Pentesting at a Flat Rate

Changing the Guard

There's a conversation that happens at the start of every penetration testing engagement. The client asks how much it will cost, and the consultant says it depends. Depends on scope, depends on complexity, depends on how many days they estimate. The client nods, signs a Statement of Work for some number of days they have no way of validating, and hopes for the best.

We've had enough of that conversation.

Starting now, Realize Security is offering web application, API, and mobile application penetration tests at a flat rate of $5,000. One application, one price. You know what you're paying before we start, and the number doesn't change when we finish.

The Catch

There is one, and it's non-negotiable. We need your source code.

Before anyone reaches for the close button, hear us out. White-box testing isn't new. It's been the gold standard in application security for as long as there has been application security. The only reason it isn't the default is that most consultancies charge by the day, and asking for source code means finishing faster, which means billing less. The incentives don't align. Ours do.

Source code access means our consultants aren't spending days poking at a login form trying to figure out what's happening behind it. They can read the authentication logic, trace the data flows, and go straight to the parts of your application where vulnerabilities actually live.

Speculative testing is out. Precision is in.

We pair that with AI-powered static analysis across the codebase. The tooling catches the patterns — insecure dependencies, hardcoded secrets, injection sinks, the kinds of things that turn up reliably when you look for them systematically. That frees the consultant to focus on what machines are genuinely bad at: understanding business logic, spotting flawed assumptions in authentication flows, and chaining together the kinds of vulnerabilities that only make sense when a human is thinking about how your application actually works.

A Word on Reliability

This isn't probabilistic. The static analysis includes and starts with deterministic checks — rules-based detection that produces consistent, repeatable results across every engagement. The same code will surface the same findings every time. The AI layer then goes further, reasoning about data flows and code behaviour to catch the patterns that rule-based tools miss. You get both: the reliability of deterministic testing and the depth of AI-driven analysis.

The combination of both is what makes the flat rate viable. Better coverage, less wasted time, and a report that includes code-level remediation advice specific to your stack rather than a generic OWASP reference and a pat on the back.

Your Code, Your Rules

We understand the hesitation. Source code is intellectual property and handing it over to a third party requires trust. So we've made the data handling as straightforward as the pricing.

NDA signed before anything changes hands. Encrypted transfer. Isolated, access-controlled storage for the duration of the engagement. Your code is never used to train AI models. When testing is complete, your code is permanently deleted from every system it touched and we issue a deletion certificate for your records.

We're CREST approved and UKAS accredited. Handling sensitive client data securely is not a new problem for us.

What About Black-Box?

We still do it. But if you're commissioning an application test, we'd encourage you to think carefully about what you're optimising for. Black-box testing costs more, takes longer, and finds less. It's the inevitable consequence of testing an application without understanding how it works. The source code requirement exists because it produces a better outcome for you, not because it's more convenient for us.

10% Off When You Pay Upfront

Pay before the engagement begins and the price drops to $4,500. Same scope, same deliverables. This applies across all Realize Security services, not just application testing.

Three Services, One Price

• Web Application — $5,000 ($4,500 upfront)
• API — $5,000 ($4,500 upfront)
• Mobile Application — $5,000 ($4,500 upfront)