The G2 on Tenable Nessus

Tenable Nessus Pros and Cons: Top Advantages and Disadvantages

Quick AI Summary Based on G2 Reviews

Generated from real user reviews

Users value the accurate vulnerability detection of Tenable Nessus, enhancing their security management and remediation efforts. (18 mentions)

Users value the automated scanning capabilities of Nessus, optimizing vulnerability detection and streamlining security management. (15 mentions)

Users value the accurate vulnerability detection of Tenable Nessus, enhancing security management and risk assessment processes. (14 mentions)

Users appreciate the user-friendly interface of Tenable Nessus, enabling quick navigation and efficient usage. (13 mentions)

Users appreciate the comprehensive scanning and reporting features of Tenable Nessus, ensuring effective vulnerability management. (13 mentions)

Users experience slow scanning times, particularly in large environments, causing delays and potential production interruptions. (8 mentions)

Users find Tenable Nessus has limited features in the free version, restricting capabilities and increasing costs for advanced use. (6 mentions)

Users face challenges with false positives in Tenable Nessus, resulting in extra workload and confusion for security teams. (5 mentions)

Users find the complexity of initial setup and advanced features challenging, especially for beginners and large environments. (4 mentions)

Users experience slow performance during scans, often requiring extended downtime and affecting operational efficiency. (4 mentions)

Users find the inaccuracy in scan results of Tenable Nessus frustrating, affecting overall reliability and consistency. (3 mentions)

Users find the lack of automation in Tenable Nessus hampers efficiency and complicates asset management processes. (3 mentions)

Users experience update delays that lead to falling behind on crucial product updates and notifications. (3 mentions)

Users find the complex UI of Tenable Nessus challenging, making feature navigation and use case development difficult. (2 mentions)

Users find limited automation in Nessus, making it challenging to manage past scans and overall efficiency. (2 mentions)

Users find the time-consuming nature of vulnerability scanning and remediation a significant drawback of Tenable Nessus. (2 mentions)

Top Pros or Advantages of Tenable Nessus

1. Vulnerability Identification

Users value the accurate vulnerability detection of Tenable Nessus, enhancing their security management and remediation efforts.

See 18 mentions

See Related User Reviews

RISHAV K.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"How Nessus helps in security audits"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus helps organizations during the auditing process by providing clear reports of the vulnerabilities as they are found during the scanning. The ag

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.5/5

"Essential Tool for Network Security Assessments"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus is easy to use, fast, and highly accurate. I like its wide vulnerability coverage, regular updates, and clear, detailed reports.

2. Automated Scanning

Users value the automated scanning capabilities of Nessus, optimizing vulnerability detection and streamlining security management.

See 15 mentions

See Related User Reviews

RISHAV K.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"How Nessus helps in security audits"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus helps organizations during the auditing process by providing clear reports of the vulnerabilities as they are found during the scanning. The ag

John T.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Tenable Nessus"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

Tenable Nessus has been the industry standard for many years. This is because it will do everything that you need it to do while scanning your infras

3. Vulnerability Detection

Users value the accurate vulnerability detection of Tenable Nessus, enhancing security management and risk assessment processes.

See 14 mentions

See Related User Reviews

RISHAV K.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"How Nessus helps in security audits"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus helps organizations during the auditing process by providing clear reports of the vulnerabilities as they are found during the scanning. The ag

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.5/5

"Essential Tool for Network Security Assessments"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus is easy to use, fast, and highly accurate. I like its wide vulnerability coverage, regular updates, and clear, detailed reports.

4. Ease of Use

Users appreciate the user-friendly interface of Tenable Nessus, enabling quick navigation and efficient usage.

See 13 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Divi N.

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.0/5

"Best free to use vulnerability scanner"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

-Free to use -Has community version where you can use Nessus for free to some extent -Great user interface -It also identifies miscofinguration in

Deepsan V.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"Tenable Nessus professional"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus has one of the largest libraries of vulnerability and configuration checks, covering a wide range of systems, devices, and applications. Despi

5. Features

Users appreciate the comprehensive scanning and reporting features of Tenable Nessus, ensuring effective vulnerability management.

See 13 mentions

See Related User Reviews

RISHAV K.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"How Nessus helps in security audits"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus helps organizations during the auditing process by providing clear reports of the vulnerabilities as they are found during the scanning. The ag

John T.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Tenable Nessus"

What do you like about Tenable Nessus?

