Qualys VMDR vs Rapid7 Metasploit vs Tenable Security Center comparison

Qualys and Rapid7 are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Qualys is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.6, while Rapid7 is ranked #18 with an average rating of 9.0. Qualys holds a 4.9% mindshare in VM, compared to Rapid7’s 1.7% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Qualys users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Rapid7 users who would recommend it.

Qualys VMDR

Read 96 Qualys VMDR reviews

12,908 Views
8,648 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Rapid7 Metasploit

Read 22 Rapid7 Metasploit reviews

3,613 Views
3,107 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Tenable Security Center

Read 56 Tenable Security Center reviews

7,756 Views
5,662 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Qualys VMDR

Rapid7 Metasploit

Tenable Security Center

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Qualys VMDR, Rapid7 Metasploit, and Tenable Security Center based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

February 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 885,444 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:

ROI

Sentiment score

7.0

Qualys VMDR enhances ROI by streamlining management, improving compliance, reducing vulnerabilities, saving time, and minimizing breaches effectively.

Sentiment score

4.3

Rapid7 Metasploit efficiently identifies vulnerabilities and saves costs but is average for experienced users or those using Qualys/Nessus.

Sentiment score

6.5

Tenable Security Center boosts ROI by minimizing costs, enhancing security, reducing manpower needs, and preventing costly data breaches.

We saw a return on investment through significant savings in time, money, and resources.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Metasploit has helped save time, especially with testing websites or VIPD projects.

MuhammadMurtaza

Information security engineer at Cyberisk

The ROI can be very rapid for organizations using vulnerability assessment for the first time.

Nuki Agustino Wono

Senior Security Consultant at ITSEC Asia

For more quotes and insights, download the Rapid7 Metasploit report

If we cannot adjust how to operate the solution, then it becomes very difficult, so hearing and initial tuning are very important.

Hiroshi Watanabe

Marketing Expert at J's communication

Through the use of Tenable Security Center, my clients achieve more efficient patching and gain visibility and understanding of security operations, leading to improved resilience and infrastructure insight.

OndrejKOVAC

Solution engineer at EXPERTience

For more quotes and insights, download the Tenable Security Center report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.6

Qualys VMDR support is responsive and helpful, but users note occasional delays and suggest better response time and depth.

Sentiment score

5.9

Rapid7 Metasploit support has mixed reviews, with helpful resources but varying response times and effectiveness compared to Cisco.

Sentiment score

7.4

Tenable Security Center customer support is responsive and knowledgeable, with U.S. support rated higher than the European counterpart.

We usually get on calls with tech support, and they are very helpful.

reviewer2588394

Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

The response time takes a while.

reviewer2592618

Security Engineer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

The technical support provided by Qualys is pretty good.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Rapid7 sometimes struggles with queries from non-security people, whereas Tenable is more patient.

Nuki Agustino Wono

Senior Security Consultant at ITSEC Asia

The customer support is excellent

Mani Bommisetty

Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Rapid7 Metasploit report

Longer response times and less thorough assistance.

OndrejKOVAC

Solution engineer at EXPERTience

They are helpful and were very helpful to us, coordinating with us on several issues.

reviewer1534134

Head of Information Security at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Tenable Security Center report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.9

Qualys VMDR is highly scalable, supporting numerous assets efficiently with customizable management and seamless cloud-based architecture.

Sentiment score

5.1

Rapid7 Metasploit's scalability opinions vary, some see limitations, others appreciate flexibility; performance varies by project and infrastructure.

Sentiment score

8.0

Tenable Security Center is praised for its seamless scalability, adaptability, and integration, accommodating diverse organizational needs and sizes effectively.

Scalability depends on the license and the number of assets being monitored.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Qualys VMDR can handle scalability, although increasing the inventory can raise the licensing costs.

Ankesh Raj

Information Security Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Qualys VMDR's scalability is good, and the customer support is good.

reviewer2753559

Cyber Security Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Metasploit can handle big projects and is already prepared for them.

MuhammadMurtaza

Information security engineer at Cyberisk

Rapid7 Metasploit is highly scalable.

Mani Bommisetty

Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Rapid7 Metasploit has limited scalability based on my experience, as the customer receives the full functionality of the product with the license.

reviewer1247523

Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Rapid7 Metasploit report

I can scale it extensively with the use of agents, allowing scanning in restrictive environments and loosely connected devices.

OndrejKOVAC

Solution engineer at EXPERTience

Scalability is a bit limited with Tenable Security Center.

Kevin Mwangi

Cyber Security Consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Tenable Security Center report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

7.9

Qualys VMDR is highly stable, reliable, and effective, with minimal downtime and challenges mostly due to user-side issues.

