How much does a penetration test cost in 2024?

If you are here – most likely, you are going to perform penetration testing (also called “pen test”, “pentesing”. Customers ask you about pentest, or it is a compliance requirement. Or you are the one who just takes care of the company’s state of security.

If it is your first penetration testing, you have more questions than answers. Is pentest what you really need right now? What might happen if you decide to avoid it? How much money do you need for a high-quality service? This article combines answers to the most common questions and average penetration test prices to help you make the right decision.

Comparison of penetration testing cost by type

Different pentest types cost differently and might greatly vary not only because of complexity and scope but also due to special customer requirements.

Which type of penetration test should I choose?

During the testing, an ethical hackers team simulates the attacker’s behavior, testing the security of your application/organization from various attack vectors, simulating inside attacks (when the malefactor has already got inside the system) or external threats (when the malefactor tries to get inside). To define your sensitive vectors that need to be tested take a look below at the types of pentest, what they are used for, and what these tests include.

Types of penetration testing

In penetration testing vendors’ offerings, you can find the following penetration testing types that our ethical hackers specialize in:

• External penetration test – the assessment of the internet-facing systems to determine if there are exploitable vulnerabilities or misconfigurations that expose data or allow unauthorized access. Consider the external penetration testing cost when planning for this type of assessment.
• Internal penetration test/network penetration testing – the assessment of internal systems and applications, conducted to determine how deep the malicious insider can reach. The network penetration testing cost should be factored into your budget.
• Mobile application assessment – testing platform-specific vulnerabilities; an application security audit inside Android/iOS environment.
• Social engineering – testing how vulnerable client’s employees are to social attacks (such as phishing).
• Web application penetration testing – testing for vulnerabilities according to OWASP top 10. When budgeting, be sure to consider the web application penetration testing cost.
• Internet of Things (IoT) security assessment – security assessment of the IoT solutions to ensure end-to-end security.
• Red team attack simulation – a comprehensive assessment of how quickly and efficiently a client can respond to the attack – checking the company’s detection, defense, and response capabilities.

Read here in more detail about what’s included in each type.

Penetration testing levels of access permission

Before signing a penetration testing contract, the vendor offers clients three main penetration testing methods divided by the level of access permission.

• White box pen testing – A penetration testing method illustrates how much damage an attacker with an authorized user could cause. The main feature of white box testing is that you give penetration testing services providers full access to your product/architecture (network infrastructure schematics). Also, the scope may include security code review if requested. This permission level allows pentesters to study the clients’ services more deeply in short testing time frames and brings more value from a security perspective.
• Gray box pen testing – A penetration testing method where pentesters have limited knowledge and only partial access to a user’s system. This penetration testing method directs attention towards access to critical data and observing how well the security processes are configured in client systems. Ethical hackers might simulate attackers’ actions with longer-term access to the network using the client test account.
• Black box pen testing (blind testing) – A penetration testing method that simulates an external threat where the pen testers have no information on the security policies, network structure, software, or network protection used. During the first stage, their main task is to test the external line of defense and estimate how strong the possibility is to come inside. If they get inside the targeted system, ethical hackers will move forward into the system with small steps, gradually trying to gain more access.

Different penetration testing methodologies costs

Difference between vulnerability scanning and penetration testing

You already know what penetration testing is, but you might also find information about vulnerability scans. Let me explain what this service is.

Vulnerability Scanning is an automated tool’s actions that identifies known software vulnerabilities that can be exploited. And on the first sight, it may seem to be a cheap analog of penetration testing. But this is not the case.

There are two main differences between a vulnerability scan and penetration testing. A vulnerability scan is a tool, while penetration testing is conducted by highly-experienced security analysts – ethical hackers.

A vulnerability scan identifies only vulnerabilities that the tool was programmed to define, and it can be exploited, while penetration testers dig deeper and try to simulate real-world attackers’ actions to define firstly invisible vulnerabilities and find a possibility of compromising.

