Amazon Inspector vs Tenable Cloud Security comparison

Why PeerSpot?

The compared Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Tenable solutions aren't in the same category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #27 in VM , with an average rating of 8.6, and holds a 1.0% mindshare in the category. Tenable is ranked #20 in CNAP , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 2.9% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 77% of Tenable users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon Inspector and Tenable Cloud Security based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Wiz, Qualys, Tenable and others in Vulnerability Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Vulnerability Management Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

September 2026

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Helped 918,169 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

Qualys TotalCloud

Mindshare comparison

Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Amazon Inspector	1.0%
Wiz	4.8%
Qualys Exposure Management	4.0%
Other	90.2%

Vulnerability Management

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Tenable Cloud Security	2.9%
Wiz	12.5%
Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks	10.1%
Other	74.5%

Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021

Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees

Risk-based triage has transformed container security and now prioritizes high-impact threats

The best features Qualys TotalCloud offers currently include managing cloud infrastructure and container security while facing major challenges such as alert fatigue. Traditional vulnerability scanners flag hundreds of CVEs on short-lived Kubernetes containers, some of which have no internet exposure or are gone before we can even triage them. I leverage Qualys TotalCloud to move beyond static CVSS. I use it to implement runtime exposure, correlation risk reprioritization, and shift-left integration. This notifies developers to fix a base image upstream rather than patching live ephemeral instances. In my work with cloud and container security, the biggest operational hurdle was alert fatigue. I use Qualys to shift left from static CVSS severity to context-aware risk prioritization. I correlated raw vulnerability data with real-time risk factors such as public network exposure, active runtime execution, or overly permissive IAM roles. This allows us to immediately drop the priority of isolated containers and escalate lower-severity CVEs that sit on an exposed, high-risk path. We can map these findings directly back to our CI/CD pipelines so developers can patch the root base images upstream. We have drastically cut down the signal-to-noise ratio, saved a lot of manual hours doing triage work, and ensured engineering effort goes directly towards high-impact risk reduction.

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John D'Arcy

Co-Founder, Professional AWS Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Automated vulnerability assessments continuously enhance security

The most valuable features probably are the ability to do automated vulnerability assessments, which it does with Amazon Inspector version two. It operates continuously, so as soon as resources are created, it scans them for vulnerabilities. This allows me to pinpoint potential security vulnerabilities and provide actionable recommendations relatively quickly. Larger enterprises usually use Inspector to gather all the vulnerabilities, the CVEs, across all accounts in an AWS organization. The enterprises I work for typically have many accounts in their organization, such as thousands of accounts where I am at the moment. It is a way to gather the vulnerabilities that are present on EC2 instances, container images, and Lambda functions.

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DragosCernat

Information Security Architect at WSP

Has significantly improved proactive monitoring through automated asset discovery and seamless integration with cloud environments

Making the system smarter would be beneficial. Adding modules for integration with AWS and Azure would be helpful. Adding capabilities for the scanner to automatically pick up changes and add assets automatically would be valuable. When discussing a big company, it is mandatory to have tools that will assist us rather than waiting for manual input to add hosts. Adding assets manually is prone to mistakes. Humans might forget to add an asset or make errors when adding multiple assets. Taking the human element out of the context and making it more streamlined is the future for security. The human should be involved where expertise is needed, such as analysis and decision-making. Currently, with resource constraints, we need tools to collect and aggregate data, eliminate false positives as much as possible, and present relevant information to employees for action.

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

"Qualys TotalCloud is an excellent platform, and the beauty of the platform is that we can get all the vulnerabilities, see all the reports in a single dashboard, view them segregated, and easily learn about critical, high, and medium findings with appropriately provided remediation steps."

"If I had to say something positive about the product that brings me the biggest benefit, I would say it has accurate reports, gets new update CVEs, zero-day attack detection, and is easy to manage with its GUI."

"Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted my organization by providing visibility into the environment."

"Qualys TotalCloud has improved our security posture."

