CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Bishop Fox vs Cobalt

Bishop Fox sells offensive security services, including penetration testing and continuous security testing. Cobalt offers a full suite of offensive security services, from autonomous pentesting to human-led pentesting. CISO Tribune files both under Penetration testing and red team services. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Bishop Fox
  • Cobalt
Bishop Fox vs Cobalt: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Bishop FoxBishop Fox sells offensive security services, including penetration testing and continuous security testing.bishopfox.comCobaltCobalt offers a full suite of offensive security services, from autonomous pentesting to human-led pentesting.cobalt.io
What it sells
  • Cosmos[3][7][13][14]Bishop Fox's cloud-native technology platform and the foundation of its offensive security services.
  • Penetration Testing Services[4]Bishop Fox penetration testing across applications, networks, products, cloud, and AI systems.
  • Application Penetration Testing[3][9][14]Testing of web, mobile, and other applications, including an AI-powered portfolio option.
  • External Penetration Testing[10]Perimeter testing that emulates targeted adversaries.
  • Hardware Penetration Testing[4][11]Testing of connected devices and their ecosystems.
  • Continuous Security Testing[5][8]Managed continuous testing that Bishop Fox ties to Continuous Threat Exposure Management programs.
  • AIMap[3]Open-source tool built by Bishop Fox for testing exposed AI endpoints.
  • Autonomous Pentest[3][7]Complete pentests in 24 hours with proof of exploit on every finding.
  • Cobalt Sage AI[3][6][7]The intelligence Cobalt says powers every Cobalt pentest.
  • Secure Code Review[8]Human-led analysis of source code to find security vulnerabilities.
  • Internal Network Pentest[10]Testing of internal systems by Cobalt experts.
Categories
Headquarters
Tempe, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2005[1][4][8]Not stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • February 10, 2026Bishop Fox announced an updated application penetration testing service that combines its expert testing teams with its proprietary AI engine, Cosmos AI.[14]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 5, 2026[5]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Bishop Fox sells mainly to organizations that want offensive security testing of their applications, cloud, networks, devices, and AI systems. Bishop Fox says most enterprises manage many applications with constrained budgets and headcount. Customers it describes include a healthcare technology company moving to SaaS, an energy provider facing nation-state threats to critical infrastructure, and a financial services organization. Its hardware testing is aimed at healthcare devices, consumer tech, and industrial systems. Bishop Fox says it works with customers who are looking to safely deploy AI, release a new app or service, or validate corporate governance. Cosmos is delivered as a managed platform, so customers do not deploy or maintain it themselves.From its own pages, Cobalt sells mainly to security and development teams. Cobalt says customers use it to test critical web applications and APIs in production, AI and LLM-based applications still in development, and globally distributed networks segmented by location and business unit. Cobalt offers centralized management of parent and child organizations. Cobalt says its pentesting helps customers meet audit, regulatory and customer requirements.
Last verified
September 27, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Penetration testing and red team services is the primary category of both Bishop Fox and Cobalt.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Bishop Fox is also filed under External attack surface management.
  • Bishop Fox lists Cosmos, Penetration Testing Services, Application Penetration Testing, External Penetration Testing, Hardware Penetration Testing and 2 more. Cobalt lists Autonomous Pentest, Cobalt Sage AI, Secure Code Review and Internal Network Pentest.
  • Bishop Fox is headquartered in Tempe, United States.
  • Bishop Fox was founded in 2005.

How they differ

CISO Tribune files Bishop Fox under Penetration testing and red team services and External attack surface management, with the first as its primary category. CISO Tribune files Cobalt under Penetration testing and red team services, also as its primary category. Bishop Fox sells penetration testing across applications, networks, products, cloud, and AI systems, plus hardware testing of connected devices. Cobalt's platform covers web app, API, cloud, network, red teaming, and AI and LLM testing. Bishop Fox also sells Cosmos, a platform that builds an inventory of an organization's external attack surface, and Bishop Fox operates it so customers do not deploy or maintain it.

Cobalt sells Autonomous Pentest, which it says delivers complete pentests in 24 hours with proof of exploit on every finding, overseen by Cobalt Core pentesters. Cobalt also sells Secure Code Review, which uses SAST and SCA scanning followed by manual review of the output. Cobalt sells credits, each equal to 8 hours of offensive security testing, in annual packages. Bishop Fox sells Continuous Security Testing, which it ties to Continuous Threat Exposure Management programs, and AIMap, an open-source tool for testing exposed AI endpoints. Bishop Fox is headquartered in Tempe, United States, and was founded in 2005.

Bishop Fox names Equifax, Zoom, Apollo, and John Deere among its customers. Cobalt says customers use it to test production web applications and APIs, AI and LLM-based applications still in development, and globally distributed networks. Cobalt pushes vulnerability data into Jira, GitHub, ServiceNow and more through 50+ integrations. On February 10, 2026, Bishop Fox announced an updated application penetration testing service that combines its expert testing teams with its proprietary AI engine, Cosmos AI.

