Tenable Nessus vs Vulcan Cyber comparison

Tenable and Vulcan Cyber, a Tenable Company are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Tenable is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6, while Vulcan Cyber, a Tenable Company is ranked #25 with an average rating of 7.4. Tenable holds a 5.2% mindshare in VM, compared to Vulcan Cyber, a Tenable Company’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Tenable users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Vulcan Cyber, a Tenable Company users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Tenable Nessus and Vulcan Cyber are both in the cybersecurity space, specializing in vulnerability management solutions. Tenable Nessus stands out for its comprehensive scanning and cost-effectiveness, while Vulcan Cyber has an edge in vulnerability remediation.

Features: Tenable Nessus offers high-precision scanning, extensive plugin support, and detailed vulnerability assessments. Vulcan Cyber provides remediation orchestration, risk-based vulnerability prioritization, and customizable dashboards.

Room for Improvement: Tenable Nessus could enhance its remediation capabilities, streamline advanced configuration options, and improve integration with third-party tools. Vulcan Cyber might work on simplifying its deployment process, decreasing initial setup costs, and expanding third-party plugin support.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tenable Nessus allows straightforward deployment with minimal configuration, and it offers well-regarded customer support. Vulcan Cyber, while having a complex deployment process focused on remediation, benefits from comprehensive support and detailed documentation.

Pricing and ROI: Tenable Nessus provides a cost-effective solution with a clear pricing structure, appealing to various budgets by delivering significant ROI through efficient scanning. Vulcan Cyber, despite its higher initial setup cost, offers ROI through reduced risk and enhanced operational efficiency with its advanced preventative mechanisms.

To learn more, read our detailed Tenable Nessus vs. Vulcan Cyber Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Nessus vs. Vulcan Cyber

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 880,255 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

Zafran Security

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Zafran Security is 1.1%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable Nessus is 5.2%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vulcan Cyber is 0.6%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Tenable Nessus	5.2%
Zafran Security	1.1%
Vulcan Cyber	0.6%
Other	93.1%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Reviewer6233

Works at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal

While Zafran Security is already a powerful tool, there are areas where it could be further improved to provide even greater value. One key area for enhancement is the searching capabilities within its vulnerabilities module. By incorporating the ability to create Boolean searches, users would gain the ability to apply more complex filters and customize their search criteria. This would greatly enhance the precision and efficiency with which security teams can identify and prioritize vulnerabilities. Having such tailored search capabilities would save time and resources by narrowing down vast lists of vulnerabilities to those that meet specific parameters relevant to our unique risk environment. Additionally, integrating more robust reporting and visualization tools would be advantageous. Enhanced dashboards that offer customizable visual representations of risk configurations and threat landscapes would facilitate better communication with stakeholders, making it easier to explain vulnerabilities and the rationale behind certain security measures. This would also aid in demonstrating the improvements and value derived from existing security investments to leadership and non-technical team members.

Read full review

MohammedJaffir

Founder at Cipheroot

Has enabled me to reduce false positives and perform deep credential auditing with seamless integrations

I mostly use the configuration audit feature for the audit configuration as a scan policy, and I will use it for credential audit, which helps me scan credentials access such as local administrator or root access, performing a deeper and more accurate check of local configuration settings and file systems, making it a highly recommended feature. Regarding integration capabilities, we can integrate Tenable Nessus with SIM tools such as Splunk, IBM QRadar, and Azure Sentinel, as well as with ticketing systems such as ServiceNow, Jira, and Slack. There is no complexity as it is very easy to integrate everything. In terms of the reporting feature, while vulnerability scanning can throw some false positives, Tenable Nessus has very few, achieving a reduction of 75% to 80% false positives with manual analysis needed. We can generate standard Nessus reports that typically include host summaries and vulnerabilities by host and plugin, alongside solutions and remediation recommendations. The main benefits I get from Tenable Nessus are complete asset inventory and comprehensive attack surface management, allowing us to prioritize vulnerabilities based on risk, focusing on true risk and threat path analysis.

Read full review

reviewer2649297

Technical Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Streamlines prioritization but reporting needs enhancement

There are several areas needing improvement. The product helps, but the reporting relies heavily on Power BI. It is limited to graphical views and requires additional filtering, posing operational challenges. The inability to download specific asset details directly from the Power BI portal is a drawback, particularly for non-technical users, though it provides high-level executive summaries. The reporting model should be enhanced so that we have the flexibility to download. We have requested a few features, and they are open to accepting those requests. It needs ITSM improvements. It has out-of-the-box integration with ServiceNow, but the customer is using BMC Helix ITSM. We would like an integration with BMC Helix ITSM. When uploading CSV files without an out-of-the-box connector, duplicate entries for assets occur. We have already reported this to them, but we are not sure when they will fix it. It will significantly benefit if we can directly upload business context information from CMDB without manual merging efforts. It can also have automatic remediation capabilities through SCCM or something else.

