How much does a penetration test cost?
Traditional pentests are priced on consultant hours, which pushes a single engagement into five figures. Here's the honest breakdown - and how an automated external pentest lands at $50.
What a traditional pentest costs
A traditional external web-application penetration test is commonly quoted in the low-to-mid five figures - often somewhere around $4,000 to $30,000+, depending on scope and firm. The price reflects labor, not software:
- Scoping calls and a written proposal before any testing starts.
- Days of a consultant's manual testing time.
- A hand-written report and a debrief.
- Re-tests billed as additional time.
That's the right model for a bespoke, deep engagement. For the recurring, external, audit-evidence pentest most SaaS teams actually need, most of that cost is commodity work.
What complyeah costs
A flat $50 runs one comprehensive external pentest on one verified domain, delivered as an auditor-ready, control-mapped report and a shareable certificate, plus one full retest within 60 days. An unused purchase credit is valid for 12 months. Continuous is an optional $49/domain/month or $490/domain/year plan; there are no seat charges.
Why it's a fraction of the price
We automate the commodity scanning and the report assembly, run entirely external and self-serve, and reuse the same engine across every customer. The same audit-grade, control-mapped report lands at a fraction of the cost - you're paying for the report and the workflow, not billable hours. Where an auditor wants a human sign-off, you can add a reviewer attestation to any comprehensive report for $99.
Frequently asked
How much does a penetration test cost?
A traditional external web-app penetration test is commonly priced in the low-to-mid five figures - often around $4,000 to $30,000+ - because it's billed on consultant hours: scoping calls, manual testing, and a hand-written report. complyeah is a flat $50 per comprehensive external pentest of one verified domain, with the automated scanning and report assembly doing the commodity work.
Why is complyeah so much cheaper?
We automate the commodity scanning and the report assembly, run entirely external and self-serve, and reuse the same engine across every customer - so the same audit-grade, control-mapped report lands at a fraction of the cost. You're paying for the report and the workflow, not billable hours.
Are there hidden costs or subscriptions?
$50 buys one comprehensive pentest and one full retest within 60 days; the unused purchase credit is valid for 12 months. Continuous is optional at $49 per verified domain per month or $490 annually and includes security plus five Agent Readiness runs. There are no seat charges. Human review, if an auditor wants it, is $99.
Test the product you actually shipped.
Start with a free posture snapshot, buy one external pentest, or monitor security and Agent Readiness continuously.