12 BEST Vulnerability Scanning Tools (2024)

DevOps Tools

Vulnerability scanners are automated tools that constantly evaluate the software system’s security risks to identify security vulnerabilities.

Following is a handpicked list of Top Vulnerability Scanning Tools, with its popular features and website links. The list contains both open source(free) and commercial(paid) website vulnerability scanner tools.

BEST Web Vulnerability Scanning Tools

Name Supported Platform Free Trial Link
Acunetix Windows, Mac and Linux 15-Days Free Trial Learn More
Intruder Windows, Mac and Linux 30-Days Free Trial Learn More
ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus Windows, Mac and Linux 30-Day Free Trial Learn More
Teramind Windows & MacOS 14-Day Free Trial Learn More
Security Event Manager Windows, Mac and Linux 30-Day Free Trial Learn More

1) Acunetix

Intuitive and easy to use software, Acunetix by Invicti assists small to medium-sized organizations ensure their web applications and secure from costly data breaches. It can detect vulnerabilities and a wide range of web security issues and help security and development professionals act instantly to resolve them.

It lets you schedule scans to run daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. This tool supports external scans and web applications, and it also comes with automated web asset discovery for identifying abandoned or forgotten websites.

Acunetix

Features:

  • Discovering vulnerabilities: This tool offers combined interactive and dynamic application security testing to uncover vulnerabilities other tools miss. Proof of exploit is provided for many types of vulnerabilities, and additionally, you get advanced scanning for over 7,000 web vulnerabilities that include OWASP top 10, such as XSS and SQLi .
  • Crawl every corner: It is one of the top vulnerability scanning tools that offers an advanced crawler for the most complex web apps, including multi-form and password-protected areas.
  • Integrations: It seamlessly integrates with Azure DevOps, JIRA, GitHub, GitLab, Bugzilla, and Mantis. Acunetix includes DevOps automation through integrations with popular issue tracking and CI/CD tools.
  • Supported compliances: Acunetix supports compliance standards such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and GDPR
  • Other features: Acunetix offers the highest detection rate, lowest false positives, and web server configuration detection, user-friendly interface, it also easily re-launches scans on modified areas of a website and includes automatic custom error page detection.
  • Support: It provides customer support through ticket and contact forms.
  • Supported Platforms: This web application vulnerability scanner can run on Windows, Mac and Linux
  • Price: Request a Quote from Sales
  • Free Trial: 15 Days Free Trial

Pros

  • It is one of the best vulnerability scanner tools that has a customizable dashboard.
  • Acunetix supports importing state files from other widely used apps.
  • Its customer support is responsive.

Cons

  • It doesn’t support multiple endpoints.
  • User management can be slightly challenging.

Visit Acunetix >>

15 Days Free Trial


2) Intruder

Intruder is a powerful vulnerability scanner that discovers security vulnerabilities across your IT environment. Offering industry-leading security checks, continuous monitoring, and an easy-to-use platform, Intruder keeps businesses of all sizes safe from hackers.

You can set Intruder scans to run monthly, apart from this interval setting, it provides auto-scans. It offers AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud connectors and has API integration with your CI/CD pipeline.

Intruder

Features

  • Scans: You can check for configuration weaknesses, missing patches, application weaknesses (such as SQL injection & cross-site scripting), and more. This tool offers automatic analysis and prioritization of scan results.
  • Security checks: Intruder is one of the best-in-class threat coverage with over 10,000 security checks. It provides proactive security monitoring for the latest vulnerabilities.
  • Integrations: It seamlessly integrates with GCP, API & developer, GitHub, ServiceNow, Atlassian Jira, Slack, and Microsoft Teams
  • Supported compliance: Intruder supports compliance standards such as GDPR, PCI DSS, ISO 27001, and SOC 2.
  • Other features: This web application security scanners supports internal scan, external scan, network scan, cloud scan, and web applications. It offers emerging threat scans, smart recon, noise reduction, and comprehensive coverage.
  • Support: It provides customer support through chat and email
  • Supported Platforms: It is one of the top vulnerability scanning tools that run on OS like Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Price: Plans start at $182 a month. 10% Discount on Yearly Payments.
  • Free Trial: 30 Days Free Trial

Pros

  • It provides a real view of your attack surface with continuous monitoring.
  • Intruder offers continuous penetration testing.
  • It automatically scans newly found services.

Cons

  • The reports could be more detailed.
  • It takes time to scan unauthenticated websites.