What it sells: Bishop Fox

What Cosmos does[3][7][13][14]
Cosmos builds and verifies a living inventory of an organization's external attack surface. It integrates with customer workflows through Jira and ServiceNow, syncing validated findings into existing ticketing systems. Bishop Fox operates and manages Cosmos as part of its services, and customers do not deploy or maintain it.
What Penetration Testing Services does[4]
Bishop Fox penetration testing spans applications, networks, products, cloud, and AI systems. Engagements cover web and mobile apps, cloud environments in AWS, GCP, Azure, and Kubernetes, and IoT, consumer, commercial, and industrial devices.
What Application Penetration Testing does[3][9][14]
Bishop Fox runs in-depth manual and dynamic analyses of Android and iOS devices and apps, guided by OWASP testing methodologies. Bishop Fox AI-Powered Application Penetration Testing delivers validated, expert-reviewed findings across an entire portfolio.
What External Penetration Testing does[10]
Bishop Fox says its External Penetration Testing emulates targeted adversaries and results in discovery of defensive gaps, including likelihood of exploitation and business impact. Testing extends to public cloud storage services and peripheral web apps.
What Continuous Security Testing does[5][8]
Bishop Fox provides continuous security testing that it describes as integral to a successful Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) program. Its managed services identify, prioritize, and help remediate business-impacting exposures.
What AIMap does[3]
AIMap is an open-source tool built by Bishop Fox. It discovers, scores, and tests exposed AI endpoints.

What it sells: Cobalt

What Autonomous Pentest does[3][7]
Cobalt Autonomous Pentest is overseen by Cobalt Core pentesters. Cobalt says it delivers complete pentests in 24 hours with proof of exploit on every finding.
What Cobalt Sage AI does[3][6][7]
Cobalt says Cobalt Sage AI is built on 13 years of expertise and informed by thousands of security engagements. Cobalt says it removes reconnaissance, scanning, triage and reporting work so human experts can focus on complex attack paths.
What Secure Code Review does[8]
Secure code review is described as human-led analysis of source code. Cobalt uses SAST and SCA for automated scanning and then manually reviews the output to validate findings.
What Internal Network Pentest does[10]
Cobalt says its experts use network scanning tools, exploit frameworks and manual techniques to find and exploit vulnerabilities in internal systems. Findings appear in real time on the Cobalt platform with remediation guidance.

Questions about Bishop Fox and Cobalt

What do Bishop Fox and Cobalt sell?
Bishop Fox sells Cosmos, Penetration Testing Services, Application Penetration Testing, External Penetration Testing, Hardware Penetration Testing and 2 more. Cobalt sells Autonomous Pentest, Cobalt Sage AI, Secure Code Review and Internal Network Pentest.
Are Bishop Fox and Cobalt in the same category?
Yes. Penetration testing and red team services is the primary category of both on CISO Tribune.
Where are Bishop Fox and Cobalt headquartered?
Bishop Fox is headquartered in Tempe, United States.
When were Bishop Fox and Cobalt founded?
Bishop Fox was founded in 2005.
Who are Bishop Fox and Cobalt sold to?
From its own pages, Bishop Fox sells mainly to organizations that want offensive security testing of their applications, cloud, networks, devices, and AI systems. From its own pages, Cobalt sells mainly to security and development teams.
What have Bishop Fox and Cobalt announced recently?
February 10, 2026: Bishop Fox announced an updated application penetration testing service that combines its expert testing teams with its proprietary AI engine, Cosmos AI.

About Bishop Fox

Bishop Fox sells offensive security services, including penetration testing and continuous security testing. Bishop Fox says it has 20 years of offensive security experience and thousands of customer engagements. Bishop Fox was founded by ethical hackers. Bishop Fox says it is behind offensive security tools including Sliver and CloudFox. Bishop Fox applies agentic AI to its offensive testing, and Bishop Fox assesses models and architectures as part of securing AI and LLM initiatives.

Bishop Fox penetration testing spans applications, networks, products, cloud, and AI systems. Bishop Fox offers assessments of AI systems tailored to the customer's use case, priorities, and development lifecycle. Bishop Fox's application offering includes web and mobile app penetration testing, AI-powered portfolio assessments, and secure code review. Application testing covers web, thick-client, e-commerce, single page applications, and APIs. Bishop Fox runs in-depth manual and dynamic analyses of Android and iOS devices and apps, guided by OWASP testing methodologies. Bishop Fox AI-Powered Application Penetration Testing delivers validated, expert-reviewed findings across an entire portfolio. Bishop Fox application testers are fluent in programming languages such as Python, C, C#, C++, Java, JavaScript, GO, Swift, PHP, Rust, and Objective C.[9]