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

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."

"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."

"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."

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

"With Zafran Security, it integrates with your security controls, allowing you to take that risk score and reduce it based on the controls in place or increase the risk based on different factors, such as if the issue is internet reachable or if there's an exploit in the wild."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"The automatic scanner and scheduler are pretty cool."

"The most valuable features of Tenable Nessus are the scanning option. Advanced scanning is highly useful. The offline config audits and application assessments are useful."

"Nessus' most valuable feature is vulnerability management because it helps to discover vulnerabilities proactively and integrates with patch management solutions so you can push patches."

"The most valuable feature of Tenable Nessus is real-time monitoring."

"The most valuable feature is how it scanned and detected through its database to let us know exactly what fixes we needed to put in place for the vulnerabilities. It detects and it also gives you the way to fix it."

"The initial setup is very straightforward."

"The most valuable feature of Tenable Nessus is the GUI and user-friendliness. Additionally, the environment is easy to work with."

"I like the fact that it was not expensive. I like that it's user-friendly."

More Tenable Nessus pros

"Vulcan Cyber has helped reduce our organization’s mean time to remediation."

"The interface of Vulcan Cyber is intuitive with a lot of information about vulnerabilities, which helps in classifying and analyzing threats. We have a good view of assets and vulnerabilities. It helps to do good threat analysis because we can see exactly what the threat is and assess it accordingly."

"I find the ability to consolidate information from multiple vulnerability scanners into a single source valuable."

"Out of the three solutions I've used, Vulcan Cyber is the superior option."

"Now that the solution is onboarded, we are saving a lot of time. We're saving roughly four to ten hours a week."

"The most notable aspects include having prioritization capabilities and custom scripts."

"They recently upgraded their UI, which is great. It is user-friendly."

"Vulcan Cyber offers a single pane of glass for centralizing our security data."

More Vulcan Cyber pros

Cons

"The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvements."

"I think the ability to have some enhanced reporting capabilities is something they can improve on, as they have good reports but we have asked for some specific reporting enhancements."

"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 professional version is not very scalable."

"Some things in the user interface could be better. The user interface could allow more adjustments to plugins. The price could also be better."

"The price could be more reasonable. I used the free Nessus version in my lab with which you can only scan 16 IP addresses. If I wanted to put it in the lab in my network at work, and I'm doing a test project that has over 30 nodes in it, I can't use the free version of Nessus to scan it because there are only 16 IP addresses. I can't get an accurate scan. The biggest thing with all the cybersecurity tools out there nowadays, especially in 2020, is that there's a rush to get a lot of skilled cybersecurity analysts out there. Some of these companies need to realize that a lot of us are working from home and doing proof of concepts, and some of them don't even offer trials, or you get a trial and it is only 16 IP addresses. I can't really do anything with it past 16. I'm either guessing or I'm doing double work to do my scans. Let's say there was a license for 50 users or 50 IP addresses. I would spend about 200 bucks for that license to accomplish my job. This is the biggest complaint I have as of right now with all cybersecurity tools, including Rapid7, out there, especially if I'm in a company that is trying to build its cybersecurity program. How am I going to tell my boss, who has no real budget of what he needs to build his cybersecurity program, to go spend over $100,000 for a tool he has never seen, whereas, it would pack the punch if I could say, "Let me spend 200 bucks for a 50 user IP address license of this product, do a proof of concept to scan 50 nodes, and provide the reason for why we need it." I've been a director, and now I'm an ISO. When I was a director, I had a budget for an IT department, so I know how budgets work. As an ISO, the only thing that's missing from my C-level is I don't have to deal with employees and budgets, but I have everything else. It's hard for me to build the program and say, "Hey, I need these tools." If I can't get a trial, I would scratch that off the list and find something else. I'm trying to set up Tenable.io to do external PCI scans. The documentation says to put in your IP addresses or your external IP addresses. However, if the IP address is not routable, then it says that you have to use an internal agent to scan. This means that you set up a Nessus agent internally and scan, which makes sense. However, it doesn't work because when you use the plugin and tell it that it is a PCI external, it says, "You cannot use an internal agent to scan external." The documentation needs to be a little bit more clear about that. It needs to say if you're using the PCI external plugin, all IP addresses must be external and routable. It should tell the person who's setting it up, "Wait a minute. If you have an MPLS network and you're in a multi-tenant environment and the people who hold the network schema only provide you with the IP addresses just for your tenant, then you are not going to know what the actual true IP address that Tenable needs to do a PCI scan." I've been working on Tenable.io to set up PCI scans for the last ten days. I have been going back and forth to the network thinking I need this or that only to find out that I'm teaching their team, "Hey, you know what, guys? I need you to look past your MPLS network. I need you to go to the edge's edge. Here's who you need to ask to give me the whitelist to allow here." I had the blurb that says the plugin for external PCI must be reachable, and you cannot use an internal agent. I could have cut a few days because I thought I had it, but then when I ran it, it said that you can't run it this way. I wasted a few hours in a day. In terms of new features, it doesn't require new features. It is a tool that has been out there for years. It is used in the cybersecurity community. It has got the CV database in it, and there are other plugins that you could pass through. It has got APIs you can attach to it. They can just improve the database and continue adding to the database and the plugins to make sure those don't have false positives. If you're a restaurant and you focus on fried chicken, you have no business doing hamburgers."