Visit Intruder >>

30 Days Free Trial


3) ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus

ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus is a prioritization-focused threat and vulnerability management software offering built-in patch management.

It allows you to set scans to run daily, weekly, and monthly. This platform can audit end-of-life software, peer-to-peer and insecure remote desktop sharing software, and active ports in your network. It helps automate and customize patches to Windows, macOS, Linux, and more.

ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus

Features

  • Vulnerability management: It can assess and prioritize exploitable and impactful vulnerabilities with a risk-based vulnerability assessment. Additionally, this tool can identify zero-day vulnerabilities and implement workarounds before fixes arrive.
  • Security configuration management: It can continually detect vulnerabilities and remediate misconfigurations with security configuration management. You receive security recommendations to set up your servers in a way that’s free from multiple attack variants.
  • Integrations: It seamlessly integrates with Zoho, Site24x7, ServiceDesk Plus, ServiceNow, Zendesk, ServiceDesk Plus Cloud, Jira, Freshservice, ADSelfService Plus, PAM360, Syslog, and Splunk.
  • Supported compliances: ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus supports compliance standards such as SOX, HIPAA, PCI, GDPR, GLBA, and FISMA.
  • Other features: It offers vulnerability assessment, network scan, patch management, security configuration management, web server hardening, high-risk software audit, and zero-day vulnerability mitigation.
  • Support: It provides customer support through chat, email, and phone.
  • Supported Platforms: This tool supports Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Price: Request a Quote from Sales.
  • Free Trial: 30 Days Free Trial

Pros

  • It offers anti-virus audits and lets you know which ones are inactive, absent, or need updating.
  • This is one of the best web application scanners that provides reports with a holistic view and actionable insight.
  • It can automatically deploy patches to over 500 third-party apps.

Cons

  • The patches may not get approved automatically.
  • Sometimes, it may generate false positives.

Visit ManageEngine >>

30 Days Free Trial


4) Teramind

Teramind delivers a comprehensive suite for insider threat prevention and employee monitoring. It enhances security through behavior analytics and data loss prevention, ensuring compliance and optimizing business processes. Its customizable platform suits various organizational needs, providing actionable insights that focus on boosting productivity and safeguarding data integrity.

Teramind

Features:

  • Insider Threat Prevention: Detects and prevents user actions that may indicate insider threats to data.
  • Business Process Optimization: Utilizes data-driven behavior analytics to redefine operational processes.
  • Workforce Productivity: Monitors productivity, security, and compliance behaviors of the workforce.
  • Compliance Management: Helps manage compliance with a single, scalable solution suitable for small businesses, enterprises, and government agencies.
  • Incident Forensics: Provides evidence to enrich incident response, investigations, and threat intelligence.
  • Data Loss Prevention: Monitors and protects against the potential loss of sensitive data.
  • Employee Monitoring: Offers capabilities to monitor employee performance and activities.
  • Behavioral Analytics: Analyzes granular customer app behavior data for insights.
  • Customizable Monitoring Settings: Allows customization of monitoring settings to suit specific use cases or to implement predefined rules.
  • Dashboard Insights: Provides visibility and actionable insights into workforce activities through a comprehensive dashboard.

Pros

  • Forensic Evidence: The tool can collect data that can be irrefutable evidence in incident investigations.
  • Cloud-Based Option: Teramind offers a cloud-based monitoring solution, which can be convenient and reduce the need for on-premises infrastructure.

Cons

  • Potential Privacy Concerns: Employee monitoring can raise privacy issues, and organizations must balance security with respecting employee privacy rights.
  • Resource Intensity: Monitoring software can sometimes be resource-intensive, potentially affecting the performance of the systems it’s monitoring.

Visit Teramind >>

14-Days Free Trial


5) Security Event Manager

Security Event Manager is a vulnerability scanner application that improves your security and demonstrates compliance with ease. It offers a centralized log collection facility. This app has a built-in file integrity monitoring facility.

You can set scans to run rapidly, receive an automated incident response, and get real-time analysis with its log analyzer. This web application scanner offers an intuitive dashboard and supports internal scan and external scans.

