// scanner: tenable-nessus
Nessus pricing 2026: $4,790 per scanner per year
Single-scanner on-prem workhorse. Per-scanner licensing, not per-asset. Essentials free up to 16 IPs.
author: Oliver Wakefield-Smith · verified 2026-06-26
// direct-answer
What does Tenable Nessus Professional cost in 2026?
$4,790 / scanner / year (list). Single-scanner on-prem workhorse. Per-scanner licensing, not per-asset. Essentials free up to 16 IPs.
Pricing snapshot
- Nessus Professional$4,790 / scanner / year (1-year list)
- Nessus Expert$6,790 / scanner / year (adds WAS + IaC modules)
- Nessus EssentialsFree, capped at 16 IPs, no compliance reporting
What scales, what does not
- Per-scanner licensing means cost scales with concurrent scan engines, not asset count. A 50,000-host estate with one scanner = one licence.
- Nessus Expert adds limited Web Application Scanning and Infrastructure-as-Code checks. The deeper WAS work still belongs to Tenable.io WAS.
- Essentials is a real free tier for home labs and very small shops. PCI ASV reporting is not included.
Where it hits the ceiling
Nessus stops scaling once you need centralised reporting across teams, asset inventory, or SaaS deployment. That is when Tenable.io enters the room.
// faq
FAQ
- Is Tenable Nessus Professional pricing public?Yes. Tenable Nessus Professional publishes list pricing on its product page (cited above).
- Is there a free tier of Tenable Nessus Professional?Yes, Nessus Essentials covers up to 16 IPs free with no compliance reporting.
- Does Tenable Nessus Professional cover web application scanning?Limited; for serious web DAST coverage pair with Burp Enterprise, Invicti, or Acunetix.
- Does Tenable Nessus Professional produce PCI ASV evidence?Yes; Tenable Nessus Professional either is a PCI Approved Scanning Vendor or its output is regularly used as part of an ASV-attested package.
- How often does Tenable Nessus Professional update its vulnerability content?Daily for commercial scanners (Tenable plugins, Qualys signatures, Rapid7 recog). Open-source OpenVAS NVT feed is daily but lags commercial coverage by hours to days.