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September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › IT › Security operations › PTaaS · September 2026 Edition

Penetration testing as a service

Asked as “penetration testing service”, and as “pentest-as-a-service provider”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 45 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
44%
Cobalt
Clear leader
44Cobalt13Astra Security09BreachLock33others

44% of first choices, clear leader.

ShowinginAll 136 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessBreachLock28%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketCobalt44%Clear leaderThis pageEnterpriseNetSPI40%ContestedStanding →

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Cobalt44%5%40endorsed leader
02Astra Security13%0%26accepted challenger
03BreachLock9%3%30accepted challenger
04NetSPI2%9%22accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
07Bugcrowd PTaaS0%30%10criticized challenger
08HackerOne PTaaS0%30%10criticized challenger
06Synack0%11%18accepted challenger
05Bishop Fox0%6%16accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to head
Cobalt vs Astra SecurityCobalt vs BreachLockCobalt vs NetSPI
All six head-to-head pages: the top four products, each against each
Astra Security vs BreachLockAstra Security vs NetSPIBreachLock vs NetSPI

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
B07
H08
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Cobalt44%
02Astra Security13%
03BreachLock9%
04NetSPI2%
05Bishop Fox0%
06Synack0%
07Bugcrowd PTaaS0%
08HackerOne PTaaS0%

What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
HackerOne PTaaS
30%
3 of 10 labels negative · 3 of 12 models
“While good for finding unique bugs, tester continuity is lower because you never know which specific hacker will test your system next.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, comparative prompt
Acunetix
33%
2 of 6 labels negative · 2 of 12 models
“but it is more of a web app security product than a full manual pentest firm” Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt
Bugcrowd PTaaS
30%
3 of 10 labels negative · 2 of 12 models
“typically more expensive for enterprise‑scale needs; often better suited to large, complex programs” GLM 4.7 FlashX, paraphrase prompt
Cobalt
5%
2 of 40 labels negative · 2 of 12 models
“though it is more of a managed marketplace than a low-cost commodity service” Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

62 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 839 links across 206 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

deepstrike.io
vendor site · DeepStrike40 answers · 67 citations · 11 models
synack.com
vendor site · Synack34 answers · 44 citations · 12 models
stingrai.io
vendor site · Stingrai21 answers · 32 citations · 10 models
underdefense.com
vendor site · UnderDefense21 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
techrepublic.com
21 answers · 22 citations · 10 models
getastra.com
16 answers · 22 citations · 10 models
softwaresecured.com
vendor site · Software Secured16 answers · 18 citations · 9 models
clutch.co
vendor site · Clutch15 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
cybri.com
vendor site · Cybri15 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
pentestingproviders.com
13 answers · 13 citations · 9 models
reddit.com
12 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
brightdefense.com
vendor site · Bright Defense12 answers · 14 citations · 7 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

synack.com/blog/best-penetration-testing-companies
24 answers · 11 models
techrepublic.com/article/best-penetration-testing-companies
20 answers · 10 models
underdefense.com/blog/penetration-testing-services
19 answers · 9 models
clutch.co/it-services/cybersecurity/penetration-testing
15 answers · 9 models
deepstrike.io/blog/top-penetration-testing-companies
15 answers · 9 models
deepstrike.io/blog/top-penetration-testing-as-a-service-ptaas
14 answers · 9 models
terra.security/blog/top-10-penetration-testing-as-a-service-ptaas-providers
12 answers · 10 models
softwaresecured.com/post/top-10-penetration-testing-vendors
11 answers · 7 models
cybri.com/blog/ptaas-companies
10 answers · 9 models
soc2auditors.org/penetration-testing-firms
10 answers · 6 models

