# Nessus Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra

> With the help of Capterra, learn about Nessus Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other Vulnerability Management products and more.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/130577/Nessus

---

# 

 Nessus Software Review 2026: Features, Integrations, Pros & Cons

Last updated on January 14, 2026

Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team.

[Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[FAQs](#faqs)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews)

Nessus

## What is Nessus?

Built for security practitioners, by security professionals, Nessus Professional is the de-facto industry standard for vulnerability assessment. Nessus performs point-in-time assessments to help security professionals quickly identify and fix vulnerabilities, including software flaws, missing patches, malware, and misconfigurations. With features such as pre-built policies and templates, group snooze functionality, and real-time updates, it makes vulnerability assessment easy and intuitive.

## What is Nessus used for?

[Vulnerability Scanner](https://www.capterra.com/vulnerability-scanner-software/)[Vulnerability Management](https://www.capterra.com/vulnerability-management-software/)[Network Security](https://www.capterra.com/network-security-software/)

Top alternative

Featured

Overall rating

Based on 93 user reviews

Reviews sentiment

Positive

98%

Neutral

2%

Negative

0%

Starting price

$4000.2

Flat Rate, One Time

Free trial  
available

Includes Free Version

Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products...

Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings...

Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings...

Do you work for Nessus?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=http://www.tenable.com/&name=Nessus)

## Compare with a popular alternative

Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status.

### Nessus

4.7 (93)

VS.

[4.9 (330)](https://www.capterra.com/p/218549/UserWay/reviews/)

Starting Price

$4000.2

Flat Rate, One Time

Starting Price

$69

Other, Per Month

Free Trial

Free Version

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

Ease Of Use

4.6 (93)

Ease Of Use

4.9 (330)

Value For Money

4.5 (74)

Value For Money

4.6 (310)

Customer Service

4.3 (71)

Customer Service

4.9 (305)

## Nessus alternatives

[4.7 (6)](https://www.capterra.com/p/10015770/Aikido/#reviews)

Starting price

Contact vendor for pricing

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

100%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

Highest Rated

[5.0 (16)](https://www.capterra.com/p/10008516/GlitchSecure/reviews/)

Starting price

$275.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

100%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[CyLock EVA](https://www.capterra.com/p/253040/CyLock-Anti-Hacker/)

[4.9 (42)](https://www.capterra.com/p/253040/CyLock-Anti-Hacker/reviews/)

Starting price

$29.00

Per User, Per Month

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

100%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/253040/CyLock-Anti-Hacker/)

[Orca Security](https://www.capterra.com/p/188445/Orca-Security/)

[4.8 (60)](https://www.capterra.com/p/188445/Orca-Security/reviews/)

Starting price

Contact vendor for pricing

Pricing Options

Free Trial

Free Version

User Rating

100%

of reviewers

rated it above 4 stars

[Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/188445/Orca-Security/)

[View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/130577/Nessus/alternatives/)

## FAQs about Nessus

Overview

### What problems does Nessus solve?

Nessus solves the problem of slow, manual vulnerability checks by quickly scanning networks, servers, cloud assets, and some web environments for missing patches, misconfigurations, malware, and known CVEs. Security teams, system administrators, compliance managers, and auditors use its detailed remediation reports and scheduled scans to prioritize fixes, support audits, and reduce exposure.

Answer based on 74 reviews

Overview

### Which roles and teams benefit most from Nessus?

Nessus is most used by security analysts, cybersecurity engineers, and IT administrators who need to identify vulnerabilities, prioritize remediation, and strengthen network defenses. Security leaders such as CISOs and managers use it for risk visibility and compliance oversight, while consultants rely on it to assess client environments and guide security improvements.

Answer based on 92 reviews

Overview

### What company size and industries is Nessus built for?

Nessus is built primarily for small businesses, which make up 49% of reviewers, and is used most in Information Technology and Services at 22%. It also serves enterprises at 28% and midsize businesses at 23%, with strong adoption in Computer & Network Security at 19% and Computer Software at 8%, mainly for vulnerability scanning.

Answer based on 93 reviews

Features and Usability

### What are the key features of Nessus?

Nessus includes core vulnerability scanning for networks, systems, and web applications, with credentialed scans, scan scheduling, and customizable scan policies. Reviewers also highlight detailed reporting with CVE-based findings and remediation guidance, plus differentiators such as compliance scanning, asset discovery, API integrations, dashboards, and frequent plugin updates.

Answer based on 63 reviews

Pricing

### How much does it cost and what fees or limitations are included?

Nessus starts at $4000.2 for the Basic 1-year license, with free and trial versions also available. Plan 2 costs 7800.39 for two years, and Plan 3 costs 11400.6 for three years. Advanced support adds 472 and training adds 230.10. Reviewers call pricing fair, but some say paid versions are costly and limited.

