Rapid7 Metasploit vs Tenable Security Center comparison

Rapid7 and Tenable are both solutions in the Vulnerability Management category. Rapid7 is ranked #20 with an average rating of 8.3, while Tenable is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.6. Rapid7 holds a 1.4% mindshare in VM, compared to Tenable’s 4.5% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Rapid7 users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Tenable users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Tenable Security Center and Rapid7 Metasploit both compete in the cybersecurity domain focusing on vulnerability management and penetration testing respectively. Tenable Security Center appears to have an upper hand with its comprehensive vulnerability management capabilities, whereas Rapid7 Metasploit is recognized for its effective penetration testing features.

Features: Tenable Security Center provides comprehensive vulnerability scanning, an intuitive dashboard, and flexible policy creation. It handles large asset volumes efficiently and offers an Assurance Report Card. Rapid7 Metasploit offers automatic vulnerability discovery, script-based exploitation, and extensive penetration testing capabilities that are especially useful for educational purposes.

Room for Improvement: Tenable Security Center could improve its integration with exploit tools and offer more flexible reporting configurations. Additionally, enhancing integration with other tools would be beneficial. Rapid7 Metasploit would benefit from improved GUI functionality, broader exploit coverage, and enhanced automation capabilities to better integrate into CI/CD pipelines.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Tenable Security Center can be deployed in on-premises and hybrid environments; however, it has variable feedback regarding customer service responsiveness. Rapid7 Metasploit supports multiple deployment options and generally receives positive reviews for its support services.

Pricing and ROI: Tenable Security Center is generally more expensive with comprehensive asset-based pricing models, providing ROI through reduced manual workload and increased security efficiency. In contrast, Rapid7 Metasploit offers more affordable pricing with options for open-source use, appealing to users with budget constraints seeking effective penetration testing solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 860,711 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

Zafran Security

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 Rapid7 Metasploit is 1.4%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Tenable Security Center is 4.5%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vulnerability Management

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini

Associate Director IT Security Operations at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees

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.

Read full review

Mani Bommisetty

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

Comprehensive insights with robust vulnerability detection and streamlined alert management

Rapid7 has a significant advantage in providing a clear picture of my environment. It provides insight and incident detection response capabilities. When deployed with the same agent in servers or endpoints, it identifies vulnerabilities and monitors data transmission to external sources. Rapid7 offers comprehensive features within one platform, eliminating the need to integrate multiple tools to see all alerts in one place.

Read full review

OndrejKOVAC

Solution engineer at EXPERTience

Empower clients with risk-based vulnerability management through continuous workflow and valuable insights

Tenable Security Center could improve by implementing more dynamic data displays and translating reports into European languages. This is especially relevant in Central Eastern Europe, where clients often require reports in local languages. Additionally, the licensing model could be more flexible for managed security providers, similar to a pay-as-you-go model.

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

"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 is an excellent tool."

"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."

"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."

"Zafran has become an indispensable tool in our cybersecurity arsenal."

"When I compare Metasploit with Nessus, I find that Metasploit is faster and it does not burden the system as much."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."

"The greatest advantage of Rapid7 Metasploit is that it is the only system that can directly exploit vulnerabilities on the Metasploit platform."

"The most valuable features of the solution are the scripts, the modules, and the tools that the Rapid7 Metasploit framework has."

"All of the features are great."

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

"The Search Engineering feature is good."

"I don't have any other tools like it, and I always use it when I'm doing a pen test. Metasploit is a great solution for penetration testing,"

More Rapid7 Metasploit pros

"Tenable.sc is user-friendly."

"It basically reviews our threat landscape vulnerability."

"Tenable is the leading product for vulnerability scanning."

"The most important features are the dashboard and reporting. The dashboard provides statistics with graphs and bar charts for our management."

"Compliance and vulnerability scans are most valuable. Compliance scan helps in validating how our teams are complying, and vulnerability scan helps in future-proofing. Its vulnerability detection is accurate."

"The scans are the most valuable aspect of this solution."

"The most valuable features of Tenable SC are scanning, reporting, dashboards, and automation."

"This product has the best results in terms of the lowest number of false-positives and false-negatives."

More Tenable Security Center pros

Cons

"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."

"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 reporting feature needs improvement. The time taken to fetch reports based on the number of events can be extensive, unlike Tenable, which is more user-friendly and faster."

"The open-source version has reporting limitations. You need to develop these capabilities yourself. Built-in reporting is an excellent feature for penetration testing, but it isn't a must-have. The solution could also cover more vulnerabilities. Metasploit has around 10,000 exploits in its library, but more is always better."

"The solution is not user-friendly and has room for improvement."

"The reporting feature needs improvement."

"The database is not always updated with the latest vulnerabilities or zero-day exploits. If a vulnerability arises a month or two ago, it might not be included in the database, which is something I would like to see improved."

"I would like to see more capabilities, more functions, and more features. More types of attack vectors."

"Support is another area where improvement is needed, particularly for assisting non-security users."

