Blog

Most web applications contain defects that malicious agents can exploit. By integrating security testing into the SDLC, organizations can catch exploitable vulnerabilities early and ensure application security after release.

As an extension of our previous web application security article, today's blog is about web application security testing pricing– an important consideration for organizations looking to outsource this vital function to experts like Packetlabs.

Web Application Security Testing

Application security testing aims to find security weaknesses in an application and its configurations. Testers deliberately make the application behave in unexpected ways, so steps can be taken to ensure that all its functions are secure.

Packetlabs’ approach to application security testing is based on the OWASP testing methodology, incorporating everything source code, input validation, configuration management, business logic, error handling, and more. We also provide a detailed security report, attack documentation, and tactical and strategic recommendations – in short, everything a dev team might need to enhance their application’s security.

Web Application Security Testing Pricing Factors

Like penetration testing, application security testing pricing also depends on a few variables. For web application security testing, there are two main factors to consider.

1. Dynamic page counts

Adobe defines a web application as “a website that contains pages with partly or entirely undetermined content.” The final content of a page is only determined when a visitor requests a page from the webserver. In other words, this content varies based on the visitor’s actions. In contrast, a static page does not change when a site visitor requests it and is displayed on the web browser without any modifications.

Both kinds of pages are processed differently by the webserver since their complexity varies. Since dynamic pages are more complex, application security testing pricing depends on the number and type of these pages in the application.

In short, more dynamic pages mean more manual effort for testers.

2. Application User Roles and Capabilities

In each application, a role defines a set of permissions for a user to perform a task (or tasks) known as capabilities. Roles are application-specific, and some roles and capabilities are predefined. However, capabilities can be updated, added or removed from each role by the Super Admin or Administrator. The price of web application security testing depends on the number of unique user roles defined within the application.

How to Scope for Web App Pen Testing

A typical application pen test will be conducted as a white box pen test; that is the application architecture, credentials, and other technical components will be provided to the team. It is possible to have a black box penetration test conducted, but this may come with some additional cost, as this typically will involve more effort and time for the testing team to conduct.

When it comes to white box penetration testing, an organization can expect to go through multiple steps as part of the testing engagement:

• Project Scoping: Initially, as part of the kickoff of penetration testing services and early-stage kickoff, the consultancy will conduct scoping. Most consultancies will ask several high-level questions that involve understanding the size, complexity, and use cases of the application in scope. This may involve a walk-through of the application to assist with understanding and gauging what work needs to be completed. During this phase, it is recommended that any areas of concern or specific types of exploits be covered by the organization to provide additional focus for the ethical hacker.

• Providing Credentials: Following the scoping and kickoff, an organization will need to provide credentials to the testers to allow access to the application. This may be a set of credentials that encompasses the full set of roles, or a subset of credentials that entail lower-level roles and admin roles for an application with a large number of roles. The goal for the tester would be to pen test from an elevated user and a non-elevated role to test access control or the ability to elevate user rights/roles within the application.

• Manual Testing: Once the automated testing has been completed, manual testing will take place. This may take a few days to several weeks, depending on the size and complexity of the application. While an automated tool may be able to identify and confirm some vulnerabilities, many require a manual approach to identify and exploit. At this point, the ethical hacker will conduct a myriad of tests against the business logic, access controls, authentication, input validation, and many other common security controls.

• Closeout and Reporting: For closeout and reporting, the tester will provide formal documentation on what was done, when it was done, what was found, and how it was found. At the end of the engagement, after the report has been provided, a final call to discuss what was found, how it was found, and how to reproduce the findings should be conducted. At this time, it is best to have technical resources on the call to ask questions, as needed, to assist with remediation.

Average Costs for Web Application Security Penetration Testing in 2025

Applications vary in size and complexity, which creates a wide range of average penetration testing costs. It is not uncommon for the most expensive applications to be those that appear to be low complexity to the organization. This can be caused because the organization is blind to the fact that there are many user roles and many simple form fields through the application, all of which impact the price.

Web app penetration testing costs can vary from $15,000 to over $100,000 USD.

When it comes to pricing, it is always recommended to engage multiple pentest vendors for price quotes for your organization’s application. Further, the factors discussed are for white-box penetration testing, as black-box penetration tests will often take a time-boxed approach that may have fewer factors included, but will have a higher web application penetration testing cost overall.

While this list covers many of the most common factors, it is not meant to be all-encompassing, because applications are custom. It is not possible to account for all the various use cases in a single cost model.

Cost Factor #1 for Web App Pentesting: Number of Roles or Permissions

As one of the first components of the scoping process, organizations will be asked how many user roles are possible in the application. This will provide the tester with an idea of how much time is needed to validate access controls within the application.

Keep in mind, that any time a user role is created, it requires appropriate security controls on the backend to only allow that role to perform the actions required. This creates additional work for the tester to validate access to data, actions, and components of the application as this is rarely accomplished through automated security pentesting. As more roles are added, the penetration testing costs will increase to ensure that the scope can be covered.

This will be further complicated if the application is built as a multi-tenant application. In this case, it is not uncommon to have the number of user roles tested double to allow for testing access control across tenants. In this case, the tester will test for horizontal access control vulnerabilities that might allow an attacker to see other tenant data, delete data, or access actions (like creating new users) in another tenant.

This is not an uncommon issue with multi-tenant applications and should be considered a high critical requirement as part of the penetration test.

Cost Factor #2 for Web App Pentesting: Existence (and Number of) Dynamic Pages

Dynamic pages are considered pages that accept user input. Every time an application accepts user input, it is an opportunity for injection, data leakage, or manipulation of data.

These issues have been mainstays on the OWASP Top 10 since its initial inception and are extremely critical to the web app penetration test. Just like with the number of user roles, this factor provides an indication of the time it will take to conduct the security testing as part of the penetration test.

As the number of pages accepting user input increases, the time needed during manual testing also grows, which will increase the penetration testing pricing.

Cost Factor #3 for Web App Pentesting: API Endpoints

When it comes to the API endpoints in the web application penetration test, the endpoints will be in scope for pentesting as a critical component that will impact the overall security of the application.

It is recommended that a more in-depth API penetration test be conducted if the application is API heavy as the application penetration test will not typically be a full deep pen test of the endpoints.

The number of API endpoints will have a large impact on the penetration testing costs. The larger the number of API endpoints, the more time and the higher the pricing will be for testing. API endpoint penetration testing tends to be a manual process, so this can have a large impact on the total penetration testing cost.

Conclusion

Most people who ask questions like how much does penetration testing cost or, "How much does web application security testing cost in 2025?" expect a non-variable answer.

However, there is no simple answer because the pricing for web application security testing depends on the application’s size and scope and the two factors we have discussed here. That’s why it needs to be custom-tailored to each engagement.

To get a customized quote specific to your company’s applications, get in touch with us today.