Grype vs OpenVAS

Grype and OpenVAS are both free, open-source vulnerability scanners, but they target different attack surfaces. Built by Anchore, Grype inspects container…

Best for Grype: DevSecOps teams who need to scan container images, filesystems, or SBOM files (CycloneDX/SPDX) in CI/CD pipelines, with EPSS and CISA KEV data to prioritize which vulnerabilities to fix first.
Best for OpenVAS: Security teams performing network vulnerability assessments against live infrastructure, including both authenticated and unauthenticated scans across internet and industrial protocols.

At a Glance

 GrypeOpenVAS
Primary categorySecuritySecurity
RatingNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelFreeOpen Source
Starting priceNot documentedFree (open source); Greenbone Enterprise appliances at custom pricing
Free planYesYes
Free trialNot documentedNot documented
PlatformsNot documentedNot documented
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresNot documentedNot documented
Public APINot documentedNot documented

Key Differences

Scan Target

Grype: Grype scans container images, filesystems, and SBOM files for known vulnerabilities.

OpenVAS: OpenVAS performs authenticated and unauthenticated testing directly against network-facing systems across many protocol types.

Supply-chain vulnerabilities in code dependencies and network-exposed service vulnerabilities require entirely different scanning techniques.

Ecosystem Coverage

Grype: Grype's OS package detection spans Alpine, Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL, Oracle Linux, and Amazon Linux, and it also tracks language-level dependencies across Ruby, Java, JavaScript, Python, .NET, Go, PHP, and Rust.

OpenVAS: OpenVAS is not documented as scanning language package dependencies; it focuses on internet and industrial protocol testing.

Modern applications depend on many language ecosystems whose vulnerabilities live in dependency manifests, not network services.

Vulnerability Prioritization

Grype: To help teams decide what to patch first, Grype combines EPSS scores, CISA KEV data, and its own risk scoring, and it also supports OpenVEX for filtering results.

OpenVAS: Not documented as an OpenVAS feature; OpenVAS pulls detection tests from a feed updated daily but doesn't document EPSS/KEV-based scoring.

Prioritization data reduces alert fatigue by helping teams focus on vulnerabilities that are actually being exploited in the wild.

Feed Update Cadence

Grype: Not documented with a specific update cadence claim.

OpenVAS: OpenVAS explicitly pulls vulnerability detection tests from a feed that is updated daily.

Fresh detection signatures matter for catching newly disclosed network vulnerabilities quickly.

Deployment Form

Grype: Grype runs purely from the terminal -- it ships no graphical dashboard -- and can be installed via curl, Homebrew, Docker, Chocolatey, or MacPorts.

OpenVAS: OpenVAS is documented as best used as part of the broader Greenbone Community Edition rather than standalone, with enterprise features requiring Greenbone's commercial products.

Teams need to know whether they're adopting a CLI utility for pipelines or a broader scanning suite for ongoing operations.

Feature-by-Feature

Scan Scope

FeatureGrypeOpenVAS
Container image scanningAvailableNot documented
Filesystem / SBOM scanningAvailableNot documented
Network / host vulnerability scanningNot documentedAvailable
Industrial protocol testingNot documentedAvailable

Detection & Prioritization

FeatureGrypeOpenVAS
Language dependency vulnerability detectionAvailableNot documented
EPSS / CISA KEV prioritizationAvailableNot documented
Daily-updated vulnerability feedNot documentedAvailable
Custom scan scripting languageNot documentedAvailable

Deployment & Ecosystem

FeatureGrypeOpenVAS
Free and open sourceAvailableAvailable
Standalone CLI usageAvailableLimited
Commercial / enterprise tier availableUnavailableAvailable

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

Grype

Open Source — Free

OpenVAS

OpenVAS/GVM Community Edition — Free N/A
OPENVAS BASIC — Custom Annual license
Greenbone Enterprise — Custom Quoted per deployment

