CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Dreadnode vs GuidePoint Security

Dreadnode sells an infrastructure platform that gives security teams the means to own, operationalize, and improve agentic cyber capabilities. GuidePoint Security sells cybersecurity services that include security program reviews, vulnerability management and penetration testing, and Privileged Access Management as a Service. 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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  • Dreadnode
  • GuidePoint Security
Dreadnode vs GuidePoint Security: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
DreadnodeDreadnode sells an infrastructure platform that gives security teams the means to own, operationalize, and improve agentic cyber capabilities.dreadnode.ioGuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security sells cybersecurity services that include security program reviews, vulnerability management and penetration testing, and Privileged Access Management as a Service.guidepointsecurity.com
What it sells
  • AI Red Teaming[2][3][5]AI red teaming across AI systems in production, from traditional machine learning models to multi-agent systems.
  • Dreadnode Platform[3][4]Infrastructure for security teams to own, operationalize, and improve agentic cyber capabilities.
  • Application Security as a Service[4][14]Application Security as a Service scales up or down based on a customer's requirements for application security.
  • Privileged Access Management as a Service[11]GuidePoint Security offers Privileged Access Management as a Service to enforce least privilege over user accounts, systems and endpoints.
  • Vulnerability Management (VM) and Penetration Testing (Pen Testing)GuidePoint Security services that help organizations identify, prioritize and remediate security gaps.
  • Security Program Review[10]A GuidePoint Security Program Review evaluates and measures an organization's security program maturity.
  • Zero Trust Workshops[16]GuidePoint Security offers consulting workshops to guide organizations on their journey to Zero Trust adoption.
  • OT Security Services[4]GuidePoint OT Security Services include assessments, program development and managed services for critical infrastructure.
  • Staff Augmentation Services[15]GuidePoint Security provides Staff Augmentation services across a wide range of disciplines and products.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesReston, United States[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2011[2][4]
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held[3][7]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • September 15, 2026GuidePoint Security expanded its Identity and Access Management practice with three new service offerings.[6]
  • July 7, 2026GuidePoint Security appointed Scott Rachford as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, succeeding founder Michael Volk, who becomes Executive Chairman.[5]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 10, 2026[7]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
Dreadnode sells to organizations that require scaled agentic workloads and custom capabilities. Dreadnode describes a cyber eval engagement for a frontier model provider. Organizations that need to run inside their own boundary can deploy Dreadnode on a Kubernetes cluster or in air-gapped environments, and on-prem deployment is available with the Enterprise plan.GuidePoint Security network infrastructure services cover both enterprise and government IT environments. GuidePoint Security supports cloud-based SaaS or IaaS, on-premise and hybrid architectures based on customer needs. GuidePoint Security staff augmentation is for organizations that want to increase staffing capabilities for a set amount of time.
Last verified
November 6, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Dreadnode and GuidePoint Security are both filed under Penetration testing and red team services.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Dreadnode's primary category is AI model and agent security; GuidePoint Security's is Security consulting and advisory.
  • Dreadnode is also filed under Breach simulation and automated pen-testing. GuidePoint Security is also filed under Managed security service providers.
  • Dreadnode lists AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. GuidePoint Security lists Application Security as a Service, Privileged Access Management as a Service, Vulnerability Management (VM) and Penetration Testing (Pen Testing), Security Program Review, Zero Trust Workshops and 2 more.
  • GuidePoint Security is headquartered in Reston, United States.
  • GuidePoint Security was founded in 2011.
  • GuidePoint Security is privately held.

What it sells: Dreadnode

What AI Red Teaming does[2][3][5]
Dreadnode applies AI red teaming across the full range of AI systems in production today, from traditional machine learning models to multi-agent systems. Dreadnode Platform evaluations probe models, applications, and deployed agents with adversarial attacks across supported languages and modalities.
What Dreadnode Platform does[3][4]
The Dreadnode Platform equips defenders with ready-to-run capabilities and shared operational knowledge. Dreadnode can be deployed on an existing Kubernetes cluster or an embedded cluster on a dedicated VM, with offline installation bundles for air-gapped deployments.

