Vulnerability management solutions make IT teams aware of weaknesses or flaws within their IT infrastructure and help mitigate them before they can be exploited by a cybercriminal. To achieve this, they scan the network to identify vulnerabilities (e.g., out-of-date software or misconfigurations), then analyze those vulnerabilities using AI, ML, and threat intelligence to work out the potential impact if they were to be exploited. This allows the tool to prioritize vulnerabilities, enabling your team to address the biggest concerns more quickly.
Some vulnerability management tools go beyond identifying and prioritizing vulnerabilities by automatically remediating issues that are relatively easy to fix, such as deploying patches for outdated software. For more complex vulnerabilities, these platforms alert your team and guide you through recommended remediation options.
In this shortlist, we’ll highlight the best risk based vulnerability management tools designed to help you resolve vulnerabilities within your organization’s network. We’ll cover the standout features of each solution and who they’re best suited for.
Intruder is a cloud-based vulnerability management platform that specializes in proactive, easy-to-use security management for internet-facing systems. It offers continuous scanning, vulnerability identification, and clear remediation advice to streamline security processes.
Why We Picked Intruder: We appreciate Intruder’s ease of setup and its ability to automatically initiate scans upon detecting changes, ensuring proactive threat response.
Intruder Best Features: Key features include easy setup and scanning of infrastructure, web apps, and APIs, continuous network monitoring, automatic scan initiation upon detecting changes, and detailed reporting. It integrates with various systems to provide a comprehensive view of the attack surface.
What’s Great:
Pricing: For detailed pricing, visit Intruder’s official website.
Who It’s For: Intruder is best suited for businesses of all sizes looking for an easy-to-use, comprehensive vulnerability management solution that provides proactive threat response and detailed reporting.
ESET Vulnerability & Patch Management is a robust solution designed to continuously monitor endpoints for vulnerabilities and automatically apply patches to remediate threats effectively. It supportsWindows, Linux and macOS operating systems.
Why We Picked ESET Vulnerability & Patch Management: We appreciate its automatic scanning and patching capabilities, which cover thousands of applications and over 35,000 CVEs, ensuring comprehensive protection.
ESET Vulnerability & Patch Management Best Features: Key features include automatic vulnerability scanning, patch management with customizable policies, detailed reporting, and prioritization of vulnerabilities by severity. It integrates seamlessly into ESET’s XDR solution, ESET Protect, which offers endpoint protection, server security, full disk encryption, email security, cloud app protection, and multi-factor authentication, all managed via a unified admin console.
What’s great:
Pricing: Available as part of ESET Protect; contact ESET for detailed pricing.
Who it’s for: ESET Vulnerability & Patch Management is ideal for mid-market organizations and large enterprises seeking scalable, automated vulnerability management. It’s also suitable for SMBs looking for an integrated, easy-to-use security solution.
Aikido Security is a comprehensive automated web application security and vulnerability management platform. It provides a convenient solution for monitoring, managing, and resolving vulnerability issues, integrating seamlessly with your existing tech stack.
Why We Picked Aikido Security: We like Aikido’s real-time alerting system that prioritizes vulnerabilities based on severity and risk, significantly reducing time wasted on false positives and unnecessary alerts.
Aikido Security Best Features: Key features include cloud posture management (CSPM), open source dependency scanning (SCA), secrets detection, static code analysis (SAST), Infrastructure-as-Code scanning (IaC), and container scanning. Additional capabilities include continuous surface monitoring (DAST), open source license scanning, malware detection in dependencies, and end-of-life runtime scanning. The platform also offers real-time alerting, automatic triaging, custom filter rules, and deduplication of repeated alerts.
What’s great:
Pricing: For pricing details, visit Aikido Security directly.
Who it’s for: Aikido Security is best suited for businesses looking for a comprehensive, automated solution to manage web application security and vulnerabilities across their tech stack, especially those requiring compliance with SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022 standards.
Cisco Vulnerability Management is a risk-based SaaS solution that prioritizes threats according to their relative risk. Powered by Cisco Talos, it provides detailed insights and threat intelligence, enabling fast and accurate decision-making.
Why We Picked Cisco Vulnerability Management: We like its advanced algorithms and vast array of intelligence sources, which offer recommended fixes to reduce risk effectively. The platform’s predictive modeling assigns risk scores to vulnerabilities, helping prioritize remediation efforts and forecast potential exploits.