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best penetration testing service”, “penetration testing service”, “penetration testing services”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Cobalt cobalt.io44%127135,00027,73223,65514
Astra getastra.com
Astra Security 13%		13%855902060,832 company$17,489755
BreachLock breachlock.com9%8159062,47922
Bug Circuit bugcircuit.com7%110145
NetSPI netspi.com2%671,900584,142$33643
Packetlabs packetlabs.net2%16140395,245$1,07917
UnderDefense underdefense.com2%7170111,82310
Stingrai stingrai.io2%53201,00023,27470
Software Secured softwaresecured.com2%124801,0882,2660
Affordable Pentesting affordablepentesting.com2%4

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 22 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (cybri.com, getastra.com, reddit.com, synack.com). The first result for “best penetration testing service” is reddit.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best penetration testing service for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which pentest-as-a-service provider would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top penetration testing services and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best penetration testing service for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a penetration testing service. What should we look at?”Negative“Which penetration testing services should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5no first choiceBreachLockChanged
Four alternativesCobalt, NetSPI, Packetlabs, Software Secured
Rapid7
Eight alternativesBeagle Security, Bishop Fox, Coalfire, Cobalt, IBM X-Force Red, NetSPI, Synack, Trustwave
BreachLock, Kualitatem, UnderDefense
One alternativeCyber Protection Group
against: Fiverrno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniCobalt
Six alternativesAstra Security, HackerOne PTaaS, Packetlabs, Thoropass Pentesting, UnderDefense, Vumetric
CobaltHeld
Two alternativesBugcrowd PTaaS, Synack
no first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashCobalt
Three alternativesBreachLock, Cybri, NetSPI
CobaltHeld
Four alternativesAstra Security, BreachLock, NetSPI, Stingrai
no first choice
Seven alternativesBishop Fox, BreachLock, Cobalt, Horizon3.ai NodeZero, NetSPI, Pentera, Synack
Vonahi Security vPenTest
Four alternativesAstra Security, Beagle Security, Cyber Protection Group, TCM Security
no first choicenothing named
Perplexity SonarCobalt
Five alternativesBreachLock, DeepStrike, Prescient Security, Stingrai, UnderDefense
CobaltHeld
Three alternativesBreachLock, DeepStrike, Sprocket Security
no first choiceAstra Security
Three alternativesBreachLock, Qualysec, UnderDefense
against: Acunetix, Cobalt, Intruderno first choicenothing named
Grok 4.20Packetlabs
Two alternativesBreachLock, Cobalt
against: NetSPI, SynackCobaltChanged
One alternativeBreachLock
NetSPI
Five alternativesAstra Security, Bishop Fox, BreachLock, Cobalt, Synack
against: Rapid7Bug Circuit
Three alternativesAffordable Pentesting, Astra Security, Practical Assurance
against: BreachLock, Cobaltno first choicenothing named
Mistral SmallCobalt
Three alternativesBreachLock, Packetlabs, Stingrai
Astra Security, CobaltChanged
Two alternativesBreachLock, Software Secured
Astra Security
Ten alternativesBishop Fox, BreachLock, Cobalt, DeepStrike, Intruder, Invicti, NetSPI, Rapid7, Synack, White Knight Labs
Astra Security, Cobalt
Two alternativesAcunetix, Intruder
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashCobalt
Four alternativesAstra Security, BreachLock, NetSPI, Packetlabs
CobaltHeld
Two alternativesAstra Security, BreachLock
Astra Security
Seven alternativesBishop Fox, BreachLock, Bugcrowd PTaaS, Cobalt, HackerOne PTaaS, NetSPI, Praetorian
against: Acunetix, Intruder, InvictiAstra Security, BreachLock
Three alternativesBeagle Security, Intruder, Vonahi Security vPenTest
against: Bug Circuit, TurboPentestno first choicenothing named
Llama 4 MaverickCobalt
Two alternativesDeepStrike, Echelon Cyber
Software SecuredChangedno first choiceBreachLock, Cobalt
One alternativeAstra Security
no first choiceagainst: Black Hills Information Security, Trustwave
Qwen 3.7 FlashCobalt
Four alternativesCoalfire, Kforce, Synack, Trustwave
against: Bugcrowd PTaaS, CrowdStrike, MandiantAstra SecurityChanged
Two alternativesCobalt, Software Secured
Coalfire, Cobalt, Intruder, NetSPI
Two alternativesBreachLock, SpecterOps
against: Bugcrowd PTaaS, HackerOne PTaaSBreachDefense, Luta Security
Three alternativesBugcrowd PTaaS, HackerOne PTaaS, Intigriti
against: Deloitte, EY, KPMG, OpenVAS, PwC, Tenable Nessusno first choiceagainst: Deloitte, KPMGnothing named
Kimi K2Cobalt
Three alternativesBreachLock, NetSPI, UnderDefense
against: Bishop FoxCobaltHeld
Two alternativesAstra Security, Synack
against: HackerOne PTaaSAstra Security
Four alternativesBishop Fox, BreachLock, Cobalt, Optiv
Bug Circuit, HIFENCE
Three alternativesAcunetix, BreachLock, Cobalt
no first choicenothing named
GLM 4.7 FlashXCobalt, NetSPI
Five alternativesAstra Security, Bishop Fox, BreachLock, Secureworks, Synack
CobaltChanged
Two alternativesBreachLock, Sprocket Security
against: Bugcrowd PTaaS, HackerOne PTaaS, NetSPI, Rapid7, SynackBishop Fox, Bugcrowd PTaaS, NetSPI
Two alternativesDeepStrike, Synack
Bug Circuit, TurboPentest
One alternativeAffordable Pentesting
no first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Stingrai
Two alternativesCobalt, Invadel
