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Rapid7 Metasploit vs Tenable Vulnerability Management comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
16th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (1st)
Rapid7 Metasploit
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
19th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Tenable Vulnerability Manag...
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Patch Management (11th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Zafran Security is 0.9%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 Metasploit is 1.4%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable Vulnerability Management is 5.2%, down from 9.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
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.
Mani Bommisetty - PeerSpot reviewer
Comprehensive insights with robust vulnerability detection and streamlined alert management
Rapid7 has a significant advantage in providing a clear picture of my environment. It provides insight and incident detection response capabilities. When deployed with the same agent in servers or endpoints, it identifies vulnerabilities and monitors data transmission to external sources. Rapid7 offers comprehensive features within one platform, eliminating the need to integrate multiple tools to see all alerts in one place.
Mani Bommisetty - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlines vulnerability management with excellent reporting and potential AI integration
Tenable is user-friendly and excels in reporting. It allows me to easily fetch and schedule reports. The software's discovery feature aids in strengthening our security posture. The single-sensor installation process on various operating systems is smooth, unlike Rapid7, which requires different versions for separate systems. Furthermore, Tenable enables vulnerability management through potential AI integration that consolidates efforts and resolves multiple vulnerabilities simultaneously.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."
"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."
"Zafran is an excellent tool."
"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."
"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."
"It allows us to concentrate solely on identified vulnerabilities without the hassle of additional setup."
"I use Rapid7 Metasploit for payload generation and Post-Exploitation."
"The solution is open source and has many small targetted penetration tests that have been written by many people that are useful. You can choose different subjects for the test, such as Oracle databases or Apache servers."
"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."
"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."
"The greatest advantage of Rapid7 Metasploit is that it is the only system that can directly exploit vulnerabilities on the Metasploit platform."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the scripts, the modules, and the tools that the Rapid7 Metasploit framework has."
"The solution is quite friendly."
"A new user can easily understand the workflow, even if they are creating users for other divisions and the user is a beginner."
"Tenable is user-friendly and excels in reporting."
"I would rate Tenable's dashboards and reporting capabilities for illustrating security posture a nine out of ten, with ten being the best."
"It has greatly impacted us by providing asset visibility."
"The solution's most valuable feature is providing a single pane of visibility on all the infrastructure and its status."
"Tenable.io Vulnerability Management is an easy-to-use product. I"
"The dashboard is pretty intuitive, and it lets you do a drill-down analysis of each vulnerability. That is something that brings a lot of value to the organization."
 

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."
"Better automation capabilities would be an improvement."
"At the time I was using it, the graphical user interface needed some improvements."
"It is necessary to add some training materials and a tutorial for beginners."
"The solution should improve the responsiveness of its live technical support."
"I think areas with shortcomings that need improvement are more integration and automation."
"There are numerous outdated exploits in their database that should be updated."
"Support is another area where improvement is needed, particularly for assisting non-security users."
"While Metasploit excels in vulnerability assessment, it could improve in vulnerability management."
"I would rate it four out of ten. For startups, freelancers, or companies between startup and midsize, Tenable is recommended. However, for midsize or enterprise-level companies, I would not prefer it."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved."
"I would like the solution to cover the whole cycle of mitigation since it's an area where the solution currently lacks."
"The price could be lower."
"The solution must provide penetration testing."
"The one drawback that we have found is the reports."
"The user interface could be improved by being able to change the user interface to fit your position or your job. The graphs are set in stone and you can only print reports."
"Tenable could improve visibility into assets, including automated asset tagging. You should be able to automatically tag assets based on location, function, ownership, etc. That would help us because we spend a lot of time identifying and tagging assets by hand."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I have used the free version of Rapid7 Metasploit."
"It is a reasonably priced solution. I would rate it from five out of ten."
"The pricing structure involves a one-time purchase cost of approximately twenty thousand dollars or euros for all customers."
"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 cost is approximately $15 per device."
"The great advantage with Rapid7 Metasploit, of course, is that it's free."
"It is expensive. Our license expired, and our company is not thinking to renew because of our budget."
"There are two versions available, one of which is the Pro version, and the other is the free version."
"Tenable charges around $40 per device."
"Tenable.io is not known for being a cheap product."
"The cost is determined by the number of endpoints, which is approximately one dollar per endpoint."
"There are additional features that can be licensed for an additional cost."
"I would rate the pricing a five out of ten. It is in the middle."
"The solution is not too expensive."
"Tenable.io Vulnerability Management's pricing solution model isn't great."
"The product costs us around $137,000 annually for 4000 to 5000 assets."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
 

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?
Since we stood Zafran Security up in our private cloud, we handle the maintenance on our side. As we opted not to use...
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...
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...
What do you like most about Rapid7 Metasploit?
I use Rapid7 Metasploit for payload generation and Post-Exploitation.
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...
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 ...
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 needs improvement with Tenable.io Vulnerability Management?
I don't think I have any additional features to add for improvement, as Tenable Vulnerability Management does a prett...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Metasploit
Tenable.io
 

Overview

 

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
Global Payments AU/NZ
Find out what your peers are saying about Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Vulnerability Management and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.