Free Nessus AlternativesTop Vulnerability Scanners and other similar apps like Nessus

The best free alternative to Nessus is SiteOne Crawler, which is also Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to Nessus and many of them is free so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free alternatives to Nessus are Metasploit, OpenVAS, PhoneSploit Pro and Sucuri.

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Nessus alternatives are mainly Vulnerability Scanners but may also be Penetration Testing Tools or SEO Tools.  Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Nessus.
Nessus iconNessus
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Identify system vulnerabilities with automated assessments and prioritize remediation through a scoring system, offering guidance for all experience levels.

More about Nessus
Nessus alternatives page was last updated Feb 24, 2025
  1. SiteOne Crawler icon
     16 likes

    A free in-depth website analyzer providing audits of security, performance, SEO, accessibility and other technical aspects. Available as a desktop application for Windows/macOS/Linux and as a CLI tool for advanced users and CI/CD processes. It also includes an offline web page exporter.

    22 SiteOne Crawler alternatives
    A collage showing the graphical interface and crawler output

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Top SiteOne Crawler Features

    1.  Performance analysis
    2.  Graphical User Interface
    3.  Save web page for offline use
    4.  Daily Website Analysis
    5.  Ad-free
    6.  Command line interface
    7.  No Coding Required
    8.  Dark Mode
    9.  Multiplatform
    10.  Accessibility Testing
    11.  Security Testing
    12.  Electron based
    SiteOne Crawler iconNessus Icon

    SiteOne Crawler VS Nessus

    Is SiteOne Crawler a good alternative to Nessus?
     
    • SiteOne Crawler is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to Nessus.

    • SiteOne Crawler is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Nessus.

    • SiteOne Crawler is Free and Open SourceNessus is Paid and Proprietary
  2. Metasploit icon
     42 likes

    Metasploit Community Edition simplifies network discovery and vulnerability verification for specific exploits, increasing the effectiveness of vulnerability scanners such as Nexpose - for free. This helps prioritize remediation and eliminate false positives, providing true...

    20 Metasploit alternatives
    Metasploit screenshot 1

    License model

    • Free PersonalOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD

    Metasploit Features

    1.  Security Testing
    Metasploit iconNessus Icon

    Metasploit VS Nessus

    Is Metasploit a good alternative to Nessus?
     
  3. OpenVAS icon
     23 likes

    The Open Vulnerability Assessment System (OpenVAS) is a framework of several services and tools offering a comprehensive and powerful vulnerability scanning and vulnerability management solution.

    27 OpenVAS alternatives
    OpenVAS screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreemiumOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux

    OpenVAS Features

    1.  Vulnerability management
    OpenVAS iconNessus Icon

    OpenVAS VS Nessus

    Is OpenVAS a good alternative to Nessus?
     
  4. PhoneSploit Pro icon
     7 likes

    An all-in-one hacking tool to remotely exploit Android devices using ADB and Metasploit-Framework to get a Meterpreter session.

    19 PhoneSploit Pro alternatives
    PhoneSploit Pro screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    PhoneSploit Pro Features

    1.  Command line interface
    PhoneSploit Pro iconNessus Icon

    PhoneSploit Pro VS Nessus

    Is PhoneSploit Pro a good alternative to Nessus?
     
  5. Sucuri icon
     8 likes

    A web security portfolio offering a combination of on-premise installed security software in conjunction with a cloud hosted web application firewall and CDN.

    57 Sucuri alternatives
    Sucuri screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreemiumProprietary

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted
    • Wordpress

    Sucuri Features

    1.  Website Monitoring
    Sucuri iconNessus Icon

    Sucuri VS Nessus

    Is Sucuri a good alternative to Nessus?
     
    • Sucuri is the most popular Self-Hosted alternative to Nessus.

