Tanium vs Tenable Nessus comparison

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Tanium Logo
1,524 views|1,086 comparisons
71% willing to recommend
Tenable Logo
11,521 views|8,491 comparisons
98% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Tanium and Tenable Nessus based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Vulnerability Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Tanium vs. Tenable Nessus Report (Updated: May 2024).
772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"I would say Tanium is the best tool for vulnerability management.""I like the tool's incident response and security patching.""The solution is scalable and helps to understand how infrastructure works. It helps to improve the health of the organization.""I'm not so familiar with the tool but I like the interaction of the console to the picture. Patching is the primary model I have been focusing on for the last couple of weeks. So I have created a proof of concept environment and have been checking the available features.""For incident response tasks, all these tasks can get done in minutes with minimal disruption to the end-user.""Threat hunting is a very good feature on Tanium. We have just started using it and have not used it extensively.""Tanium’s linear-chain architecture is valuable.""I like the fact that you can create patching campaigns depending on the area of your network that you want to address first. I like the ability it has to make several campaigns that work in parallel."

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"The most valuable feature of Tenable Nessus is real-time monitoring.""The stability is very good.""The solution is easy to understand for users because instructions are included on the platform.""The trial version is very good for testing whether it will suit your needs.""The most valuable feature of Tenable Nessus is vulnerability detection.""We looked at Tenable, Qualys and Rapid7. We found Tenable was the best of all three.""The vulnerability scanner is the most valuable feature.""My favorite part about Nessus is that you can customize the tool to scan exactly what you want. Microsoft releases new patches monthly on Patch Tuesday, and a lot of companies track that date. I set up Nessus for the day after Patch Tuesday to see which devices have already pushed those updates from Microsoft, so we can stay updated."

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Cons
"Most of the time, agent-relative issues have to be more equipped with self-healing features. At times, the agent is there, but for some reason, it doesn't report a status. It gives certain problems that are obviously agent-based.""It is not really additional functions, or the features that are needed, rather the complexity would be reduced based on the number of modules required to put together a comprehensive operational security and risk compliance model.""They could improve the UI.""The solution lacks mobility.""Any movement into a SaaS solution has challenges since the processes and data flows are not well defined. Hence, you need to build it at the same time.""The reporting could be improved.""The solution can give a lot of false positives.""Tanium's limitations should be improved because although it is a great tool, it is limited to only a few classes during a session."

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"The tool needs to upgrade asset tracking.""The price could be reduced.""This is still a maturing product. Tenable is only a scanner for one ability, while other solutions like Rapid7 have more tools for verification. We still have to manually verify to see if the vulnerability is a false positive or not.""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.""You can scale Nessus to the extent that you can afford it. You need to have a license for every device you scan. As long as you can afford the increased costs, you won't have a problem scaling it.""Model OS costs (and its segregation schema for individual modules).""We'd like to see more integration potential within the solution.""It would be better if they had application-level support for mobile devices. They don't have anything to scan mobile devices. Tenable Nessus doesn't have a mobile application vulnerability assessment. I also have issues with the false positive rates. The product has limited features."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "There is an annual license required to use this solution."
  • "It's an expensive solution. It would be nice if the cost were lower."
  • "Tanium is a more expensive solution in Latin America than some of the competitors, such as BigFix."
  • "It is higher than some competitors in the market."
  • "The solution offers value for money."
  • "The solution is expensive but it's a good investment."
  • "The product's pricing differs from region to region depending on negotiations and the number of endpoints."
  • More Tanium Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The pricing is much more manageable versus other products."
  • "The price of Tenable Nessus is much more competitive versus other solutions on the market."
  • "I think the price is fairly affordable. It provides a license that is fair."
  • "Nowadays, your vulnerability applications are going to be kind of pricey because lots of them, including Rapid7, are based upon a base price, but then they add in the nodes. That's where they get you. If you're a big network, obviously, you need to scan everything. Therefore, it's going to be costly. The risk and insurance money associated with having ransomware on my networks is going to cost me more money, time, and marketing than the price of the tool. That's why I'm speaking only as an information security officer to security operations. This is the tool that is there in my toolbox to say whether we vulnerable or not. At this point, I don't care about how much it costs my company to have it because if I wasn't able to report it and we got ransomware, then who cares? I'm probably going to be out of business because it happened. That's why I don't care about the price. I have it, and I could use it effectively and do my report. At the end of the day, even if we get ransomware, as long as I reported it, followed my protocol, and put in the change, irrespective of whether it was ignored or denied, I did my job."
  • "We pay approximately $2,500 on a yearly basis."
  • "We have a subscription, the licensing fees are paid yearly, and I am using the latest version."
  • "We incurred a single cost for a perpetual license, although I cannot comment on the price as this is above my management level."
  • "The price is reasonable."
  • More Tenable Nessus Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Tanium’s linear-chain architecture is valuable.
    Top Answer:The reporting could be improved.
    Top Answer:We collect end-point data. We use it to make AI models and provide it to customers. I use Tanium’s sensors, collect data, and develop dashboards. The sensors have many data types. If we need different… more »
    Top Answer:You have full visibility across cloud, network, virtual, and containerized infrastructures with Rapid7 Insight VM. You can easily prioritize vulnerabilities using attacker analytics. Overall, Rapid7… more »
    Top Answer: 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… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Ranking
    18th
    Views
    1,524
    Comparisons
    1,086
    Reviews
    7
    Average Words per Review
    411
    Rating
    7.0
    3rd
    Views
    11,521
    Comparisons
    8,491
    Reviews
    29
    Average Words per Review
    429
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    Tanium Endpoint Platform reduces security risk, improves agility & increases efficiency, a fundamentally new approach to endpoint security's threat detection, indicent response, vulnerability assessment and configuration compliance & with management's software distribution, asset utilization, asset inventory and patch management.

