IT AI Index
Index › Security operations › PTaaS › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Penetration testing as a service for small business buyers

Asked as “penetration testing service”, and as “pentest-as-a-service provider”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 43 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
BreachLock
Contested
28% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 67 categories →

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%ContestedThis pageMid-marketCobalt44%Clear leaderStanding →EnterpriseNetSPI40%ContestedStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01BreachLock28%0%31accepted challenger
02Cobalt21%6%33accepted challenger
03Astra Security19%0%22accepted challenger
04Acunetix9%19%16accepted challenger
05Bugcrowd2%0%17accepted challenger
Show the one product at 0%, ordered by negative rate
06Intruder0%20%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Cobalt vs Astra SecurityCobalt vs BreachLockAstra Security vs BreachLock

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01BreachLock28%
02Cobalt21%
03Astra Security19%
04Acunetix9%
05Bugcrowd2%
06Intruder0%

02What they warned about

Zero of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, 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.
Invicti
75%
3 of 4 labels negative · 3 of 12 models
“**Invicti** is mentioned for larger firms, so it is usually less aligned with a small-company default choice” Perplexity Sonar, direct prompt
Synack
38%
3 of 8 labels negative · 3 of 12 models
“While known for enterprise, they offer trials (like SARA®) and have tiered pricing that can be accessible” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
Acunetix
19%
3 of 16 labels negative · 2 of 12 models
“An enterprise tool, but the scaled-down option is often cited as best for small businesses” DeepSeek V4 Flash, comparative prompt
Cobalt
6%
2 of 33 labels negative · 2 of 12 models
“annual PTaaS programs from vendors like Cobalt can still run **$20,000 to $100,000+ per year**, which may be too high for a tight budget” Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

61 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. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 698 links across 168 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

deepstrike.io
vendor site · DeepStrike42 answers · 67 citations · 11 models
terra.security
29 answers · 29 citations · 9 models
synack.com
vendor site · Synack28 answers · 34 citations · 11 models
techrepublic.com
27 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
underdefense.com
vendor site · UnderDefense22 answers · 26 citations · 9 models
stingrai.io
vendor site · Stingrai16 answers · 27 citations · 8 models
g2.com
16 answers · 23 citations · 7 models
softwaresecured.com
vendor site · Software Secured15 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
reddit.com
13 answers · 22 citations · 7 models
getastra.com
12 answers · 20 citations · 6 models
pentestingproviders.com
11 answers · 12 citations · 6 models
brightdefense.com
vendor site · Bright Defense11 answers · 11 citations · 6 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.

terra.security/blog/top-10-penetration-testing-as-a-service-ptaas-providers
29 answers · 9 models
techrepublic.com/article/best-penetration-testing-companies
27 answers · 9 models
deepstrike.io/blog/top-penetration-testing-as-a-service-ptaas
20 answers · 10 models
synack.com/blog/best-penetration-testing-companies
20 answers · 10 models
deepstrike.io/blog/top-penetration-testing-companies
19 answers · 7 models
underdefense.com/blog/penetration-testing-services
19 answers · 8 models
softwaresecured.com/post/top-10-penetration-testing-vendors
12 answers · 8 models
reddit.com/r/msp/comments/znf99o/small_business_pen_testing
10 answers · 7 models
cyberbench.net/blog/best-penetration-testing-companies-mid-market-2026
9 answers · 8 models
artificesecurity.com/penetration-testing-firms-red-flags
8 answers · 8 models

