SentriKat vs. Tenable Nessus
Tenable Nessus is the industry's most recognized scanner — tracking 250,000+ CVEs with deep plugin coverage. SentriKat takes a fundamentally different approach: focus on the 1,484 CVEs that are actually being exploited, at a fraction of the cost.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | SK SentriKat | TN Tenable Nessus |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | Free (Early Access) / €199/mo after | ~$3,590/yr (~$300/mo) |
| NIS2 Compliance | Built-in, native reporting | Paid compliance modules |
| Deployment Model | Dual-mode: Cloud + on-premise | Separate products (Nessus vs Tenable.io) |
| Vulnerability Focus | CISA KEV (1,484 exploited CVEs) | All 250,000+ CVEs |
| ENISA EUVD Integration | Native EU database integration | No EU database support |
| Container Scanning | Included in all plans | Separate Tenable.cs product |
| Pricing Transparency | Public pricing, free during Early Access | Contact sales for most plans |
| Vendor Backport Detection | Automatic (4 feeds daily) | Manual verification required |
| SIEM Integration | Included (CEF/JSON/RFC 5424) | Paid add-on |
| Data Residency | Your infrastructure, your data | Cloud-dependent (Tenable.io) |
| Multi-Source CVSS | 3 sources with auto-fallback | Single source |
| Endpoint Agents | Windows, Linux, macOS | Windows, Linux, macOS |
| CVE Coverage Breadth | Focused (~1,484 KEVs) | 250,000+ CVEs |
Who should choose which?
Choose SentriKat if you need:
- ✓ NIS2 or DORA compliance with built-in reporting
- ✓ On-premise deployment with full data sovereignty
- ✓ Transparent, predictable pricing without per-module fees
- ✓ Automatic vendor backport detection to eliminate false positives
- ✓ European vulnerability intelligence (ENISA EUVD)
- ✓ A focused, low-noise vulnerability feed your team can actually action
Choose Tenable Nessus if you need:
- ✓ Maximum CVE coverage across all 250,000+ vulnerabilities
- ✓ Deep integration with the broader Tenable ecosystem
- ✓ PCI-DSS or other compliance certifications specific to Tenable
- ✓ A large, established vendor with extensive enterprise support
SentriKat vs Tenable Nessus: a fundamentally different approach
Tenable Nessus is the most widely deployed vulnerability scanner in the world, with over 80,000 plugins tracking more than 250,000 CVEs. It is a comprehensive tool designed for organizations that need to catalogue every potential vulnerability across their infrastructure. For large SOC teams with dedicated triage analysts, this breadth is valuable.
SentriKat was built on a different premise. Research from CISA shows that only about 1,484 CVEs — roughly 0.6% of all published vulnerabilities — are confirmed to be actively exploited by threat actors in the wild. These are the vulnerabilities that appear in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, and they represent the most immediate, real-world risk to any organization.
By focusing exclusively on KEVs, SentriKat eliminates 99.4% of the noise that buries security teams using traditional scanners. Every vulnerability SentriKat surfaces is one that attackers are actively using right now — not a theoretical risk from a decade-old CVE that may never be exploited.
Tenable splits its product line between Nessus (on-premises scanner), Tenable.io (cloud platform), and Tenable.cs (container security). With SentriKat, you get a single product that works both as a Cloud platform and as a fully on-premise deployment — with container scanning, SIEM integration, and compliance reporting included in every plan.
For European organizations, SentriKat offers native ENISA EUVD integration — the EU's own vulnerability database mandated under NIS2. Tenable does not integrate with European vulnerability databases. SentriKat also includes built-in NIS2 and DORA compliance reporting, while Tenable requires paid compliance modules.
At €199/month for Cloud Pro — compared to Tenable's ~$3,590/year starting price — SentriKat delivers more value for organizations that want to focus on the vulnerabilities that actually matter, with transparent pricing and no hidden module fees.
Ready to focus on what attackers actually exploit?
Free during Early Access — no credit card required. See why teams switch from Tenable to a focused, European vulnerability management platform.