"The tool needs to upgrade asset tracking."

"The solution could improve security updates."

"The reporting feature needs to be improved."

"Nessus' reporting could be more user-friendly."

"They have added a new Tenable Nessus Expert. That is their new product, which caters to the cloud and everything else. I am assuming that the new features and product enhancements are based on that tool set, but we haven't reviewed it yet."

More Tenable Nessus cons

"The performance is bad. The query and the UI are always slow, and it's quite frustrating. Vulcan is trying to solve this with a newer design. The dashboard is also crowded. It pulls in all this raw information that you need to filter. Vulcan has filtering capabilities, but they're hard to manage. The labels aren't very clear, so you need to do things by trial and error. It's not as easy as other tools we've been using."

"I would rate the tool between six and seven because there have been instances when the tool was down, and I couldn't access Cyber reports. Additionally, the Vulcan Cyber team made changes to the tool and did not notify us."

"Initially, when onboarding Vulcan Cyber, the setup and configuration was more complex than expected with a user-friendly approach. This aspect can be enhanced."

"We've faced situations where we required support on a Friday, and support wasn't available."

"Mainly, what I would like from them is more maintenance of the different connectors they have in the platform."

"It would be extremely helpful to have a community group around the product."

"Monitoring of the evolution of campaigns and perhaps having more customized options for monitoring them would be great."

"We have the highest privilege in the application, and at least for members with the highest privilege, having the capability to reach out to the vendor directly from the application would be beneficial."

More Vulcan Cyber cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Nessus Manager is not an expensive product. It has its limitations, but the pricing reflects that. We have a yearly subscription."

"One problem with Tenable is its pricing policy. Optimal results can be achieved with Greenbone Solutions which has much more friendly pricing policies."

"There is an annual license required to use this solution."

"The newer tools are quite pricey. There is a case of some fine tuning that can be done in terms of licensing. The IP based licensing that is offered makes the tool very expensive. If they want the IT industry to adopt it, the price should be looked at."

"We incurred a single cost for a perpetual license, although I cannot comment on the price as this is above my management level."

"We pay approximately $2,500 on a yearly basis."

"Cost-wise, it's an affordable tool."

"We paid about six thousand dollars per license."

More Tenable Nessus pricing and cost advice

"Our leadership knows better about the pricing. As per my knowledge, which might not be accurate, its price can come down."

"Its pricing is quite fair compared to what is out there in the market, especially compared to the tool from Microsoft. It is a SaaS platform that has an annual cost, so it is something that is already used by many companies. It is quite affordable."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Vulnerability Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

880,255 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Outsourcing Company

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

29%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	39
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	35

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?

Since we stood Zafran Security up in our private cloud, we handle the maintenance on our side. As we opted not to use...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

In terms of areas for improvement, Zafran Security is doing a really great job as a new and emerging company. Oftenti...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?

My use cases for Zafran Security revolve around two primary areas. One is around vulnerability management and priorit...

See all answers

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. Yo...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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 addre...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vulcan Cyber?

I don't deal with the pricing of the solution. I'm not a part of that department.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Vulcan Cyber?

One area for improvement is clarity in the results column of vulnerability reports. Currently, the path where the vul...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Vulcan Cyber?

