12 Top Vulnerability Management Tools for 2023
Vulnerability management tools go well beyond patch management and vulnerability scanning tools by discovering security flaws in network and cloud environments and prioritizing and applying fixes.
Many IT departments struggle to stay on top of security vulnerabilities , and many don’t even know every IT asset they own, making comprehensive vulnerability management solutions an increasingly critical cybersecurity tool.
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Intruder is the top-rated vulnerability scanner. It saves you time by helping prioritize the most critical vulnerabilities , to avoid exposing your systems . Intruder has direct integrations with cloud providers and runs thousands of thorough checks. It will proactively scan your systems for new threats, such as Spring4Shell, giving you peace of mind. Intruder makes it easy to find and fix issues such as misconfigurations , missing patches , application bugs, and more. Try a 14-day free trial.
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A patch management solution that lets you deploy and patch any Microsoft and Linux OS, 3rd party and proprietary software, on-the-fly, from anywhere in the world and according to any schedule. With complete visibility and granular control over your entire software inventory. Patch anything, update everything, deploy, and upscale regardless of time-zone, machine availability or versioning.
Learn more about Heimdal Security
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SanerNow Vulnerability Management Tool is an all-in-one, continuous, and automated vulnerability management solution. Our advanced vulnerability management solution allows you to, –
• Run the industry’s fastest scans to discover all risks
• Get more than 160,000+ vulnerability checks
• Remediate vulnerabilities on all OSs like Windows , macOS , Linux , and 300+ third-party apps
• Monitor and control endpoints centrally
With SanerNow, you can manage multiple use cases from a single console.
Learn more about SanerNow Vulnerability Management Tool
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Astra’s Pentest suite is a complete vulnerability assessment and penetration testing solution for web and mobile applications . The users get an intuitive dashboard to monitor vulnerabilities , assign them to the developers, and collaborate with security experts from Astra.
Notable features include:
3000+ tests,
CI/CD integration,
Scan behind logged-in pages,
Zero false positives.
Astra’s clientele range across industries and include the likes of Gillette, Ford, Dream 11, and GoDaddy.
Learn more about Astra Pentest
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Vulnerability Manager Plus, a prioritization-focused vulnerability management solution, comes packed with security-enhancing features like comprehensive vulnerability assessment, built-in patching, system configuration management, CIS compliance, web server hardening, high-risk software audit & port audit. Suitable for enterprises of all sizes and modes of operation, Vulnerability Manager Plus is a lightweight agent-based solution that fits seamlessly into any organization. Try free for 30 days!
Learn more about ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus
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We examined the market for vulnerability management tools, looking at product features and applications , user perspectives, ideal use cases, and pricing information. While no list is perfect — there may well be a vendor not on this list who meets your requirements better — here we focused on features and capabilities that stood out from the crowd, such as unique value-adds, scalability, and automation. Out of a market with a number of strong offerings, here are a dozen of the best.
Best for: Organizations with complex environments and remote users seeking broad vulnerability management capabilities.
Qualys VMDR 2.0 with TruRisk is an enterprise-grade cyber risk management solution. The platform is simple to use and deploy across complex hybrid environments. By providing options to protect remote users, Qualys VMDR 2.0 is among the most popular vulnerability management platforms on the market today, given the increasingly remote-first global workforce.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: Qualys VMDR 2.0 with TruRisk is priced on a per-asset basis. You can either sign up for a free trial or request a quote from the Qualys sales team.
Best for: Smaller businesses and organizations without a sophisticated security team.
Rapid7 InsightVM is a powerful and scalable vulnerability management solution that provides broad enterprise security . One of the most sought-after features of the product is risk prioritization with step-by-step instructions for effective remediation. As an additional benefit, the Rapid7 customer support team is among the best in the business . Good value and automation make InsightVM particularly useful for smaller businesses and those lacking sophisticated security teams , but even organizations with greater expertise could benefit from its risk identification and prioritization capabilities.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: You can get a free trial of Rapid7 InsightVM by filling out a simple form. For a minimum of 250 assets, the platform costs $2.19/asset/month.
