# Nessus Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Nessus the right Vulnerability Management solution for you? Explore 93 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/130577/Nessus/reviews --- Nessus 4.7 (93) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/130577/Nessus/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated January 14th, 2026 # Reviews of Nessus Ease of use 4.6 Customer Service 4.3 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews AM ANILU M SOFTWARE DEVELOPERComputer Software, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “It has been used in the vulnerability analysis stage of the developed systems, it provides various analysis options, this tool accompanied by trained security personnel results in a good cybersecurity analysis“ February 2, 2024 KC Kevin C IT InternWarehousing, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “The only downsides of Nessus that I have experienced are that sometimes it gets false positives, but not very often, and that the UI of the website can be finicky sometimes.“ December 12, 2024 KR Kiran R Vulnerability AssessorComputer & Network Security, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “We even have multiple tenable products and it's integration with tenable.io ecosystem is great.“ February 3, 2025 WI Wassim I Associate ProfessorComputer Networking, 501 - 1,000 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Nessus is very accurate but sometimes, especially with latest versions of Ubuntu, many false positives are noticed.“ July 29, 2023 AM ANILU M SOFTWARE DEVELOPERComputer Software, Self-employedUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Its interface is intuitive and offers various scanning options for the various areas to be analyzed, such as networks, web systems or applications.“ February 2, 2024 RB Robert B ITOFinancial Services, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Nessus can be cost prohibitive and difficult to initially setup.“ June 7, 2024 AK Alex K Systems EngineerFinancial Services, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “We love the overall ease of use and the amount of details that scans have along with the findings for quick remediation.“ December 19, 2024 Carol L Data analyst Chemicals, 10,001+ employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “It is not user friendly in terms of costs since it is expensive if you want to access more features through the paid versions.“ October 26, 2022 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 93 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Nguyen H. System Engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "The quality is OK but they should support more API call to do automation" November 15, 2019 4.0 Simple, the quality of report also good. The price is reasonable for Pro version. Pros Simple interface, even end-user can use it. Easy to install. Cons Everything is good, but since they stop nessus manager, I can not find the way to do automation. Alternatives considered [InsightVM](https://www.capterra.com/p/169723/InsightVM/) Reason for choosing Nessus Price is cheapter, the quality is Good enough. Switched from [InsightVM](https://www.capterra.com/p/169723/InsightVM/) Because the price Review Source AJ Abhijeet J. Lead Consultant Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A Must have for MSSP" September 5, 2024 4.0 Pros A Professional tool that gives stellar results Cons Price can be a bit steep for small businesses Alternatives considered [Nexpose](https://www.capterra.com/p/238841/Nexpose/) Reason for choosing Nessus As an MSSP, we need to give results to the customer and keep them safe from all vulnerabilities. We cannot choose an inferior product and negotiate with results. Switched from [Pentest-Tools.com](https://www.capterra.com/p/211194/Pentest-Tools-com/) Pentest-tools was lower on the price side but did not find any good vulnerabilities like Nessus did. Review Source JB Jeremy B. Offensive Security Consultant Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Decent product with awful price tag" May 8, 2025 3.0 Solid product, minus reporting. But massively overpriced and undermaintained. Pros good for discovery, fingerprinting, and finding CVEs for systems/software Cons performance is pretty poor, licensing experience is poor, does not normalize scope data, does not always show its work in scan output, lots of typos in finding text, filtering does not work as well as one would hope Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Manager Banking Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Nessus Vulnarability Scanning Tool" June 22, 2021 5.0 Nessus is #1 Vulnerability scanning tool which I ever seen and also Nessus tool has given fullest support to get PCIDSS certificate to our organization. I strongly commanding others to protect there organization with Nessus tool. Pros Administrator can simply use predefined policy and easy to apply related product as a template. Also the reporting is 99.99% accuracy and easy to understand and easy to find a solutions. Cons When we define a bulk scan, Nessus tool is getting more Computer/Server resources. Reason for choosing Nessus While compare with reviews and others recommendations. Review Source WI Wassim I. Associate Professor Computer Networking Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Nessus: Vulnerability Scanner with Appealing Reporting Capabilities" July 29, 2023 4.0 Nessus is a must for network security testing and vulnerability analysis. Together with Nmap, Nessus gives a much