I have been using the solution for more than six months. Essentially, any reporting I do for our internal Internet as...

See all answers

Comparisons

Wiz Code vs Zafran Security

Compared 25% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Zafran Security

Compared 10% of the time

Nucleus vs Zafran Security

Compared 8% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Zafran Security

Compared 6% of the time

Wiz vs Zafran Security

Compared 4% of the time

More Zafran Security Competitors

Qualys VMDR vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 11% of the time

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 7% of the time

Tenable Security Center vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 6% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Tenable Nessus

Compared 5% of the time

More Tenable Nessus Competitors

Cisco Vulnerability Management (formerly Kenna.VM) vs Vulcan Cyber

Compared 15% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Vulcan Cyber

Compared 7% of the time

Seemplicity vs Vulcan Cyber

Compared 6% of the time

Armis vs Vulcan Cyber

Compared 6% of the time

Intruder vs Vulcan Cyber

Compared 6% of the time

More Vulcan Cyber Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Zafran Security

December 2025

Download Zafran Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Nessus

December 2025

Download Tenable Nessus product report

Buyer's Guide

Vulcan Cyber

December 2025

Download Vulcan Cyber product report

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Zafran Security

Demo not available

Tenable

Vulcan Cyber, a Tenable Company

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

Tenable Nessus provides an efficient vulnerability management system with swift deployment and comprehensive scanning capabilities, making it an ideal choice for organizations seeking to enhance their security posture through effective threat detection and mitigation strategies.

Renowned for its top-tier vulnerability detection, Tenable Nessus offers a robust platform that integrates effortlessly across systems, enhancing threat management through automation, real-time monitoring, and customizable scanning options. Its broad asset coverage, including network devices and applications, coupled with ease of deployment, positions it as a go-to option for risk assessment and compliance. Organizations value its extensive reporting features and database, although they suggest enhancements in reporting formats and false positive detection. A more intuitive interface, improved cloud support, and competitive pricing models are sought after to cater to evolving enterprise needs.

What are the key features of Tenable Nessus?

Comprehensive Vulnerability Detection: Identifies security gaps across systems and platforms.
Remedy Recommendations: Provides actionable insights for vulnerability fixes.
Predictive Prioritization: Helps in focusing on critical vulnerabilities first.
Seamless Integration: Compatible with diverse platforms for cohesive threat management.
Automation Capabilities: Streamlines routine scans and reports.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Fast Setup: Quick deployment that saves time and resources.
Cost-Effective: Affordable pricing supports budget-conscious cyber strategies.
Real-Time Monitoring: Offers continuous oversight of system health.
Extensive Reports: Detailed insights enhance decision-making processes.

In industries such as finance, healthcare, and tech, Tenable Nessus is implemented for scanning internal and external networks, identifying risks, and ensuring data protection compliance. Organizations conduct regular scans to detect security vulnerabilities in servers and databases, leveraging its capabilities to strengthen their security frameworks while managing cloud infrastructures and enterprise networks efficiently.

Tenable

Vulcan Cyber is used by leading cyber security organizations to manage exposure risk created by unmitigated infrastructure, application, code and cloud vulnerabilities.

The Vulcan Cyber ExposureOS starts by correlating and normalizing risk and asset data aggregated from hundreds of vulnerability scanners, asset repositories and threat intelligence feeds. These signals are then used to create a singular view of your organization's attack surfaces to make exposure risk and vulnerability prioritization accurate and actionable.

Vulcan Cyber ExposureOS reduces mean time to remediation by fostering efficient collaboration among security teams, asset and remediation owners through orchestrated workflows and automated remediation tasks.

Use Vulcan Cyber to measure security posture improvement, efficacy of vulnerability risk mitigation campaigns, and compliance with SLAs and regulatory frameworks such as PCI DSS, DORA, NIS2 and HIPPA.

Vulcan Cyber is the only vulnerability risk management solution provider to be named a "Leader" in both the Forrester Wave and Omdia Universe evaluations in 2023.

Vulcan Cyber, a Tenable Company

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University

Stitch Fix, Mandiant, Wealthsimple, Entrust, Anaplan, Deloitte, Origami Risk, Verana Health

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Nessus vs. Vulcan Cyber

December 2025

Free Report: Tenable Nessus vs. Vulcan Cyber

Find out what your peers are saying about Tenable Nessus vs. Vulcan Cyber and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

880,255 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Tenable Nessus vs. Vulcan Cyber report.

See our list of best Vulnerability Management vendors.

We monitor all Vulnerability Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.