"The initial setup was a bit "tweaky" for the open-source version."

More Rapid7 Metasploit cons

"The GUI could be improved to have all concerns and priorities use the same GUI, allowing them to see all tickets, assign vulnerabilities, and assign variation failures to each member of their team."

"We experienced some difficulties with the solution’s support."

"In terms of configuration, there is some level of flexibility that we are not able to achieve."

"We are facing some challenges related to our channel."

"The solution's user interface has some issues."

"The dashboard templates are limited."

"The solution is expensive."

"Support could be faster."

More Tenable Security Center cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"There are two versions available, one of which is the Pro version, and the other is the free version."

"The pricing structure involves a one-time purchase cost of approximately twenty thousand dollars or euros for all customers."

"Rapid7 Metasploit is cheaper than Tenable.io Vulnerability Management."

"I have used the free version of Rapid7 Metasploit."

"It is expensive. Our license expired, and our company is not thinking to renew because of our budget."

"It is a reasonably priced solution. I would rate it from five out of ten."

"I use the open-source version of this product. Pricing is not relevant."

"Rapid7 Metasploit is an open-source solution."

More Rapid7 Metasploit pricing and cost advice

"It is a bit expensive. Everything is included in the license."

"The licensing costs for this solution are approximately $100,000 US, and I think that covers everything."

"I use a local license to perform penetration testing and I'm pretty happy with everything when it comes to pricing and licensing."

"The pricing is more than Nexpose."

"The price can start at €10,000 ($13,000 USD) for between 500 and 1,000 assets, and the price can climb into the millions as more assets are added."

"We're a Fortune 500 company... our licensing costs [are] in the seven figures."

"Tenable is open-source."

"We're happy with the licensing cost and find it affordable."

More Tenable Security Center pricing and cost advice

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

860,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

The dashboarding and reporting functionality of Zafran Security is an area that definitely could use some improvement...

See all answers

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...

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?

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

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rapid7 Metasploit?

While Metasploit excels in vulnerability assessment, it could improve in vulnerability management. Nessus currently h...

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?

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

See all answers

What needs improvement with Tenable SC?

Tenable Security Center could improve by implementing more dynamic data displays and translating reports into Europea...

See all answers

Comparisons

Wiz Code vs Zafran Security

Compared 42% of the time

Vulcan Cyber vs Zafran Security

Compared 16% of the time

ServiceNow Security Operations vs Zafran Security

Compared 9% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Zafran Security

Compared 9% of the time

Nucleus vs Zafran Security

Compared 7% of the time

More Zafran Security Competitors

Tenable Nessus vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 15% of the time

Pentera vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 11% of the time

Acunetix vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 10% of the time

Amazon Inspector vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 8% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 7% of the time

More Rapid7 Metasploit Competitors

Qualys VMDR vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 12% of the time

Rapid7 InsightVM vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 12% of the time

Tenable Nessus vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 10% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 9% of the time

The NodeZero Platform vs Tenable Security Center

Compared 6% of the time

More Tenable Security Center Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)

June 2025

Download Zafran Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit

June 2025

Download Rapid7 Metasploit product report

Buyer's Guide

Tenable Security Center

June 2025

Download Tenable Security Center product report

Also Known As

No data available

Metasploit

Tenable.sc, Tenable Unified Security, Tenable SecurityCenter

Overview

Zafran Security integrates with existing security tools to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities effectively, proving that most critical vulnerabilities are not exploitable, optimizing threat management.

Zafran Security introduces an innovative operating model for managing security threats and vulnerabilities. By leveraging the threat exposure management platform, it pinpoints and prioritizes exploitable vulnerabilities, reducing risk through immediate remediation. This platform enhances your hybrid cloud security by normalizing vulnerability signals and integrating specific IT context data, such as CVE runtime presence and internet asset reachability, into its analysis. No longer reliant on patch windows, Zafran Security allows you to manage risks actively.

What are the key features of Zafran Security?

Threat Exposure Management: Utilizes existing tools to prioritize vulnerabilities and manage threats.
Integrative Analysis: Combines security data with IT context for precise vulnerability management.
Real-time Risk Reduction: Enables immediate risk management without waiting for patches.
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility: Functions across diverse cloud environments for comprehensive security.

What benefits can users expect from Zafran Security?

Improved Security: Enhances protection by efficiently identifying and mitigating risks.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary patching expenses by confirming non-exploitable vulnerabilities.
Time Savings: Frees developers to focus on root causes by handling immediate threats.
Comprehensive Insight: Offers a holistic view of security threats and vulnerabilities.

In industries where security is paramount, such as finance and healthcare, Zafran Security provides invaluable protection by ensuring that only exploitable vulnerabilities are addressed. It allows entities to maintain robust security measures while allocating resources efficiently, fitting seamlessly into existing security strategies.

Zafran Security

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

Information Not Available

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

Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center

June 2025

Free Report: Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center

Find out what your peers are saying about Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

860,711 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center 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.