04How 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.
ModelDirect“What is the best penetration testing service for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which pentest-as-a-service provider would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top penetration testing services for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best penetration testing service for a small company with a tight budget?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Cobalt
Three alternativesAstra Security, Beagle Security, BreachLock
BreachLockChanged
One alternativeCobalt
against: Black Hills Information SecurityCobalt
Five alternativesBeagle Security, BreachLock, Packetlabs, Software Secured, UnderDefense
UnderDefense
Three alternativesKualitatem, Packetlabs, TechMagic
GPT-5.4 minino first choice
Six alternativesBishop Fox, Cobalt, NCC Group, NetSPI, Rapid7, Synack
CobaltChanged
Three alternativesMuster, Parameter, Vonahi Security vPenTest
Cobalt
Two alternativesHackerOne, Synack
Astra Security
Three alternativesAffordable Pentesting, Pentest-Tools.com, Vonahi Security vPenTest
Gemini 3.5 FlashBreachLock
Three alternativesAstra Security, Cobalt, SecureLeap
against: Bishop Fox, NCC GroupAstra SecurityChanged
Two alternativesBreachLock, Cobalt
Astra Security, Cobalt
Three alternativesBreachLock, Defendify, Horizon3.ai NodeZero
Astra Security
Three alternativesBreachLock, Intruder, Vonahi Security vPenTest
Perplexity SonarAstra Security
Four alternativesAcunetix, BreachLock, Bright Defense, Cobalt
against: InvictiBreachLockChanged
Two alternativesCobalt, Pentest-Tools.com
Cobalt
Six alternativesAstra Security, BreachLock, Bugcrowd, Pentest People, Secureworks, UnderDefense
Acunetix
Two alternativesBright Defense, Practical Assurance
against: Cobalt
Grok 4.1 FastAstra Security, BreachLock
Two alternativesAcunetix, Cobalt
against: Intruder, NetSPICobaltChanged
Two alternativesBreachLock, Bugcrowd
against: Acunetix, SynackPrescient Security
Six alternativesAstra Security, BreachLock, Bright Defense, Bugcrowd, Cobalt, UnderDefense
Astra Security, BreachLock
One alternativeIntruder
against: Bug Circuit, HIFENCE
Mistral SmallBugcrowd, Terra Security
One alternativeAcunetix
CobaltChanged
Two alternativesBreachLock, Bugcrowd
Astra Security, Bugcrowd
Two alternativesAcunetix, Cobalt
BreachLock, Cobalt
Two alternativesAffordable Pentesting, CyberSuite
DeepSeek V4 FlashAstra Security, BreachLock
Four alternativesBugcrowd, Intruder, Practical Assurance, Software Secured
BreachLockChanged
One alternativeAstra Security
against: Cobalt, IntruderAstra Security
Four alternativesBreachLock, Cobalt, Intruder, Open-source stack
against: Acunetix, InvictiBreachLock
Two alternativesBudget Security, Cobalt
against: Acunetix
Llama 4 MaverickAcunetix
Two alternativesBugcrowd, Terra Security
CobaltChanged
Three alternativesBreachLock, NetSPI, Software Secured
Bugcrowd
Two alternativesAcunetix, Astra Security
Acunetix
Three alternativesBreachLock, Bugcrowd, CyberSuite
Qwen 3.7 FlashCobalt
Four alternativesBugcrowd, Coalfire, SANS Security Awareness, Synack
against: Qualys, Tenable NessusBreachLockChanged
One alternativeBugcrowd
Cobalt
Four alternativesImmuniWeb, Intrig, Invicti, Snyk
against: MandiantAffordable Pentesting, Bug Circuit
Two alternativesAstra Security, BreachLock
against: Invicti, Synack
Kimi K2Astra Security, Cobalt
Three alternativesBug Circuit, Stingrai, TurboPentest
BreachLockChanged
One alternativeAstra Security
Astra Security, Cobalt
Two alternativesBugcrowd, Intruder
Bug Circuit
Three alternativesAcunetix, BreachLock, Cobalt
GLM 4.7 FlashXBug Circuit
Three alternativesAffordable Pentesting, Cobalt, SRS Networks
against: IBM X-Force Red, Synack, Terra SecurityBreachLockChanged
Three alternativesAstra Security, Cobalt, Intruder
no first choice
Eight alternativesAstra Security, BreachLock, Bright Defense, Bugcrowd, Cobalt, HackerOne, Prescient Security, UnderDefense
Bug Circuit, TurboPentest
Two alternativesAffordable Pentesting, CyberGrantsAlliance
MiniMax M2.5Acunetix, Pentest-Tools.com
One alternativeTerra Security
CobaltChanged
One alternativeBreachLock
BreachLock, Bugcrowd
Four alternativesAcunetix, Cobalt, HackerOne, Synack
no first choice
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:26yes96 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 13:38yes66 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 12:14yes2225 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:51yes207 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:40yes4119 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:04yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:27yes915 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 14:03yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:02no039 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:35yes1530 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:11yes1541 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:34yes526 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 13:11yes109 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 14:11yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 11:17yes617 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:19yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 10:57yes3216 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 12:05yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 10:31yes1621 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:06yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:30yes539 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 12:54yes930 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 09:48yes978 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 12:38yes839 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 11:49yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:59yes88 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 09:31yes2129 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:15yes2010 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 13:43yes2716 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 11:01yes1410 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:41yes1925 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:03yes51 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 11:15no044 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 11:35yes1363 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 11:06yes1992 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:31yes1250 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 09:31yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 11:51yes45 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 13:07yes3023 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 12:45yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:19yes4519 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:23yes54 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 13:32yes1616 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 12:58yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:08yes1024 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 14:02yes1018 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 10:32yes1433 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 11:58no08 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:43no07 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 10:17no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:38yes919 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 10:17yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:46yes157 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:10no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:42yes919 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 11:23yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 12:32no035 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:30yes1554 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 13:30yes1070 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 13:25no016 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 12:19no07 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 09:56no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 10:30yes1827 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 13:00yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 11:44yes1712 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 13:29yes56 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 12:37yes915 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 13:08yes55 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 13:47yes518 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 13:06yes723 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 12:19yes2056 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 09:43no08 s

Normalization in this category

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

Category-scoped readings
Horizon3.ai (NodeZero) read as Horizon3.ai NodeZero
Vonahi read as Vonahi Security vPenTest
Unresolved, counted raw
Budget Security
CyberGrantsAlliance
Intrig
Muster
Open-source stack
Parameter
Pentest People
SRS Networks
SecureLeap
TechMagic
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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