"Multi-cloud visibility saves time and makes things easier, as we can also have comparability to see what configuration differences have been made from cloud to cloud."

"TruRisk Insights is the most important innovation they've released this year."

"The biggest strengths of Qualys TotalCloud are that it is pretty good at cloud visibility, has easy integration, and also has multi-cloud compatibility."

"TotalCloud has been excellent in providing us with immediate access to all the products and features we need, such as CSPM, TruRisk Insights, and compliance reports, including CIS and HIPAA."

More Qualys TotalCloud pros

"The integration of Amazon Inspector with other AWS services has enhanced our security. Security Hub is a major asset because it allows us to centralize data from various AWS services. We can integrate third-party tools as well. It is just a single-click option."

"Amazon Inspector is highly stable, rated ten out of ten, and this stability impacts business security and administration positively."

"The most valuable feature of Amazon Inspector is the categorization of findings, which filters vulnerabilities by instance, container image, container repository, and Lambda function."

"The findings dashboards are neat and easy to understand, offering clear demarcations for different types of findings and detailed insights into specific vulnerabilities and their associated instances. It is not a place where everything is dumped together. It offers an easy-to-understand layout."

"The vulnerability discovery is valuable, and they also rank those vulnerabilities for you. So, you could rapidly attack some of the higher, severe vulnerabilities as they pop up, if they do pop up."

"The assessment reports provided by Amazon Inspector have helped me in identifying security vulnerabilities in my cloud applications by giving us a nicely designed dashboard that provides all the security information we need to work on remediation."

"The scalability of the solution itself is unparalleled."

"It is scanning the whole repository for any sort of vulnerabilities, so it allows us to be more confident in our DevSecOps and not put a lot of folks or attention to it."

More Amazon Inspector pros

"The solution’s vulnerability management feature has helped us identify and mitigate risks well."

"The product's deployment phase is easy."

"Element is precisely what we needed for close to real-time external surface monitoring, and the automatic integration capabilities, particularly with DNS, Azure, and AWS, are extremely valuable."

"Tenable Cloud Security has positively impacted my organization with risk reduction and compliance."

"If you have multi-cloud tenancy using AWS and Azure, you can have a single dashboard where you can onboard all the cloud infrastructure and have visibility into it."

"Scanning and reporting are the most valuable features of Tenable Cloud Security"

"Ermetic can provide super visibility for our cloud environment (we are using AWS), the dashboard is simple to use, the findings provide all of the information you require, it provides detection and remediation, and creating a Jira ticket from a finding is just one click away."

"The key benefit lies in having the largest and most up-to-date database. When it comes to using any Tenable product, it excels in finding vulnerabilities and providing analytics."

More Tenable Cloud Security pros

Cons

"Enhancing clarity regarding its compliance capabilities would be beneficial, as the current scope is limited in geographic coverage."

"I chose a rating of nine out of ten because there is a complex interface that sometimes overwhelms new engineers."

"It is already perfect, but they can bring some newer dashboards and customization options for the dashboard. It would be great to be able to include on-prem assets on the dashboard."

"The areas in the solution that have room for improvement include the UI/UX design, which should be improved, and they should integrate more artificial intelligence into the product."

"The response part of the Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) module can be improved."

"Qualys TotalCloud needs to enhance its scanning capabilities in the IP domain, as it currently lacks the functionality to resolve IPs to their corresponding domain names."

"I think Qualys TotalCloud needs to improve its handling of zero-day vulnerabilities and supply chain management because modern ransomware attacks not only target prime critical infrastructures but also the supply chain system."

"The improvement needed in Qualys TotalCloud is mainly in the artificial intelligence automation agents, where we can customize and create what meets our needs, not necessarily having to use those provided in the tool."

More Qualys TotalCloud cons

"It has automated vulnerability assessment, yet I seek more flexibility in defining custom vulnerability checks tailored to my needs, which is more difficult."

"There isn't too much to improve right now. Scanning on demand or as a part of the pipeline versus a post pipeline solution would be good, but it is not a deal breaker by any means."

