Penetration testing cost

How much does a penetration test cost in South Africa?

A traditional consultancy penetration test in South Africa typically runs from about R50 000 to R150 000, delivered once a year and often weeks after you asked for it. PentestMe puts an on-demand test in reach from R3 449 per month, so you can validate every release instead of once a year.

Traditional engagement vs an on-demand subscription

Traditional consultancy pentest

  • Roughly R50 000 to R150 000 per engagement
  • Usually once a year
  • Days or weeks of lead time to book and scope
  • A point-in-time snapshot that ages as you ship
PentestMe

On-demand subscription

  • From R3 449 per month
  • Test on demand, as often as every release
  • Start in minutes, report the same day
  • First pentest free, no credit card

Consultancy figures are typical market ranges and vary widely by scope and provider. Our prices are shown in full, VAT included, on the pricing page.

What drives the price of a pentest

Scope and surface

A single web app costs less than a full estate of web, API, network and cloud. The more that is in scope, the more testing time it takes.

Depth and manual effort

A deep, fully manual engagement by senior testers is the most expensive option. Automated-first testing covers the broad, repeatable work at a fraction of the cost.

Frequency

A once-a-year consultancy test is a large single invoice. A subscription spreads the cost and lets you test far more often.

Why PentestMe costs less without cutting corners

Most of a penetration test is broad, repeatable work: reconnaissance, scanning, enumeration and validating a long list of known weaknesses. PentestMe automates that work with a large, current tool chain and an AI layer that decides what to run next based on what it just found, then checks every result for real exploitability so you get proof, not a pile of false positives.

That is what lets us deliver a genuine, validated test for a monthly subscription rather than a five-figure annual invoice. For engagements that need a human specialist as well, we combine both. See how the two approaches compare.

See the value before you pay

Your first pentest is free, with a full validated report on your own systems. No credit card, no sales call.

Start your free pentest