Security Event Manager

Features:

  • Network security monitoring: This vulnerability management solution helps you detect threats across all your environments and identifies suspicious behavior. This tool includes up-to-date threat intelligence data that is added to logs and events during the time of the event to extract its detailed threat data.
  • Security log management: It is one of the web security scanners that let you manage thousands of security audits from a centralized location, respond to threats in real time, and improve compliance. Using security log management, you can set instant alerts to block hackers and stay on track with auditors using in-depth compliance reporting.
  • Integrations: This vulnerability scanning tool integrates with Orion, Jira, Zapier, MS Teams, Apache, Cassandra, Consul, and Zendesk. Moreover, the Security Event Manager has integrated tools for compliance reporting.
  • Supported compliance: Security Event Manager supports compliance standards such as FISMA, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX, and GDPR.
  • Other features: It offers user activity monitoring, file integrity monitoring, Microsoft IIS log analysis, network security tools, firewall security management, and snort IDS log analysis.
  • Support: You can reach its customer support using chat, contact form, phone, and email.
  • Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux
  • Price: Request a Quote from Sales.
  • Free Trial: 30 Days Free Trial

Pros

  • In its licensing model, you get maintenance and support included during the life of the term.
  • You can identify the most visited port on the routers.
  • It helps you track login attempts and failures.

Cons

  • They do not offer monthly subscriptions.
  • It doesn’t integrate properly with certain endpoints.

Visit SEM >>

30 Days Free Trial


6) Paessler

Paessler security vulnerability assessment tool has an advanced infrastructure management capability. The tool monitors IT infrastructure using technologies like SNMP, WMI, Sniffing, REST APIS, SQL, and others.

It seamlessly integrates with ServiceNow and PRTG and supports compliance standards such as GDPR. The tool provides multiple user web interfaces, helps you visualize your network using maps, and has automated failover handling. Furthermore, you can set its scans to run daily, weekly, and hourly.

Paessler

Features:

  • Monitoring: Paessler monitors jFlow, sFlow, IP SLA, Firewall, IP, LAN, Wi-Fi, Jitter, and IPFIX. It can also monitor networks in various locations. You receive numbers, statistics, and graphs for the data you wish to monitor or configure. It provides alerts through email, plays alarm audio files, or triggers HTTP requests.
  • Full administrative control: It runs directly in your IT infrastructure on dedicated servers. You get total flexibility for your upgrades, maintenance, and backups, and provides full access to your data and configurations.
  • Other features: Paessler offers flexible alerting, multiple user interfaces, cluster failover solutions, maps and dashboards, and distributed monitoring. It also includes in-depth reporting, high performance, low system requirements, high-security standards, customization, and multiple languages.
  • Support: It provides customer support through the contact form, email, and phone.
  • Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux
  • Price: Request a Quote from Sales.
  • Free Trial: 30 Days Free Trial

Pros

  • It offers preconfigured monitoring and device templates for widely known vendors.
  • Maintenance for one year is included in its license.
  • It is easy to install and set up.

Cons

  • You may face some issues while using it on Linux.
  • The GUI needs to be more straightforward.

Visit Paessler >>

30 Days Free Trial


7) Nessus Professional

Nessus Professional is a vulnerability assessment tool for checking compliance, searching sensitive data, and scanning IPs and websites. This website vulnerability scanner tool is designed to make vulnerability assessment simple, easy, and intuitive.

This tool supports internal scans, external scans, cloud scans, and web applications. You can set its scans to run daily, weekly, and monthly.

Nessus Professional

Features:

  • Vulnerability scanning: It offers complete vulnerability scanning with unlimited assessments for website security checks. This website vulnerability scanner tool detects SQL injection attacks. It also includes advanced detection technology for more protection for website security scanning.
  • Accurate visibility: It provides accurate visibility into your computer network. Nessus Professional instantly identifies vulnerabilities that need prioritizing and helps you address them as per their severity.
  • Integrations: It seamlessly integrates with AWS, BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), HCL BigFix, IBM Security, Microsoft, ServiceNow, Siemens, and Splunk.
  • Supported compliances: This web vulnerability scanner supports compliance standards such as PCI and ISO/IEC 27001.
  • Other features: Nessus Professional offers application security, cloud security, IT/OT, legacy VS risk-based VM, ransomware, vulnerability assessment, and vulnerability management.
  • Support: It provides customer support through a contact form, chat, email, and phone.
  • Supported Platforms: It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Price: Request a Quote from Sales
  • Free Trial: 7 Days Free Trial

Pros

  • It is one of the best web security scanners that allows you to migrate to tenable solutions safely.
  • You get plugins that deliver timely protection benefits from new threats.
  • This vulnerability scanning tool offers complete vulnerability scanning with unlimited assets.

