Picus Security vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai comparison

Picus Security and Horizon3.ai are both solutions in the Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) category. Picus Security is ranked #4 with an average rating of 9.0, while Horizon3.ai is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.9. Picus Security holds a 12.9% mindshare in BAS, compared to Horizon3.ai’s 13.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Picus Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Horizon3.ai users who would recommend it.

Picus Security

Read 6 Picus Security reviews

2,349 Views
2,138 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

The NodeZero Platform by Ho...

Read 11 The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai reviews

4,176 Views
1,545 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Picus Security

The NodeZero Platform by Ho...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2025

Picus Security and NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai are products in the cybersecurity domain. NodeZero Platform holds an advantage due to its comprehensive features, despite Picus Security's strengths in pricing and customer support.

Features: Picus Security provides detailed threat simulations, continuous assessments, and effective vulnerability management. In contrast, NodeZero Platform is recognized for its automation-driven vulnerability identification, rapid assessments, and proactive threat detection capabilities, making its security measures more advanced.

Room for Improvement: Picus Security could enhance its automation features and provide more in-depth analytics support. Additionally, improving integration capabilities with various security ecosystems would be beneficial. On the other hand, NodeZero Platform may focus on simplifying its deployment process, increasing user-friendly documentation, and offering more affordable options for smaller businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Picus Security is appreciated for its straightforward deployment and responsive support, facilitating smooth integration and troubleshooting. NodeZero Platform, while offering competent service, faces challenges with its complex deployment process due to automation features. Picus Security is favored for implementation, although both match in service quality.

Pricing and ROI: Picus Security is affordable with a low upfront cost, yielding strong ROI through effective threat identification. Conversely, NodeZero Platform requires higher initial investment, justified by its advanced features and automation, showing long-term ROI benefits. Picus Security's cost-efficiency is notable, yet NodeZero Platform's feature richness presents a strong case for its costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Picus Security vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Picus Security vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

December 2025

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Helped 881,707 peers since 2012

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

Picus Security

Ranking in Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)

4th

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

The NodeZero Platform by Ho...

Ranking in Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)

1st

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vulnerability Management (11th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (12th), Penetration Testing Services (1st), Risk-Based Vulnerability Management (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) category, the mindshare of Picus Security is 12.9%, down from 18.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai is 13.6%, up from 7.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai	13.6%
Picus Security	12.9%
Other	73.5%

Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)

Featured Reviews

erdemerdag

Cybersecurity Operations Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

Breach and attack simulation software that provides network, endpoint, and email vectors

According to the attack vectors, you cannot specify which product is failing or which product is working well because there's no agent. The best case scenario is to add an agent solution where an agent would have the ability to actually detect which programs aren't working. For the attack software, you put a peer on the cloud site, and you have another peer internal network. There is IPS, firewall, WAF, and DBS amongst these peers. The cloud's peer is trying to send the attack file to the internal network. Maybe the firewall is blocking it, maybe the IP, maybe the WAF, but you cannot see the details. You can say, "Yes, my security product is blocking that attack scenario," or, "I cannot block this attack."

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Shaun Hunt

Chief Information Officer at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Has unified our IT teams by providing clear visibility into network vulnerabilities and accelerated remediation with real-world attack testing

One of the things that we've shared with Horizon is just the reporting. They've made a lot of changes over time, but when examining computers, most average normal people don't look at a computer and identify it as 114.82.117.180. They identify it as 'the printer for accounting.' When many of the reports give the very detailed technical IP address or serial number, that's really not helpful for anyone other than the person, the hands-on person that's trying to remediate it. All the managers, all the leaders, having information in that format isn't helpful. Being able to have information about what those devices are would be very helpful. There's a technical reason they can't just have an easy button because some people have really complicated networks. When examining things for the average company, the average executive, that 114 number, there's only one of those. But if examining an AT&T or a Walmart, it isn't unique. They haven't solved that problem. But for the 90% of companies, being able to have just a human readable name for all devices on your network in all of the reports all of the time would be the most beneficial.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the most valuable features would be the detection capability, specifically the ability to detect alarms and logs collected from SIEM tools."

"You have the liberty of physically executing a specific set of rules in your environment."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its integration capabilities with the other security tools."

"It's very useful software because the customer mostly configures their IPS and manages their firewalls, WAF, and the DBS according to the latest update, latest news, or according to the situation."

"The most valuable feature of Picus Security is its threat intelligence, providing suggestions to block and prevent attacks by identifying malicious files and providing threat IDs."

"It provides good reports and offers signature-based solutions."

"Overall, I'd rate NodeZero at nine to 9.5 out of ten."

"I rate the stability of the NodeZero Platform a ten out of ten."

"After the third party conducts the pen test, The NodeZero Platform is run, and it finds the same things they found and sometimes a few other things that they did not even identify."

"We experienced a threat that could have severely crippled us, but we were able to shut it down before it escalated, thanks to internal vulnerability testing and addressing critical vulnerabilities using their tool."

"Honestly, it's one of the most transformational technologies we've implemented in our company."

"The NodeZero Platform's real attack capabilities help identify vulnerabilities on my on-premise systems by adding an element of validation and offensive security testing on top of known vulnerabilities. The feature that allows security teams to fix and retest vulnerabilities instantly is very useful, even though it may not happen literally 'instantly.' It's a necessary tool for any organization to understand whether vulnerabilities are genuinely exploitable by attackers. With its near-real-time testing capabilities, it's an essential part of any security portfolio."

