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Tenable Nessus vs OpenVAS (Greenbone)

A side-by-side comparison across pricing, deployment, integrations, compliance, and vulnerability management-specific features. Descriptive comparison only — no recommendations.

4 min read Data verified: May 2026 Vulnerability Management
Tenable Nessus
Vulnerability Management
Essentials (free, 16 IPs), Essentials Plus (paid annual, 20 IPs), Professional… ($4,790/yr, unlimited IPs per scanner), Expert ($6,790/yr, unlimited IPs + web app scanning + EASM + IaC). Prices reflect 2026 increase. Multi-year licenses reduce annualized cost ~10-15%.
Freemium / Paid
Visit official site →
OpenVAS (Greenbone)
Vulnerability Management
Greenbone Community Edition (GVM stack with OpenVAS scanner) free under GPL-2.0… with Community Feed; Greenbone Enterprise appliances (with Enterprise Feed) are commercial subscriptions ranging from a few euros per month for OPENVAS BASIC to enterprise-tier pricing for large appliances
Free / OSS
Visit official site →
$ Pricing & plans
5 dimensions
Pricing model
Essentials (free, 16 IPs), Essentials Plus (paid annual, 20 IPs), Professional…
($4,790/yr, unlimited IPs per scanner), Expert ($6,790/yr, unlimited IPs + web app scanning + EASM + IaC). Prices reflect 2026 increase. Multi-year licenses reduce annualized cost ~10-15%.
Greenbone Community Edition (GVM stack with OpenVAS scanner) free under GPL-2.0…
with Community Feed; Greenbone Enterprise appliances (with Enterprise Feed) are commercial subscriptions ranging from a few euros per month for OPENVAS BASIC to enterprise-tier pricing for large appliances
Pricing tier
Freemium / Paid
Free / OSS
Free tier / trial
Free tier
Nessus Essentials free up to 16 IPs (or 5 IPs on 30-day trial of newer Essentials); 7-day trial of paid tiers
Free tier
Community Edition permanently free; 14-day trial of OPENVAS BASIC; Greenbone Enterprise TRIAL VM available
Volume discounts
Multi-scanner deployments and multi-year terms reduce per-scanner cost
education program offers significant discounts for verified students/educators
Not applicable for free Community Edition
Greenbone Enterprise pricing negotiated based on appliance size and feed subscription
Hidden costs
Tenable annually increases prices each March
centralized cloud console requires the separate Tenable Vulnerability Management subscription; advanced features (EASM, IaC, web app scanning) gated to Expert tier
Operational infrastructure (Linux server, PostgreSQL, Redis, sufficient storage…
for scan history), specialized labor for tuning and false-positive triage, training time; Greenbone Enterprise Feed subscription if requiring expanded VT coverage
↗ Deployment & integrations
3 dimensions
Deployment
Self-hosted scanner
one license = one scanner; agents available for distributed scanning; Tenable Vulnerability Management (separate product) provides cloud-hosted centralized management
Self-hosted Greenbone Community Edition (Linux packages, Docker compose)
Greenbone Enterprise appliances as hardware or virtual (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, AWS/Azure cloud)
Typical deployment time
Hours for Nessus Essentials/Professional install
days to weeks for production scanning programs with credentialed scanning, tuning, and reporting
Hours for Docker-based Community Edition PoC
days for production with credentialed scanning, scheduling, and reporting tuning; initial feed sync 30-60 minutes
Key integrations
Tenable Vulnerability Management, ServiceNow, Splunk, IBM QRadar, Microsoft…
Sentinel, Jira, Slack, AWS, Azure, GCP; Nessus API for custom integrations
GMP (Greenbone Management Protocol) and OSP (Open Scanner Protocol) APIs
integration via gvm-tools and Python libraries; SIEM forwarding via syslog/CEF; CI/CD via APIs
🔍 Vulnerability Management-specific evaluation
7 dimensions
Scanner type
Network and host-based vulnerability scanner with dynamically compiled plugin engine
Expert tier adds web app scanning, external attack surface discovery, and IaC scanning
Network and host-based vulnerability scanner
uses NASL (Nessus Attack Scripting Language) for vulnerability tests plus Notus Scanner for efficient package-based detection
