CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Dreadnode vs NowSecure

Dreadnode sells an infrastructure platform that gives security teams the means to own, operationalize, and improve agentic cyber capabilities. NowSecure sells mobile application risk management software that analyzes compiled iOS and Android app binaries on real devices to find hidden AI, risky SDKs, vulnerabilities and data flows. 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
  • NowSecure
Dreadnode vs NowSecure: 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.ioNowSecureNowSecure sells mobile application risk management software that analyzes compiled iOS and Android app binaries on real devices to find hidden AI, risky SDKs, vulnerabilities and data flows.nowsecure.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.
  • Mobile Application Risk Management[1][2][3][5]Continuously assesses apps a company builds and third-party apps its workforce uses.
  • Dynamic Mobile SBOM[7]Generates SBOMs from binary analysis of iOS, Android and hybrid apps.
  • NowSecure Privacy[8]Protects sensitive data and minimizes compliance exposure in mobile apps.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesChicago, United States[1]
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot 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
Not stated on its pages
  • April 28, 2026NowSecure announced Mobile App Risk Intelligence (MARI), giving enterprises evidence-based visibility into third-party mobile apps, including hidden AI components and data flows.[13]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: listed, seen November 4, 2026[4]
  • 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, NowSecure sells mainly to enterprises that build, use and manage mobile apps. NowSecure addresses privacy, compliance and AI governance roles. NowSecure addresses AppSec, DevSecOps and mobile engineering roles. NowSecure addresses workforce app and third-party risk roles. NowSecure says financial institutions are accountable for every component shipped to production. NowSecure helps federal, local and state agencies deliver secure mobile apps.
Last verified
November 6, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Dreadnode and NowSecure are both filed under AI model and agent security.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Dreadnode's primary category is AI model and agent security; NowSecure's is Mobile security.
  • Dreadnode is also filed under Breach simulation and automated pen-testing and Penetration testing and red team services.
  • Dreadnode lists AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. NowSecure lists Mobile Application Risk Management, Dynamic Mobile SBOM and NowSecure Privacy.
  • NowSecure is headquartered in Chicago, United States.

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: NowSecure

What Mobile Application Risk Management does[1][2][3][5]
NowSecure gives enterprises continuous visibility into the security, privacy, compliance, and AI risk inside the mobile apps they build, use, and manage. Findings are based on what shipped apps do on real devices at runtime.
What Dynamic Mobile SBOM does[7]
NowSecure inspects compiled iOS, Android, and hybrid apps to identify every dependency, framework, and SDK actually present. It generates SBOMs for each build, storing version history and provenance.
What NowSecure Privacy does[8]
NowSecure Privacy protects sensitive data, minimizes compliance exposure, and maintains trust. NowSecure describes continuous mobile privacy testing as identifying excessive permissions, hidden data sharing, insecure SDK behaviors, and policy violations across iOS and Android applications.

Questions about Dreadnode and NowSecure

What do Dreadnode and NowSecure sell?
Dreadnode sells AI Red Teaming and Dreadnode Platform. NowSecure sells Mobile Application Risk Management, Dynamic Mobile SBOM and NowSecure Privacy.
Are Dreadnode and NowSecure in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. Dreadnode's primary category is AI model and agent security and NowSecure's is Mobile security.
Where are Dreadnode and NowSecure headquartered?
NowSecure is headquartered in Chicago, United States.
Who are Dreadnode and NowSecure sold to?
Dreadnode sells to organizations that require scaled agentic workloads and custom capabilities. From its own pages, NowSecure sells mainly to enterprises that build, use and manage mobile apps.
What have Dreadnode and NowSecure announced recently?
April 28, 2026: NowSecure announced Mobile App Risk Intelligence (MARI), giving enterprises evidence-based visibility into third-party mobile apps, including hidden AI components and data flows.

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

NowSecure full record

  1. [1]Nowsecure launches ai data partner program to expand mobile application risk intelligence for security platformsNowSecure · nowsecure.com · published March 18, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]nowsecure.comNowSecure · nowsecure.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Enterprise Mobile App Security & AI Governance | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]NowSecure Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features - G2G2 · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier C
  5. [5]Mobile App Risk Management Platform & Programs | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Mobile app security testing (MAST) for iOS & Android | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Dynamic SBOM for iOS and Android Mobile Apps | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Mobile Application Privacy Testing | NowSecure PrivacyNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Mobile App Security Standards & Compliance | NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Financial Services - NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Government - NowSecureNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Request NowSecure SOC 2 ReportNowSecure · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]NowSecure Launches MARI to Close the AI Governance Gap in Third-Party Mobile AppsNowSecure · published April 28, 2026 · Tier A

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