stockrowWhat it does
Tenable provides cybersecurity software that helps organizations find and prioritize weaknesses attackers could exploit. Its approach, called exposure management, extends vulnerability management beyond individual software flaws to consider risks across an organization’s technology environment. Its customers range from small organizations to large enterprises and government agencies.
Tenable One is the company’s enterprise platform. It brings together information about assets, vulnerabilities, configurations and potential attack paths so security teams can decide what to fix. It covers areas including IT infrastructure, cloud resources, web applications, identity systems, industrial technology and AI-related assets. The platform can also bring in data from other security and business systems.
Tenable sells individual tools as well. Its cloud-delivered vulnerability management software discovers assets and prioritizes weaknesses, while Tenable Security Center provides vulnerability management on a customer’s premises. Tenable OT Security addresses industrial and connected-device environments. The Nessus product line provides vulnerability assessment and underpins the enterprise platform.
In Q2 2026, Tenable launched Hexa, an AI capability available within Tenable One. Customers use it for tasks including managing scanning workflows and automating parts of remediation. Tenable also sells AI Exposure, which helps organizations identify risks associated with their use of AI.
Tenable’s predecessor was founded in 2002, and its headquarters are in Columbia, Maryland. Mark Thurmond was co-chief executive officer in Q2 2026.
How it makes money
Tenable generates revenue from software and cloud subscriptions, perpetual software licenses and associated maintenance, and professional services. Its enterprise products are primarily sold as subscriptions, usually with a one-year term; longer agreements are becoming more common, though subscription terms generally do not exceed three years. Subscriptions typically include software updates during the contract period.
In FY2025, subscription revenue was $919.6 million; total Q2 2026 revenue was $268.5 million.
Subscription revenue represented 92.0% of FY2025 revenue. Recurring revenue, which includes subscriptions and maintenance associated with perpetual licenses, represented 96% of revenue in 2025. Perpetual license and maintenance revenue was $44.7 million in FY2025, while professional services and other revenue was $35.2 million. Professional services mainly include advice and training for product deployment and optimization.
Tenable generally invoices subscriptions in advance, although it increasingly bills multi-year subscriptions in annual installments. Some subscription revenue is recognized over the contract term because customers depend on ongoing updates; where the software’s usefulness does not depend on those updates, license revenue is recognized on delivery and maintenance revenue over the contract period.
Tenable One has Foundation and Advanced offerings. Advanced includes additional cloud security, attack-path analysis and scoring capabilities, as well as a larger allocation of Hexa tokens. Tenable has also created a product for customers to purchase incremental tokens when they exceed their allocations. The company said Advanced carries a higher selling price than standalone vulnerability management.
In Q2 2026, Tenable One accounted for 50% of new business. The company said that expansion within existing accounts and renewals contributed to quarterly revenue growth.
| Product or service | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription revenue | $919.6 million | 92.0% | 11.5% |
| Perpetual license and maintenance revenue | $44.7 million | 4.47% | −6.52% |
| Professional services and other revenue | $35.2 million | 3.52% | 27.5% |
Customers and how it sells
Tenable sells to organizations of different sizes across manufacturing, energy, technology, financial services, government, education, healthcare and retail. At December 31, 2025, it had over 40,000 customers in over 170 countries, including approximately 65% of the Fortune 500 and approximately 50% of the Global 2000. No single customer represented more than 2% of revenue in 2025.
Its sales force works with distributors, resellers and other channel partners. In the usual two-tier model, Tenable sells enterprise offerings to distributors, who sell to resellers, who then sell to end users. One distributor accounted for 32.0% of FY2025 revenue. Tenable also uses its e-commerce website and works with managed security service providers and system integrators.
The Americas generated $611.0 million in FY2025 revenue, or 61.1% of the total. Europe, the Middle East and Africa contributed $273.1 million, while Asia Pacific contributed $115.3 million.
Tenable said it added 381 new enterprise customers in Q2 2026. Its examples from the quarter included an expansion with an existing financial services customer and a manufacturing services company that selected Tenable One Advanced.
| Region | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Americas | $611.0 million | 61.1% | 9.48% |
| Europe, Middle East and Africa | $273.1 million | 27.3% | 13.9% |
| Asia Pacific | $115.3 million | 11.5% | 12.8% |
Suppliers and costs
Tenable outsources its data center needs to Amazon Web Services. It also licenses software from third parties, including open-source software, for integration into its products. The company says it cannot ensure that third parties will maintain that software or continue to make it available.
Cost of revenue includes technical support personnel, cloud infrastructure, professional services and training. It also includes depreciation, amortization of acquired and developed technology, hardware, and allocated costs such as facilities, information technology and insurance. Tenable intends to invest further in its cloud platform and customer support as the business grows.
