Small business▲+4Since September 2026: 2% → 6%, +4 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
6%from 2% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 7 pointsRank 7 → 3 of 76
Tenable · 4 categories · RankedTenable Nessus
88Judge labels
6First choices
33Negative labels
14 / 14Models named it
4Categories
October 2026 Edition. Every number here is derived from the raw labels under vendor table v2026-10.8, every buyer segment counted.
Best standing
5% in Vuln management for small business buyers
Rank 8 of 77 in the mid-market standingcriticized challenger
0 of 14 models made it the first choice on the direct prompt; 30% of its 23 labels there were negative.
What the models named instead of Tenable Nessus →By buyer segmentRead the same way at every buyer size.
Small business3 of 82
5%37 labels
criticized challenger
Mid-market8 of 77
4%23 labels
criticized challenger
Enterprise63 of 68
0%8 labels
under the label threshold
In vuln management · each standing computed within its segment · bars are 0 to 100 · the accent bar is the product's own best reading
Standing by category
Every category where a model named Tenable Nessus for a mid-market B2B company. Share is first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts; rank is within every product named in that category.
| Category | Function | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant | Since September 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vulnerability management platforms | Security operations | 4% | 8 of 77 | 30% | 23 | criticized challenger | =heldSince September 2026: 5% → 4%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Breach and attack simulation | Security operations | 2% | 18 of 74 | 0% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by Cymulate at 24% | |
| Penetration testing as a service | Security operations | 0% | 30 of 82 | 0% | 3 | under 10 labels · led by Cobalt at 45% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. |
| Dynamic application security testing | Developer platform | 0% | 55 of 58 | 100% | 1 | under 10 labels · led by OWASP ZAP at 29% |
Movement
Since September 2026, Tenable Nessus held within the floor in all four categories: no change cleared 11 points.
Best category · Vuln management · by segment
Mid-market=heldSince September 2026: 5% → 4%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
4%from 5% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 6 → 7 of 74
Enterprise=heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked.
0%from 0% in September 2026
Inside the floor by 11 pointsRank 50 → 60 of 62
All categories · Mid-market
| Category | September 2026 | Now | Change | Reading | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAS | 0% | 2% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 2% now. | New this edition | Rank 18 of 74, unchanged |
| Vuln management | 5% | 4% | =heldSince September 2026: 5% → 4%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 6 → 8 of 77 |
| PTaaS | 0% | 0% | =heldSince September 2026: 0% → 0%, ±0 points. Inside the 11-point floor: within noise. Read over the models both editions asked. | Within noise | Rank 69 → 30 of 82 |
| DAST | 0% | 0% | newNew since September 2026: not ranked then, 0% now. | New this edition | Rank 55 of 58, unchanged |
Shares here are read over the models both editions asked, so they can differ by a point or two from the standing above, which counts every model in this edition.
The floor is 11 points of share, measured: how far the models move a leader on their own when the same questions are asked twice with nothing changed. A larger change is movement; a smaller one is noise, and both are shown. Movement is read over the twelve models both editions asked; GPT-6 Luna, Muse Glimmer 30B joined this edition and are in the standing but not yet in the comparison. How the floor is measured · The editions
By model
How each model treated Tenable Nessus across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.ShowHide
By model
How each model treated Tenable Nessus across every prompt where it was named for a mid-market B2B company. Fourteen models, six prompts per category.
ShowHide| Model | First choice | Alternative | Mention | Negative | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Perplexity Sonar | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Grok 4.20 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Mistral Small | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Kimi K2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| MiniMax M2.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| GPT-6 Luna | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
By framing
Which of the six questions produced the naming. By model says how often; this says asked what. The first-choice count on the right carries the marks of the models that produced it.
FramingLabels by classFirst choices
Direct8 labelsNone
Paraphrase19 labels5
Comparative13 labels1not counted in share
Budget-constrained23 labels1
Scale-constrained2 labelsNone
Negative23 labelsNone
First choiceAlternativeMentionNegative88 labels in all, every segment counted; 6 of the 7 first choices count toward share, since the comparative and negative framings do not. The bar is one segment per label class, to scale within the framing.
What the models said for it
Verbatim evidence the judge attached to positive labels.
“the best starting point is Nessus Essentials (free) + a free vulnerability feed for on‑prem scanning” GLM 4.7 FlashX · Vuln management · budget prompt · first choice
“Start with a vulnerability scanner (Nessus or OpenVAS for cost-effectiveness)” Claude Haiku 4.5 · BAS · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“I'd recommend Tenable Nessus Professional as the starting point” Grok 4.20 · Vuln management · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“useful for getting started with proven scanning technology, with the limitation of scan limits and lack of centralized reporting” Muse Glimmer 30B · Vuln management · budget prompt · alternative
And against it
Verbatim evidence attached to negative labels. A warning on a product with few labels is a warning; on a product with many, it is one voice among them.