Tenable Nessus has been the industry standard for many years. This is because it will do everything that you need it to do while scanning your infras

Top Cons or Disadvantages of Tenable Nessus

1. Slow Scanning

Users experience slow scanning times, particularly in large environments, causing delays and potential production interruptions.

See 8 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Sergio C.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Clean Interface and Simple Use."

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Only Downside can be the scan time, but that is also dependent on equipment and environment.

Jatin .

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"One stop solution for Vulnerability Detection and Management"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

1. Nothing as such to complain of, as the major purpose is being handled in very efficient way, though scan time and results sometimes remain inconsis

2. Limited Features

Users find Tenable Nessus has limited features in the free version, restricting capabilities and increasing costs for advanced use.

See 6 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Vivek K.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"Tenable Nessus Review"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Most of its features will be locked for normal public and it doesnot even comes with a professional suite .

Divi N.

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.0/5

"Best free to use vulnerability scanner"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

-I have only used free community version and it has quite a few limitation with number of hosts and scans etc.

3. False Positives

Users face challenges with false positives in Tenable Nessus, resulting in extra workload and confusion for security teams.

See 5 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Deepsan V.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"Tenable Nessus professional"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

While Nessus is known for its comprehensive vulnerability scanning capabilities, it can sometimes produce false positives, which can lead to unnecessa

Hemang D.

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.5/5

"Feedback regarding tenable support"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

ensure to have exhaustive scan so that one doesnt miss any true negative and also focus on minimizing false positives

4. Complexity

Users find the complexity of initial setup and advanced features challenging, especially for beginners and large environments.

See 4 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Nessus Professional has the best price/coverage ratio of the industry"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus Professional need some good process OR automation to get the most of it as you dont have any 'quality of life' feature like dashboard, tracking

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.5/5

"Essential Tool for Network Security Assessments"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

The user interface can feel a bit outdated, and initial setup or scan tuning may be complex for beginners. Also, advanced features require a paid lice

5. Slow Performance

Users experience slow performance during scans, often requiring extended downtime and affecting operational efficiency.

See 4 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Sergio C.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Clean Interface and Simple Use."

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Only Downside can be the scan time, but that is also dependent on equipment and environment.

RISHAV K.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"How Nessus helps in security audits"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Sometimes when we are scanning the vulnerabilities in a large environment it takes time like 2-3 days to find all the vulnerabilities of the whole env

6. Inaccuracy

Users find the inaccuracy in scan results of Tenable Nessus frustrating, affecting overall reliability and consistency.

See 3 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Good Product"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Not as thorough as we would have liked.

Jatin .

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"One stop solution for Vulnerability Detection and Management"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

1. Nothing as such to complain of, as the major purpose is being handled in very efficient way, though scan time and results sometimes remain inconsis

7. Lack of Automation

Users find the lack of automation in Tenable Nessus hampers efficiency and complicates asset management processes.

See 3 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Nessus Professional has the best price/coverage ratio of the industry"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus Professional need some good process OR automation to get the most of it as you dont have any 'quality of life' feature like dashboard, tracking

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Great Tool"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

The past scans can take up disk space. I haven't found a good way to automatically remove the old ones.

8. Update Delays

Users experience update delays that lead to falling behind on crucial product updates and notifications.

See 3 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Paul W.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

4.5/5

"Tenable Nessus - great and flexible vulnerability assessment tool"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Sometimes we don't get notifications of updates to the prduct and therefore we fall behind latest updates.

Gabe M.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

4.5/5

"as an industry standard software when it comes to vulnerability scanning."

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

offline updates can be difficult and can be troublesome.

9. Complex UI

Users find the complex UI of Tenable Nessus challenging, making feature navigation and use case development difficult.

See 2 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5.0/5

"Smooth Experience"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

There is nothing to like about it. Although the UI can be modernise

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.5/5

"Essential Tool for Network Security Assessments"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

The user interface can feel a bit outdated, and initial setup or scan tuning may be complex for beginners. Also, advanced features require a paid lice

10. Limited Automation

Users find limited automation in Nessus, making it challenging to manage past scans and overall efficiency.

See 2 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Nessus Professional has the best price/coverage ratio of the industry"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus Professional need some good process OR automation to get the most of it as you dont have any 'quality of life' feature like dashboard, tracking

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Great Tool"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

The past scans can take up disk space. I haven't found a good way to automatically remove the old ones.

