CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Synack vs UnderDefense

Synack delivers continuous penetration testing as a service (PTaaS) that combines agentic AI, the Synack Platform and the Synack Red Team. UnderDefense sells UnderDefense MAXI, a security and compliance automation platform, and an MDR service in which security experts monitor, detect and respond to incidents. 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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  • Synack
  • UnderDefense
Synack vs UnderDefense: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
SynackSynack delivers continuous penetration testing as a service (PTaaS) that combines agentic AI, the Synack Platform and the Synack Red Team.synack.comUnderDefenseUnderDefense sells UnderDefense MAXI, a security and compliance automation platform, and an MDR service in which security experts monitor, detect and respond to incidents.underdefense.com
What it sells
  • Sara AI Pentesting[3][4][5]Sara AI Pentesting identifies, validates and prioritizes vulnerabilities across the enterprise attack surface.
  • Synack Red Team[3][4][5][6]Synack PTaaS brings the Synack Red Team, a community of incentivized security researchers, to the attack surface.
  • Synack Platform[3][4][5][6][7]Synack's PTaaS offering includes the Synack Platform for asset and vulnerability management, test results, reports and analytics.
  • Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS)Synack delivers continuous penetration testing as a service (PTaaS).
  • Active Offense[13]Synack's Active Offense solution combines continuous attack surface discovery with autonomous exploit validation and human-led expert analysis.
  • Managed VDP[15]Synack's Managed VDP handles vulnerability triage with remediation guidance, coordinates researcher recognition and delivers data to support CISA or Board reporting.
  • Synack Missions[14]Synack Missions use the Synack Red Team to complete specific tasks and provide documentation of their work.
  • UnderDefense MAXI[1][2][3][5][6]A security and compliance automation platform. UnderDefense MAXI integrates with SIEMs, firewalls and endpoint protection solutions.
  • UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC[4]AI agents investigate each alert. Analysts on shift 24/7 decide what happens next.
  • MDR[1][2][6]Security experts monitor, detect and respond to incidents.
  • Cloud-based SIEM[2]A cloud-based SIEM that collects, analyzes and responds to security events.
  • CIS AWS Benchmark assessment[8]A self-service assessment of AWS security.
Categories
Headquarters
Redwood City, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
2013[1]Not 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 pagesNot stated on its pages
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[10]
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Synack sells its tests to organizations under a flat-fee model. Synack describes its Managed VDP as an option for responsible disclosure for federal teams. Synack describes pulling reports on third party providers or potential M&A targets. Synack describes report generation for executive audiences and compliance auditors. Synack describes testing for mobile, API, web and host assets, and describes Sara AI Pentesting as working across the enterprise attack surface.UnderDefense MAXI integrates with a customer's security infrastructure, including SIEMs, firewalls and endpoint protection solutions. UnderDefense offers compliance templates to organizations working toward standards such as SOC2 and ISO 27001. UnderDefense MAXI provides executive-level reports for C-level readers.
Last verified
September 27, 2026October 26, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Synack and UnderDefense are both filed under Penetration testing and red team services.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Synack's primary category is Bug bounty and crowdsourced testing; UnderDefense's is MDR and managed SOC.
  • UnderDefense is also filed under Compliance automation and SOAR and security automation.
  • Synack lists Sara AI Pentesting, Synack Red Team, Synack Platform, Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS), Active Offense and 2 more. UnderDefense lists UnderDefense MAXI, UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC, MDR, Cloud-based SIEM and CIS AWS Benchmark assessment.
  • Synack is headquartered in Redwood City, United States.
  • Synack was founded in 2013.