“Avoid trying to scrape out a "Free" version of Nessus; Tenable discontinued its unlimited community scanner” Qwen 3.7 Flash · Vuln management · budget prompt · hard negative
“Avoid Standalone "Point-in-Time" Scanners for Enterprise VM ... Why to avoid them for enterprise VM” Gemini 3.5 Flash · Vuln management · negative prompt · hard negative
“The Verdict: Avoid for deep web application testing.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · DAST · negative prompt · hard negative
“scanners like older Nessus/OpenVAS versions criticized for inaccurate Windows scans or signature mismatches” Grok 4.20 · Vuln management · negative prompt · soft negative
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Tenable Nessus, over the 83 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Tenable Nessus was named but was not.ShowHide
Named alongside
The products named in the same answers as Tenable Nessus, over the 83 answers that named it. Took the first choice instead counts the answers where the other product was the first choice and Tenable Nessus was named but was not.
ShowHideProductSame answerTook the first choice insteadHead to head
A head-to-head page exists where both products are among a category's top eight. The other rows are the same fact without a page behind them, so they link to the product instead.
What carried it into the answer
The sites and pages cited by the answers that named Tenable Nessus. A fact about retrieval, not a lever on the model.
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list, five of the fourteen in this edition, so these counts come from 73 of the 83 answers that named Tenable Nessus and are not a share of its labels.
Domains cited
techrepublic.com30
vicarius.io29
orca.security27
axis-intelligence.com26
tenable.comYour site26
g2.com24
upguard.com22
comparitech.com19
en.softonic.com18
motadata.com18
213 of the 239 domain citations in answers naming Tenable Nessus came from somebody else's page.
Pages cited
Pages are listed as the models cited them.
Search and answers
Where Tenable Nessus stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.ShowHide
Search and answers
Where Tenable Nessus stands in Google search beside where it stands in the models' answers.
ShowHideIn search
Google, US estimates- Searches for its name, Google
- 2,400 a month (“tenable nessus”)
- AI search demand for its name, est.
- 207 a month
- Its own site
- It sits on Tenable's site (tenable.com), so there are no site figures for it alone
In answers
This editionShare of first choices
4%
rank 8 of 77 in vuln management
Segment leader
30%
Rapid7 InsightVM
- First choices
- 6 across its categories
- Named in
- 83 answers
- Its own site cited
- in 73 of the answers that named it
Search figures are US estimates from DataForSEO, read September 28, 2026; AI search demand is its modeled, directional estimate, not a count of queries to any assistant. The answers are this edition's. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Names read as Tenable Nessus
What the judge wrote, as written, with how often. The vendor table decides that these count as Tenable Nessus; a claim can dispute any of them.
Nessus 10Nessus Essentials 3Nessus Professional 3Nessus (Tenable) 2Tenable Nessus Professional 2Nessus Pro 1Tenable Nessus / Tenable Vulnerability Management 1Tenable Nessus Essentials 1Tenable Nessus Pro 1Tenable Nessus Professional / Expert 1Tenable One/Nessus 1
Follow Tenable Nessus
An email the morning each edition publishes: where this product moved, where it held, and by how much against the noise floor. One address, confirmed by a click; a stop link in every email.
Already following? Everything you follow, with a stop for each.
The company
Tenable is the company behind Tenable Nessus.ShowHide
The company
Tenable is the company behind Tenable Nessus.
ShowHideOn record
Company recordsIn its own words
Stated by the vendor, not checked- Positioning
- Get free access to Tenable Nessus for education
- For
- verified students and instructors
- Price stated
- free tenable.com/tenable-nessus-for-education
- Free plan or trial
- a free one-year license to Nessus Essentials Plus tenable.com/tenable-nessus-for-education
- Not stated on the pages read
- Starting price, integrations, certifications, hosting, customers
What Tenable Nessus's own pages state, read September 28, 2026: tenable.com/tenable-nessus-for-education, docs.tenable.com/nessus/Content/Scanners.htm, docs.tenable.com/nessus/Content/Compliance.htm, docs.tenable.com/nessus/Content/Vulnerabilities.htm, docs.tenable.com/general-requirements/Content/nessus-network-monitor-software-requirements.htm. A claimed page can correct any of them.
Is this your product?
Claim this page
Claiming is free and changes nothing in the data. A claimed page shows a verified contact who is told when each edition publishes and when Tenable Nessus's standing changes by more than the noise floor; the right to propose corrections to the vendor table, meaning names the judge wrote that should or should not read as Tenable Nessus, applied by version and listed in the change log; and a one-line description supplied by the vendor and marked as such.
What a new claim receivesHide what a new claim receives
A new claim receives the current edition's vendor brief for Tenable Nessus by email, built from the raw record of the edition. It shows:
- where Tenable Nessus is named, by buyer and by framing, and which cells hold its first choices;
- the claims the models make when they name it, ranked, with the strongest and the weakest quoted;
- its vocabulary against the segment leader's, and the pages the models cited;
- who was chosen in the answers that did not name Tenable Nessus, and every reason the record gives;
- a battlecard for each top rival: the head-to-head split, why they win, and the reservation quoted against them;
- one page of published figures cleared to show a buyer.