Best for: Small businesses, developers, pen testers, and consultants.
Tenable Nessus is a trusted vulnerability assessment platform, built for the modern attack surface. With 0.32 defects per 1 million scans, Tenable Nessus boasts of the industry’s lowest (best) false positive rate with six-sigma accuracy. SMBs, developers, pen testers, and consultants will find Nessus Expert most useful, but features like external attack surface scanning could have broad appeal.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: A 1-year product license costs $4,990 for five domains, and a 7-day free trial is available.
Best for: Large organizations requiring greater security .
Tripwire IP360 is a holistic vulnerability management solution that provides 360-degree on-premises and cloud protection, as the name suggests. The platform’s prioritized vulnerability risk scoring mechanism is its standout feature, along with its scalability and ease of integration with existing solutions. Scalability and Adaptive Threat Protection makes Tripwire an interesting choice for larger organizations requiring greater security , but automation features could interest others too.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: Pricing available upon request.
Best for: A good choice for budget-conscious organizations in need of dependable vulnerability protection.
GFI LanGuard is an enterprise-class vulnerability scanning, patch management, and network auditing tool. The solution gets high marks for its patch management capabilities and compliance features and provides all that you expect of a solid vulnerability management solution.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: You can request a free trial or fill out a form to get in touch with a GFI LanGuard expert for pricing details.
Best for: DevSecOps and pentesting uses.
BreachLock Vulnerability Assessment is a cloud-based and easy-to-use vulnerability assessment platform that covers all company infrastructure . You can access the platform using any browser, with access protected by 2FA. Additionally, stellar customer support is a big plus, as you can interact with security professionals and support staff directly. BreachLock hosts its SaaS-based solution on AWS and could find favor with organizations of all sizes, but cloud , DevSecOps and pentesting features stand out the most.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: Users consider BreachLock VM to be one of the best values on the market. Schedule a discovery call to obtain a product quote.
Best for: The security needs of small businesses.
WithSecure Elements Vulnerability Management is an easy-to-deploy vulnerability scanner that covers the breadth of a network, assets, compliance, and the deep web . The vulnerability scanner is a module of the Elements platform, which brings together vulnerability management, continuous behavioral analytics, dynamic threat intelligence, and automated patch management. WithSecure offers a relatively cost-effective cloud-based vulnerability scanner with strong automation features , making it best suited for the security needs of SMBs.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: Contact the WithSecure sales team for product pricing details.
Best for: Small businesses that want to incorporate employee security awareness too.
Holm Security VMP is a next-generation vulnerability management platform that helps detect vulnerabilities across your enterprise network and human assets in a single integrated platform. Among the platform’s standout features is its phishing module, which is comprehensive and helps build a “human firewall” of sorts. Holm Security VMP is preferred by SMBs thanks to its value and features like phishing awareness, but its broad capabilities also find application in large-scale organizations, governmental facilities, personal security , and educational facilities.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: Get a customized quote for the product features you need.
Best for: The vulnerability and penetration testing demands of SMBs.
Digital Defense Frontline Vulnerability Manager (Frontline VM) is a comprehensive and accurate SaaS vulnerability management tool that covers all network assets. Frontline VM is among the most user-friendly tools on this list. Digital Defense Frontline Vulnerability Manager is particularly well suited to the vulnerability and penetration testing demands of SMBs. That said, the on-demand service can meet the demands of a fully-staffed, large-scale organization.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: Quotes available upon request.
Best for: The security needs of penetration testers, developers, and SMBs.
Arctic Wolf Managed Risk is a risk-based vulnerability management solution that helps prevent cyberattacks before they occur. The platform provides guided remediation, essentially serving as an extension of your internal team, bringing a wealth of security knowledge and expertise to help harden customers’ IT environments. Arctic Wolf Managed Risk was built for the security needs of penetration testers, developers, and SMBs. The vulnerability management platform adds a services element to this list with a team of highly-skilled security experts.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: Fill out a form to request a demo.
Best for: Small businesses in North America and Asia.