Sentiment score

7.8

Rapid7 Metasploit's stability is highly praised, with recent versions improving and rated 8-9/10, despite occasional network issues.

Sentiment score

8.0

Tenable Security Center is highly stable and reliable, handling large tasks efficiently with users rating its stability highly.

Qualys VMDR is stable.

reviewer2753559

Cyber Security Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

I have never faced any technical issues or downtimes.

MuhammadMurtaza

Information security engineer at Cyberisk

I find Metasploit to be very stable, and I would rate its stability as a nine out of ten.

Nuki Agustino Wono

Senior Security Consultant at ITSEC Asia

For more quotes and insights, download the Rapid7 Metasploit report

The stability of the solution is outstanding.

OndrejKOVAC

Solution engineer at EXPERTience

For more quotes and insights, download the Tenable Security Center report

Room For Improvement

Qualys VMDR needs improved support, efficient reporting, UI, asset notifications, reduced tool dependency, better pricing, and comprehensive resources.

Rapid7 Metasploit needs faster updates, improved tools integration, better UI, enhanced features, and updated evasion capabilities for modern defenses.

Users desire improved reporting, third-party integration, interface design, vulnerability handling, web scanning, pricing, support, and user-friendly features.

It does not automate patching unless the patch management module is purchased separately.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

If AI features were integrated, it could enhance the capabilities significantly.

Ankesh Raj

Information Security Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

One area where Qualys VMDR can be improved is the missing feature for deploying agents for over 1,000 assets, as we need to do it manually.

reviewer2753559

Cyber Security Solution Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

While you can check the vulnerability, and the system will tell you there is no vulnerability, usually, a human can change one, two, or three parameters and using the same technique and the same scripts can break the system.

reviewer1247523

Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

The database is not always updated with the latest vulnerabilities or zero-day exploits.

MuhammadMurtaza

Information security engineer at Cyberisk

The time taken to fetch reports based on the number of events can be extensive.

Mani Bommisetty

Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Rapid7 Metasploit report

It's important for Tenable to catch up on testing capabilities that are present in solutions like Qualys.

Kevin Mwangi

Cyber Security Consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

The reports and plugins for reports and scans could benefit from enhancements.

MB24

IT Helpdesk at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

Translating reports into European languages is especially relevant in Central Eastern Europe, where clients often require reports in local languages.

OndrejKOVAC

Solution engineer at EXPERTience

For more quotes and insights, download the Tenable Security Center report

Setup Cost

Qualys VMDR pricing is high for small businesses but offers flexibility, discounts, and comprehensive features for larger enterprises.

Rapid7 Metasploit's pricing ranges from free to $20,000, with varied opinions on its affordability compared to competitors.

Tenable Security Center is costly per asset, with options including subscription and perpetual licenses, generally pricier than competitors.

I would rate the pricing between seven to eight out of ten.

Shubhajit Saha

System Admin at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

I have a notion that Qualys might be more expensive than Rapid7.

Ankesh Raj

Information Security Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Qualys offers better pricing and is feature-packed compared to other tools.

reviewer2588394

Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

The cost is approximately $15 per device.

Mani Bommisetty

Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Metasploit is cheaper than Nessus and offers a more robust community edition that provides a good experience for studying Metasploit.

Nuki Agustino Wono

Senior Security Consultant at ITSEC Asia

After that, they usually purchase the commercial part of the solution due to its deep integration with InsightVM.

reviewer1247523

Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Rapid7 Metasploit report

The product is somewhat pricey, reflecting its valuable features and status as a high-quality solution in the vulnerability management market.

MB24

IT Helpdesk at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

Tenable Security Center is quite expensive, particularly for the CEE region, causing us to lose cases due to its pricing.

OndrejKOVAC

Solution engineer at EXPERTience

The price of Tenable Security Center is not so high; it's relatively a cheaper solution.

Hiroshi Watanabe

Marketing Expert at J's communication

For more quotes and insights, download the Tenable Security Center report

Valuable Features

Qualys VMDR offers user-friendly management, real-time insights, and powerful integrations, significantly improving vulnerability prioritization and remediation efficiency.

Rapid7 Metasploit excels in penetration testing with strong integration, comprehensive features, and efficient management in a unified platform.

Tenable Security Center offers comprehensive vulnerability management with intuitive tools, strong integration, and flexible compliance for effective threat detection.

The prioritization of vulnerabilities has improved our remediation efforts by around thirty to thirty-five percent.

reviewer2588394

Works at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees

It impacts my workflow overall, with the patch management features as it has the missing patches listed in detail, making it easier to get a comprehensive report and providing some dashboards that offer visual representation.