Pros & Cons

Grype

Pros

  • Free and open source under Apache-2.0
  • Broad ecosystem support across OS packages and multiple programming languages
  • Vulnerability prioritization via EPSS and KEV reduces noise
  • Multiple install methods, including curl, Homebrew, Docker, Chocolatey, and MacPorts
  • Active GitHub community with 12.6k+ stars

Cons

  • Command-line tool with no built-in graphical dashboard
  • Some workflows require pairing with a separate SBOM tool like Syft
  • No official managed or hosted service documented

OpenVAS

Pros

  • Core scanner is free and fully open source, with no license fee for the community edition.
  • Backed by Greenbone, a dedicated company actively maintaining and extending the project since 2006.
  • Broad vulnerability test coverage mapped to CVE and CVSS for standardized prioritization.
  • German, GDPR-conscious origin appeals to privacy- and compliance-sensitive European organizations.
  • Commercial Greenbone tiers are priced below several established proprietary competitors.

Cons

  • Community feed updates slightly later than Greenbone's paid enterprise feed.
  • Enterprise and Basic tier pricing is not published; buyers must contact sales for a quote.
  • Setup and tuning can be more involved than some polished commercial-only scanners.
  • Smaller company size than large competitors like Tenable or Qualys can mean a smaller partner/integration ecosystem.
  • Scan performance and false-positive rates require ongoing tuning compared to some mature commercial alternatives.

Use Cases

Choose Grype: DevSecOps teams who need to scan container images, filesystems, or SBOM files (CycloneDX/SPDX) in CI/CD pipelines, with EPSS and CISA KEV data to prioritize which vulnerabilities to fix first.
Choose OpenVAS: Security teams performing network vulnerability assessments against live infrastructure, including both authenticated and unauthenticated scans across internet and industrial protocols.
Need both: A realistic complementary setup: use Grype in CI/CD to catch dependency and container vulnerabilities before deployment, and run OpenVAS (or the broader Greenbone Community Edition it powers) against deployed infrastructure to catch network-facing exposures — supply-chain security and network security are different layers that both need coverage.

Grype

  • Container image vulnerability scanning — Teams scan container images before deployment to catch known CVEs.
  • SBOM-based vulnerability analysis — Security teams scan SBOM files generated by tools like Syft to assess dependency risk without rescanning images.
  • CI/CD vulnerability gating — Engineering teams add Grype scans to pipelines to block builds with critical vulnerabilities.

OpenVAS

  • Internal network vulnerability assessment — Security teams run regular OpenVAS scans across internal networks to find missing patches and misconfigurations before attackers do.
  • Managed security services — MSSPs use OpenVAS or Greenbone's commercial tiers to deliver vulnerability scanning as a service across multiple client environments.
  • Compliance and audit scanning — Organizations use OpenVAS's compliance-oriented scan policies to support regulatory audits and security certification requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Grype scan that OpenVAS doesn't?

Grype scans container images, filesystems, and SBOM files for OS package and language dependency vulnerabilities; this scan scope is not documented for OpenVAS.

What does OpenVAS scan that Grype doesn't?

OpenVAS performs authenticated and unauthenticated network vulnerability scanning across internet and industrial protocols, which is not documented as a Grype capability.

Are both tools free?

Yes -- Grype is released under Apache-2.0, and OpenVAS, which forms the core of Greenbone Community Edition, is likewise free and open source.

Does Grype prioritize which vulnerabilities to fix first?

Yes, Grype uses EPSS scores, CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list, and risk scoring to help prioritize remediation; this specific prioritization method is not documented for OpenVAS.

Can Grype and OpenVAS be used together?

Yes — they address different layers, so many teams run Grype in CI/CD for container and dependency scanning while using OpenVAS for network-facing infrastructure scanning.

Does OpenVAS scan container images?

This is not documented as an OpenVAS capability; its documented scope is network and protocol-based scanning rather than container image analysis.

Read the full Grype review · Read the full OpenVAS review