Compare Nessus with industry vulnerability assessment solutions

Nessus® is the gold standard for vulnerability assessment. See how Nessus compares to OpenVAS®, Rapid7® Nexpose® and Greenbone.
Nessus

See why Nessus is trusted by tens of thousands of organizations worldwide.

Since our inception, we've collaborated with the security community to make Nessus the most accurate and comprehensive vulnerability assessment solution. Even after 20 years, our focus remains on community collaboration and product innovation. Compare Nessus with other popular tools to see how it measures up.

Data as of June 2026
Tenable Nessus®
OpenVAS
Greenbone
Rapid7 Nexpose

Vulnerability assessment

CVE coverage
Tenable Nessus
Industry leading CVE coverage. Refer to https://www.tenable.com/plugins for more information
Not published.
Not published.
Not published.
False-positive rate
Tenable Nessus
Industry's lowest false-positive rate – better than six-sigma accuracy1
Not published; customers report many false-positives
Not published; customers report many false-positives
Not published; customers report many false-positives
Live Results
Tenable Nessus
Live Results functionality uses new plugin updates to identify vulnerabilities within existing scan data, providing real-time visibility
Not available
Yes
Not available
Vulnerability grouping
Tenable Nessus
Grouped View presents similar vulnerabilities in a single thread for ease of management
Limited availability
Limited availability
Not available
Web Application Scanning*
Tenable Nessus
Yes
Not available
Not available
Basic features 2
Continuous subdomain discovery scanning (Attack Surface Discovery)*
Tenable Nessus
Yes
Not available
Not available
Not available

Security configuration assessment/audit (SCA)

Pre-built compliance and configuration assessment templates
Tenable Nessus
1600+ compliance and configuration templates (CIS, DISA STIG, HIPAA, PCI DSS, USGCB, FDCC, and more) – at no extra cost
Limited support for CIS. No support DISA STIG, USGCB, or FDCC audits
Limited support for CIS. No support DISA STIG, USGCB, or FDCC audits
Total number is not published

Reporting and user interface

Flexible report creation
Tenable Nessus
Pre-built report templates simplify report creation. Reports can be tailored based on customized views by team or client
Limited report templates and filtering capabilities
Limited report templates and filtering capabilities
Pre-built report templates available. Custom templates can be created or imported
Branded reports
Tenable Nessus
Option to add personal branding (name/logo)
Manual CLI based steps available to add limited customizations
Manual CLI based steps available to add limited customizations
Option to add personal branding (name/logo)
Automatic email distribution of reports after scans finish
Tenable Nessus
Yes
Not available
Yes
Yes

Security research

Expert security research
Community driven
Community driven and technology partners supported
Rapid7 maintains a respected security research team

Total cost of ownership (TCO)

Cost of acquiring, operating, and supporting product
Tenable Nessus
7-day free trial.
Full pricing here.
Extensive pre-built capabilities, automation, and vendor support minimize manual effort
Free to download.
Significant manual work required to deploy, operate, and self-support
Greenbone offers commercial distribution of OpenVas, pricing is not published
Greenbone offers 14 day trial but pricing is not published
Rapid7 offers 30 day trial but pricing is not published

Product viability

Product investment
Tenable Nessus
Tenable continues to invest in and innovate with Nessus. Link to release notes
Community-driven releases and bug fixes
Release history can be accessed here
Release history can be accessed here

Industry adoption

Paid customers
Tenable Nessus
40,000+3
Not published
Over 1,000
11,0004
Cumulative downloads
Tenable Nessus
4+ million (as of June, 2026)5
Nessus
Not published
50,000 installations claimed
Not published
#1 market share for application VA
Tenable Nessus
Yes6
No
No
No
1Approximately 0.32 defects per 1 million scans https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus.
2Nexpose feature list
3Source: https://www.tenable.com/about-tenable/about-us. Virtually all Tenable customers are using Nessus or a product built on Nessus technology.
4Source: https://www.rapid7.com/about/customers. Not all of Rapid7’s customers are using Nexpose (or InsightVM).
5Source: https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus.
6According to IDC WorldWide Device Vulnerability and Exposure Management: https://www.tenable.com/blog/idc-ranks-tenable-1-in-ww-device-vulnerability-and-exposure-management-market-share.
*Applies to Nessus Expert.
Data as of June 2026 unless noted otherwise.
All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners.

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