Research and development spending supports new features, applications and security research. Sales and marketing spending supports customer acquisition, retention and expansion, alongside Tenable’s channel partners. The company expects to continue spending substantial resources on cloud computing, research and development, sales and marketing, international expansion and administration.
At December 31, 2025, Tenable had 1,995 employees. It expects cloud infrastructure costs, support-team expansion and technology efficiency to affect gross margin from period to period.
- Revenue$999.4M
- Cost of revenue−$218.9M
- Research and development−$223.7M
- Selling, general and administrative−$562.9M
- Other operating costs−$3.1M
- Operating income−$9.2M
Competitive position
Tenable competes in a fragmented cybersecurity market against specialist vendors, broader security providers, cloud security companies and tools developed by customers themselves. Qualys and Rapid7 compete in vulnerability management and assessment. CrowdStrike offers endpoint security with vulnerability assessment capabilities, while Palo Alto Networks and Wiz offer cloud security solutions. Tenable also competes with providers of individual products that match some features of its platform. The company expects competition to remain intense.
Customers can also build their own tools, sometimes using open-source code. Tenable identifies product functionality, breadth, deployment, integration, scalability and performance among the factors customers consider. It says some established competitors have greater resources, customer relationships, marketing budgets and name recognition.
Tenable’s potential sources of differentiation include its vulnerability research, data gathered through its products, the Nessus user community and integrations with other systems. Tenable Research supplies vulnerability checks, security research and configuration benchmarks. Its platform can ingest third-party data and export Tenable data to other IT and security systems.
Our reading: Research and the Nessus community provide a meaningful source of product knowledge, but competitors and internally developed tools limit how exclusive that advantage is. Our reading: Integrations and a platform spanning several asset types can support customer adoption, but the evidence does not establish that customers are unable to switch.
| Competitor | Where they compete | Threat (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Qualys | Vulnerability management and assessment | High |
| Rapid7 | Vulnerability management and assessment | High |
| CrowdStrike | Endpoint security with vulnerability assessment | Medium |
| Palo Alto Networks | Cloud security | Medium |
| Wiz | Cloud security | Medium |
| Microsoft | A newly launched competing offering | Medium |
Growth opportunities
Tenable intends to add enterprise platform customers and expand within existing accounts by reaching more teams, business units and geographies. It plans to invest in sales and marketing and use its channel partnerships to reach customers domestically and internationally. It also intends to develop its platform and explore acquisitions that add technology or capabilities.
Tenable One is central to that strategy. Its broader coverage lets customers assess risks across additional asset types, including cloud resources, identities, industrial technology and AI workloads. Tenable says it is investing in AI security and remediation as it collects and incorporates more third-party data.
In Q2 2026, Tenable said customers were increasingly choosing Tenable One Advanced following changes to pricing and packaging. It also said customers were expanding the assets they covered, including operational technology and cloud assets. Hexa, launched during the quarter, had hundreds of Tenable One customers using it; Tenable created a way to sell additional tokens to customers exceeding their allocations.
The company achieved FedRAMP High authorization for Tenable One cloud exposure in Q2 2026. For full-year 2026, Tenable expected revenue of $1.075 billion to $1.081 billion, reflecting the outlook it gave after Q2.
- $541.1MFY2021
- $683.2MFY2022
- $798.7MFY2023
- $900.0MFY2024
- $999.4MFY2025
- $1.1BFY2026 guidance
Structural risks
- Losses and spending: Tenable has a history of losses and may not achieve or maintain profitability. It expects to continue incurring operating losses in the near term while investing in areas including research, sales and cloud infrastructure.
- Renewals and expansion: Results depend in part on customers renewing subscriptions and expanding their use of Tenable products. Large customers failing to renew, changes in budgets or delays in purchasing decisions could affect results.
- Competition and product development: Established and emerging vendors can introduce competing products or change prices. New Tenable offerings or enhancements may fail to gain sufficient market acceptance or may be delayed.
- Channel dependence: Tenable relies on channel partners to market and sell its products. One distributor represented 32.0% of FY2025 revenue, and the company’s results can be affected by its ability to retain and incentivize partners.
- Security and service interruptions: Network outages, security breaches or technical difficulties affecting Tenable or its service providers can affect results. Its products also need to work with customers’ network and security infrastructure.
Bottom line
Our reading
Tenable is a subscription-led cybersecurity business built around finding and prioritizing exposures across customers’ technology environments. Its opportunity rests on winning new customers and broadening existing deployments of Tenable One, while its exposure includes intense competition, reliance on channel partners and a history of losses. Research, product coverage and integrations support its offering, but continued renewals and product development remain important to its business.