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HackerOne vs Tenable Nessus comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

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

Zafran Security
Sponsored
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
18th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (2nd)
HackerOne
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
40th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Application Security Tools (29th), Bug Bounty Platforms (1st), Penetration Testing Services (1st), Attack Surface Management (ASM) (15th)
Tenable Nessus
Ranking in Vulnerability Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Zafran Security is 0.8%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HackerOne is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable Nessus is 8.8%, down from 13.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini - PeerSpot reviewer
Weekly insights and risk analysis facilitate informed security decisions
I appreciate the weekly insights Zafran provides, which include critical topics for networks and IT security, allowing us to evaluate which insights apply to our environment. The organization score feature is valuable to keep the leadership team updated on how our infrastructure fares security-wise. The applicable risk level versus base risk level feature is beneficial because prior to Zafran, we only used the base risk level, but now understand that risk depends on the asset itself. Zafran is an excellent tool.
Faizan Nehal - PeerSpot reviewer
Platform supports skill development with effective vulnerability reporting
Everything has become slower on HackerOne. I have noticed that older researchers receive all the private invites while newer ones receive fewer. The same goes for real-life events, where the same people are invited repeatedly. There are no clear guidelines for being invited to programs and conferences, and the process for receiving invitations appears arbitrary.
HarshBhardiya - PeerSpot reviewer
Provided increased visibility across the organization's servers
The user interface of Tenable Nessus feels outdated and could be more user-friendly. Additionally, the documentation is not well-organized, which can be confusing when searching for solutions or specific information related to Tenable Nessus Professional. The reporting feature could be improved by allowing users to create their own templates instead of relying on predefined ones.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."
"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."
"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."
"Zafran is an excellent tool."
"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."
"It helps me to get new sales, profits, and other benefits."
"Apart from getting all the bug bounty opportunities, we also get the chance to practice in a safe environment, like a demo setup. These features are great for beginners who want to explore bug bounties in the future."
"HackerOne is larger than WebCloud and has a better reputation than BugCloud, which results in a smoother process."
"The most valuable feature of HackerOne is its variety of programs. These programs provide depth into various areas, such as mobile, API, and websites."
"HackerOne is larger than WebCloud and has a better reputation than BugCloud, which results in a smoother process."
"The most valuable feature of Tenable Nessus is real-time monitoring."
"It allows me to prioritize efforts and utilize effective technical resources."
"The most valuable feature is how it scanned and detected through its database to let us know exactly what fixes we needed to put in place for the vulnerabilities. It detects and it also gives you the way to fix it."
"I like this solution because it is complete. It can scan and check many types of vulnerabilities. It can also check for compliance."
"The solution is easy to understand for users because instructions are included on the platform."
"I like its ease of use. It has the script that is pre-built in it, and you just got to know which ones you're looking for."
"The most valuable feature of Tenable Nessus is the self-updating engine."
"Tenable Nessus has provided increased visibility across the organization's servers."
 

Cons

"I think the ability to have some enhanced reporting capabilities is something they can improve on, as they have good reports but we have asked for some specific reporting enhancements."
"The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvements."
"Initially, we were somewhat concerned about the scalability of Zafran due to our large asset count and the substantial amount of information we needed to process."
"One issue I've experienced is traffic. Many people try to participate when an opportunity with a bounty of around 1,000-15,000 dollars comes up. In this case, the first person to report the vulnerability gets the bounty. If a second person reports the same vulnerability, they are marked as duplicated instead of receiving some recognition. The second person also invested time finding the issue, so I think this can be improved."
"Everything has become slower on HackerOne."
"Response time can be improved. The HackerOne Trust team can be slow to respond sometimes. They're not using AI, which could help reduce the number of duplicate reports."
"The ability to view the conversation between the triagers and the programs will be really good."
"Everything has become slower on HackerOne. I have noticed that older researchers receive all the private invites while newer ones receive fewer."
"Pricing is one of the most important features, and it is something that they can improve on."
"Online learning could be a bit better."
"The reports are okay, but the interface is a bit difficult to navigate in some cases."
"One significant drawback we encounter is the tool's tendency to flag patched packages incorrectly. For instance, if a package is patched by Debian maintainers but not updated to a major or minor version, Nessus may still flag it as vulnerable based on its database. This discrepancy leads to false alarms and requires our developers, system admins, and DevOps teams to address them."
"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."
"We use credentialed scans. They need more permissions and more changes or settings on Windows and Linux."
"Some things in the user interface could be better. The user interface could allow more adjustments to plugins. The price could also be better."
"We'd like to see more integration potential within the solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The tool is open-source and free for bug bounty hunters."
"The solution is free."
"The cost is around $4,300 per year. Use is unlimited. You don't pay more if you want to use it for another IP."
"Its pricing is great and can't be improved. It is very cheap. It is less than 2,000 pounds a license, and you can't really ask for more. It has unlimited IPs and unlimited scans. There are no particular pricing constraints. The only additional cost is the inherent cost of the people to actually review the actual scans."
"The solution is worth the cost. It's a good investment."
"I rate the product's price seven or eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"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 okay. I would give it a seven out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive."
"The is a free version of Tenable Nessus available."
"The solution is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
19%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?
The current pricing of Zafran Security is fair overall. They were good to work with to accommodate our organization w...
What needs improvement with Zafran Security?
The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvement...
What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?
Zafran Security is helping reduce the amount of critical vulnerabilities in our environments that require prompt reme...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HackerOne?
The cost is rated as one since there is no need to pay anything, not even a fee or commission.
What needs improvement with HackerOne?
Everything has become slower on HackerOne. I have noticed that older researchers receive all the private invites whil...
What is your primary use case for HackerOne?
My use case is similar to DuckTron. The processes I use for DuckTron are exactly the same for HackerOne. Therefore, t...
How would you choose between Rapid7 InsightVM and Tenable Nessus?
You have full visibility across cloud, network, virtual, and containerized infrastructures with Rapid7 Insight VM. Yo...
What's the difference between Tenable Nessus and Tenable.io Vulnerability Management?
Tenable Nessus is a vulnerability assessment solution that is both easy to deploy and easy to manage. The design of ...
What do you like most about Tenable Nessus?
We have around 500 virtual machines. Therefore, we conduct monthly scans and open tickets for our developers to addre...
 

Also Known As

No data available
HackerOne Assets, HackerOne Pentesting Services, HackerOne Security Assessments, HackerOne Vulnerability Management
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Zenefits, Adobe, Yelp
Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University
Find out what your peers are saying about HackerOne vs. Tenable Nessus and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.