ScanAnchor vs OpenVAS: Enterprise Scanning Without the Complexity
OpenVAS and Greenbone Community Edition are free to install — but the operational cost of running them properly is substantial. ScanAnchor gives you managed vulnerability scanning with CISA KEV and EPSS threat intelligence, auto-mapped compliance for PCI-DSS and Cyber Essentials, and native Jira/ServiceNow integrations at flat rate from £179/month.
The True Cost of "Free" Vulnerability Scanning
OpenVAS is free to download but costs substantial engineering time to operate at production quality: 10–20 hours per week for a security engineer to maintain scan policies, tune false positives, manage credential stores, and generate compliance reports manually. At a loaded engineer cost of £250/hour, that is £130,000–£260,000/year in opportunity cost. ScanAnchor Professional at £4,788/year replaces that entire burden.
OpenVAS vs ScanAnchor
| Feature | OpenVAS (Greenbone CE) | ScanAnchor |
|---|---|---|
| Cost model | Free software + ops time | Flat rate from £179/mo |
| Annual total (1,000 assets) | £130,000+ ops | £4,788 |
| Cloud console | No | Yes |
| CISA KEV + EPSS | Not included | Native, every finding |
| Compliance auto-mapping | Manual | PCI, CE, ISO, SOC 2, HIPAA |
| Jira/ServiceNow | Custom scripting | Native |
| SSO (SAML/OIDC) | Community: limited | All plans |
| Setup time | 1–3 days | Under 5 min |
When OpenVAS Is Still the Right Choice
OpenVAS makes sense for solo security researchers, penetration testers with strong Linux administration skills, or teams in fully air-gapped environments where cloud-managed tools are not permitted. For most organisations that need predictable operations, audit-ready compliance, and modern threat intelligence, ScanAnchor is the better fit.
How to Migrate from OpenVAS to ScanAnchor
- Export OpenVAS scan results as XML or CSV from Greenbone Security Assistant
- Sign up for a 14-day ScanAnchor free trial
- Import assets and configure compliance scopes
- Move authenticated-scan credentials into ScanAnchor's encrypted vault
- Run a parallel scan cycle and compare detection coverage
- Decommission OpenVAS infrastructure — typical migration in 1 week
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is OpenVAS really free compared to ScanAnchor?
- OpenVAS software is free but total cost with engineer time is £130,000–£260,000/year. ScanAnchor Professional at £4,788/year replaces that.
- Does ScanAnchor use the same detection engine as OpenVAS?
- No. ScanAnchor uses a proprietary engine with continuously updated signatures plus CISA KEV and EPSS enrichment on every finding.
- Can ScanAnchor import OpenVAS scan results?
- Yes. XML and CSV exports from OpenVAS/Greenbone Security Assistant are supported.
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