Nabanita Roy

JMS, RPSG Ventures Limited at RP Sanjiv Goenka Group

Qualys VMDR's continuous monitoring capabilities help us respond to emergent threats by enabling my team to reach out to the security engineers whenever there is any detection of a vulnerability, informing them about it, and creating an incident.

Vaibhav Ghule

Soc Lead & Edr Administration at Persistent Systems

For more quotes and insights, download the Qualys VMDR report

Rapid7 offers comprehensive features within one platform, eliminating the need to integrate multiple tools to see all alerts in one place.

Mani Bommisetty

Infrastructure patching Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

InsightVM searches for potential threats and vulnerabilities of the infrastructure, and after that, Rapid7 Metasploit validates whether we can break the system using this vulnerability or threat, serving as a validator component of the InsightVM solution.

reviewer1247523

Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

The most valuable features of Metasploit include its powerful capabilities for exploitation and scanning.

MuhammadMurtaza

Information security engineer at Cyberisk

For more quotes and insights, download the Rapid7 Metasploit report

We obtained good reports showing when patches were closed and the details of each patch, including who executed it and everything related to the patching process until it was closed.

reviewer1534134

Head of Information Security at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

Tenable Security Center provides an overall score of vulnerabilities, comparing an organization with others in the same industry.

MB24

IT Helpdesk at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

The most effective feature of Tenable Security Center for detecting vulnerabilities is its capability for critical mapping.

Kevin Mwangi

Cyber Security Consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Tenable Security Center report

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Vulnerability Management category, the mindshare of Qualys VMDR is 4.9%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 Metasploit is 1.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable Security Center is 3.1%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qualys VMDR	4.9%
Tenable Security Center	3.1%
Rapid7 Metasploit	1.7%
Other	90.3%

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Vaibhav Ghule

Soc Lead & Edr Administration at Persistent Systems

Continuous risk-based monitoring has strengthened incident response and vulnerability prioritization

I haven't explored Qualys VMDR's vulnerability lifecycle automation yet. One of my analysts mentioned that queries lack grouping operators in Qualys VMDR. From my experience, I would appreciate improvements in the query options in Qualys VMDR, specifically in the query-building process where I would need more features and operators. Additionally, we have been facing issues with Qualys on the cloud level. We cannot download the configuration profile from the cloud agent, and it is showing a pending action for download. During 2025, we noticed outages of Qualys a couple of times. I want to mention that there is an issue with receiving timely RCA deliveries. While this is not necessarily about the tool, it relates to support. The support has not been very responsive, and we are receiving RCAs a little delayed whenever we raise support cases or communicate with the TAMs. Additionally, the UI has a slight latency, which I and my team have experienced. They have also reported this latency issue when navigating through different pages.

Read full review

reviewer1247523

Head of Sales Services Department at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

Extensive exploit database and seamless integration enhance penetration testing capabilities

The automated approach in the audits or in the hacking testing with Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved because even the same attack you provide today will go in different ways another day. I prefer when the auditor or pen-tester provides the attack in a non-automated mode. For some, it might be a valuable option, but I'm not sure it's valuable for us, as after the attack has been provided, we should release a report detailing how it transpired and what the customer should improve to block this way of attack. If the attack was provided in an automated mode, you cannot receive sufficient information that helps with this final report for the customer. While you can check the vulnerability, and the system will tell you there is no vulnerability, usually, a human can change one, two, or three parameters and using the same technique and the same scripts can break the system. Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved in areas concerning the experience with finding particular scripts pre-installed in the solution. Customers, administrators, and pen-testers spend considerable time trying to locate the specific component they need by the name of the technique or the name of the attack, so any improvements in making it easier to find those predefined components by name or timeframe would be beneficial. Search filters could be a correct improvement.

Read full review

reviewer1534134

Head of Information Security at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees

Centralized analytics have strengthened patch visibility and support efficient regulatory reporting

From my experience, I assess the product's analytics capabilities as successful. It helped us significantly with patching and managing the risk of the patching process across all our environments, including network devices with Windows and Unix systems. The product covered several environments and gave us exactly what we needed in our environment. Tenable Security Center's centralized platform helped with risk assessment and management across our IT environments. It covered the patching process, and we previously faced many issues regarding how to patch different environments, how to monitor the patching process, and whether it was successful or not. We obtained good reports showing when patches were closed and the details of each patch, including who executed it and everything related to the patching process until it was closed. This gave us good details about the process which helped us significantly in our reporting and even in audits, whether internal or external. We learned how to close audit issues safely and successfully. We used the dashboards for real-time threat insights and extracted several dashboards from Tenable Security Center. We use these dashboards in our cybersecurity dashboard and committees that we have. These dashboards are part of our committees, especially the cybersecurity committee and other committees that we attend.

