If you're evaluating hosted vulnerability scanning platforms, HostedScan is one of the names you'll find, and VulnScanners is the other one we'd put on your shortlist. This is the comparison we'd want to read: what each platform does, how they differ, and an honest account of who each one fits. We'll try to keep the HostedScan specifics accurate to our last look — check their site for current details, since both products move.
The short version
Both platforms are hosted wrappers around open-source scanning engines. The meaningful differences are in which engines, how you pay, and what you get at the end:
- Engines. HostedScan runs Nmap, OpenVAS, and ZAP. VulnScanners runs Nmap, Nuclei, and ZAP.
- Pricing. HostedScan sells monthly subscriptions with scan/asset limits. VulnScanners sells per-scan credits — no subscription required — plus optional credit packs.
- Output. HostedScan delivers parsed results in its dashboard. VulnScanners adds client-ready, analyst-formatted PDF reports designed for consultancies and MSPs who hand reports to third parties.
Engine selection: OpenVAS vs Nuclei
This is the most technical difference and it matters more than marketing copy suggests.
HostedScan's OpenVAS integration gives you the traditional network vulnerability scanner: a massive signed feed of checks, broad coverage across network services, version-based detection. It's comprehensive, and for flat internal-style network assessment it's the classic choice.
Our Nuclei integration takes the template-driven approach: thousands of community-maintained checks that probe live HTTP behavior for known CVEs, exposed panels, misconfigurations, and forgotten services. It's faster, the template feed updates within days of new public exploits, and findings come with request/response evidence. The trade-off is coverage shape — Nuclei is strongest on web-exposed issues rather than broad internal network inventory.
Both platforms cover the other layers similarly: Nmap for port and service mapping, ZAP for web application DAST. If you're weighing the platforms primarily on CVE detection philosophy, read our breakdown of open source CVE scanners — it's the same trade-off in tool form.
Pricing model: subscription vs per-scan
HostedScan's model is SaaS-standard: pick a monthly tier, get a scan quota and asset limits. Predictable if you scan steadily every month; wasteful in any month you don't.
VulnScanners is usage-based: credits, one per scan, purchased as packs or one-offs. One credit runs one scanner against one target. If you scan four targets quarterly, you buy four credits a quarter — you never pay for idle capacity. If you later become a heavy user and a subscription would be cheaper, that's the moment to negotiate one.
The practical test: look at your actual scan cadence. Steady weekly scanning across many assets favors subscriptions. Bursty, per-client, or per-project scanning favors per-scan pricing — and most consultancies and MSPs are bursty by nature, because they scan when a client onboards or an assessment is due.
Reports: dashboard vs deliverable
This is where the audiences diverge.
If the person consuming scan results is the same person who launched the scan — a founder checking their own surface, a dev team tracking their own exposure — a dashboard with parsed findings is sufficient, and both platforms provide one.
If the results need to go to a third party — a client, an auditor, a leadership team — the deliverable is the product. VulnScanners generates branded, client-ready PDF reports from every scan: executive summary, severity-rated findings with evidence, and remediation language written for the person who has to fix the issue. Our background is consultancy delivery, and the report engine reflects that; it's built for the MSP or vCISO workflow where the scan is 20% of the job and the writeup is 80%.
Scheduling and workflow
Both platforms support recurring scheduled scans — set a target and cadence, let it run. VulnScanners additionally adds guardrails consultancy workflows need: stuck-scan detection with automatic credit refunds, target validation with SSRF protections on every launch, and per-scanner credit accounting so multi-engine scans of one target are tracked separately.
Who should pick which
HostedScan fits teams that want a steady subscription relationship, value OpenVAS's broad feed-driven network coverage, and are happy consuming results in a dashboard.
VulnScanners fits MSPs, vCISOs, security consultancies, and technical businesses that want per-scan pricing without a subscription, prefer Nuclei's fast template-driven detection on web-exposed surfaces, and need scan output that's ready to hand to a client without manual formatting.
Try the difference on a real target
The honest comparison ends with the same advice every comparison should: run both against a target you own and read your own results. VulnScanners offers a free first scan — pick a target, watch the Nmap map come back, and see the PDF report you'd hand a client. That sample report tells you more than this page can.