Qualys VMDR vs Tenable Nessus comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 20, 2023

We compared Qualys VMDR and Tenable Nessus based on our users reviews in six parameters. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:

  • Ease of Deployment

    The setup process for Qualys VMDR is quick and uncomplicated, taking only a few minutes. However, setting up Qualys Container Security can be intricate and time-consuming. In contrast, Tenable Nessus is described as straightforward and effortless to set up, taking anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours.

  • Features

    Qualys VMDR is notable for its effective prioritization system, ongoing monitoring, customizable dashboard, and extensive vulnerability overview. On the other hand, Tenable Nessus excels in vulnerability assessment, reporting, and ease of use.

  • Room for Improvement

    Both Qualys VMDR and Tenable Nessus have areas that could be improved. Qualys VMDR could enhance user experience, UI design, SLA tracking, batch prioritization, integration, reporting, and dashboards. On the other hand, Tenable Nessus could improve integration, pricing, user interface, reporting, support, and learning resources.

  • ROI

    Both Qualys VMDR and Tenable Nessus provide valuable returns on investment. Qualys VMDR prioritizes the reduction of cybersecurity risks, while Tenable Nessus places emphasis on proactive vulnerability discovery and patch deployment.

  • Service and Support

    The customer service for Qualys VMDR has received both positive and negative feedback. Some customers appreciate the convenience of reaching out to a global team and the implementation of suggested improvements. However, there are concerns about the response time and the expertise of the support staff. Tenable Nessus also has a mix of reviews. Some customers find the support to be prompt and useful, while others believe that the support team could be more knowledgeable and that the solutions provided are not always effective.

Comparison Results

Based on the reviews, Qualys VMDR and Tenable Nessus have similar initial setup processes that are straightforward and easy. However, Qualys VMDR stands out for its user-friendly setup and maintenance, including automatic agent updates. On the other hand, Tenable Nessus is highly effective in vulnerability assessment and reporting, and is also praised for its affordability and scalability. Qualys VMDR is valued for its prioritization mechanism and comprehensive overview of vulnerabilities, while Tenable Nessus is commended for its real-time monitoring and self-updating engine. Customer service and support for both products have received mixed reviews, with some users finding the support teams responsive and helpful, while others had negative experiences or did not require support.

To learn more, read our detailed Qualys VMDR vs. Tenable Nessus Report (Updated: March 2023).
765,234 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
"I am impressed with the VMDR feature.""Qualys VM's most valuable feature is automatic detection.""It's stable and quite reliable.""The initial setup was good. We didn't have any problems with it.""We also like the flexibility in their licensing.""This solution gives us insight into our environment and improves our security. It helps us to maintain a good patching system whereby we know that XYZ is vulnerable within the system.""Detects new hosts along with vulnerabilities.""I like Qualys because it is a very complete product, more so than Tenable."

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"The scanning capabilities are most valuable when compared to Nessus.""Tenable Nessus streamlines the process of scanning for our organization.""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.""Nessus gives me a good preview of vulnerabilities and good suggestions for remediation. It's easy to find a description of a given vulnerability and solutions for it.""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.""Once you get past the initial implementation, the solution is very stable.""Out of the box, the product works well for us, so it's not a tool that we need to customize very much.""Security is the key number because it can start to scan with a few clicks instead of credits, which is a bit complicated. So simplicity is the first advantage. Then the generated reports are well done and easy to present to management. The quality of the scan is quite good in detecting the severity. The solution has simplicity. Also, it has frequent updates so that is also a valuable feature."

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Cons
"Qualys VMDR is basically susceptible to false positives, and false negatives.""Qualys VM should improve its methodology.""The reporting in this solution can be improved.""They have integrated with other third parties, but it is still not viable.""We are moving away from Qualys to Defender ATP because I find that Defender ATP is much better at prioritizing the vulnerabilities that I should be looking at.""They're still evolving their platform in terms of reporting capabilities.""Finding things in management can be quite difficult.""Improve the user interface."

