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Penetration testing as a service · September 2026 Edition

Cobalt vs Astra Security

Nine of twelve models named Cobalt first on the direct prompt; zero named Astra Security. Both were named by all twelve models and Cobalt carries 40 labels and Astra Security 26, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Cobalt

endorsed leader

Named in one category this edition.

Astra Security

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

First-choice share44%13%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.

Negative rate5%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.

Rank in category#1#2A position in a field of 8; printed, not drawn.

Labels4026A count; the two differ.

The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Cobalt reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.BreachLock was named alongside these two in seven of the twelve direct answers. Cobalt vs BreachLock · Astra Security vs BreachLock

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; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the penetration testing as a service page.

By framing

How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.

CobaltFirst choices, of twelve modelsAstra Security

Direct90

Paraphrase93

Comparative14

Budget-constrained232 against Cobalt

Scale-constrained00

Negative00

Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Cobalt and Astra Security stood in it.

Cobalt first, Astra Security an alternative

9 of 12 modelsAstra Security was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.

GPT-5.4 miniCobalt alternatives: Astra Security, HackerOne, Packetlabs, Thoropass Pentesting, UnderDefense, Vumetric

Gemini 3.5 FlashCobalt alternatives: BreachLock, Cybri, NetSPI

Perplexity SonarCobalt alternatives: BreachLock, DeepStrike, Prescient Security, Stingrai, UnderDefense

Mistral SmallCobalt alternatives: BreachLock, Packetlabs, Stingrai

DeepSeek V4 FlashCobalt alternatives: Astra Security, BreachLock, NetSPI, Packetlabs

Llama 4 MaverickCobalt alternatives: DeepStrike, Echelon Cyber

Qwen 3.7 FlashCobalt alternatives: Coalfire, Kforce, Synack, Trustwave

Kimi K2Cobalt alternatives: BreachLock, NetSPI, UnderDefense

GLM 4.7 FlashXCobalt, NetSPI alternatives: Astra Security, Bishop Fox, BreachLock, Secureworks, Synack

Neither was the first choice, one was named

2 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.

Grok 4.1 FastPacketlabs alternatives: BreachLock, Cobalt

MiniMax M2.5Stingrai alternatives: Cobalt, Invadel

Neither was named

1 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.

Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.

Small business

Cobalt leads by two points.

Cobalt#2 of 6

Astra Security#3 of 6

The full small business standing →

Mid-marketThe figures above

Cobalt leads by thirty-one points.

Cobalt#1 of 8

Astra Security#2 of 8

The full mid-market standing →

Enterprise

Cobalt leads by fifteen points.

Cobalt#3 of 9

Astra Security#– of 9

The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Cobalt

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.

“though it is more of a managed marketplace than a low-cost commodity service” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · soft negative

“PTaaS from ~$3K-$10K/yr; crowdsourced for value, but less "one-off cheap."” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · soft negative

“Cobalt.io (Best Overall for Mid-Market SaaS & Dev Workflows) ... widely considered the gold standard for mid-market technology and SaaS companies” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · first choice

“the best penetration testing service is usually Cobalt if you want fast turnaround, audit-ready reporting, and a PTaaS model” Perplexity Sonar · direct prompt · first choice

“Best overall for most mid-market B2B: Cobalt (PTaaS—fast, compliance-ready, retesting included, right-sized pricing)” DeepSeek V4 Flash · direct prompt · first choice

What the models said about Astra Security

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.

“Astra Security and Cobalt.io are the most recommended due to their affordable pricing, flexible models, and comprehensive coverage” Mistral Small · budget prompt · first choice

“Astra Security is the safest single recommendation from these results because it is repeatedly framed as SMB-friendly” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · first choice

“Astra Security is often ranked as the best overall solution, particularly for modern engineering teams.” MiniMax M2.5 · comparative prompt · first choice

Also compared

Cobalt vs BreachLock Astra Security vs BreachLock The full ptaas standing

Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.