Cisco Vulnerability Management Best Features: Key features include risk-based prioritization, predictive modeling, recommended fixes, real-world exploit data integration, and customizable reports. It sources data from over 19 threat intelligence feeds and can ingest vulnerability data from multiple sources. Integrations include compatibility with various security and IT systems. The solution offers two versions: Advantage and Premier, with Premier providing additional features like optimized workflows and nuanced threat understanding.
What’s great:
Pricing: Direct inquiries to Cisco for specific pricing details.
Who it’s for: Cisco Vulnerability Management is best suited for organizations with in-house security teams dedicated to configuring and managing advanced vulnerability management solutions.
CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight is a cloud-native platform that provides extensive visibility and robust security policy enforcement to remediate network vulnerabilities. It integrates antivirus, EDR, threat intelligence, and threat-hunting capabilities into a single, hardware-free agent.
Why We Picked CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight: We appreciate its powerful vulnerability detection and management capabilities, which offer real-time visibility into emerging vulnerabilities. Additionally, its AI-powered risk prioritization helps organizations accurately understand and address network risks.
CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight Best Features: Key features include vulnerability detection and management, real-time visibility, AI-powered risk prioritization, threat intelligence reporting, and a suite of remediation tools. The platform also offers continuous monitoring, a comprehensive dashboard for insights, and historical data search capabilities for known vulnerabilities and CVEs.
What’s great:
Pricing: For specific pricing details, contact CrowdStrike directly.
Who it’s for: CrowdStrike Falcon Spotlight is ideal for medium to large organizations with existing CrowdStrike infrastructure and a dedicated security team seeking an advanced vulnerability management solution.
AlertLogic Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is a comprehensive security solution that empowers organizations to detect, identify, and resolve security threats across their networks. Acquired by Fortrain in 2023, this managed service provides robust security capabilities, making it ideal for organizations without extensive IT resources.
Why We Picked AlertLogic MDR: We appreciate AlertLogic’s 24/7 threat monitoring and its ability to identify over 91,000 network vulnerabilities and more than 8,600 software configuration errors, ensuring comprehensive security.
AlertLogic MDR Best Features: The platform includes continuous vulnerability and health scanning, real-time threat monitoring, incident validation, log management, behavior analysis, and threat remediation. It also provides a centralized dashboard for real-time network status and event tracking, highlighting missing patches, unauthorized applications, risky configurations, and other potential threats.
What’s great:
Pricing: For detailed pricing, contact AlertLogic directly.
Who it’s for: AlertLogic MDR is best suited for SMBs seeking a comprehensive security solution with managed services, especially those without extensive in-house IT resources.
ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus is an enterprise-grade vulnerability scanner designed for on-premise deployment. It provides extensive visibility and compliance assurance, with built-in remediation capabilities to manage the entire vulnerability lifecycle.
Why We Picked ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus: We appreciate its comprehensive threat landscape view, covering OS, third-party, and zero-day exposures, alongside its ability to manage patch deployment across networks.
ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus Best Features: Key features include vulnerability assessment, patch management, risk prioritization, and remediation actions. It supports Windows, Linux, and macOS, with limited macOS functionality. The platform offers end-to-end network visibility, monitoring endpoints across local, DMZ, remote, and mobile environments. It integrates with third-party applications and conducts audits against over 75 CIS benchmarks.
What’s great:
Pricing: For pricing details, contact ManageEngine directly.
Who it’s for: ManageEngine Vulnerability Manager Plus is ideal for organizations of all sizes, especially those using Windows and requiring a robust, on-premise solution to manage their vulnerability lifecycle comprehensively.
Qualys VMDR is a cloud-based security and compliance solution that enhances organizational visibility and insight, enabling effective risk management and remediation. It leverages comprehensive data to prioritize vulnerabilities and assets, improving security posture over time.
Why We Picked Qualys VMDR: We appreciate its automatic vulnerability prioritization and built-in patching capabilities, which streamline the remediation process.
Qualys VMDR Best Features: The platform offers vulnerability management, threat detection, risk triage, patch deployment, and asset monitoring. It uses threat intelligence and machine learning for accurate assessments and automatic patching. Integration with SIEM systems and other security tools is seamless due to its cloud-based nature.
What’s great:
Pricing: For detailed pricing, visit the Qualys website directly.
Who it’s for: Qualys VMDR is ideal for enterprise organizations needing a robust, comprehensive vulnerability management solution to enhance their security posture and manage risks effectively.
Rapid7 InsightVM is a comprehensive cloud-based vulnerability management solution that enhances the capabilities of Rapid7’s on-premise scanning tool, Nexpose. It offers advanced scanning, monitoring, and remediation features to secure organizations across cloud, physical, and virtual infrastructures.