Risk-Based Vulnerability Management by Balbix helps prioritize and mitigate risky vulnerabilities before cyber attackers can take advantage of them, as automated vulnerability management features take on a lot of the difficult work of addressing vulnerabilities . Balbix’s risk-based vulnerability management platform is highly rated by SMBs, with deployment heavily focused in North America and Asia. The end-to-end solution provides timely and accurate vulnerability data , and a user-friendly installation procedure makes it easy to get it up and running.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: Fill out a short form to request a product demo.
Best for: Patch and vulnerability management in PC-centric environments.
Microsoft’s new Defender Vulnerability Management is available for customer testing as both a standalone product and an add on to Microsoft Defender Endpoint. Microsoft also offers separate Defender-based solutions for cloud and containers. While likely best for Windows environments, the product supports macOS , Linux , Android and iOS , and some network devices too. Some early drawbacks are that the product does not currently show information for scanning open ports or detecting security or compliance misconfigurations that are not related to security patches , and information on scanned assets varies by OS, platform, and installed software.
Key Differentiators
Pricing: The Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management tool can be obtained for a 120-day public preview trial. There is no licensing cost currently available but pricing will become available when the software moves to general release.
Vulnerability management tools proactively look for weaknesses by scanning and identifying assets and vulnerabilities in the network and providing remediation suggestions to mitigate the potential for future security breaches. It is an important way for companies to stay one step ahead of hackers .
Beyond just offering insight into how to remediate potential cybersecurity threats, some vulnerability management tools can assign threat levels to weaknesses, which allows IT teams to prioritize the most significant issues that should be addressed first. Some can even remedy certain vulnerabilities automatically by applying patches and making other fixes.
With thousands of new vulnerabilities affecting sprawling IT infrastructures each year, organizations need tools and services to help them find what needs to be patched and then apply fixes.
Also read: Is the Answer to Vulnerabilities Patch Management as a Service?
There are many approaches employed in vulnerability management.
Vulnerability management tools combine several of these approaches and add prioritization and remediation. Some products automate these functions to help ease the burden on overworked security staff.
Some vulnerability management tools are open source , which makes them free. Smart IT and security personnel often keep a few of these tools handy for troubleshooting . Other tools are available on either a subscription basis or as software packages with varying costs. Many vendors publish pricing. Rapid7 InsightVM, for example, costs $23 a year per asset for 500 assets. while Qualys VMDR starts at $199 per asset.
Because of the heavy costs of breaches, almost any cybersecurity product will have a positive ROI, so the right tool is the one that best meets your needs.
Vulnerability management requires a robust suite of features to encapsulate all of a company’s enterprise security needs. When deciding which of these cybersecurity solutions is best for your business , consider which of these features are most relevant to your needs.
Note that few tools provide all of these capabilities. Some provide a few, while some provide many of them. But coverage of all areas typically requires the use of several different products.
IT asset management (ITAM) is an increasingly important part of vulnerability management, because organizations aren’t always sure of everything they own. Some vulnerability management tools offer asset discovery features , and also see our picks for the Top IT Asset Management Tools for Security .
The benefits of vulnerability management are obvious. Vulnerability management leads to fewer breaches, and it offers a way to assess the organizational perimeter to see how secure it is in reality. It is also a great method of safeguarding data and spotting incipient attacks before they arise.
Most cyber attacks start from within, via email through phishing and social engineering attacks , so vulnerability management tools also plug the holes that allow lateral movement inside your network too.
Besides the protection offered by good vulnerability management software, automated product suites can save staff time that could be spent on more strategic projects. Therefore, a comprehensive vulnerability management package could pay for itself both in data breaches prevented and security staff time saved.
Those selecting vulnerability management tools should pay attention to the following points:
There are roughly 20,000 new vulnerabilities discovered each year — and many of them are zero-day vulnerabilities that aren’t discovered until they’ve been used in a cyber attack. Plugging those holes takes a lot of time and dedication for even the most secure companies . For everyone else, they need all the help they can get from vulnerability management tools and services.
Read next: Vulnerability Management as a Service: Top VMaaS Providers
Surajdeep Singh contributed research and analysis to this report.
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