Amazon Inspector vs Rapid7 Metasploit comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Rapid7 are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.6, while Rapid7 is ranked #19 with an average rating of 9.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 1.6% mindshare in VM, compared to Rapid7’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Rapid7 users who would recommend it.

Amazon Inspector

Read 9 Amazon Inspector reviews

2,840 Views
2,528 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Rapid7 Metasploit

Read 22 Rapid7 Metasploit reviews

3,613 Views
3,107 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Amazon Inspector

Rapid7 Metasploit

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Rapid7 Metasploit and Amazon Inspector are competitive products in security testing and vulnerability management. Rapid7 Metasploit often leads in user satisfaction due to favorable pricing and support, while Amazon Inspector's comprehensive features make it the preferred choice for enterprises seeking robust functionality.

Features: Rapid7 Metasploit offers an extensive exploit library, excellent penetration testing capabilities, and adaptability for customizable tasks. Amazon Inspector provides automated vulnerability assessments, seamless integration with AWS, and continuous monitoring, making it suitable for cloud-based environments.

Room for Improvement: Rapid7 Metasploit could enhance its automation capabilities, expand native cloud integrations, and improve scalability for large environments. Amazon Inspector would benefit from a more extensive exploit library, detailed reporting features, and improved functionality outside AWS-specific environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Rapid7 Metasploit allows flexible on-premises deployment, supporting tailored penetration tasks with noted responsive customer service. Amazon Inspector integrates directly with AWS services, offering streamlined automated deployment and efficient customer service through AWS support channels, simplifying operations for cloud-centric businesses.

Pricing and ROI: Rapid7 Metasploit may have higher upfront licensing costs but delivers strong ROI through advanced testing capabilities. Amazon Inspector offers cost-effective, consumption-based pricing, appealing to cloud-focused users by providing excellent ROI through its automated, cloud-native functionality.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Inspector vs. Rapid7 Metasploit Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Inspector vs. Rapid7 Metasploit

March 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 884,706 peers since 2012

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

Amazon Inspector

Ranking in Vulnerability Management

20th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Vendor Risk Management (6th)

Rapid7 Metasploit

Ranking in Vulnerability Management

19th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Amazon Inspector is 1.6%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 Metasploit is 1.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Rapid7 Metasploit	1.7%
Amazon Inspector	1.6%
Other	96.7%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Abdalla Kenawy

AWS DevOps SRE/Infrastructure Engineer at Capgemini

Automated insights streamline data security assessment

For Amazon Inspector, we have many EC2 or virtual machines deployed inside our AWS environment, and the problem is that the existing package deployed inside this EC2 instance has already outdated packages. As we progress with time, this package needs to be updated for security enhancement, which requires us to uninstall the package, install the new version, and then we should be fine. However, the challenge comes with how to scan all our EC2 instances for security vulnerabilities, which is currently managed by Amazon Inspector. Amazon Inspector can scan EC2 instances or ECR, which is the ECR registry where we can save artifacts Docker images. Amazon Inspector can also scan Docker images uploaded to ECR for Elastic Registry service, and it can scan databases and S3 based on the latest updates. I noticed this from a couple of months ago, and it provides huge benefits for security. Regarding the best features of Amazon Inspector, it gives us a list of all existing outdated packages as part of a deployed package on EC2 instances or specific Python packages that are part of the Docker file and the Docker image itself, which are causing security concerns. Amazon Inspector can list these security concerns and offer guidance on how we can remediate it by updating the package to a specific upper version or something similar.

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reviewer1247523

Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

Extensive exploit database and seamless integration enhance penetration testing capabilities

The automated approach in the audits or in the hacking testing with Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved because even the same attack you provide today will go in different ways another day. I prefer when the auditor or pen-tester provides the attack in a non-automated mode. For some, it might be a valuable option, but I'm not sure it's valuable for us, as after the attack has been provided, we should release a report detailing how it transpired and what the customer should improve to block this way of attack. If the attack was provided in an automated mode, you cannot receive sufficient information that helps with this final report for the customer. While you can check the vulnerability, and the system will tell you there is no vulnerability, usually, a human can change one, two, or three parameters and using the same technique and the same scripts can break the system. Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved in areas concerning the experience with finding particular scripts pre-installed in the solution. Customers, administrators, and pen-testers spend considerable time trying to locate the specific component they need by the name of the technique or the name of the attack, so any improvements in making it easier to find those predefined components by name or timeframe would be beneficial. Search filters could be a correct improvement.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The assessment reports provided by Amazon Inspector have helped me in identifying security vulnerabilities in my cloud applications by giving us a nicely designed dashboard that provides all the security information we need to work on remediation."

"Amazon Inspector is highly stable, rated ten out of ten, and this stability impacts business security and administration positively."

"The findings dashboards are neat and easy to understand, offering clear demarcations for different types of findings and detailed insights into specific vulnerabilities and their associated instances. It is not a place where everything is dumped together. It offers an easy-to-understand layout."

"It operates continuously, so as soon as resources are created, it scans them for vulnerabilities."

"The scalability of the solution itself is unparalleled."

"I recommend Amazon Inspector because it allows the automation of processes and requires less manual monitoring."

"The vulnerability discovery is valuable, and they also rank those vulnerabilities for you. So, you could rapidly attack some of the higher, severe vulnerabilities as they pop up, if they do pop up."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon Inspector is the categorization of findings, which filters vulnerabilities by instance, container image, container repository, and Lambda function."

More Amazon Inspector pros

"The tool's most useful feature for penetration testing is its automation capabilities. With the professional edition, you can upload the results from Nessus in the Rapid7 Metasploit solution portal."

"The option to generate phishing emails has proven to be very valuable in understanding the behavior of users."

"The most valuable features of Metasploit include its powerful capabilities for exploitation and scanning."

