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Tenable Nessus vs Vicarius vRx comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

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
7.1
Tenable Nessus efficiently manages vulnerabilities, enhancing security and reducing costs, providing a high return on investment for organizations.
Sentiment score
8.1
MSPs and clients achieved significant time, cost, and efficiency gains with Vicarius vRx, realizing a 40% ROI.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.9
Tenable Nessus support is responsive and helpful, though delays and complex issues may require improved development support.
Sentiment score
8.0
Vicarius vRx customer service is praised for responsiveness, professionalism, and effectiveness, with high ratings and efficient communication.
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.
Their support is very good, and they respond quickly.
During the POC and the implementation, they were very available and made their best efforts to help us.
Whenever I've contacted them, they respond promptly with a callback or by email.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Tenable Nessus scales well across networks, though licensing affects scalability, and challenges arise with internet bandwidth and data storage.
Sentiment score
7.8
Vicarius vRx scales well, featuring easy deployment across endpoints, but some face challenges during large system updates.
Whether managing 50 servers today or 500 tomorrow, performance or capacity are not hindered.
It is very simple; you just script it, and then the computers connect themselves.
When we attempted to scale this and update 200 systems, that just locked it.
We have some clients with up to a thousand agents.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Tenable Nessus is stable, reliable, and performs well, though users report rare minor issues like update delays and sluggishness.
Sentiment score
7.3
Users generally find Vicarius vRx stable and efficient, despite occasional deployment challenges and update-related high CPU usage.
We have not encountered any issues with missing network items or errors in API and webhook interactions.
There are some issues that they do not even know how to fix at this point.
I would rate the stability of Vicarius vRx ten out of ten.
There are some issues like high CPU usage during updates, but these were fixed.
 

Room For Improvement

Tenable Nessus needs better reporting, interface, cloud transition, role-based access, and comprehensive scanning with improved asset and vulnerability management.
Vicarius vRx needs improved automation, simplified login, better integration, UI, and advanced management features for enhanced user experience.
The documentation is not well-organized, which can be confusing when searching for solutions or specific information related to Tenable Nessus Professional.
I am pretty sure that the tool works great when it comes to Windows, but when you are in an environment that has different flavors of Linux at different version levels, that may pose an issue.
We have the ability to search across the network for all switches, routers, and printers, but some devices might be outdated and have vulnerabilities.
Enhancing Vicarius vRx with improved third-party integrations, like notifications for external systems, and increased cloud integration for richer instance information, would be valuable improvements.
 

Setup Cost

Tenable Nessus offers competitive pricing, typically $2,500-$4,300 annually, but smaller organizations seek more flexible and affordable options.
Vicarius vRx offers scalable per-asset pricing, competitive yet costly, with negotiable rates appealing to resellers but challenging for smaller entities.
Tenable Nessus's pricing is adequate if it is fully utilized.
It was very cheap.
In the past, Vicarius vRx was cheap, but now they have adjusted their pricing policy, resulting in higher renewal costs.
From a pricing perspective, Vicarius was cheaper compared to other competitors.
 

Valuable Features

Tenable Nessus offers comprehensive scanning, user-friendly interface, extensive vulnerability coverage, and affordable pricing, excelling in vulnerability management and compliance.
Vicarius vRx offers automated patching, vulnerability management, and a user-friendly interface, greatly reducing manual tasks for IT teams.
The scanning and reporting features are the most valuable aspects of Tenable Nessus.
The features I personally like include host discovery.
It's a valuable tool that reduces tension between IT and security teams by providing time to properly install patches.
The system prioritizes vulnerabilities, identifying high, medium, and low risks, allowing us to focus on high-risk applications.
The most valuable feature is the system's ability to provide information about open CVEs and how it compares the local version with available updates.
 

Categories and Ranking

Tenable Nessus
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Vicarius vRx
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Patch Management (9th), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Tenable Nessus is 8.6%, down from 11.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vicarius vRx is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

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.
OrenBen Shalom - PeerSpot reviewer
Consolidates vulnerability discovery, prioritization, and remediation in a single platform
Vicarius vRx offers several advantages, especially for organizations with diverse operating systems and applications requiring frequent patching. The platform helps prioritize patch installation by identifying high-risk vulnerabilities, allowing IT teams to focus on critical threats first. This prioritization is crucial because it prevents IT teams from being overwhelmed by the constant influx of patches, enabling them to create a manageable plan and allocate resources effectively. By distinguishing between critical, high-risk, and medium-risk vulnerabilities, Vicarius vRx empowers IT teams to address the most urgent threats promptly and schedule less critical patches for later. Both native operating system updates and Vicarius vRx offer vulnerability remediation. Native OS updates allow for the patching of system vulnerabilities on Windows, macOS, and Linux. However, Vicarius vRx provides a single solution for installing both operating system and application updates by also discovering application vulnerabilities. Another valuable feature is virtual patching, which allows us to protect an asset from a specific vulnerability without installing a patch. Sometimes, installing a patch alone is insufficient and requires restarting the asset. However, production servers often cannot be restarted during the day, restricting restarts to specific timeslots. Virtual patching creates a network-based protection layer that prevents exploitation of a vulnerability, offering a temporary safeguard. While not a foolproof solution for long-term use, it's a valuable tool that reduces tension between IT and security teams by providing time to properly install patches.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
42%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Media Company
13%
Non Profit
12%
Insurance Company
8%
 

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'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 Vicarius vRx?
I do not use other solutions, so I cannot compare its pricing to others, but its price seems okay.
What needs improvement with Vicarius vRx?
I would be happy if the patch update could be downloaded to the Vicarius server and then implemented on the client. Currently, they just send a link to the software. For example, if I want to updat...
What is your primary use case for Vicarius vRx?
We use Vicarius vRx to manage all third-party software updates. Previously, we could manage Windows updates, but third-party updates were an issue. It was difficult for us to manage the updates of ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Tenable Nessus vs. Vicarius vRx and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
841,004 professionals have used our research since 2012.