Vulnerability management software finds weaknesses across your hosts, containers, cloud and code, ranks them by risk, and tracks them through to remediation. The category runs from classic network scanners to platforms that aggregate findings from many scanners into one backlog.
This page is for security engineers and small IT teams. It mixes commercial platforms (Tenable, Qualys, Rapid7, Snyk) with open-source options for scanning (Greenbone, Trivy), monitoring (Wazuh) and finding management (DefectDojo). Open-source licences were read from each repository on 2026-11-07.
Tools, licences and pricing checked against vendor and repository pages on November 7, 2026.
1. Tenable
CommercialBest for: Network and asset scanning at team to enterprise scale · Nessus Professional $4,790 per year; Nessus Expert $6,790 per year; Tenable One Vulnerability Management from $3,500 per year (100 assets).
Tenable sells Nessus, a vulnerability scanner that finds flaws, missing patches and misconfigurations, and Tenable Vulnerability Management, a cloud platform for tracking assets and vulnerability data. Risk scoring uses CVSS and EPSS.
Strengths
- + Long-established scanner with published prices
- + CVSS and EPSS-based prioritisation
Trade-offs
- − Annual licences are a large upfront spend for small teams
2. Qualys VMDR
CommercialBest for: Enterprises wanting scanning, prioritisation and patching in one platform · See vendor pricing; 30-day no-cost trial offered.
Qualys VMDR is a risk-based vulnerability management app on the Qualys Enterprise TruRisk Platform. It combines asset discovery, TruRisk scoring, patching and remediation workflows, and uses cloud agents, scanners and sensors.
Strengths
- + Broad sensor options including agents and container sensors
- + Built-in patching and ITSM integrations
3. Rapid7 InsightVM
CommercialBest for: Teams wanting vulnerability data with attack-surface context · See vendor pricing.
InsightVM is Rapid7's vulnerability management technology and now powers its Exposure Command offering. It adds attack-surface and cloud context at higher package levels.
Strengths
- + Unified view with attack-surface and cloud findings
- + Focus on risks reachable by attackers
Trade-offs
- − Pricing sits behind Exposure Command packages
4. Snyk
CommercialBest for: Developer-first application security scanning · Free plan; Team from $25 per month (up to 10 developers).
Snyk scans application code, open-source dependencies, containers and infrastructure-as-code. The Free plan covers SCA, SAST, IaC and container scanning with 5 projects.
Strengths
- + Free plan includes four scan types
- + Fits into developer workflows and Jira
Trade-offs
- − Free plan limits projects to 5 and Snyk Code tests to 100 per month
5. Greenbone OpenVAS
GPL-2.0Best for: Self-hosted network vulnerability scanning · Free, open source (self-hosted); enterprise-feed products are paid via vendor.
Greenbone's free OpenVAS edition provides vulnerability scans, reports and coverage for consumer-grade software. Enterprise-grade coverage, alerts, API access and support are in the paid products. The scanner repository is GPL-2.0-only for the C module.
Strengths
- + Free scanner with a long history
- + Open-source scanner code
Trade-offs
- − Free feed omits enterprise software coverage and API access
6. DefectDojo
BSD-3-ClauseBest for: Consolidating findings from many scanners · Free, open source (Community Edition, self-hosted); DefectDojo Pro is paid, see vendor pricing.
DefectDojo is an open-source vulnerability management and ASPM platform that coordinates scans, tracks findings, removes duplicates, supports remediation and produces reports.
Strengths
- + Deduplicates findings across scanners
- + Reporting and remediation tracking
Trade-offs
- − Pro features sit behind a paid edition
7. Wazuh
GPL-2.0Best for: Open-source host monitoring plus vulnerability detection · Free, open source
Wazuh is a free, open-source platform combining XDR and SIEM for endpoints and cloud workloads, with a vulnerability detection capability among its features. The repository is mostly GPL-2.0 with the engine under AGPL-3.0.
Strengths
- + No licence fee
- + Combines detection, monitoring and response
Trade-offs
- − Broader than pure vulnerability scanning, so more to set up
8. Trivy
Apache-2.0Best for: Scanning images and repos inside CI · Free, open source
Trivy finds known vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, secrets and SBOMs across containers, Kubernetes, code repositories and cloud environments.
Strengths
- + One scanner for many target types
- + Easy to run in pipelines
Trade-offs
- − Scanner only; you need another tool to track remediation
