Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Rapid7 Metasploit comparison

Microsoft and Rapid7 are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Microsoft is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.9, while Rapid7 is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.4. Microsoft holds a 2.1% mindshare in VM, compared to Rapid7’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Rapid7 users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Rapid7 Metasploit and Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management compete in vulnerability management solutions. Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management seems to have an upper hand due to its comprehensive features, despite its potentially higher price.

Features: Rapid7 Metasploit is known for penetration testing capabilities, a robust vulnerability assessment framework, and an extensive library of exploits. Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management includes advanced threat detection, seamless integration with Microsoft's security ecosystem, and a broader range of security features.

Room for Improvement: Rapid7 Metasploit could benefit from improved integration capabilities, a more streamlined deployment process, and expanded documentation. Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management may improve by enhancing penetration testing capabilities, increasing affordability, and broadening its exploit library.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Rapid7 Metasploit often requires more technical expertise for deployment but has responsive customer service. Microsoft Defender's integration within Windows simplifies deployment and benefits from extensive documentation and support.

Pricing and ROI: Rapid7 Metasploit is more affordable upfront, offering good ROI for penetration testing-focused companies. Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management may be more costly but offers greater long-term benefits, justified by its comprehensive features and integration.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Rapid7 Metasploit Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Rapid7 Metasploit

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

Zafran Security

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Zafran Security is 1.1%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is 2.1%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 Metasploit is 1.3%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management	2.1%
Zafran Security	1.1%
Rapid7 Metasploit	1.3%
Other	95.5%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Reviewer6233

Works at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal

While Zafran Security is already a powerful tool, there are areas where it could be further improved to provide even greater value. One key area for enhancement is the searching capabilities within its vulnerabilities module. By incorporating the ability to create Boolean searches, users would gain the ability to apply more complex filters and customize their search criteria. This would greatly enhance the precision and efficiency with which security teams can identify and prioritize vulnerabilities. Having such tailored search capabilities would save time and resources by narrowing down vast lists of vulnerabilities to those that meet specific parameters relevant to our unique risk environment. Additionally, integrating more robust reporting and visualization tools would be advantageous. Enhanced dashboards that offer customizable visual representations of risk configurations and threat landscapes would facilitate better communication with stakeholders, making it easier to explain vulnerabilities and the rationale behind certain security measures. This would also aid in demonstrating the improvements and value derived from existing security investments to leadership and non-technical team members.

Read full review

Okhan BABUCCU

Microsoft Solutions Manager at Self-Employed

Ensures strong threat and vulnerability management with continuous risk assessment

The major priority is identity, which is crucial; we have lots of companies in manufacturing, energy, or various sectors, and it varies from one to another. I assess Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management as very effective in continuously assessing vulnerabilities without requiring scans. We use automatic investigation and remediation features, safe attachments, safe links, and real-time reports, which are also very effective. For Active Directory, Defender has threat intelligence, and we are using that. The risk-based prioritization within Vulnerability Management affects my ability to manage vulnerabilities, particularly in relation to the Zero Trust Model utilized by our customers. The end-users often do as they please in their systems.

Read full review

reviewer1247523

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.

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

"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."

"With Zafran Security, it integrates with your security controls, allowing you to take that risk score and reduce it based on the controls in place or increase the risk based on different factors, such as if the issue is internet reachable or if there's an exploit in the wild."

"The integration with Sentinel has been one of the most valuable features for my organization."

"The integration with SIEM is the best, specifically the native integration with Microsoft SIEM."

"The product's stability is very high...The scalability of the product is amazing."

"The main advantage of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is that it can locate and prevent most threats even when the endpoints are not connected to the corporate network, as long as the internet is available."

"The product’s most valuable features are compliance, recommendations, and inventories."

"Overall, I would rate Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management a nine out of ten."

"The solution is highly scalable."

"The integration with Sentinel has been one of the most valuable features for my organization."

More Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management pros

"The option to generate phishing emails has proven to be very valuable in understanding the behavior of users."

"The Search Engineering feature is good."

"Rapid7 offers comprehensive features within one platform, eliminating the need to integrate multiple tools to see all alerts in one place."

"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."

"Rapid7 has a significant advantage in providing a clear picture of my environment."

"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."

"The most valuable features of Metasploit include its powerful capabilities for exploitation and scanning."

More Rapid7 Metasploit pros

Cons

"I think the ability to have some enhanced reporting capabilities is something they can improve on, as they have good reports but we have asked for some specific reporting enhancements."

"Initially, we were somewhat concerned about the scalability of Zafran due to our large asset count and the substantial amount of information we needed to process."

"The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvements."

"There is a good solution from Microsoft, however, there is a gap between Windows and Linux management."

"The product is not stable; it is very resource-intensive, consuming a lot of memory and CPU, which makes it slow."

"The worst aspect is the refresh rate of the dashboard."

"Sometimes the stability of the agents could be improved."

