Comparison

Ravenscan vs Competitors

An honest, feature-by-feature comparison of network security and vulnerability scanning tools. See how Ravenscan stacks up against open-source and enterprise alternatives.

⚡

Single binary, zero dependencies

One ~25 MB Go binary with embedded web UI, REST API, SQLite database, CVE database, and CISA KEV list. No PostgreSQL, no Redis, no Java — just download and run.

🇨🇭

Swiss sovereignty

100% self-hosted, zero telemetry, no cloud dependency. Swiss company (Geneva) under Swiss data protection law (nFADP). Scan results never leave your infrastructure.

💰

Transparent pricing

From €16/month (Standard) to €42/month (Enterprise). No per-IP fees, no per-asset pricing, no sales calls required. Unlimited targets included.

🔍

14+ audit modules

SSH, TLS, HTTP, SMB, RDP, LDAP, Kubernetes, Docker, DNS, FTP, SNMP, NTP, IPMI, MySQL — deep protocol analysis, not just port scanning.

📈

6 compliance frameworks

Built-in mappings for ISO 27001, NIST 800-53, CIS Controls, PCI DSS 4.0, HIPAA, and SOC 2. Compliance reporting included, not an add-on module.

🔗

Attack path analysis

Automatic correlation of findings into exploitation chains with MITRE ATT&CK mapping. Understand real-world impact, not just individual CVEs.

Feature comparison matrix

Feature Ravenscan Nmap OpenVAS Nessus Qualys Nuclei Rapid7
Scanning capabilities
TCP port scanning ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
Service / banner detection ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
OS fingerprinting ✓ ✓ ● ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
Web application scanning ✓ ● ● ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Custom YAML templates ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✗
Default credential testing ✓ ● ✓ ✓ ● ✓ ✓
Protocol audit modules
SSH audit ✓ ● ✓ ✓ ✓ ● ✓
TLS/SSL audit ✓ ● ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
SMB audit ✓ ● ✓ ✓ ✓ ● ✓
LDAP audit ✓ ● ● ✓ ● ● ✓
Kubernetes audit ✓ ✗ ✗ ● ✓ ✓ ●
Docker audit ✓ ✗ ✗ ● ✓ ✓ ●
DNS / SNMP / NTP / FTP / IPMI ✓ ● ✓ ✓ ✓ ● ✓
Vulnerability intelligence
Embedded CVE database ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ ● ✓
CISA KEV cross-referencing ✓ ✗ ✗ ● ✓ ✗ ✓
Attack path analysis ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ ● ✗ ✓
MITRE ATT&CK mapping ✓ ✗ ✗ ● ✓ ● ✓
Compliance
ISO 27001 mapping ✓ ✗ ✗ ● ✓ ✗ ✓
NIST 800-53 mapping ✓ ✗ ✗ ● ✓ ✗ ✓
CIS Controls mapping ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
PCI DSS mapping ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
HIPAA / SOC 2 mapping ✓ ✗ ✗ ● ✓ ✗ ✓
Reporting & integration
PDF reports ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
HTML reports ✓ ● ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
JSON / JSONL export ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
REST API ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
Webhooks (Slack, Teams, etc.) ✓ ✗ ✗ ● ● ● ●
Scan diff / delta tracking ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
Deployment
Single binary (no dependencies) ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✗
Embedded web UI ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
Embedded database (no external DB) ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
Self-hosted / on-premise ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ● ✓ ●
Cloud / SaaS ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
Docker image (<30 MB) ✓ ● ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✗
Pricing
Free / open-source tier ✗ ✓ ✓ ● ✗ ✓ ✗
Transparent public pricing ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✗
No per-asset / per-IP pricing ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✗
✓ Yes ● Partial ✗ No

Pricing comparison

Solution Pricing model Typical annual cost Free tier
Ravenscan Fixed monthly/annual €149 - €399/year 14-day trial
Nmap Free (open-source) $0 Fully free
OpenVAS / Greenbone Free + enterprise appliance $0 (community) / $15,000-50,000+ Community edition
Nessus (Tenable) Per-scanner / per-asset $3,590 - $5,290+ (standalone) Essentials (16 IPs)
Qualys VMDR Per-asset, quote-based $5,000 - $100,000+ None
Nuclei Free (open-source) $0 Fully free
Rapid7 InsightVM Per-asset, quote-based $10,000 - $200,000+ None

Pricing based on publicly available information and industry reports as of April 2026. Enterprise pricing varies by deployment size and negotiation.

Detailed competitor analysis

Nmap / Zenmap

The de facto standard open-source network scanner

Self-hosted. CLI binary available for all major platforms.

Nmap (Network Mapper) is the most widely used open-source tool for network discovery and port scanning. It supports TCP/UDP scanning, OS detection, service fingerprinting, and has an extensive NSE (Nmap Scripting Engine) for vulnerability detection. Zenmap provides a graphical frontend.

