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BMC Helix Automation Console vs Rapid7 Metasploit comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 8, 2026

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

BMC Helix Automation Console
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
56th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Rapid7 Metasploit
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
24th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of BMC Helix Automation Console is 0.9%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 Metasploit is 1.9%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Rapid7 Metasploit1.9%
BMC Helix Automation Console0.9%
Other97.2%
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

ShashiGupta - PeerSpot reviewer
Soo at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Reasonably Priced
In terms of improvement, the product could benefit from streamlining the implementation process, particularly regarding customization. Currently, the process involves navigating through multiple layers of custom and staging forms, which can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Another aspect to consider is the foundation data provided out of the box, particularly regarding categorization and its associated values. This foundational data may only sometimes meet the mark, as organizations often require more flexibility to tailor it to their needs. Discovering hardware, for instance, can lead to different category processing needs, with certain layers providing minimal benefits. The challenge lies in the inability to directly specify servers, hardware, software, and their respective details, highlighting a need for improvement in this area. As per the current state of the Helix product, it has seen some resolution to issues but still faces challenges when adding more attributes. It can lead to restrictions, particularly with the progressive view page, limiting flexibility in certain cases. While benefits can be gained in other aspects, such drawbacks are common. Improvements are necessary to enhance flexibility in this regard. Exploring alternative solutions like containerization or cloud services may offer opportunities for optimization, requiring careful consideration due to the complexity involved. I'm still determining the current strategy. While there have been improvements in the latest version, there's still a need for further enhancements in an extended version. Additionally, stakeholders, including manufacturing companies, emphasize the importance of fine-tuning performance for the Helix product. The search functionality remains problematic, often taking more than 15 seconds, undermining reliability.
reviewer1247523 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Extensive exploit database and seamless integration enhance penetration testing capabilities
The automated approach in the audits or in the hacking testing with Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved because even the same attack you provide today will go in different ways another day. I prefer when the auditor or pen-tester provides the attack in a non-automated mode. For some, it might be a valuable option, but I'm not sure it's valuable for us, as after the attack has been provided, we should release a report detailing how it transpired and what the customer should improve to block this way of attack. If the attack was provided in an automated mode, you cannot receive sufficient information that helps with this final report for the customer. While you can check the vulnerability, and the system will tell you there is no vulnerability, usually, a human can change one, two, or three parameters and using the same technique and the same scripts can break the system. Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved in areas concerning the experience with finding particular scripts pre-installed in the solution. Customers, administrators, and pen-testers spend considerable time trying to locate the specific component they need by the name of the technique or the name of the attack, so any improvements in making it easier to find those predefined components by name or timeframe would be beneficial. Search filters could be a correct improvement.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's reasonably priced."
"Takes reports from other vulnerabilities."
"In terms of scalability, I can only tell you my experience from our clients: I had Remedy installed, and then we installed Discovery, two months ago we installed Server Automation and we've now completed the installation with Vulnerability Management, and everything is inter-operational, it's all automated now, and our customers are happy."
"It contains almost all the available exploits and payloads."
"For a free product, the capabilities are absolutely astonishing."
"When I compare Metasploit with Nessus, I find that Metasploit is faster and it does not burden the system as much."
"The option to generate phishing emails has proven to be very valuable in understanding the behavior of users."
"Overall, it is a very good product for penetration testing."
"The search engine is actually pretty cool, it allows you to search the vulnerability very fast, and the big difference is that the exploit you see on Metasploit has been tested and imported, it's going to work and it is not going to crash anything."
"The tool's most useful feature for penetration testing is its automation capabilities. With the professional edition, you can upload the results from Nessus in the Rapid7 Metasploit solution portal."
"The greatest advantage of Rapid7 Metasploit is that it is the only system that can directly exploit vulnerabilities on the Metasploit platform."
 

Cons

"No third-party applications or integrations with additional software solutions."
"With BMC I'd like to see the ability to integrate with other software."
"In terms of improvement, the product could benefit from streamlining the implementation process, particularly regarding customization."
"The initial setup was a bit "tweaky" for the open-source version."
"At the time I was using it, the graphical user interface needed some improvements."
"The database is not always updated with the latest vulnerabilities or zero-day exploits. If a vulnerability arises a month or two ago, it might not be included in the database, which is something I would like to see improved."
"While Metasploit excels in vulnerability assessment, it could improve in vulnerability management."
"The reporting feature needs improvement."
"There are numerous outdated exploits in their database that should be updated."
"The solution is not very scalable, it does not provide any automation to be able to scale it."
"If your company's patch is not up to date, but you have other detection or defense solutions such as endpoint detection and response and antivirus software, the product exploit may not work effectively. This is because its exploit database update process is slow and not real-time. For zero-day vulnerabilities or new security threats, relying on Rapid7 Metasploit alone may not be effective."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is expensive. Our license expired, and our company is not thinking to renew because of our budget."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product's pricing a six. So it's fairly priced."
"The pricing structure involves a one-time purchase cost of approximately twenty thousand dollars or euros for all customers."
"I use the open-source version of this product. Pricing is not relevant."
"Rapid7 Metasploit is cheaper than Tenable.io Vulnerability Management."
"It is a reasonably priced solution. I would rate it from five out of ten."
"We pay monthly. The pricing is reasonable."
"The great advantage with Rapid7 Metasploit, of course, is that it's free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Insurance Company
7%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 Metasploit?
The pricing of Rapid7 Metasploit is quite affordable. It has a free version that many customers start with, and after that, they usually purchase the commercial part of the solution due to its deep...
What needs improvement with Rapid7 Metasploit?
The automated approach in the audits or in the hacking testing with Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved because even the same attack you provide today will go in different ways another day. I prefe...
What is your primary use case for Rapid7 Metasploit?
I use Rapid7 Metasploit as a distributor, as an integrator, and as a user. I use Rapid7 Metasploit in my company internally as a part of providing internal audit.
 

Also Known As

TrueSight Vulnerability Management, SecOps Response Service, BladeLogic Threat Director, BMC Helix Remediate
Metasploit
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Online Business Systems
City of Corpus Christi, Diebold, Lumenate, Nebraska Public Power District, Prairie North Regional Health, Apptio, Automation Direct, Bob's Stores, Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions, Carnegie Mellon University
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Helix Automation Console vs. Rapid7 Metasploit and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.