Why We Picked Rapid7 InsightVM: We like InsightVM’s ability to automate vulnerability remediation, which streamlines the process of patching and containment. Its seamless integration with existing endpoint security tools makes it a valuable asset for enhancing an organization’s security posture.
Rapid7 InsightVM Best Features: InsightVM provides vulnerability scanning across all environments, automated data collection from endpoints, interactive dashboards for monitoring and reporting, contextual data enrichment, and automated remediation processes. It integrates with ticketing systems, patch management solutions, and SIEM tools.
What’s Great:
Pricing: For detailed pricing, visit Rapid7’s website directly.
Who it’s for: Rapid7 InsightVM is best suited for small to midsized organizations across all industries seeking a powerful end-to-end vulnerability management solution that integrates well with their existing security stack.
Tenable is a dedicated exposure management solution serving 40,000 organizations globally. It empowers businesses to identify and prioritize vulnerabilities using its renowned Nessus technology, providing advanced monitoring across the entire attack surface.
Why We Picked Tenable: We like Tenable’s advanced vulnerability monitoring and its ability to scan and assess known and unknown assets. Its proprietary threat intelligence and data analysis guide organizations on how to respond to findings effectively.
Tenable Best Features: Key features include vulnerability scanning and assessment, proprietary threat intelligence, data analysis, an intuitive dashboard, and over 200 integrations for workflow automation. As a cloud-based solution, Tenable is easy to deploy and scales with organizational growth.
What’s great:
Pricing: For pricing details, please contact Tenable directly.
Who it’s for: Tenable is best suited for mid-sized organizations across all sectors seeking a powerful, cloud-based vulnerability management tool.
WithSecure is an exposure management solution that enhances visibility into your attack surface, offering predictions and insights on assets and breaches. The platform covers a broad range of areas including network devices, Cloud Azure & AWS, Networks, and Identities, providing a risk criticality ranking for each asset to prioritize remediation actions.
Why We Picked WithSecure: We appreciate WithSecure’s AI-driven recommendations that address the most critical issues and its unique vulnerability scanning approach from an attacker’s perspective.
WithSecure Best Features: Key features include AI recommendations for remediation prioritization, attacker-perspective vulnerability scans, comprehensive management capabilities that can replace SIEM tools, and co-monitoring services with WithSecure’s in-house Detection and Response Team (DRT). The solution integrates with network devices, Cloud Azure & AWS, Networks, and Identities.
What’s great:
Pricing: Contact WithSecure directly for pricing information.
Who it’s for: WithSecure is ideal for midsized organizations seeking an agile and comprehensive solution to manage a significant portion of their attack surface.
Vulnerability management is a continuous process that enables you to quickly and effectively identify, prioritize, and address vulnerabilities to prevent them from being exploited by bad actors or threat groups.
A vulnerability is a weakness or flaw in your IT environment that a threat actor can exploit to gain access to your network. They can occur in any part of your environment at any time and, without a vulnerability management solution in place, they can go weeks, months, or years without being discovered.
Vulnerabilities can occur in operating systems, web servers, firewalls, and networks, and can be caused by hardware, processes, misconfigurations, and more. But the most common type of vulnerability is a software vulnerability.
Software vulnerabilities are a common focus in vulnerability management because they impact every organization using the affected software.
When software vulnerabilities are discovered, they’re classified (often using NIST’s Security Content Automation Protocol, or “SCAP”) and added to the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list. Then, software vendors are responsible for sending out updates that IT teams can use to patch the affected software. Some larger vendors such as Microsoft, Adobe, and Oracle group updates on “Patch Tuesday” to limit disruption for their customers.
But vulnerabilities aren’t always discovered and patched by these vendors before bad actors can exploit them, which is why implementing a vulnerability management program or solution is so important.
Vulnerability management solutions follow a set of stages called the vulnerability management lifecycle:
Caitlin Harris is Deputy Head of Content at Expert Insights. Caitlin is an experienced writer and journalist, with years of experience producing award-winning technical training materials and journalistic content. Caitlin holds a First Class BA in English Literature and German, and provides our content team with strategic editorial guidance as well as carrying out detailed research to create articles that are accurate, engaging and relevant. Caitlin co-hosts the Expert Insights Podcast, where she interviews world-leading B2B tech experts.
Laura Iannini is an Information Security Engineer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from the University of West Florida. Laura has experience with a variety of cybersecurity platforms and leads technical reviews of leading solutions. She conducts thorough product tests to ensure that Expert Insights’ reviews are definitive and insightful.