"One area for improvement in Amazon Inspector is the automation aspect."

"There is room for improvement in the scanning capabilities. I'd like to see broader coverage in terms of the vulnerabilities detected."

"The other point is that the reporting features of Inspector need improvement. For example, I am in an organization with millions of CVEs, and getting an overview of all this is challenging."

"The false positive rate of Amazon Inspector is a little high, and it is not covering all different applications and scanning."

"There are challenges associated with the interdependencies in AWS services, like requiring an Active Directory for other services, resulting in additional charges."

"It has a limited scope. So, AWS Inspector primarily focuses on the security of the EC2 instance. So, if your architecture includes other AWS services, then you may need to use additional tools for your comprehensive security assessment. So that is one con. Another is, like, we have a dependency on agents."

More Amazon Inspector cons

"The product must provide more features."

"Tenable needs to offer a patch-based solution since it is an area where the tool lacks a bit."

"Due to its robust nature, the platform's adoption can be overwhelming initially. However, once organizations start using it, they tend to get used to it. I haven't had much direct interaction with the support team, but some partners have reported a desire for better support for the product."

"We still maintain Tenable Cloud Security but have reduced the number of licenses. We now use it occasionally to validate specific items rather than monitoring the entire surface, for which we use Element."

"If Tenable Cloud Security offers a complete Cnapp solution with CWP, CIEM, and Waap security, it will be able to compete with other competitors."

"There is a need for the support team to improve their response time since it is one of the areas where the product's technical team has certain shortcomings."

"Ermetic needs to improve its security scanning. I would like to see more dynamic graphical forms."

"I do think there might be room for more integrations. This could allow for further customization and flexibility, essentially offering different functionality options to accommodate various budgets."

More Tenable Cloud Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is high, but it meets our organizational needs."

"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers cost-effective licensing flexibility."

"Its price seems higher compared to other tools, but it is worth it. If they could adjust the pricing and make it comparable with other tools, that would be great."

"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."

"While Qualys TotalCloud's pricing is currently acceptable, it is becoming increasingly expensive and may soon be considered overpriced."

"I am not sure about the pricing. From what I understand, it is a bit on the higher side, but I do not have the exact numbers."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers competitive pricing given its comprehensive suite of features, including integration, assessment, remediation, and detection capabilities, all within a single platform."

More Qualys TotalCloud pricing and cost advice

"It is scaled as you go. There are probably a certain number of scans per month, and there are tiers. If you're under a certain tier, it is free. The second level is pennies, and then all the way up to like a million. So, it has a tiered pricing program. They're pretty good with your initial scanning, and there is room to scale based on being affordable, but it is fairly cheap. There are no additional costs. They pretty much think about it as a pay-per-scan type model."

"The lowest cost would be around $10 for a few small accounts, however, for thousands of accounts, it could be around $5000 to $6000 dollars per month."

"The pricing is very transparent and clear."

"It's priced according to market standards for its services."

"There is a need to opt for a subscription-based pricing model to use Tenable Cloud Security. I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"The tool's pricing is fair."

"The tool's price is good compared to other brands. The tool's subscription is for a year."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

18%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	38

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys TotalCloud?

I was not involved in pricing, setup cost, and licensing, but I can say that the setup was fast, within a quarter, an...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?

In terms of improvements, the features we are using in Qualys TotalCloud are working in the best optimal way, and I d...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?

I have been using Qualys TotalCloud for the last eight months to scan the hardware and the virtual devices in our inf...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Inspector?

I am not honestly sure about the pricing side of Amazon Inspector, but that is taken care of by a separate team. I be...

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What needs improvement with Amazon Inspector?

They might launch support for third-party environments in the next version regarding the best features in Amazon Insp...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Amazon Inspector?

I mostly use Amazon Inspector for vulnerability scanning on AWS native applications. For hybrid applications, we have...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tenable Cloud Security?

Making the system smarter would be beneficial. Adding modules for integration with AWS and Azure would be helpful. Ad...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Tenable Cloud Security?

