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Greenbone / OpenVAS
Open-source vulnerability scanner descended from Nessus — free Community Edition, paid appliances for enterprise.
Free tier: Greenbone Community Edition — fully free, self-hosted
What it does well
- Fully-featured, free Community Edition for self-hosting without scanning limits.
- Extensive vulnerability database (NVTs) is updated regularly, even for the free version.
- Highly customizable scans and detailed, exportable reports for compliance and remediation.
Where it falls short
- Initial setup and ongoing maintenance of the self-hosted version can be complex.
- The user interface is functional but less polished than modern commercial SaaS tools.
- The free community feed has a delay for updates compared to the paid enterprise version.
Alternatives to Greenbone / OpenVAS
Tenable Nessus
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OWASP ZAP
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Nmap
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