    • Sucuri is Freemium and ProprietaryNessus is Paid and Proprietary
  6. OpenSCAP icon
     4 likes

    SCAP is a line of standards managed by NIST. It was created to provide a standardized approach to maintaining the security of enterprise systems, such as automatically verifying the presence of patches, checking system security configuration settings, and examining systems for...

    13 OpenSCAP alternatives
    OpenSCAP screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    OpenSCAP iconNessus Icon

    OpenSCAP VS Nessus

    Is OpenSCAP a good alternative to Nessus?
     
  7. Whitespots icon
     3 likes

    📈 Measure and control your application security state; 🔎 Scan your code, containers, web and mobile applications; 🔥 Remove duplicates, validate results, and create Jira tasks in seconds; 🕜 Save your engineers time and automate your processes; ? Self-hosted.

    16 Whitespots alternatives
    Scanner sequence

    License model

    • FreemiumProprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted

    Whitespots Features

    1.  Vulnerability management
    2.  Vulnerability Assessment
    Whitespots iconNessus Icon

    Whitespots VS Nessus

    Is Whitespots a good alternative to Nessus?
     
  8. nuclei icon
     1 like

    Nuclei is used to send requests across targets based on a template, leading to zero false positives and providing fast scanning on a large number of hosts. Nuclei offers scanning for a variety of protocols, including TCP, DNS, HTTP, SSL, File, Whois, Websocket, Headless etc.

    21 nuclei alternatives
    How it works

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    nuclei Features

    1.  Vulnerability Assessment
    nuclei iconNessus Icon

    nuclei VS Nessus

    Is nuclei a good alternative to Nessus?
     
  9. skipfish icon
     13 likes

    A fully automated, active web application security reconnaissance tool. Key features: High speed: pure C code, highly optimized HTTP handling, minimal CPU footprint - easily achieving 2000 requests per second with responsive targets.

    27 skipfish alternatives
    at work, during scanning

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD

    skipfish Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Heuristic Detection
    Discontinued

    Skipfish is no longer maintained. Last version, 2.10 beta, released in December 2012, can be still downloaded from Google Code Archive

    skipfish iconNessus Icon

    skipfish VS Nessus

    Is skipfish a good alternative to Nessus?
     
  10. HostedScan Security icon
     3 likes

    HostedScan provides 24x7 alerts and detection for security vulnerabilities. Industry-standard, open-source, vulnerability scans. Automated alerts when something changes. Manage target list manually or import automatically from providers, such as AWS, DigitalOcean, and Linode...

    10 HostedScan Security alternatives
    Home Page

    License model

    • FreemiumProprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)

    HostedScan Security Features

    1.  Security Testing
    HostedScan Security iconNessus Icon

    HostedScan Security VS Nessus

    Is HostedScan Security a good alternative to Nessus?
     
    • HostedScan Security is the most popular SaaS alternative to Nessus.

    • HostedScan Security is Freemium and ProprietaryNessus is Paid and Proprietary
  11. Tsunami icon
     2 likes

    A general purpose network security scanner with an extensible plugin system for detecting high severity vulnerabilities with high confidence.

    18 Tsunami alternatives
    Tsunami Quick Start

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Self-Hosted

    Tsunami Features

    1.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    2.  Vulnerability Assessment
    Tsunami iconNessus Icon

    Tsunami VS Nessus

    Is Tsunami a good alternative to Nessus?
     
  12. Probely icon
     15 likes

    Probely is a top-tier cloud-based DAST Scanner designed for DevOps, empowering Security and Development teams to work together to secure their web applications and APIs.

    28 Probely alternatives
    Scan page

    License model

    • FreemiumProprietary

    Platforms

    • Online

    Probely Features

    1.  Multiple Account support
    2.  REST API
    3.  API Integration
    4. JIRA icon  Jira integration
    5. Slack icon  Slack integration
    6.  API Scan
    7.  SQL Injection Protection
    8.  Free API
    Probely iconNessus Icon

    Probely VS Nessus

    Is Probely a good alternative to Nessus?
     
12 of 29 Nessus alternatives