How Much Does a Penetration Test Cost in 2026?
Pentesting costs range from €2,000 to €50,000+ depending on scope, methodology, and provider. Here's a transparent breakdown to help you budget.
Pricing Guide · Cost Comparison · SME Budget Planning
Pentesting Cost Comparison: Three Approaches
Traditional Manual Pentest
€10,000 - €50,000+ per engagement. Takes 3-6 weeks to schedule and execute. Requires availability of senior security consultants. Gold standard for depth, but expensive and slow.
Vulnerability Scanning
€500 - €3,000 per scan. Fast and cheap, but only finds known patterns. No exploitation, no business logic testing, high false positive rates. Not a real pentest.
Autonomous AI Pentesting (SQUR)
From €2,000 per pentest. Results in 24 hours. Real exploitation attempts with AI-verified findings. Free retesting included. Enterprise-grade testing at SME-friendly pricing.
What Drives Pentesting Costs?
Scope & Complexity
A simple marketing website costs less than a complex SaaS application with authentication, APIs, role-based access control, and payment integrations. More endpoints and features mean more testing surface.
Testing Methodology
Black box testing (no prior knowledge) is typically less expensive than grey or white box testing. White box tests that include source code review can add €5,000-15,000 to the total cost.
Compliance Requirements
DORA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and PCI-DSS each have specific report expectations. Compliance-focused pentests may require additional documentation, which adds to the cost of traditional providers.
Retesting & Follow-Up
Many traditional providers charge €2,000-5,000 extra for retesting after remediation. SQUR includes free retesting with every pentest, so you can verify fixes without additional budget.
Why Companies Choose SQUR
When Does Pentesting Become a Smart Investment?
Every company's security needs are different. Here's when pentesting delivers the highest ROI.
Before a Funding Round
Investors and due diligence teams increasingly ask for recent pentest reports. A clean security assessment builds investor confidence and can accelerate deals.
Compliance Deadlines
DORA, SOC 2, ISO 27001 audits all benefit from recent pentest evidence. Starting at €2,000, SQUR makes it feasible to test before every audit cycle.
After Major Releases
New features mean new attack surface. Test after significant deployments to catch vulnerabilities before attackers do. With 24-hour turnaround, SQUR fits into your release cycle.
Related Resources
The Modern Alternative to Manual Pentesting
Compare autonomous pentesting against traditional manual approaches on speed, cost, accuracy, and coverage.
Autonomous Pentesting for Startups
How early-stage companies can get enterprise-grade security testing without enterprise budgets.
DORA Compliance Pentesting
Meet DORA Article 24 requirements with autonomous pentesting at a fraction of traditional costs.
Choosing the Right Pentesting Approach
From traditional to fully autonomous: understand the spectrum and find the right fit for your budget and needs.
Pentesting Cost: Frequently Asked Questions
Penetration testing costs vary widely depending on the approach. Traditional manual pentesting for a web application typically costs between €10,000 and €50,000 per engagement. Autonomous AI pentesting like SQUR starts at €2,000, with results delivered in 24 hours instead of 3-6 weeks.
Traditional pentesting is labor-intensive. A senior security consultant charges €150-300 per hour, and a thorough web application test takes 5-15 business days. Add project management, report writing, scheduling overhead, and travel costs, and the total quickly exceeds €15,000. Demand for skilled pentesters also drives prices up due to the global cybersecurity talent shortage.
Be cautious of extremely low-cost pentests (under €2,000 for a web app). These are often automated vulnerability scans repackaged as pentests. A legitimate pentest involves exploitation attempts, business logic testing, and manual or AI-driven analysis - not just scanning. SQUR provides genuine autonomous pentesting (real exploitation, AI verification) starting at €2,000.
Key cost factors include: scope (number of applications, APIs, endpoints), complexity (authentication, business logic, integrations), methodology (black box, grey box, white box), provider type (boutique firm, big consulting, autonomous platform), compliance requirements (DORA, SOC 2, ISO 27001), and whether retesting is included.
Best practice is to test after significant code changes, at least quarterly, and annually at minimum. Compliance frameworks like DORA require at least annual testing. With autonomous pentesting at €2,000 per test and 24-hour turnaround, quarterly or even monthly testing becomes feasible for most budgets.
Yes. Autonomous pentesting has made real security testing accessible to startups. At €2,000, a SQUR pentest costs less than a single day of a security consultant's time. For startups pursuing SOC 2, raising a funding round, or working with enterprise customers, pentesting is an investment that pays for itself in trust and risk reduction.
Yes. Every SQUR pentest includes free retesting after remediation. Once your team fixes the vulnerabilities, retest to verify the fixes work - at no additional cost. Many traditional providers charge €2,000-5,000 extra for retesting.
Enterprise-Grade Pentesting. SME-Friendly Pricing.
Get your first pentest report in 24 hours. Starting at €2,000.