"Regarding Microsoft's technical support, I would rate it a three out of ten; they could be more responsive and knowledgeable."

"It is challenging to extract and customize reports from the system."

"Probably my only criticism would be the cost. It is expensive."

"The general support could be improved."

More Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management cons

"I would like to see more capabilities, more functions, and more features. More types of attack vectors."

"The reporting feature needs improvement."

"Rapid7 Metasploit could be made easier for new users to learn."

"There are numerous outdated exploits in their database that should be updated."

"Rapid7 Metasploit can add a GUI feature because it is only available online."

"It is necessary to add some training materials and a tutorial for beginners."

"At the time I was using it, the graphical user interface needed some improvements."

"The open-source version has reporting limitations. You need to develop these capabilities yourself. Built-in reporting is an excellent feature for penetration testing, but it isn't a must-have. The solution could also cover more vulnerabilities. Metasploit has around 10,000 exploits in its library, but more is always better."

More Rapid7 Metasploit cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."

"The licensing costs are reasonable."

"The tool is a bit costly."

"The licensing model follows a per-user per-month structure."

"The product’s pricing is medium."

"I use the open-source version of this product. Pricing is not relevant."

"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."

"The cost is approximately $15 per device."

"The great advantage with Rapid7 Metasploit, of course, is that it's free."

"Rapid7 Metasploit is an open-source solution."

"There are two versions available, one of which is the Pro version, and the other is the free version."

"We pay monthly. The pricing is reasonable."

More Rapid7 Metasploit pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Vulnerability Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?

Since we stood Zafran Security up in our private cloud, we handle the maintenance on our side. As we opted not to use...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

In terms of areas for improvement, Zafran Security is doing a really great job as a new and emerging company. Oftenti...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?

My use cases for Zafran Security revolve around two primary areas. One is around vulnerability management and priorit...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?

The solution helps identify threats and vulnerabilities.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?

We are open to discounts on the pricing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?

The documentation from Microsoft needs significant improvement. The documents are disorganized, with one document lin...

See all answers

What do you like most about Rapid7 Metasploit?

I use Rapid7 Metasploit for payload generation and Post-Exploitation.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Wiz Code vs Zafran Security

Compared 24% of the time

Vulcan Cyber vs Zafran Security

Compared 10% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Zafran Security

Compared 10% of the time

Nucleus vs Zafran Security

Compared 8% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Zafran Security

Compared 6% of the time

More Zafran Security Competitors

Qualys VMDR vs Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management

Compared 16% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management

Compared 15% of the time

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management

Compared 11% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management

Compared 4% of the time

Amazon Inspector vs Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management

Compared 2% of the time

More Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management Competitors

Tenable Nessus vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 11% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 10% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 6% of the time

Acunetix vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 6% of the time

Arctic Wolf Managed Risk vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 4% of the time

More Rapid7 Metasploit Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Zafran Security

January 2026

Download Zafran Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management

January 2026

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management report

Download Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit

January 2026

Download Rapid7 Metasploit product report

Also Known As

No data available

Metasploit

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management enables organizations to identify vulnerabilities, manage patches, and fortify threat detection. It offers endpoint assessments, cloud incident management, and dynamic security through Microsoft's Security Scorecard integration.

Organizations leverage Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management for advanced threat detection and response. It provides robust tools for vulnerability assessment and cloud incident management, integrated with Microsoft's Security Scorecard to enhance dynamic security profiling. Key features include automatic patch deployment, security configuration management, and seamless integration with Microsoft platforms, benefiting both on-prem and cloud environments. Organizations can track vulnerabilities with severity-based reports, helping manage outdated software and minimizing threat exposure.

What are the key features of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management?

Compliance: Ensures adherence to security regulations.
Recommendations: Provides actionable advice for security enhancements.
Inventories: Offers detailed inventory tracking for software and hardware.
Threat Identification: Detects potential threats proactively.
Vulnerability Assessment: Evaluates system vulnerabilities comprehensively.
Zero-day Protection: Shields systems from newly discovered exploits.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Integration: Facilitates seamless integration with Microsoft and diverse platforms.
Risk Mitigation: Assists in mitigating risks through accurate assessments.
Prioritization: Helps prioritize vulnerabilities for efficient patch management.
Up-to-date Protection: Ensures systems remain secured and current.

In healthcare, Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management helps manage compliance with health regulations, while in finance, it aids in securing sensitive data from cyber threats. Manufacturing sectors benefit from its patch management, keeping operational technology systems less vulnerable to disruptions.

Microsoft

Attackers are always developing new exploits and attack methods—Metasploit penetration testing software helps you use their own weapons against them. Utilizing an ever-growing database of exploits, you can safely simulate real-world attacks on your network to train your security team to spot and stop the real thing.

Rapid7

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Rapid7 Metasploit

December 2025

Free Report: Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Rapid7 Metasploit

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Rapid7 Metasploit and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Rapid7 Metasploit report.

See our list of best Vulnerability Management vendors.

We monitor all Vulnerability Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.