Bug Circuit
Free tool · no signup

What should a pentest actually cost?

Estimate the market price of a penetration test for your site, using the same model real firms quote on — tester-days times a day rate — with 2026 rates built in. Nothing leaves your browser.

Typical market range
$3,600 – $13,200

about 4–6 tester-days at $900–$2,200/day, the going 2026 rate for genuinely manual work.

Where Bug Circuit sits

We scope a single small site tightly and do focused manual work, so a real person audits it for a fraction of a full enterprise engagement — from $49 for the written report, $299 with the fixes done for you.

See our pricing

An estimate, not a quote. Real pricing depends on scope depth, access, and how much has to be tested by hand — which is exactly what a scoping call is for.

How penetration testing is really priced

There is no sticker price for a pentest because there is no standard pentest. The work is scoped and quoted in tester-days: a small marketing site might be two days, a multi-tenant SaaS platform with complex permissions ten or more. Multiply the days by a day rate — in 2026, roughly $900 to $2,200 for firms doing genuinely manual work, more for top-tier boutiques — and you have the price.

That is why quotes for the "same" test vary so wildly, and why a flat, suspiciously round number is a warning sign: it usually means an automated scan priced like a manual test. This calculator uses the real model so you can walk into a quote knowing roughly what fair looks like.

Common questions

How much does a penetration test cost in 2026?
For a small business web application, most 2026 quotes land between $4,000 and $20,000. The spread is huge because pentests are priced as tester-days times a day rate — typically $900 to $2,200 per day for firms doing genuinely manual work — and the number of days depends entirely on scope: how many user roles, how complex the app, how deep the test.
Why is penetration testing priced per day?
Because the work is human. A tester spends days manually probing access controls, business logic and authentication that automated scanners cannot reason about. More scope means more days, so reputable firms quote in days times a day rate rather than a flat fee — and anyone quoting a suspiciously round flat price is usually selling an automated scan with a manual label.
Why is Bug Circuit so much cheaper than these numbers?
We do one thing narrowly: a focused manual audit of a single small website, not a broad enterprise engagement with compliance paperwork and a large scope. By keeping the scope tight and the work genuinely manual, a real person can audit a small site from $49 for the report or $299 with the high and critical fixes done for you. It is the same kind of manual testing, scoped for small businesses instead of enterprises.
Is a cheap pentest just an automated scan?
Often, yes — which is the thing to check for. A vulnerability scan is a tool run against a checklist; a penetration test is a person actively trying to break in. Some cheap "pentests" are scans with a fancy name. Ours is not: a named person reviews the site by hand and writes up what they actually found. If you are comparing quotes, ask what proportion of the work is manual.

Keep reading

Pentest cost guideThe full 2026 breakdown.Manual vs automatedWhat a scanner misses.Bug Circuit pricingA manual audit from $49.Subdomain FinderSee your attack surface first.

See what attackers see — free

Run the free passive check on your domain. No login, no impact on your site, results in seconds.

Passive recon only. No login, and no impact on your site. Deeper testing needs domain verification.

Ready for the full manual audit? See transparent pricing →