We had other solutions that we used. One solution was that we did not have something exactly similar to what Element ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Ermetic CSPM?

I wasn't involved with the pricing, setup cost and licensing for Tenable Cloud Security.

See all answers

Comparisons

Wiz vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 11% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 7% of the time

JupiterOne vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 6% of the time

Orca Security vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 6% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 5% of the time

More Qualys TotalCloud Competitors

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 9% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 9% of the time

Qualys CyberSecurity Asset Management vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 7% of the time

Rapid7 Metasploit vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 7% of the time

Qualys Exposure Management vs Amazon Inspector

Compared 3% of the time

More Amazon Inspector Competitors

Wiz vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 7% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 6% of the time

Orca Security vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 5% of the time

Plerion vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 5% of the time

Sonrai Security vs Tenable Cloud Security

Compared 5% of the time

More Tenable Cloud Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys TotalCloud

October 2026

Download Qualys TotalCloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Inspector

October 2026

Download Amazon Inspector product report

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Cloud Security

September 2026

Download Tenable Cloud Security product report

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan

No data available

Ermetic, Ermetic Identity Governance for AWS

Overview

Qualys TotalCloud enhances security posture across cloud environments with continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, and risk visualization, ensuring efficient threat assessment and automated remediation for improved cyber risk reduction.

Qualys TotalCloud offers a robust suite of security tools essential for organizations managing multi-cloud infrastructures. By integrating cloud accounts and automating workflows, it supports AWS, Azure, and GCP, offering comprehensive vulnerability management and zero-day detection. The platform's user-friendly design, combined with its extensive risk management and unified threat assessment capabilities, enables organizations to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities effectively. TruRisk Insights provides clear insights on cyber risks, while the automation options streamline patch management and scanning processes. API integration across IaaS and SaaS environments further enhances resource allocation efficiency and saves time, addressing misconfigurations across cloud environments.

What are the most important features of Qualys TotalCloud?

Accurate Vulnerability Reports: Delivers precise and actionable insights for risk mitigation.
Zero-Day Detection: Identifies and addresses zero-day vulnerabilities proactively.
Unified Threat Assessment: Offers comprehensive evaluation of threats across the environment.
Extensive Risk Management: Manages risks effectively with advanced insights and prioritization.
Continuous Monitoring: Provides non-stop surveillance for vulnerabilities and threats.
Cloud-Native Automation: Streamlines processes and reduces manual efforts using automation.
FlexScan for Internet-Facing VMs: Scans external VMs efficiently to detect vulnerabilities.
Dashboard Risk Visualization: Clear visualization helps prioritize vulnerabilities.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Improved Security Posture: Enhances threat detection and response across clouds.
Time Savings: Automation reduces time spent on manual vulnerability management.
Resource Efficiency: Better allocation of resources through streamlined workflows.
Enhanced Risk Prioritization: Focus on critical vulnerabilities for effective mitigation.
Integrated Cloud Accounts: Facilitates seamless cloud management and security.

Qualys TotalCloud is deployed in sectors needing rigorous vulnerability management, such as finance and healthcare. Companies utilize it to secure multi-cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and GCP, focus on compliance, and integrate security into CI/CD pipelines to detect and remedy threats pre-deployment.

Qualys

Amazon Inspector offers automated vulnerability detection, scanning AWS workloads and recommending remediation, ensuring enhanced security without constant supervision.

Amazon Inspector provides advanced automated vulnerability assessments, specifically designed for AWS environments. It scans EC2 instances, ECR, and container images for vulnerabilities, ranking them by priority. With capabilities like integration with CloudTrail and CloudWatch, adherence to compliance benchmarks, and a comprehensive view for diverse resources, it supports continuous detection and detailed reporting. Users can schedule regular scans, maintaining strong security oversight. Current feedback highlights a need for improved scanning of EBS, S3, and EFS, as well as expanded databases and better patch integration.

What features make Amazon Inspector stand out?

