Nessus vs Qualys (2026): Pricing, Scan Limits and Which to Pick

Nessus Professional is the one you can price today. Tenable lists $4,790 for one year, with unlimited assessments and no published IP cap. Qualys publishes no list price, so its cost is a quote built from your IP count, apps and users. Pick Nessus for a scanner your team runs itself, and Qualys if you can get a quote you accept and want unlimited scans.

Toolradar data: Toolradar evaluated 18 vulnerability scanning tools for its October 2026 ranking, and Nessus sits fifth on it. We verified every price below on the vendors' own pricing pages on 10 October 2026. Tenable's pages show a $ sign with no currency code, and the Professional page marks its prices VAT inclusive, so confirm the tax treatment on the quote.

The short comparison

Option	Best for	Published price (USD)	Scan limit	Commercial use
Nessus Essentials	Individuals and labs	Free	5 IPs, 30-day license	Non-commercial only
Nessus Essentials Plus	Non-commercial users who need 20 IPs	$199 a year	20 IPs	Non-commercial only
Nessus Professional	A team that runs its own scanner	$4,790 for one year	Unlimited assessments, no IP cap stated	No restriction stated
Tenable One Vulnerability Management	Teams that want the cloud product	$3,500 for one year, 100 assets	Priced per asset	Not stated
Qualys subscription	Teams that want unlimited scans	Not published, quote only	Unlimited scans, price set by IPs and apps	Not stated
Qualys Community Edition	Trying the platform	Free	No limits published	Not stated

Only Nessus Professional gives a published commercial price for a scanner your team runs itself. Tenable's cloud product is priced per asset, and Qualys is quoted. That split decides most of the comparison.

Nessus: a fixed license with no published IP cap

Nessus Professional is the scanner itself. Tenable sells it on unlimited assessments for one price and lists three term lengths. The one-year term is the figure in the opening. Two years costs $9,330.95, and three years costs $13,637.54. The three-year term works out to $4,545.85 a year, and it saves $732.46 against three one-year terms, which total $14,370.

Buy the longer term only when the scanner stays in the budget that long. The saving is the only reason to commit to it. The page also prices two add-ons. Advanced Support is $400, with no billing term given, and the Nessus Fundamentals course is $275 for one year of access. Budget support before the license, not after, if nobody on the team has run Nessus at scale.

Scope is where Tenable's page goes quiet. It states no IP cap and no licensing unit, so it does not say whether the license counts scanners, IP addresses or something else. It lists 336K+ CVEs and more than 450 preconfigured templates, including compliance audits against CIS benchmarks. It also lists no central console, dashboards or multi-user access. If the team needs those, that is the cloud product, and Tenable prices it separately. A quote can settle the counting question in writing. The list price cannot.

Nessus Essentials and Essentials Plus: free, capped and non-commercial

Nessus Essentials is free for up to 5 IPs on a 30-day license. The page says it is strictly for non-commercial use and not engineered for enterprise or production environments. Essentials Plus costs $199 a year, billed annually, with a 20-IP scan limit and the same non-commercial rule. It is free for verified students and instructors.

Against a 50-address estate, Essentials covers 10% of the addresses (5 / 50) and Essentials Plus covers 40% (20 / 50). Neither one is a commercial scanner for that estate. They answer a lab question, not a security program, so do not start a company scan on either.

Qualys: the price is a quote

Qualys publishes no list price. Its subscriptions page says pricing "depends on your selection of Cloud Platform Apps, the number of network addresses (IPs)", and it names web applications and user licenses as inputs too. You buy through a sales contact, by phone or request form. This comparison therefore has no Qualys dollar figure. The one Qualys number a buyer needs is the quote.

What the subscription does publish is scope. The page says every subscription includes unlimited scans and unlimited Cloud Agents (Inventory), along with Global AssetView, free training and support. That is the clearest scan-limit statement in either vendor's pricing. A team that scans in short windows, or runs agents across many machines, should price that line before it signs a fixed Nessus license.

Qualys Community Edition is described as a free platform. The page gives no product list, IP limit or license terms, and the free trial page states no duration or limit either. Treat both as trials until the terms are in writing, and do not put a commercial estate on them.

Scan limits and cost at 50 IP addresses

The scenario is one commercial security team with 50 IP addresses for one year. Prices are list prices as verified on 10 October 2026, before tax and before any discount.

