CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Dreadnode vs Horizon3.ai

Dreadnode sells an infrastructure platform that gives security teams the means to own, operationalize, and improve agentic cyber capabilities. Horizon3.ai sells NodeZero, a platform that autonomously executes real attack techniques in production environments so organizations can find exploitable weaknesses, fix them and verify the fixes. CISO Tribune files both under Breach simulation and automated pen-testing. 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
  • Horizon3.ai
Dreadnode vs Horizon3.ai: 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.ioHorizon3.aiHorizon3.ai sells NodeZero, a platform that autonomously executes real attack techniques in production environments so organizations can find exploitable weaknesses, fix them and verify the fixes.horizon3.ai
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.
  • NodeZero[2][3][5][6][7][8][9][10][14]An autonomous platform that executes real attack techniques in production.
  • Endpoint Security Effectiveness[3][7]Tests how endpoint protections respond to real attack behavior.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesSan Francisco, United States[1][11]
Founded
Not stated on its pages2019[1][11]
Ownership and funding
Not stated on its pagesPrivately held[2][3]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
Not stated on its pages
  • November 5, 2026Horizon3 appointed Chris Wood as Director of Sales for Australia and New Zealand and Vivienne Horsfall as Growth Marketing Director for Asia Pacific and Japan.[13]
  • July 29, 2026Horizon3 announced an expansion of its NodeZero platform to include AI-powered web application pentesting capabilities.[14]
  • July 15, 2026Horizon3 announced it is taking part in Anthropic's Project Glasswing, an initiative focused on securing critical infrastructure.[12]
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.From its own pages, Horizon3.ai sells mainly to security teams that want to test their defenses with real attacks in production. It names banks, healthcare systems, energy providers, manufacturers, governments and defense contractors as organizations that rely on NodeZero. Its pages describe customers ranging from the Global 100 to a local hospital.
Last verified
November 6, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Dreadnode and Horizon3.ai are both filed under Breach simulation and automated pen-testing.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Dreadnode's primary category is AI model and agent security; Horizon3.ai's is Breach simulation and automated pen-testing.
  • Dreadnode is also filed under Penetration testing and red team services.
  • Dreadnode lists AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. Horizon3.ai lists NodeZero and Endpoint Security Effectiveness.
  • Horizon3.ai is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
  • Horizon3.ai was founded in 2019.
  • Horizon3.ai 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: Horizon3.ai

What NodeZero does[2][3][5][6][7][8][9][10][14]
NodeZero is described as an autonomous platform capable of executing self-directed actions to achieve an objective. Horizon3.ai says it executes real attack techniques without agents or disruption. It is delivered via multi-tenant SaaS.
What Endpoint Security Effectiveness does[3][7]
NodeZero checks for EDR presence on each host. It then executes techniques ranging from credential theft to privilege escalation and lateral movement. Every action is mapped to a MITRE ATT&CK TTP and labeled blocked or permitted.

Questions about Dreadnode and Horizon3.ai

What do Dreadnode and Horizon3.ai sell?
Dreadnode sells AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. Horizon3.ai sells NodeZero and Endpoint Security Effectiveness.
Are Dreadnode and Horizon3.ai in the same category?
They share Breach simulation and automated pen-testing. Dreadnode's primary category is AI model and agent security and Horizon3.ai's is Breach simulation and automated pen-testing.
Where are Dreadnode and Horizon3.ai headquartered?
Horizon3.ai is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
When were Dreadnode and Horizon3.ai founded?
Horizon3.ai was founded in 2019.
Who owns Dreadnode and Horizon3.ai?
Horizon3.ai is privately held.
Who are Dreadnode and Horizon3.ai sold to?
Dreadnode sells to organizations that require scaled agentic workloads and custom capabilities. From its own pages, Horizon3.ai sells mainly to security teams that want to test their defenses with real attacks in production.
What have Dreadnode and Horizon3.ai announced recently?
November 5, 2026: Horizon3 appointed Chris Wood as Director of Sales for Australia and New Zealand and Vivienne Horsfall as Growth Marketing Director for Asia Pacific and Japan.

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

Horizon3.ai full record

  1. [1]About usHorizon3.ai · horizon3.ai · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Horizon3 raises 250m series e at 2b valuation to lead the ai vs ai cybersecurity eraHorizon3.ai · horizon3.ai · published August 3, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Home | Horizon3.aiHorizon3.ai · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Why Continuous Exposure Management Matters for Financial ServicesHorizon3.ai · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]The Future of Security: Our Vision | Horizon3Horizon3.ai · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Compliance Solutions for Cybersecurity | Horizon3Horizon3.ai · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Endpoint Security Effectiveness | Horizon3Horizon3.ai · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Identity Security Validation | Horizon3Horizon3.ai · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Why Our Platform Wins | Horizon3Horizon3.ai · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]HomeECB AI Cybersecurity Mandate | NodeZero® | Horizon3Horizon3.ai · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]The Team | Horizon3Horizon3.ai · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Horizon3 Joins Anthropic’s Project Glasswing to Help Defend Critical Infrastructure with the Attacker’s PerspectiveHorizon3 · published July 15, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Horizon3 Expands Australia and New Zealand Team, Strengthens APJ InvestmentHorizon3 · published November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Horizon3’s NodeZero® AI Hacker Extends Production-Safe Autonomous Pentesting to Web ApplicationsHorizon3 · published July 29, 2026 · Tier A

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