How Much Does a Professional Manual Pentest Cost?
The cost of a pentest is primarily driven by the time required to conduct the security analysis. How much budget should be allocated for a penetration test depends heavily on the scope and complexity of the assignment, specifically:
- The chosen attack vectors (e.g., web applications, internal networks, or cloud environments)
- The complexity and current security posture of the target systems
- The overall size and infrastructure of your organization
Most projects take between 2 and 20 days to complete, with a typical high-quality penetration test averaging around 5 days of active analysis. Depending on the provider and your industry, daily rates generally range from €1,470 to €1,960.
When budgeting, be cautious of low-cost alternatives: Automated penetration tests are significantly cheaper, but fundamentally they are not true pentests—they are automated vulnerability scanners. Some competitors advertise "automated pentesting with manual validation," which usually just means someone clicks start, stop, and deletes obvious false positives from a standard scan report. This does not replace a deep, human-led security analysis.
When evaluating pentest pricing models, the frequency of the assessments matters. For companies requiring regular, annual testing, we offer volume-based pricing structures that significantly lower the recurring costs.
Typically, the professional, manual penetration test price range at binsec GmbH is between 3,000 and 25,000 euros.
Your advantages with
binsec GmbH
As an owner-managed pentest boutique – staffed by a high-performing team of around 10 experienced senior experts – binsec GmbH has specialized in sophisticated penetration testing for over a decade. We demonstrate our deep roots in the community every day through our own platforms like binsec.tools, binsec.wiki, and binsec.academy. Relevant academic degrees, high-caliber industry certifications, and years of hands-on project experience are what truly matter to us – and how we guarantee a precise, manual analysis for every assessment.
Contact usMore than 10 years of practical experience in penetration testing
No subcontractors or external freelancers
Direct communication with the responsible senior penetration tester
Structured, documented, and reproducible testing methodology based on PTDoc®
Fully controlled in-house pentesting infrastructure, no cloud services used
Identification of technical and business-relevant security risks
Risk-weighted vulnerability assessment or CVSS based scoring
Report including executive summary and detailed technical section
Retesting of identified vulnerabilities included
Your advantages with
binsec GmbH
As an owner-managed pentest boutique – staffed by a high-performing team of around 10 experienced senior experts – binsec GmbH has specialized in sophisticated penetration testing for over a decade. We demonstrate our deep roots in the community every day through our own platforms like binsec.tools, binsec.wiki, and binsec.academy. Relevant academic degrees, high-caliber industry certifications, and years of hands-on project experience are what truly matter to us – and how we guarantee a precise, manual analysis for every assessment.
More than 10 years of practical experience in penetration testing
No subcontractors or external freelancers
Direct communication with the responsible senior penetration tester
Structured, documented, and reproducible testing methodology based on PTDoc®
Fully controlled in-house pentesting infrastructure, no cloud services used
Identification of technical and business-relevant security risks
Risk-weighted vulnerability assessment or CVSS based scoring
Report including executive summary and detailed technical section
Retesting of identified vulnerabilities included
Pentest-Methodology
A penetration test is a structured attack on IT systems or applications to identify potential vulnerabilities. It uses the same tools and techniques that real attackers would use to break into a system. Thus, a penetration test is not an automated vulnerability scan. On the contrary, a penetration test as a service is always a combination of using security tools and conducting manual tests to uncover vulnerabilities. While a real attacker only needs to find and exploit a single vulnerability, a penetration tester checks all relevant attack vectors.
Having a structured approach is one of the most important factors. For this purpose, we use our own platform PTDoc®, a specialized pentest documentation tool that logs all manual testing steps in full compliance with all relevant security standards and translates them into a clear, reproducible report for you. Since this tool significantly reduces the overhead of report generation, it allows us to focus entirely on our core mission as pentesters: identifying and analyzing critical security flaws. to achive this in order to provide a professional pentesting service. Our approach is based on all relevant standards and publications.
How We Work
From Planning to Re-Testing
Preparations
We coordinate the technical and organisational framework for the penetration test, communication channels, points of contact and testing windows. Depending on the project, this is done through a kick-off meeting or a brief exchange via e-mail. Where required, the client provides relevant technical documentation and access to the systems within scope.
Conducting
The penetration test is performed using a structured and risk-oriented assessment approach that combines automated analysis techniques with extensive manual testing. The specific test cases and assessment procedures depend on the actual conditions, technologies and attack surface encountered within the target environment.
Reporting
After the assessment, we prepare a detailed report including an executive summary, risk ratings, technical details and remediation recommendations. Findings are documented in a clear and reproducible manner and critical issues are communicated immediately during the engagement if required.
Debriefing
We are happy to review the findings and recommendations together with your team. During the debriefing, we explain technical details, potential impacts and remediation priorities, while answering questions and discussing next steps.
Re-Testing
After remediation, we verify whether the identified findings have been successfully resolved and update the report accordingly. Re-testing is generally included for remote assessments and provides assurance that the implemented measures are effective.
Pentesting
for specific standards and requirements
There are a lot of standards or legal requirements worldwide, that require conducting of a penetration test.
Frequently Asked Questions
It is difficult to give an generalized answer to this question, since the toolset used basically depends on the respective test object. Of course, we use tools such as nmap to check IT infrastructures or the Burp Suite Professional in the case of web applications.
However, we believe that publishing a tool list is mere window dressing, as each target system should be tested individually. However, you are welcome to ask us about the tools we used after the pentest.
Hosting critical business applications on a cloud provider such as Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud or Hetzner Cloud is becoming increasingly common.
Of course we perform penetration tests for applications hosted in the cloud. This also applies to penetration testing of cloud-based IT infrastructures, provided that the virtual machines are not managed directly by the cloud provider.
We perform penetration tests for almost any IT environment, system, application or network – right down to protocol fuzzing. Only the analysis of hardware chips under a microscope is something we leave to others.
Typical targets of our penetration tests include:
Web Applications and APIs
Mobile Applications
Servers, Platforms and Infrastructure
- Webserver Pentesting
- Network Pentesting
- Firewalls Pentesting
- WiFi / WLAN Pentesting
- Active Directory (AD) Pentesting
- RDP Server / Remote Desktop Pentesting
- OT Pentesting
Containers and DevOps
Identity and Authentication
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