What it sells: GuidePoint Security

What Application Security as a Service does[4][14]
Application Security as a Service from GuidePoint Security scales up or down based on a customer's requirements for application security. AppSec as a Service supports a wide range of application security tools. GuidePoint Security can manage an application security tool environment end to end when it is on-prem or in the customer's own cloud environment.
What Privileged Access Management as a Service does[11]
GuidePoint Security offers Privileged Access Management as a Service to enforce least privilege over each user account, system and endpoint in an IT ecosystem. GuidePoint Security supports cloud-based SaaS or IaaS, on-premise and hybrid architectures based on customer needs.
What Vulnerability Management (VM) and Penetration Testing (Pen Testing) does
GuidePoint Vulnerability Management and Penetration Testing services help organizations identify, prioritize and remediate security gaps. GuidePoint Security provides the people, processes and technologies to fully or partially administer vulnerability management programs.
What Security Program Review does[10]
A GuidePoint Security Program Review evaluates and measures an organization's security program maturity. GuidePoint Security uses standards-based maturity definitions based on CMMI and Cobit. GuidePoint Security offers several levels of security program reviews, right-sized to an organization's requirements. The security program report from GuidePoint Security documents a set of recommendations and corresponding resource estimates.
What Zero Trust Workshops does[16]
GuidePoint Security consultants lead Zero Trust Workshops that develop and align use cases to a customer's environment and maturity. GuidePoint Security offers consulting workshops to guide organizations on their journey to Zero Trust adoption.
What OT Security Services does[4]
GuidePoint OT Security Services include assessments, program development and managed services for critical infrastructure. GuidePoint Security helps organizations bridge IT/OT convergence.
What Staff Augmentation Services does[15]
GuidePoint Security provides Staff Augmentation services across a wide range of disciplines and products. GuidePoint Security analysts can support a SOC or Cyber Fusion center with Cyber Hunt, threat intelligence, digital forensics, incident response and analysis of log data.

Questions about Dreadnode and GuidePoint Security

What do Dreadnode and GuidePoint Security sell?
Dreadnode sells AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. GuidePoint Security sells Application Security as a Service, Privileged Access Management as a Service, Vulnerability Management (VM) and Penetration Testing (Pen Testing), Security Program Review, Zero Trust Workshops and 2 more.
Are Dreadnode and GuidePoint Security in the same category?
They share Penetration testing and red team services. Dreadnode's primary category is AI model and agent security and GuidePoint Security's is Security consulting and advisory.
Where are Dreadnode and GuidePoint Security headquartered?
GuidePoint Security is headquartered in Reston, United States.
When were Dreadnode and GuidePoint Security founded?
GuidePoint Security was founded in 2011.
Who owns Dreadnode and GuidePoint Security?
GuidePoint Security is privately held.
Who are Dreadnode and GuidePoint Security sold to?
Dreadnode sells to organizations that require scaled agentic workloads and custom capabilities. GuidePoint Security network infrastructure services cover both enterprise and government IT environments.
What have Dreadnode and GuidePoint Security announced recently?
September 15, 2026: GuidePoint Security expanded its Identity and Access Management practice with three new service offerings.

About Dreadnode

Dreadnode sells an infrastructure platform that gives security teams the means to own, operationalize, and improve agentic cyber capabilities. The Dreadnode Platform equips defenders with ready-to-run capabilities, shared operational knowledge, and the ability to run agents. Dreadnode describes the path to operationalize agents as fragmented and opaque. Dreadnode's capabilities are operator-authored agents for security testing, research, and operations, connected to the tools a team already uses.[3][5]

Ready-to-run cyber capabilities on the Dreadnode Platform put agents to work on security testing, research, and operations. The Dreadnode Platform supports persistent sessions across web and terminal, with search of past work and sharing with a team. Dreadnode Platform workflows coordinate agents by sequencing tasks, running work in parallel, and branching or combining results. The Dreadnode Platform connects existing command-line tools, MCP servers, and custom integrations. Versioned capabilities on the Dreadnode Platform can be shared with their instructions, tools, and dependency setup.[4]

Dreadnode Platform agents carry saved project context into new sessions and retrieve findings from earlier work. Dreadnode Platform users can review structured findings and assets with supporting evidence and relationships. The Dreadnode Platform versions and reuses datasets across evaluations, optimization, and training. Dreadnode Platform users can post-train models with demonstrations or rewards and retain the resulting model artifacts.[4]