Option	Fits 50 addresses?	Year-one cost	What the quote must confirm
Nessus Essentials	No: 5 IPs, non-commercial	Free, not eligible	Not applicable
Nessus Essentials Plus	No: 20 IPs, non-commercial	$199, not eligible	Not applicable
Nessus Professional, 1 year	Yes on the page's terms, no IP cap stated	$4,790	Licensing unit: scanner, IP or other
Nessus Professional, 3 years	Same	$13,637.54 total, $4,545.85 a year	Same, plus the three-year commitment
Tenable One Vulnerability Management	Only if the 50 addresses count as assets	$3,500 for 100 assets	How addresses convert to assets
Qualys subscription	Quote only	Not published	IPs, apps, web apps and user licenses

Nessus Professional is the only row that gives a published commercial price for 50 addresses. Tenable's cloud product costs less on paper, at $3,500 for 100 assets, but it is priced per asset, and the page gives no rule for turning addresses into assets. If the 50 addresses map to 50 assets, they fill half of the 100-asset plan. If they map to more assets, the price moves, and the page does not say by how much.

For Qualys, put the same inputs in every request: the IP count, the Cloud Platform Apps, the web applications and the user licenses. Ask each vendor to price the same estate. A quote for a smaller estate is not a comparison, and it will flatter whichever vendor you ask first.

Which to pick

• Nessus Professional suits a team that runs its own scanner, works from a fixed set of addresses, and needs a number to sign against this year. It is the only commercial scanner price on this page. Confirm the licensing unit before the purchase order.
• Qualys suits a team that wants unlimited scans and unlimited Cloud Agents in one subscription, and can accept a quote with no published number before it signs. Ask for the price on the same four inputs listed above.
• Tenable One Vulnerability Management suits a team that wants the cloud product and can count its estate in assets, with a clean asset inventory to count from.
• Nessus Essentials or Essentials Plus suits a lab, a course or a personal study setup. Both IP caps, under a non-commercial rule, rule out a company scanner.

Nessus has a weak point its price page hides: it is a scanner, not a console. Qualys has one too: the pricing page names no number. Read the quote for both before you choose.

Toolradar keeps profiles for Nessus and Qualys, and the ranking behind them is the one the first-party line above cites.

For the wider shortlist, see the best vulnerability scanners and the best free vulnerability scanners. The Tenable review goes deeper on the Nessus family. Adjacent buying decisions sit in best penetration testing tools, best AI for vulnerability management, best attack surface management tools, best network security monitoring tools and best SIEM tools. For the same head-to-head format on an endpoint decision, read CrowdStrike vs SentinelOne.

What to get in writing before you sign

• Nessus: ask how the license counts hosts. The page names no licensing unit, so the answer decides whether 50 addresses are the scope or only part of it.
• Nessus: if you take the three-year term, ask what happens when the scanner leaves the budget early. The $732.46 saving only pays off if the scanner runs for all three years.
• Qualys: ask for one price on the same four inputs: the IP count, the Cloud Platform Apps, the web applications and the user licenses. The subscriptions page names those four.
• Qualys: ask what the unlimited scans and unlimited Cloud Agents terms cover, in writing. The page states them without listing the boundaries.
• Both: ask for the tax treatment and the currency on the quote. Tenable's pages show a $ sign with no currency code, and the Professional page marks its prices VAT inclusive.

How we checked this

Prices and scan limits come from the vendor pages linked in this article, verified on 10 October 2026 and quoted as shown. We did not run either scanner, so nothing here is a test result. The 50-address scenario is our arithmetic on list prices, and it excludes tax, discounts and any quote. Toolradar's count comes from its October 2026 vulnerability scanning ranking.

FAQ

Is Nessus or Qualys better in 2026?

For a commercial team that wants a price in writing today, Nessus Professional is the easier pick, because its one-year price is published. For cloud scanning with unlimited scans, Qualys is the option to take once you hold a quote for your IP count, apps and users. Pick on the number you can get in writing.

How much does Nessus Professional cost in 2026?

Tenable's Nessus Professional page lists $4,790 for one year, $9,330.95 for two years and $13,637.54 for three years, as verified on 10 October 2026. Advanced Support adds $400, and the page gives no billing term for it.

How much does Qualys cost?

Qualys publishes no list price. The subscription price depends on the Cloud Platform Apps you select, the number of IP addresses, the web applications and the user licenses. You get the figure from a sales contact, by phone or request form.

Is there a free version of Nessus or Qualys?

Nessus Essentials is free for up to 5 IPs on a 30-day license, for non-commercial use only. Qualys Community Edition is described as free, but its page gives no IP, scan or license limits, so confirm the terms before you point it at production addresses.

Can a company use Nessus Essentials at work?

No. Both Essentials editions are limited to non-commercial use. Essentials Plus carries the same restriction, with a 20-IP limit at $199 a year.

Does Qualys include unlimited scans?

According to its subscriptions page, yes: every subscription includes unlimited scans and unlimited Cloud Agents (Inventory). The subscription price still depends on the number of IP addresses and apps you select.

Cite this: Cyberpresso, "Nessus vs Qualys (2026): Pricing, Scan Limits and Which to Pick", October 2026.

Cyberpresso tracks the scanner, endpoint and identity costs a security team has to price before renewal. Join at cyberpresso.com.

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