    Tenable Nessus is a vulnerability management solution that aims to empower organizations to be aware of threats that both they and their customers face. It is the most deployed scanner in the vulnerability management industry. Organizations that use this product have access to the largest continuously updated global library of vulnerability and configuration checks. They can stay ahead of threats that Tenable Nessus’s competitors may be unable to spot. Additionally, Tenable Nessus supports a greater number of technologies than its competitors.

    Tenable Nessus Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by deploying Tenable Nessus include:

    • Ease of use. Tenable Nessus is designed with security administrators in mind. It is built so that users can manipulate it intuitively without having to undergo special systems training. Users can create security policies with the greatest level of ease and can initiate scans of their entire networks with only a few clicks.
    • Support and resources. Tenable Nessus has both a support system of clarification resources and technical support for users to rely on. The solution has a resource center that contains guides and tips that can clarify things that confuse users and can aid them in gaining the maximum level of value. Additionally, users can reach out to Tenable Nessus’s technical support team, which is available around the clock and is reachable via a number of methods. This makes it simple for users to get help if they need it.
    • Reduction of threat vectors. Tenable Nessus provides users with the ability to reduce the number of potential threat vectors that a hacker can exploit. It enables users to find where the vulnerabilities in their networks are so their security won’t be compromised. They can then quickly address those weak points and head off issues before any have the chance to arise.

    Tenable Nessus Features

    • Report customization. Tenable Nessus enables users to customize the security reports that their system produces. They are able to set Tenable Nessus to generate reports that contain the information that is most relevant to their business objectives. Users can also utilize these report customization capabilities to customize the formats of their reports.
    • Vulnerability triage capability. Included in the Tenable Nessus security suite is a feature that enables users to conduct a triage of their vulnerabilities. The solution can apply one of five ratings to vulnerabilities that it detects. This makes it possible for organizations to work on addressing issues by order of severity.
    • Scaling. Tenable Nessus can scale to meet an organization’s needs by migrating the network that it is connected to, to other Tenable solutions. Users can scale up their systems as their security demands increase. It is capable of reaching hundreds of thousands of systems.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Tenable Nessus is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its ease of use and its vulnerability scanning feature.

    Rallis F., the principal security architect at a technology vendor, writes, “The ease of use is the primary valuable feature. This specific version is very straightforward. I like the ability to modify it and configure it based on the different policies.”

    Sandip D., a cyber security expert at Birlasoft India Ltd, writes, “The vulnerability scanner is the most valuable feature. It's an important feature for us. We use the plugin output for that. It shows us the exact version of Nessus and what is needed for remediation. Based on that, we decide what should be remediated first to get the best result for security.”

    Sample Customers
    JPMorgan Chase, eBay, Amazon, US Bank, MetLife, pwc, Cerner, Delphi, MGM Grand, New York Life
    Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company22%
    Transportation Company11%
    Construction Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Government13%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Security Firm9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization35%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Government7%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise73%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise38%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise44%
    Large Enterprise40%
    Buyer's Guide
    Tanium vs. Tenable Nessus
    May 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Tanium vs. Tenable Nessus and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    772,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Tanium is ranked 18th in Vulnerability Management with 15 reviews while Tenable Nessus is ranked 3rd in Vulnerability Management with 75 reviews. Tanium is rated 7.4, while Tenable Nessus is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Tanium writes "Useful tool for vulnerability management and deploying applications, needing improvement in its OS upgrade". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Tenable Nessus writes "Unlimited assets for one price and quick, agentless results". Tanium is most compared with CrowdStrike Falcon, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Microsoft Configuration Manager, Qualys VMDR and Zabbix, whereas Tenable Nessus is most compared with Qualys VMDR, Rapid7 InsightVM, Tenable Vulnerability Management and Tenable Security Center. See our Tanium vs. Tenable Nessus 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.