Tenable Nessusvs
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Tenable Nessus
Network vulnerability scanner
As of 30 August 2026, Tenable Nessus is free to use. Tenable Nessus is the industry-leading vulnerability assessment tool providing real-time visibility into network security. Softwr lists it under Cybersecurity. Tenable Nessus is made by Tenable Holdings, Inc., launched in 2002, available on Windows, Linux, macOS, Web.
Overview
What Tenable Nessus does
Tenable Nessus is the industry-leading vulnerability assessment tool providing real-time visibility into network security. It helps organizations identify misconfigurations, malware, and unauthorized changes across networks and cloud environments.
What people use it for
- Vulnerability scanning of servers, network devices and web applications
- Configuration and compliance auditing against hardening benchmarks
- Point in time assessments by consultants and penetration testers
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Tenable Nessus.
- Nessus Professional is $4,790 for one year, sold as an annual licence rather than a per scan or usage based fee
- Support beyond the base entitlement costs an extra $400 per year for Advanced Support with 24x365 phone and chat access
- The on demand training course is a separate $275 purchase for a single person for one year
- Multi year discounts require paying for two or three years up front
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Tenable Nessus
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Tenable NessusvsBitdefender Total Security
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- Tenable NessusvsLastPass
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- Tenable NessusvsNorton 360
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Pricing
What Tenable Nessus costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Nessus Essentials
Free
- Up to 16 ips
- Network scanning
- Vulnerability assessment
- Free forever
Nessus Professional
$2,600 /yr
- Unlimited targets
- Enterprise features
- Advanced analytics
Nessus Expert
$5,200 /yr
- All Professional features
- Cloud integration
- Advanced reporting
Capabilities
Features
Network scanning
Vulnerability detection
Configuration assessment
Malware detection
Compliance checking
Cloud security assessment
Mobile scanning
API access
AWS
Integration with AWS
Azure
Integration with Azure
Google Cloud
Integration with Google Cloud
Splunk
Integration with Splunk
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
What are the three Nessus offerings?
Nessus Essentials is a free introductory offering for educators, students, and career starters, limited to 16 IPs for scanning. Nessus Professional is designed for consultants and SMBs, providing unlimited IT scans across any location. Nessus Expert is the premium offering extending Professional with web application scanning, infrastructure-as-code scanning, and external attack surface assessment up to 5 domains.
SourceWhat OS platforms does Nessus support?
Nessus runs on Debian/Kali Linux, Fedora, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, Red Hat/CentOS, SUSE Linux, Ubuntu, and various Windows versions including Server 2008, 2012, and Windows 7-10.
SourceCan I use Nessus to scan third-party networks as a consultant?
Yes, Tenable permits you to use Nessus to scan third-party networks. Nessus Professional is ideal for consultants.
SourceCan Nessus perform PCI external scanning?
Yes, you can use Nessus Professional to perform external network scans as required by the PCI DSS 11.2.2 requirement.
SourceWhat additional features does Nessus Expert provide?
Web application scanning, which is dynamic application security testing (DAST) providing comprehensive visibility and insight into web application security issues; scanning code repositories for vulnerabilities; and assessing external attack surface with subdomain discovery.
SourceWhat support options exist for Nessus Professional?
Standard Support includes software upgrades, patches, plugin access, and 24x7 support via chat and community portal. Advanced Support adds 24x7 phone access and committed SLAs: P1 less than 2 hours, P2 less than 4 hours, P3 less than 12 hours, P4 less than 24 hours.
SourceHow frequently are Nessus plugins updated?
Nessus plugins are updated daily, based on when vendors and security research sites publish new vulnerabilities.
SourceHow does licensing work in virtual machine environments?
Whether you are using Nessus in a physical or a virtual environment, the IP addresses or hosts that you are scanning from must be licensed.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Tenable Nessus
- Company
- Tenable Holdings, Inc.
- Based in
- Columbia, Maryland, USA
Timeline
Tenable Nessus over time
- Funding2018-07-26
Initial public offering pricing
Source
Keep looking
Where to go from Tenable Nessus
- Tenable Nessus alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Tenable Nessus pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Tenable Nessus badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Cybersecurity softwareThe full category
- Best Cybersecurity softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Cybersecurity software for
Compare Tenable Nessus with
- 1Password
- Bitdefender Total Security
- Norton 360
- LastPass
- Fortinet FortiGate
- Darktrace
- Qualys VMDR
- Acunetix
- Rapid7 InsightVM
- Recorded Future
- Private Internet Access
- Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- Unit21
- Veracode
- Very Good Security
- VIVOTEK VAST Security Station
- Windscribe
- Yoti
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Tenable Nessus, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Tenable Nessus
Tenable Nessus alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Tenable Nessus pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Tenable Nessus
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