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Rapid7 InsightVM vs Tenable Nessus comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
Rapid7 InsightVM offers strong ROI and satisfaction by enhancing cybersecurity defenses and effectively managing vulnerabilities and updates.
Sentiment score
7.1
Tenable Nessus efficiently manages vulnerabilities, enhancing security and reducing costs, providing a high return on investment for organizations.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Rapid7 InsightVM customer service is well-rated, with accessible and knowledgeable support, despite occasional delays and language barriers.
Sentiment score
7.9
Tenable Nessus support is responsive and helpful, though delays and complex issues may require improved development support.
Sometimes support requests coincide with holidays in their support region, causing slight delays.
Whenever any issue arises, we contact the support, and they are always there for us.
The technical support is good yet could improve in terms of response time.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Rapid7 InsightVM is highly scalable, easily handling diverse enterprises and environments, with some report and network integration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.1
Tenable Nessus scales well across networks, though licensing affects scalability, and challenges arise with internet bandwidth and data storage.
According to the environment requirements, we can scale the solution as needed.
Whether managing 50 servers today or 500 tomorrow, performance or capacity are not hindered.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Rapid7 InsightVM is highly stable and reliable, with minimal issues, strong integration, and consistently high stability ratings.
Sentiment score
8.1
Tenable Nessus is stable, reliable, and performs well, though users report rare minor issues like update delays and sluggishness.
We have not faced any issues with stability, and I would rate it a nine out of ten.
The stability of Rapid7 InsightVM is excellent.
We have not encountered any issues with missing network items or errors in API and webhook interactions.
 

Room For Improvement

Rapid7 InsightVM needs enhanced reporting, integration, scanning, customization, API functionality, cloud coverage, pricing, support, and user interface.
Tenable Nessus needs better reporting, interface, cloud transition, role-based access, and comprehensive scanning with improved asset and vulnerability management.
Having the ability to build our own audit file, similar to a feature in Tenable, would be beneficial.
The platform could be more intuitive and user-friendly.
The documentation is not well-organized, which can be confusing when searching for solutions or specific information related to Tenable Nessus Professional.
 

Setup Cost

Rapid7 InsightVM offers flexible, transparent pricing suited for large-scale deployments, with costs from $40,000 to over a million.
Tenable Nessus offers competitive pricing, typically $2,500-$4,300 annually, but smaller organizations seek more flexible and affordable options.
Rapid7 InsightVM is expensive, possibly one of the highest in pricing among similar products.
Tenable Nessus's pricing is adequate if it is fully utilized.
 

Valuable Features

Rapid7 InsightVM provides robust vulnerability management with dynamic asset tagging, customizable dashboards, and seamless SIEM integration, enhancing remediation efforts.
Tenable Nessus offers comprehensive scanning, user-friendly interface, extensive vulnerability coverage, and affordable pricing, excelling in vulnerability management and compliance.
It's based on the CVSS risk scoring system, which is well-recognized and effective.
We have integrated our SIEM solutions and antivirus with each other through Rapid7.
The scanning and reporting features are the most valuable aspects of Tenable Nessus.
The features I personally like include host discovery.
 

Categories and Ranking

Rapid7 InsightVM
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
61
Ranking in other categories
Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (4th)
Tenable Nessus
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Security Software solutions, they serve different purposes. Rapid7 InsightVM is designed for Risk-Based Vulnerability Management and holds a mindshare of 14.2%, up 14.0% compared to last year.
Tenable Nessus, on the other hand, focuses on Vulnerability Management, holds 8.6% mindshare, down 11.2% since last year.
Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

Mahmoud Elhamaymy - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable scanning and integration strengthen security infrastructure
InsightVM has a very organized GUI with ease of use. The vulnerability scans are reliable, and the credential scan is a beneficial feature. The solution is efficient and trustworthy. It's based on the CVSS risk scoring system, which is well-recognized and effective. The integration capabilities through APIs allow easy integration with existing security infrastructure.
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.
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Answers from the Community

NC
Nov 8, 2021
Nov 8, 2021
You have full visibility across cloud, network, virtual, and containerized infrastructures with Rapid7 Insight VM. You can easily prioritize vulnerabilities using attacker analytics. Overall, Rapid7 Insight VM is easy to understand, use, and deploy. This solution supplies many different types of valuable reporting and rarely reports false positives. Rapid7 can easily detect new devices and scan...
See 2 answers
MI
Sep 6, 2021
InsightVM - better functions on granting users different access to different asset groups.  It fits better for our company and is slightly cheaper.
Nov 8, 2021
You have full visibility across cloud, network, virtual, and containerized infrastructures with Rapid7 Insight VM. You can easily prioritize vulnerabilities using attacker analytics. Overall, Rapid7 Insight VM is easy to understand, use, and deploy. This solution supplies many different types of valuable reporting and rarely reports false positives. Rapid7 can easily detect new devices and scan endpoints quickly for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, or missing patches. Rapid7 Insight VM will identify the risk and suggest how to resolve the problem. We would like to see the reporting improved to offer some of the options other solutions provide. Rapid7 Insight VM can be a very expensive solution - it is really only for larger enterprise accounts. Integration with other solutions would make Rapid7 Insight VM more desirable. It’s easy to combine local testing with network-based testing using Tenable Nessus, which can easily find vulnerabilities across different platforms and operating systems. Tenable Nessus will identify what nodes you have in place, then provide you with a report identifying each vulnerability found by node. It works quickly and stealthily, and offers clear-cut reporting and the ability to scan for specific vulnerabilities. We would like to see the reporting process with Tenable Nessus improved. Instead of only PDF reports, one option might be to track with an Excel-based structure to better track vulnerabilities and remediation efforts and build reports from there. An option to use the same license for the cloud and on-premises at the same time would be very useful. Conclusion We felt that Tenable Nessus provided better reporting of vulnerabilities per device in a clearer, easier to understand manner. It is a very easy solution to use and makes accountability for tracing and reporting vulnerabilities easy. The flexible scanning options offered by Tenable Nessus are what we found most advantageous.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
43%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
42%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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. You can easily prioritize vulnerabilities using attacker analytics. Overall, Rapid...
What do you like most about Rapid7 InsightVM?
The product's initial setup phase was very easy.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 InsightVM?
Rapid7 InsightVM is expensive, possibly one of the highest in pricing among similar products.
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 the program is such that if a company should desire to handle the installation t...
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 address identified vulnerabilities. These scans cover the servers, other network equi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tenable Nessus?
Tenable Nessus's pricing is adequate if it is fully utilized. The cost is justified by the value it brings in terms of features and performance.
 

Also Known As

InsightVM, NeXpose
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACS, Acosta, AllianceData, amazon.com, biogen idec, CBRE, CATERPILLAR, Deloitte, COACH, GameStop, IBM
Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University
Find out what your peers are saying about Rapid7 InsightVM vs. Tenable Nessus and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
841,004 professionals have used our research since 2012.