Vulnerability scanning is considered to be cheaper than penetration testing, so if the vendor offers you a suspiciously cheap pentest, most likely, it is just vulnerability scanning without further manual work of security experts.

UnderDefense MAXI features a comprehensive vulnerability scanner that helps identify potential weaknesses in your system efficiently. This tool complements our in-depth penetration testing services, ensuring that your security measures are both thorough and cost-effective. Detect and classify vulnerabilities in your systems, applications, and networks before criminals do. Hire our penetration testing team to carry out real-world cyberattacks on your environments and proactively prevent the risks that current gaps pose to your organization.

Vulnerability scanning vs penetration testing

Keep in mind that no vulnerability scans can mimic the behavior of a real attacker. Don’t waste time and money on automated assessment.

Why, when and how often to perform a penetration test?

The primary purpose of pentesting is to identify how the company might be hacked and highlight weaknesses in its current security policies. Overall, you need a pentest if you need:

• Penetration testing for regulatory compliance and audit;
• To prove to your clients that you are secure and trustworthy;
• Pentest as a stage of your SDLC;
• To be sure that your application updates are secure;
• To know what problems are in your security posture;
• To see if/how your business can be hacked;
• To be sure that you don’t have the same security problems as you hacked competitors had;
• to get strategic and tactic recommendations from security experts;
• To minimize everyday risk for your employees, business, and clients.

Regulation of performing penetration testing depends on updates in your network infrastructure or applications, on certificates your business maintains, on the size of your company, and other custom factors. We recommend consulting with a trusted cybersecurity vendor to plan to perform ethical hacking. It’s important to consider the cost of penetration testing when budgeting for these services.

There are various software applications for vulnerability searching or attack simulation. But none of them can show how vulnerable the tested system is. You can only see if your system can resist a real attack by applying for ethical hacking. No software can imitate the unpatterned behavior of real hackers using manual techniques. While vulnerability scanning tools may offer some insights, they do not replace the comprehensive nature of penetration testing, despite the difference in pen test cost.

List of factors that influence pen test pricing

As with every service, the pentest may vary depending on several factors. The key components that determine the scope of work and the price are the number of testing IPs, web applications, and the number of roles and pages per application.

Objective

The objective is exhibited during the consultation with the person who guides you during the work with the vendor. The object of testing is what actually needs to be tested in the customer’s business. Is it only application, IoT devices, network, or all of it? How many devices are in the network?
The size and complexity of the testing environment is the main factor that influences security test cost. Do you have a small local business? Or is it a worldwide international company? These aspects will significantly affect the cost of penetration testing.

Approach

Penetration testing pricing also depends on the approach, methodology, and tools set used to conduct penetration testing. If it is a comprehensive professional approach to ethical hacking, pentest vendors provide customers with the risk extent, give tactical recommendations for immediate improvement and longer-term recommendations for maturing the cybersecurity posture. Your pentest vendor’s team explains vulnerabilities’ influence and potential consequences for the business. The vendor should give a general security assessment that might vary from A (Excellent) to F (Inadequate) and give high-level recommendations to implement – that’s how we do this in UnderDefense. Also, ask your vendor to provide you with evidence and artifacts (videos and screenshots). Such materials allow IT and Development teams to recreate penetration testers’ findings.

Skills

As well as in all services, people’s professionalism is the key in penetration testing. Applying for penetration testing, pay attention to the specialist who works with you. Buying pentest in a well-experienced company, you get a service provided by highly educated ethical hackers who understand malefactors’ actions and industry trends and use various attack vectors. This expertise can influence penetration testing services prices.

Re-testing

The next step after conducting penetration testing is to cover founded cybersecurity gaps. But you need to know if you did it well enough. Here comes remediation testing. Some vendors provide 1-2 days of 100% free remediation assessment to attain a clean final report, confirm that all flaws are fixed, and be sure of your cyber reliability.

