably going to be out of business because it happened. That's why I don't care about the price. I have it, and I could use it effectively and do my report. At the end of the day, even if we get ransomware, as long as I reported it, followed my protocol, and put in the change, irrespective of whether it was ignored or denied, I did my job."

"The solution is worth the cost. It's a good investment."

"While Tenable Nessus is a good enterprise solution, the high price would likely make it prohibitive to smaller organizations."

More Tenable Nessus pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	40
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	35

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Inspector?

The integration of Amazon Inspector with other AWS services has enhanced our security. Security Hub is a major asset because it allows us to centralize data from various AWS services. We can integ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Inspector?

I am not honestly sure about the pricing side of Amazon Inspector, but that is taken care of by a separate team. I believe it's cheaper than the other third-party solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon Inspector?

They might launch support for third-party environments in the next version regarding the best features in Amazon Inspector from my perspective. The false positive rate of Amazon Inspector is a litt...

See all answers

How would you choose between Rapid7 InsightVM and Tenable Nessus?

You have full visibility across cloud, network, virtual, and containerized infrastructures with Rapid7 Insight VM. You can easily prioritize vulnerabilities using attacker analytics. Overall, Rapid...

See all answers

What's the difference between Tenable Nessus and Tenable.io Vulnerability Management?

Tenable Nessus is a vulnerability assessment solution that is both easy to deploy and easy to manage. The design of the program is such that if a company should desire to handle the installation t...

See all answers

What do you like most about Tenable Nessus?

We have around 500 virtual machines. Therefore, we conduct monthly scans and open tickets for our developers to address identified vulnerabilities. These scans cover the servers, other network equi...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 9% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 9% of the time

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 6% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 6% of the time

Wiz vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon Inspector Competitors

Qualys VMDR vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 10% of the time

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 9% of the time

Tenable Security Center vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 6% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 5% of the time

Pentera vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 4% of the time

More Tenable Nessus Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Inspector

March 2026

Download Amazon Inspector product report

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Nessus

February 2026

Download Tenable Nessus product report

Overview

Amazon Inspector is an automated security assessment service that helps improve the security and compliance of applications deployed on AWS. Amazon Inspector automatically assesses applications for exposure, vulnerabilities, and deviations from best practices. After performing an assessment, Amazon Inspector produces a detailed list of security findings prioritized by level of severity. These findings can be reviewed directly or as part of detailed assessment reports which are available via the Amazon Inspector console or API.

Amazon Inspector security assessments help you check for unintended network accessibility of your Amazon EC2 instances and for vulnerabilities on those EC2 instances. Amazon Inspector assessments are offered to you as pre-defined rules packages mapped to common security best practices and vulnerability definitions. Examples of built-in rules include checking for access to your EC2 instances from the internet, remote root login being enabled, or vulnerable software versions installed. These rules are regularly updated by AWS security researchers.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Tenable Nessus enhances cybersecurity by detecting vulnerabilities with comprehensive scanning, user-friendly dashboards, and automated reporting, providing value in asset management, configuration audits, and compliance.

Providing real-time monitoring and ease of use, Nessus stands out with its integration capabilities, predictive prioritization, extensive plugin system, and cost-effectiveness. It supports vulnerability assessments for networks, applications, and devices, offering detailed reports for continuous security improvement. Nessus' capabilities extend across on-premise and cloud deployments, aiding compliance and remediation processes while aligning with security standards. While robust, it could benefit from enhanced cloud capabilities, improved scanning accuracy, and more flexible licensing options.

What are the standout features of Tenable Nessus?

Comprehensive Scanning: Covers platforms for in-depth vulnerability detection.
User-Friendly Dashboards: Simplifies monitoring with intuitive interfaces.
Automated Reporting: Streamlines data presentation and dissemination.
Integration Capabilities: Connects seamlessly with other tools for enhanced functionality.
Predictive Prioritization: Focuses on vulnerabilities with the greatest impact potential.

What benefits and ROI should users expect when evaluating Tenable Nessus in reviews?

Cost-Effectiveness: Provides strong value for investment in anomaly detection.
Real-Time Monitoring: Keeps security threats in check continuously.
Asset Management: Aids in tracking and securing organization-wide assets.
Detailed Reporting: Offers clear insights into compliance and security posture.

Tenable Nessus is implemented widely across industries for internal and external vulnerability assessments and management, aiding organizations in scanning servers, workstations, and network devices. Benefiting sectors prioritize security within their unique environments, leveraging Nessus for its thorough reports and compliance assurance.

Tenable

Sample Customers

betterment, caplinked, flatiron, university of nutri dame

Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Inspector vs. Tenable Nessus

March 2026

Free Report: Amazon Inspector vs. Tenable Nessus

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Inspector vs. Tenable Nessus and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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