Nessus, Qualys, Acunetix. Pick the right tool for your team. No sales call required.
Three in-depth breakdowns of how Metric Tower stacks up against the incumbents.
Where Nessus shines
Tenable Nessus is one of the oldest vulnerability scanners, with deep CVE coverage and strong air-gapped deployment options for large enterprises.
Where Metric Tower stands out
MetricTower adds built-in phishing simulation, credential intelligence, and AI finding correlation, plus credit-based pricing with a free tier.
Where Qualys shines
Qualys VMDR is an enterprise cloud scanner suite with mature compliance automation and a broad multi-product portfolio.
Where Metric Tower stands out
MetricTower keeps it simple: one modular platform, transparent credit pricing, and a free tier you can try without a sales call.
Where Acunetix shines
Invicti Acunetix is a dedicated DAST tool with a strong web crawler and interactive application security testing.
Where Metric Tower stands out
MetricTower covers DAST plus recon, SSL, email security, phishing, and credential intel. One platform for the whole attack surface.
The patterns we hear from teams moving away from legacy tooling.
Credits cost 0.01 per module by default. No per-seat lock-in. Purchased credits never expire. Pay for what you scan, not what you plan to scan.
Laravel + Livewire with a persistent WebSocket. Watch every module complete in real time. No polling, no dashboards stuck at 95%.
Multi-tenant built into the data model, not bolted on. Every scan, finding, and integration is team-scoped with explicit ownership checks.
Over a dozen free tools run without signup. Register for the Free plan and scan a real target before ever talking to sales.
What's included where. An em dash ("—") means we couldn't verify from public sources; check the vendor's site for the latest.
| Feature | Metric Tower | Nessus | Qualys | Acunetix |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vulnerability scanning (CVE/NVD) | ||||
| DAST / web app scanning | ~ | |||
| Built-in phishing simulation | ||||
| Credential intelligence (leaks) | ~ | |||
| AI finding correlation | ~ | ~ | — | |
| Uptime + DNS + SSL monitoring | ~ | |||
| Public status pages | ||||
| Team-scoped multi-tenant (built in) | ~ | ~ | ||
| Free tier with real scanning | — | |||
| Free public tools (no signup) | ||||
| CI/CD exports (SARIF, JSON) | ||||
| Docker sidecar tool isolation | ||||
| Transparent public pricing | ~ | |||
| Air-gapped deployment | — | — |
No sales call, no procurement cycle. Register for the Free plan and run a real scan today.