Penetration Testing Cost for UK Climate Tech Companies (2026)

A penetration test for a UK climate tech company typically costs £2,200 to £33,600 in the UK market. The low end is a short test of the internet-facing perimeter. The high end is a multi-tenant reporting platform with its API, cloud estate and perimeter. The price is the number of testing days multiplied by a day rate of £1,100 to £1,400.

What does a penetration test cost for a climate tech company?

Most climate tech platforms fall into one of four scopes, typically costing between £2,200 and £33,600 in the UK market. What you pay depends on how many systems are tested and how complex each one is, because that sets the number of testing days. The table shows the typical range for each scope.

Scope	What is tested	Days	Typical UK cost
Perimeter only	VPN gateways, exposed management interfaces and cloud consoles used by engineering and data teams	2 to 3 days	£2,200 to £4,200
One reporting platform	A carbon reporting or ESG portal with a single user role: data entry, report generation and export	5 days	£5,500 to £7,000
Platform plus its API	The portal above, plus the API that carries emissions or sensor data in and verified data out	9 to 10 days	£9,900 to £14,000
Multi-tenant platform with cloud and perimeter	A multi-role platform with customer separation, its API, the AWS estate behind it and the internet-facing services around it	17 to 24 days	£18,700 to £33,600

These are market ranges, worked out from typical engagement lengths and UK day rates of £1,100 to £1,400. They are a guide for budgeting. The pricing page shows the engagement lengths for each type of test, and the quote form gives an exact fixed price for your scope.

What drives the price?

The number of testing days drives the price, and the scope drives the number of days. Five things move the day count on a climate tech platform: how many systems are in scope, how many user roles and customer organisations the platform separates, how many endpoints the API has, how large the cloud estate is, and how many devices feed it.

• Number of systems. A reporting portal, a sensor dashboard and a compliance data exchange are three separate tests, even when one product team owns all three.
• User roles and tenants. A platform with customer, assessor and administrator roles takes longer than a single-role tool, because every boundary between roles and between customer organisations has to be tested. See multi-tenant SaaS penetration testing.
• API surface. The number of endpoints, and whether they use token flows, sets the length of the API work. See API penetration testing.
• Cloud estate. The number of AWS accounts, Azure subscriptions or GCP projects decides how long a configuration review takes.
• Devices and sensors. If sensor enrolment and per-device identity are in scope, that adds time. See IoT penetration testing.

Tester grade is not a pricing factor, and neither is the size of the testing company. Two quotes for the same scope should differ mainly in the number of days. If one quote is much lower, compare the day counts first.

Why do investors and customers ask for the test, and does that change the price?

It does not change the price, but it changes the date and the report. When a funder, acquirer or enterprise customer asks for a test, the deadline is usually the constraint. Tell the testing company the date the evidence is due, because scoping, testing and retesting all need to fit before it.

No public rule makes an investor’s request mandatory, so the wording of the request sets the scope. UK GDPR Article 32(1)(d) separately requires a process for regularly testing, assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of your security measures, and a penetration test is one way to evidence it.

What is included, and what costs extra?

A quote should cover scoping, testing, the report, a walkthrough of the findings and a retest. Ask every company you approach to confirm each of those in writing, because retests and out of hours work are the two items that most often appear later as extra charges.

With EJN Labs, the quote is a fixed price for a defined scope. It includes:

• Testing by UK-based, CREST-certified testers.
• Findings in a client portal as they are confirmed, each with a CVSS score.
• The report on the last day of testing, and a walkthrough call.
• Free retests until findings are resolved.
• Out of hours slots, with no out-of-hours, callout, cancellation or rescheduling fees.

What changes the price is a change of scope: a system added after the quote, extra user roles, or a larger cloud estate than the one described. If the scope grows, you get a new fixed price before any extra work starts. A penetration test does not verify your emissions methodology or ESG scoring. That stays with your own assurance provider.

How do you get a quote, and what will you be asked?

Send the list of systems you want tested and say who has asked for the evidence. A testing company needs a few facts about each system to count the days. Having them ready is the fastest way to get a firm price, and it makes quotes from different companies comparable.

1. Which systems are in scope: portal, sensor dashboard, data exchange, API, cloud, perimeter.
2. For each web platform, the number of user roles and whether customer organisations share it.
3. For the API, roughly how many endpoints and whether an OpenAPI description exists.
4. For the cloud estate, the provider and the number of accounts, subscriptions or projects.
5. Who asked for the test, the exact wording, and the date the evidence is due.
6. Any dates to avoid, such as product releases or reporting deadlines.

Climate tech organisations can use a CREST-accredited company or another provider, depending on what their requirement states. EJN Labs is CREST-accredited. If the document that triggered the request names an accreditation, say so when you ask for the quote.

How EJN Labs approaches pricing for climate tech

EJN Labs is a CREST-accredited UK penetration testing company with a dedicated environmental and climate tech service. We scope each system by what it does and who uses it, count the days, and give you one fixed price for the defined scope.

We test carbon reporting portals, sensor dashboards, compliance data exchanges and the multi-tenant boundary between customer organisations, along with the cloud estate and perimeter. Testing is safe by default on production, with no denial of service.

Retests are free until findings are resolved, so the price you agree covers the evidence that issues were fixed as well as the evidence that they were found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a penetration test cost for a climate tech company?

Typically £2,200 to £33,600 in the UK market. A perimeter-only test of 2 to 3 days is £2,200 to £4,200. One reporting platform at 5 days is £5,500 to £7,000. A multi-tenant platform with cloud and perimeter, at 17 to 24 days, is £18,700 to £33,600. These ranges use UK day rates of £1,100 to £1,400.

Why does a multi-tenant platform cost more to test?

Because every boundary has to be tested: between user roles, between customer organisations, and between the app and its API. Each boundary adds days. A single-role portal at 5 days is £5,500 to £7,000, while the full multi-tenant scope is 17 to 24 days.

Is a retest included in the price?

It depends on the company, so ask for it in writing. With EJN Labs, retests are free until findings are resolved, and there are no out-of-hours, callout, cancellation or rescheduling fees. The quote is a fixed price for a defined scope.

How long does a penetration test take for a climate tech platform?

Between 2 and 24 testing days for the scopes in the table above. A perimeter test is typically 2 to 3 days, one reporting platform is 5 days, and a multi-tenant platform with cloud and perimeter is 17 to 24 days. EJN Labs delivers the report on the last day of testing.

Can the test be finished before an investor deadline?

Often, if you ask early. Give the testing company the date the evidence is due when you request the quote. EJN Labs offers out of hours slots at no extra charge, and delivers the report on the last day of testing, with free retests for the fixes that follow.

Get a fixed price for your platform

Tell us which systems are in scope and who has asked for the evidence. Request a fixed-price quote and we will come back with the number of days, the price and the earliest start date.

Related: Investor Due Diligence: Does a UK Climate Tech Company Need a Penetration Test?, Best Penetration Testing Companies for UK Environmental and Climate Tech, penetration testing for environmental and climate tech, penetration testing cost in the UK, web application penetration testing cost and network penetration testing cost.