Bishop Fox cloud testing goes beyond configuration reviews to identify critical and exploitable paths in AWS, GCP, Azure, and Kubernetes environments. Bishop Fox network testing simulates real-world attack scenarios to uncover perimeter weaknesses and identify how an attacker could gain access to internal networks. Bishop Fox says its External Penetration Testing emulates targeted adversaries and results in discovery of defensive gaps, including likelihood of exploitation and business impact. Bishop Fox hardware and software testing covers IoT, consumer, commercial, and industrial devices. Hardware testing inspects devices down to electronic components including PCBs, chips, storage, debugging interfaces, and bus protocols. Bishop Fox experts test strategic partners and 3rd party vendors.[11]

Bishop Fox provides continuous security testing that it describes as integral to a successful Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) program. Bishop Fox managed services identify, prioritize, and help customers remediate business-impacting exposures. Bishop Fox Attack Surface Discovery continuously finds, validates, and attributes perimeter assets. Bishop Fox Emerging Threat Testing delivers a per-environment verdict. Bishop Fox says its red team work lets customers face the tactics real adversaries use and see how their team responds. Bishop Fox customizes its reporting, weekly status reports, and post-engagement reviews to the unique needs of the customer's organization.[12][13]

Cosmos is Bishop Fox's cloud-native technology platform and the foundation of its offensive security services. Cosmos is built on stateless microservices that auto scale to enterprise volumes, continuously discovers external assets, and routes high-confidence findings into an expert human validation pipeline. Cosmos builds and verifies a living inventory of an organization's external attack surface. Cosmos runs daily automations that validate reachability and protocol behavior so customers see only verified, visible assets. Cosmos captures evidence in the form of technology fingerprints, screenshots, and service metadata. Cosmos uses tenant- and organization-level cloud connectors. Cosmos integrates with customer workflows through Jira and ServiceNow, syncing validated findings into existing ticketing systems. Validated outputs are surfaced through the Bishop Fox Portal, which provides an asset inventory, confirmed findings, indicators of exposure, and a triage workflow integrated with customer ticketing and collaboration systems. Bishop Fox operates and manages Cosmos as part of its services, and customers do not deploy or maintain the platform themselves.[7]

Bishop Fox built AIMap, an open-source tool that discovers, scores, and tests exposed AI endpoints. Sliver is a cross-platform general purpose implant framework. Sliver supports asymmetrically encrypted C2 over DNS, HTTP, HTTPS, and Mutual TLS.

Bishop Fox says it helps customers who are looking to safely deploy AI, release a new app or service, or validate corporate governance. A healthcare technology company moving to SaaS needed to validate its multi-tenant cloud platform, secure connected device provisioning, and maintain visibility across a growing attack surface. An energy provider faces constant threats from nation-state actors targeting critical infrastructure. Equifax runs year-round perimeter testing to safeguard high-value data. Zoom used continuous attack surface monitoring to protect its expanding platform. Apollo selected Bishop Fox to perform a Google Security Assessment of its application, external perimeter, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) environment. John Deere relied on in-depth product security reviews and ongoing protection through a managed offensive security platform. Ventrilo.ai partnered with Bishop Fox for application penetration testing and AI security assessments. A financial services organization tested Bishop Fox's Cosmos AI platform against a realistic application.[7][9][13]

Bishop Fox on the record

Sources

Bishop Fox full record

  1. [1]bishopfox.comBishop Fox · bishopfox.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]ContactBishop Fox · bishopfox.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Bishop Fox | The leading authority in offensive security… | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Offensive Security: Penetration Testing Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Continuous Security Testing Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Red Team Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Cosmos Technology Platform | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Offensive Security Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Application Penetration Testing Services | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]External Penetration Testing for Network Security | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Hardware Security Assessments and Product Security… | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Bishop Fox | Tactics of Deception: Protecting Trust and PurposeBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Explore Customers of Our Offensive Security Solutions | Bishop FoxBishop Fox · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Bishop Fox Redefines Offensive Security at Scale with AI-Augmented Penetration TestingBishop Fox · published February 10, 2026 · Tier A

Cobalt full record

  1. [1]cobalt.ioCobalt · cobalt.io · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Cobalt Introduces New AI Capabilities for Continuous PentestingCobalt via Business Wire · businesswire.com · published March 19, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Cobalt: Continuous Offensive Security TestingCobalt · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cybersecurity Services | CobaltCobalt · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Cobalt Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 23, 2026 · Tier C
  6. [6]Modern Offensive Security Platform | CobaltCobalt · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Agentic PTaaS: Pentest as a Service | CobaltCobalt · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Secure Code Review Services | CobaltCobalt · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Pentest Pricing & Penetration Testing Costs | CobaltCobalt · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Internal Network Penetration Testing Services | CobaltCobalt · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A

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