Cons

  • The reporting needs to be upgraded to simplify custom reporting.
  • Its performance slows down while scanning large data sets.

Visit Nessus >>

7 Days Free Trial


8) SiteLock

SiteLock is a cybersecurity tool that provides cybersecurity solutions to businesses. It protects your website and its visitors. This app offers a secure VPN for your organization.

This tool supports internal scans, external scans, cloud scans, SSL scans, spam scans, SQL injection scans, and cross-site scripting scans. You can set scans to run daily, weekly, and monthly and seamlessly integrate it with SSL.

Sitelock

Features:

  • Website scanning: SiteLock’s website malware scanner runs continuously in the background. Once an issue is identified, SiteLock works towards removing the malware. Apart from malware, it can also perform spam scans, application scans, SSL scans, XSS scans, and SQL injection scans.
  • Vulnerability patching: Its patch management helps in removing and fixing vulnerabilities. SiteLock patching capabilities include data remediation from database-driven websites, CMS patching, and e-commerce patching.
  • Supported compliance: It supports compliance standards such as PCI and GDPR.
  • Other features: SiteLock offers malware removal, website backup, a web application firewall (WAF), and a content delivery network.
  • Supported: You can reach SiteLock customer support through chat, email, and phone.
  • Supported Platforms: This web application vulnerability runs on Windows and Mac
  • Price: Plans start at $14 a month. 11% Discount on Yearly Payment.
  • Free Trial: 30 Days Free Trial

Pros

  • It provides automated email alerts.
  • Sitelock can monitor Google Blacklist.
  • You can scan the web app/plugin using SiteLock.

Cons

  • It may not be entirely immune to hackers.
  • The customer support of this vulnerability detection tool is not reliable.

Link: https://www.sitelock.com/


9) Tripwire IP360

Tripwire IP360 is one of the best vulnerability scanning tools that protects the integrity of mission-critical systems spanning virtual, physical DevOps, and cloud environments. It delivers critical security controls, including secure configuration management, vulnerability management, log management, and asset discovery.

Using Tripwire IP360, you can set vulnerability scan to run daily, weekly, and monthly for continuous checks. Moreover, it helps you to maximize your organization’s productivity through integrations with various existing tools in your organization.

Tripwire IP360

Features:

  • Discover everything: It helps you discover every device and application on your network, both on-premises, and cloud. You can use its agent-based and agentless scan to discover all hidden assets.
  • Vulnerability risk scoring: Tripwire IP360 offers a vulnerability management feature that passes through noise and provides actionable results. It ranks the vulnerabilities using numbers based on the threat they pose or the severity of impact, age, and ease of exploit.
  • Integrations: It seamlessly integrates with Remedy, Service Now, Jira, Cherwell, CA ServiceDesk, and Express
  • Supported compliance: Tripwire IP360 supports compliance standards such as PCI DSS, NIST 800-53, and ISO/IEC 2701.
  • Other features: Tripwire IP360 offers internal scans, external scans, cloud scans, SSL scans, malware scans, spam scans, SQL injection scans, and cross-site scripting scans.
  • Support: It provides customer support through contact form, phone, and chat.
  • Supported Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux
  • Price: Request a Quote from Sales
  • Free Trial: 30 Days Free Trial (No Credit Card Required)

Pros

  • It has a modular architecture that scales to your deployments and needs.
  • This tool offers open APIs that you can use to integrate the VM tool with the helpdesk.
  • It includes personalized consulting services.

Cons

  • It may not discover certain security appliances.
  • Sometimes, while scanning, the performance of your computer may slow down.

Link: https://www.tripwire.com/products/tripwire-ip360


10) OpenVAS

OpenVAS is an open-source vulnerability scanner that helps you to perform authenticated testing, unauthenticated testing, vulnerability testing, security testing, industrial protocols, and various high-level and low-level Internet and industrial protocols.

It is one of the best web vulnerability scanning tools that helps you set scans to run hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. This tool supports internal scans, external scans, and web application scans.