11. Time-Consuming

Users find the time-consuming nature of vulnerability scanning and remediation a significant drawback of Tenable Nessus.

See 2 mentions

See Related User Reviews

RISHAV K.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"How Nessus helps in security audits"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Sometimes when we are scanning the vulnerabilities in a large environment it takes time like 2-3 days to find all the vulnerabilities of the whole env

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"One of the best vulnerability scanners on the market"

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

I wish Nessus had a vulnerability remediation option. Finding all the detailed vulnerabilities is only half the battle, researching the vulnerability

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Ankamgari G.

Professional Services Consultant

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

10/6/2022

"Wonderful ,smooth user experience and identity the known and unknown gaps in network proactively."

5/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

More detection capabilities and help us to address zero days quickly and custom VM scans will always more fruitful Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

This was addressed, now we have more detection capabilities and Abel to identify more active vulnerabilities with less false positives alert rate Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Kavya R.

Associate Consultant

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

10/20/2022

"Nessus Vulnerability Scanner Review"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

The support is very helpful. The new interface has a crisp design as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Some of the plugins detected are false positives including some windows patch updtaes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Hemang D.

Head - IT Cyber Security & Audits

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

8/18/2022

"Feedback regarding tenable support"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

yes it gives quick visibility of gaps or vulnerabilities that exist in your environment Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

ensure to have exhaustive scan so that one doesnt miss any true negative and also focus on minimizing false positives Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Engin A.

Cyber Security Specialist

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5/23/2025

"Its great to use Nessus for vulnerability scan"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

It can be find mostly vulnerability for our devicess Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Tecnical support ticket create it can be a problem if you create one you can find a solution for pluging Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Felipe R.

Analista de soluciones

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

6/22/2023

"Overall Experience"

5/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

Have been experiencing some issues regarding the scans, they didn't work properly on the last month, scans finish but it doesn't show any information Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Give NFR so engineers can test features, develop use cases and more Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Financial Services

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/15/2021

"Good Product"

5/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

Better and more complete scanning of assets. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Not as thorough as we would have liked. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Financial Services

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/24/2024

"One of the best vulnerability scanners on the market"

4/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus was very easy to install, and we were up and running in very little time. There are lots of various scan type options to choose from. Our third party auditors also use Nessus for internal vulnerability scans, and we were able to import their scanning template in order to do accurate post remediation scans. We were able to easily setup a weekly scan schedule. Product updates are simple and straight forward, and we recieve notification when new versions are available. The price was also within our budget. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

I wish Nessus had a vulnerability remediation option. Finding all the detailed vulnerabilities is only half the battle, researching the vulnerability and the fix is also time consuming. Nessus does have links to the CVE or KB docs, and many times remediation reccomendations, but the patching process is still manual. I realize that automatic remediation may not always be the best practice depending on the vulnerability, the system/device, and various other factors, but possibly some options for simple patches would be very useful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Tenable Nessus solving and how is that benefiting you?

It finds and categorizes all vulnerabilities on all device types. Our previous product would only work with Windows devices for instance, so you are not getting a complete picture of your entire network. Vulnerabilities are categorized based on criticality, so you can prioritize your remediation process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Oscar David R.

Ingeniero Preventa

Computer & Network Security

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

11/26/2024

"Tenable Nessus vulnerability manager"

5/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

The platform is very intuitive, it is easy to operate without prior knowledge, and additionally, the reliability of the results obtained at the vulnerability level is very accurate. The reports are easy to interpret and generate high value for the company in decision-making. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

That the technology is still On-Premises and this leads to infrastructure expenses, which generates additional costs for the organization and depreciation of this used hardware. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Gabe M.

Sr Manager

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

6/17/2025

"as an industry standard software when it comes to vulnerability scanning."

4.5/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

detailed reporting, customizable export options. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

offline updates can be difficult and can be troublesome. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Information Technology and Services

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/22/2024

"Nessus Professional has the best price/coverage ratio of the industry"

5/5

What do you like best about Tenable Nessus?

Tenable Nessus Professional is widely praised for several key features that make it a preferred choice for vulnerability management BUT I want to focus my review on why it make sense for you if you have a lot of IP to scan.

Most of the scanners have licenses per IP, so if you have wide ip ranges, licenses fee would be astronomious.

You will need to accomodate the limited reporting and vulnerability management feature of the proffessional version. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Tenable Nessus?

Nessus Professional need some good process OR automation to get the most of it as you dont have any 'quality of life' feature like dashboard, tracking and limited automation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.