Rapid7 Metasploit vs Tenable Security Center comparison

Rapid7 and Tenable are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Rapid7 is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.2, while Tenable is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.5. Additionally, 95% of Rapid7 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Tenable users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Tenable Security Center and Rapid7 Metasploit both compete in the cybersecurity domain focusing on vulnerability management and penetration testing respectively. Tenable Security Center appears to have an upper hand with its comprehensive vulnerability management capabilities, whereas Rapid7 Metasploit is recognized for its effective penetration testing features.

Features: Tenable Security Center provides comprehensive vulnerability scanning, an intuitive dashboard, and flexible policy creation. It handles large asset volumes efficiently and offers an Assurance Report Card. Rapid7 Metasploit offers automatic vulnerability discovery, script-based exploitation, and extensive penetration testing capabilities that are especially useful for educational purposes.

Room for Improvement: Tenable Security Center could improve its integration with exploit tools and offer more flexible reporting configurations. Additionally, enhancing integration with other tools would be beneficial. Rapid7 Metasploit would benefit from improved GUI functionality, broader exploit coverage, and enhanced automation capabilities to better integrate into CI/CD pipelines.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tenable Security Center can be deployed in on-premises and hybrid environments; however, it has variable feedback regarding customer service responsiveness. Rapid7 Metasploit supports multiple deployment options and generally receives positive reviews for its support services.

Pricing and ROI: Tenable Security Center is generally more expensive with comprehensive asset-based pricing models, providing ROI through reduced manual workload and increased security efficiency. In contrast, Rapid7 Metasploit offers more affordable pricing with options for open-source use, appealing to users with budget constraints seeking effective penetration testing solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center

March 2025

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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

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini

Associate Director IT Security Operations at Novartis

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.

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Mani Bommisetty

Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Comprehensive insights with robust vulnerability detection and streamlined alert management

Rapid7 has a significant advantage in providing a clear picture of my environment. It provides insight and incident detection response capabilities. When deployed with the same agent in servers or endpoints, it identifies vulnerabilities and monitors data transmission to external sources. Rapid7 offers comprehensive features within one platform, eliminating the need to integrate multiple tools to see all alerts in one place.

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OndrejKOVAC

Solution engineer at EXPERTience

Empower clients with risk-based vulnerability management through continuous workflow and valuable insights

Tenable Security Center could improve by implementing more dynamic data displays and translating reports into European languages. This is especially relevant in Central Eastern Europe, where clients often require reports in local languages. Additionally, the licensing model could be more flexible for managed security providers, similar to a pay-as-you-go model.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

"The Search Engineering feature is good."

"The most valuable features of the solution are the scripts, the modules, and the tools that the Rapid7 Metasploit framework has."

"Rapid7 has a significant advantage in providing a clear picture of my environment."

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

"When I compare Metasploit with Nessus, I find that Metasploit is faster and it does not burden the system as much."

"The solution is open source and has many small targetted penetration tests that have been written by many people that are useful. You can choose different subjects for the test, such as Oracle databases or Apache servers."

More Rapid7 Metasploit pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the vulnerability assessment."

"It basically reviews our threat landscape vulnerability."

"The most valuable features of Tenable SC are scanning, reporting, dashboards, and automation."

"I found the dashboard features very useful. It made it easy to track remediation progress. I could publish dashboards to remediation teams and track the progress on the dashboards."

"The feature we've liked most recently was being able to take the YARA rules from FireEye and put them into Tenable's scan for the most recent SolarWinds exploit. That was really useful."

"Has a great advanced scanning feature."

"The Auto-Remediate feature is good."

"The initial setup process is simple."

More Tenable Security Center pros

Cons

"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."

"The reporting feature needs improvement. The time taken to fetch reports based on the number of events can be extensive, unlike Tenable, which is more user-friendly and faster."

"We'd like them to offer better coverage of malware."

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

"The solution should improve the responsiveness of its live technical support."

"The database is not always updated with the latest vulnerabilities or zero-day exploits."