Understanding these factors can help you better estimate the cost of penetration testing and ensure you receive the most value from your investment in cybersecurity.

Advice on choosing the right penetration testing

Since we know what factors influence the price, let’s take a look at the price range that the market offers.

Penetration test service price limits

What is the real value of penetration testing?

Every year the world becomes more and more digitized. And unfortunately, cybercrime has become a new normal – as offline crime is. Some companies lose millions of dollars, reputations, and customers in cyberattacks. Some lose whole businesses. And some don’t lose anything. The key here is cyber resilience and a proactive approach to cybersecurity.

Examples of cost loses from cyber attacks*

*Source: PrivacyAffairs

All of them entailed multi-million dollar expenses and a lot of inconveniences for people who use the services of hacked companies.

According to the IBM Report 2023, the average cost of a data breach in 2023 is USD 4.45 milliona 15% increase over 3 years. The average penetration testing price is USD 20.000, which is 212 times less than the average cost of a data breach.

Think about a pentest not like spending but like business investment, which will help you keep your business protected continuously. If you still think that penetration testing is too expensive for you, don’t forget that the cost of an average data breach is much higher. 

But don’t forget that penetration testing is a spot check of the state of security. Only with constant 24×7 security monitoring – MDR security services – you can see what is going on inside your system at the exact moment. 

Cyber risks for small and medium businesses

If you are a small- or medium-sized business representative, you might have thought: “Ok, I don’t have that much money, my business is small, and I’m not interesting for hackers.” We are sorry to say that, but you are.

In its annual cyber readiness report, Hiscox revealed the median cost of cyber-attacks decreased for small businesses in the US from $10,000 in 2022 to $8,300 in 2023. At the same time, the median number of attacks has risen from 3 in 2022 to 4 in 2023. Additionally, 41% of small businesses fell victim to a cyber attack in 2023, a rise from 38% in the 2022 report and close to double from 22% in 2021.

According to Accenture’s Cost of Cybercrime Study, 43% of cyber attacks happen with small-sized businesses. Unfortunately, only 14% of them are ready to defend. If cyberattacks damage important IT assets and infrastructure, it might be impossible for a small business to recover due to the high recovery costs and limited security budgets. Often cyberattacks become fatal for small businesses. If the attack blocks the business systems, it interrupts business processes and makes interaction with the clients impossible. And even if small companies have some budgets to recover, it most likely takes so long that they can easily be ousted from the market by competitors.

Cybersecurity Ventures 2023 Official Cybercrime Report states that the total cost of damages incurred by cybercrime is expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025.

An organization loses $1.3 million in the average data breach, according to IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023.

66% of interviewed CIOs plan to continue to increase their investment in cybersecurity

The bad news is that with a high probability, you will be attacked. The only question is, “Are you sure that you belong to a minority that will survive?”

Conclusion

Investing money on penetration testing is a wise and proactive investment, which helps to detect critical gaps in the cybersecurity business and save your business from irreparable damage. A trusted and thorough penetration testing vendor protects your money and reputation. But be vigilant while choosing the vendor. By buying a pentest that costs less than 13 000 USD, you risk getting a pig in a poke. Trust only professionals – certified ethical hackers teams who can prove to you their expertise by telling success project references and sharing anonymized reports of other clients. Professionals will easily and transparently explain to you what steps they will need to take and what results you will get.

Each business gets its particular penetration testing price, depending on the scope of work, assessment approach, and other factors. To understand how much money your company needs for penetration testing, consult with a potential vendor. Pay attention to whether the vendor is trying to understand your case, how much attention pays to your goals and details, available financial resources, and limitations.

Only regular penetration testing as a part of your cybersecurity program makes your business cyber resilient and saves you from a false sense of security.

For a comprehensive and reliable penetration testing service, consider reaching out to UnderDefense Penetration Testing Service. Our experienced team of certified ethical hackers is committed to enhancing your cybersecurity posture. Learn more about our services and how we can tailor them to your specific needs by visiting our website.