What it sells: Synack

What Sara AI Pentesting does[3][4][5]
Sara's AI-powered triage is combined with human-in-the-loop expertise to filter which vulnerabilities are exploitable. Synack combines Sara AI Pentesting, the Synack Red Team and the Synack Platform.
What Synack Red Team does[3][4][5][6]
Synack describes a community of 1,500 security researchers from around the world. Synack can limit testing to members of the Synack Red Team who meet certain criteria, such as US-only researchers or Five Eyes only.
What Synack Platform does[3][4][5][6][7]
Synack provides real time analytics of exploitable vulnerabilities that are found and verified in the Synack Platform. Synack lets users issue a patch verification request through the platform, which activates a researcher to test the patch. The Synack API integrates vulnerability findings with tools such as ServiceNow, Jira and Azure DevOps.
What Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) does
Synack lets users choose and launch penetration testing services from the platform on demand, and start, audit and stop tests. Synack PTaaS is available 24/7 via the Synack Platform. Synack tests at multiple stages of development and assists developer and QA teams through real-time reporting and patch verification.
What Active Offense does[13]
Synack continuously discovers, classifies and segments internet-facing and newly exposed assets. Sara's AI-powered triage is combined with human-in-the-loop expertise to filter which vulnerabilities are exploitable.
What Managed VDP does[15]
Synack's Managed VDP is offered as an option for responsible disclosure to federal teams. VDPs provide enterprise security teams a safe and legal means to be notified of vulnerabilities on externally facing infrastructure by the public.

What it sells: UnderDefense

What UnderDefense MAXI does[1][2][3][5][6]
UnderDefense MAXI natively monitors endpoints, networks, users and decoy beacons. UnderDefense MAXI provides ready-to-use playbooks, AI-powered alert enrichment and notifications through Slack, Jira or a preferred tool. UnderDefense MAXI provides pre-built compliance templates for standards such as SOC2 and ISO 27001.
What UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC does[4]
UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC uses AI agents that investigate each alert. Analysts on shift 24/7 decide what happens next.
What CIS AWS Benchmark assessment does[8]
UnderDefense offers a self-service CIS AWS Benchmark assessment. The assessment covers evaluating the maturity of cloud security controls, identifying misconfigurations, providing detailed mitigation instructions and giving a summary table with a final CVSS v3.0 score.

Questions about Synack and UnderDefense

What do Synack and UnderDefense sell?
Synack sells Sara AI Pentesting, Synack Red Team, Synack Platform, Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS), Active Offense and 2 more. UnderDefense sells UnderDefense MAXI, UnderDefense Agentic AI SOC, MDR, Cloud-based SIEM and CIS AWS Benchmark assessment.
Are Synack and UnderDefense in the same category?
They share Penetration testing and red team services. Synack's primary category is Bug bounty and crowdsourced testing and UnderDefense's is MDR and managed SOC.
Where are Synack and UnderDefense headquartered?
Synack is headquartered in Redwood City, United States.
When were Synack and UnderDefense founded?
Synack was founded in 2013.
Who are Synack and UnderDefense sold to?
From its own pages, Synack sells its tests to organizations under a flat-fee model. UnderDefense MAXI integrates with a customer's security infrastructure, including SIEMs, firewalls and endpoint protection solutions.

About Synack

Synack delivers continuous penetration testing as a service (PTaaS) that combines agentic AI, the Synack Platform and the Synack Red Team. Synack combines Sara AI Pentesting, the Synack Red Team and the Synack Platform. Synack's PTaaS offering includes the human security testing expertise of the Synack Red Team and the Synack Platform for asset and vulnerability management, test results, reports and analytics. Synack sells its tests to organizations with a flat-fee model, and researchers are paid based on their vulnerability findings. Dow weighed building against buying AI pentesting before choosing Synack.[5][6][7]

Sara AI Pentesting identifies, validates and prioritizes vulnerabilities across the enterprise attack surface. Synack PTaaS brings the Synack Red Team, a community of incentivized security researchers, to the attack surface. Synack describes a community of 1,500 security researchers from around the world. Synack can limit testing to members of the Synack Red Team who meet certain criteria, such as US-only researchers or Five Eyes only. Findings from the scanner and the Synack Red Team are triaged by an internal team called Vulnerability Operations.[5][6][7][9]

Synack tests applications using both humans and AI agents. Synack offers human or AI agent-led pentesting of hosts. Synack tests ephemeral environments with point-in-time or continuous testing across AWS, Azure and GCP. Synack uses researcher missions to look for vulnerabilities in headless endpoints. Synack can conduct testing on demand for mobile, API, web and host assets. Synack offers continuous penetration testing across web, API, cloud and host assets. Synack continuously discovers, fingerprints and prioritizes internet-facing assets for immediate testing. Synack AI/LLM pentesting checks for vulnerabilities including prompt injection, model theft, training data poisoning and insecure plugin design.[5][10][13]

