Tenable Alternatives (2026): 9 Vulnerability & Exposure Platforms

This guide looks at 9 Tenable competitors that show up on shortlists — from classic VM players like Qualys and Rapid7 to cloud-first CNAPPs like Wiz and Orca, plus asset/exposure platforms like Armis and Axonius.

What You’ll Get From This Guide

• A clear shortlist of 9 Tenable alternatives mapped by coverage: traditional VM, Microsoft-native, endpoint-first VM, cloud CNAPP, and asset/exposure management.
• Field watchouts you should validate early: scan performance, alert noise, console complexity, licensing gotchas, and support experience.
• A practical PoC checklist to compare asset coverage, risk-based prioritization, performance impact, and integration fit with your existing stack.

Top 9 Tenable Alternatives

1. Qualys VMDR
2. Rapid7 InsightVM
3. Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management
4. CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight
5. Wiz
6. Orca Security
7. Prisma Cloud
8. Armis Centrix
9. Axonius

Let’s unpack each Tenable alternative by VM strengths, exposure coverage, pricing, and field watchouts.

1. Qualys: Cloud-First VMDR Rival to Tenable

Qualys is Tenable’s most direct like-for-like rival in vulnerability and exposure management. Its cloud-based VMDR platform discovers assets, scans for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations, and ties them to threat intel, while the Enterprise TruRisk Platform aggregates Qualys and third-party findings into a single risk scorecard across endpoints, servers, cloud, and apps.

Qualys field notes & watch-outs from users:

• A recurring theme in negative reviews is slow initial response from support (e.g., taking ~24 hours for a first reply) and frustration with the depth of technical assistance.
• Admins complain about very long scan durations and “time limit reached” errors in Web Application Scanning (WAS), with scans running 24+ hours before timing out or failing to crawl a full app.
• Teams have more potential IPs than licensed assets and are struggling with how to onboard, segment, and prioritize what gets scanned.

Qualys VMDR pricing starts around $199 per asset per year, so roughly $19,900/year for 100 assets, before discounts and bundles.

Overall, Qualys is powerful and scalable, but not “set-and-forget.” You get deep capabilities, but also more complexity, licensing overhead, and the odd operational surprise.

2. Rapid7 InsightVM: VM with Nexpose DNA

Rapid7 InsightVM is Tenable’s other major competitor in vulnerability and exposure management. The cloud-based successor to Nexpose, it focuses on “vulnerability risk management”, with live dashboards, risk-based prioritization, and deep integrations into ticketing, CI/CD, and the wider Rapid7 Insight platform (including InsightIDR) to turn findings into remediation.

Rapid7 InsightVM field notes & watch-outs from users:

• Several G2 and AWS Marketplace reviews mention that initial setup and overall administration are more complex than expected, especially for smaller teams without prior Rapid7 experience.
• Reviewers call out “awful” tech support and frustration with ticket handling, even though some customers are happy. A very mixed support experience.
• Some users report scans dying mid-run or needing multiple attempts to complete on certain sites, plus concerns about resource usage during large scans. This isn’t universal, but it shows a pattern to test in PoC.

Rapid7’s pricing lists tiered rates from $2.19/asset/month at 250 assets down to $1.93/asset/month at 500 assets and lower per-asset rates as you scale. 

The vibe from the field is that Rapid7 InsightVM offers good visibility and risk context, but you should expect extra work on setup, tuning, and support management, and you’ll want to validate scan performance and support responsiveness during trials.

3. Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management (MDVM) is Tenable’s biggest “already in our Microsoft license” alternative, providing continuous asset discovery plus vulnerability and misconfiguration assessment across Windows, macOS, Linux, mobile, and network devices. 

It delivers risk-based vulnerability management inside the Defender/XDR stack using endpoint telemetry, Microsoft threat intel, and tight integrations with Intune, Defender for Endpoint, and the broader Microsoft 365 security ecosystem.

MDVM field notes & watch-outs from users:

• MDVM scores well on Ease of Use and reporting/analytics. While some security folks are overwhelmed by all the panes, filters, and evidence views. 
• Practitioners trying to replicate Qualys/Tenable-style reports (e.g., “all open vulns per device”) complain that MDVM exports and filters don’t always line up with how they’re used to working.
• Recent coverage has also called out bugs like false end-of-life warnings for supported SQL Server versions inside Defender’s Threat & Vulnerability tools.

Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management pricing starts around $2–$3 per user per month, billed annually, roughly $24–$36 per user per year at list.

4. CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight: Endpoint-First VM

CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight is Tenable’s main competitor when buyers want vulnerability management built directly into their EDR instead of a separate scanner. It’s an endpoint-focused VM module on the Falcon agent that gives real-time exposure views and patch status, and plugs into the broader Falcon Exposure Management/RBVM stack with ExPRT.AI to prioritize vulnerabilities that are actually likely to be exploited, not just those with high CVSS scores.

CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight field notes & watch-outs from users:

• On review aggregators, Falcon Spotlight scores around 4.7/5 with ~150–165 reviews in the vulnerability assessment category.
• At the same time, some users mention less depth on certain app types or more work to replicate classic Tenable/Qualys-style reports.
• Because Spotlight rides on the Falcon agent, coverage is excellent for Falcon-managed endpoints, but you depend on Falcon being deployed everywhere you care about.
• CrowdStrike is heavily modular: core EDR, then Spotlight for VM, then additional modules for identity, IT hygiene, etc.

CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight pricing typically lands as an add-on of roughly $30–$100 per endpoint per year on top of Falcon EDR licenses. You can learn the full CrowdStrike pricing breakdown here.

Net takeaway on Spotlight is that it’s great if you’re already a Falcon shop and want VM in the same workflow, but it’s not a full Tenable/Qualys replacement and your TCO will depend heavily on how many Falcon modules you enable.

5. Wiz: Cloud-Native Exposure Management

Wiz is Tenable’s main modern rival when buyers say “exposure management” and mean cloud. It’s an agentless CNAPP platform that discovers cloud assets via APIs, surfaces vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, identity risks, and data exposure, then correlates them into “toxic combinations” and attack paths in a single graph-based view across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes, hence why cloud-heavy orgs often shortlist Wiz alongside Tenable One.

Wiz field notes & watch-outs from users:

• CISOs call out Wiz’s “single pane of glass” and “Best User Experience I have ever seen… full visibility to cloud workloads”, and highlight ease of use, quick setup, and strong visibility as top liked factors.
• Reviews repeatedly say Wiz can feel overwhelming at first because of the sheer amount of data and features, with a noticeable learning curve before teams fully understand and operationalize everything.
• Users like the security graph and context, but complain about limited export/reporting options and missing “nice-to-have” features, such as smoother ITSM integrations and more mature dashboarding.

Wiz pricing lands in $24-$38К range per year per 100 cloud workloads.

Traditional VM tools (Tenable, Qualys, Rapid7) appear cheaper because you can start small, while Wiz is very much an enterprise, sales-led platform. At real enterprise scale, though, other platforms’ per-asset pricing puts them in the same mid–five or six-figure ballpark as Wiz.

Net field takeaway on Wiz is that it’s loved for agentless cloud visibility and UX, but you pay for it in both dollars and operational maturity, and teams need time (and budget) to tune noise, workflows, and license mix.

6. Orca Security: Agentless CNAPP

Orca Security is one of the strongest Tenable alternatives for cloud-first exposure management. It’s an agentless CNAPP that connects to AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes via API, using its SideScanning tech to surface vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, identity risks, and data exposure in one place. It gives security teams visibility across multi-cloud environments, combining CSPM, CWPP, vuln management, and compliance in a single console.

Orca Security field notes & watch-outs from users:

• Users like that Orca connects in minutes with no agents to deploy and quickly gives coverage across workloads, containers, and serverless.
• A common dislike is that Orca throws a huge volume of findings, leading to alert fatigue and extra tuning work.
• Reviewers also say they “have to manipulate the numbers a lot to get the statistics we value” and that dashboards aren’t very helpful out of the box.
• Users describe Orca as rich and flexible but note an initial learning curve to tune policies, views, and alerts so teams aren’t overwhelmed.

Orca pricing lands in ~$7K/month → $30K/month per year even for “small” estates, and scales to six figures with more workloads.

Net vibe is that Orca Security is very well liked for agentless multi-cloud visibility and depth, but you pay for it in both budget and the effort required to tame alerts and dashboards.

7. Prisma Cloud: Сode-to-Сloud CNAPP with VM

Prisma Cloud is Palo Alto Networks’ cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP), giving code-to-cloud visibility into vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, identities, data exposure, and internet-facing assets across AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, and hybrid environments. It combines CSPM, CWPP, CIEM, data security, and vulnerability management in one platform, with both agentless and agent-based options.

Prisma Cloud field notes & watch-outs from users:

• The big plus is breadth: “if you can name it, Prisma probably does it”. Analyses describe Prisma Cloud as one of the most comprehensive CNAPPs on the market.
• The same sources nearly always flag complexity and learning curve as a trade-off: Prisma Cloud’s breadth means more knobs, dashboards, and concepts to learn.
• Roundups and comparison posts consistently mention Prisma Cloud as premium-priced, particularly for SMBs, even if the value lies in big estates.