OpenVAS

Features:

  • Vulnerability management: This free vulnerability scanner tool includes more than 50,000 vulnerability tests. You can perform vulnerability tests with a long history and daily updates. It provides performance tuning and internal programming code to implement any type of vulnerability test you want to perform.
  • Pentesting: OpenVas offers a detailed report on your security situation, helps you meet legal requirements, and provides state-of-the-art technology for optimal protection.
  • Integrations: It can seamlessly integrate with IBM, Openvas, and GSM
  • Supported compliances: OpenVAS supports compliance standards such as ISO 9001, ISO27001 and GDPR.
  • Support: This web vulnerability scanning tool provides customer support through email, phone, and contact forms. OpenVas also includes self-learning courses and documents to assist you.
  • Supported Platforms: OpenVas supports Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Price: Request a Quote from Sales
  • Free Trial: 14 Days Free Trial

Pros

  • It offers OWASP Top 10, server-side, and client-side security.
  • All the data are updated on a day-to-day basis.
  • It offers authenticated and unauthenticated testing.

Cons

  • Non-technical background individuals may find it challenging to use.
  • The user interface looks outdated.

Link: http://www.openvas.org/


11) Aircrack

Aircrack is one of the handy tools required to check vulnerabilities and to make your Wi-Fi network secure. This tool is powered by WEP WPA and WPA 2 encryption Keys, which solve vulnerable wireless connection problems.

This free web vulnerability scanner works on all types of OS and platforms and offers support for WEP dictionary attacks. Aircrack now offers a new WEP attack-PTW.

Aircrack

Features:

  • Monitoring: Its monitoring feature offers packet capture and export of data to text files to process them further with the help of third-party tools.
  • Attacking: You can replay attacks and deauthentication, repeat fake access points, and more using packet injection.
  • Testing and cracking: It helps you inspect WiFi cards and driver capabilities. You can crack WEP and WAP PSK (WAP 1 and 2). This tool also protects you from fragmentation attacks and improves tracking speed.
  • Supported compliance: Aircrack supports compliance standards such as PCI, RSN, and SSE2.
  • Support: You can reach Aircrack customer support through email.
  • Supported Platforms: It is built mainly for Windows.
  • Price: Free Download

Pros

  • It shows the traffic and signals on your WiFi network.
  • Aircrack can store and manage the list of ESSIDs and passwords to use them for credential and encryption cracking.
  • It is one of the vulnerability scanners that let you access NIC from other computers.

Cons

  • It is difficult to install.
  • Aircrack has a steep learning curve.

Link: https://www.aircrack-ng.org/


12) Nexpose Community

Nexpose is a useful vulnerability management software. With this tool, you can monitor exposure in real time and adapt to new threats with fresh data.

It helps you set scans to run daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly. This tool supports internal scans, external scans, and web application scans. It offers a real-time view of risk and brings innovative and progressive solutions that help users get their jobs done.

Nexpose Community

Features:

  • Real risk score: Its vulnerability scanner offers actionable results more than the standard 1-10 CVSS score. Nexpose’s 1-1000 scale identifies vulnerabilities on a severity basis and helps you prioritize the risks that need the most attention.
  • Remediation report: Nexpose shows 25 actions that your team can act on immediately to mitigate risks. You can easily distribute its data and assign it to the right unit or individuals.
  • Integrations: It seamlessly integrates with Metasploit, InsightVM, and Nexpose.
  • Supported compliances: Nexpose Community supports compliance standards such as ISO 27001, ISO 27002, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOX, and OWASP.
  • Other features: It offers real risk scores, adaptive security, policy assessment, and remediation reporting.
  • Support: You get customer support assistance through chat, phone, contact form, and email.
  • Supported Platforms: It supports Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
  • Price: Plans start at $1.93 a month.
  • Free Trial: 30 Days Free Trial (No Credit Card Required)

Pros

  • Nexpose provides the IT team and security professionals with the necessary details they have to fix any issues.
  • It offers agent-based scanning along with local network scanners.
  • This tool is easy to deploy.

Cons

  • It doesn’t provide Ad Hoc scans via agent.
  • The reporting needs to be more granular for bigger enterprises.

Link: https://www.rapid7.com/products/nexpose/

FAQ

A vulnerability is a cybersecurity term which describes the weakness in the system security design, process, implementation, or any internal control that may result in the violation of the system’s security policy. In other words, the chance for intruders (hackers) to get unauthorized access.

Vulnerability assessment is a software testing type performed to evaluate the security risks in the software system in order to reduce the probability of a threat.

  • Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT) helps you to detect security exposures before attackers find them.
  • You can create an inventory of network devices, including system information and purpose.
  • It defines the risk level, which exists on the network.
  • Establish a benefit curve and optimize security investments.