Dreadnode combines task evaluations, LLM judges, and AI red teaming so a team can set the criteria for greater responsibility. Dreadnode Platform evaluations benchmark agents against published security tasks and a team's own tasks and environments. Dreadnode uses LLM judges to assess correctness, scope adherence, and signs of cheating against a team's criteria. The Dreadnode Platform probes models, applications, and deployed agents with adversarial attacks across supported languages and modalities. The Dreadnode Platform compares models, prompts, and capability versions with per-sample results and judge reasoning.[3][4]

Dreadnode Platform observability follows active agent sessions with live progress, metrics, and logs. The Dreadnode Platform inspects nested model and tool calls with their arguments and results. Dreadnode Platform traces connect findings back to the execution that produced them. Dreadnode Platform users can query traces to investigate failures and compare latency, token usage, and cost. Runtime policies in the Dreadnode Platform restrict tool access and check proposed actions against scope, and they allow, block, or request approval.[4]

Dreadnode offers AI red teaming across AI systems in production today, from traditional machine learning models to multi-agent systems. Dreadnode offers web application penetration testing with 83 attack technique playbooks. Dreadnode describes an autonomous pentester with a built-in headless browser and 84 skills. Dreadnode agents run network discovery and Active Directory assessments, connected to attack-path analysis and C2 tools. Dreadnode's authored capabilities cover web, AI, network, reverse engineering, and forensics.[2][3][4]

Dreadnode can be deployed on a customer's infrastructure, with application records, execution evidence, and capability artifacts in data stores the customer controls. Dreadnode runs on an existing Kubernetes cluster or on an embedded cluster on a dedicated VM, and offline installation bundles support air-gapped deployments. Dreadnode routes inference to approved providers or to models a customer hosts itself. Dreadnode offers on-prem deployment with the Enterprise plan. Dreadnode states that all evaluation, training, Worlds, and AI red teaming data stays within a customer's organization environment. Dreadnode SaaS meters workloads against a shared organization credit balance. Dreadnode stores secret values without returning them in normal API reads and injects them only into the remote runtimes and evaluations a user selects.[3][4][5][6][7]

Dreadnode treats organizations as an ownership boundary, and workspaces as the main collaboration boundary inside an organization. In SaaS mode, creating or updating workspaces on Dreadnode requires a Pro plan or higher. Dreadnode is SOC 2, ISO 27001:2022, and ISO 27701 compliant. Dreadnode charges a one-time annual fee that varies based on deployment requirements, SLAs, and custom work. Dreadnode built an initial suite of ER-Spatial security tasks during a cyber eval engagement for a tier 1 frontier model provider.[3][4][5][8][9][10][11]

Dreadnode on the record

Sources

Dreadnode full record

  1. [1]Dreadnode v2 security agent infrastructure platformDreadnode · dreadnode.io · published March 24, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]dreadnode.ioDreadnode · dreadnode.io · undated page, accessed November 6, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Dreadnode — AI Infrastructure for CybersecurityDreadnode · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]The Dreadnode PlatformDreadnode · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Pricing | DreadnodeDreadnode · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Credits | DreadnodeDreadnode · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Secrets | DreadnodeDreadnode · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Organizations | DreadnodeDreadnode · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Workspaces | DreadnodeDreadnode · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Projects | DreadnodeDreadnode · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Beyond the Terminal: Offensive Security Evals for Embodied Reasoning | DreadnodeDreadnode · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

GuidePoint Security full record

  1. [1]guidepointsecurity.comGuidePoint Security · guidepointsecurity.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Guidepoint security opens new global headquarters amid continued growthGuidePoint Security · guidepointsecurity.com · published June 3, 2025 · Tier A
  3. [3]Guidepoint security attracts new round of growth capitalGuidePoint Security · guidepointsecurity.com · published October 10, 2023 · Tier A
  4. [4]Cybersecurity Consulting Services | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]GuidePoint Security Appoints Scott Rachford as Chief Executive OfficerBusiness Wire · published July 7, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]GuidePoint Security Expands Identity and Access Management Practice With Three New Service OfferingsBusiness Wire · published September 15, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]GuidePoint Security LLC Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier C
  8. [8]Cloud Security Assessments | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Cybersecurity Services | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 3, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Security Program Review and Strategy | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Privileged Access Management (PAM) as a Service | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]5 Phases of AWS Cloud Security | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Enterprise Cybersecurity MSSP Provider | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Application Security as a Service | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Cybersecurity Staff Augmentation | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Zero Trust Workshops & Consulting Services (IAM) | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Advanced Network Security Technologies | GuidePoint SecurityGuidePoint Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

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