better penetration testing and vulnerability analysis of networks and virtualized cloud infrastructures. Pros I used Nessus with nmap for testing the vulnerability of virtualized networks in controlled environments. The main motivation behind the selection of Nessus is to have a user-friendly vulnerability report with categorized network exploits and OS weaknesses. Nessus provides accurate results (though some false positives are noticed in hardened Linux environments). The advanced reporting capabilities in Nessus makes the vulnerability results easily exported and documented to relational databases. Moreover, the various Nessus reports can be compared after hardening the OS with different security configurations. Cons Nessus is very accurate but sometimes, especially with latest versions of Ubuntu, many false positives are noticed. Still Nessus results are considered highly informative and the false positives can be autonomously filtered to provide more accurate vulnerability analysis and reporting. Alternatives considered [Intruder](https://www.capterra.com/p/161379/Intruder/) Reason for choosing Nessus advanced reporting. Accurate vulnerability analysis Review Source KH Kevin H. CISO Telecommunications Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Nessus Professional Gets The Job Done" August 25, 2020 5.0 This product does a great job of informing your IT and security groups on what may be vulnerable in your environment. Especially if your organization is looking to begin a program, start small and use this service to build up your processes and program before sinking large amounts of money into other services or products. Pros Nessus is still the industry leader in this arena, and the ability for the product to identify vulnerabilities accurately is still the high water mark to beat. You can be up and running in just a few minutes, and the ability to have recurring scans is a great way for this product to help you with your security program. The "Plugin Output" fields help greatly when trying to determine if tests are a false positive, and lends additional credence to your system administrators when you can show them exactly \*why\* something has been detected as a vulnerability. Cons There are no ways to track vulnerabilities or your efforts to monitor them over time; this truly is just a point-in-time view of your environment unless you upgrade to a much more expensive product. Alternatives considered [InsightVM](https://www.capterra.com/p/169723/InsightVM/) Reason for choosing Nessus The cost was a no-brainer; by paying one low fee instead of a per-IP address model we can ensure that there are no hidden surprises and that we have enough money to address other security projects at our organization. Review Source GR Geoffrey R. Director of Information Technology and Security Law Practice Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Nessus for vulnerability scanning" July 17, 2019 5.0 After our first major client security audit, we implemented Nessus to run weekly internal and external vulnerability scans. Not only does this help satisfy our client demands, but it helps us find vulnerabilities in our systems and helps us find patches and solutions to the vulnerabilities. Pros Easy to set up, use and report on. We started using this application after our first major client security audit a few years ago. It's a been great tool. Cons Not much to dislike with Nessus. Maybe some better reports, and the cost could always be better, although it's not bad. Alternatives considered [Netwrix Auditor](https://www.capterra.com/p/164872/Netwrix-Auditor/) Reason for choosing Nessus It was what several security companies use and it was recommended by the security expert we hired to perform a risk assessment of our network. Review Source KR Kiran R. Vulnerability Assessor Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Tenable Nessus: Excellent tool for security testing" February 3, 2025 5.0 This is one of the best tool I've used, very competent and shows great results. Accuracy of scans are good and detects most vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, and other misconfigurations. Automated scans are very friendly to setup and compares scope to OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities. Overall performance is good and also doesn't overload website. We even have multiple tenable products and it's integration with tenable.io ecosystem is great. Pros API support for automation and integration into CI/CD pipelines. Great scanning capabilities with form based and token based authentication. Reporting of results with CVSS scoring are accurate and remediation fixes are provided by this tool itself Cons Handling of dynamic applications with complex authentication needs improvement. Scan timings takes more than ETA Review Source KC Kevin C. IT Intern Warehousing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Great Software to Detect Vulnerabilities" December 12, 2024 5.0 Nessus has been a great tool for the company I work at. Deploying it is just a matter of installing it, and putting in the right information in the installation, which can be automated. Once it's installed, it just works. It detects every known vulnerability there is. Pros Vulnerability scanning in Nessus is very accurate, it rarely gets anything wrong. It is also easy to deploy. Cons The only downsides of Nessus that I have experienced are that sometimes it gets false positives, but not very often, and that the UI of the website can be finicky sometimes. Review Source AK Alex K. Systems Engineer Financial Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Our auditors love Nessus Professional" December 19, 2024 5.0 Pros We love the overall ease of use and the amount of details that scans have along with the findings for quick remediation. Our auditors love the reporting. Cons Sometimes there are limitations in the scan exclusions. We would also like to see integrations with ticketing systems. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Cybersecurity Masters Student and Teaching Assistant Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Nessus Scan - A tool to start your test with." September 25, 2021 5.0 Great tool to meet sudden deadlines and effective reconn tool for Network penetration testing. Pros This software is great for new bees and profressionals in network penetration testing. I would like to share some highlights and good points I feel: 1. The UI is really good and easy to use. 2. The results are shown in an organized manner. 3. Reports can be easily shared with excel exports. 4. Vulebrabilities are prioritized for you with Critical, High, Medium and Low. (CVEs results) 5. Scheduling time and date. 6. Sharing it with the team - nice access management. Cons With the product proven to be great, some drawbacks of this product are: 1. False Positives are present, and its not your only tool to rely for a pentest. 2. It is not a web application scanner, its mainly a network scan. So if you are expecting to work like any other web app OWASP scanner, its not. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer VAPT Engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Worth the purchase for Vulnerability assessment" September 23, 2020 5.0 Overall the scan results are very efficient and reports generated are very effective in securing the network assets of an organization. The setup was easier and application is user-friendly once you get the hang of it. Pros The application is very useful in findings for vulnerabilities in the network assets and reporting them with quality reports containing where exactly the issues are found and its mitigation. The tool updates are very relevant and even reports zero day vulnerabilities for particular software and technologies made use by the network asset. It covers almost all the security issues present in a network device or servers with proper credentialed scans. Cons The application has to be kept up to date for covering all the latest patch vulnerabilities and it lists even ssl and ssh related vulnerabilities for database servers or internal routers, so our team has to identify the necessary findings to report to customer. Review Source BA Brandi A. Owner Cosmetics Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Nessus" July 30, 2023 5.0 Pros I use Nessus for external vulnerabilities. It is reliable and easy to implement. Cons I don't think there is anything I don't like so far. Review Source RB Robert B. ITO Financial Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great product. Nessus is an industry leader for a reason. " June 7, 2024 5.0 Pros Nessus provides very valuable insight into network vulnerabilities and the remediation required to address the vulnerabilities. Nessus is and has been an industry leader for along time and is tried, tested, and true. Very good program that helps keep industries safe. Cons Nessus can be cost prohibitive and difficult to initially setup. Having employees with good technical knowledge will be important if implementing Nessus software, otherwise, outsourcing is a good option as well. Review Source PJ Pasindu J. Analyst Education Management Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Conduct vulnerability and compliance scans to protect infrastruture" April 29, 2023 4.0 Pros Nessus proved to be an effective solution for identifying potential security weaknesses and ensuring compliance across our infrastructure. With advanced detection techniques and detailed reporting capabilities, Nessus facilitated streamlined remediation of identified issues. Cons For a small organization, the cost of the product can be too high to bear. At times the most recent CIS benchmarks may not be available to conduct compliance scans. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Cyber Security Analyst Management Consulting Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Vulnerability Scanner" December 21, 2018 5.0 It is very useful for sever scanning for protecting user information. In addition, Nessus will give clear devices scanning for data base scanning and firewall scanning. This is very ideal for security auditors and cyber security analysts. Nessus tool gives recommendation for fixe the bug. Pros Nessus is a vulnerability Scanning tool helps to identify Known Vulnerabilities, Malware, Patches and etc. There is a free trial version every use can use. Nessus can work under any OS version. It is very helpful to protect our PC and Servers from any fraud or threat. Simply it’s very effective and compliance with user preference. Cons In the paid version includes more features than trial one but license cost is higher. It takes too much time to scan security devices. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Information Security Analyst Management Consulting Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Scanning for vulnerabilities" January 27, 2019 5.0 Even though it is time consuming when a scan is running, the end result is pretty amazing. It's great using Nessus. Pros I use this scanner often to scan web application and also to run other scans. It provides the best results and it is really helpful as this also saves some time. There's are variety of scanning types available in this scanner and after scanning it gives a full report including the url when scanning a web application. Cons It takes a really long time when doing a scan but Review Source CE Chris E. Security Engineer Hospital & Health Care Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Nessus, Finding all those vulnerabilities!" September 10, 2019 5.0 Tenable is one of the best scanners out there to me. Easy to use and easy to hire people with experience in it Pros Nessus is great about releasing new plugins for vulns. It's lightweight and has an agent option or a hardware scanner option. The cost is pretty standard. Cons The reports that tenable can generate are lack luster at best. We use the API to pull the info we want, but that takes more work and development time than we like Reason for choosing Nessus The price and scalability were what we liked the most Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Information Security Analyst Management Consulting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Effectiveness" April 10, 2020 4.0 I have a very good experience with Nessus . I highly recommend it. Pros This is a one of best software for the vulnerability assessments. It ha lot of functions and features to do the tasks. Cons Sometimes it's getting slow to conduct the scans and also I think it need to contain more attractive reporting methods. Review Source TK Thusitha K. Information Security Analyst Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best Vulnerability Scanner" May 15, 2021 4.0 Nessus is one of the best vulnerability scanning tools in the Cyber Security field. There are no arguments with the functionality of the tool providing itself. As an overall comment, Nessus is very good to manage your infrastructure assets from cyber attacks. Pros Nessus is very unique and has a user-friendly interface. Also, the deployment is very easy and we can update plugins by using GUI. Cons As per my 2+ years of experience with the Nessus tool, sometimes it contains false-positive results. Therefore, we need to manually go through all results before submitting them to our customers. Review Source Ben S. IT Consultant Information Technology and Services Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Amazing Security Tool" September 26, 2018 5.0 Overall Nessus is incredibly powerful, it seems better setup for corporate environments and I think in that environment you could not ask for a better software. Pros Nessus is very easy to use and it houses a lot of known vulnerabilities. Reporting from a scan couldn't be easier. Timely updates are also necessary for any vulnerability scanner worth its salt, and Nessus updates regularly to cover any emerging threats in a timely manner. Cons For the paid version its pricey but you can't put a price tag on keeping things secure. My experience lies in the free version that is available for home use. It requires you to request a key, which is fine but it took close to 3 days for the email to be sent with the key. I'm hoping this was a fluke but it was unfortunate. Occasional bugs have also occurred, but what software doesn't have the occasional bug. Review Source LF Luca F. IT security consultant Computer & Network Security Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Nessus Professional On Premise" October 10, 2018 5.0 I currently use it to perform vulnerability assessments towards the customers' targets. The results are usually accurate but it's always better to evaluate them manually to confirm/deny their existence. The readability of the results is much easier through the Nessus interface than via the exported reports (PDF or HTML). Pros Very frequent vulnerability database updates Easy to use Good pricing Cons Some false positives Some false negatives Running it in a virtual machine in NAT configuration sometimes does not give results as good as in bridge mode The reporting phase could be much better and should be more customizable Review Source Fábio S. Senior Software Security Analyst Computer Software Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Good automated tool, but lots of false positives" February 17, 2023 5.0 Pros Nessus is the state of the art on automating vulnerability scans for networks and infrastructure. It has lots of customization options and can be deployed locally to make an active scan on the internal infra. or through the cloud. Cons It can be expensive to keep it running for smaller business. Also, many false positives can be encountered and then depends on the analyst to interpret and classify each vulnerability along with a more appropriate severity. Review Source JV Joevanne V. Security Engineer Financial Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Great Vulnerability Management Solution" February 16, 2017 5.0 Tenable offers great vulnerability management products and Security Center is very easy to use. Great reporting capabilities and an overall great product. Pros Ease of use Reporting Cons Lacking in application security Review Source JZ Jason Z. Applications Administrator Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Scanning and reporting by setting a schedule" March 7, 2018 5.0 Pros We have an amazing scanning functionality with NESSUS and it's scheduled so all I have to do is look at the report then can use that to report to the committees Cons It can be troublesome to setup the very first time but when it is set up it is a breeze to use Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.