Automated Vulnerability Assessments: Detects and prioritizes vulnerabilities in AWS workloads.
Continuous Detection: Keeps an eye on EC2, ECR, and container images for ongoing risk management.
Integration Capabilities: Works with CloudTrail and CloudWatch to centralize oversight and alerts.
Compliance Adherence: Aligns with industry benchmarks for strengthened regulatory compliance.
Detailed Reporting: Provides comprehensive reports with findings and CVEs.

What benefits do users gain from Amazon Inspector?

Enhanced Security: Automates vulnerability detection, reducing manual efforts.
Efficiency: Identifies and prioritizes threats, streamlining resource allocation.
Comprehensive Oversight: Detailed reports improve understanding and response strategies.
Regulatory Compliance: Aligns with compliance standards, aiding legal adherence.

Amazon Inspector is utilized across industries, including finance, healthcare, and tech, assisting with robust security management in cloud-native environments. By integrating with services like Security Hub and SIEM, businesses maintain compliance and streamline alert management. This solution supports broader security frameworks, often paired with third-party tools to enhance protection strategies.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Tenable Cloud Security is a comprehensive solution designed to help organizations secure their cloud environments across various platforms, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. It offers continuous visibility, compliance management, and threat detection to ensure that cloud infrastructure and applications are protected from vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.

Tenable Cloud Security exemplifies a comprehensive Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) by providing a unified solution that covers the entire cloud security lifecycle, from development to runtime. This platform is designed to address vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, threats, and compliance risks across multi-cloud environments, making it an essential tool for organizations adopting cloud-native architectures. In practice, Tenable Cloud Security integrates security into the development process through its shift-left approach, particularly with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) security. This ensures that security measures are embedded early in the development lifecycle, allowing teams to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities before they reach production. Once in production, the platform continues to provide real-time visibility into cloud environments, enabling continuous monitoring and proactive threat detection.

The solution's comprehensive protection spans various aspects of cloud security, including the identification and remediation of misconfigurations, automated compliance management, and advanced threat intelligence. By automating these processes, Tenable Cloud Security reduces the manual effort required to manage cloud security, freeing up resources for more strategic initiatives.

What are the key features of Tenable Cloud Security?

Unified Platform: Covers the entire cloud security lifecycle, from development to runtime, providing comprehensive protection.
Shift-Left Approach with IaC Security: Integrates security early in the development process, ensuring that vulnerabilities are caught and remediated before deployment.
Continuous Monitoring: Offers real-time visibility and monitoring of cloud environments, enabling proactive threat detection and response.
Automation: Streamlines security operations, reducing the need for manual intervention and increasing operational efficiency.
Comprehensive Threat and Compliance Management: Identifies and mitigates vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance risks across multi-cloud environments.

What are the benefits of using Tenable Cloud Security?

Improved Security Posture: Early detection and remediation of vulnerabilities lead to a stronger overall security posture.
Operational Efficiency: Automation reduces the workload on security teams, allowing them to focus on higher-priority tasks.
Risk Reduction: Proactively identifies and addresses risks before they impact production environments.
Simplified Compliance: Helps organizations meet and maintain compliance with industry standards, reducing the complexity and cost of audits.

Tenable Cloud Security is particularly valuable in industries with stringent regulatory requirements, such as finance, healthcare, and retail. For example, in the financial sector, it helps organizations ensure compliance with regulations like PCI-DSS while safeguarding sensitive data across cloud environments.

In summary, Tenable Cloud Security is a robust CNAPP solution that integrates security throughout the cloud lifecycle, providing comprehensive protection and operational efficiency for cloud-native environments.

Tenable

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

betterment, caplinked, flatiron, university of nutri dame

Tyler Technologies, Bilfinger, BarkBox, MongoDB, airSlate, Adama, Latch, Cloudinary, Riskified, AppsFlyer, IntelyCare, Aidoc, 42Dot, and more.

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

September 2026

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Find out what your peers are saying about Wiz, Qualys, Tenable and others in Vulnerability Management. Updated: September 2026.

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