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Rapid7 InsightVM vs Tenable Nessus comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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
Sponsored
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (27th), Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (3rd)
Rapid7 InsightVM
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (4th)
Tenable Nessus
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini - PeerSpot reviewer
Weekly insights and risk analysis facilitate informed security decisions
I appreciate the weekly insights Zafran provides, which include critical topics for networks and IT security, allowing us to evaluate which insights apply to our environment. The organization score feature is valuable to keep the leadership team updated on how our infrastructure fares security-wise. The applicable risk level versus base risk level feature is beneficial because prior to Zafran, we only used the base risk level, but now understand that risk depends on the asset itself. Zafran is an excellent tool.
Mahmoud Elhamaymy - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable scanning and integration strengthen security infrastructure
InsightVM has a very organized GUI with ease of use. The vulnerability scans are reliable, and the credential scan is a beneficial feature. The solution is efficient and trustworthy. It's based on the CVSS risk scoring system, which is well-recognized and effective. The integration capabilities through APIs allow easy integration with existing security infrastructure.
HarshBhardiya - PeerSpot reviewer
Provided increased visibility across the organization's servers
The user interface of Tenable Nessus feels outdated and could be more user-friendly. Additionally, the documentation is not well-organized, which can be confusing when searching for solutions or specific information related to Tenable Nessus Professional. The reporting feature could be improved by allowing users to create their own templates instead of relying on predefined ones.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."
"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."
"Zafran is an excellent tool."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"The most valuable feature for us is the different types of reporting it provides."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the agent and the scanning."
"The discovery and prioritization of vulnerabilities."
"It is good and fits well with pretty much all of our use case needs."
"Using Rapid7, we can install a scan engine, we can do our VPN connections, and we can conduct internal scans of remote sites. We prefer the web application. It's smarter and more accurate from an application perspective."
"It's easy to use. It's fast, it's a powerful easy to access tool."
"The most valuable feature of the Rapid7 InsightVM solution is the Live Risk Score."
"The most valuable feature is the installation of Tenable which is incredibly easy."
"Tenable Nessus is cheap and flexible."
"The reports are pretty nice and easy to understand."
"You can then direct your team to create a report on the discovered vulnerabilities."
"The most valuable feature of Tenable Nessus is real-time monitoring."
"I like its ease of use. It has the script that is pre-built in it, and you just got to know which ones you're looking for."
"The support has been really cooperative."
"It allows me to prioritize efforts and utilize effective technical resources."
 

Cons

"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."
"I’d like to see Rapid7 InsightVM improve by adding a knowledge base similar to what Qualys offers. This would help us easily check and search for vulnerabilities using Rapid7 IDs associated with CVs or CVSS. From a features perspective, everything was fine at the time, and the security features of Rapid7 InsightVM were effective."
"The automation capability remediation needs improvement."
"I think the improvement in the tool should be to provide a better update to users because sometimes the information within the cloud and the scanner are not synchronized very fast."
"The product does not have the capability to do dynamic scanning of non-web applications."
"InsightVM could be improved by providing passive scanning as an option."
"Technical support does not respond quickly."
"We'd like the agent to cover more compliance issues."
"Their customer support should be improved, and the effectiveness of scans also needs to be improved."
"It would be better if they had application-level support for mobile devices. They don't have anything to scan mobile devices. Tenable Nessus doesn't have a mobile application vulnerability assessment. I also have issues with the false positive rates. The product has limited features."
"There is room for improvement in finishing the transition to the cloud. We'd like to see them keep on improving the Tenable.io product, so that we can migrate to it entirely, instead of having to keep the Tenable.sc on-prem product."
"This is still a maturing product. Tenable is only a scanner for one ability, while other solutions like Rapid7 have more tools for verification. We still have to manually verify to see if the vulnerability is a false positive or not."
"Tenable Nessus could include a broader range of IT assets."
"Multiple steps to create an actionable plan will be a great addition to Nessus."
"The solution should be able to support more devices."
"The solution could improve security updates."
"Scans aren't done properly and some devices aren't pinged."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The solution is a bit more reasonably priced than other products."
"InsightVM is an expensive product, especially compared to its competitors, at around a million NOK per year."
"Our licensing costs are somewhere around $40,000 annually. There are no additional fees."
"Its licensing is yearly. Everything is included in the price for one year."
"I do not have experience with the pricing of the solution."
"We have an annual license to use Rapid7 InsightVM and if we want to extend it, we will possibly choose more than one year."
"Pricing is reasonable because we pay according to asset usage. We can define our assets and sites according to our preference."
"It is less expensive compared to other competitors."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"We incurred a single cost for a perpetual license, although I cannot comment on the price as this is above my management level."
"The cost is around $4,300 per year. Use is unlimited. You don't pay more if you want to use it for another IP."
"I rate the product's price seven or eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"I would like to see better discounts."
"It has a fair cost and very good cost-benefit ratio."
"We paid about six thousand dollars per license."
"The price of Tenable Nessus could improve, it is expensive."
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Answers from the Community

