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Pentera vs Rapid7 Penetration Testing Services comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Pentera
Ranking in Penetration Testing Services
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (2nd), Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) (2nd), AI-Powered Penetration Testing (2nd)
Rapid7 Penetration Testing ...
Ranking in Penetration Testing Services
12th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Penetration Testing Services category, the mindshare of Pentera is 8.6%, down from 12.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rapid7 Penetration Testing Services is 2.0%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Penetration Testing Services Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Pentera8.6%
Rapid7 Penetration Testing Services2.0%
Other89.4%
Penetration Testing Services
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1460223 - PeerSpot reviewer
Ai Expert at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Automated testing has reduced manual effort and improves remediation of critical vulnerabilities
The biggest friction point with Pentera is the need for more granular control or the ability to exclude specific sensitive systems, as well as the necessity for the cloud environment to mature. While Pentera excels in on-premises and hybrid setups, its AWS and Azure attack path simulation is not as deep compared to others.If I could change one thing in Pentera to improve my workflow the most, it would be the platform UI because some security team members are not penetration testing specialists, making it difficult for them to navigate. I would make it easier with more guided workflows.
Gabriel Woolverton - PeerSpot reviewer
Penetration Tester at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees
Wide range of coverage and free
A useful improvement would be to have white papers for specific vulnerabilities readily available. It seems like they are not always linked when you are looking for a vulnerability identifier in the database. It would be useful to ensure that that information is readily available. That way, if you need to dive deeper into a vulnerability, you would have the capability to do so basically right there on the website.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The tool showed us that our ransomware protection wasn’t working on some machines."
"Pentera has many authentic features."
"The best features of Pentera are the dashboard and security, with the dashboard being excellent as I can see everything, and it is really simple and easy to work with, which has made my team faster, more efficient, and improved teamwork significantly."
"Surface provides automated validation and penetration testing features with a proactive, continuous, and highly realistic approach to cybersecurity validation, helping organizations understand and reduce their true cyber exposure."
"What I like the most about Pentera is its solution-oriented approach."
"Pentera has impacted my team and my workflow by making things faster and more efficient."
"We moved from a reactive security posture to a proactive one."
"The product is easy to use."
"The initial setup is very straightforward. This is not a tool that you have to set up yourself. All you have to do is just access their web-based vulnerability database application, which is open source and available to pretty much anyone."
"Rapid7's wide range of coverage, in terms of vulnerabilities and exploits linked to vulnerabilities, is its most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"They need to offer support for a new graphic card."
"Maybe scalability. I know that the Pentera right now is high level in order to scan big deals over 500 IPs and not less, and not less. That can be more granular. This will be useful."
"The main challenge currently is the commercial aspect, as the product has become very expensive."
"The biggest friction point with Pentera is the need for more granular control or the ability to exclude specific sensitive systems, as well as the necessity for the cloud environment to mature."
"Pentera's general dashboards could be improved and made more specific in terms of vulnerabilities that I'm discovering."
"There is room for improvement in virtualization compatibility."
"The price could be improved."
"The enterprise pricing is a big investment."
"A useful improvement would be to have white papers for specific vulnerabilities readily available. It seems like they are not always linked when you are looking for a vulnerability identifier in the database."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not that expensive, but it could be more cost-effective."
"The tool is relatively cheap."
"The product's cost is reasonable. I rate the pricing a three out of ten."
"We have to pay a yearly licensing cost for Pentera."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Educational Organization
9%
University
7%
Pharma/Biotech Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Pentera?
Cloud testing capabilities need enhancement. The core product was built for on-premises internal network validation.
What is your primary use case for Pentera?
Continuous automated security validation across our internal network and external attack surface was necessary. The problem we were solving was that our manual penetration testing program, as good ...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Blackstone Group Caterpillar Apria Healthcare Taylor Vinters Sandler Capital Management Drawbridge BNP Paribas British Red Cross
Motorola, Liberty wines, Kaman Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about Horizon3.ai, HackerOne, Bugcrowd and others in Penetration Testing Services. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.