We performed a comparison between Rapid7 InsightVM and Tenable Nessus based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Both solutions were considered by our users as easy to deploy but on the expensive side. Rapid7 users were happier with the service and support, but PeerSpot users ranked Tenable Nessus as number one overall at the time this comparison was written.
"The solution scales well."
"The most valuable feature for us is the different types of reporting it provides."
"The product is scalable."
"The solution is very user friendly and easy to manage."
"NeXpose is a pretty good vulnerability scanner... There's a nice dashboard."
"The most valuable feature for me is the risk calculation based on monthly effects."
"The product's initial setup phase was very easy."
"You can bring in and get online to do reports fairly quickly,"
"The most valuable feature of Tenable Nessus is the support it provides for any new vulnerabilities quickly."
"Ease of reviewing scores, identifying vulnerabilities, and getting information on them."
"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."
"The scanning capabilities are most valuable when compared to Nessus."
"Quick assessments, compliance scores, and results are provided without having to do agents."
"Tenable Nessus is one of the best vulnerability assessment tools, that I know."
"Scanners and reports using CIS templates ("de-facto" standard, easy to fix and to locate correction tips at documentation), tests against cloud providers, database profiles, several types of telecom devices, and others highly customizable scans."
"The most valuable feature is the installation of Tenable which is incredibly easy."
"All products have room for increased security and Rapid7 InsightVM is no exception."
"There is a significant learning curve, that non-technical individuals, especially those not specialized in computer science or the information security industry, might face."
"Some of our customers want to be completely cloud based, and Rapid7 doesn't offer this as an option."
"There are certain limitations because of the product being used on a hybrid model. Rapid7 InsightVM doesn't offer a solution purely in the cloud."
"Within InsightVM, there is no feature to assign a ticket. If we can have more API calls, we can do that from InsightVM."
"Patch management is the only missing feature I can think of. Rapid7 detects vulnerabilities, but it should also help you manage patches."
"I would say that it improved our visibility, but it left things open."
"It would be nice to have an additional feature that would provide reports on who has logged onto the console or who did what on the console."
"To be honest, I haven't used it much to tell you that these are the things that should be improved. But I believe the UI should be enhanced somewhat. For example, there are two ways to find a report, and people are frequently confused as to which is the correct method for locating a full report. Sometimes they go in the opposite direction, so this is an area that may be improved."
"Tenable Nessus could improve the reporting."
"We'd like to see the solution embrace more user-friendliness."
"The price could be reduced."
"There should be a possibility to install agents on scanned machines. Tenable IO provides the capability of using local agents to check local problems, but this feature is not there in Tenable Nessus Professional. It would be nice to have something similar in Tenable Nessus Professional. We should have the capability to use local agents installed on the machines to locally check a problem."
"The reports should be improved in Tenable Nessus. For example, when you are auditing compliance with CIS standards. It provides very poor reports."
"The scalability of Tenable Nessus is good. However, it could be more flexible."
"We have had some false positives in the past, which we hope can improve in the future."
Rapid7 InsightVM is ranked 4th in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management with 55 reviews while Tenable Nessus is ranked 3rd in Vulnerability Management with 75 reviews. Rapid7 InsightVM is rated 8.0, while Tenable Nessus is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Rapid7 InsightVM writes "You can scan a network, and receive recommendations to address vulnerabilities with the click of a button". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Tenable Nessus writes "Unlimited assets for one price and quick, agentless results". Rapid7 InsightVM is most compared with Qualys VMDR, Tenable Security Center, Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management, Rapid7 InsightIDR and Wiz, whereas Tenable Nessus is most compared with Qualys VMDR, Tenable Security Center, Tenable Vulnerability Management, Pentera and Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management. See our Rapid7 InsightVM vs. Tenable Nessus report.
We monitor all Risk-Based 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.
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 Insight VM is easy to understand, use, and deploy. This solution supplies many different types of valuable reporting and rarely reports false positives. Rapid7 can easily detect new devices and scan endpoints quickly for vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, or missing patches. Rapid7 Insight VM will identify the risk and suggest how to resolve the problem.
We would like to see the reporting improved to offer some of the options other solutions provide. Rapid7 Insight VM can be a very expensive solution - it is really only for larger enterprise accounts. Integration with other solutions would make Rapid7 Insight VM more desirable.
It’s easy to combine local testing with network-based testing using Tenable Nessus, which can easily find vulnerabilities across different platforms and operating systems. Tenable Nessus will identify what nodes you have in place, then provide you with a report identifying each vulnerability found by node. It works quickly and stealthily, and offers clear-cut reporting and the ability to scan for specific vulnerabilities.
We would like to see the reporting process with Tenable Nessus improved. Instead of only PDF reports, one option might be to track with an Excel-based structure to better track vulnerabilities and remediation efforts and build reports from there. An option to use the same license for the cloud and on-premises at the same time would be very useful.
Conclusion
We felt that Tenable Nessus provided better reporting of vulnerabilities per device in a clearer, easier to understand manner. It is a very easy solution to use and makes accountability for tracing and reporting vulnerabilities easy. The flexible scanning options offered by Tenable Nessus are what we found most advantageous.
InsightVM - better functions on granting users different access to different asset groups.
It fits better for our company and is slightly cheaper.