CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Dreadnode vs HiddenLayer

Dreadnode sells an infrastructure platform that gives security teams the means to own, operationalize, and improve agentic cyber capabilities. HiddenLayer sells AI security that analyzes AI applications, models, and assets, identifies their risks, and protects them as teams build. CISO Tribune files both under AI model and agent security. 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
  • HiddenLayer
Dreadnode vs HiddenLayer: 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.ioHiddenLayerHiddenLayer sells AI security that analyzes AI applications, models, and assets, identifies their risks, and protects them as teams build.hiddenlayer.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.
  • Model Scanning[1][4][6]Scans third-party and proprietary machine learning models to detect hidden risks.
  • Red Teaming[1][6][10]Runs continuous testing intended to identify threats early and validate AI defenses.
  • AI Guardrails[1][11]Applies policy-based controls intended to prevent misuse, data leakage and adversarial attacks on AI systems.
  • Agentic and MCP Protection[1][4][5][6]Monitors autonomous AI agents and MCP connections and is intended to guard against rogue behavior.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesAustin, United States[2]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2022[2]
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held[3]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • August 12, 2026HiddenLayer announced the appointment of Mike Gesnaldo as Chief Revenue Officer.[14]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • 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.HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement. HiddenLayer offers protection of agentic, generative, and predictive AI systems for mission assurance. HiddenLayer describes deployment through APIs, gateways, SDKs, or lightweight on-device integrations.
Last verified
November 6, 2026November 2, 2026

Where they overlap

  • AI model and agent security is the primary category of both Dreadnode and HiddenLayer.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Dreadnode is also filed under Breach simulation and automated pen-testing and Penetration testing and red team services. HiddenLayer is also filed under AI firewalls and guardrails.
  • Dreadnode lists AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. HiddenLayer lists Model Scanning, Red Teaming, AI Guardrails and Agentic and MCP Protection.
  • HiddenLayer is headquartered in Austin, United States.
  • HiddenLayer was founded in 2022.
  • HiddenLayer is privately held.

How they differ

CISO Tribune files both Dreadnode and HiddenLayer under AI model and agent security as their primary category, but the two sell different things within it. Dreadnode sells AI Red Teaming and the Dreadnode Platform, which it describes as infrastructure for security teams to own, operationalize, and improve agentic cyber capabilities. CISO Tribune also files Dreadnode under breach simulation and automated pen-testing and under penetration testing and red team services, and Dreadnode offers web application penetration testing with 83 attack technique playbooks. HiddenLayer sells Model Scanning, Red Teaming, AI Guardrails, and Agentic and MCP Protection. CISO Tribune files HiddenLayer under AI firewalls and guardrails as well.

The offerings overlap in AI red teaming: Dreadnode applies it from traditional machine learning models to multi-agent systems, while HiddenLayer runs continuous testing to validate AI defenses. They differ in emphasis, since Dreadnode centers on agents that security teams author and run for security testing, research, and operations, and HiddenLayer centers on inventory, scanning, and runtime protection of AI assets. Dreadnode can run on an existing Kubernetes cluster, with offline bundles for air-gapped deployments, and offers on-prem deployment with the Enterprise plan. HiddenLayer offers deployment through APIs, gateways, SDKs, or lightweight on-device integrations.

HiddenLayer is headquartered in Austin, United States, was founded in 2022, and is privately held. On customers, Dreadnode describes a cyber eval engagement for a tier 1 frontier model provider. HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement. On August 12, 2026, HiddenLayer announced the appointment of a Chief Revenue Officer.

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.

Questions about Dreadnode and HiddenLayer

What do Dreadnode and HiddenLayer sell?
Dreadnode sells AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. HiddenLayer sells Model Scanning, Red Teaming, AI Guardrails and Agentic and MCP Protection.
Are Dreadnode and HiddenLayer in the same category?
Yes. AI model and agent security is the primary category of both on CISO Tribune.
Where are Dreadnode and HiddenLayer headquartered?
HiddenLayer is headquartered in Austin, United States.
When were Dreadnode and HiddenLayer founded?
HiddenLayer was founded in 2022.
Who owns Dreadnode and HiddenLayer?
HiddenLayer is privately held.
Who are Dreadnode and HiddenLayer sold to?
Dreadnode sells to organizations that require scaled agentic workloads and custom capabilities. HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement.
What have Dreadnode and HiddenLayer announced recently?
August 12, 2026: HiddenLayer announced the appointment of Mike Gesnaldo as Chief Revenue Officer.

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

HiddenLayer full record

  1. [1]HiddenLayer | Total AI SecurityHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Hiddenlayer launches the first security solution to protect ai powered products 301587864HiddenLayer via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published July 19, 2022 · Tier A
  3. [3]Hiddenlayer 100m series b ai securityHiddenLayer · hiddenlayer.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Application Developers | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Runtime Security | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Platform | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]AI Discovery | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]AI Supply Chain Security | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Attack Simulation | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]CISO | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]AI Guardrails | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Services | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Financial Services | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]HiddenLayer Appoints Mike Gesnaldo as Chief Revenue OfficerHiddenLayer · published August 12, 2026 · Tier A

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