Astra Security, CobaltChanged
Two alternativesBreachLock, Terra Security
Astra Security
Four alternativesAcunetix, Cobalt, Intruder, Invicti
Affordable Pentesting
Three alternativesBreachLock, Cobalt, CyberSuite
no first choice
Five alternativesAstra Security, Bishop Fox, Cobalt, NetSPI, Synack
nothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:13no04 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:58yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:29yes918 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:48yes207 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 14:04yes3423 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:12yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:54yes914 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 09:46yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 14:03no044 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:49yes1247 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:43yes1542 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:27yes530 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:25yes179 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:54yes45 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:56yes2127 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:50yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 12:54yes3116 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:03yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:06yes1820 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 10:50yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:31yes540 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:21yes1944 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:16yes23111 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:41yes539 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:20yes1411 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:06yes47 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:24yes1825 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:00yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 12:17yes2817 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:33yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:01yes1724 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:48yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:59yes1554 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:39yes1536 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:07yes24148 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:00yes535 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 14:14yes97 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:15no03 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:05yes2225 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:30yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 10:30yes4020 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:54yes96 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 14:05yes2824 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:35yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 09:42no036 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 10:27yes1020 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:24yes26131 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:54yes521 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:45no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 12:39no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:25yes1425 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 09:33yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 10:47yes1412 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 09:23no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:30yes1017 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:12yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:18no037 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 09:38yes847 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:50yes1483 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:57yes530 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:22yes1711 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:02no03 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:50yes1518 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 11:36yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 14:03yes1310 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:04yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 11:26yes812 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:37yes53 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:17yes527 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:26yes1530 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:32yes1296 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 10:09no010 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Astra read as Astra Security
Bug Crowds read as Bugcrowd PTaaS
Bugcrowd read as Bugcrowd PTaaS
HackerOne read as HackerOne PTaaS
HackerOne (Program Builder) read as HackerOne PTaaS
Vonahi Security (vPenTest) read as Vonahi Security vPenTest
Unresolved, counted raw
Artifice Security
BreachDefense
Breacon
Echelon Cyber
Kali Linux
Kforce
Luta Security
Penti
Spectral Ops
TCM Security
Thoropass Pentesting
Vumetric
White Knight Labs
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in security operations

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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