Strengths

  • ✓ Free, open-source, battle-tested for 25+ years
  • ✓ Fastest raw port scanner available
  • ✓ Extensive NSE script library (600+ scripts)
  • ✓ Works on every platform (Linux, macOS, Windows, BSD)
  • ✓ Industry-standard XML/JSON output for automation
  • ✓ Massive community and documentation

Gaps vs Ravenscan

  • ✗ No built-in vulnerability database or CVE correlation
  • ✗ No compliance mapping (ISO, NIST, PCI DSS, etc.)
  • ✗ No web UI or dashboard — CLI-only (Zenmap is unmaintained)
  • ✗ No attack path analysis or finding correlation
  • ✗ No reporting (PDF, HTML) — requires external tools
  • ✗ No REST API, webhooks, or scheduler
  • ✗ No scan history or delta tracking without external tooling
Pricing: Free (open-source, GPLv2). No commercial tier.

OpenVAS / Greenbone

Open-source vulnerability scanner with enterprise option

Self-hosted. Docker (multi-container) or dedicated appliance (Greenbone Enterprise).

OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner) is the open-source scanner engine behind Greenbone's commercial products. It maintains a feed of 100,000+ Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs) and provides authenticated and unauthenticated scanning with a web-based management interface (GSA).

Strengths

  • ✓ Free Community Edition with a large NVT feed
  • ✓ Comprehensive vulnerability detection (100K+ tests)
  • ✓ Web-based management interface (Greenbone Security Assistant)
  • ✓ Authenticated scanning (SSH, SMB, SNMP credentials)
  • ✓ PDF and HTML reports out of the box
  • ✓ Active open-source community

Gaps vs Ravenscan

  • ✗ Complex installation — requires PostgreSQL, Redis, multiple daemons
  • ✗ Community feed is delayed (14 days behind Greenbone Enterprise)
  • ✗ No embedded CVE/KEV database — relies on NVT feed updates
  • ✗ No attack path analysis or exploitation chain correlation
  • ✗ No compliance mapping to ISO 27001, NIST, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2
  • ✗ No YAML template engine for custom checks
  • ✗ No webhooks or modern notification integrations
  • ✗ Scan performance can be slow on large networks
  • ✗ Docker deployment is complex (multi-container orchestration)
Pricing: Community: free. Greenbone Enterprise: quote-based, typically $15,000-50,000+/year depending on managed IPs.

Nessus (Tenable)

Industry-leading commercial vulnerability scanner

Self-hosted (Windows, Linux, macOS) or Tenable.io (SaaS).

Nessus by Tenable is one of the most widely deployed commercial vulnerability scanners. It offers over 200,000 plugins for vulnerability detection, configuration auditing, and compliance checking. Available as Nessus Professional (standalone) or as part of Tenable.io / Tenable.sc for enterprise deployments.

Strengths

  • ✓ Largest plugin library (200,000+ checks)
  • ✓ Strong compliance auditing (CIS benchmarks, PCI DSS)
  • ✓ Well-established brand with 20+ years of history
  • ✓ Authenticated scanning across many platforms
  • ✓ Good API coverage for automation
  • ✓ Regular plugin updates (daily)

Gaps vs Ravenscan

  • ✗ Per-IP licensing model — costs scale linearly with assets
  • ✗ No embedded CISA KEV cross-referencing (available in Tenable.io, not Nessus standalone)
  • ✗ No attack path analysis in Nessus Professional
  • ✗ No custom YAML template engine — plugins are proprietary NASL
  • ✗ No built-in webhook notifications (Slack, Teams, etc.)
  • ✗ Requires installation + service — not a single binary
  • ✗ Cloud features require separate Tenable.io subscription
  • ✗ Nessus Essentials (free) limited to 16 IPs
Pricing: Nessus Professional: ~$3,590/year (unlimited IPs, 1 scanner). Nessus Expert: ~$5,290/year. Tenable.io: per-asset pricing starting ~$2,275/year (65 assets).

Qualys VMDR

Cloud-native vulnerability management, detection and response

SaaS (Qualys Cloud Platform). Internal scanning via virtual or physical scanner appliances.

Qualys VMDR (Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response) is a cloud-based platform that combines asset discovery, vulnerability assessment, prioritization (TruRisk), and integrated patching. It runs primarily as a SaaS service with on-premise scanner appliances for internal networks.

Strengths

  • ✓ Cloud-native platform with global scanner infrastructure
  • ✓ TruRisk scoring with business context prioritization
  • ✓ Integrated patch management (VMDR + Patch)
  • ✓ Strong compliance coverage (CIS, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2)
  • ✓ CISA KEV and MITRE ATT&CK integration
  • ✓ Agent-based and agentless scanning options
  • ✓ Scales to millions of assets

Gaps vs Ravenscan

  • ✗ Cloud-dependent — data processed on Qualys infrastructure
  • ✗ Per-asset pricing model — expensive at scale for small teams
  • ✗ No transparent public pricing — requires sales engagement
  • ✗ No self-hosted option for the management platform
  • ✗ No single-binary deployment — requires cloud agents or appliances
  • ✗ No custom YAML template engine
  • ✗ No built-in webhook notifications to Slack/Teams/Discord
  • ✗ Complex licensing with multiple modules to purchase separately
  • ✗ Not suitable for air-gapped environments without special arrangement
Pricing: Quote-based, per-asset. Typically $5,000-100,000+/year depending on asset count and modules. No public pricing page.

