4 categories · RankedTenable Nessus
Tenable Nessus is a vulnerability scanner from Tenable, used to find vulnerabilities and check compliance across an organization's systems · tenable.com ↗
Read the same way at every company size.
The standing depends on who is buying. Every model is asked the same questions for each company size.
Intruder is first at 45%.
Rapid7 InsightVM is first at 33%. 0 of 14 models made it the first choice when asked directly.
Tenable Vulnerability Management is first at 54%.
Why models recommend it
“Tenable Nessus and Tenable Vulnerability Management rank as the best overall solution due to strong integrations and comprehensive capabilities.”Claude Haiku 4.5 · Comparative question · first choice
“the industry standard... Deep scans, excellent asset discovery, and best-in-class integrations, but costs more.”DeepSeek V4 Flash · Negative question · first choice
“For most companies with limited budget, I'd pick Nessus Professional”GPT-5.4 mini · Budget-constrained question · first choice
“For smaller mid-market deployments, consider Tenable Nessus Professional which offers similar scan quality at a lower price point.”Qwen 3.7 Flash · Direct question · alternative
What gives them pause
“Avoid standalone scanners unless you are a solo practitioner or a very small shop.”Qwen 3.7 Flash · Negative question · warning
“you might not yet have the massive security operations center (SOC) staffing required to justify the complexity of full-scale enterprise suites like Nessus Essentials”Qwen 3.7 Flash · Scale-constrained question · warning
“Many cheap providers run an automated scanner (like Nessus or Qualys), put a custom cover on the PDF, and sell it as a "penetration test."”Gemini 3.5 Flash · Scale-constrained question · warning
“Companies that run automated vulnerability scans (Nessus, OpenVAS, etc.) and repackage the results as a "penetration test"”Kimi K2 · Negative question · warning
Also on the shortlist
The products named in the same answers as Tenable Nessus, over the 88 answers that named it, and how often each was the first choice instead.
| Product | Named together | Picked instead | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 2 | View → | |
| 38 | 13 | View → | |
| 35 | 3 | View → | |
| 33 | 4 | View → | |
| 29 | 5 | View → | |
| 19 | 3 | View → | |
| 12 | 0 | View → | |
| 10 | 1 | View → | |
| 9 | 2 | View → | |
| 9 | 0 | View → |
What the models named instead of Tenable Nessus →
A side-by-side page exists where both products are among a category's top eight.
At a glance
Stated on Tenable Nessus's own site, not checked by Gane.
- For
- verified students and instructors
- Price stated
- free
- Free plan or trial
- a free one-year license to Nessus Essentials Plus
- Also from Tenable
- Tenable ASM / Tenable One, Tenable Attack Surface Management, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable OT, Tenable OT Security, Tenable One and 8 more
How this is measured
Fourteen AI models from 12 labs are asked the same buying questions six ways, for three company sizes. Standings refresh every edition.
Gane sells AI visibility software. No company can pay to change a result.
Read the method →Sources returned with these answers
Fourteen of the fourteen models returned a source list in this edition: five return the pages they cited and nine the search results they consulted. These counts come from 66 of the 88 answers that named Tenable Nessus and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
142 of the 159 domain citations in answers naming Tenable Nessus came from a third party's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
By model
| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Warning | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Grok 4.20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 |