Head to head · Survey date: September 2026
runZero vs Lansweeper: Which Agentless Discovery Tool?
Two discovery-first tools, built for different teams.
Bottom line
runZero (72) edges Lansweeper (70). runZero leads on five criteria, including deployment effort and freshness, and suits security teams that need unauthenticated discovery across IT, OT and IoT. Lansweeper leads on price transparency and remediation handoff, and suits IT teams feeding a service desk.
Last updated 29 September 2026
How do runZero and Lansweeper score?
| Criterion | Weight | runZero | Lansweeper | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source coverage | 22% | 72 | 70 | runZero |
| Correlation and deduplication | 18% | 70 | 66 | runZero |
| Data freshness | 12% | 80 | 76 | runZero |
| Query and reporting | 12% | 68 | 64 | runZero |
| Remediation and write-back | 14% | 48 | 50 | Lansweeper |
| Deployment effort | 12% | 90 | 86 | runZero |
| Price transparency | 10% | 82 | 90 | Lansweeper |
| Total | 100% | 72 | 70 | runZero |
runZero leads 5 criteria, Lansweeper leads 2.
Coverage and trust score (editorial assessment, 0-100). It measures how completely and reliably a tool can tell a security or IT team what assets exist, who owns them and what state they are in. It is not a measure of overall product quality: service management platforms and lifecycle tools score lower here because inventory accuracy is one part of what they do.
How are runZero and Lansweeper different?
Both discover assets themselves without requiring agents. runZero needs no credentials either, profiles each asset against nearly 1,000 attributes and runs as SaaS, on premises or air-gapped. Lansweeper combines agentless scanning with an optional agent for remote laptops and a passive traffic sensor, and matches duplicates on MAC address, serial number and hostname.
Which is cheaper?
Both publish pricing and both are free up to 100 assets. runZero's Platform starts at $5,000. Lansweeper publishes Starter (2,000 assets) and Pro (up to 9,000 assets) plans billed annually, with Enterprise quoted from 10,000 assets.
Which covers more?
They tie at 5.5 of 7 in our coverage grid. runZero documents cloud fully and SaaS not at all; Lansweeper documents cloud and SaaS partially. Neither documents identities as a full asset class.
Who owns runZero?
21 September 2026: Dragos announced that it has acquired runZero (and NetRise). runZero continues to serve existing customers.
Source: Dragos press release, "Dragos Acquires NetRise and runZero", 21 September 2026 · Reviewed Sep 2026
How do pricing and deployment compare?
| Fact | runZero | Lansweeper |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Community Edition free for 100 or fewer assets (30-day retention). runZero Platform starts at $5,000 (3-year retention). Source: runzero.com/pricing · Reviewed Sep 2026 | Free up to 100 assets after the trial. Starter (includes 2,000 assets) and Pro (scales to 9,000 assets in bands of 1,000) list prices are published, billed annually. Enterprise is quoted from 10,000 assets. Source: lansweeper.com/pricing · Reviewed Sep 2026 |
| Free tier or trial | Free, full-featured 21-day trial | 14 days of full access, then free up to 100 assets |
| Deployment | SaaS or on-premises, with support for air-gapped environments; no agents, authentication or appliances required. | Agentless scanning, an optional IT agent for off-network laptops and a traffic sensor for passive detection. |
| How it builds the inventory | Active scanning, passive discovery for OT, and integrations. | Agentless network scanning including OT, an optional agent, cloud discovery and passive detection. |
| Integrations as published | Integration list published, no count stated; custom integration SDK | Count not published; lists Jira Service Management, ServiceNow, HaloITSM, Freshservice, TOPdesk, Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk and Armis |
| Coverage grid count | 5.5 of 7 | 5.5 of 7 |
Which assets does each cover?
| Asset class | runZero | Lansweeper |
|---|---|---|
| Laptops and workstations | Documented | Documented |
| Servers | Documented | Documented |
| Cloud workloads | Documented | Partial |
| SaaS apps | Not documented | Partial |
| Identities | Partial | Partial |
| OT and IoT | Documented | Documented |
| Network devices | Documented | Documented |
| Weighted count (of 7) | 5.5 | 5.5 |
Which one fits your team?
Choose runZero if
- Security needs to find unknown devices without credentials or agents.
- Air-gapped or on-premises deployment is required.
Choose Lansweeper if
- IT wants inventory flowing into ServiceNow, Jira Service Management or Freshservice.
- Remote laptops need an agent option.
Frequently asked questions
Is runZero better than Lansweeper?
On our rubric runZero scores 72 and Lansweeper 70. Lansweeper leads on price transparency and remediation handoff.
Do runZero and Lansweeper both have free plans?
Yes. runZero's Community Edition and Lansweeper's free tier both cover up to 100 assets.
Which covers more asset classes, runZero or Lansweeper?
runZero and Lansweeper tie at 5.5 of 7 asset classes in our coverage grid, counting Documented as 1 and Partial as 0.5.