Nuclei (ProjectDiscovery)

Open-source, template-based vulnerability scanner

Self-hosted. Single Go binary (Linux, macOS, Windows).

Nuclei by ProjectDiscovery is a fast, community-driven vulnerability scanner built around YAML templates. It excels at web-based vulnerability detection with a massive community template library (8,000+ templates) covering CVEs, misconfigurations, exposed panels, and more.

Strengths

  • ✓ Free, open-source (MIT license)
  • ✓ Huge community template library (8,000+ templates)
  • ✓ Extremely fast — Go-based, concurrent scanning
  • ✓ YAML templates are easy to write and share
  • ✓ Single binary with minimal dependencies
  • ✓ Strong web application and API testing capabilities
  • ✓ Active community and frequent updates
  • ✓ CI/CD integration friendly (JSON output, exit codes)

Gaps vs Ravenscan

  • ✗ Primarily web/HTTP focused — limited network protocol coverage
  • ✗ No port scanning or service discovery (requires separate tool like Nmap)
  • ✗ No embedded CVE database — relies on template matching
  • ✗ No CISA KEV cross-referencing
  • ✗ No compliance mapping (ISO, NIST, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2)
  • ✗ No web UI or dashboard — CLI-only (ProjectDiscovery Cloud is separate)
  • ✗ No PDF/HTML reports — JSON and text output only
  • ✗ No embedded database or scan history tracking
  • ✗ No scheduler or cron — requires external orchestration
  • ✗ No attack path analysis or finding correlation
Pricing: Free (open-source, MIT). ProjectDiscovery Cloud (SaaS): from $0 (free tier) to custom enterprise pricing.

Rapid7 InsightVM

Commercial vulnerability management with live monitoring

SaaS management console (Insight Platform) + self-hosted scan engines and/or Insight Agents.

Rapid7 InsightVM (formerly Nexpose) is an enterprise vulnerability management platform that combines agent-based and scan-based assessment with live dashboards, risk scoring, and integrations into the broader Rapid7 Insight platform (SIEM, SOAR, etc.).

Strengths

  • ✓ Real Risk Score with threat intelligence and exploit context
  • ✓ Live dashboards and continuous monitoring (Insight Agent)
  • ✓ Strong remediation project tracking and SLA management
  • ✓ MITRE ATT&CK and CISA KEV integration
  • ✓ Good API and integration ecosystem (SIEM, SOAR, ticketing)
  • ✓ Attack path analysis with Insight platform
  • ✓ Compliance reporting (PCI DSS, CIS, NIST, ISO 27001)

Gaps vs Ravenscan

  • ✗ Per-asset pricing — costs grow with infrastructure
  • ✗ No transparent public pricing — quote-based
  • ✗ Cloud-dependent for management console (Insight Platform)
  • ✗ No single-binary deployment — requires console + engine + agents
  • ✗ No custom YAML template engine for ad-hoc checks
  • ✗ No built-in webhook notifications (requires SOAR or custom integration)
  • ✗ Complex setup and onboarding for smaller teams
  • ✗ Scan engine requires significant resources (4+ GB RAM recommended)
  • ✗ No self-contained deployment option without cloud connectivity
Pricing: Quote-based, per-asset. Starting around $2/asset/month. Typical contracts: $10,000-200,000+/year.

When to choose what

Choose Ravenscan if you need

  • ✓ A complete scanner with zero setup — single binary, embedded everything
  • ✓ Deep protocol auditing (14+ modules) beyond just port scanning
  • ✓ Embedded CVE database and CISA KEV cross-referencing
  • ✓ Attack path analysis with MITRE ATT&CK mapping
  • ✓ Compliance mapping (6 frameworks) without additional modules
  • ✓ Full data sovereignty (100% on-premise, zero telemetry)
  • ✓ Predictable pricing without per-IP or per-asset fees
  • ✓ Swiss jurisdiction and nFADP compliance

Consider alternatives if you need

  • ● Free/OSS only — Nmap + Nuclei together cover port scanning and web vulnerability detection at no cost
  • ● 200K+ vulnerability checks — Nessus has the largest proprietary plugin library
  • ● Cloud-native SaaS — Qualys VMDR or Rapid7 InsightVM if you prefer managed cloud infrastructure
  • ● Millions of assets — Qualys scales to very large enterprise environments
  • ● Custom web templates — Nuclei has the largest community template library (8,000+)
  • ● Integrated patching — Qualys VMDR and Rapid7 offer built-in remediation workflows
  • ● Authenticated OS scanning — Nessus and OpenVAS offer deep credentialed host assessment

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