Nuclei

Nuclei is ranked #8 of 31 in vulnerability scanning software on The Geeks Club. It runs on Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

Nuclei plans and pricing

All plans

Nuclei CLI Free Open-source CLI · MIT licensed · primarily intended as a standalone tool github.com · 4 Oct 2026

Compared on vulnerability scanning software

Free plan: Yes

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Nuclei

Purpose: Nuclei is an open-source vulnerability scanner that probes applications, infrastructure, cloud platforms, and networks using YAML templates.
Template library: The overview says Nuclei has more than 6,500 community-contributed templates for detecting real-world vulnerabilities and attack vectors.
Scanning features: Nuclei supports bulk and parallel scans, multiple target formats, customizable templates, and inclusion and exclusion filters.
Protocols: The FAQ lists HTTP, DNS, TCP, headless, JavaScript, code, and file modules.
Integrations: Nuclei can run in CI/CD with GitHub Actions and export SARIF results to GitHub Code Scanning.
Cloud connection: The FAQ says Nuclei can connect to ProjectDiscovery Cloud Platform to view scans.
Who it is for: The maker names security engineers and analysts, red teams, DevOps teams, bug bounty hunters, and penetration testers as Nuclei users.
License: Nuclei is distributed under the MIT License.
Safety limit: The FAQ warns that some templates can fuzz or take actions that may cause denial of service, and says these templates are tagged and excluded from default scans.
Installation: The maker provides installation options through Go, Homebrew, Docker, GitHub, downloadable binaries, and Helm.
Maintenance: The FAQ says Nuclei is actively maintained by ProjectDiscovery and generally releases every two weeks.
Support: The FAQ directs users with questions or issues to the ProjectDiscovery Discord server or GitHub.
Stability: The SDK documentation says Nuclei has no LTS or stable version and that breaking changes can be expected during active development.
Service deployment: The maker says Nuclei is primarily a standalone CLI tool and warns that running it as a service may pose security risks.
Price from: Free

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Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Vulnerability Scanning Software in 2026#8 of 31
Best Web Application Security Scanners in 2026#4 of 29
Best Network Vulnerability Scanners in 2026#8 of 22

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Sources

docs.projectdiscovery.io/opensource/nuclei/overview· checked 3 Oct 2026
docs.projectdiscovery.io/opensource/nuclei/faq· checked 3 Oct 2026
docs.projectdiscovery.io/opensource/nuclei/ci-cd· checked 3 Oct 2026
docs.projectdiscovery.io/opensource/nuclei/install· checked 3 Oct 2026
docs.projectdiscovery.io/opensource/nuclei/nuclei-sdk· checked 3 Oct 2026
projectdiscovery.io/open-source· checked 4 Oct 2026
projectdiscovery.io/blog/open-by-design-trusted-by-enterpri· checked 4 Oct 2026
github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei· checked 4 Oct 2026