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.

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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: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit vs. Tenable Security Center

July 2025

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

"Zafran is an excellent tool."

"Overall, we have seen about eighty-seven percent reduction of the number of vulnerabilities that require urgency to remediate, specifically the number of criticals."

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

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

"It's not possible to do penetration testing without being very proficient in Metasploit."

"Rapid7 Metasploit is a useful product."

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

"It is scalable. It's in line with our needs."

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

"The tool's most useful feature for penetration testing is its automation capabilities. With the professional edition, you can upload the results from Nessus in the Rapid7 Metasploit solution portal."

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

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

More Rapid7 Metasploit pros

"The valauble feature is compliance reporting system."

"Very customizable with a lot of templates."

"What is useful to me is being able to fulfill very customized scanning policies. In the clinical environment, because of vendor control, we can't perform credential-vulnerability scanning. And network scans, which I've done before, can cause a lot of impact. Being able to create very customized policies to be able to routinely scan and audit our clinical networks, while simultaneously not causing impact, is important to us."

"It's a very useful tool."

"The solution is completely stable and operation is user-friendly."

"The scanning part, the agent part – that's the valuable aspect."

"I found the dashboard features very useful. It made it easy to track remediation progress. I could publish dashboards to remediation teams and track the progress on the dashboards."

"The customer service and support team at Tenable were extremely helpful."

More Tenable Security Center pros

Cons

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

"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."

"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."

"Better automation capabilities would be an improvement."

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

"We'd like them to offer better coverage of malware."

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

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

"Metasploit cannot be installed on a machine with an antivirus."

More Rapid7 Metasploit cons

"Current web page needs improvement, slows down processes."

"The vulnerability scan does not work correctly until the access privileges are set by the system administrator."

"A good plugin editor would be a good additional option for the Security Center."

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

"We would like to see the inclusion of external IPs and simplified reporting that's easier to deal with"

"There is not much room for improvement. However, there should be a guide that describes the step-by-step procedures for doing tasks. Otherwise, training is required from a senior guy to a junior guy."

"The solution needs to improve the vulnerability assessment because we have experienced some challenges with accuracy."

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."

"Rapid7 Metasploit is an open-source solution."

"We pay monthly. The pricing is reasonable."

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

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

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

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

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

More Rapid7 Metasploit pricing and cost advice

"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."

"The tool provides competitive pricing."

"Compared to other companies or other products it could maybe be a little bit less, but the price is okay. I would say it's not very expensive."

"My company needs to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs. The pricing of the solution falls in the mid-range level, so it is not too expensive"

"I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten, where ten is expensive. It is the most expensive tool my company is using."

"It is slightly more expensive than other solutions in the same sphere."

"The tool costs around 15,000 Saudi riyals monthly."

"We pay around 60,000 on a yearly basis."

More Tenable Security Center pricing and cost advice

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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...

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What needs improvement with Zafran Security?

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

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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...

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What do you like most about Rapid7 Metasploit?

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

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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...

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What needs improvement with Rapid7 Metasploit?

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

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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 ...

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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

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Tenable Nessus vs Rapid7 Metasploit

Compared 16% 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

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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)

July 2025

Download Zafran Security product report

Buyer's Guide

Rapid7 Metasploit

July 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

July 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: July 2025.

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