Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Tenable Nessus comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management 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 Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Tenable Nessus Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,857 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
"The solution is up-to-date and helps prevent zero-day attacks.""The solution helps identify threats and vulnerabilities.""The product’s most valuable features are compliance, recommendations, and inventories.""One valuable feature is the Microsoft Security Scorecard.""The product's stability is very high...The scalability of the product is amazing."

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"I find the features that are most valuable are the policies that help us identify the vulnerabilities. These policies are then used for scanning instabilities and then identifying the particular vulnerabilities.""The product's most valuable features are vulnerability and asset management. It can define the rules and validate the configuration.""Tenable Nessus streamlines the process of scanning for our organization.""It allows me to prioritize efforts and utilize effective technical resources.""Nessus is effortless to integrate.""The solution can scale well.""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 equipment, and appliances in our infrastructure.""The results are not that bad, but the key selling point is that it is an affordable tool set."

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Cons
"The technical support takes too much time to resolve tickets.""Integration can be improved.""It is challenging to extract and customize reports from the system.""The setup phase of the product is not that easy and needs a person to have a certain level of expertise.""The general support could be improved."

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"Tenable Nessus application device assessment is one of the top tools. However, in the application security assessment, there are other tools that provide better, and more accurate findings.""The reports are okay, but the interface is a bit difficult to navigate in some cases.""The professional version is not very scalable.""I would like to have a management option after the network scanning.""The product must be more comprehensive.""They need more flexible pricing.""Multiple user access would be an area for improvement from a user-access perspective. A role-based access control feature would be great because at present, there is a limitation with only one account. If that account gets compromised or gets locked, then we will encounter problems.""Model OS costs (and its segregation schema for individual modules)."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The product’s pricing is medium."
  • "The licensing model follows a per-user per-month structure."
  • "I rate the product's price a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
  • "The tool is a bit costly."
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  • "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: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
    22nd
    Views
    948
    Comparisons
    820
    Reviews
    4
    Average Words per Review
    353
    Rating
    8.3
    3rd
    Views
    11,726
    Comparisons
    8,496
    Reviews
    30
    Average Words per Review
    422
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    Overview

    Defender Vulnerability Management delivers asset visibility, intelligent assessments, and built-in remediation tools for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and network devices. Leveraging Microsoft threat intelligence, breach likelihood predictions, business contexts, and devices assessments, Defender Vulnerability Management rapidly and continuously prioritizes the biggest vulnerabilities on your most critical assets and provides security recommendations to mitigate risk.

    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
    Information Not Available
    Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Security Firm9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization35%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Government7%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Company Size
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise60%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise38%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise43%
    Large Enterprise41%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Tenable Nessus
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs. Tenable Nessus and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,857 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is ranked 22nd in Vulnerability Management with 5 reviews while Tenable Nessus is ranked 3rd in Vulnerability Management with 75 reviews. Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is rated 8.2, while Tenable Nessus is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management writes "The vulnerability assessment is very accurate because it runs directly into the vulnerability database". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Tenable Nessus writes "Unlimited assets for one price and quick, agentless results". Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management is most compared with Qualys VMDR, Rapid7 InsightVM, Tenable Vulnerability Management, Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel, whereas Tenable Nessus is most compared with Qualys VMDR, Rapid7 InsightVM, Tenable Security Center, Tenable Vulnerability Management and Rapid7 Metasploit. See our Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management 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.