Nessus vs OpenVAS: 2026 head-to-head
Nessus Professional $4,790/scanner/yr list versus OpenVAS GPL free. Loaded cost of OpenVAS is 4-12 admin hours/month plus infra ~$2,400/yr = $7k-$15k/yr at $95/hr loaded. At one scanner, Nessus is cheaper TCO and ships a faster plugin feed. OpenVAS wins when you already have a skilled Linux admin and need fully on-prem control.
Nessus vs OpenVAS in 2026: who wins?
Tenable Nessus Professional
Single-scanner on-prem workhorse. Per-scanner licensing, not per-asset. Essentials free up to 16 IPs.
OpenVAS / Greenbone Community Edition
Self-hosted GPL scanner. The honest cost is admin hours and feed lag versus Nessus.
Who should pick which
Nessus Professional $4,790/scanner/yr list versus OpenVAS GPL free. Loaded cost of OpenVAS is 4-12 admin hours/month plus infra ~$2,400/yr = $7k-$15k/yr at $95/hr loaded. At one scanner, Nessus is cheaper TCO and ships a faster plugin feed. OpenVAS wins when you already have a skilled Linux admin and need fully on-prem control.
FAQ
- Is Nessus vs OpenVAS a fair comparison on pricing?Often not directly. Tenable Nessus Professional and OpenVAS / Greenbone Community Edition can anchor on different units (asset vs workload vs developer vs application). Always normalise to your actual asset mix before comparing.
- Which tool is cheaper at 1,000 assets?Per published list, the cheaper option depends heavily on whether the workload model fits. See /pricing-cheatsheet for normalised numbers across all 15 scanners.
- Which produces cleaner SOC 2 evidence?Both produce SOC 2-acceptable CC7.1 evidence packages. The deciding factor is usually how cleanly the tool integrates with your auditor's preferred compliance automation platform (Vanta, Drata, Secureframe).
- Do I need both?Sometimes. Cloud-native estates often run a CNAPP (Wiz / Orca) alongside a traditional VM tool (Tenable / Qualys / Rapid7) for 18-24 months before consolidating. See /types/vm-vs-cspm-vs-ctem/ for the taxonomy.
- How current is the comparison?Verified 2026-06-26 against the vendor pricing pages cited per panel. Re-verified on the changelog cadence at /changelog.