Prisma Cloud pricing starts around $9,000–$18,000 per year for 100 credits, depending on edition, and scales with the number of resources and features you turn on.

Net vibe from the field is that Prisma Cloud is an “everything in one CNAPP” option. It’s great for big, Palo Alto-centric orgs that want end-to-end coverage, but heavy and pricey for smaller or less mature teams.

8. Armis Centrix: Exposure Management for IT/OT/IoT

Armis Centrix is an AI-powered cyber exposure management platform built on the Armis Asset Intelligence Engine, which tracks billions of assets worldwide to spot risky patterns and behaviors in real time. It provides continuous visibility, risk assessment, and vulnerability detection across IT, OT, IoT, IoMT, and cloud assets without agents, using passive network monitoring and integrations to discover both managed and unmanaged devices and surface vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and anomalous behavior in a single console.

Armis Centrix field notes & watch-outs from users:

• Reviewers call out user-friendly design, detailed device information, and responsive support/training as key pros.
• Some users report missing integrations with certain patch tools and a complex or difficult setup, plus extra effort to wire Armis fully into existing ecosystems.
• Users also mention false positives on unusual or older OT devices. Like with any very broad discovery platform, Armis needs tuning.

Armis Centrix pricing starts around ~$40K/year and scales into six figures for large estates.

Net sentiment on Armis Centrix is that it delivers excellent visibility and risk context across “all the weird devices” (OT/IoT/IoMT), but you need both budget and time for integrations and tuning.

9. Axonius: Сyber Asset & Exposure Management

Axonius is a cybersecurity asset management and exposure management platform that connects to your existing security and IT tools to build a single, de-duplicated inventory of devices, users, SaaS, and cloud assets, then layers on risk and exposure views. The newer Axonius Exposures module pulls in vulnerability findings and other security signals, correlates them with asset and business context, and gives a centralized exposure/risk view.

Axonius field notes & watch-outs from users:

• Users like that they can ingest data from many sources, normalize and correlate it, and then query things like “all Windows 10 devices missing CrowdStrike”
• Reviews call out benefits like finding rogue devices, systems with missing agents, or assets not in CMDB, and use it to validate real counts vs. what existing tools report.
• Users explicitly note Axonius is “much dependent on the number of management tools it integrates with (adapters)”, meaning you get the best results when you have AD, EDR, NAC, VA, NGFW, NMS, etc. connected and feeding it data.

Axonius costs around $55,000/year on average, with some customers paying up to ~$126,000/year, depending on asset count and environment complexity.

Net vibe is that Axonius is the “asset and exposure brain” on top of your existing stack—great if you already have multiple security tools and want unified visibility and risk context, but less compelling if you’re small or hoping it will replace scanning outright.

How to Shortlist the Best Tenable Alternative

At this stage, the real question is what to actually test in a PoC so you don’t regret your choice 6–12 months later. Here’s a simple checklist you can turn into a PoC plan:

That alone will tell you a lot about how they operate in the real world.

How to Make It All Not That Complex

You need someone to own the mess for you.

Each of Tenable’s alternatives promises “less noise” but also adds its own console, rules, and dashboards. The way out is deciding who’s responsible for tuning and running this stack 24/7.

That’s what UnderDefense can help with.

Instead of swapping platforms, you keep (or pick) the tools that fit your environment best — Tenable or a competitor for VM, your preferred EDR/XDR, SIEM, and cloud stack — and let a dedicated SOC run them as one 360° defense layer:

• We tune VM on your stack. Build the risk logic, suppression, and workflows so your vuln tool feeds clean, prioritized patching plans instead of endless PDFs.
• We operate EDR/XDR and SIEM 24/7: triaging alerts, hunting, and containing real threats in minutes using pre-agreed playbooks.
• We unify the story: asset exposure, vulnerabilities, detections, and incidents all tied back to the same business context and metrics (MTTR, coverage, risk reduction), not five different dashboards.
• We own the day-two work: integrations, runbooks, tuning after every new rule pack or product update, keeping performance acceptable and noise down.
• We combine AI and human judgment. UnderDefense MAXI acts as the SOC engine that crushes noise and correlates signals, while human analysts focus on risky and legally sensitive cases, so you get real 24/7 coverage without alert fatigue.

So instead of asking “Which Tenable alternative is perfect?” you can ask a simpler question:

“Which combination of tools works best for us if UnderDefense SOC runs and tunes VM + detection 24/7 and keeps 360° security steady?”

Pick 1–2 vendors for VM/exposure that fit your estate, and let a security expert team turn that choice into outcomes. We can augment your SOC or become it.

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