How Much Does a Penetration Test Cost for a Small Business?

If your small business is considering a penetration test, it’s a smart move. A proper test gives you insight into how an attacker could exploit your systems and provides actionable findings that help you protect your business’s reputation, operations, and customer data. At the same time, it’s not a trivial budget item, so this blog will walk you through how costs are typically structured, what drives them up or down, and how you can align a test to your business size and risk profile.

What Does “Small Business” Mean in This Context?

When I refer to a “small business” here, I mean an organization with relatively limited IT infrastructure — for example, one or two offices (or remote-only), a handful of internet-facing systems (website, email / VPN), and perhaps one or two critical web applications. Your staff size might be tens to a few hundred, and your IT environment isn’t sprawling or multi-national.

Knowing this helps because the cost of a penetration test is closely tied to the size, complexity and risk profile of your environment.

Typical Cost Ranges for Small Business Testing

Here are market benchmarks for penetration testing (for small business scale) based on recent research and our own experiences:

• Small-business scale tests can begin around $3,000 to $15,000 when the scope is modest.
• A standard penetration test for many organizations may cost around $8,000 to $20,000 annually when you’re covering foundational tests (e.g., external network + one or two applications).
• Many providers say that for a “high-quality, professional” test you’ll see starting prices of $5,000 to $15,000, but real costs go higher depending on scope.

So, if you run a small business and you’re looking at a single scope (for example, your public website plus the internet-facing firewall/VPN), budgeting somewhere between $5,000 and $15,000 is realistic, assuming moderate complexity. Larger scope or more assets will push you upward.

Key Cost Drivers You Should Be Aware Of

Because every business is different, the cost of a penetration test can diverge significantly. For small businesses, understanding these drivers helps you keep the budget in check while still getting meaningful value.

1. Scope of Assets

The more systems you test (external IPs, web apps, internal network, cloud, APIs), the lengthier the project and the higher the cost. A test of just a simple public-website will cost less than one covering internal networks, multiple applications and cloud services.

2. Complexity of Your Environment

If you have one simplistic web app built from a standard framework with few integrations, the test is less complex. But if you have legacy systems, many third-party integrations, custom code, cloud infrastructure, multiple user roles, then the cost and effort go up.

3. Methodology / Depth of Testing

There is a difference between an automated vulnerability scan and a full manual penetration test (with exploitation, privilege escalation, lateral movement). The deeper the test, the more cost. If the price is suspiciously low, there’s a good chance you’re getting more of a glorified scan than a full human-led test.

4. Tester Experience and Certifications

Highly skilled testers with certifications (OSCP, CREST, etc) cost more. For small businesses, you may choose a provider that strikes a balance between expertise and budget.

5. Reporting, Retesting and Remediation Assistance

Will you get only a “here are the findings” report, or will the provider include retesting after you remediate, or even some guidance on how to fix the issues? These extras might cost more, but can provide better value. Some offerings include limited retest at no extra cost.

6. Frequency & Compliance Needs

If you’re doing this for regulatory reasons (for example a small business subject to certain standards) you may need annual tests, internal + external assessments, etc. That increases the budget year-on-year.

How Small Businesses Can Approach Budgeting & Scope

Here are some practical tips for small businesses thinking through this:

• Identify your “critical assets” first: Rather than trying to test everything, define what matters most — e.g., your e-commerce site, customer data store, remote access VPN. Focus your penetration test there if budget is limited.
• Align test scope to risk: If you process payments, handle sensitive personal data or have regulatory obligations, invest more. If your risk is lower, you might start with external + one web app and grow.
• Get quotes with clear scopes: Ask providers “how many days will you estimate”, “what exactly is in scope”, “will you include retesting” and “what deliverables will I receive”. This helps you compare apples to apples.
• Budget for remediation: The test will find issues. You need to plan for remediation—patching, configuration changes, maybe code fixes. The test cost is only part of the budget.
• Plan for recurring testing: A one-off test is helpful, but many small businesses benefit from making this an annual (or after major change) activity to maintain security posture.
• Quality over lowest cost: It’s tempting to pick the cheapest vendor, but a too-cheap test may miss important issues, leaving you exposed. Investing a bit more for a thorough test may save you much more in the long run.

Example Scenarios

• A local service provider with one office, a simple internal network (VPN + firewall) and one public website might engage a penetration test of external network + website and budget around $6,000-$10,000.
• A small e-commerce business with one main web application, payment processing, and minimal internal systems might budget $10,000-$15,000, targeting external + web app assessment.
• A small SaaS company with cloud infrastructure, APIs, multiple user roles might budget $15,000-$20,000+ to cover web app, API endpoints, and external perimeter.

Final Thoughts

For small businesses the key message is: yes, penetration testing is a prudent security investment, and you can budget realistically based on your environment. In many cases you can engage meaningful testing for $5,000-$15,000, provided the scope is focused. Putting a little more budget behind a higher-quality engagement can yield very strong value. The cost of a breach or loss of customer trust is much higher.

When you talk to providers, be transparent about your size, your risk, your budget and what you hope to get. A good provider will help you align scope, risk and cost, so you get the best return.

How Compass Can Help

For small businesses, security budgets and staffing are often limited, which makes it even more important that every dollar spent delivers measurable protection. Compass understands these realities. Our penetration testing services are built to meet small business needs—affordable, scoped precisely to your environment, and focused on uncovering the issues that matter most to your operations. We combine hands-on testing with clear, jargon-free reporting so you know exactly where to prioritize improvements. Whether you’re looking to meet a compliance requirement or simply strengthen your defenses, Compass can help you take practical, cost-effective steps toward a more secure future.

To learn more or request a quote for your business, contact us today.