Noxen vs Action1

Action1 and Noxen both show up when somebody types "free vulnerability scanner" into a search bar — Action1 because its first batch of endpoints is free, Noxen because the first 3 hosts are free forever. After that the products diverge sharply. Action1 is a cloud-managed patching platform with vuln scanning attached. Noxen is a local, agentless scanner that does not patch anything. Pick the framing that matches the job.

What Action1 is

Action1 is a SaaS Risk-Based Patch Management platform. You install a lightweight agent on each Windows endpoint (Linux and macOS agents are available but the product is centred on Windows). The agent reports inventory and vulnerability state to the Action1 cloud, and you can push OS and third-party patches from the same console. Pricing is per-endpoint per-month; Action1 is known for a generous free tier that has historically covered up to roughly 100 endpoints, which makes it a natural shortlist entry for small shops. Check Action1's current pricing page for the live free-tier ceiling before making a decision.

When Action1 is the right choice

• You want vulnerability detection and patch deployment in one tool. Action1 closes the loop: detect, then push the patch. Noxen never pushes anything to a target. Noxen reads; it does not write.
• Your endpoints are Windows desktops and laptops. Action1 is built for that shape — RMM-style, agent-on-every- endpoint, Patch Tuesday workflows.
• You are comfortable with cloud-managed endpoint state. Action1's value proposition rests on a SaaS console. If your endpoints can phone home and that is acceptable to your security posture, Action1 is built for you.
• You're under Action1's free-tier endpoint ceiling and want zero licensing cost. Action1's free tier is genuinely generous. If your shop fits inside it and Windows-first is your shape, it is hard to argue against.
• You have an MSP business managing other people's endpoints. Action1's RMM-shaped tenancy and remote management features are aimed squarely at that workflow.

When Noxen is the right choice

• Your fleet is Linux/Unix, accessed over SSH. Debian, Ubuntu, Rocky, AlmaLinux, Proxmox, TrueNAS, OPNsense, Synology, Raspberry Pi nodes — the targets where installing yet another agent is a non-starter.
• You don't want an agent. Noxen is agentless. It uses the SSH key already in ~/.ssh/config. There is no daemon, no auto-updater, and nothing reporting endpoint state to a third party. More on why this matters.
• You want scan data to stay local. Noxen stores findings in your local SwiftData store. Noxen's servers only host the signed CVE feed; they do not see your host list, your findings, or your network topology.
• You want a Mac-native control plane. Noxen is a SwiftUI app for macOS 26+. Action1 is a web console you open in a browser tab.
• You want detection without patching. Some shops deliberately separate the two. Noxen flags; you patch through your existing tooling (Ansible, apt-dater, unattended-upgrades, dnf-automatic, whatever). Why we keep them separate.

Side-by-side

What we don't try to be

Noxen does not patch. It does not deploy software. It does not run remote scripts. It does not manage Windows endpoints. It does not provide remote desktop, screen sharing, or any RMM-shaped feature. There is no agent for us to extend over time into one. Noxen is deliberately a scanner — read-only, agentless, local-data — and we have no plans to grow it into a patch manager. If detection-plus-patching in one tool is what you want, Action1 (or an RMM, or a config-management system like Ansible/Salt) is the right shape.