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Nessus vs OpenVAS: catalog facts
Nessus	OpenVAS
Freemium Nessus Essentials is free for up to sixteen IP addresses. Professional is a paid…	Free The Community Edition is free and open source. Greenbone enterprise products are paid.
Windows, macOS, Linux	Linux, Self-hosted
Very large and rapidly updated plugin library Configuration and compliance auditing alongside vulnerability scanning	Large community vulnerability feed with authenticated scanning Scheduling, reporting and tracking included rather than bolted on
Free Essentials edition is capped at sixteen IP addresses Closed source, with subscription pricing beyond the free tier	The community feed lags the paid enterprise feed Installation and feed synchronisation are involved
Downloadable app	Self-hosted
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License: GPL-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.