"If your company's patch is not up to date, but you have other detection or defense solutions such as endpoint detection and response and antivirus software, the product exploit may not work effectively. This is because its exploit database update process is slow and not real-time. For zero-day vulnerabilities or new security threats, relying on Rapid7 Metasploit alone may not be effective."

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

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

More Rapid7 Metasploit cons

"Tenable SC could improve by making the creation of the initial reports easier that correspond to our network."

"The biggest issue I have with the solution is when I'm using the scanning it picks up the original DNS of that device. That means, before we image it and actually change the DNS to something within our company structure, it'll just be random numbers and letters and Tenable will stick to that DNS for a long time."

"There is not much room for improvement. However, there should be a guide that describes the step-by-step procedures for doing tasks. Otherwise, training is required from a senior guy to a junior guy."

"I will say it's a lot slower compared to an MS scan. It takes so much longer, so the performance could definitely be worked on."

"We would like to see the inclusion of external IPs and simplified reporting that's easier to deal with"

"For downloading reports, we have to go to the scan and then we have to go to the reports and download the Excel or CSV or PDF. I think these menus and clicks can be minimized."

"The integration is very good, although it still needs to improve."

"The dashboard templates are limited."

More Tenable Security Center cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

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

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

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

"The great advantage with Rapid7 Metasploit, of course, is that it's free."

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

"Rapid7 Metasploit is an open-source solution."

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

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product's pricing a six. So it's fairly priced."

More Rapid7 Metasploit pricing and cost advice

"It is a bit expensive. Everything is included in the license."

"I rate the solution's price as seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. The tool is quite expensive."

"Tenable.sc is more expensive than its competitors."

"I use a local license to perform penetration testing and I'm pretty happy with everything when it comes to pricing and licensing."

"Though reasonable, the main competitor of Tenable SC, Rapid7, offers a more aggressive and better priced product."

"This solution's price is quite high."

"The price can start at €10,000 ($13,000 USD) for between 500 and 1,000 assets, and the price can climb into the millions as more assets are added."

"Compared to other companies or other products it could maybe be a little bit less, but the price is okay. I would say it's not very expensive."

More Tenable Security Center pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

University

Retailer

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

21%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

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?

Pricing for Zafran Security is not expensive. We have a contract for five years, and the cost is lower than other too...

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What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

I would like to see an integration with Check Point firewalls. It's essential for us and they are currently working o...

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What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?

We use Zafran Security for threat prioritization. We establish priority to understand which risks should be patched o...

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What do you like most about Rapid7 Metasploit?

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

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 Metasploit?

Metasploit is cheaper than Nessus and offers a more robust community edition that provides a good experience for stud...

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What needs improvement with Rapid7 Metasploit?

While Metasploit excels in vulnerability assessment, it could improve in vulnerability management. Nessus currently h...

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What do you like most about Tenable SC?

The tool's dashboard and reporting capabilities match our company's needs since we are able to modify the basic view ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tenable SC?

Tenable Security Center is quite expensive, particularly for the CEE region, causing us to lose cases due to its pric...

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What needs improvement with Tenable SC?

Tenable Security Center could improve by implementing more dynamic data displays and translating reports into Europea...

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Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)

March 2025

Download Zafran Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit

March 2025

Download Rapid7 Metasploit product report

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Security Center

March 2025

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Also Known As

No data available

Metasploit

Tenable.sc, Tenable Unified Security, Tenable SecurityCenter

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

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

Get a risk-based view of your IT, security and compliance posture so you can quickly identify, investigate and prioritize your most critical assets and vulnerabilities.

Managed on-premises and powered by Nessus technology, the Tenable Security Center (formerly Tenable.sc) suite of products provides the industry’s most comprehensive vulnerability coverage with real-time continuous assessment of your network. It’s your complete end-to-end vulnerability management solution.

Tenable

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

IBM, Sempra Energy, Microsoft, Apple, Adidas, Union Pacific

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center

March 2025

Free Report: Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center

Find out what your peers are saying about Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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