Likelihood to Recommend It is perfectly suited for organizations with a small IT staff and large amount of devices. It's also perfect for pushing software to machines that are not on the network or VPN. It's less effective for server patch management. I like to have a little more control of my server patching
Read full review Nessus is perfectly suitable for performing comprehensive vulnerability assessment scans being a vulnerability scanner. It is less appropriate for performing penetration testing since it is not a penetration testing tool, it does not have the ability and modules to exploit the vulnerabilities of the system.
Read full review Pros Excellent support for Windows-based systems. Rarely have any issues updating those systems. When issues do arise, the Automox support team has been very responsive and informative of solutions (or where projects are on potential roll out dates). The user interface is intuitive and easy to use. Read full review With Nessus we can find the missing critical patches for a server or workstations. Nessus points out any vulnerable or outdated software Technologies used in the system, thus eliminating any chances for security flaws being turned up. Nessus typically points any configuration level issues in accordance with the OWASP guidelines. Even the configuration of SSL related which are most of the time handled by some vendors or 3rd parties. Nessus not only lists out these Vulnerabilities but describes clearly the vulnerabilities in details with its thousands of plugins updated regularly, the tool also recommends solution with practical details of easy implementation. Read full review Cons initial deployment of agents to all end points was a challenge, would have been great if there was a way for Automox to discover and install. Sometimes upgrading the Automox client which becomes old due to an end point not connecting for a long time becomes challenging as it becomes incompatible and has to be upgraded manually It would good to have a functionality where an end point device can be turned into a brick if desired in cases where the device is not returned back after an employee is terminated. This should also have the option of turning it back into an active device if we choose to Read full review Could use an upgrade within reports. Scans can take a long time to complete. Have to break them down in small sections. Read full review Likelihood to Renew The system is really simple. We pushed the installer out through Group policy. Devices connected can get further defined by Tags or Groups.
Read full review Nessus is best and easy to use application for Vulnerabilities finding and reporting, it has multiple platforms and wide scope covering almost all devices for security improvement so far, thus we are very likely to continue its services.
Read full review Usability After using a combination of WSUS and group policy to manage patching on a large number of devices, it was excellent to move to a single-pane experience where patch policies, restart schedules, reports, and device status can be seen easily and quickly. Its pre-patch report on policies is particularly handy so you can check if devices will take the appropriate action before it's run.
Read full review It's very much a plug and play application that the user can go into with limited knowledge and set-up scans in minutes.
Read full review Support Rating In my experience, they were responsive but the fixes were more like bandaids than a fix for the underlying problems which they admitted were on their end.
Read full review I haven't needed to contact support yet. But issues are easily solved with a quick internet search which means support and by extension, the larger community are involved and knowledgeable.
Read full review Alternatives Considered We stoppped using PDQ because it required our users to connect to the corporate VPN. It might take months for some remote users to receive a patch, and often we would have to schedule time with them one-on-one to ensure that it got done. With Automox, we don't have to do any of that - it just happens silently in the background.
Read full review Sometimes when we identify a vulnerability with Nessus that has an exploit, we made a proof of concept with
Metasploit in order to show to the IT managers the importance of the software/hardware hardening.
Read full review Return on Investment Automox allows us to fix vulnerabilities in the shortest amount of time ever. The automated patching and end point management features have made our jobs much easier. We get to focus on more important tasks and not have to manually patch the operating systems. Read full review Nessus certainly has a positive impact while me while performing my job, either as security research, or performing vulnerability assessments for clients. It gives a lot of information about the system/application after performing scans. The number of false positives is also less compared to other vulnerability scanners. The professional edition is very useful as policy templates available in this edition are very handy and useful even to perform compliance scan like PCI DSS scan. Also, the ability to export the scan results into reports in formats like HTML, PDF is very useful which could be for performing system/application reviews. Read full review ScreenShots