Read full review

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Vulnerability Management solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	70

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	22
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	27

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Qualys VMDR?

I like that we have many scanners and channels that don't overload. It helps us scan and track easily. Also, the tagg...

See all answers

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

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that we can consider both time and money saved.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Qualys VMDR?

I haven't explored Qualys VMDR's vulnerability lifecycle automation yet. One of my analysts mentioned that queries la...

See all answers

What do you like most about Rapid7 Metasploit?

I use Rapid7 Metasploit for payload generation and Post-Exploitation.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rapid7 Metasploit?

The pricing of Rapid7 Metasploit is quite affordable. It has a free version that many customers start with, and after...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rapid7 Metasploit?

The automated approach in the audits or in the hacking testing with Rapid7 Metasploit could be improved because even ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Tenable SC?

The tool's dashboard and reporting capabilities match our company's needs since we are able to modify the basic view ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Tenable SC?

The price of Tenable Security Center is not so high; it's relatively a cheaper solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tenable SC?

We did conduct a long implementation which relates to what I think can be improved about Tenable Security Center. In ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 8% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 4% of the time

Wiz vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 3% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Qualys VMDR

Compared 2% of the time

More Qualys VMDR Competitors

Tenable Nessus vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 9% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 7% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 6% of the time

PortSwigger Burp Suite Enterprise Edition vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 6% of the time

Automox vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 4% of the time

More Rapid7 Metasploit Competitors

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 10% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 7% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 5% of the time

The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 4% of the time

Acunetix vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 1% of the time

More Tenable Security Center Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys VMDR

March 2026

Download Qualys VMDR product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit

March 2026

Download Rapid7 Metasploit product report

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Security Center

March 2026

Download Tenable Security Center product report

Also Known As

Qualys VM, QualysGuard VM, Qualys Asset Inventory, Qualys Container Security

Metasploit

Tenable.sc, Tenable Unified Security, Tenable SecurityCenter

Overview

Vulnerability Management, Detection, and Response (VMDR) is a cornerstone product of the Qualys TruRisk Platform and a global leader in the enterprise-grade vulnerability management (VM) vendor space. With VMDR, enterprises are empowered with visibility and insight into cyber risk exposure - making it easy to prioritize vulnerabilities, assets, or groups of assets based on business risk. Security teams can take action to mitigate risk, helping the business measure their actual risk exposure over time.

Qualys VMDR offers an all-inclusive risk-based vulnerability management solution to prioritize vulnerabilities and assets based on risk and business criticality. VMDR seamlessly integrates with configuration management databases (CMDB), Qualys Patch Management, Custom Assessment and Remediation (CAR), Qualys TotalCloud and other Qualys and non-Qualys solutions to facilitate vulnerability detection and remediation across the entire enterprise.

With VMDR, users are empowered with actionable risk insights that translate vulnerabilities and exploits into optimized remediation actions based on business impact. Qualys customers can now aggregate and orchestrate data from the Qualys Threat Library, 25+ threat intelligence feeds, and third-party security and IT solutions, empowering organizations to measure, communicate, and eliminate risk across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments.

Qualys

Attackers are always developing new exploits and attack methods—Metasploit penetration testing software helps you use their own weapons against them. Utilizing an ever-growing database of exploits, you can safely simulate real-world attacks on your network to train your security team to spot and stop the real thing.

Rapid7

Get a risk-based view of your IT, security and compliance posture so you can quickly identify, investigate and prioritize your most critical assets and vulnerabilities.

Managed on-premises and powered by Nessus technology, the Tenable Security Center (formerly Tenable.sc) suite of products provides the industry’s most comprehensive vulnerability coverage with real-time continuous assessment of your network. It’s your complete end-to-end vulnerability management solution.

Tenable

Sample Customers

Agrokor Group, American Specialty Health, American State Bank, Arval, Life:), Axway, Bank of the West, Blueport Commerce, BSkyB, Brinks, CaixaBank, Cartagena, Catholic Health System, CEC Bank, Cegedim, CIGNA, Clickability, Colby-Sawyer College, Commercial Bank of Dubai, University of Utah, eBay Inc., ING Singapore, National Theatre, OTP Bank, Sodexo, WebEx

City of Corpus Christi, Diebold, Lumenate, Nebraska Public Power District, Prairie North Regional Health, Apptio, Automation Direct, Bob's Stores, Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions, Carnegie Mellon University

IBM, Sempra Energy, Microsoft, Apple, Adidas, Union Pacific

Buyer's Guide

Vulnerability Management

February 2026

Download Free Report

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

DOWNLOAD NOW

885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.