"The most valuable features and capabilities of Rapid7 Metasploit are its tight connection with InsightVM, which searches for potential threats and vulnerabilities and then validates whether we can break the system using those vulnerabilities, serving as a validator component of the InsightVM solution."

"I don't have any other tools like it, and I always use it when I'm doing a pen test. Metasploit is a great solution for penetration testing,"

"The most valuable feature for us is the support for testing Linux-based web server components."

"The reporting on the solution is good."

"I would definitely recommend Metasploit to others."

More Rapid7 Metasploit pros

Cons

"The most challenging aspect I faced with Amazon Inspector during integration was automating the remediation process."

"The other point is that the reporting features of Inspector need improvement. For example, I am in an organization with millions of CVEs, and getting an overview of all this is challenging."

"There isn't too much to improve right now. Scanning on demand or as a part of the pipeline versus a post pipeline solution would be good, but it is not a deal breaker by any means."

"It has a limited scope. So, AWS Inspector primarily focuses on the security of the EC2 instance. So, if your architecture includes other AWS services, then you may need to use additional tools for your comprehensive security assessment. So that is one con. Another is, like, we have a dependency on agents."

"The false positive rate of Amazon Inspector is a little high, and it is not covering all different applications and scanning."

"There are challenges associated with the interdependencies in AWS services, like requiring an Active Directory for other services, resulting in additional charges."

"There is room for improvement in the scanning capabilities. I'd like to see broader coverage in terms of the vulnerabilities detected."

"One major area for improvement is remediation. My team works on remediating findings over time, likely using available patches. However, easier integration with Amazon's patching services would be very helpful."

More Amazon Inspector cons

"The reporting feature needs improvement."

"The solution is not user-friendly and has room for improvement."

"Metasploit cannot be installed on a machine with an antivirus."

"The initial setup was a bit "tweaky" for the open-source version."

"While Metasploit excels in vulnerability assessment, it could improve in vulnerability management."

"I think areas with shortcomings that need improvement are more integration and automation."

"Rapid7 Metasploit could be made easier for new users to learn."

"I would like to see more capabilities, more functions, and more features. More types of attack vectors."

More Rapid7 Metasploit cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is very transparent and clear."

"The lowest cost would be around $10 for a few small accounts, however, for thousands of accounts, it could be around $5000 to $6000 dollars per month."

"It's priced according to market standards for its services."

"It is scaled as you go. There are probably a certain number of scans per month, and there are tiers. If you're under a certain tier, it is free. The second level is pennies, and then all the way up to like a million. So, it has a tiered pricing program. They're pretty good with your initial scanning, and there is room to scale based on being affordable, but it is fairly cheap. There are no additional costs. They pretty much think about it as a pay-per-scan type model."

"We pay monthly. The pricing is reasonable."

"I have used the free version of Rapid7 Metasploit."

"The pricing structure involves a one-time purchase cost of approximately twenty thousand dollars or euros for all customers."

"There are two versions available, one of which is the Pro version, and the other is the free version."

"It is expensive. Our license expired, and our company is not thinking to renew because of our budget."

"Rapid7 Metasploit is cheaper than Tenable.io Vulnerability Management."

"It is a reasonably priced solution. I would rate it from five out of ten."

"I use the open-source version of this product. Pricing is not relevant."

More Rapid7 Metasploit pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Inspector?

The integration of Amazon Inspector with other AWS services has enhanced our security. Security Hub is a major asset because it allows us to centralize data from various AWS services. We can integ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Inspector?

I am not honestly sure about the pricing side of Amazon Inspector, but that is taken care of by a separate team. I believe it's cheaper than the other third-party solutions.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon Inspector?

They might launch support for third-party environments in the next version regarding the best features in Amazon Inspector from my perspective. The false positive rate of Amazon Inspector is a litt...

See all answers

What do you like most about Rapid7 Metasploit?

I use Rapid7 Metasploit for payload generation and Post-Exploitation.

See all answers

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 that, they usually purchase the commercial part of the solution due to its deep...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rapid7 Metasploit?

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 13% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 9% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 9% of the time

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 6% of the time

Snyk vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 4% of the time

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Tenable Nessus vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 10% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 9% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 6% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 6% of the time

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 4% of the time

More Rapid7 Metasploit Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Inspector

March 2026

Download Amazon Inspector product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit

March 2026

Download Rapid7 Metasploit product report

Also Known As

No data available

Metasploit

Overview

Amazon Inspector is an automated security assessment service that helps improve the security and compliance of applications deployed on AWS. Amazon Inspector automatically assesses applications for exposure, vulnerabilities, and deviations from best practices. After performing an assessment, Amazon Inspector produces a detailed list of security findings prioritized by level of severity. These findings can be reviewed directly or as part of detailed assessment reports which are available via the Amazon Inspector console or API.

Amazon Inspector security assessments help you check for unintended network accessibility of your Amazon EC2 instances and for vulnerabilities on those EC2 instances. Amazon Inspector assessments are offered to you as pre-defined rules packages mapped to common security best practices and vulnerability definitions. Examples of built-in rules include checking for access to your EC2 instances from the internet, remote root login being enabled, or vulnerable software versions installed. These rules are regularly updated by AWS security researchers.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Attackers are always developing new exploits and attack methods—Metasploit penetration testing software helps you use their own weapons against them. Utilizing an ever-growing database of exploits, you can safely simulate real-world attacks on your network to train your security team to spot and stop the real thing.

Rapid7

Sample Customers

betterment, caplinked, flatiron, university of nutri dame

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

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Inspector vs. Rapid7 Metasploit

March 2026

Free Report: Amazon Inspector vs. Rapid7 Metasploit

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Inspector vs. Rapid7 Metasploit and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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