Synack has integrations with AWS, Azure and GCP that enable detection of changes and new IPs. Synack provides out-of-the-box integrations with most major public cloud providers, including GCP, Azure and AWS. Synack analyzes benchmarks against AWS, GCP and Azure for security controls. Synack rewards researchers monetarily for the vulnerabilities they find instead of traditional time and materials. Synack is a participating solution provider member of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).[6]

Synack provides real time analytics of exploitable vulnerabilities that are found and verified in the Synack Platform. Vulnerabilities in the Synack platform have an associated CVSS score, instructions on how to replicate the finding and a writeup with screenshots from the researcher. Synack lets users issue a patch verification request through the platform, which activates a researcher to test the patch and verify that the exploitation is no longer possible. The Synack API integrates vulnerability findings with tools such as ServiceNow, Jira and Azure DevOps. Synack integrates with vulnerability management, exposure management and ticketing tools. Synack pushes actionable findings into Jira, ServiceNow, Tenable One or existing workflows. Synack lets users choose and launch penetration testing services from the platform on demand, and start, audit and stop tests. Synack PTaaS is available 24/7 via the Synack Platform. Synack tests at multiple stages of development and assists developer and QA teams through real-time reporting and patch verification. Synack generates PDF reports for compliance auditors or other audiences that detail API security testing coverage and vulnerabilities found. Synack lets users activate on-demand security tasks, from cloud testing to checking for a new CVE, within the platform.[5][6][7][9][12]

Synack's Active Offense solution combines continuous attack surface discovery with autonomous exploit validation and human-led expert analysis. Sara's AI-powered triage is combined with human-in-the-loop expertise to filter which vulnerabilities are exploitable. Synack Missions use the Synack Red Team to complete specific tasks and provide documentation of their work. Synack14 is a 14-day pentest that uses incentive-driven testing by a community of researchers to discover exploitable vulnerabilities. Synack365 and Synack90 blend automatic and adversarial human analysis with the Platform's vulnerability management on a continuous cadence. Synack report generation provides proof-of-work for executive audiences and compliance auditors and fits frameworks such as PCI, HIPAA, SOC2 and FISMA.[13][14]

Synack's Managed VDP handles vulnerability triage with remediation guidance, coordinates researcher recognition and delivers data to support CISA or Board reporting. Synack's Managed VDP is offered as an option for responsible disclosure to federal teams. Synack provides a risk score across all assets and assessments. The Attacker Resistance Score ranks assets and assessments by their resistance to attack. Synack lets users choose from testing methodologies including OWASP, NIST and Open Vulnerability Discovery.[10][14]

Synack on the record

Sources

Synack full record

  1. [1]AboutSynack · synack.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]ContactSynack · synack.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]AI + Human Penetration Testing | PTaaS | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Penetration Testing Platform | Pentesting platform | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed October 29, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Penetration Testing as a Service | Synack PTaaSSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Vulnerability Management Solutions | Continuous Vulnerability ManagementSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Cloud Penetration Testing Services | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]API Penetration Testing Services | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Third Party Risk Management | Pentesting | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]AI Penetration Testing | LLM Pentest Services | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Cybersecurity Skills Gap Solutions | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Active Offense | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Compliance Penetration Testing | PCI, SOC 2 | SynackSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Vulnerability Disclosure Program | Synack VDPSynack · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

UnderDefense full record

  1. [1]underdefense.comUnderDefense · underdefense.com · undated page, accessed October 26, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Compliance PricingUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Agentic AI SOC & Compliance Automation Platform | UnderDefenseUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Elastic Cloud Pricing 2026: Serverless, Hosted, and SIEMUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Cloudflare Pricing 2026: WAF, Zero Trust, and EnterpriseUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Palo Alto Networks Pricing 2026: Firewalls, SASE, and XDRUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]2025 MXDR Pricing Guide: Choosing the Right MXDR providerUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Episode 4: Cyber Resilience 201 — AWS Cloud Security - UnderDefenseUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]E-Mail Under Attack - UnderDefenseUnderDefense · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]UnderDefense MAXI Reviews & Product DetailsG2 · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier C

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