Tenable Nessus
Vulnerability assessment scanner that finds, prioritizes, and helps remediate security weaknesses.
Best for
Security teams needing a trusted, actively updated vulnerability scanner with strong risk prioritization.
Skip if
You need a fully managed, agentless enterprise vulnerability management platform rather than a scanner product.
What is Tenable Nessus?
Nessus is Tenable's vulnerability assessment scanner, used to discover vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across operating systems, network devices, and applications. It covers over 117,000 CVEs through more than 319,000 detection plugins, with roughly 100 new plugins released weekly, and prioritizes findings using CVSS v4, EPSS, and Tenable's own VPR risk scoring. The product ships with 450+ pre-built policy and compliance audit templates and guided remediation workflows to help teams act on results rather than just collect them. Nessus Professional and Nessus Expert are sold as annual subscriptions, with Expert adding external attack surface scanning and expanded web application scanning.
SpecificationsAI-estimated
Key Features of Tenable Nessus
Use Cases for Tenable Nessus
Routine internal vulnerability scanning
IT security teams run scheduled Nessus scans across servers and endpoints to catch new vulnerabilities before attackers do.
Compliance auditing
Organizations use Nessus's compliance templates to verify systems meet frameworks like PCI DSS or CIS benchmarks.
Pre-deployment security checks
DevOps teams scan new infrastructure for misconfigurations before it goes into production.
External attack surface discovery
Security teams use Nessus Expert to identify internet-facing assets an attacker could target.
Pros & Cons of Tenable Nessus
Pros
- Industry-standard, widely trusted scanner
- Extensive and frequently updated CVE/plugin coverage
- Multiple risk-scoring models for prioritization
- Flexible deployment including low-cost hardware
Cons
- Annual pricing is a significant investment for small teams
- Web app scanning is limited by FQDN count on base tier
- Requires security expertise to interpret and act on results effectively
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Nessus Professional and Expert?
Nessus Expert adds external attack surface scanning and expanded web application scanning on top of everything included in Nessus Professional.
How many vulnerabilities can Nessus detect?
Nessus covers over 117,000 CVEs through more than 319,000 plugins, with new plugins released roughly weekly.
Does Nessus help with compliance audits?
Yes, Nessus includes over 450 pre-built policy and compliance audit templates for common regulatory and security frameworks.
Can Nessus run on low-cost hardware?
Yes, Nessus can be deployed on small hardware such as a Raspberry Pi for distributed scanning setups.
Pricing Overview
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