Cost guide
External Network Penetration Testing Cost
External network penetration testing starts at $4,200 for a small internet-facing footprint, agreed as a fixed price up front. It buys attacker-style discovery of your real perimeter, manual exploitation of exposed services and gateways, an executive and technical report, and a free retest of what you fix.
Small
A small internet-facing footprint of a handful of live hosts: a website, a VPN, a mail server, and a few exposed services.
Medium
A larger perimeter of several dozen hosts across multiple IP ranges, with more exposed services, cloud edges, and remote-access gateways.
Large
A broad external estate of many hosts across several ranges and cloud regions, with numerous services and forgotten assets to discover and test.
What moves the number
What drives the cost of external network penetration testing
Number of live hosts
The count of internet-facing hosts and services is the main driver. A handful of hosts is quick; several dozen across multiple ranges is more discovery, more services, and more to exploit.
Size of the real attack surface
Discovery often finds more than the IP ranges you hand over: forgotten subdomains, staging sites, and cloud services individual teams stood up. The wider the true footprint, the more there is to test.
Exposed services and gateways
VPNs, mail, remote-access portals, and management interfaces each add authentication surface to probe with password spraying and known exploits. More exposed services means more entry points to work through.
Cloud and SaaS edges
Public storage, cloud consoles, dangling DNS, and misconfigured SaaS tenants are part of a modern perimeter. The more of your edge that lives outside the data center, the more of this search-engine-visible surface we cover.
Rules of engagement
Fixed source addresses, agreed testing windows, and lockout-safe password spraying keep the test safe and let your team watch. Tighter constraints and coordination add a little scoping overhead but no surprises.
In the price
What every external network penetration testing price includes
- ✓Attacker-style discovery of your real perimeter, beyond the IP ranges you provide
- ✓Manual exploitation of exposed services, VPNs, mail, and management interfaces
- ✓A full inventory of exposed external assets, reconciled with your own
- ✓A fixed price agreed in writing before work begins, with no hourly billing
- ✓An executive summary for leadership and a full technical report with reproduction steps
- ✓A free retest of remediated findings, with the report updated to show them closed
- ✓An attestation letter and findings platform access at no extra cost
- ✓Senior in-house testers, OSCP and OSCE3 certified
Keep it tight
How to keep the price down
- 01Confirm your live IP ranges and known hosts during scoping. An accurate inventory means we spend discovery finding what you forgot rather than confirming what you already know.
- 02Decommission the forgotten hosts and staging sites you already know about before testing. Every dead asset taken offline is one less thing to test and one less exposure to report.
- 03Approve fixed source addresses and lockout-safe testing windows up front. Agreeing the rules of engagement early avoids mid-test pauses and keeps the engagement moving on schedule.
- 04Pair the external test with quarterly validated scanning between engagements. The scanning keeps exposure short, and the annual test stays focused on what is genuinely exploitable.
Timeline
Onboarding begins within 24 hours of signing, and testing usually starts within a week of scoping. A small perimeter runs about a week of testing plus reporting; larger external estates across many hosts and ranges take longer. Anything critical is escalated the day we confirm it, and the free retest verifies your fixes.
FAQ
Questions about external network penetration testing cost
01How much does an external network penetration test cost?
It starts at $4,200 for a small internet-facing footprint, fixed before work begins, with a free retest. Medium perimeters start at $6,800 and large external estates at $8,400. Your exact figure is confirmed after scoping. Starting prices for every service are on the pricing page.
02What determines the price of an external test?
The number of live internet-facing hosts and services, and how much of your real attack surface discovery uncovers beyond the ranges you provide. Forgotten subdomains, staging sites, and cloud edges all add surface, so a wider true footprint means a larger engagement.
03Do you test VPNs and mail with password spraying, and is that in the price?
Yes, where you approve it, because that is how most real perimeter breaches begin. It is part of the test at no extra cost. We agree fixed source addresses, lockout-safe rate limits, and testing windows in writing first, so your team can tell our traffic from a real attack.
04How can we keep the cost of an external test down?
Confirm your live IP ranges and known hosts during scoping, decommission forgotten hosts and staging sites you already know about, and approve the rules of engagement early. Pairing the test with quarterly validated scanning keeps exposure short between engagements.
05Will this satisfy a cyber-insurance application or an audit?
Usually yes. The report and the retest evidence show an independent external test was performed and critical findings were fixed, and the executive summary is written for an underwriter or auditor as much as for your engineers. Findings map to the frameworks you answer to.
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From $1,500Get the exact number for your scope
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