Alternatives to Nuclei
A fast vulnerability scanner driven by YAML templates contributed by thousands of security researchers. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Nuclei
A fast vulnerability scanner driven by YAML templates contributed by thousands of security researchers.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Nuclei.
OpenVAS
Full-featured open-source vulnerability scanner.
OpenVAS is a self-hosted Linux scanner with authenticated scanning, scheduling and reporting, using a community feed instead of YAML templates you write yourself.
Nessus
Widely used commercial vulnerability scanner.
Nessus is closed-source and commercial with a large plugin library and compliance auditing, and its free Essentials edition covers only sixteen IP addresses.
Qualys Community Edition
Free, cloud-based edition of the Qualys security platform for asset discovery and vulnerability assessment.
Qualys Community Edition runs scans from a cloud console with asset discovery, stores scan data with Qualys, and is limited to a few IPs for free.
Nikto
Web server scanner for risky files, outdated software and misconfigurations.
Nikto focuses on web servers with signature-based checks for risky files and misconfigurations, is noisy, and has no custom template library like Nuclei's.
ZAP
Open-source web application security scanner and intercepting proxy.
ZAP concentrates on web applications, pairing an intercepting proxy with automated scanning, and runs as a Java desktop tool with an API for CI.
Wapiti
Check web applications with a Python-based vulnerability scanner.
Wapiti is a Python web application scanner for Linux and macOS that automates application tests, but lacks Nuclei's multi-protocol template coverage.
Pentest-Tools.com
An online toolkit of vulnerability scanners and penetration testing tools that produces customizable reports.
Pentest-Tools.com runs scanners in the browser on the vendor's infrastructure, validates findings with exploits and produces reports, with the full feature set on paid plans.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Interactsh
Collect external callbacks during authorized security tests.
Vuls
Assess known vulnerabilities on Linux and FreeBSD systems.
Trivy
Scan software and infrastructure for known security issues.
DefectDojo
An open source, self-hosted vulnerability management platform that collects and tracks findings from security scanners.
ffuf
Test variations in HTTP requests with a command-line fuzzer.
Metasploit Framework
The standard open-source exploitation framework for authorised penetration testing and verifying that a vulnerability is real.