Answer based on 21 reviews

Integrations

### Which third-party tools and platforms does Nessus integrate with?

Nessus integrates with Splunk Enterprise for sending scan results into log analysis and security monitoring workflows. Reviewer mentions also reference Unified VRM, though the same feedback notes Nessus can operate on its own. Based on the provided data, these are the specific third-party platforms identified for Nessus.

Answer based on 16 reviews

Getting Started and Support

### What training and onboarding options does Nessus offer?

Nessus provides live online sessions, webinars, documentation, and videos to support training. Live online sessions and webinars can guide users through setup and product use, while documentation and videos offer self-paced reference material for learning features and reviewing steps as needed.

Answer based on 2 reviews

Getting Started and Support

### What customer support options does Nessus offer, and how do users rate the experience?

Nessus offers email/help desk, FAQ/forum, knowledge base, phone support, and chat. Users often describe support as helpful and able to provide clear solutions, and they value the training resources. Still, some report weak assistance during setup and agent or cloud connection issues, leaving troubleshooting to internal teams.

Answer based on 10 reviews

Scan functionality

### How well does Nessus handle vulnerability scanning?

Nessus handles vulnerability scanning well for networks, servers, web apps, and compliance checks with flexible scan types and useful remediation details. Security teams and auditors like the broad coverage, scheduling, and plugin updates, though some users report slow scans, heavy resource use, and challenges with complex authentication or exclusion settings.

Answer based on 55 reviews

## Features

Features with the highest number of reviews are displayed first. Those that have no reviews appear next, sorted alphabetically.

Vulnerability Assessment

4.7 (24)

66.67% of 24 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

The process of identifying, quantifying, and prioritizing the vulnerabilities in a system.

Network Scanning

4.7 (19)

68.42% of 19 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Scanning networks to identify security threats

Vulnerability/Threat Prioritization

4.5 (19)

57.89% of 19 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Classify levels of threat and organize actions based on priorities

Vulnerability Scanning

4.8 (17)

58.82% of 17 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Discover patch statuses and vulnerabilities

Web-Application Security

4.3 (17)

64.71% of 17 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

Identify and respond to security threats to web applications

Reporting/Analytics

4.3 (16)

75.00% of 16 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important

View and track pertinent metrics to find patterns and gain insights from data

Nessus 33 features

Dashboard to view the status of ongoing processes, identify current incidents and track past activities

Alerts or notifications of various types such as pop-up messages, sounds, banners, or badges

Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases

Identify and respond to security threats to developed applications

Creation, administration, and evaluation of assessments or tests

Plan, schedule, and execute organization's accounts and assets to ensure compliance with policies and laws

A record of all activities within the system, including user access, changes made, etc.

Track and manage adherence to policies for any service, product, process, or supplier

Track and report regulatory data to either internal management or external stakeholders

Observe and track the demand, usage, progress or quality of a system, product, or user

Scanning networks to identify security threats

Prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources

Install software updates and bug fixes remotely

A simulated attack attempting to gain access to resources that they should not have access/permissions to perform operations.

Create, manage, and track policies and procedures within an organization

Analyze and gain insights into data in real-time

Receive data and information in real time

Active monitoring of systems, applications, or networks

Active reporting of data and metrics

Collection, analysis, and representation of numerical data and generation of reports to understand various patterns

View and track pertinent metrics to find patterns and gain insights from data

Analyze potential risks across the organization

Initiate collection and analysis of known risks

Continuously vetting activities within the container application environment including hosts, open ports, protocols and payloads.

Information to prevent, understand and identify cyber threats

Protect incoming and outgoing communications against malware, spam, display spoofing, and other threats

The process of identifying, quantifying, and prioritizing the vulnerabilities in a system.

Detect (and block) vulnerabilities and threats in your applications based on vulnerability information

Safeguards to protect network vulnerabilities

Discover patch statuses and vulnerabilities

Classify levels of threat and organize actions based on priorities

Identify and respond to security threats to web applications

Crawling and indexing web pages

Get Advice

We can help you find the software with the features you need.

Features

4.6 (93)

4.6

Based on 93 reviews

## Pricing

Value for money

4.5 (74)

Free Trial

Free Version

[View pricing plan details](https://www.capterra.com/p/130577/Nessus/pricing/)

Basic

$4,000.2

Flat Rate,One Time

It includes:

-   Accurate Visibility
-   Advanced Detection
-   Easy-to-Use
-   Phone/Community/Chat Support

Plan 2

$7,800.39

Flat Rate,One Time

It includes:

-   Accurate Visibility
-   Advanced Detection
-   Easy-to-Use
-   Phone/Community/Chat Support

Plan 3

$11,400.6

Flat Rate,One Time

It includes:

-   Accurate Visibility
-   Advanced Detection
-   Easy-to-Use
-   Phone/Community/Chat Support

Value for money

4.5 (74)

4.5

Based on 74 reviews

Connect with a Capterra advisor for a free 15-minute consultation

Get a personalized software list aligned to your business needs with guidance from our expert advisors. Our team has helped 1 million+ businesses like yours find options that fit their needs.