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"They should try to create an all-in-one solution.""Tenable Nessus could improve the reporting by adding some dashboards. The reports are a hassle at this time. Tenable.io has more detailed reports. Having a better dashboard that can show where the vulnerabilities are and be categorized would be helpful. We then could present them to upper management for a deep overview of our network posture which they do not see.""Tenable Nessus could improve reporting and information sharing. It would be helpful if we could share the reports and have a little bit better flexibility in the reporting of the data.""We use credentialed scans. They need more permissions and more changes or settings on Windows and Linux.""The inventory management function in this solution needs improvement.""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.""The solution could improve by having better integration with different vendors' IPS solutions. The ACLs and IPS policies signatures should be enabled based on the results of Tenable Nessus automatically, we currently have to do it manually which is very time-consuming. It has done a good job integrating with Fortinet but we would like it to be better integrated with other solutions that we have.""There is room, overall, for improvement in the way it groups the workstations and the way it detects, when the vulnerability is scanned. Even when we would run a new scan, if it was an already existing vulnerability, it wouldn't put a new date on it."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Usually every implementation is different and the quote is in function of number of assets."
  • "When you want to cover yourself for scalability, you will be charged for the number you place on the scan itself."
  • "It is more expensive than other products on the market."
  • "They have recently changed the pricing model, which is now better than it was before."
  • "It is different for every company, but for us, it's every three years."
  • "Qualys is cheaper and more affordable than other solutions."
  • "The pricing and licensing for Qualys could be improved."
  • "The license is on a yearly basis."
  • More Qualys VMDR Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "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:Qualys VM is used for vulnerability scans for the internet and applications using application exchange. There are many applications. We also use the solution for asset management per team, and the… more »
    Top Answer:The process of defining and discovering scans is organized efficiently.
    Top Answer:The product is more expensive than that of any other vendor.
    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 »
    Ranking
    Views
    6,663
    Comparisons
    5,110
    Reviews
    26
    Average Words per Review
    423
    Rating
    8.0
    3rd
    Views
    11,889
    Comparisons
    8,672
    Reviews
    30
    Average Words per Review
    420
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Qualys VM, QualysGuard VM, Qualys Asset Inventory, Qualys Container Security, Qualys Virtual Scanner Appliance
    Learn More
    Overview

    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 its true risk, and track risk reduction 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) and patch management solutions to quickly discover, prioritize, and automatically remediate vulnerabilities at scale to reduce risk. Additionally, it integrates with ITSM solutions such as ServiceNow to automate and operationalize vulnerability management end-to-end.

    Get an all-Inclusive risk-based vulnerability management solution that prioritizes vulnerabilities, misconfigurations and assets based on risk, reduces risk by remediating vulnerabilities at scale, and helps organizations measure security program effectiveness by tracking risk reduction over time.

    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
    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
    Bitbrains, Tesla, Just Eat, Crosskey Banking Solutions, Covenant Health, Youngstown State University
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm18%
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Manufacturing Company16%
    Transportation Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization32%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Security Firm9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization34%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Government7%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business20%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise68%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business15%
    Midsize Enterprise41%
    Large Enterprise44%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise38%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise42%
    Large Enterprise41%
    Buyer's Guide
    Qualys VMDR vs. Tenable Nessus
    March 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Qualys VMDR vs. Tenable Nessus and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Qualys VMDR is ranked 3rd in Risk-Based Vulnerability Management with 76 reviews while Tenable Nessus is ranked 3rd in Vulnerability Management with 75 reviews. Qualys VMDR is rated 8.2, while Tenable Nessus is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Qualys VMDR writes "Good visibility but expensive and needs better support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Tenable Nessus writes "Unlimited assets for one price and quick, agentless results". Qualys VMDR is most compared with Tenable Security Center, Rapid7 InsightVM, Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management, Tenable Vulnerability Management and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, whereas Tenable Nessus is most compared with Rapid7 InsightVM, Tenable Security Center, Tenable Vulnerability Management, Pentera and Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management. See our Qualys VMDR 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.