Vulnerability prioritization
CVSS v4, EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System), Tenable Vulnerability…
Priority Rating (VPR); 450+ pre-configured scan templates; Live Results feature for offline assessment with every plugin update
CVSS-based severity scoring
CVE database integration; daily-updated Vulnerability Tests (VTs) covering 100,000+ in Enterprise Feed; Community Feed slightly smaller but extensive
Asset coverage
Servers, workstations, network devices, databases, cloud infrastructure, web…
applications (Expert); IP-based licensing with unlimited IPs per scanner license on paid tiers
Servers, workstations, network devices, web applications, databases
supports IPv4/IPv6, authenticated and unauthenticated scanning
Authenticated scanning
SSH, SMB, WMI, SNMP, database credentials, cloud API keys
agent-based scanning available for endpoints that can't be reached via network scan
SSH, SMB, ESXi, SNMP, database credentials, Kerberos
credential-based local security checks (LSCs) for accurate detection of installed software vulnerabilities
Remediation workflows
Findings exported to PDF/HTML/CSV
ServiceNow, Jira ticketing via API or Tenable cloud integrations; remediation tracking via Tenable Vulnerability Management
Multi-format reports (PDF, XML, CSV, HTML)
manual integration with ticketing systems via API or report export; delta reporting for tracking remediation progress
Compliance frameworks
PCI DSS, HIPAA, NIST 800-53, NIST CSF, CIS Benchmarks, ISO 27001, FISMA,…
FedRAMP, SOX, GLBA, GDPR; pre-built audit policies
PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, BSI IT-Grundschutz (German), GDPR-aligned operation
compliance-focused scan configurations included
Pricing model
Per-scanner annual license with unlimited IPs (Professional/Expert)
fixed per-scanner cost regardless of organization size
Free Community Edition (no licensing cost) or Greenbone Enterprise…
per-appliance subscription with Enterprise Feed
✓ Compliance & certifications
1 dimension
Compliance certifications
Software supports compliance reporting for PCI DSS, HIPAA, NIST 800-53, CIS…
Benchmarks, ISO 27001, FISMA, FedRAMP, SOX, GLBA, GDPR; Tenable cloud products carry SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP Moderate
Software runs in user's environment (no cloud data transfer) supporting GDPR compliance
supports PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001, NIST compliance scanning; Greenbone is German-based, aligned with EU data protection requirements
◧ Positioning
3 dimensions
Target deployment
Security professionals, consultants, SMBs, mid-market wanting industry-standard…
vulnerability scanning
Budget-conscious teams, technical security practitioners, compliance scanning…
on a budget, GDPR-sensitive deployments, MSSPs
Strengths cited
Widely deployed vulnerability scanner with 2 million+ downloads, broad plugin…
library, mature scanning engine, multiple scoring systems (CVSS v4, EPSS, Tenable VPR), well-recognized for compliance reporting
Free open source under GPL-2.0, 100,000+ vulnerability tests in Enterprise Feed…
(Community Feed also extensive), GDPR-compliant in-environment operation, daily updated feed, 15+ years of development by Greenbone, broadly used by penetration testers
Where it fits less well
Per-scanner licensing model
centralized cloud management requires the separately-licensed Tenable Vulnerability Management product; modern interactive dashboards are stronger in Tenable's cloud tier than in Nessus Professional
Self-hosted production deployment requires Linux/security engineering capacity
modern dashboards and reporting are more polished in commercial Greenbone Enterprise appliances than in the free Community Edition; initial feed sync can take 30-60 minutes
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Methodology Comparison data synthesized from publicly available vendor documentation, MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations, AV-TEST results, Gartner Peer Insights, G2/Capterra/TrustRadius reviews, anonymized transaction data (Vendr, CostBench, CheckThat.ai), and publicly reported pricing as of May 2026. defend.network is independent and has no commercial relationship with the vendors compared.