CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Dreadnode vs NetSPI

Dreadnode sells an infrastructure platform that gives security teams the means to own, operationalize, and improve agentic cyber capabilities. NetSPI sells pentesting as a service (PTaaS), attack surface management (ASM), and breach and attack simulation (BAS) as a service. CISO Tribune files both under Breach simulation and automated pen-testing and 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
  • NetSPI
Dreadnode vs NetSPI: 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.ioNetSPINetSPI sells pentesting as a service (PTaaS), attack surface management (ASM), and breach and attack simulation (BAS) as a service.netspi.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.
  • AI/ML Pentesting[3]Pentesting of AI and ML systems that includes LLM testing and jailbreaking.
  • Red Team Operations[6]Red team exercises that test security controls, policies, incident response and training.
  • Detective Controls Testing[7]Attack simulations that validate whether security tools detect threats.
  • Social Engineering[6]Email, text, phone and physical social engineering assessments.
Categories
Headquarters
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Founded
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Ownership and funding
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Named customers
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Recent news
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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.Not written yet
Last verified
November 6, 2026November 13, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Dreadnode and NetSPI are both filed under Breach simulation and automated pen-testing and Penetration testing and red team services.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Dreadnode's primary category is AI model and agent security; NetSPI's is Penetration testing and red team services.
  • NetSPI is also filed under External attack surface management and Exposure prioritisation and CTEM.
  • Dreadnode lists AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. NetSPI lists AI/ML Pentesting, Red Team Operations, Detective Controls Testing and Social Engineering.

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: NetSPI

What AI/ML Pentesting does[3]
NetSPI's AI/ML Pentesting includes expert LLM testing and jailbreaking. Microsoft partnered with NetSPI to build a standardized AI security testing framework for its 70+ products.
What Red Team Operations does[6]
NetSPI's Red Team Operations test security controls, policies, incident response and training. NetSPI partners with selected threat intelligence providers to test the resiliency of critical systems.
What Detective Controls Testing does[7]
NetSPI Detective Controls Testing validates that security tools operate effectively across endpoint security solutions, network security solutions, SIEMs and MSSPs. NetSPI's ransomware simulation pack covers TTPs and behaviors from real-world ransomware campaigns.
What Social Engineering does[6]
NetSPI's social engineering experts deliver findings from email, text, phone and physical scenarios. NetSPI runs custom phishing engagements to identify gaps in security procedures and technical controls.

Questions about Dreadnode and NetSPI

What do Dreadnode and NetSPI sell?
Dreadnode sells AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. NetSPI sells AI/ML Pentesting, Red Team Operations, Detective Controls Testing and Social Engineering.
Are Dreadnode and NetSPI in the same category?
They share Breach simulation and automated pen-testing and Penetration testing and red team services. Dreadnode's primary category is AI model and agent security and NetSPI's is Penetration testing and red team services.
Who are Dreadnode and NetSPI sold to?
Dreadnode sells to organizations that require scaled agentic workloads and custom capabilities.

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

NetSPI full record

  1. [1]netspi.comNetSPI · netspi.com · undated page, accessed November 13, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]About Us - NetSPINetSPI · undated page, accessed November 13, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]NetSPI - Proactive Cyber Security | PTaaS, ASM, BASNetSPI · undated page, accessed November 13, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]The NetSPI Platform - NetSPINetSPI · undated page, accessed November 13, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Customer Stories - NetSPINetSPI · undated page, accessed November 13, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Cyber Security Assessments & Strategic Advisory Services - NetSPINetSPI · undated page, accessed November 13, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Detective Controls Testing: Attack Simulation & Control ValidationNetSPI · undated page, accessed November 13, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Model Context Protocol - NetSPINetSPI · undated page, accessed November 13, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]NetSPI Customer Case Study – ChubbNetSPI · undated page, accessed November 13, 2026 · Tier A

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