"The NodeZero Platform's real attack capabilities help in identifying vulnerabilities on our on-prem systems because it provides actual vulnerabilities by attacking our systems."

"My favorite feature about The NodeZero Platform is that it's autonomous, and it truly delivers on that promise—it can be set and forgotten while it performs its tasks, and it does exactly what it claims to do."

More The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the response rate provided by customer support."

"To improve, Picus Security could consider establishing a data center in India to address trust issues and increase interest from Indian customers."

"Let's say if a customer's environment has 10 security devices and they need to know that there is an attack that has bypassed their devices, they cannot go and inspect every device and every rule in their security devices."

"The amount of integrations that the product can handle is an area of concern, making it one of the aspects where improvements are required."

"The reporting and data analysis could be improved. Specifically, the analysis of the results."

"According to the attack vectors, you cannot specify which product is failing or which product is working well because there's no agent."

"The only issue we’ve encountered is that sometimes the scans take a long time to complete."

"You need to be cautious about what it scans, as it could potentially cause issues."

"Sometimes even their support doesn't know why we're seeing certain issues."

"One of the areas where improvement is needed is in the visibility and reporting for large enterprises."

"The reports are quite useless."

"They've added a chatbot which isn't particularly useful, but when it can't answer questions, it forwards messages to human support."

"The areas for improvement for The NodeZero Platform involve integration and automation. It would be beneficial if it could integrate directly with vulnerability management tools that would allow the platform to automatically import data, identify vulnerable systems, and test targets immediately, potentially even enabling automated feedback loops for rescanning since the process is currently manual."

"I think The NodeZero Platform could improve by leveraging GPUs for password cracking, which would be pretty good."

More The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a yearly license according to the number of vectors. The pricing is moderate."

"They have certain price ranges for their products, depending upon the use cases, and the number of applications the customer wants to try."

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Picus Security?

The most valuable feature of Picus Security is its threat intelligence, providing suggestions to block and prevent attacks by identifying malicious files and providing threat IDs.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Picus Security?

The pricing of Picus Security is average, and it offers a good value for money.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Picus Security?

There is room for improvement in the response rate provided by customer support. Picus Security could improve the response time.

See all answers

What do you like most about Horizon3.ai?

Penetration testing and scans are useful features.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Horizon3.ai?

I think The NodeZero Platform could improve by leveraging GPUs for password cracking, which would be pretty good.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Horizon3.ai?

We use The NodeZero Platform for control validation and we are also looking for the likelihood of vulnerabilities.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 13% of the time

Tenable One Exposure Management Platform vs Picus Security

Compared 4% of the time

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Pentera vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 25% of the time

Tenable Security Center vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 6% of the time

Cymulate vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 6% of the time

Tenable Vulnerability Management vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 5% of the time

Rapid7 Penetration Testing Services vs The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

Compared 2% of the time

More The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Picus Security

January 2026

Download Picus Security product report

Buyer's Guide

The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

January 2026

The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai report

Download The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai product report

Also Known As

No data available

Horizon3.ai

Overview

Independent from any vendor or technology, the unparalleled Picus Platform is designed to continuously measure the effectiveness of security defenses by using emerging threat samples in production environments. Created by a team that’s been working together more than 10 years already and has proven their expertise in enterprise cybersecurity, Picus is trusted by many large multinational corporations and government agencies.

Picus Security

NodeZero by Horizon3.ai is an offensive security platform that enables users to adopt an attacker’s perspective, reveal vulnerabilities, and verify defense effectiveness with evidence-backed insights.

NodeZero provides autonomous pentesting, showing how attackers exploit misconfigurations, credentials, and exposures into attack paths. It helps focus on real risks rather than hypothetical ones, integrating seamlessly into existing IT and security workflows to streamline processes. The platform drives risk-based vulnerability management and CTEM by validating vulnerabilities and measuring resilience.

What standout features improve your security?

Autonomous Pentesting at Scale: Executes extensive pentests across broad IT landscapes swiftly.
Hybrid Cloud Coverage: Navigates on-premises and cloud domains to find attack paths.
Proof of Exploitation: Offers evidence for every finding.
Fix Validation: Allows quick retesting to ensure vulnerabilities are resolved.
NodeZero Tripwires: Uses deception tokens for real adversary detection.

What benefits should you expect from reviews?

Reduced Vulnerability Noise: Prioritizes exploitable risks with ServiceNow integration.
Automated Workflows: MCP Server automates processes, reducing bottlenecks and enhancing efficiency.
Immediate Fix Validation: Ensures defenses work during attacks.
Real-Time Resilience Measurement: Helps schedule routine assessments without external help.

NodeZero assists in automated penetration testing and vulnerability management in industries like finance and healthcare. It enhances security processes by complementing or replacing existing solutions, enabling efficient testing, feedback, and control validation.

Horizon3.ai

Sample Customers

Akbank, Exclusive Networks, Garanti, ING Bank, QNB Finansbank, Turkcell, Vodafone, Yapı Kredi

Government agencies, Defense Industrial Base organizations, and enterprises in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and criticalinfrastructure rely on NodeZero to meet rigorous security and compliance requirements with continuous, scheduled, and on-demand testing.

Buyer's Guide

Picus Security vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

December 2025

Free Report: Picus Security vs. The NodeZero Platform by Horizon3.ai

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