Nessus pricing: plans, license costs, and alternatives

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Nessus pricing varies by license and product tier rather than by named user. Tenable lists free and annual non-commercial options alongside commercial Nessus Professional and Nessus Expert licenses, while Qualys and Rapid7 InsightVM use different pricing units. The figures below reflect published prices checked on October 18, 2026.

Pricing at a glance#

Nessus Essentials is for non-commercial use and can scan up to 5 IPs. Nessus Essentials Plus is also non-commercial and has a 20-IP scan limit. Nessus Professional is listed for commercial use with unlimited IPs, while Nessus Expert includes the Nessus Professional features plus web app scanning and external attack surface discovery scanning, according to Tenable.

Check Tenable pricing

Cost at 10, 50 and 200 users#

Nessus Professional and Nessus Expert are sold as licenses, not per-user subscriptions. Their published list prices do not change with headcount: Nessus Professional costs $4,790 for one year, and Nessus Expert costs $6,790 for one year, according to Tenable. Therefore, 10-user, 50-user, and 200-user calculations are not applicable.

Nessus Essentials and Nessus Essentials Plus are also not priced per user. Their published prices are Free for Nessus Essentials and $199/year for Nessus Essentials Plus, with the latter limited to non-commercial use, according to Tenable.

Qualys pricing depends on the selected Cloud Platform Apps, network addresses, web applications, and user licenses. The sources we checked do not publish a single list price that can be calculated for 10, 50, or 200 users.

Rapid7 InsightVM is priced per asset, not per user. Its published starting price is $1.62/mo for 500 assets, per asset, so user-count rows would not represent its licensing unit, according to Rapid7.

What each plan excludes#

• Nessus Essentials: Commercial and production use are excluded. The plan is for non-commercial use, has a 30-day license, and supports scanning up to 5 IPs rather than unlimited IPs.
• Nessus Essentials Plus: Commercial and production use are excluded. It has a 20-IP scan limit and does not include unlimited IPs for network scanning, compliance checks, content audits, data exports, Live Results, expanded report options, or technical support, according to Tenable.
• Nessus Professional: The sources checked do not publish a separate exclusion list for this plan.
• Nessus Expert: The sources checked do not publish a separate exclusion list for this plan. Tenable lists web app scanning and external attack surface discovery scanning as additions to the Nessus Professional features, according to Tenable.

Cheaper alternatives#

“Cheaper” depends on the licensing unit and required coverage, so the published figures are not directly equivalent to a Nessus user price.

• Qualys: The sources checked do not publish a list price. Qualys says pricing depends on Cloud Platform Apps, network addresses, web applications, and user licenses. It lists unlimited scans, unlimited Cloud Agents for inventory, free training, and support as included with all subscriptions, according to Qualys.
• Rapid7 InsightVM: Rapid7 lists a starting price of $1.62/mo for 500 assets, per asset. This is an asset-based price rather than a per-user price, according to Rapid7.

FAQ#

Is Nessus Essentials free?

Yes. Nessus Essentials is listed as Free, with a 30-day license, and is intended for non-commercial use, according to Tenable.

How much is Nessus Professional?

Nessus Professional is listed at $4,790 for a 1 year license. Tenable also lists $9,330.95 for 2 years and $13,637.54 for 3 years, according to Tenable.

How much is Nessus Expert?

Nessus Expert is listed at $6,790 for a 1 year license. The 2-year price is $13,208.13, and the 3-year price is $19,304.19, according to Tenable.

Does Nessus pricing depend on the number of users?

The Nessus prices checked are presented as license prices, not per-user prices. The sources checked do not provide 10-user, 50-user, or 200-user Nessus price tiers.

Can Nessus Essentials be used commercially?

No. Tenable states that Nessus Essentials and Nessus Essentials Plus are for personal, educational, and non-commercial purposes only, while Nessus Professional is listed for commercial use, according to Tenable.