## Support, customer service and training options

Customer Service

4.3 (71)

Support

-   Email/Help Desk
-   FAQs/Forum
-   Knowledge Base
-   Phone Support
-   24/7 (Live rep)
-   Chat

Training

-   In Person
-   Live Online
-   Webinars
-   Documentation
-   Videos

Deployment

-   Web
-   Android
-   iPhone/iPad

Typical users

-   Freelancers
-   Small businesses
-   Mid size businesses
-   Enterprises

Customer Service

4.3 (71)

4.3

Based on 71 reviews

## User reviews

Overall rating

4.7

Based on 93 reviews

Filter by rating

5(65)

4(26)

3(2)

2(0)

1(0)

Mentioned topic

Sorted by most recent

JB

Jeremy B.

Offensive Security Consultant

Computer & Network Security

### "Decent product with awful price tag"

3.0

Overall Rating

3.0

3.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

4.0

4.0

Customer Service

2.0

2.0

Likelihood to Recommend

3/10

May 8, 2025

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

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

KR

Kiran R.

Vulnerability Assessor

Computer & Network Security

### "Tenable Nessus: Excellent tool for security testing"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

9/10

February 3, 2025

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

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AK

Alex K.

Systems Engineer

Financial Services

### "Our auditors love Nessus Professional"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

December 19, 2024

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

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

KC

Kevin C.

IT Intern

Warehousing

### "Great Software to Detect Vulnerabilities"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

5.0

5.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

December 12, 2024

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

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

GT

Giuseppe T.

Cybersecurity Consultant

Computer & Network Security

### "Great vulnerability scanner"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

October 17, 2024

My overall experience with Nessus has been extremely positive. It's reliable, regularly updated, and the scan reports are easy to read and actionable. The speed at which it identifies vulnerabilities is impressive, and it's saved me countless hours of manual checks.

Pros

Nessus is hands down the most popular vulnerability scanner for good reason. It runs incredibly comprehensive vulnerability scans, catching everything from outdated software to complex misconfigurations. It's quick, efficient, and can be installed almost anywhere, which is a huge plus. The free version for personal use, covering up to 16 hosts, is more than enough for home networks or small businesses to get started.

Cons

No cons I can think of. It has all the features that a decent vulnerability scanner should have.

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

AJ

Abhijeet J.

Lead Consultant

Computer & Network Security

### "A Must have for MSSP"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

3.0

3.0

Customer Service

3.0

3.0

Likelihood to Recommend

8/10

September 5, 2024

Pros

A Professional tool that gives stellar results

Cons

Price can be a bit steep for small businesses

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.

Alternatives considered

[Nexpose](https://www.capterra.com/p/238841/Nexpose/)

Reasons 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.

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

Gaurav P.

Lead Security Consultant

Information Technology and Services

### "Nessus Vulnerability Management - Thorough Scan of your Network"

4.0

Overall Rating

4.0

4.0

Ease of Use

4.0

4.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

4.0

4.0

Likelihood to Recommend

9/10

July 19, 2024

Used Nessus for quite some time now. Excellent product .

Pros

User Interface , Scan Profiling , Policy creation is easy and straightforward

Cons

Reporting features could be improved upon

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

Paul P.

Responsable On-Premise and Cloud Infrastructure

Retail

### "A good product to scan vulnerability but it's expensive"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

7/10

June 26, 2024

Pros

Nessus allows you to have vulnerability dashboards and allows rapid remediation

Cons

nessus is complicated to configure but also is a fairly expensive product

Review source

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

RB

Robert B.

ITO

Financial Services

### "Great product. Nessus is an industry leader for a reason. "

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

3.0

3.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

4.0

4.0

Likelihood to Recommend

10/10

June 7, 2024

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

Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

MW

Matthew W.

AM

Automotive

### "Nessus Review"

5.0

Overall Rating

5.0

5.0

Ease of Use

5.0

5.0

Features

5.0

5.0

Customer Service

0.0

0.0

Likelihood to Recommend

9/10

June 6, 2024

Pros

I like the ability to scan everything on the network and get a report on vulnerabilities.

Cons

Sometimes the vulnerability scan is a little too picky.

Review source

Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication.

[View all Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/130577/Nessus/reviews/)

## Top-rated software of 2026

### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.

Popular comparisons

[CyLock EVA vs Nessus](https://www.capterra.com/compare/130577-253040/Nessus-vs-CyLock-Anti-Hacker)[ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus vs Nessus](https://www.capterra.com/compare/130577-185510/Nessus-vs-ManageEngine-Vulnerability-Manager-Plus)

[Invicti vs Nessus](https://www.capterra.com/compare/130577-171539/Nessus-vs-Netsparker-Web-Application-Security-Scanner)[Acunetix vs Nessus](https://www.capterra.com/compare/130577-171379/Nessus-vs-Acunetix)