NC
Nov 8, 2021
Nov 8, 2021
You have full visibility across cloud, network, virtual, and containerized infrastructures with Rapid7 Insight VM. You can easily prioritize vulnerabilities using attacker analytics. Overall, Rapid7 Insight VM is easy to understand, use, and deploy. This solution supplies many different types of valuable reporting and rarely reports false positives. Rapid7 can easily detect new devices and scan...
See 2 answers
MI
Sep 6, 2021
InsightVM - better functions on granting users different access to different asset groups.  It fits better for our company and is slightly cheaper.
Nov 8, 2021
You have full visibility across cloud, network, virtual, and containerized infrastructures with Rapid7 Insight VM. You can easily prioritize vulnerabilities using attacker analytics. Overall, Rapid7 Insight VM is easy to understand, use, and deploy. This solution supplies many different types of valuable reporting and rarely reports false positives. Rapid7 can easily detect new devices and scan endpoints quickly for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, or missing patches. Rapid7 Insight VM will identify the risk and suggest how to resolve the problem. We would like to see the reporting improved to offer some of the options other solutions provide. Rapid7 Insight VM can be a very expensive solution - it is really only for larger enterprise accounts. Integration with other solutions would make Rapid7 Insight VM more desirable. It’s easy to combine local testing with network-based testing using Tenable Nessus, which can easily find vulnerabilities across different platforms and operating systems. Tenable Nessus will identify what nodes you have in place, then provide you with a report identifying each vulnerability found by node. It works quickly and stealthily, and offers clear-cut reporting and the ability to scan for specific vulnerabilities. We would like to see the reporting process with Tenable Nessus improved. Instead of only PDF reports, one option might be to track with an Excel-based structure to better track vulnerabilities and remediation efforts and build reports from there. An option to use the same license for the cloud and on-premises at the same time would be very useful. Conclusion We felt that Tenable Nessus provided better reporting of vulnerabilities per device in a clearer, easier to understand manner. It is a very easy solution to use and makes accountability for tracing and reporting vulnerabilities easy. The flexible scanning options offered by Tenable Nessus are what we found most advantageous.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
36%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
34%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?
I find that the pricing for Zafran aligns well with the comprehensive features it offers. The asset and user-based li...
What needs improvement with Zafran Security?
Zafran is a new startup. Features are continuously being added or improved. 1) Continued integrations with existing (...
What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?
We connect this to our vulnerability scanner as input, our security tools to better determine risk, and our change ma...
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. Yo...
What do you like most about Rapid7 InsightVM?
The product's initial setup phase was very easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 InsightVM?
Pricing is reasonable and competitive compared to other solutions in the market. Customers are generally satisfied an...
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 ...
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 addre...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tenable Nessus?
The pricing for Tenable Nessus has increased significantly, tripling over the last few years. We have not renewed the...
 

Also Known As

No data available
InsightVM, NeXpose
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
ACS, Acosta, AllianceData, amazon.com, biogen idec, CBRE, CATERPILLAR, Deloitte, COACH, GameStop, IBM
Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University
Find out what your peers are saying about Rapid7 InsightVM vs. Tenable Nessus and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.