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Tenable Nessus vs Vicarius vRx 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)
Tenable Nessus
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Vicarius vRx
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Patch Management (7th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (6th)
 

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 Tenable Nessus is 8.4%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vicarius vRx is 0.9%, up from 0.3% 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.
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The user interface of Tenable Nessus feels outdated and could be more user-friendly.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.
OrenBen Shalom - PeerSpot reviewer
Consolidates vulnerability discovery, prioritization, and remediation in a single platform
Vicarius vRx offers several advantages, especially for organizations with diverse operating systems and applications requiring frequent patching. The platform helps prioritize patch installation by identifying high-risk vulnerabilities, allowing IT teams to focus on critical threats first. This prioritization is crucial because it prevents IT teams from being overwhelmed by the constant influx of patches, enabling them to create a manageable plan and allocate resources effectively. By distinguishing between critical, high-risk, and medium-risk vulnerabilities, Vicarius vRx empowers IT teams to address the most urgent threats promptly and schedule less critical patches for later. Both native operating system updates and Vicarius vRx offer vulnerability remediation. Native OS updates allow for the patching of system vulnerabilities on Windows, macOS, and Linux. However, Vicarius vRx provides a single solution for installing both operating system and application updates by also discovering application vulnerabilities. Another valuable feature is virtual patching, which allows us to protect an asset from a specific vulnerability without installing a patch. Sometimes, installing a patch alone is insufficient and requires restarting the asset. However, production servers often cannot be restarted during the day, restricting restarts to specific timeslots. Virtual patching creates a network-based protection layer that prevents exploitation of a vulnerability, offering a temporary safeguard. While not a foolproof solution for long-term use, it's a valuable tool that reduces tension between IT and security teams by providing time to properly install patches.

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."
"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."
"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."
"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."
"The plug-in text information is quite useful."
"I like this solution because it is complete. It can scan and check many types of vulnerabilities. It can also check for compliance."
"Quick assessments, compliance scores, and results are provided without having to do agents."
"It notifies us of vulnerabilities as they arise, allowing us to respond quickly without manual intervention."
"Out of the box, the product works well for us, so it's not a tool that we need to customize very much."
"The most valuable feature of Tenable Nessus is vulnerability detection."
"I am impressed with the tool's vulnerability scanning."
"The results are not that bad, but the key selling point is that it is an affordable tool set."
"Patchless Protection helps protect us from vulnerabilities that may not yet have patches from the manufacturer. I've used it for a piece of software that we don't have a patch for. It monitors that software, analyzes it, and makes sure nothing nefarious is going on when it's vulnerable."
"The most valuable features of vRx would be virtualized patching and severity prioritization."
"Vicarius vRx's primary strength is its user-friendly interface."
"The dashboard is quite easy to manage. The automation aspect is also very valuable."
"Agent-based scanning is the most valuable feature."
"I like that vRx is cloud-based. It protects the health of applications against zero-day threats."
"The strongest advantage of Vicarius vRx is its intuitive interface, which requires minimal explanation or support, even for first-time users."
"The system prioritizes vulnerabilities, identifying high, medium, and low risks, allowing us to focus on high-risk applications. It allows us to focus on high-risk applications and do the updates."
 

Cons

"The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvements."
"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."
"Sometimes, the categorization for clients was tricky at first, however, they eventually got used to it."
"The solution should be able to support more devices."
"We'd like to see the solution embrace more user-friendliness."
"They need more flexible pricing."
"The problems I faced with Tenable Nessus were related to its dashboard's customization capabilities and its ability to provide data to third-party sources."
"Some things in the user interface could be better. The user interface could allow more adjustments to plugins. The price could also be better."
"Model OS costs (and its segregation schema for individual modules)."
"Online learning could be a bit better."
"The user interface for deploying patches can be improved, as it appears complicated when launching patches."
"Unlike previous vulnerability management systems that relied on network scanning appliances to discover and assess endpoints, Vicarius' agent-based approach is less effective for devices like switches, routers, and printers where agent installation is impractical."
"They do have a search function for device names. They already have a list of all our devices, however, if I'm looking for something, sometimes the name does not come up at the top of the list."
"I would be happy if the patch update could be downloaded to the Vicarius server and then implemented on the client. Currently, they just send a link to the software."
"While I appreciate the automation of vulnerability management, Vicarius vRx's current manual patchless application is a point for improvement."
"It would be beneficial if Vicarius vRx could implement smart tagging or suggest tags to create a group for these development tools, signifying that they should not be regularly updated."
"I would be happy if the patch update could be downloaded to the Vicarius server and then implemented on the client."
"The patchless protection feature is currently difficult to understand and could be made more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"In general, it is extremely expensive."
"The price of Tenable Nessus is too expensive for each service center."
"The price is high for the solution. There are free tools with similar functionality available. The solution cost approximately $3,500."
"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 expensive."
"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."
"While Tenable Nessus is a good enterprise solution, the high price would likely make it prohibitive to smaller organizations."
"We pay approximately $2,500 on a yearly basis."
"The pricing was very reasonable and fair compared to other products. I liked that there was no tiered system. One price gave access to everything, which is nice. It is not something you get too often with enterprise IT."
"It is in the middle. It is not the cheapest solution, but it is also not terribly expensive. We found it to be a good fit. It is fairly priced."
"Vicarius vRx's per-asset pricing makes it easy for me to market to clients as it scales with their needs."
"Vicarius vRx offers a competitive price point for the features it provides."
"From a pricing perspective, Vicarius was cheaper compared to other competitors."
"In the past, Vicarius vRx was cheap, but now they have adjusted their pricing policy, resulting in higher renewal costs. We have had some conversations with them regarding a smaller jump in the renewal cost."
"I know we got it for a very cheap price, and I now see why. It was very cheap. It was maybe 12,000 or 14,000 dollars."
"The pricing is fair."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Healthcare Company
5%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
14%
Media Company
10%
Non Profit
10%
Manufacturing Company
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...
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'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 Vicarius vRx?
I do not use other solutions, so I cannot compare its pricing to others, but its price seems okay.
What needs improvement with Vicarius vRx?
I would be happy if the patch update could be downloaded to the Vicarius server and then implemented on the client. C...
What is your primary use case for Vicarius vRx?
We use Vicarius vRx to manage all third-party software updates. Previously, we could manage Windows updates, but thir...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Tenable Nessus vs. Vicarius vRx and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.