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Rapid7 Metasploit vs Wireshark comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Sponsored
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (16th), Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (1st)
Rapid7 Metasploit
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
22
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (19th)
Wireshark
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Network Troubleshooting (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Vulnerability Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Rapid7 Metasploit1.3%
Wiz10.8%
Tenable Nessus8.0%
Other79.9%
Vulnerability Management
Network Troubleshooting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Wireshark12.6%
LinkRunner13.6%
NetAlly EtherScope nXG10.1%
Other63.7%
Network Troubleshooting
 

Featured Reviews

Israel Cavazos Landini - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Mani Bommisetty - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Vijay Duggal - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides detailed traffic analysis and helps troubleshoot issues
There is a disadvantage when it comes to sampling intervals. While the solution supports sampling as fine as one millisecond, it requires a copy at that interval. My Python script allows me to achieve a granularity of up to ten microseconds, but I can't go beyond that. When dealing with provisioning on both issues, it would be beneficial if I could go down to the microsecond level, if not the nanosecond. Additionally, I've heard from a colleague that Wireshark might be less effective in the voice domain.

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."
"We are able to see the real risk of a vulnerability on our environment with our security tools."
"We saw benefits from Zafran Security almost immediately after deploying it."
"Zafran is an excellent tool."
"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."
"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 Metasploit include its powerful capabilities for exploitation and scanning."
"I would definitely recommend Metasploit to others."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"Rapid7 offers comprehensive features within one platform, eliminating the need to integrate multiple tools to see all alerts in one place."
"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,"
"The most valuable feature for us is the support for testing Linux-based web server components."
"I like the filtering feature as we can filter data easily. This feature is also available in tcpdump, but it's a simple piece of software. Wireshark is more advanced and has many features. It allows you to filter a lot of things. The output can be filtered easily. The most important feature is colorization. If I say, "Okay, this particular SMB protocol in red, it will show me red." It's easy to identify that protocol or capture data."
"Wireshark helps us to understand network traffic."
"Wireshark is very user-friendly; even someone with basic IT knowledge can use it."
"I find Wireshark a very useful tool. Its best feature is that it allows me to deeply understand what's going on at the packet level, as well as any adverse signatures that I can analyze. When I need to create an IPS rule, I need to check the traffic deeply to get more insights about the actual traffic, what's the name of certain flags, etc., and I'm able to do all that through Wireshark. The tool is also user-friendly."
"You can use Wireshark to see the traffic packet format, the IP layers, the fields, and the enabled flags."
"It has good basic features."
"If you're dealing with troubleshooting network, voice issues, or network operations, having a tool like Wireshark to dive into packet details is important. The initial setup is straightforward. Anyone starting out or looking to deploy it on your personal PC or machine can do it easily."
"The initial setup is simple."
 

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."
"While Metasploit excels in vulnerability assessment, it could improve in vulnerability management."
"I think areas with shortcomings that need improvement are more integration and automation."
"The solution should improve the responsiveness of its live technical support."
"We'd like them to offer better coverage of malware."
"Rapid7 Metasploit could be made easier for new users to learn."
"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."
"Advanced Infrastructure should be implemented in the next release for better orchestration."
"Rapid7 Metasploit can add a GUI feature because it is only available online."
"Its user interface was a little less friendly. They can make its user interface a little bit more friendly. It is for technical people, and most of the technical people would be able to figure it out, but it would be good to improve its user interface. They can maybe build artificial intelligence into it. Currently, it takes a lot of manpower to analyze and dissect all the data."
"The average person would probably find Wireshark hard to use. When I first installed it, I was overwhelmed by all the data it was shooting out. It doesn't make sense until you start doing some research and figure out what everything means. It isn't the most user-friendly tool. It just provides so much information."
"Wireshark is restricted when any sort of encryption is involved, such as XSL encryption or DLX."
"It is not an easy program. You will need to study to use it to its full capabilities (follow a course)."
"Sometimes I need to use tcpdump when I need to check the packets on CLI."
"Wireshark's UI isn't easy to handle and doesn't have as nice a view as Omnipeek."
"Wireshark could be improved by adding more monitoring features."
"I would like better control of bandwidth from the service provider."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Rapid7 Metasploit is cheaper than Tenable.io Vulnerability Management."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product's pricing a six. So it's fairly priced."
"There are two versions available, one of which is the Pro version, and the other is the free version."
"We pay monthly. The pricing is reasonable."
"The cost is approximately $15 per device."
"I have used the free version of Rapid7 Metasploit."
"The pricing structure involves a one-time purchase cost of approximately twenty thousand dollars or euros for all customers."
"It is expensive. Our license expired, and our company is not thinking to renew because of our budget."
"The tool is free."
"I am using the free version of this solution."
"It's free."
"Wireshark is free software, so you don't have to pay any licensing fee. Individual people can use it and then donate to Wireshark."
"It is free."
"It is an open-source solution."
"Wireshark is an open-source product, so it's free to use."
"It is free to download and install. It runs on multiple platforms, so how can you go wrong?"
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
7%
University
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zafran Security?
Since we stood Zafran Security up in our private cloud, we handle the maintenance on our side. As we opted not to use...
What needs improvement with Zafran Security?
In terms of areas for improvement, Zafran Security is doing a really great job as a new and emerging company. Oftenti...
What is your primary use case for Zafran Security?
My use cases for Zafran Security revolve around two primary areas. One is around vulnerability management and priorit...
What do you like most about Rapid7 Metasploit?
I use Rapid7 Metasploit for payload generation and Post-Exploitation.
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...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Wireshark?
Wireshark is priced at a medium range, not too high, not too low. The pricing could be more flexible, and they might ...
What needs improvement with Wireshark?
The speed of the Internet could be improved, especially its performance. Performance can sometimes be a challenge due...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Metasploit
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Comversion, ADP, Talbots
Find out what your peers are saying about Tenable, Qualys, Wiz and others in Vulnerability Management. Updated: August 2025.
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